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Just yesterday on 4/29/09 Ms. Edinger finished reading a book to us When You Reach Me which is by Rebecca Stead a Dalton parent. This story is about a girl named Miranda and one day she gets a note saying:

I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.
I must ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.

Then weird things start happening like her best friend stops talking to her, her spare key disappears, a hobo appears, and lots, lots more! This story takes place in 1979 and the main character’s mom gets to go on $20,000 Pyramid. This is a very good and mysterious book which I highly recommend.

We now have got more ahead on Alice in Wonderland. When we finish all ten pictures we scan them all in and save it in the house account. After that we go into comic life, make a comic, Make a blog post featuring the comic, have a party, and be done. My partner c17ap and I are still at the ten pictures part. Until All About Alice III, Good-Bye!

This post is once again about Pilgrims. It will tell you all the differences and similarities I noticed between the Green Book’s story and the Pilgrim’s story.

Some of the similarities are that people from both stories traveled to unknown places. For the pilgrims it was America and for Green Book people it was Planet Shine. Neither of them knew what to expect from the new places that they were going to because the Pilgrims only heard tales of the “wonderful” America and the Green Book people didn’t even know where they were going. In both stories, natives were at the destination; the Pilgrims had Native Americans while planet Shine had Moth people. People in both stories have have an important crop, from the Pilgrims it is corn and for the Green Book People it is wheat. Hope it makes you want to read both of the stories.

This post is about Alice in Wonderland because my class studied that book. It is by Lewis Carroll though that was just a fake name his real name was Charles Lutwig Dodgson. The first step was Ms. Edinger read Alice in Wonderland to us. Then we chose are favorite chapter. After that we got a chapter to do and a partner to work with. I am working with c17ap on chapter four The Rabbit sends down Little Bill. We have to write down scenes for a comic then make a comic. Until next blog time, Bye.

My newest school project is Pilgrims. It is another year long study. We studied a book called Mourt´s Relation and had to make a drawing that goes with the phrase and everyone in my class had to. I took the exact words so don´t think I have spelling problem. So here it is.

My buddy R.G. has another buddy in New Orleans in Langston Hughes Academy. This paragraph is the point of view from my Buddy.

“I learned that New Orleans is a very nice place where jazz started. It also has lots of wetlands. Parks. It also has down sides like occasional hurricanes but New York has downsides to. I have learned my buddy celebrates Easter, Christmas, and Halloween, like me. He also likes the park, like me! He likes the cheetah. My class went to plant daffodils at Isham Park. I gave out sticks to mark the daffodil bulb. We did it to raise money for books for are buddies school. This relationship is amazing. I never new I would be sharing thoughts with a person from New Orleans.”

The Lucky Ball

It was the last inning of the World Series game, the bases were loaded, and the best hitter was up to bat. The score was 9-8. The pitcher was sweating bullets. It was 3 balls, 2 strikes, and 2 outs. He pulled the lucky ball out of his pocket and started feeling the ball for the right grip. He nodded at the catcher’s signal then he threw his signature curve ball, “SWOOSH!” It was a strike! The crowd went roaring, chanting the pitcher’s name, “Mickey! Mickey! Mickey!”

Every time Timothy hears that story about his father, he gets a big proud grin on his face. He wishes his father were still with him to teach him how to pitch. Mickey was the greatest pitcher of his time. Timothy’s father died when he was little so Timothy doesn’t remember him. He only remembers when his dad gave him the ball. His dad said, “This ball is a lucky ball. It has been passed down from generation to generation and now to you. It will only be magical to you and nobody else.” Timothy carries the ball with him wherever he goes.

Now it’s just Timothy and his mother. They just moved into a new town, and he is excited to play baseball in a new league. Today was the first game. He searched for his position on his team’s roster and didn’t see his name on the list. He asked the coach why his name was not on the list. The coach said, “My son is the pitcher and you’re the new kid. Why don’t you be the bat boy today.” Timothy felt angry and sad that he didn’t get to play, but he listened to the coach because he didn’t want to make him angry.

This went on every game. His teammates started making fun of him calling him names, “ Get my bat! You little dumb bat boy.” Bill, the coach’s son was the meanest. Bill made Timothy carry his equipment, clean up the dug out, and get water and snacks for everybody on his team. If Timothy didn’t do what Bill asked, Bill would tell his dad, the coach lies.

“Dad Timothy was trying to steal my sun flower seeds!”

“WHAT! Don’t worry I’ll take care of him. Timothy get over here! You should feel lucky that I even let you be part of the team! If you keep this up I swear I’ll kick you off this team!” Timothy felt robbed. Bill thought this was fun so he kept it up. Timothy still obeyed because he thought maybe one day he could pitch in the game.

Luckily, in the last game of the season, the coach was sick. The assistant coach took over. Bill saw Timothy sadly pitching to a wall in the corner and asked Timothy, “What are you doing?”

Timothy answered, “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m pitching.”

Bill sneered, “Why bother?” Meanwhile, the assistant coach was watching Timothy pitch from the dugout and thinking, “That kid can pitch better than Bill!”

Back at the corner Bill asked, “Why are you so good?”

“I have a magical ball,¨ replied Timothy.

Bill thought greedily, “If I can manage to steal this magical ball. I’ll become the best pitcher and become the envy of the league. *Snicker*” So, when Timothy was getting snacks for the team Bill snaked his arm across the bench and snatched the ball from Timothy’s glove.

When the team made it to the league’s finals, Bill decided to use the ball he stole from Timothy, and thought he would be the best pitcher ever. When he used the ball, he pitched horribly. The assistant coach saw the ball that Bill was using and remembered Timothy. The assistant coach started begging Bill’s dad, “Let Timothy play. I saw him pitch last week, and he was really good.” He begged and begged until the coach finally gave in.

When Timothy was going out to the mound, and Bill was coming in to the dugout, Timothy stopped Bill and growled, “Give me my ball back!” Bill shoved the ball at Timothy and said, “Here, it’s not magical anyway.” Timothy just took the ball and walked on.

It was the last inning, the bases were loaded, and the best hitter was up to bat. The score was 11-10. Timothy’s team was winning. Timothy was sweating bullets. It was 3 balls, 2 strikes, and 2 outs. He pulled the lucky ball out of his pocket and started feeling the ball for the right grip. He nodded at the catcher’s signal then he threw a fastball. “SWOOSH!” It was a strike! The crowd went roaring. Chanting, “Timothy! Timothy! Timothy!” Timothy grinned and wished his dad were there.

That is my poem I wrote for a study of forced immigration. I was inspired by my teacher and Elizabeth Alexander. It was from the point of view of a slave who was aboard the Amistad cargo ship.The slaves were not supposed to be on that ship.  We completed the poem and all on 2/11/09. I learned about African Americans from the post below. My class and I read books about slavery so, we had a feel for what The slaves felt. I enjoyed writing the poem and making the collage to go with the poem.

This week my class and I read a story called Africa Is My Home. It was brought to the world by my teacher, Ms. Edinger. It was poetic, but she is going to have to take away some of the poetry and inside thoughts to make the story completely factual.

I learned how to count in Mende which is an African language.

It goes like this:

One — e-ta
two — fe-le
three — sau-wa
four — na-ni
five — do-lu
six — we-ta
seven — waw-fe-la
eight — wai-ya-gba
nine — ta-u
ten — pu

I really like the story, and I hope it would encourage more people to learn about forced immigration.

Elizabeth Alexander came into the Dalton school on 2/6/09 to read us poems and talk about them. She was the poet at the inauguration. She read her poem in a bland voice. She said she spoke in a simple voice so that you could hear the words clearly. But I think poems should be read with emotions because poems are like songs with music. You don’t sing songs monotonously or it’s like eating food without salt. No flavor. But I liked her poems because they were vivid and made me think what it was like on the Amistad.