c17hf

We read a book called The Green Book. It’s about a group of humans from a poor country going to a different planet, that they named Shine.  It is very very far away.  It takes a little longer than four years to get there.  As you probably know we are studying the pilgrims and so we are supposed to compare the pilgrims and the people of Shine.

Some of the similarities are that the people of Shine and the pilgrims both went to unknown places.  Another similarity is that both groups could not take much. Also, both of the environments they went to were very different from the environments of the homes they came from.

Some of the differences are that that the people of Shine had to go because of earths bad conditions but the Pilgrims decided to go because of religious beliefs. Also, the Native Americans helped the pilgrims, where as the people of Shine had no one to help them.  There was a lot of food and resources around the pilgrims and there were practically none for the people of Shine.

I think there are more differences between the pilgrims and the people of Shine than similarities.

The next big project is our Pilgrims Story. We are going to write a historical fiction story about the Pilgrims so we need to learn about the Pilgrims. One of the ways we got information was Mort’s Relation. This was designed to bring more people to Plymouth. This was a quote from Mort’s Relation that I illustrated. The spelling that the pilgrims used was a little different then the way we spell today. This is the quote with the original spelling and the second I will have corrected (I know it doesn’t really make sence but it’s about the mayflower compact).

“This day before we came to harbour, obseruing some not well affected to vnitie and concord, but gaue some appearance of fraction, it was thought good there should combine together in one body, and to submit to such goverment and governours, as we should by comon consent agree to make and choose, and set our hands to this that followes word for word.”

“This day before we came to harbor, observing some not well affected to unite and concord, but gave some appearance of fraction, it was thought good that there should combine together in one body, and to submit to such goverment and governors, as we should by comon consent agree to make and choose, and set our hands to this that follows word for word.”

So far this is what I did. Ms.Edinger read Alice in Wonderland to the whole class and then we listed six chapters they wanted to do the comic about. I got The Mock Turtles Story and The Lobster Quadrille. My partner is c17vs. We desided the sences and wrote the script. We drew a coule of pictures and thats how far we are so far.

Once upon a time there lived a widower. He was very sad because his wife had died the past winter.  He didn’t pay much attention to his two daughters because he was so upset.  He was a gardener that worked for the king.

 Maritcha the older daughter started to be mean to the younger daughter Ella. She started to make Ella do all their chores like collecting the fruits and veggies plus watering the plants. All Maritcha did was lie around, eat and sleep.

Although Ella did all the work and was not happy most of the time she enjoyed one thing. When she was in the fields sometimes she saw ladybugs. She began to see them more and more. She planted roses in a corner of the field because she new they attract aphids (a type of little bugs) that ladybugs eat she also put some water for the ladybugs to drink.

Once Maritcha saw Ella giving the ladybugs some water and she yelled, “You @#%*!$, ladybugs can hurt the plants!” and tried to make her do even more work.

When Ella heard this she said, “You can’t boss me around! What if I don’t want to do your work?”

 Then Maritcha replied, “I will poison the plants and say you didn’t do your chores and dad will believe me because some of the plants will die.

Ella realized that this would work and didn’t want to get in trouble so she did her sister’s work.

This went on for a while, but one day Maritcha overheard a peasant saying the king was having party for his son to pick a bride in a week and she went crazy. She looked at herself in the mirror every three seconds. She also made Ella do her hair and put on makeup on her.

On the night of the party Ella asked, “Can I go?”

“Of course not!” Maritcha replied,  “Who else would do the work?”

“How about after I get the work done?” Ella said.

Maritcha laughed, “If you can,” and knocked over a big bag of seeds.

“Oops,” said Maritcha, “Oh and you have to clean that up to,” and after that she left.

 As soon as she left Ella stared crying. “I’ll never get to go to the feast,” she thought to herself.”

Then an amazing thing happened. A ladybug started talking. It said, “ Why are you so unhappy.”

“Because I’m not going to the feast,” Ella said.

The ladybug said, “Why.”

Ella replied, “Because l have to do my chores and also clean up all this,” and pointed to the ground.

“Don’t worry, go to the ball and I’ll handle it all!” said the Ladybug.

“Well, I don’t have any thing to wear either,“ Ella replied

The ladybug pointed to towards the corner and asked “What about that?”

As soon as Ella turned around a beautiful red dress and black slippers appeared. “Thanks a lot,” Ella said.

“Remember, be back before your sister,” said the ladybug.

“O.K.  But what about my chores,” Ella said.

The ladybug said, “We’ll do it.”

“What do you mean we’ll?” replied Ella.

“Us,” and as soon as the ladybug said that at least 100 ladybugs appeared.

Meanwhile Maritcha was at the feast eyeing the prince every second.  Then Ella came in.  Her beauty stunned everyone.  The prince fell in love at first sight.  Immediately he asked Ella to dance.  She said yes and they started to dance.  They danced and danced and danced.  Then they ate and talked.  Ella was having so much fun she didn’t realize her sister was leaving until Maritcha was at the door.

“I have to go,” Ella said to the prince and ran off. On the way out the door Ella bumped into Maritcha and one of her slippers fell off. 

“Sorry,” she said to her sister and ran away.  When she got home, there was no mess and no ladybugs.  She took off her dress and slipper, put on her rags.  As soon as she took off her dress and slippers and put on her rags, the dress and slippers disappeared, and just in time because right then Maritcha stepped in the door.  Ella pretended that she had just finished doing all her chores.

“I finished my chores and cleaned up the mess, so can I go to the feast?” Ella asked, pretending she hadn’t gone. 

“It’s basically over,” said Maritcha.  “There was a really beautiful girl that danced with the prince all night,but then she just ran out the door for no apparent reason. On the way out the door she bumped into me and one of her slippers came off but she just said sorry and ran away.”

The prince found the slipper and declared, “Whoever’s foot fits in this slipper will be the princess.” The prince sent two royal guards with the slipper to go look for its owner.

 They went to the first village; it fit no one there.  Then they went to another village, still, it fit no one.  They searched the whole kingdom.  They didn’t find the slipper’s owner.  Then they returned to the palace. 

The next day, Maritcha and Ella went to the palace and said, “Can we try the slipper?”

“Haven’t you?” the prince said.

“No,” they said together.  “We are the daughter’s of the gardener, you forgot about us.”

“Ok, then you may try it,” Maritcha went first.  It fit! No wait it didn’t, it was too tight. Then Ella tried, it fit perfectly.  As soon as she put on the slipper, her other slipper and dress appeared on her. 

The prince said, “I only had to look about one hundred yards away from my house, although I look through the whole kingdom.”  They got married, they had three kids and they lived happily ever after.

Captive, a book by Joyce Hansen, is pure fiction but based on The Life of Olaudah Equiano. Captive is a good piece of Historical Fiction because it is good historically and fictionally. It is good historically because the author uses believable language, references to real places (ex. Boston, Massachusetts), real people (ex. Paul Cuffe), real dates in time (ex. March 1790) and uses authentic ways of life in her story.
It is good Fictionally because it uses metaphors and similes, has an interesting plot and has interesting characters who show a range of emotions. That’s why I think Captive is a good work of Historical Fiction.

On Friday the 6th of February Elizabeth Alexander came to the Dalton School. From 10-11 she talked to the 4th grade about her book American Sublime about the Amistad because the 4th grade is studying forced immigration. Elizabeth Alexander said she got the inspiration to write her book because she was walking on the New Haven green and she thought “What happened here a couple hundred years ago?”

Elizabeth Alexander also talked about her book Ms. Crandell’s School For Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color. This book is about a women that stared I a school for girls. One day a African American girl that cleaned up at the school and she asked if when she finished her work if she could study with the other girls and Ms Crandell said, “Yes.” Then the towns people said they didn’t want their children to go to school with African American kids, so Ms. Crandel said “Fine, take your children, this school will be only for African American children”. She put an ad in the newspaper and about twenty kids. She was teaching them but the townspeople poisened the well and killed the school cat and put it on the school steps, and eventually even lit the school on fire.

I really liked listening to Elizabeth Alexander and I learned alot.

I loved the Middle School play Oliver Twist! It was performed by 6th,7th, and 8th graders at the Dalton School. It takes place in England near London. It was about a boy named Oliver who mother died wile giving birth and did not now his farther. The first scene was in a shelter and Oliver asks for more food. The owner of the shelter calls him a pig and sells him. He runs away and becomes part of Fagin’s gang. Now I not going to say any more about the play, but I recommend you go see it!

On Tuesday the 20th of January Barack Obama became president. It was a very happy and exciting day because Barack Obama became the first African American president of the United States. The crowds were huge, over five million people. All the past presidents that were alive were there. It was fantastic.

I liked when the master of ceremonies said something about Martin Luther King Jr.’s words finally reaching the white house. I didn’t get how Obama was sworn in at 12:04 but was president at 12. Also he and Chief Justice Roberts messed up on the oath and they had to redo it. Plus the country is having hard times right now, his speech was hopeful and I hope Obama will be able to fix them.

I interviewed Michele Viard who immigrated from Haiti and came to the U.S. in 1975. I turned this interview into a book. After the interview the next step was transcribing. A teacher checked it after that and I typed up the transcription. Then I printed it and made a dummy book. After that I printed another copy pasted it into the real book. Next I drew the pictures and I was done!

Having a blog looks fun. C16mm said in her final blog post having a blog is like having a dairy, but I know one big differents and that is that blogs are open to the public and most of the time you keep dairies private. She said that “You have to proofread”. My favorite blog post that I read that c16mm wrote was “My Final Thoughts On Blogging”. The reason why was because I learned a little about blogging when I read it. I think that c16mm did a lot of good posts and I hope I do as many.