A Golden Nature Guide- TREES

This week I went to a library and found a book about 143 American trees. The book has 156 pages in total. I picked up this book because I really like nature, trees, snakes and bears. The book explains that trees with needle-like or scaly leaves are conifers. 
 Trees with flat leaves of varying breadth are broadleaf trees. In Spring, you can see the opening buds and flowers the best. Leaf characteristics are obvious and seen the best in Summer. If you are looking at the fruits of the trees, you should look in Autumn/Fall. Winter is the best time to study their buds, twigs, and bark.
 In America, there are over fifteen kinds of palm trees, with parallel-veined leaves. There are over six-hundred and fifty kinds of broadleaf trees, including Oaks, Maples, Cherry, Ash, and Birch trees. Over one hundred conifer trees can be found in America.
 Leaves make food from water and carbon dioxide, using sunlight energy. Chlorophyll makes this energy transformation possible. Inside the leaf, at the top, is a sheet of "palisade", cells which absorb sunlight. Guard cells around the stomata helps retain water.
 The Tree book has much more information, and I really enjoy reading this book.

Number the Stars

 

Author: Lois Lowry
Pages: 138

Number the Stars is about a girl named Anamarie and her best friend Ellen. The story takes place in Copenhagen During WW II. Anamarie must be brave to help save her best friend and her family escape from the Nazis.

Ellen and her family are going to be "relocated".  Anamaries family can keep Ellen safe but not her parents. Peter (Anamarie's dead, older sister's fiance) take Ellens parents. Ellen meets her parents at Anamarie's Uncle's house from where they will be taken to sweden by boat. Anamarie must take a very special packege to her Uncle. On the way Nazi soilders stop her. Anamarie has to act like her younger sister Kirsti to escape with the packege for her uncle. Later Anamarie findsout that if she had not dilovered the packege to her uncle her best friend would have died.

The book end when Anamarie askes her father if he can repear Ellens necklace that Anamarie took of her when the Nazis came to their house to see if they are hidding Ellen's familly. 

The Ramayana

Author: Priority Publications
Pages: I read 47 pages and the book has 228 pages in all.

The most interesting part right now is that Hanumana went into a pleasant grove and gave Sita the ring that Rama had gave and then destroyed Lanka.

Summary:
Rama and Laksmana met with Sugriva. Sugriva told Rama how he was afraid of his adopted brother because he accidently trapped Vali inside a cave and since nobody was king for a year Sugriva was king. When Vali came back he thought Sugriva had trapped him on purpose to overtake his kingdom. Vali beat up Sugriva and kicked him out of his kingdom. Sugriva challenged Vali so that Rama could shoot a arrow and kill Vali. The first attempt to kill Vali, Rama didn't shoot because they both looked nearly the same and he was afraid that he would hit Sugriva by accident. The next time Sugriva wore a garland of flowers. Rama hit Vali directly in the heart and killed him. After Making Sugriva the king Laksmana and Rama set off and since it was raining season and Laksmana was not allowed to go in any kingdom they stayed in a cave for 4 months until the rain stopped. Then all the monkeys and Bears gathered up and searched for Sita. Since Lanka was in the ocean, Sampati the older brother of Jatayu helped them by glancing over into Lanka and spotting Sita. Hanumana leaped across the ocean into Lanka where he searched everywhere for Sita and found her in a Garden surrounded by demonesses. He gave her the ring and Sita gave her pin to give to Rama. After talking to Sita he decided to warn Ravana that Rama was coming to kill you and to take Sita back. Ravana, the demon with 10 heads decided to punish Hanumana by setting his tail on fire. The guards took him around the city humiliating him. Hanumana set Lanka on fire and went back to tell Rama the good news. Hanumana also gave Rama the pin.

Best Friends Forever?

  Angela Shelf Medearis, pgs.49

This week i have been reading Best friends forever? The most interesting part i have read so far is when Sharie starts realizing that she is getting bad grades because of her baby sister keeping her up at night. She blames it all on her baby sister but nobody seems to understand her not even her best friend. But her best friend Hannah does help to bail her out of one problem when her little sister ate her homework. It does not look like Sharies life is gonna get any better though. 

Sea of the Trolls

Title: Sea of the Trolls Author: Nancy Farmer Number of Pages read: 450 This week I read a book called "Sea of the Trolls". It is about eleven year old Jack and his little sister Lucy. They get kidnapped by "Berserkers" in other words, vikings. They go to many adventures, and they are near death many times. They experience gruesome things, but they get to go home at the end of the book.

The Westing Game
By: Ellen Raskin
Pages: 182

Right now, I am reading about all the partners and their clues. This is a very interesting part because some people are with people that they don't really like. The drama is really funny to read. So far, the most drama is Grace Wexler with Mr. Hoo.  Mr. Hoo eats a lot so Grace doesn't like that and she smokes right in his face, so he gets really annoyed at that.

The word I learned was pudgy. I heard it before but never really knew what it meant. Pudgy means slightly fat or chubby. The women's pudgy fingers carefully sewed the quilt back together, and she did awkwardly. 

Short Scary Stories (That I read Online)

Knock Knock

http://www.scaryforkids.com/knock-knock/

This story is about two kids, which stayed at home when their mom told them about not to open the door when they are out; and they didn't really took their mom's advice seriously. In about an hour, they heard a "knock knock" sound at the door. The weird thing was, it became louder each time. The sister couldn't take it anymore. She opened the door.

Then the brother asked who was it but... it was completely silent. So the brother sneaked out the back door and went to their neighbor's house. His neighbor was watching a live news channel. It was talking about a murder, and his neighbor asked, "Hey that looks like your house." It turned out to be there was a murder at his house... That's why you should always listen to your parents' advice or warning.

Video Camera

http://www.scaryforkids.com/video-camera/

This story is real, about a university student from a few years ago who believed that he was stalked. He told his friends whenever he came back from college, his things were moved, and many strange things happened. So, he left  his friend's video camera in his room to see who the stalker was. He was also on the phone, with his friend, Trisha, who gave him the video camera. She asked him what's going on in the video cam. What he saw was creepy; he saw a women coming into the room. She started checking his belongings and she was carrying a knife. And then, she went into his closet.

So now, they got all the evidence and they were going to the police in fifteen minutes. Then his friend realized, if she went into the closet, did she ever came out?... Trisha screamed from the phone but it was too late. When the police came later, there was a pool of blood. The women had stabbed him 21 times. The memory card was also gone from the camera... Even until now, they never found out who the women was. 

Since what I read were scary stories, I don't think there was an interesting part. I think it was very horrifying and creepy but I really like scary and mysterious books, just like what we're reading now in class. (The Westing Game)

My Book that I read this week (and finished)

Mai
16.03.13
English 6B
Ms. Stanisic

                    The book that I have read this week is a book in Hebrew, about legends from all over the world: Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Americas and others. The book has 106 pages and 47 short stories. It explains a lot about wisdom and the ways that people think and function. There are a lot of details, interesting stories and legends. These legends may be new to you or maybe you know them already, they can be realistic or made up. Sometimes they have a point about life and some are just to entertain. I will retell 1 legend translated from Hebrew.

This is the cover of my book, it has a few pictures from some legends and myths.

The legend below is translated from Hebrew:

           In a little village in India there lived a huge snake that imposed a great fear on the residents of the village and bit whoever passed by to death.The miserable villagers called one of the wise village residents and complained about the nastiness of the large snake. The wise one went and spoke to the snake that night. "What did the villagers do to you?" The wise one asked the snake. "Why are you scaring them all and why do you murder their comrades?" The wise one spoke quietly, and the snake was embarrassed with his doing and promised to behave better and to relinquish his violence. And so, he kept his promise and did not bother the humans.

           Right after the discussion with the wise villager, the large snake changed completely. He was not the same snake. The large, evil reptile became a long worm, slim and weak. He lost all his power and didn't dare touch anything, not even the smallest speck of dust. The villagers, who's memory was short, came and teased the large snake. "Look at him!" They said, "He has poisonous fangs and he never uses them!" The little kids threw sticks and stones on the reptile, and sometimes even dared to come close and kick the helpless snake. And the snake himself? The snake stayed down quietly and suffered, although he did not react. 

           After a few months the snake got fed up with all the suffering he dealt with and requested advice from the wise villager. He crawled slowly to the wise one's home and in a very quiet voice he whispered " I did all you asked me to do, but I feel that I am not myself anymore. The villagers are no longer scared of me and don't even respect me. They tease me and hit me and I don't know what to do!" . "Very simple," the wise one replied," I may have forbidden you from killing the villagers, but did I forbid you to mutter, whistle, to blow and to deter the people of the village?"


Hindu Legend

Epilogue:

Buddha believed that people needed to find the correct way to behave and manage ourselves: as violence cannot solve anything, the weakness is not the answer. He called the wise behavior as the "golden way". The knowledgeable Hindu Mahatma Gandhi (1869- 1948) consequent the advice of Buddha. He formulated a suitable and adequate way that allows us to fight and protect ourselves without the use of violence. Battle- Yes, Violence- No. 


Do you also think that we can fight in order to protect ourselves without using violence?


Please reply in your comment

-Mai

Scorpia Rising

Author: Anthony Horowitz
Pg:402

This week I'm reading Skorpia Rising. It is about a boy named Alex Rider. I haven't had a lot of time to read it but i'm going to read it tonight and i will see what happens.

This is the book

The Westing Game

The Westing Game was written by Ellen Raskin. It is a mystery book.

 I read the whole book of the Westing Game, the book which we are reading in class. 
In the book a girl named Tabitha-Ruth, who prefers to be called Turtle, enters the Westing house. Her friends made a bet with her, so that is why she did it. Her friend told a story about three kids that once entered the house. Then they ran out screaming their heads off. One kid's hands were covered in blood, and never stopped saying: "Purple Waves", and one kid ran all the way to the cliff and hit himself so hard that he died. 

 Turtle accepted the bet and went inside of the Westing house. Her friends had told her that it was rotting and sprawled on an Oriental rug. She saw Sam Westing's body, but it looked like a fake, a wax doll. He was nicely tucked in a four-poster bed. Turtle also heard somebody whisper "Pur-ple, pur-ple", but she isn't sure whether that somebody said "Tur-tle, Tur-tle", or "Pur-ple, pur-ple".

 The next day there is an article in the news-papers announcing the death of Samuel Westing. A man named Otis Amber delivers invitations to the reading of Mr. Westing's will, to sixteen people, who are the nieces and nephews of Mr. Westing.

 I think that it is very smart of Ms. Stanisic to pick this book for us to work on. 

No book yet

       So far I have not found a book although I would like to talk about the book that we are reading in class. It is called The Westing Game, it is about a murder mystery. Once in the past three kids had a bet for $5 to go in Sam Westing's house. Apparently Sam was dead and they thought that the his corpse was in there and it was haunting the house. The three of them went screaming out with horror in their faces. One of the kids never stoped running until he hit the rock at the bottom of the cliff, another kid that is currently in the nut house, came out saying "purple waves" ever scince. The last kid came out with blood in his hands. Freaky huh? Well there is more to it, until today a girl named Turtle, a boy named Theo Theodorakis and his brother Chris Theo theodorakis are going to go into the "haunted" house $5 per minute. Well I think I said too much....sorry! :P

Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I read book 'Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe'(Korean).

I don't have any interesting parts because I just started the book.
However, it is before Faust get fight(battle, that will be interesting I heard that, Faust says he will make Mephistopheles kind like angels but I'm not sure.) with Mephistopheles.

Pages: p.4(prologue) to p.32(first chapter ends)

COMMENT: I like this book book, but this book has many pages...

What I have read this week

 Well, this week I have read The End. The End is the end of the series:" A Series of Unfortunate Events". The series is about three orphans, Violet Baudelaire, the eldest Baudelaire, Klaus Baudelaire, the middle Baudelaire, and Sunny Baudelaire, the baby Baudelaire.
 The first book explains their beginning: the Baudelaire kids are having a fun time with their parents, and then the house is set on fire. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are the only survivors of the great fire. A man named Mr. Poe brings the orphaned kids to an ugly man, Count Olaf. 
 Count Olaf is very evil and nasty man. The only thing he wants is the Baudelaires's money. (Their parents left a lot of money.) In the second book, "The Reptile Room", Count Olaf kills Uncle Monty. In the third book, "The Wide Window", Count Olaf kills Aunt Josephine.
 Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are really alone.
 The three orphans have very interesting talents, which help them escape Count Olaf's clutches. In every book, Count Olaf tries to get the Baudelaires, they escape, because they use their talents. Violet's talent is inventing. She invent various objects that help them escape. Klaus, on the other hand, is a bookworm, and memorizes everything he read. His knowledge helps Violet creativity work. Sunny doesn't have much of a talent, except for the language she speaks, which only her siblings understand. It is Sunny's unusually large, and VERY sharp teeth that makes her so exceptional. 
 The most interesting parts of the whole story happens in each book of the series.
It is the part when Sunny uses her sharp teeth to cut things, Klaus recites a part of a book, and Violet invents something. This happens in each book just before Count Olaf nearly catches them. In the first book, "The Bad Beginning", Count Olaf even tries to marry Violet in attempt to get hold of their fortune. Lucky for the Baudelaires, Violet signs the marriage with her left hand, not her right hand, and she is right-handed. 

(from left to right-)Sunny, Violet, Klaus

                 

Count Olaf

Mr. Arthur Poe