My Floridian Summer Vacation

When we first got to Florida (Saturday, July 26th) we were hungry so we went to Churches Chicken. We got biscuits and okra. After we ate we went to the hotel Ritz Carlton Miami Beach to check in. Later that evening we ate at Grill Fish, and I had a wonderful Shirley Temple drink. On Sunday, for breakfast we ate at the Big Pink.  Once we got settled we went down to the beach and played in the ocean. The water was very warm. I collected a few sea shells that were beautiful. After the beach, we went to the American Girl Store in Coconut Grove. I bought my doll some colorful hair extensions.

On Monday, we left Miami Beach and we drove to Orlando, Florida. We went to Orlando to go to Universal Studios. My parents took me there for my birthday, which was July 29th. We spent all-day Tuesday and Wednesday at Universal Studios. My most favorite ride was the Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! My other favorite rides are The Mummy Revenge, Harry Potter Escape from Gringotts, and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. We also went to both Harry Potter Worlds. I bought a magic wand that made things work at the park. I enjoyed drinking Butter Beer. It was very tasty.  

Overall, I had a great time on my Floridian Adventure. 

Check out Bailey's Animoto video about her trip:
http://animoto.com/play/WiS1EExaLvCjEXM9uw8T1g

Great job, Bailey! Sounds like you had a marvelous time!

Bailey's Brilliant Book Report!

Here is our first student blog post of the summer! Way to go, Bailey! I have a new book to add to my "must read" list! Thanks for the great recommendation!

By:                 Bailey

Date:               July 14, 2014

Title:                Stranded

Author:            Jeff Probst

Genre:             Fiction

Stranded is the first book of the trilogy, and it is about four children from a blended  family who get stranded on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in the present day. Vanessa is 13 years old and can sometimes be a little bossy. Carter and Buzz are both 11 years old. Carter is skinny, but he is also strong and athletic. Buzz is fat and not very athletic, because he likes to play video games. Jane is 9 years old and she is very smart and a very good swimmer.

Vanessa, Carter, Buzz, and Jane went on a boat trip from Hawaii with their Uncle Dex. The name of the boat was the Lucky Star. Vanessa and Buzz’s father recently married Carter and Jane’s mother. The kids have not been getting along since their parents got married.  Their parents thought that it would be a good idea for the children to go on a boat trip so that they could bond. The kids really did not want to go on the boating adventure, but they made the best of it.

The boating adventure was supposed to last seven days. During the first few days they learned to work together, sometimes with an attitude, to help Uncle Dex and First Mate Joe navigate the boat. By the fourth day, a nasty storm was headed their way. It was very rainy, windy, and large waves continuously hit the boat. Uncle Dex told the kids to go below deck so that they could be safe. The Lucky Star became damaged and began taking on water, so the kids could no longer stay below deck. Uncle Dex told them to prepare to get in the safety boat. Uncle Dex and First Mate Joe got in the safety boat first so that they could help the kids get in. The rope that was keeping the safety boat attached to the larger boat snapped before the kids could get in. Uncle Dex and First Mate Joe were blown out to sea, which left the kids on the sinking boat all alone. The boat tossed and turned in the stormy sea until they later crashed into the rocks of an island.

The next day there was enough daylight to see where they had crashed. The kids knew that they needed to work together to survive on the island while they waited to be rescued. They were able to salvage food and some supplies from the boat, but they needed to find fresh water to drink. The kids were having trouble getting along while they figured out what needed to be done and who was going to do it. Since they were not able to agree they were slow to make decisions. Carter and Jane went together to search for water, while Vanessa and Buzz were trying to fix the boat’s solar panels in hopes of getting electricity to make the satellite phone work.

While searching for fresh water, Carter and Jane got into danger because the tide at the lagoon near the waterfall was rising quickly and almost drowned both of them. Once they made it safely to the sandbar they realized that the tide was still rushing and that they would have to wait for low tide before they could leave. Unfortunately, while waiting for the tide to go down, the sun was going down too. Carter and Jane had to wait until morning to start heading back to the Lucky Star.

Vanessa and Buzz were not able to get the solar panel to work because there was no sun and it started to rain. They were worried about Carter and Jane, because they were gone all day. They began searching in the rain, but there was no sign of them. During the search Buzz had a great idea, which was to collect the rain water using the Lucky Star’s mainsail. Now there would be plenty of fresh water for them to drink.

Carter and Jane collected water from the waterfall near a cave. While in the cave, they heard voices from Vanessa and Buzz. The cave turned out to be a shortcut back to the Lucky Star. Vanessa and Buzz were so excited to see them that they gave them big hugs. This was a grand family reunion. However, an extreme storm was headed their way which was going to change to how they were going to survive.

In conclusion,  I think that the author’s purpose in writing the book is to entertain and inform, because the book makes you curious about what will happen to the kids next in their relationships and survival. The book also informs you how to survive if you are stranded on a deserted island. The book made me feel worried, because the kids were always faced with dangerous situations that they had to survive without parents. I would recommend this book for others because it helps you learn information about survival.

 

Konnichiwa! A Teacher's Trip to Tokyo

Hello Fourth Graders and Families!

I hope everyone is having an AWESOME summer so far! I started off my summer with a trip to Tokyo, Japan, and I want to share with you a few of my favorite memories from the trip. Did you know that the time difference between Maryland and Tokyo is 13 hours? We left here on a Sunday morning and arrived on Monday afternoon (my birthday!) . . . so it was quite an adjustment since we lost a night of sleep! When it is daytime here, it is nighttime (or almost nighttime) in Japan. This live map shows which areas of the world are in daylight and nighttime, and it changes as the day goes on. Check it out! 

We went to a lot of neat places while we were in Tokyo. One of the first sites we visited was the Senso-ji temple, which was founded in the year 645! It was destroyed during World War II, and then rebuilt again. At many of the Buddhist temples like this one, they have a “gate” to guard the temple from evil spirits, and then the actual temple is behind it. Even the gate is huge! Here is a picture of me in front of the Thunder Gate and the Senso-ji Temple is behind it.

We also visited the city of Kamakura, just outside of Tokyo. This city was founded around 1192, so it is also very old! It was once the capital of Japan and has many shrines and temples there. One of the most unique features was a giant statue of Buddha. Can you believe how big it is?

Mr. McLaughlin and I really enjoyed visiting the Ueno Zoo also:

They had many unique animals from Japan at the Ueno Zoo, along with many that you would recognize. My favorite animals were the pandas snacking on bamboo! Here is a video with some of the animals we saw. Which one is your favorite?

Ueno Zoo Animals

One of my favorite parts of the trip was trying lots of new food (and learning to use chopsticks)! We had a traditional meal of sashimi (raw fish) and shabu-shabu (similar to fondue). Look at this fancy plate of sashimi! Have you ever eaten sashimi or sushi before?

Tempura is another delicious Japanese food. It is seafood that is battered and deep fried. Something I think is interesting is that when you order food, it comes out in separate bowls instead of all on one plate like most restaurants here in the U.S.  Here is my tempura meal!

Have you noticed how much seafood I have mentioned? I even had spaghetti with tuna in it at one meal! Why do you think so much Japanese food is centered around fish and seafood? Here’s a map of Japan for a hint:

Picture from www.uniglobetravel.com

I loved every minute of my trip to Japan, and I hope that each of you gets the chance to visit there someday too! I can’t wait to hear about some of your summer adventures or books you are reading (I even read 2 books while I was in Japan)! Don’t forget that you can send Ms. Alder and I your blog post and we will post it on here! You can email your writing to: thirdgrade.thinktank@gmail.com. 

Have a happy Fourth of July and a WONDERFUL rest of the summer! Miss you all! :)

Love,

Mrs. McLaughlin

Final Thoughts from Third Grade

 Dear 3rd Graders,  Families, and Friends,

Thank you so much for participating in our class blog this year! This project would not have been successful without you. We look forward to posting the students' summer blog paragraphs about books they are reading and trips they are taking! Please continue to check in with us over the summer! Look for a post from Mrs. McLaughlin and Ms. Alder soon!

The students created the word cloud below after making lists of words they felt described their year in third grade. It has been such a fun year, and we wish you all a wonderful summer!

Love, 

Ms. Alder and Mrs. McLaughlin

Create your own word cloud at abcya.com/word_clouds!

Spinning New Endings to Charlotte's Web

The third grade classes read Charlotte's Web to finish up the school year. At the end of the book, Wilbur befriends Charlotte's three daughters: Aranea, Nellie, and Joy. As a final project, each student wrote an additional chapter that they think should be added to the end of the story.  Each student chose one of the daughters to focus on for their final chapter. We hope you notice the students' excellent use of their latest grammar skill--quotation marks! We may have some Newberry Award winners among us!

Inspired

By: Natalie

            Joy was just sitting thinking about her mom (Charlotte), What was she like?  What did she do for fun? She heard the story but she wondered.  Just then she got an idea .She crawled over to her sisters, Aranea & Nellie. “I got an idea," Joy said. "You know how our mom invented web writing, well I going to make a web.” So for the rest of the night they were working. That morning Wilbur looked up and saw 3 webs that said Joy, Aranea and Nellie. The people were amazed. They thought a new creature had came.  Mr. Zuckerman had spread the news, "A new creature had came and look inside the tunnel to see try to solve the riddle.”  He made lots of money.

Joy the Lifesaver

By: Isabel

"Wilbur!" Joy cried.

"What is it?" he said.

"I heard Mr. Zuckerman say he was gonna kill you if you got too fat."

"Why?" and Wilbur started to sob.

"Don't worry I have a plan."Joy said.

The next morning Joy had written on the web, but Wilbur didn't notice. But Zuckerman did.  He told his wife about the web and asked what to do.  Mrs. Zuckerman said "We should let him live."  Mr. Zuckerman was sad but happy that he had an extraordinary pig.

I'm In Trouble

By: Brandon

            Wilbur and the other 3 spiders woke up. Wilbur was still thinking about Charlotte. Nellie went out to catch some food. She saw Lurvy & Zuckerman talking. They said, "We should get rid of those 3 spiders." She rushed back home to tell them the news. So she got home & told the others. Wilbur was frightened because he didn't want Charlotte's children to die. So the next day they went out to stop Zuckerman. They scared him & he got the heck out of there, and that was the last they saw of him. So they all went back home. Nellie was brave to tell the family about Zuckerman. Even though she didn't get an award she will always be a hero.

Aranea vs The Gosling

By: Rahil

            One cold night on the farm all the animals were asleep except for Aranea. She had nothing to do. So she took a walk, when one of the goslings woke up. ''Spidey- idey-idey!'' she yelled. Aranea got spooked and ran back to the web, but the bird followed. The goose chased her until they reached Fern's house. Aranea went through a window. The goose went through the doggy door. The Arables screamed. Avery got a water gun and squirted the gosling. During the chaos Aranea snuck out. She finally felt safe.

Adventures of Nellie

By: Eden

            Nellie was at the farm time after time! She met new friends, but one person she didn't like was the goose. Nellie said to Wilbur, "Goose gets annoyed because she worked so hard on hatching her eggs. Sometimes I pretend she is not there,'' said Nellie. Wilbur said,'' Tell me about it.'' “Why is it so quiet?" said Nellie. “Well it is the evening and most animals like me like to take a little nap,'' said Wilbur. “Well then I want to take a nap too,” said Nellie. So they went to sleep. Zuckerman said, “Come out! They look so cute.'' Mrs. Zuckerman came and she said, ''They sound like a baby sheep.” Lurvy said, ”Shhh” to Mrs. Zuckerman. So they all went to sleep.

The Newborn Spider

By: Bailey

 When Joy came down from the web she asked Wilbur, ”Would you like to explore with me?” Wilbur said, “Yes. When are we leaving?'' Joy said, "Tomorrow''. When it was tomorrow they were about to leave until Joy said, ''What about the farmers?" Wilbur said, “They are on vacation.'' So they left the farm and they put Aranea and Nellie in charge. They were walking for miles until they ended up on an airplane to Florida. Joy said, "Wilbur did you pack my flies?" He said, ''Yes.'' It took 4 hours to get there. When they landed Joy and Wilbur found a place to rest. The next morning they woke up and found a field to play in. While Wilbur was playing in the

field Joy built a web in an abandoned farm. When they were tired they went to a fly factory to get some food, then they caught a plane back home. When they got back he said, ''Thank you Aranea and Nellie for watching the farm.''

Nellie and Wilbur

By: Phillip

Nellie was the spider who stayed with Wilbur. Over the years Nellie got older and went on a lot of adventures. Wilbur told Nellie he wants go with her. Nellie said, "Wilbur you need to know how to fly in this adventure." Wilbur said, "I can jump far." Nellie said, "That will do," and off they went. They went to a new mayor's farm in town. The new mayor in town saw Wilbur. He was surprised! Then he called the news reporter. She was also surprised to see a famous pig at the farm. Nellie was happy that she had a famous pig.

The New Adventure

By Drew

            One warm day at the barn yard everyone had woken up. Joy was talking to Wilbur. Then Mr.Zuckerman was coming, and they saw another pig and it was a girl. When Mr. Zuckerman got there Wilbur asked her, ''What is your name?'' She said, “My name is Jinx.'' ''Welcome,'' said Wilbur, and everyone said hello. One day at the fair, Fern hoped Henry was there. This year instead of the biggest pig, it was the pig that attracted the most people. Wilbur and Jinx won and Wilbur passed out. Templeton was eating a snowcone. But this time Wilbur woke up himself. Lurvy, instead of getting water, got slop and Lurvy wanted to get Avery back for drenching him with water, but he needed a shower. So he threw the slop on Avery. Lurvy said, ''Look at slop boy.'' Soon later Joy and Wilbur went to the orchard and Wilbur ate a big red juicy apple. Later that day lots of people looking at Wilbur, and then something weird happened. Everyone shouted, ''Earthquake!" No one was hurt so Joy and Wilbur and Jinx found a weird object. It looked like a rock, but it was huge and glowing Joy said "Wilbur." Joy saw Templeton, and he was bigger than basketball. When they were at the fair Wilbur was the smallest, but Mr. Zuckerman wasn't worried. Joy helped Wilbur win. She said radiant on her web and from that day on, Joy was thinking of characteristics to say about Wilbur.

The Old Days

By: Sarah

Aranea was having fun making pictures in webs, but then she got bored. She asked Wilbur to go to the trough. Areana asked where his food was. Templeton was even fatter than usual. He was bigger than a ball. Wilbur was thinking about Charlotte. 5 hours later the goose was having a conversation with Templeton. "Here comes Mr. Zuckerman" said Templeton."He is going to kiss him-im-im," said the goose. Wilbur was doing stunts. "Some pig," he said. He saw 3 webs . "Some webs," he said.

Nellie’s Journey to Save Wilbur

By: Jordan

Nellie was growing up in the barn. She was making a web on the barn , and suddenly, there was crying noises coming from Wilbur. Wilbur was on the ground choking. Nellie said, "Wilbur what's wrong?" Wilbur hardly said," I'm dying." "What should I do to save you Wilbur?" asked Nellie. You need to sneak in to Zuckerman’s house and get medicine so I won't die."Then Nellie rushed to Zuckerman's house, and the wind carried Nellie back to the pen. She raced to the window of Zuckerman's house again , and she made it. Nellie went into the house, and then she saw Mr. and Mrs. Zuckerman eating in the kitchen. Nellie went to the bathroom, and grabbed the medicine with her webs, and put it on her back. She hurried back to the barn, and then it started to rain. Nellie could barely see Wilbur, but she saw a pink circle laying in the hay. Nellie rushed to it, and gave Wilbur the medicine. He felt better and was saved.

The Tragedy of the Fair

By: Branimir

     Every morning Wilbur played with his spider frends. One day Wilbur was getting fair he said, “Will one of you please come with me to the fair with me?” Just then Joy said, ''I would love to come'' So she hoisted herself down a silk line on her spinnerets and got into the brand new gold crate.

    At the fair everyone crowded around Wilber's crate. When the judges came they inspected him then gave a gold first place medal. When they finished Wilber went back into the crate. There he found a peach egg sack and tired Joy that said that she won't be able to see her children. Wilber was sad but he knew she was right.

     At the barn everyone was sad because of the tragedy . After a year the egg sack opened and all the babies came out, but two stayed and their names were Grace and Love.

  

By: Ashton

Aranea, Joy, and Nellie were talking to Wilbur and all four of them saw Mr. Zuckerman carrying a hammer to build a cabin. Then he saw three spider webs under Wilbur's pen. Mr. Zuckerman thought Wilbur may be frightened. Then Mr. Zuckerman wanted to hit the web then hit the spiders. “Ugh! you girls should run before Mr. Zuckerman hits your web!” said Wilbur. While Templeton was sleeping , he woke up and saw three spiders under Wilbur. Templeton said

“Yummy spiders.” Then Templeton ran past Wilbur and to the spiders. Mr. Zuckerman saw Templeton and said, “Huh? A rat, Wilbur can be scared of that too.” Mr. Zuckerman said, “Take this rat!” Kabam! Templeton said, “Ouch, marble brain." Wilbur said, “Templeton what are you doing? Are you trying to eat Joy, Nellie, and Aranea?” Templeton said, “What the heck are Joy, Nellie, and Aranea?” he said. “They're my friends." “Well too bad, I'm starving,” said Templeton.

“Huddle up spiders, we shall build a big web to trap that rat and eat and eat him.” Templeton leaped and Wilbur said, “Noooooooooo!” Then Templeton got stuck in the web. Then the three spiders ate Templeton. Mr. Zuckerman said, "What in tarnation happened here?” The three spiders saved themselves.

So Close

By: Kevin

Joy was on her way children. She saw her children and they were as filthy as a trashcan. So while Wilbur was getting his buttermilk bath she took some and placed it on her children so they could get clean. After she got some flies and they fell asleep so she pulled a piece of straw and they went to sleep. In the morning she could not find her children anywhere. So she didn't catch anything until she found her children. When she found them they were with Templeton. That furball I was so close in bed.

The Lost Spider

By: Edris

                One day, Joy saw a fly almost hit her web.  Joy was very hungry, so she jumped onto the fly.  The fly flew 1 mile away from the pig pen.  By the time the spider’s venom made the fly sleep, it was night.  When the fly slept, Joy drank its blood.  After the blood drinking, Joy wanted to know where she was, so she crawled everywhere until it was bright then she was still crawling around.  When she looked one way, she noticed that it was the wrong way.  Joy went another way.  It was no good.  Joy tried another way, and it was no better than the last.  Then she went in the last way, and she found the farm.  Wilbur wanted to know where Joy was last night, so he asked a lot of questions.

Joy’s Adventure

By: Preston

Joy was wandering outside the barn. She kept walking and then she was in the forest. Joy saw a wild fox.

The wild fox said, "What is your name?"

She said, “Joy.  What is your name?".

The wild fox said, "Spike.”

Spike asked Joy where she was from and Joy said a barn.  Joy and Spike were looking for food, but they couldn't find anything.  So Joy went to bed but Spike kept looking.  The next day Wilbur noticed Joy was missing so he went looking for her.  Spike found a deer for his food and Joy found a fly and she wrapped it and ate it.  Wilbur heard her voice and ran as fast as he could, but she didn't see him.  So Joy and Spike kept walking.  They found a pond, so Spike drank from it.  Then Joy heard a voice and she walked over and there was Wilbur.  She said, "Hi" and Joy and Wilbur went home. But Spike was upset she was leaving. So Joy stayed and they played games and Wilbur went home and before he went to bed he got some warm slop.  Joy was getting older.  By the time Wilbur was home Joy was getting older and older but she still was able to play the games.  Spike was getting sleepy and he fell asleep.  Joy had 3,000 baby spiders.  A lot of them left but at least 4 stayed to enjoy the forest.  Joy and her baby spiders went home and Wilbur got to meet them.

Aranea's birthday party

By: Mason

One year later Aranea woke up exited.  She wrapped a bee up in her web.  She was happy that today was her birthday.

She woke up Wilbur.  Joy and Nellie were going to through her a party.  She into the room and everyone yelled SURPRISE!! She was surprised.  She had fun.  They played games and had fun.

She got presents.  She got a balloon.  Night came and everyone fell asleep.

Joy’s Adventure in the New World

By Leila

Joy was playing with her sisters.  Wilbur said, “It's time to eat my slop.

And here Lurvey comes now.” 

“But I am not hungry,” said Joy.  And then a rainbow came by and Joy said, ”What's that?”

“It is a rainbow,” said Wilbur.

“I never saw one before. Well, it is beautiful, isn't it?” Joy said. “I want

I want to see the world’s things before I die.''

“Well, you have a long time til you die,” Wilbur said.

Then a big storm hit and it was a big one.  Joy flew in the air and bumped into a tree.  Wilbur had to call Templeton to get Joy.  Templeton went to get Joy.  “Joy!Joy!Joy!''said Templeton. 

“Who's Templeton,''said Joy,

''Wilbur's friend come out from where you are.''

''Here I am.'' Templeton found her and took her home.  Then Wilbur had all three children back again.