Ellen -- Blogmeister

Welcome to fourth grade, a very enjoyable year! I am one of Mr. Edwards' fourth graders from last year, here to give you a little preview of next year. Mr. Edwards is a FANTABULOUS teacher because he has a sense of humor and makes learning always fun!! While reading this, you will learn all about a few great experiences: a field trip to The Grove and our unit on colonies!

Around the middle of our fourth grade year, we studied the 13 American colonies, pieces of land along the east coast such as New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Georgia and nine others. I enjoyed this unit partly because we each were assigned a colony to learn about either with a partner or by yourself. We also had the opportunity to learn about something different than our classmates and then share the interesting facts that we worked hard on learning. I also liked that we could share knowledge online and use pictures to brighten and color each of our Keynote slides in our online presentation. While studying colonies, I learned information about Virginia's government, notable people industry and way of life.

Our second field trip of the year was to The Grove. It is a school, but it is only a one-room schoolhouse like the ones in the mid-1800's! It had a blackboard, wooden desks, a woodburning stove and even a dunce cap! I had fun there because we were taught what school was like for children our age back then (you are lucky to be in our time) and although I had read about school life in the old days, it was much different to experience it while you were there. It gave our class and understanding of how lucky we are to live right here, right now.

You will have so much fun learning, growing and improving in Mr. Edwards' fourth grade! Enjoy!

In this picture, Emily and I studied wheels and axles. They work because the wheel turns around the still middle, the axle. Since there is not much friction between the wheel and the axle, the wheel spins easily.
In a car, for instance, the steering wheel turns against the middle part, the axle. The turning wheel reduces the friction against the rubber wheel and the road by

Some may ask how someone could not go on vacation over spring break and still have immense fun. Well, this is one answer. I played happily outside with my brothers over spring break.
We could be hanging out around our house or something and the boys would invite me kindly to come out and play with them.
Pitch! The crack of the bat and the ball game was under way. It put even more excitement into a day. Throughout the game, we ran, talked, laughed and did the things that brothers and sisters should do. I had fun outside also because I had not had the chance to play out very much in the warm weather since last fall.
As you can see, I had a fun break with lots of games and extra time! That was my break.

Mae ran with long stride through the meadow. She saw a mountain in the distance. It seemed EVER SO SLIGHTLY smaller than her earliest memory of the mountain, so she concluded that it, like all land masses, was slowly eroding. It was still tall and beautiful, with its snowy top and pine trees growing. She suddenly heard soft footsteps walking to her. Mae turned around and viewed her younger brother Arson stepping towards the place where she was standing. He called to her, "Mae! I do not mean this to intrude your peaceful time, but Mother wants you to run back inside to help her with the farm chores." Mae began to whine, but then she realized that Mother needed her help. So Arson had persuaded her to join him and Mother in their cabin. The two children walked back to the house, happy to be together. Mother greeted them at the door with a warm grin. "Arson, thank you for fetching your sister. Mae, thank you for coming in so obediently. Now, Mae, please decide what leftovers we will eat tonight, divide them among your father, myself, Arson and you and please don't omit anyone. I then give you permission to go outside until Father arrives from town." Mae nodded and went about her task well. She took out all of the dishes and ran to the table, but she accidentally collided with a cupboard and dropped their best china plates. Mae gasped and emitted a cry of horror. Mother came running down the stairs and, instead of spanking Mae, hugged her. Mae said,"I am sorry." Mother told her, "Mae, those china plates did not mean everything to me. I have you and I have other plates. I still love you, and I will just wipe those pieces up and start fresh." Mae hugged her mother. "Thank you, Mom."

On a droudy morning one day,
A Jabberwock srawls
Along in the fole.
He slunk along
Not knowing the thing,
The horreadful, tewful thing
That would happen.
He lat on a rone
And was almost neeping
When he vaw
A plopter.
Out of the plopter
Walloped a boy.
A menvil, thugly,
Narrow-eyed boy.
The Jabberwock banched
Its shointy teeth,
And the wattle began.
Oh, how feroody!
Oh, how crutense!
The wattle coraged
Until the Jabberwock
Finally esan.
He was vappy and praughing.
Victory was his!
The boy,
The menvil, thugly,
Narrow-eyed boy,
Said in hefeat,
"I'll do it."
"Someday."
Victory for the Jabberwock!

GLOSSARY:
In my poem, I used some portmanteau words. These are words that have been broken up and then combined with a part of another word. Here is a glossary of the words I created in my poem.

Droudy= dreary+cloudy
Srawls=slinks+crawls
Fole=forest+hole
Horreadful=horrible+dreadful
Tewful=terrible+awful
Lat=lay+sat
Rone=rock+stone
Neeping=napping+sleeping
Vaw=viewed+saw
Plopter=plane+helicopter
Walloped=walked+galloped
Menvil=menacing+evil
Thugly=thin+ugly
Banched= barred+clenched
Shointy=sharp+pointy
Wattle=war+battle
Feroody=ferocious+bloody
Crutense=cruel+intense
Coraged=continued+rage
Esan=escaped+ran
Vappy=victorious+happy
Praughing=proud+laughing
Hefeat=helpless+defeat

Although different, the book and movie of The Witches are both very good. Here are some differences between the book and the movie.
In the book and movie, the grandma tells the boy (Luke, in the movie) all about witches. Both versions include a girl who, after a witch attacks her, is trapped inside a painting. That part is very interesting and very neat. Some other similarities are that the boy/Luke is turned into a mouse both times, but in the movie, Luke turns back into a boy at the end, and in the book, the boy stays a mouse.
In case you're wondering how the boy/Luke was turned into a mouse in the first place, the witches had a special formula (Formula 86 Delayed-Action Mouse Maker) to turn things into mice. They got ahold of him and made him drink it, only in the book, it was at the witches' annual meeting, and in the movie, it was in Luke's hotel room.
In the book and movie, the boy goes into the Grand High Witch's room to locate the formula so that he can pour it into the witches' food and turn them all into mice! In the movie, however, this feat was probably more dangerous than in the book, because in the movie, there was a CAT in her room! He escaped, however, with the formula, but in the movie, it was hidden in a book in her dresser, and in the book, it was under the mattress.
Finally, in the movie, the Grand High Witch has a slave who helps her with her mask, clothes and work.
One of the things I especially enjoyed about the movie The Witches was that it was so realistically scary. You felt as if you were really the boy, and all the scary happenings were really taking place. I love the story of the witches!

A week later, we were ready. My grandmother packed a single duffel bag for us including the 500 doses of mouse-maker, and we were in a cab, off to the witches' castle!

While we drove along the countryside, it occurred to me that I had no way of getting into the castle. I know that I could creep in when a witch was using the door, but, for all I knew, THESE witches didn't leave their house very often. I mentioned this to my grandmother, who jumped in her seat and grimaced.

"My darling, you are absolutely right. What are we to do?" There was a long pause, and then I yelled, "I got it!"

Soon, a magnificent gray castle was visible looming ahead of us, in the mountains. I was frightened by the sight of it. It didn't look like a very inviting place.

The chauffeur let us out (I was in Grandmama's duffel bag) just outside the grand gates of the palace.

Grandmama handed me a bottle of Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse-Maker.

"Good luck, my darling," she said and stroked my back with the tip of her finger. "I'll meet you at 7:15 tonight at my inn." I hope I'll have lots of news to give her.

As I ran to the castle, I went over our plan in my head. First, I was going to run up the pipes on the walls of the castle and creep through the opening. That would get me inside the house. Then, I was going to simply sneak along the walls until I came to the kitchen-- probably right around lunchtime. Jumping around the on the shelves, I would look for and meal lying about and dump the mouse-maker right onto it. Then I would try to listen for any future plans of the witches.

I reached the pipe and ran rapidly up it. I came out into a room with all sorts of appliances and and oven in it. "The kitchen," I thought, "perfect."

I jumped around the countertop and soon spotted a pot of applesauce sitting cooling on the stove. I imagined they were all going to have some, so I climbed up on a shelf directly above the pot and dumped the entire contents of the bottle into the witches' food! I was victorious!

Not wanting to be realized, I took the label off the bottle before getting rid of it. I then looked at the clock, not wanting to be late for my grandmother, and, realizing that it was only 5:30 p.m., decided to explore a little. But before I had taken five steps toward the door, a large man came walking in and suddenly gave a shout of "MOUSE! MOUSE IN THE KITCHEN!!"

I bolted to the door with him on my tail. He stepped on one of my whiskers once but I escaped. Out in the hallway, I stayed as close to the wall as I could, not wanting to meet anyone else. I scrambled down through the pipe and out into the moonlight. I ran a few blocks until I came to Grandmama's inn and I ran through the door as a porter opened the door to go outside. I knew my grandmother's room number, room 301, and I jumped up the stairs until I came to it. I banged on the door with my paws and, when she didn't answer, I hissed, "Grandmama, it's me!" She opened the door and picked me up in her hands. She set me down on the table and asked, "How did it go, darling?" I told her about my narrow escape with the chef and also my triumph in getting the mouse-maker into the witches' food. She congratulated me and said, "Tomorrow we will bring in the cats to attack the witches. I'm proud of you darling. You did well."

Outdoors on a wintry night,
Kids are cozy, sleeping tight.
'Round them , fir trees, house and sun
Say good-night to everyone.

When Fabio and Minette, two children from England, are kidnapped by Aunts Etta, Coral and Myrtle, their lives are turned upside down. The aunts take them to a magical island and want them to help care for the creatures there. They are all having a marvelous and happy time together with the animals until enemies sail to the island. They want the island and its creatures for money. When the aunts refuse to take the deal, things could get ugly...

I, personally, think that the Graue Mill is a very neat place. It showed me so many historical things that, in some places, I felt as if I was really back 150 years ago. One of my favorite floors in the mill museum was the first. On the first floor, the "miller" told us all about the different ways of grinding corn, wheat, buckwheat and oats. There were four different machines or tools to grind grain. I will tell you about two of them. Here's one: You need two relatively flat stones (one large and one small), and whatever you want to grind. You set the large stone on a flat surface, put the grain on top of it and rub the other stone back and forth over it. Here is the second machine: This machine is an immense one. You feed corn into it, push a button and this device grinds the corn and then, when it looks like fine grains of cornmeal, the corn grinder spits it out. What interesting ways to grind grain! That is just the first floor of the Graue Mill and Museum. It is both educational and fun. You should visit it sometime!