Verbs by Noah

A verb is something you do like playing baseball, or playing football, walking, running, or playing outside.  It is an action word.  So if you want to be a verb you have to do something like move, draw, exercise.  They are different from nouns.  To have a complete sentence, you have to have a verb in it.  Tomorrow we are going to the fair.  We will be going which is doing something...then we are going to have fun.  I can't wait to DO that!

The Colonists by Isaac, Noah & Isabelle

The British king was not nice to the colonists who came to America.  He raised taxes and passed acts like the Stamp Act that made the colonists mad.  The people came to America because they wanted freedoms they did not get in England and other countries.  They wanted a chance to make their lives better.  They wanted to be able to have freedom of religion and to own their own land.  The first colony was called Jamestown.  Towns built that had a good harbor prospered.  They could trade then.  They would trade things they found here for things they needed.  Originally they built houses like log cabins and built homes in hillsides.  As they got more money they built better houses, like the Georgian homes found in the Southern 13 colonies.  People, called delegates, from each colony met and decided to declare their independence from Britain by the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

Earthquakes by Isaac

Earthquakes are one of the deadliest natural disasters on earth.  Earthquakes can create huge waves called tsunamis if they happen in the ocean and cause horrible flooding.  Earthquakes can knock down tall buildings, like a sky scraper.  If they are powerful enough they can leave almost no buildings left in a city.  They can cause deep cracks in the ground and can rip buildings in two.  The earth can even swallow buildings when an earthquake happens.  They can shake up your house, knock tv's and stuff down and can make cracks in your walls.  The most powerful Earthquakes are 9.0+ earthquakes.  We watched a video about an earthquake in Japan.  It was a 9.0 Earthquake.  I didn't like it because it was so sad.  People were dead and buildings were gone. It showed the real power of an Earthquake.  I posted it here so you can see it too.

The Phoenix in Mythology by Noah

The Phoenix can live up to a thousand years and then they turn into ash and a new phoenix is born from the ashes.  It can live as long as the old phoenix.  They make their nests out of twigs.  Very rarely, phoenix's turn into humans.  Phoenix's are usually on fire in pictures you see, that is probably because they catch fire and burn before they get reborn.  The phoenix is a bird with red and gold feathers.  I like phoenix's because they are cool and they look cool on fire.  Their heads look like eagles heads and eagles are my second favorite bird. 

Cain and Abel by Isaac

"Am I my brother's keeper?"  Genesis 4:9
Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel.  God told Adam and Eve to sacrifice a sheep to Him to regain his love and trust after what they did in the Garden of Eden.  So they told Cain and Abel to sacrifice a sheep.  Abel chose his very best sheep and sacrificed it to God.  Cain tried to sacrifice straw but it just sizzled.  Cain got really angry with his brother so he decided to take his brother out into the woods.  Cain killed his brother Abel.  God started talking to Cain and asked him, "where is your brother?"  Cain said he didn't know.  After that talk Cain started feeling guilty and knew he had to live with that for the rest of his life.  This teaches us that God always wants our best.  God knows everything, sees everything, hears everything and if we have a problem we should talk to God about it.  Mom says me and my brothers and sister should be nicer to each other.  I think God would want us to be nicer too!

A Midsummer Nights Dream Scene 1-Act 1 by Isabelle

This part of the story is where the King tells Hermia to marry someone her father wants her to marry but she doesn't want to marry him because she loves someone else.  So Hermia and the guy she loves, called Lysander, decide to run away and meet in the forest.  They tell Helena that they are going to run away so they can get married to each other and Hermia won't have to marry the man, called Demetrius, she doesn't want to marry.  Helena loves Demetrius and Demetrius loves Hermia.  So Helena decides she is going to tell on them to Demetrius so he might love her.  They should have never told Helena that they were going to run away together.  I don't think it is going to be good for them.  They are going to get in trouble and then Hermia will have to be a nun forever.

Franz Josef Haydn by Isaac, Noah, and Isabelle

Haydn was a composer during the classical period.  He died when he was 77 years old.  We found that this was out of ordinary because most of the composers we have studied so far have died young.  His parents could not pay for him lessons for music so his cousin took him away to live with him where he could learn music.  When he was 4 he pretended that two sticks were a violin and he played them.  He was known as the father of the symphony and the string quartet.  It is very cool that he was close friends with Mozart.  Mozart even called him "Papa Haydn."  Haydn was very religious and at the beginning of many his compositions he wrote the words, "In the name of the Lord."  We like that he was a practical joker.  In his composition, Symphony no 94 in G Major "The Surprise" he wrote in a loud part which would surprise and wake up the people in the audience.  That is very funny.