Wordless Wednesday

Gotcha Day

 On September 11, 2011, I was so excited to get my first pets. I got two cats that were raised together. Buckie and Katie. A few months ago Katie snuck out and ran away and we haven't seen her since. Buckie is still here. He is my best buddy and my study partner in my school lessons. Happy Gotcha Day Buckie!

Food Fun Friday: Potato Salad

Today for Food Fun Friday, Mom and I made potato salad. We used my grandmother's recipe. Later I will learn my mom's recipe.

To make this you need:
4/5 Cooked potatoes with the skins on
1 large carrot
1 small onion
1/2 green bell pepper
2 stalks of green onion
any other fresh veggies you would like to add (we sometimes add celery, cucumber, black olives or broccoli)
optional:
 2 hard boiled eggs
Ham chunks
5 slices of bacon
Pimentos

To make the sauce:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
mustard and spices to taste
milk
you should make this up ahead of time so it is cold when you add it. 

In a bowl, mix the mayo with just enough mustard to give it flavor. You can use any kind of mustard you like. Then add spices. We use garlic, onion powder, lots of black pepper, paprika and parsley. Mix in just enough milk to make it as thin or thick as you want it to be. We like thick so if you make it too thin you can add some more mayo.  If you use hard boiled eggs in your salad, you can mix the yolks into the sauce for more flavor.

To cook your potatoes you can either boil them or put them in the microwave until they are tender but still a little hard. Put them in the fridge overnight so they are really cold. Chop and add your veggies. We like ours to be in thick chunks but you can make them however big you like. Mix them together with the sauce and let it sit for at least an hour. Mom says overnight is better but we always make ours up the same day.

Wordless Wednesday

How a Volcano Turns into a Mountain

Textbook Tuesday: PE

Video Screen Shots

 

The coolest thing happened. My school made some videos to show how to do things and I got to be in the one for tracking PE. It is just for a little bit. You can see the whole thing here http://expi.co/0CJe It is so exciting to be included.

 

That was my favorite day from first grade.  We had so much fun.

School Supplies

My favorite day of the summer is when the school supplies arrive. They come in a great big box. It has all my books and kits, even library books. I also get the paper work that we send into the school each month and a head set with a microphone, so I can do my live lessons. 

Last year I let my blog slide for months after school started. I really want to keep up with it this year. It might be hard because there is a lot of work to do for school. I am going to have a new weekly post called Textbook Tuesday. I will try to write something about school each week.  I am going to restart the Saturday Shout Out soon. I talked my dad into helping me with it and we reworked the format. It is going to be so much fun, I can't wait. I am also going to have a few new pages. The first is Lian's Cookbook, which will have all the Food Fun Friday recipes that I try. Then a list of projects that I want to complete over the school year. Building a river and a volcano is at the top of the list since we didn't get that done over the summer. Finally the 2012-2013 Making School Fun Page.

If you want to look back at my third grade year you can look in the archive pages for Making School Fun 2011/2012. You can also check Mom's Club Orange- Connections Academy page on her blog.

http://lianssummeroffun.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-love-connections-academy.html

We Give Books: Zak the Yak With Books On His Back

It's time for my We Give Books book review.

 First, I would like to thank Toni Buzzeo, the author of last week's book. Her email to me was very nice and I am really happy that she liked my video.





This week I read Zak the Yak With Books On His Back by John Wood.

http://www.wegivebooks.org/books/zak-the-yak

Zak the Yak travels through Nepal carrying supplies to villages in the mountains because there aren't many roads there. He comes to a village where the school only has a few books for the whole school to read. He promises to help raise money and collect donated books. He send emails and makes phone calls and he gets 5,100 books to take back to the children. The village thinks he is a hero.

The book was published by Room to Read (http://www.roomtoread.org/). They publish books for kids all over the world, in their languages, so that they can learn to read. They also raise money to donate books and open schools all over the world.  I did a google search on the author, John Wood. I found out that Zak the Yak is the story about how he started Room to Read after he found a school like the one in the story when he was on vacation (http://www.leavingmicrosoftbook.com/author.html). At first I really liked the story because I thought Zak was like me and wanted to help kids learn to read. Now, I really like it because it's true and someone really did help kids get books. Mom says I did it again. I chose a fiction book that turned out to be a real story. I just liked the books on his back. I am really glad there are companies like We Give Books and Room to Read and that I can help out a little bit.

http://www.wegivebooks.org/campaigns/readingpartners

I am reading for the Reading Partners campaign. It gives books to reading tutors across the country, You can read more about it here @ http://www.wegivebooks.org/campaigns/readingpartners. There are almost 3,000 people reading for Reading Partners now and we have read over 12,000 books together.  We still need a lot more to make our goal though. See you next week.

Follow We Give Books:
https://twitter.com/WeGiveBooks
http://www.facebook.com/WeGiveBooks

Follow Room to Read:
http://www.facebook.com/roomtoread

Pizza and Bread Sticks

Welcome to Food Fun Friday. This week instead of mini pizzas I made a crust pizza. It was a lot more work but it was a lot more fun and I really like the way it tastes. The dough was so squishy, I really enjoyed kneading it.

To make this pizza we used:
2 boxes of Jiffy pizza crust mix
1 sm jar of spaghetti sauce
Shredded cheese
Pizza toppings
Cooking Oil
Parmesan shake cheese

We made the dough using the directions on the back of the box and then topped with sauce, cheese and veggies like we do on our mini pizzas. Before we put the dough in the pizza pan we took 1/3  of it aside. When the pizza dough was pre-baking we made the part we put aside into bread sticks by hand. We topped those with shake cheese just before we baked them with the pizza.

I really want to make this again. It was so delicious!

Wordless Wednesday

We Give Books: One Cool Friend

Hello Everyone. I hope you had a great week. Last week I sent an email to the author of the book I reviewed and she sent me one back. That was so great. No one ever sends me a reply except to tell me they don't send replies.

I had so much fun with this week's review. The main character of the story I read, likes to dress really nice. I like that. I would wear my suit every day if Mom would let me. I wish I had lots of them to wear.

http://www.wegivebooks.org/books/one-cool-friend

I read One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo. It was a terrific book about a boy who is  different from other kids. He dresses and thinks different and doesn't like to be around a lot of people. We could be best friends. His dad takes him to the aquarium and he finds penguins that he thinks are a lot like he is, so he asks his dad if can take one home. His dad thinks he means a plushie toy. Elliot and his new friend have fun. They eat pizza and go skating and visit the library. The end was the best. I won't tell you how it ends but I really thought something else would happen. 

 I visited the author's website  http://www.tonibuzzeo.com/index.html and she had so much really great information on it. Not just about her books but also about her and not just about her books but lots of other children's books too. I want to read some more of her books. I wonder if I will find more people in her books like me except I would never take a penguin home it would not be happy.

http://www.wegivebooks.org/campaigns/readingpartners

My final book count for the summer is up to 33.  My goal was to only read 15 books over the summer. I am so excited. That is way more than last summer. You can read about the campaign I am reading for right now here @ http://www.wegivebooks.org/campaigns/readingpartners. There are over 2,500 people reading for Reading Partners now. and we have read over 10,000 books together.  We still need a lot more to make our goal though.

Open Invitation To All Connections Academy Students

 This summer I started a group at the site FreeRice.Com

This website works with  the United Nations World Food Program to donate food to families in need all over the world. What makes this site special is that we get to practice our education skills while we help people who need it. They ask you questions from all kinds of categories and for right answers they donate rice.

My group is called Connections Kid and in a couple of weeks we have earned more than 12,000 grains of rice. That is more than 1200 correct questions! Our goal is at least one day of rice for at least one person per day. It is about 19,000 grains of rice per day, but we need lots of help for that.  I am inviting any Connections Academy Student, Teacher, Learning Coach or family member to join our team and show that we can give to the community. You can learn about how FreeRice.Com works here, http://freerice.com/about/faq And you can learn about our group here, http://freerice.com/content-group/connections-kid You don't need to apply to join up.

Wordless Wedneday

We Give Books: Chico the Brave

Hello Everyone! I am sorry I am late with this. There is a lot of summer things to do and not a lot of summer left to them. I read a bunch of books this week and it was hard to pick one to talk about. Mom says that I always find a way to do non fiction, so I chose this book. I don't think it's true but it would be so cool if it was.

http://www.wegivebooks.org/books/chico-the-brave

This book is called Chico the Brave and I really liked it. Chico is a chick who was born afraid of everything, even his own shadow. He ends up saving his town and he gets really brave. I think just because he discovered that he "can" do it. I really loved the great illustrations. The colors are neat shades and really bright. I think that little kids, like maybe first graders, would really enjoy this story, especially if they own chickens.

I did a Google search on the author Dave Horowitz and I found out that he has a really neat website with great stuff on a bunch of his books. http://www.horowitzdave.com/index.html The best part of it though is the Zoo page. He has really terrific art there. I really like his art.

My book count for the summer is up to 28.  You can read about the campaign I am reading for right now here @ http://www.wegivebooks.org/campaigns/readingpartners. There are over 2,000 people reading for Reading Partners now. and we have read over 8,000 books together. That is so terrific, over 8,000 books given for reading tutors to use to help kids read. We still need a lot more to make our goal though.

Wordless Wednesday

We Give Books: Miss Rumphius

It is time for my Sunday book review. This week I read Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. I read this for school last year and I liked it, but I didn't pay too much attention to it. I just wanted to get the assignment over with. I really don't like language arts lessons, even when they have cool library books instead of just text books.

http://www.wegivebooks.org/books/miss-rumphius

This time, on We Give Books, I read about the author and why she wrote the story and it made the book really really interesting. It is based on a real person. After we read the book, mom and I did some research. We found some great articles about Mrs. Cooney and her story. She did a lot of the things that she wrote about. If you are interested in learning more you could try to google "Miss Rumphius" or you could look at these links. The first one shows a photo of her real house and it looks so much like the drawing in the book. I really like true stories so much better.

The Road to Miss Rumphius' House 

In the Footsteps of 'Miss Rumphius', an Inspiration to Solo Women Travelers

I especially liked the illustrations Mrs. Cooney made. They were really detailed and so pretty. I also really liked the idea of making the world more beautiful. I would really like to do that.

My book count for the summer is up to 22.  You can read about the campaign I am reading for right now here @ http://www.wegivebooks.org/campaigns/readingpartners. It seems to me to be great thing. There are already over 1500 hundred people signed up to read for it, and they all read almost two thousand books last week. We still have a long way to go meet our goal. 

http://www.wegivebooks.org

Solar Powered S'mores

For Food Fun Friday, we brought out the solar oven again (Solar Powered Stars). This time we made s'mores with white and dark chocolate. It was a really hot day so they didn't have cook very long. The s'mores tasted so good but they were really sticky. 

I was really thinking that the temperature in the box would get very high since last time it was 121°. It didn't get very hot at all. I think maybe because last time the crayons cooked for 20 or 30 minutes and this time it was just a few minutes. 

I was thinking of doing the solar oven for my science fair project next year  if my teacher will give me permission to sign up for it. I need to have fewer variables. How hot it is outside might matter as much as how long when measuring the temperatures in the box.

I can't wait to use my oven again. I still want to make nachos and a quesadilla and also, maybe hot dogs.

Wordless Wednesday: It's been a great Summer

Recycling Crayons

Take a Look Back Tuesday

Last month I made crayon stars in my solar oven. It was super fun. I always have a lot of crayons around because I do a lot of art. I have recycled the broken bits into cool shapes. They make great new crayons, and gifts too. 

It is easy to remold crayons. You need:

Broken crayons
Teflon candy forms or ice cube trays (we get ours at the dollar store)

An oven

You can easily peel the labels from crayons by soaking them in water for five or ten minutes. You don't want to leave washable crayons soaking much longer than though. Next, cut the crayons into small pieces. The smaller the pieces the smoother/faster the crayons will melt. I like bigger pieces to make art with. It is best to separate the colors as you cut them, but you can mix them any way you want to in the forms. I really love how the colors mix when they melt.

Fill the forms with your crayon bits. Then you can melt them in the oven. We use the warm setting for ten to twenty minutes depending on how much we want them to melt. The longer you leave it in, the more mixed the colors will be. When I make art I don't let them melt all the way so that the colors and bits can all be seen. You can put them put them in the freezer for fifteen minutes and the crayons will pop out easily. 

When I make Christmas ornaments, I add beads and a metal hook to them just before I put them in the freezer.

You can melt the crayons in the sun, oven or microwave. You just need to test to see how long you need for each way.