Writing Rocks! Hits the Publishing World!

Our 4th and 5th grade writing club hit a new high yesterday as we published our works on Smashwords. Most of the writing, revising, editing, and basic formatting was done by none other than our amazing kiddos! I'm so proud of them!

Posted by: Mrs. Isaacs

Learning to Play with Pictures!

I've had quite a few kiddo's ask how to make jpegs and manipulate the size so they'll fit across the top of their blog and act as a header. While I use Image composer, which is an archaic program, (if it aint broke, don't fix it :-) I don't know what everyone has at home. I'd love for all the kiddo's to learn Photoshop, but that takes money.

And so when I ran across this little jewel of a freebie I had to share! It's called pixlr.com. It has similar features to Photoshop, and I'd love for the kiddo's to play! Now, you do have to sign up, which basically involves giving them your email and creating a password, but once that's taken care of you can create, layer, and put words on any picture you'd like. Too, some of the tools (such as the lasso, the wand, etc) are the same as Photoshop, so learn this first and when we get to that stage it'll be a breeze!

Now I'm learning this one with you, so I'm no expert. But if you have a questions feel free to post one and I'll see if I can't find the answer. As always, go play, have fun, be fearless, and learn something new!


Mrs. Isaacs.

Creating Your Own Blog

Hello my Neipchens!
Mrs. Isaacs here, and I wanted to explain how to make your own blog. We can work on the blogs at school, but, unfortunately, the firewall won't let me create blogs, and so below you'll find step-by-step instructions on making your blog.

If you are still confused and need help, bring me your email address and password. I'll take it home, and create a default blog and then we can work on the design of it at school. If you create a blog at home, please make sure that you know your URL, email address, and password so you can get on it at school to change things around. I'm working on a scroll widget with all of your blogs, so we must have a grab button for everyone and all the blogs set up before summer starts! :-)

How to create your own blog:
Make a gmail email address.
Click on the "Create a Blog" button on the top right corner of this blog. There you will be taken to
a page that looks like this:

That will take you to a page that looks like this:

  

The final step creates the blog. Remember, we need your URL, your email address and password in order to work on it here at school!

Comment if you have a question, and I'll comment back when I check!

Have fun, and remember, your voice matters!

The Ice Storm

Skeleton Mans weather effect

Let me tell you about the time that I was in an ice storm. I use to live in Garrard County. It was the winter of 2009. I was seven, and snow was on the ground, like someone had spread a white blanket over the land. I was playing my Xbox when my mom said, “Get off and turn on the news.”

I jumped off the couch and raced over to the TV. We watched the news.

“Get in the car,” my mom gasped.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“They’re saying there’s going to be an ice storm!”

We slipped and slid on the frozen road. At first (because I was 7) I didn’t even know what an ice storm was. Mom explained that sometimes during an ice storm people can get stuck in their house, and so we needed to go to the grocery store. We had to get supplies because we didn’t know how long the ice storm was going to last. So I ended up completely confused.

How can you get stuck in your house?

We got back home with so much food we could hardly get the pantry door shut.

What are we going to do with all this food, I thought?

The first of the ice storm we were the only family in the neighborhood. Everyone else left. So I brought a blanket down stairs and started playing Xbox.

I had a good night sleep, but when I woke up the power was out! Darkness filled the house as if there was a storm inside. I woke everyone and told them the power was out. I turned on my radio (battery powered) we were all in living room. After ten minutes of waiting, the weather finally came on.

You won’t believe what happened next ... the weatherman said that it was almost 20 degrees below zero. Chills ran up my spine as I listened to the horrible news.

“Great, just great. You have to be kidding me. How can things get any worse?” I said.

“Well we could be in a house with no power, and almost -20 with no food,” said my sister.

“Ha Ha, your funny,” I said.

On the third day, I went upstairs in my room and my sisters were stealing my money!

“What are you doing with my money?!” I screamed.

“Mom told us to get the quarters and dollars so we can wash clothes at the laundry matt,” they said.

“Guys the laundry matt is ten miles away,” I said.

“No there’s one in Lexington,” they said.

Great. I’m losing the hundred bucks (I really only had five bucks, but hey, remember, I was seven) that I worked hard on, I thought.

At the laundry mat we got about ½ the laundry done, and it turned out that we can’t get change from the cashier for some reason. My mom and I went to the bank across the street. On our way back there was a patch of ice that we didn’t see and well. BAM!!! Mom and I were on my back. We slipped on the ice.

“Let’s do that again!” I said, for some reason as I helped my mom up.

“No,” she said, “We are NOT doing that again!”

When we got home the lights where on.

“How?” I questioned.

“Dad got a generator!” screamed my sister in joy.

The next morning I got out of bed and looked at my clock. It was 12:30. I yawed, and went down stairs, and ate some toast. I looked outside and froze.
“My tree?!” I screamed in horror.

The tree that I climbed since I was four was covered in ice, and nearly an inch from falling on the house! I told my dad.

“Whoa!!!”He said, looking out the window. “Let me get the chainsaw.”

“Dad, I’ve climbed this tree since I was four; you can’t cut it down.” I pleaded. At least it didn’t fall over. I was happy when he didn’t cut it down.

On the last day the ice finally melted, and we got our power back. The cool thing was we got in the newspaper. I don’t know how it happened, but we got in there for staying home. I didn’t really care. I was just happy I didn’t freeze to death.

Horrific Hurricane

It was a sunny afternoon on a Miami Beach. It was a little breezy, as I was swimming with my brother. A mountain of black clouds inched toward the shore. As darkness covered the beach, I ran toward my parents to show them the cloud. They were packing things up. We ran toward our beach house with the hurricane on our heels.

That hurricane ruined my summer. We had to leave Florida; a lot of other people had that idea too. As we were leaving, well, we couldn’t leave because we got stuck in traffic. The sea of cars slowly emerged, and there was debris everywhere. We had to wait in line FOREVER! It took us eight hours to escape the storm’s aftershock, and we spent the night north of Miami in a hotel.

As we packed the car, I glanced around outside to see if there was anything else that survived the hurricane. I noticed that there was a camera crew interviewing the neighbors. An interviewer glanced over the debris, rubbish, and demolished things to notice I was watching. I ran inside. I was going to tell my parents, but I couldn’t because there was a knock at the door. I went to open it, and the camera crew was standing in the door way.

“May we interview your family?” One said.

“Uuuuuhhhhhhhh…………” was all I could say

“What’s going on?” My dad had come to the door.

“We would like to interview your family.” A different one said.

“Fine with me.”My dad answered.

The interview was great! I saw myself, that night on the TV in our hotel. I looked great. You could kind of see my brother in the background trying to be on camera. I still cannot believe that I got to be on TV.

The traffic was so thick it took us two days in two other hotels across two states. Actually on the second day we finally got home that night at 11:30. That week in Florida, I was going to relax at the beach, play in the sand, and read a good book, but I couldn’t because I was stuck in a car. I wish I wasn’t in that hurricane. Hurricanes are super scary.

I will always remember the hurricane because it ruined part of my summer. It was the scariest thing that I have ever seen, and I got to be on TV. Hurricanes are scary and extremely dangerous and fun because the mess they made can bring a camera crew right up to you. A big, dark menacing creature can spark a girl’s heart with a camera crew.

Posted by: Monkey 35

Not So Perfect Vacation

                Have you ever been effected by weather? Well, I have. One time when I was in Indiana, it was cold, snowy, and it was hailing. White cloth pelted me with the force of ice scratching my face. 

          It was one of the worst experiences in my life. It was nothing like a winter wonderland. I thought it was going to be a nice vacation, but it could have been a lot better. We were going to go to a soccer game, see family, and go to the zoo, but all that was cancelled for some snowball fights and building snowmen. Everything looked like Perfect North, everything gone.

          The worst part of my experience was the hail. Ice the size of golf balls pelted me like grapeshot. When it hit me it felt like I was getting hit with ice, well… I was getting hit with ice.

          The reason why I will remember this experience is that I had scratches and I couldn’t feel my hands the whole time. Warm red liquid blanketed my hand as hail scratched it. The hail made me feel like I was in the military and I was wounded. If it wasn’t cold, snowy or if it wasn’t hailing then I probably would have had a great time. The only thing that was good about Indiana was the snowball fights and building snowmen. 

          It is nice going on a vacation with your family, but if it turns out to be a total disaster, you are going to remember the experience. It is harsh trying to go outside when it cold, snowy, and hailing. North is like a giant snowball with houses. I will give you a tip; don’t go north for the winter. 

Boom! Bam!

I sat there on my tire swing petting Rugger; it started to thunder when… BOOM! Blinding light exploded as wood cracked and splintered all around me. My favorite tree had been split wide open!!! BY LIGHTNING!!!!!! I was so scared and Rugger too! Rugger and I ran to our hiding place under the house, and we used the secret latch to get in.

As I got in the house, I realized I forgot my favorite toy. I know I never leave HIM behind, so I went back to get him. I got him, but as I was coming back it started to rain. My Sue Sue came to the door.

“Joshua,” she said, “please get in the house!”

I got inside ASAP. Sue Sue trembled as she looked at me. As the door closed, BOOM! Lightning struck ANOTHER a tree. All three of Sue Sue’s dogs yelped and ran through the kitchen into the bedroom beyond, and I knew they were headed for under the bed.

Sue Sue said, “You may go ahead and eat dinner. Then you can go to bed and watch TV, you do not need a bath tonight.” Why no bath???

It was 9:30 and I was watching Scooby-Doo when ZZRRP! The TV shut off… so did everything. I heard nothing… Rugger jumped up and I gasped and my heart was pounding Bum Bum … Bum Bum … I called to Sue Sue then I heard a loud noise. Was it a tornado? Or something else?

10:00 the power come on and I turned the TV back on, but all I saw was tiny black and white dots moving around. Then I decided to go look for Sue Sue. I was in the living room when I heard barking and it was Bee Bee, the dog. She had come out from under the bed. A few minutes later Rugger and Dixie came with me to look. I looked everywhere! The last place was up stairs. I was not allowed to go up there because it was not build well, but I went up there and that was a very bad idea. I found Sue Sue up there, but then … creek …BASHHH! I fell right through the ceiling and all I saw was black.

I woke up in a bed, and I thought it was all a dream, but when I moved it hurt. I saw people in masks. I got scared and thought they were ALIENS! As I rubbed my eyes, I realized they were doctors and nurses. PHEW! No aliens. Tears streamed down my face as my body ached.

Sue Sue came in with some food and said, “You broke your legs.”

Looking at her in horror, I asked, “When will I get better?”

She said, “Maybe a month or two, sweet pea.”

I was in a wheel chair for a long time. I did NOT enjoy it at ALL.

Posted by: A-B-C-D-2010