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

Playing 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!

How to Create 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!

Sponge Bob's Christmas Special

The SpongeBob Christmas special is about this yellow sponge that lives under the sea. This movie is made up of different episodes, and they are all about SpongeBob’s special Christmas adventures. For example, the whole Bikini Bottom goes on a mission to see Santa Claus.

I like this movie because it is really funny. It’s funny because SpongeBob sings with a bunch of strange voices, plus you don’t exactly see a talking sponge with Santa every day. So if you love SpongeBob and Christmas you’ll love SpongeBob Christmas special .

I give this movie 5 paws.

Posted by: Tomboy 222

Temple running!

You are a world famous explorer. You have been searching a temple in a faraway land when they start chasing you. Monkey-like creatures with skull-like heads viciously chase you out of the temple and onto the crumbling walkway above the water, greatly overrun by tree roots. If you can't time the jump just right to get over the large broken chunks of walk, if you can't time the sharp turns just quickly, if you can’t avoid tree trunks, if you can't slide under statues spitting fire, or if you can't keep your pace and the monkeys catch you than you are doomed to end your temple running adventure.

This is what the awesome free app temple run is all about. This fast paced app is great for anyone big or small, young or old. Power ups will help you along the way to boost your speed or even cheat death. Also you can post your high-score in the comments tab below to see if you’re the best temple-runner in the world. Everyone with an IOS device should download this for free! I give this game five paws!

Hope you down-load it!

-Fencer6                                                                                                                                  

Rick Riordan Rocks!

Hey everyone. Today I'm here to talk about one of my favorite authors, Rick Riordan, who has written about three different series: The Heroes of Olympus, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles, along with many adult books. He has also contributed to the 39 clues series by writing The Maze of Bones, with a grand total of 23 books! Most of his books (my favorite) are based off of mythology, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian. He finds great ways to mix the old myths with modern technology, like saying that the wine god drinks Diet Coke (which I think is a major improvement). I personally think his books are amazing, and I'm still reading them! They’re great and he releases them really fast. Overall, I think he's one of the best authors of the 21st century! I suggest his books for anyone who can read (which I guess you can)!

Click here to check out his website!

Hope you check out his books!

-Fencer6

P.S., below is an interview with Rick Riordan over the Radio about the Red Pyramid. It just aired last night (12-19-12). Hope you like it!

P.S.S, If you’re a huge fan of Rick Riordan here is his address for fan mail! Here it is:
Rick Riordan
c/o Disney-Hyperion Books
1133 Avenue of the Americas
33rd Floor
New York, NY 10036

The Starving Time

Have you ever been so hungry that you thought you were going to die? Well, that is how Elizabeth from the starving time felt. This book is about one girl as she journals about her harsh life in Jamestown.

I loved the Starving Time because the author put in some awesome details and really described what she was writing about. For example her mom was so hungry that she was slurping up worms from the ground because she was so hungry.

I also love how you could just picture it in your mind on what the author was talking about like when Elizabeth said she could see the ships forming in the mist.

That is when I could just picture it in my mind. This book is a wonderful book for kids and also teacher. I give this book five stars.