Donuts

Author's Note: I was pretty bored today, so I looked around me for inspiration. That's when I do the best writing/drawing. Except today, I just did it to be fun. Molly loves donuts, so she inspired me to write this.

I devour the

Sticky substance

Which has delicious slime

Oozing out

Although it's really wonderful

Not disgusting

Because

It's full of sugar

Which makes some

Specific people hyper

But that's okay

Every once in a while

Because

Donuts

Are amazing

Our Founding Fathers

Author's Note: As instructed by Mr. Graf, I wrote an essay with the prompt "If you could go back in time and meet our founding fathers, what would you say?". I'm trying to work on word choise, so please let me know how to improve that in this piece. I tried a little, but it's rather difficult to express that in a piece like this.


Time surrounds us, even traps us. Every so often, people wish they could go back in time and re-do one thing. Others think back and wish they could have been the ones in charge and are able to change it. I would want to go back in time to meet our founding fathers because that would be a truly exceptional experience. If I really could go back in time and talk to our founding fathers, I’d ask them if they would’ve been able to choose what was written in the constitution, what would they have written?


There has to be a reason for everything. So, I have my own reasoning for asking the question “What would you have written in the constitution if it were just for you to decide?” Of course I’d like to know, that’s why I asked the question. Except I just think it’d be interesting to see what they’d respond. Do they like how it is now, and keep it all, would they write the whole thing over, or keep some of it? Well, that’s why I’d like to go back in time and see.


To choose a specific founding father, George Washington would probably be one of the most important ones to ask. Not only he was the first president of the United States, he was asked to be Commander in Chief of the Continental Army during Revolutionary War. Overall, he was a very important man in founding our country. This would make it a once in a lifetime chance to talk to him. Of course it would, because as of right now it’s not possible to go back in time.


I’d ask our Founding Fathers if they’d had the chance to write everything that went into the constitution, what would they write, if only I could go back in time. Others may want to say “good job” or “why didn’t you learn to read and write?”, but surely I wouldn’t. That’s too expected of people to ask/say things like that. In fact, if I really could go back in time to meet them, I’d want to be remembered for asking such a question- wouldn’t you?

Cause/Effect on Pictures of Hollis Woods

Author's Note: This is something that was asked from Mrs. Mundt- to write a cause/effect short response to a book we read or an event that happened.

One event that happened in the book, Pictures of Hollis Woods, is that Hollis ran away from the Regans. Because of this, Hollis was sent to other homes again- those of which didn't offer her a real family. Of course she ran away from these, too, but the run that really matters is that of the Regans.

If this little detail (well sort of a huge one) was changed, and Hollis stayed at the Regans house instead of running away, everything of course would be different. Hollis wouldn't have the experience of being with Josie with her cat, Henry, being all cozy in their house, watching old movies, carving a wood sculpture of her… the list drones on. Mostly just that she wouldn't have met Josie or would have done anything that had to do with her. Either option would've been fine, or the right one, but I personally think that Hollis shouldn't have taken the chances of  being placed in another stupid house, like all the ones before the Regans. Even if this meant not meeting Josie at all, I think it would have been the right choice. Although, it was the author's choice, and the book would have been quite boring without this major event happening.

This story reminds me of The Runaway bunny. I don't know how I thought of this book, as it's a picture book that I was completely obsessed with in 2nd grade. In this book, the bunny runs away from its mother- and his home. That means it's similar to Pictures of Hollis Woods because they both run away from their home.

Conflict/Resolution on Pictures of Hollis Woods

Author's Note: For Language Arts, Mrs. Mundt asked us to write a conflict/resolution on a book we recently read. I did mine on the book, Pictures of Hollis Woods.

In the book, Pictures of Hollis Woods, there is one main conflict which is the fact Hollis Woods doesn't yet have a permanent home/family. She runs away from each of the foster homes she is sent to, including one that actually offers a real family that she likes. Of course, she is always sent to a different home after she ran away. Except the main conflict is that she keeps running away.

This book reminds me of a movie "Hotel for Dogs" that I saw a few years ago where two kids who are ten and fifteen- a boy and a girl- that have been through many foster homes. Eventually they come to the person that had found the other homes for them. This is similar to the book, Pictures of Hollis Woods, because in both instances, kids are spending time in foster homes that they really don't want to be in.

This conflict of running away is solved throughout the book, piece by piece. About every other chapter is the present, (with about every other one being the past,) and it all starts out where Hollis is taken to a new house with an older woman, Josie. Realizing they will take Hollis to a different house because Josie has been forgetting a lot of things lately, she makes a plan. She takes Josie to the Regans' summer house- without their permission. Eventually, Josie becomes homesick, and the end of the book leads the reader to believe Josie went back her own house to live with Beatrice, and Hollis goes to live with the Regans. 

                                                       

Early Jamestown- Why did so many people die?

Author's Note: I wrote this for Social Studies, and I decided to put it here. Title pretty much says it all, but everyone had to write an essay on why so many people died in early Jamestown. It was relatively boring, but I tried my best to try to add some life to it.



Imagine this- you’re on a swaying boat in the middle of the ocean. For months on end all you see when you look from the cabin window is water. With miles upon miles of tumbling waves. Or at least until one day you hit land... except you die within a month. Have you ever thought about why things are? Of course you have, once in your life. We’re humans- we want to know, and be curious. Well I’ve been thinking why did so many people died in early Jamestown. So, why did they? The answer is there were many different reasons include brackish water, no food, and disease.

One of the reasons people died in Jamestown was caused by brackish water. You probably wouldn’t think brackish water would matter, but you also probably don’t know what brackish means. Brackish water is salty, and is caused from the alignment of the moon. People would think the freshwater wells were still that- fresh water, but indeed, they were wrong. Also, some human and sometimes animal waste, too was dumped into the rivers which was the main source of fresh water. Of course, people began to become ill from the disgusting mixtures.

Another reason the colonists died right away was due to the drought. It didn’t rain much, obviously. Except the drought wasn’t the key reason to why there weren’t many crops to eat. Too many of the first settlers who came were gentlemen- men who didn’t like to get their hands dirty. There were little to no farmers washed upon the shore, so everyone was pretty much out of luck. But they did have their ways. Of course, they stole from the Indians. That leads to another reason.

 If someone was stealing your crops, would you kill them? Even if not, that’s what the Indians did. Although, it didn’t work quite like that. Then settlers offered to trade for the Indian’s grain, but they didn’t want to. As you could most likely guess, the settlers attacked. Except the Indians weren’t too helpless- they killed people as the settlers killed others from their tribe. Very few people died from Indian attacks, but it still adds to the overall 500 out of 600 settlers dead.

One last reason many settlers died was from the harsh weather. They were in the middle of building some houses, so some people couldn’t find any shelter during the winters. The winds blew hard, and everyone huddled together, but of course that didn’t stop sickness and disease from spreading around. More people died from sickness that anything else.

Too many people died in early Jamestown from no food, brackish water, disease, and Indian attacks. All those deaths add up. Approximately 500 out of 600 of the first settlers died within just a couple of months. It truly is a miracle for those who survived. Luckily, it was enough for them to become our ancestors.  


References
"Colonization & Settlement, 1493-1763 | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History." The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2012. . Jacobsen, Karen. "Refugees' Environmental Impact: The Effect of Patterns of Settlement." Journal of Refugee Studies 10.1:: 19-36. Print. John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England & The Summer Isles (Glasgow, Scotland: James MacLehose and Sons, 1907), Vol. 1: 158–59 Documents A, B, C, D, E

Scary Moments

Author's Note: This is my narrative for the Writing Center. I tried to enhance my vocabulary, but you can decide if I achieved that. I personally think I could have tried a little harder, but I think I did okay. I was also of course trying to get a high score overall on the writing rubric.


In life, one must experience certain things to know what life is all about: getting an F on a paper, riding a bike for the first time, playing some kind of sport. One last one is being truly afraid. Thinking you're going to die isn't exactly the best feeling, but it is a necessity, since so many people have currently already experienced something similar to the time I first went tubing. Yes, I of course was afraid. Maybe not so afraid I thought I was going to die, but somewhere sort of close to that aspect.

Of course, it was a nice day to go boating- the sun in the sky, no clouds as far as the eye could see, birds chirping, the gentle waves lapping on the sand like cats lapping milk. But it was also the first time to go tubing. Other times, I'd been on Sarah's boat, except never tubing.

The second Mrs. Calderon threw the giant blow-up tube into the water, I wanted to go first. I like to try things out. Since it was a two-person tube, Sarah went with me first. The feeling was magnificent: my hair was blowing behind me in all directions, the tube bouncing lightly on the shimmering water.

Next was the time for Diana, Sarah's sister, and I to go together. Something that is important to know for this explanation is while you are tubing, a signal for "all is okay" is where you put two arms above your head. Well, as Mrs. and Mr. Calderon got farther out on the lake, the boat went faster. It glided quickly across the water, a long wake stretching out far behind it.

On the tube, it was a different point of view. We were flapping in the wind like a kite, bouncing three feet up above water, only to come down and straight up again. After a while of quite rough jumping out of our seats, there was a couple of huge jumps. So when I thought the huge waves were over, I reached my hands over my head to show we were okay, but suddenly a gigantic wave scooped up the tube. I rose far out of my seat, and I tried to reach for the slippery handles. It made me so afraid that I was going to fall out. Mr. and Mrs. Calderon even stopped the boat because Sarah saw me fly out of my seat. Luckily, the sea didn't suck me under, leaving me helpless, sinking to the bottom of the dark water.

Everyone has had something scary happen to them. No matter what they say, even if they can only think of something like when they thought someone was watching them. Scary moments aren't great (obviously). Although, scary moments will happen.