The Origin Of Halloween :: Where It All Started

Original Post by: Keira

Since this month is October, Halloween month, I decided to write a post about the origin of Halloween. 

Halloween, also known as All Hallows' Eve and All Saints Eve, is on the last day of the Celtic calendar, more commonly known as October 31st. This is the night before the festival of Samhain, which occurred on November 1st.

The word Halloween means "hallowed evening" or "holy evening". It originates from a Scottish term for All Hallows' Eve (the evening before All Hallows' Day.) Over time, the word All Hallows' Eve formed into the word we now know today, which is Halloween.

The Celts marked this day as the end of the harvest season to the beginning of winter. They also believed that this day was a gateway to the world of the dead. On this night, people thought that the dead returned as ghosts, so they left food and wine on their doorsteps, to keep roaming spirits at bay. They wore masks when they left their house, so they would be mistaken for fellow ghosts. 

Trick-or-Treating

On All Souls Day, November 2nd, the poor would go doorstep to doorstep, begging for food. They most commonly received soul cakes, as long as they promised to pray for people's dead relatives. This was called souling. In the medieval Halloween tradition of guising, young people would dress up in costume and accept offerings such as wine, gold, and food in exchange for singing, reciting poetry, and telling jokes. Later, in 19th century America, Irish and Scottish people revised these old traditions, and the result was trick-or-treating. At first, trick-or-treating was much more about the tricks than the treats. It wasn't until the 1950's that the custom took on the family-friendly vibe that it has today.

Witches

Now, let's talk about the witch, an iconic Halloween character. Usually, witches are dressed in all black with a pointy hat and green skin. Occasionally, witches have a wart on their nose or are seen with a black cat, bat, or spider. They are also known for their use of flying on brooms over a full moon. Though witches are not just a Halloween symbol. They have a long and interesting history.

Witchcraft has existed across the globe, including in Asian, African, and Native American societies. Long before the study of science, witches were blamed for storms, accidents, disease, and other bad things that happened. In medieval Europe, anywhere between 100,000 and 200,000 people were arrested for suspicion of witchcraft. About half of them were executed (killed). The accused witches were not just women, but men and children too.

Even after the witch hunts, western culture remained fascinated with witches. The fairytales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson later inspired L. Frank Baum to create his famous story, The Wizard of Oz, which featured the most famous witch in pop culture, The Wicked Witch of the West. L. Frank Baum didn't intend on making the witch's skin green, but that is how she appeared in the Technicolor film in 1939, and the image stuck. And what about the tall black pointy hats? Upper-class people in the 15th century wore similar hats, and the style later spread to commoners, usually the ones who were accused of witchcraft. The broom, a common household tool was used then for crop fertility, later became a well known symbol of witches, who were said to use their brooms to hide their wands in during the witch hunts. People also believed that witches rubbed a special oil on their brooms to make them fly across the sky and perform magic in the air.

The Pumpkin

The jack-o-lantern was named after a tale about a man named Jack. Here is the story: " ...the jack-o'-lantern actually took its name from a roguish Irishman known asStingy Jack, who tricked the Devil into promising him that he wouldn't go to hell for his many, many sins. When Jack died, however, he found to his dismay that he had also been barred from heaven, so he went down below, banged on the gates of hell, and demanded his due from the Devil. Wouldn't you know it, though the latter did keep his promise to save Jack from going to hell, he did so by dooming him to wander the earth for all eternity with only an ember of hellfire to light his way. Thenceforth, according to the legend, Stingy Jack was known by the name of Jack O' Lantern." I don't have much more history about the pumpkin, so I must stop here for the pumpkin.

The Colors Orange and Black

Have you ever wondered why our Halloween colors are orange and black? Well, here is the answer. The color orange was taken from harvest season for the Celtics. This is one of the most prominent colors in the fall colors. Black was taken from death, which is usually represented by a very dark color. These two colors combined have a very symbolic meaning.

That is what I have wrote on the origin of Halloween, and I hope you found it very interesting!

What was the part that you found most interesting?

Do you have any information on the origin of Halloween?

What are you dressing up as for Halloween?

NaTIOnaL! puncTuaTIOn, DAy?

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:: National Punctuation Day

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Happy Birthday, America!

Idea from Mrs. Yollis
Facts from Mrs. Yollis and Wikipedia

America's birthday is on July 4th which is Independence Day in America! 

On July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This document was declared America's independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Photo from Mrs. Yollis

Independence Day is commonly celebrated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches, and ceremonies.

Most of the times, I celebrate July 4th with a nice barbecue with some of my relatives and the fireworks from a school with my neighbors. This year, I did not have another barbecue, but I did watch fireworks from the nearby high school. Instead of having a barbecue, this year, I celebrated by going to a splash party and got a sparkly dog tattoo. It was all very fun and exciting! There were stands that you could win prizes and I got three of them. I also went to the Ronald Regan Library. There were a plethora of games and prizes, just like the pool party! We had to walk a long way up a hill, but it was totally worth it.

I did not get any photo of the fireworks because I could not get a quick shot of the fireworks. Nether did my mom because the fireworks were appearing and disappearing every time we tried to get a shot. 

Here are some ways to respect the flag:

• Do not wear a flag, wear the colors
• Never step on a flag or leave it on the floor
• Pledge to the flag every day with your right hand over your heart. Here are the words:

"I pledge of  allegiance to the Flag of the United states of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

• The flag should never be hung upside down unless there is a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or propriety.  
• Do not use a flag as a target.

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What did you do on July 4th?

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To: Mrs. Yollis - - - From: Heather

SURPRISE!

*Opening Mail Noises*

☝

Dear Mrs. Yollis,

Whenever I walk to school, I think of you. That’s because there’s a hole-ish dent-ish curve in the ground, and it’s kind of shaped in a heart. Obviously, I couldn’t take a pickaxe or a drill and mine it out! I don't have a photo of it since I don't bring cameras to school. ☺I can’t mail this, and because you always read blogs, an idea popped into my mind. I thought, “Aha! I can’t mail this, but I do have a blog! What is there to waste when I have earned a blog?”

So, on this post, I just wanted to thank you for two years of educational learning. I can never thank you enough! You are the one who introduced me to the real world, taught me cyber safety, showed me how to type, shaped me into an at least okay student, gave me an opportunity to do something else than a boring old worksheet for homework, and also pushing me in a polite way to read more. Before, I would just holler out answers, never read, always write messy even if I could write neater, and never write.

By the way, congratulations on winning the Bammy Awards! Everybody is fond of you!

Your now former student,

Heather ☼  

✉  ✉  ✉  ✉  ✉  ✉  ✉  ✉  ✉  ✉  ✉  ✉  

Once again, thank you for your education! It'll really affect my life!

♥     ♥     ♥

A Story :: The Crazy Cursed Cursor! --- Part I

The Crazy Cursed Cursor

Author: Heather

Once upon a time, there was a delightful little class. Mrs. Yollis and her twenty-eight students were happily reading Mrs. Yollis’ new blog post.

“Today, I just found out that you can change the cursor size. First, you go to this. Then you do…” Mrs. Yollis explained. “... And finally, you move this line. I’m going to make this the largest!” announced Mrs. Yollis proudly. The cursor was about the size of Mrs. Yollis’ hand! “Yes! This is the exact size I was looking for!”

She was using it perfectly when the class was finished reading the post. Suddenly, it the cursor hovered over Firefox! Then it clicked on Camtasia! After, there was a giant crack through the middle of the computer screen!

“Maybe-” Heather was interrupted with BOOM and a BANG! The computer was blown up! The cursor jumped out of the computer. At first, it started shaking Keira’s hand. Then it went to Chloe’s desk and took out a big fat permanent marker. It opened the cap and drew a unhappy face, mad eyebrows, and tiny eyes.

Illustrated by Mrs. Yollis

Mrs. Yollis rushed outside. On her way, she bumped into Buck! Buck happily trotted into the room. The cursor hopped to the paper towels and got some soap. He started wiping his face off! He took the marker and drew clenched teeth, big and ugly eyes, and no eyebrows. He took Buck and started flipping him in the air!

“Oh!” yelled Mrs. Yollis angrily. “You give me my Buck back!” The cursor bounced to Mrs. Yollis, picked her up, and put her next to Mr. Bones. He took the desks and started spinning them around and around.

“He has magic powers!” Heather whispered to Keira quickly. “The computer probably taught the cursor how to contain viruses!”

Keira loudly replied, “I remember Cooper telling me that we have to call (123)-456-7890 for free equipment!”

“Shhh!” Heather shushed. “We don’t want that cursor to hear us! Wait! He’s about to zap Mrs. Yollis and Mr. Bones! Keira, you go try and unbundle them! I’ll try calling this untrustworthy phone number!”

“It’s not not trustworthy! Olivia, not Oliver, gave it to me!” Keira reminded Heather as she ran to Mrs. Yollis. Heather grabbed her giant iPhone that was about the size of her desk and started dialing (123)-456-7890. Instantly, somebody answered. It sounded like a bee.

“Okay. You stop buzzing in my ear. This is a real emergency. This cursor busted out of our teacher’s computer-” Heather was interrupted rudely.

“So. You’re saying that you want free equipment for two people? Also, can I see your class? I heard that you just added a new gadget that lets the other person see you.” The squeaky voice demanded.

Heather sighed. “Okay fine. If you’re that…” Heather’s voice trailed off as she clicked the ‘mirror’ button. Heather saw that the rat shoved some equipment in her face as he hung up impolitely. She took the suits and ran to hand on to Keira. The second Heather touched the suits, it zipped her up!

“Here, Keira! Have this! Hurry!” rushed Heather. Now, she joined Keira to help her defeat the evil cursed cursor. On the safety suit, it had a zapper. Right when Mr. Bones and Mrs. Yollis were going to get sprayed with infection, Heather and Keira zapped the cursor. The cursor cried, more in shock than pain, while he ran away. The hot zap wasn’t enough to scare the cursor away though.

Keira looked outside and shrieked, “You know the staffs that always pass our classroom? Well… They’re infected by Hi-Quality-Shooting-Spray-Infection-For-Ten-Billion-Hours.”

Heather gasped, and it was followed by a burst of different noises in the classroom. All of the computers turned into real life and once they open and closed, you could see their ninety-nine trillion sharp teeth! “Classmates! Go hop on top of the roof! Here’s some low quality jumping drinks! Even if it’s low quality, I’ll have to do for now! Here! Chloe, you go on the roof first!”

Chloe successfully got on top of the roof, and THAT was followed by a crowd of jumping people! What a sight that was!

Just then, the mob of staffs that are called: Billy Bob Joe, French Fried Fred, Damascus Doom Dino, Karate Krazy Kate, and Juicy Jumping-Jack Judo. They were a very powerful army of infected people. One of the computers announced, “I like bittin’ people heads off!” Another one claimed, “I enjoy crunchin’ on their limbs.” And the last one proudly told everyone, “And I like destroyin’ your precious base!” They started stacking up on one another. Billy Bob Joe was on the bottom, then went French Fried Fred, and last, Karate Krazy Kate helped the chomping computers up, careful not to have her finger bitten off by these vicious animals. Damascus Doom Dino and Juicy Jumping-Jack Judo stayed on the bottom just in case anyone would try jumping off.

Heather  hesitated. Keira handed her a mini bomb that could be used over and over. “Here use this to try and blow them up. After their a little wounded, we’ll hop on down there, careful for the cursed cursor and the chomping… Well… Actually let’s destroy the computers. We’ll replace them after. As I was saying, after their a little wounded, we’ll hop on down there careful for only the cursed cursor, throw away our suits, and then give them disinfection soup. They’ll turn back into regular old staffs. And we’ll also wash their minds a little so that there will be no rumors about this madness.”

Heather did as what Keira told her to do, and she soon realized that the cheap suit did actually protect her pretty well. She bombed her way down, and threw it at the staffs too. Accidentally, she threw on at the cursor, but that was totally fine with her.

“Come on down here Keira!” She shouted, cupping her mouth. The staffs were laying on the ground. Mrs. Yollis was relaxing on her pink and blue bean bags, letting her students do all of the work. “So, Mrs. Yollis. Do you have our soup ready?”

“What soup? I have regular chicken noodle soup thought,” Mrs. Yollis offered. “Oh and plus, I’ll be glad to help… Unless you don’t need me.”

“No thanks. We’ll manage it. Oh and also, that’ll do. We’ll just put some medicine inside,” Heather suggested. “May I please have the bowl of soup?” Mrs. Yollis handed her the soup and Heather gave it to Keira. Heather grabbed the pills and stirred it inside with the soup. Then she got a funnel and placed on in everybody’s mouths. Keira dropped one mind erasing pill in each one of their mouths as they swallowed the pill whole. After the pill, Keira helped Heather to pour the soup in each of the funnels. It took up a lot of soup, but it was enough.

♨     ♨     ♨     ♨     ♨     ♨     ♨   

After some time, all of the staffs were up and ready to go. They stood up and walked away, like nothing bad happened. Then Buck trotted to Mrs. Yollis again, but this time more angrily. It seemed like he wanted to tell Mrs. Yollis something.

“Woofity Woof Woof! Bark! Arf!” Buck yapped. Mrs. Yollis seemed to understand Buck’s foreign language.

“OKAY, CLASS!” Mrs. Yollis directed. “We’re now going to-” Mrs. Yollis was cut off by a growing noise. It was near… Or it WAS the crazy cursor. It was growing bigger and bigger. Now, it was about the size of the classroom, except even taller!

“ALL OF YOU ANTS DESTROYED MY MINIONS!” the cursor bellowed. “NOW I WILL DESTROY YOU!”

“Uh oh,” muttered Heather. “We better do something, Keira. Do you have any ideas?”

“Think, think, think,” Keira said to herself. “Well… I don’t know if this is the best idea, but I think we should take ladders, and we can climb to your house, since your house is just above the school. Then we’ll get some materials, and we can craft a robot with aluminum, iron, and metal. We’ll wreck your old laptop and take out the disk and put it in our robot. What do you think, Heather?”

Heather stared out into space. “I guess so, if that’s the only idea you have. Let’s go!” Heather ordered suddenly. They busted into the storage room, took out an unstable wooden ladder, and started climbing. When they finally reached Heather’s house, Keira took a mallet and started smashing Heather’s discarded laptop. Heather took her father’s key that was in his drawer, went to the garage, and unlocked another drawer with a bunch of materials.

“KEIRA! CAN YOU COME DOWN  HERE TO HELP ME?” shouted Heather. Keira came down a second later with the chip. Together, they built a weird looking robot. Heather and Keira were some typists (which means that they could type very well), so they added a keyboard from her brother’s, Aaron’s, computer. Whatever you typed in there, it would send it to the disk, and the robot would obediently do it. It also had a teleportation skill, so it could teleport to you whenever you are too far away from it. It also had more powers.

Today, Keira was wearing a plain light blue T-shirt, and Heather was also wearing a light blue T-shirt, but it had the words, “I MADE IT TO THE TOP” with a picture of Half Dome and some facts around it. So, Heather typed:

Follow the person with a light blue T-shirt and has the words, “I MADE IT TO THE TOP” printed on it.

Then Heather added, “Keira, if you want the robot to follow you, type your T-shirt design in it, but before, tell me. That way, I won’t wonder where the robot went.”

“Sure!” Keira agreed. Heather climbed down the ladder, with Keira following. The robot couldn’t climb down anything, so once Heather was on the ground next to Mrs. Yollis, the robot teleported down.

“Heather!” Keira addressed. “I’m going to type in, “Use your Anti-Virus powers to shoot that cursor with an ugly face on it.” Okay?”

“Okay. Just be careful. The keys are a little hard to press, and don’t make a mistake. Also, check it after you’re done,” Heather hinted.

Keira’s message originally turned out to be:

Us your Anti-irus poers to shot that cursor wih an ugl face on it

But Keira checked it and fixed it to be:

Use your Anti-Virus powers to shoot that cursor with an ugly face on it.

The cursor did what it was told to do, and the cursor slowly wiped off its face. Then it shrunk into a regular sized cursor. Heather and Keira quickly dashed into the classroom to see the cursor fix the computer screen and hop back in the computer. After, it closed all of the windows that it opened, and then it was back to normal.

________________________

Epilogue

________________________

In the future, Heather and Keira made sure that the cursor wouldn’t budge ever again. Mrs. Yollis awarded them for great leadership with one gold plate for each with diamond words in it. As an award from all of the dogs, each one of them gave the kids one big kiss(or lick)! After that, anybody who needed help with technology would call Heather, Keira, Mrs. Yollis, and all of the dogs for help. As usual, Heather and Keira would make sure that the problem wouldn’t happen again, and now the whole wide world would have no more major problems with technology…

Or did they?

What do you think about my story?

Can you make up another story about the same cursor?

Part II --- Coming up!

Family Blogging Month Winners' Free Post!

Way back in November 2013, me, Heather, Keira and Shayna got to choose a free post. We decided to work together to make one post, so this is what we wrote:

We are Heather, Keira, and Shayna. Last November, we won Family Blogging Month! When we won Family Blogging Month, we got to write a guest post. All of us decided to make a voiceover of this phenomenal dog obedience video Mrs. Yollis took. Then we wrote a story to accompany the video. This is the story that we created:

Long ago, when dogs didn't exist on Earth, people were very glum and bored. They didn't have any entertainment and people would just stay in their houses all day. One fateful day, there was a meteor crash. The rock landed right on top of a little neighborhood called Storm Cloud. Instead of destroying the town, the meteor exploded with tiny eggs.

The neighbors heard the loud, "BOOOM!" They peeked out their windows. They were frightened to see that their plants, pools, and all of their belongings were transformed into spotted eggs. There were red eggs, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, black, and brown eggs.

The people dashed out of their houses and shouted, "HELP! HELP! THE INVADERS HAVE ARRIVED! EVACUATE THIS INSTANT!" Somebody heard this little boy mutter, "Awww... I just knew that this would happen SOME day! But, obviously, no one would listen!"

He picked up a knife and started scraping a yellow egg. It was pretty stable, but he got part of the egg chipped off. He was having lots of fun playing with the lovely egg.

Suddenly, his elder sister, Olivia, came up to him and shouted, "Oliver! What have you done now, you fool?"

"I-I-I didn't do anything!" he sputtered. "I'm totally innocent!"

Olivia looked down at the knife. "Then what is this?" she questioned as she held the knife. "What have you done with this knife... And this poor egg?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just scraping peanut butter on the egg so that the egg could eat all of the vitamins!"

Olivia eyed the chippings on the egg and exclaimed, "No you haven't! I have proof! This scraped egg explains why you have "spread peanut butter" on the egg. You actually used the knife to chip off the parts of the egg so that you could see what was in it. Stop lying, Oliver!" Olivia picked up the egg and left Oliver all alone.

"Oh brother! That bossy old Olivia never minds her own business. If only I could prove that I am smarter!" He thought and thought for over a hour. Then something popped into Oliver's mind! "Ah ha!" he exclaimed. "I can find out what is in that egg! I'll wait until the egg hatches, and there might be a DOG inside it!"

Meanwhile, upstairs, Olivia was studying a random black egg. "I wonder what possibly could be inside this egg. Let's get a magnifying glass to study." She walked over to a bin and grabbed out a blue box. Inside it was her favorite magnifying glass. She hurried back to her room and picked up the black egg and the yellow egg. She gently set them both down on her light blue bed covers and picked up the magnifying glass. She magnified the two eggs. In the corner of her eye, she saw a brown egg at the edge of her room. She picked it up and studied the three eggs all together. "Hmmm... I mustn't let Oliver discover what is inside these precious eggs!" Olivia thought. With that she put the three white spotted eggs in a special box under her bed.

The next day, she got impatient. The eggs didn't have one crack on them. "I guess that I will just have to peel it open." Then she thought of a more educated idea. "I am going to put them in an incubator." She strolled across her medium-sized room and picked up a three egg incubator. She placed the three eggs inside the incubator and turned it on. "Now I will just have to wait for the three eggs to hatch."

Downstairs, Oliver was hatching up a plan of his own. "Well... I am only eight years old, and I may not know as much as my eighteen year old sister. Okay. But I still know a lot. My plan is to smash this ugly red egg I just found outside. I will crack it on the floor. It may be all mushy and disgusting, but I don't care. I'll test this out."

He raised up the egg and smashed it to the floor. There laid the beautiful egg, now ruined. The gooey contents spread all over the sidewalk of Storm Cloud street. "Nooo!" cried Oliver, "I have not proved that there is a dog in these eggs! What shall I do now? I hope that Olivia didn't start yet!"

In her room, Olivia was hopefully studying biology. "This is the DNA of a mammal, but I'm still working on what type of mammal. Oh, I just can't hope anymore that it is a dog!" While she was studying her DNA machine, the incubator was working hard to hatch the three eggs. Olivia constantly looked over to the working egg hatcher, but no eggs had hatched.

"This is preposterous!" She walked to the door of her room, opened the door, went out into the hall, and locked and shut the door behind her. She calmly strolled down the hall to her brother's room. She knocked on the door lightly, but there came no answer. She knocked again louder, but still no one answered. She finally pushed open the door to find her brother sobbing on the dark green covers of his bed. "Oh Oliver!" Olivia cried out to him, "What is wrong?"

"I couldn't prove to you that I was smart! I am less than smart now. I am the least smart that anyone could ever be! But you, you are so intelligent. You-you could figure out what is in those eggs in a second!"Oliver confessed.

"Oh! Have I really been that bad?" Suddenly the pair heard a loud beep.

"The incubator! The eggs are hatching! Now, Oliver, please leave me alone!"

"But you-" Oliver wailed his way out of the room.

Olivia walked to her room and took out the eggs. The eggs were hatched, and there were little specks of dust on the floor. "I suppose that these are the animals that were inside this," she whispered thoughtfully.

Oliver was still weeping when he heard a faint noise that sounded mysterious. He had never heard this noise before. Oliver sat up and walked a little closer to his door. The noise got louder. He opened the door to find nothing. "Hmmm... What was that noise? It sounded identical to a dog's bark. But it couldn't be. I now know that dogs are NOT real. I have lost all hope in finding a dog,"Oliver confessed to himself. Oliver ran to Olivia's room and without knocking on the door, he entered.

"YOU GET OUT OF HERE, OLIVER!" Olivia screamed angrily. "WHY ARE YOU EVEN IN HERE?" Olivia was especially mad because Olivia didn't want to give any credit to Oliver if she discovered what was really inside of the eggs.

"I was just trying to say hello! Why do you have to be so mean all the time? I am going outside to get another egg and to find out what is really inside those tiny eggs!" Oliver told Olivia. He slammed the door behind him.

"Olivia never appreciates anything that I do!" With that remark to himself, he went out the front door and onto the sidewalk. He turned back to look at the house, and then thought for a second. "But if I get kidnapped by a criminal, Olivia will never know and I will be gone forever. I am going back to the house."

Inside, Olivia went back to the eggs. The egg shells were still there, but the creatures were gone. "At least there are footprints! Maybe they will lead to my victory!" Olivia thought thoughtfully. She followed the footprints, which looked like paw-prints, and they lead to her closet.

The door was open, so she went inside. She turned on the lights and searched everywhere. Under a pile of clothes, she saw something move. It shook again. Olivia picked up the pile of clothes, and saw that the little creatures in the eggs were dogs! One dog was tan, another black, and the last one was brown. "I can't believe it! Now I just need to figure out what type of dogs they are, and then we can keep the dogs as pets!"

Meanwhile, Oliver just entered the house. He heard Olivia's excitement coming from upstairs. "What is going on up there? I need to know, and I need to know now!" Oliver raced upstairs to find that Olivia was on her DNA type machine. She looking up what type of dog the tan one was. As soon as Oliver entered the room, he saw three dogs sitting on Olivia's light blue bed covers. "You discovered dogs? That's not fair!"

"But it is! You did nothing to figure it out!" Olivia shouted back to him, "You never wanted to take care of these creatures! You are not credited with this discovery, period! This will go in the newspaper, on the Internet, and I will become famous! To make you happier, you might be a little famous because we are siblings, but obviously, you won't be as famous as me!"

*      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *

After a few weeks, Olivia and Oliver were famous. Everybody was talking about these young celebrities. They even got to rename Storm Cloud, which they named Los Angeles. In their spare time, they found the names that fit each of the dogs. The great dane was named Wolfie, the dachshund is now Laura, and the German shepherd is Felix. They had to train them or else they would run away, bite, and scratch. The siblings knew that the school to train pets didn't exist, so they tried to train them with human food. That did not work, so the siblings had to come up with something else.

______________________________________________________________

Epilogue

After two years of disobedient dogs, they finally knew that they had to create something. They wanted a special building for the dog school. The siblings were rich because they were famous globally.

Olivia hired an experienced dog trainer named Georgia. She also hired carpenters and working men to build the school. She decided to call it Obedience School for Dogs. The builders got to work, and to Olivia and Oliver, it felt like an instant when they were finished.

The disobedient dogs were placed in there for free, since they were the dogs of the creators, and this is their first day of class:

Video by Mrs. Yollis

I hope you all enjoyed our story and our voiceover!

If you were one of the dogs, which one would you like to be the most?

What do you think these dogs are really thinking

Have you ever trained a dog? If so, what tips can you give? Was it hard?

Adverbs

In class, we were working on adverbs. Instead of doing a boring old worksheet, I decided to make a post about adverbs. The definition of an adverb is:

ad·verb

ˈadˌvərb/

noun

1. a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word group, expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc.

Now that you all know what an adverb is, here are some examples: 

1. Before Rocky's bath, her dad will help her brush Rocky gently. 

2. Then Heather has to wash Rocky efficiently until he's squeaky clean!

3. After Rocky's bath, Heather will have to wait patiently for Rocky to dry.

4. A few minutes past quickly, and Rocky is now dry.

5. Now, Heather and her family thoughtfully takes Rocky to the park.

6. Heather throws Rocky's ball sloppily for Rocky to chase.

7. Rocky chases after the ball wearily.

As you may have concluded in the examples, most adverbs end in -ly. All of the red words, the adverbs, end in -ly. There are other ones that tell when or where. Here are some examples of the adverbs that tell when or where:

8. Heather guesses that Rocky will be energetic tomorrow! 

 9. Tomorrow, Rocky will wake up excitedly. 

10. He barks loudly until Heather comes to see what all the commotion is about. 

11. Heather doesn't know what is going on at first, but Rocky  barks endlessly!

12. Rocky's leash drops on the floor softly and Rocky grabs it with his teeth, begging. 

13. Heather sympathetically guesses that he wants a walk and clips it on his collar. 

14. Heather and Rocky go outside and take a walk happily together!

These are all of the ways we learned so far, and I'm pretty sure that there are more types of adverbs. Again, we only learned these, so if you know another way, and you don't see it on here, that is why. 

I hope this post helped you!

Do you have any sentences that have adverbs?

If so, which type is it, the yellow highlighted numbers or the blue highlighted numbers?

Which adverb do you like the best?

Did you notice that my sentience make a short story?

If so, can you make one?

A Story to Accompany "Georgie Says, 'Ha!'"

On the post, Georgie says, "Ha!", I wrote a story that has Georgie in it. I thought, "If I shared it on the 365 blog, I can also transfer it on my blog!" So, here it is. I hope you enjoy:


One sunny day, Georgie was wandering into the Amazon Rain Forest. He had lost his family, so he decided to go on an adventure. He had no idea of what was happening in there. As he went in, Georgie saw a man with a snake. It looked like he was shouting at the snake, "Don't you fail me now, you have to chop down this tree! Chop chop! Come on!" The snake was frightened because the tree was home to many animals. All around the forest, animals came in with worried faces. They all shouted at once,"Noooooo! Don't! Please! This tree means life! Without this tree, there would be none of us left! Oh no! Don't listen to the awful man! Come on! Just bite that man! Make him go away! He isn't welcome!" Georgie did not know what was going on because he had never heard so much commotion. His mind was crazy with thoughts, "Should I go and bite that man for all of these scared creatures? What should I do?" Just at that second, a rattlesnake came forward with an unpleasant and unwelcoming look! Was he going to bite poor Georgie? Georgie was so startled that she froze in place, and he couldn't even move his paws. "What are YOU doing at our grand deathpit? We are trying to FOCUS! I'll bite you if you don't get out of here!" As you know, Georgie was frozen in place, so he couldn't move. Just at that second, Georgie blacked out...

*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *     

The next day, Georgie was awake, but still a little drowsy. "Luckily I'm alive!" barked Georgie, with relief. He weakly walked deeper into the rain forest. There were all different kinds of animals in there. All different kinds of monkeys, many birds, ocelots, jaguars, and a manifold of other animals. It sounded like a zoo there, although it was louder. Everything was right, and the "deathpit" thingy was over. Even the snakes were gone. "I wonder why the snakes don't show up. Probably their afraid of me!" exclaimed Georgie, proudly. "Or maybe they want to trap me..." Georgie was hungry, so he found a perfect vine that was very stable, and he gnawed on it. "Yummy!" he thought. "Lets eat all of these vines!" This wasn't a very good idea because he got very sick after eating all that! "Let's try finding a better food source!" he suggested.

After days of finding food, he almost starved. He had no choice. When he got to a vine, he devoured it, hungrily. This time, he didn't get sick. To replenish his hunger fully, he went and ate some delicious raw meet. He licked his muzzle, and then went to the Amazon River to drink. Georgie lapped up some scrumptious water, and then suddenly wanted to go home. Obviously, Georgie knew that he couldn't do that because he was just about in the middle of the forest. Then he heard footsteps. They were getting closer. Georgie smelled the air, and then slowly he seemed week! After about a minute, he was so weak that he couldn't move himself. He had to just rest in the warm afternoon air! Georgie realized that he was getting drugged!

Georgie knew that he couldn't let the sweet aroma drug him, so he tried his best to sniff some fresh air. He got his muzzle high in the air, so that he could get fresh, not drugged air. He instantly felt better and continued on his adventure. Now, he was enjoying the rain forest, where most of the animals in the world lived. Then he remembered that the person was still there! It was so close that every time one animal make one sound, it scared Georgie out of his fur! When Georgie just finally couldn't stand it, he rushed inside a giant dead hollow tree where he would be safe for now. There were creepy bugs in the tree, but Georgie didn't mind at all. He saw the man have a chainsaw in his hand, and started sawing the whole tree down. "Ahhh... What a lovely nice day! My troop needs some wood, so I'm just going to chop down this tree. Everyday, we each use at least twenty to thirty napkins. We are so respectful to trees!" In Georgie's mind, he was thinking, "Yeah right. You like trees so much that you detest them." He didn't really care about nature right now. A macaw came in the tree and squawked, "Hey! You get out of here this instant! This is MY shelter, not yours! Shoo shoo!" Georgie whispered back, "Shhhhh... Do you see that evil man? He is going to chop me down like I'm a tree! I can't let him see me!" Georgie was pecked out of the shelter. He woofed loudly at that mean macaw and turned around. There he was, face to face with that stranger.

Georgie's stomach was empty, he was very thirsty, and he had met up with lots of not enjoyable events. With those together, Georgie couldn't stand it one more moment. He dropped to the ground, unconscious, and it was followed by a burst of laughter from the man and his buddies. "Well... It looks like this poochy poochy has fainted!" His men laughed at the top of their lungs. In an instant, Georgie gained full conscious. Still, he pretended he fainted, but he listened in at the interesting conversation that they were having with the animals.

One bird yelled, "Stop making fun of him! I know him and he's my friend!" That one sounded like the macaw.

"I agree!" bellowed the jaguar. "What if you were him? Would you like to be laughed at?"

The leader of the taunting group teased, "Too bad were not him! Ha ha!"

"What is this? Your favorite hobby?" defended the parrot.

"ITS OVER! TO THE DEATHPIT TOMORROW! WHOEVER LOOSES HAS TO GO AND LEAVE THE AMAZING AMAZON RAIN FOREST AND SOMETHING ELSE THAT MANDY THE MACAW WOULD LIKE!" annoumced the toucan. "WE CAN DO THIS ANIMALS!

After they were finished, they all left except the macaw. Georgie was still laying on her side waiting to see what would happen. The friendly macaw took its time to wake Georgie up. "Georgie!" he said quietly and calmly to him. "Wake up! Tomorrow is the big day, so get ready!" To act normal, he slowly pulled himself up to the caring macaw. "Georgie! I forgot to tell you, but my name is Mandy. But that's not the exciting news! Guess what? Tomorrow we are going to the deathpit where the old rattlesnake hissed you away! And guess what? The rattlesnake isn't coming! It's a total different kind of fight! We each get a team, animals and people. We are on the animals side, and we are determined to win! We have to wear a little light blue ribbon around our paws, or whatever you have. The men will wear red shawls on their necks to represent their team. The game is to use our heads to balance a slippery ball that slips on feather, fur, or hair. The men are not allowed to wear hats, or else they will be disqualified. We are not allowed to wear leaves on our heads, or else we will be disqualified. It is in the afternoon, so tomorrow morning, we will practice and see who will be picked to represent us. The men have less people than us, so we have to pick our top five best. Does that seem good to you?"

"Yes. I understand. I'm horrible at balancing, so I guess I won't come after all," Georgie sighed.

"Oh no! That's not what I meant. I meant that everyone will go, and the one who don't get picked will be WATCHING!" explained Mandy. "Doesn't that sound great?"

"Maybe..." Georgie's voice trailed off. He had something in his mind that bothered him. "What is the punishment for loosing the battle?" asked Georgie.

"Thanks for reminding me." Mandy said gratefully. "The punishment will be that you will have to go through the Amazon Rain Forest and collect all of the food for the __________ that beat them, including the meat. How does that sound?"

"Great!" shouted Georgie. "Thanks for inviting me! By the way, by any chance, could I sleep in your hollow tree until I find my own home?"

"Your more than welcome, Georgie!" exclaimed Mandy. "Your such a fabulous friend!" With that, they happily walked together back to their hollow kapok tree.

The next day was a nice and sunny day, perfect for a battle. Even thought Georgie was even hungrier than winning the battle, he was jumpy and nervous for the balancing battle. Mandy shared some berries that he picked, and wasn't going to eat it. After knowing that Georige was starving, he gave him some food. Georgie devoured it up, and thanked Mandy. Mandy had make an air-balloon-like cart. Mandy and his friends were going to lift the cart, while Georgie was going to be inside the cart. They would fly to the deathpit and practice. The plan worked just as planned, and Mandy instructed Georgie to use the ball and put it on his head. "This is the matter of life of death!" Georgie feared. Time flied by, and then it was time for the competition. The men were late because they were having a "respecting tree feast" so that they could get ready. During the feast, each man used forty to fifty napkins! "What a waste!" Georgie murmured with disgust. "I have a feeling that this battle is going to be hard!"

"FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE! BEGIN!" the announcer yelled. Georgie was chosen as one of the players, and he was so good that he went first. He was startled, but he managed to perform many tricks while balancing the ball on his head. His component, a man, was coward and just stood there dumbfounded. "I-I-I'm not ready!" he sputtered. All of the animals burst into laughter, and the men shouted angrily, "Hurry up, you person! Why did we even let you go first?" The men all shook their heads and slapped their face. They were embarrassed that the first person was making them loose. Finally, after some silence, the man slowly put the ball on his head. He started walking back and forth with it, but once he took a step, it fell. "THE ANIMALS WIN THIS ROUND!" the anteater scorekeeper screamed.

The next round started. Mandy was spinning the ball around his head, while doing dangerous, tricky, and risky trick. Another man was turning around in circles, and on his third spin, the ball fell. This time, the animals won again. It went on and on, and the final one was a close call. The animal was a jaguar, and she was a novice, so she had never done this. The man was the leader of the group, and the had a lot of experience for it. The jaguar was a very good dancer, so it started walking like a celebrity up and down the ground, and started rolling around with the ball still balanced on her head. After the fifteenth move, the ball dropped. Now, the man had to perform. When the ball dropped on the floor for the jaguar, he snickered, "Hmp! I can do better that that clumsy spotted fur ball!" The man started doing YOGA in front of all of the animals and men! Everybody laughed, including his team mates. The ball fell, and the scorekeeper thought out loud, "Well... The man was very still, but he did some amazing moves. The jaguar was very lively, but the skill was poor. On this one, I have to say, IT'S A TIE! THE ANIMALS GET A POINT, AND THE MEN DO TOO!" This was the men's first point, and they were very angry and frustrated to see that they only had one point. It was six against one. Now, the men had to find food for the animals. Some had to get Brazil Nuts, and the others had to hunt. Georgie knew that he was getting some fresh meat, and he was very excited to have the big feast.

The day after the deathpit event, they gathered at the great hollow tree. "We have achieved a very high standard of fighting!" noted Mandy. "Today, at three thirty, the people are going to drop some food for all of us inside my tree. It's going to be stuffed with goodies, so make it a buffet!" Georgie was going to watch the men deliver the food, so that he could have a chance to tease them.

When the time finally came, the men arrived. In a deep, jealous tone he said, "This is your food. Enjoy." Then he stared at Georgie. He stuck out his tongue. "Ha!" Georgie barked as the man left angrily. The animals ate the food at dinner time, and they all cheered for the performers. After that, they lived happily ever after...

OR MAYBE NOT!

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My story was inspired by the movie Rio 2 that came out in April 11, 2014, and The Great Kapok Tree. Both of them are in rain forests, and they talk about how important trees and rain forests are to Earth. 

I have hidden message in this yellow square. If you highlight it, you will uncover the message. Use your mouse and click on the beginning of the message. Hold it, and then drag it to the end of the box.

Help the rain forests!

Do you have a story to add on to the "OR MAYBE NOT!"?

Have read The Great Kapok Tree and watched Rio 2?

What does my message in the yellow square say?