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!"

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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.

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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...

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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!

______________________________________________________

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?

Amazing Optical Illusions, Images that will Mash Your Brain!

On the post Concentric Cacti, the first cactus looks like it is spinning. I brought up the word optical illusions, and thought I could make a post about it. The definition of optical illusion is...

op·ti·cal      il·lu·sion

noun

1. 1.

   an experience of seeming to see something that does not exist or that is other than it appears.

Here are some images that I got from Google. To make it work, you have to look at each image quickly all around the picture:

image from Google (first posted by Zack Lynch)

image from Google (first posted by  wahid)

image from Google (first posted by Toba Beta)

image from Google (first posted by JadeLoveFireKnight)

image from Google (first posted by Jovica Janjic)

I guarantee you that you will think some of these photos are animated or real life. For real, your eye is playing a trick on you and is making you think that they are animated. Please do not look at them too many times because to me, they kind of hurt your eyes. :-D


UPDATE

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I was inspired by my mom's comment in the comment section, I want to show you the Spinning Dancer. Here is a hyperlink to it:

Wikipedia Spinning Dancer

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What is your favorite illusion image?

Do you like optical illusions?

What do you notice about each optical illusion? Tell us about it!

My First Story on my Blog :: Rockyzilla and Cooper Kong!

My friend, Keira, and I are starting to make stories on our blogs. We didn't do this before because Keira just got her blog, Keira's Big Ideas.

Anyway, I got this idea from a great author who writes extremely funny books, and he is the author of Dogzilla, Kat Kong, and all of the Captain Underpants books. My idea wasn't from the Captain Underpants books, but they were from Dogzilla and Kat Kong. I didn't write this story with Keira, but I used one of her dogs so I thought I could mention her. This story represents my dog, Rocky, and one of Keira's three dogs, Cooper. I hope you enjoy my story:

Rockyzilla and Cooper Kong!

Chapter 1

Catopolis

______________

Far away from Earth, there lived a place just for cats called Catopolis. They were some lovingly, polite cats having their annual Fish Cook-Off Olympics. The cats had just gone fishing in the best rivers, and tried to catch the yummiest fish. The professor, Lovingfish, was going to pick the winner and was looking forward to having a exceptional meal.

As the cats worked on their fish, they enjoyed a big crater which looked like the Olympics sign, with all five loops. Suddenly, the ground shook. Then the fishment on the ground cracked and split in half right in the middle of the Olympics sign. There came the most terrifying creatures, two canines named . . . 

The Superior Rockyzilla and Cooper Kong! 

Chapter 2

The Superior Rockyzilla and Cooper Kong

______________

"Oh no!" wailed Lovingfish. "That special crater was the symbol for our Olympics! We can't build it by paw or else it won't be original!"

"We dogs are the most powerful pooches in the world," Rockyzilla bellowed. "No one and nothing can stop us from taking you precious resources."

"You better run before we destroy Catopolis," warned Cooper Kong. "You might as well just give up."

A resident of Catopolis named the Big Fish said, "Give our fish up? You better be kidding us. We spent ages searching for this fish."

Rockyzilla and Cooper Kong looked at each other and growled. They were now angry that the townscats wouldn't listen to them. As a real punishment, they stomped over to their supermarket and devoured up all of their merchandise - and the store as well. Both dogs scouted for bones - at the History Museum as well. 

"Let's get in our suits of fish and quickly use our claws to defeat this monstrous creature!" Captain Catless whispered his soldiers. With a solute, the obedient army marched over to the building where they stored all of the armor and weapons. Instead of using their claws like Captain Catless commanded, the army armed themselves with a tank and some swords to do all damage.

Chapter 3

Determined Doggies

______________

"You two horrifying mutts must leave this relaxing town or else we will defeat you," ordered Tiger, who was the fiercest of all of the townscats in Catopolis. 

"And how will you do that?" Rockyzilla challenged Tiger. "We have all the power. Cats are clumsy and dogs are durable."

"Ha ha ha," Cooper Kong teased Captain Catless and his army. "How will you weaklings overpower us?"

Captain Catless realized how much trouble they were in, and he dashed into his office. Captain Catless asked, "Are you a pussycat or are you people?"

"Hmmmm. . . Your correct! We're pussycats! Let's go!" replied his troop.

Meanwhile the tomcats worked on their plans, Rockyzilla and Cooper Kong raced off deeper into the city and robbed all of the goods in the stores- and ate the buildings too.

The cats were afraid that Rockyzilla and Cooper Kong were going to ruin their city, so they came up with a plan. They put their heads together and this is what they came up with:

"Okay, Tiger, you try to chew one of those disgusting bones to distract the dogs," ordered Captain Catless. "Lovingfish, you give those dogs some pulls on their tails with fishclips! Those dogs detest the smell of those!"

Then a little kitten that is shy, clumsy, and lazy walked up to Catless. He whined, "Okay, okay. Why don't you stop blabbering about this weird plan and put the plan into action? I'd like to see the dogs get beat up!"

"Hmp!" grunted Catless. "Why don't you little 'smarty pants' leave us alone? We're trying to save Catopolis! Now go away!" The little kitten left and they went back to serious business.

"Back to our plan. Finally, we get to put this into action. Let's go!" he commanded.



Chapter 4

3... 2... 1... Action!
______________

"Cooper! Cooper! Where are you?" questioned Rockyzilla. "There you are, Cooper Kong! I thought maybe we have done enough destroying. Let's go back to see what they are up to."

*    *    *    *    *

"I see them! I see them!" whispered Lovingfish excitedly.

"When I count to one, go into action, my pretties!" said Catless. "3... 2... 1... ACTION!"

Tiger sprang up and started "enjoying" the rock hard bone. Rockyzilla and Cooper Kong immediately got distracted. Suddenly, Tiger accidentally dropped the bone and ran! Even so, Rockyzilla and Cooper Kong started fighting over the bone. Lovingfish was frozen in her tracks for a moment, but as they started getting quieter and quieter, Lovingfish ran and grabbed their tails. The not cute canines bumped into the wall as they were fighting because they didn't want to smell the fishclip. Lovingfish kind of had a hard time getting their tails, but at last, she got them. Fishclips aren't so durable, so as the dogs felt the little pinch, the fishclips broke. After it did, everybody ran into the damaged main hall broken window to watch the fierce dogs sink down into the craters. When they did, they all paw-fived each other. :-D



Chapter 5

Rumble Rumble
______________

After a while, they had their very second annual Fish Cook-Off Olympics. It had taken them a year to repair the whole town, but after a day passed after the final construction, it looked just like new, maybe even better than before.

"Finally we're over that mess!" said Tiger, relieved. "I hope we never have another disaster here!"

While they were preparing their fish, Catless heard a rumble. Then another. "Oh no!" wailed Captain Catless. "What is that under our new Olympic rings?"

After Captain Catless heard it, everybody did. Out of nowhere, some cute little puppies sprouted in the middle of the Olympic rings. They were the cutest thing that they had ever seen, but something made them look bad. There was a sly smile across every puppy, and each puppy either looked like Rockyzilla or Cooper Kong. Everybody was amazed because no one had thought of ....

THE PUPPIES DESTROYING THEIR NEW CITY!

*The End*

I hope you enjoyed my story. It is just like a change for Dav Pilkey's story. The one thing I don't understand is that in Dogzilla, the dog is chasing mice, not cats. Do dogs chase mice?

Here is a picture of Rockyzilla. I don't have a picture of Cooper Kong, but Keira does.

Can you come up with a story?

What is the setting, plot, and who are the main characters in your story?

Especially for Mrs. Chalfin's class, Prefixes and Suffixes!

Our reading/tech buddies are from Mrs. Chalfin's class, and they are in second grade.  I noticed they were learning about base words, prefixes,  and suffixes, but were having a bit of trouble. I thought I could make a blog post to help them.

Here are some common prefixes and suffixes:

Prefix: overheat, undo, redo, encounter, subheading

Suffix: reader, helpless, hopeful, searching, friendly

IMPORTANT: Every one of the words that has a prefix of suffix has to have a base word!

Sometimes, you don't know what the prefix or suffix means. Some of the basics are -er, -ful, -ly, -ing, and un-. 

-er means someone who. For example, a farmer is someone who farms. A reader is someone who reads.

-ful means full of. When you make a suffix, you get rid of one L in full. A hopeful person is a person who is full of hope. 

-ly is having the qualities of. One word that goes with it is friendly.

-ing means being a sign of a verbal action, such as scouting.

-un usually means not. Unlike means you are not like ______.

Mrs. Yollis let me borrow some magnetic base words, prefixes, and suffixes to take a picture and build with them. I took the pile of words prefixes, and suffixes. Then I unscrambled them to make words. The left side is the prefixes, the middle is the base words, and the right side is the suffixes. Here is a picture of all of the words that were spellable (I made up the word spellable).

As you may know, words like hop and stop you  have to double the letter at the end of the word if you are going to add a suffix. The eleventh word on the picture is stoped. To make it correct, you would have to double the P, but I didn't have a extra P. Just keep in mind that you still have to double the P. 

With some of the words, I could have added another suffix, such as overdo. Instead of overdo, I could have made it overdoing. 

*       *       *       *       *       *

Now, I have a Step-up-to-Writing paragraph that I want to share with you. It is going to include one topic sentence, three main ideas, and at least two details for each main idea, and one conclusion. 

     Out of all the words that have prefixes and suffixes, I chose three to explain. One of my words is disagreement. I chose this word because it shows a prefix, base word, and a suffix. Dis- means not. It has almost the same meaning as un-. To agree to something means you share the same idea and think it is also correct. A synonym for that is concur. Ment- means forming nouns expressing the means or result of an action. Disagreement is a negative word. If you disagree with someone, you don't agree. Another of my words  is reappear. To reappear is to appear again because re- means again. The base word for reappear is appear. If you take off the re- and replace it with dis- it will make disappear. An antonym for reappear is also disappear. Reappear can be a positive word if you make it one, but it can also be a negative word. If a bee stung you, and another bee reappeared, that would have been using it as a negative word. Finally, I want to share the word midnight with you. As you probably guessed, mid- means middle because the first syllable is spelled mid. Midnight isn't exactly the middle of night because after midnight, the next morning starts. The antonym for midnight would be noon. If you get rid of the mid- and replaced -fall at the end of the word, it would be nightfall. The meaning of that is that the night is beginning to rise and the evening is gradually mixing into the night. Clearly, everyone can have fun changing the prefix or suffix on any base word!

I hope the blog post helped you!

What are some prefixes or suffixes that you are learning in class?

Can you come up with some words that have prefixes or suffixes?

What is your favorite word that includes a prefix or a suffix?

Commenting Tip: If your comment won't publish, try a different browser. Firefox and Chrome work best! ~Mrs. Yollis

Chinese New Year : Making Dumplings!

All of the photos were taken by my mom, Echo.

Usually at the end of January or at the beginning of February, there is a holiday called Chinese New Year. Chinese people celebrate it, but anybody else can too. This year, 2014, it was on Friday, January 31. We always have dumplings for dinner. For breakfast and lunch, we eat what we usually eat. People hang up their red lanterns all around their houses.

There is also a Chinese zodiac. I am a rooster born in 2005. Here is the Chinese zodiac in order. It starts from rat:

This year, I helped my mom make dumplings. Here are some steps to make dumplings:

How to Make Dumplings

Tools that you will need:
1. rolling pin
2. mixing bowl (for the inside of the dumplings)
3. knife
4. spoon
5. boiling pot
6. something that you can take dumplings out of the hot pot
7. OPTIONAL: board

• First, you have to mix up the fillings inside the dumpling. If you eat meat, you can put ground pork and anything else you like. We used ground pork and chopped up chives up into little pieces. If you are vegetarian, you can mix tofu and any kind of vegetable.

Here is the one that we mixed. We eat meat, so there is ground pork in there, and the meat is raw.

• Second, you need the dough. You have to dump flour and water in the bread machine to make the dough. When the dough is ready, we are ready to make them into the skins of the dumplings. Optional: Take out a board (there is one to the right on the picture above). If you don't have a board, or your counter is really flat, you can use that. 

Now all we have to do is to make the dough into a big ball. Then you have to roll it on one side to make it into a long piece of dough. After you do that, you have to slice them up with a knife. To make the dough even, you have to roll them a little with your hands so they can be rounder. 

• Next, you have to use the middle of your hand where it is curving in to press the sliced up dough flat. We use the middle of our hands because we like the center to be thicker and the outsides to be thinner. 

• Third, we have to use a rolling pin to roll the outsides of the dough. Even though the inside has to be thicker, don't make them too thick. Here I am rolling the dough:

• After the rolling, we are ready to start putting the fillings into the dough. Take a spoon and scoop a little of the fillings out onto the middle of the dough. Fold them together and pinch the sides of the unfinished dumpling to not let the food inside fall out. 

• Now you are ready to boil the dumpling. Firstly, get the pot filled with water more than the half way. Second, lightly drop the dumplings in one by one. After, you should see a pot full of dumplings.

• We are ready for the next to last step. When the dumplings are ready, you can turn off the stove and with something that won't burn your hand, take a material that you can use to take the dumplings out of the boiling hot pot. I suggest using chopsticks if you are good at them and you are pretty sure that you won't drop them back into the water. 

• Finally, we are ready to eat them. They may be hot right after the cooking, but after a while of cooling down, the dumplings taste delicious! 

• OPTION: My family likes to eat them with some thing called 腊八蒜 in Chinese. There is no translation for it in English, but you basically just take some garlic, peel it, put them in a jar, pour vinegar in the jar, and let the garlic soak in there for two to three weeks. Here is a picture of some that we made:

What traditions do you have?

What do you eat in that tradition?