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

*       *       *       *       *       *


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

*       *       *       *       *       *

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?

A Visit to Mountain High!

This year, I went to Mountain High like I did last year. I snowboarded again instead of skiing, but this year we only stayed for one day. We went on January 4, 2014, and that day was a Saturday. Instead of sledding for one day, we went strait into skiing and snowboarding. While my dad skied, my brother and I snowboarded. My dad, Jeffery, all of a sudden said that we were going to Mountain High tomorrow, and that day was Friday, January 3, 2014. My brother stated, "That was a quick decision," and we all agreed. It was already afternoon, so we had to hurry. As we hasted, we forgot a lot of objects. My dad wanted to learn to snowboard, but he forgot his knee and elbow pads. We all didn't want to loose our mittens, but we forgot to bring the little hooks that can hold our mittens. Even so, we had fun.

We went up a mountain and were about to snowboard. The view here was spetacular, so we Here is a picture of my brother and I standing on a mountain peak.

Like last year, we still went on a lift, but this time I went on the steepest route back down the mountain called Black Diamond. It is so steep that I had to go in sharp S shapes. I had to go to the right, and turn so I could stop, and then I would turn to the left, and turn so I could stop. I continued this pattern until I was either at the lift, or down at the lodge. This is a photo of an example of what I was doing. It isn't the exact photo of when I was on Black Diamond because my brother didn't go and he is there in the background. 

The shape is like an S, and I have to stop at each edge. That will control your speed. It took a long time to get down, but I made it. I didn't go for a second time because it would take too long, and it was a little too hard for me, as this is my second year of snowboarding. After I went on Black Diamond, my dad and I split up and I went on an easier lift, and he went on Black Diamond. 

Have you ever visited Mountain High?

If so, did you go on Black Diamond?

If not, where did you go skiing or snowboarding?

Merry Christmas for Another Year!

On Christmas Eve night, I had a hard time sleeping. I kept wondering what surprise present my mom gifted me, or if Santa would give me my wish or just a piece of pitch-black coal. My wonders finally disappeared into my dream, and I finally got hours of sleep. . . 

On Christmas day, I woke up at 7:30. I quickly dressed into my Christmas dress, and off I went to rip off the wrapping paper on my present. There were a manifold of presents, waiting for me to open them, so I had to decide, which present should I reveal first? I closed my eyes and spun around with my finger pointing one direction, and when I opened my eyes, I was pointing to the present that Santa gave me. I read the label, "To Heather - From Santa", and tore off the moose wrapping paper. There lay a mysterious brown box, and the folds had tape over them, so I had to get some scissors and cut them open.

Now, before I tell you what my present was, I want to compare my present from last year, and this year. Last year, my present was large, and this year, my present was even larger! I'll give you some hints: It has two wheels, you ride on it, and it is for outdoors. What could it be?

Last year's present size...

Photo by Echo (my mom)

This is the pogo stick that I got from Santa last year.

This year's present size. . .

Photo by Echo

What could this be that Santa gave me this year?










If you guessed a scooter, you were correct!
The scooter I asked for was a Red Razor 2.0 scooter with sparks, and when I checked on the box, Santa gave me the exact same thing! You might not know what a scooter with sparks is, but I bet you know what sparks are. Scooters with sparks means that there is a thing that you can push with your foot, and you can ride and rub it on the ground to create sparks. I never had a scooter that had sparks, so I am excited to try it out. 

Even though those aren't all of the presents I received, my scooter was the main one. If you want to see the rest of the presents I got, here they are:

What did you get for Christmas?

Is it what you asked for, or did Santa get confused with your present and someone else's?

Why did you get that present?

Do you celebrate Hanukkah or Christmas?

Edublog Awards :: Voting Open Now!

                   The Edublog Awards are open for voting!

We are thrilled to be nominated for three Edublog Awards!

This year, the voting is on a website called List.ly. You must be 13 or older to sign in to List.ly, so encourage you friends and family to vote!

Sadly, this year, we can only vote one time on one account.

 Best class blog

My teacher, Mrs. Yollis, has been blogging since 2008.

You can click on the triangle facing up to vote for Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog:

See full list on Listly

*    *    *    *    * 

Best group blog

My teacher, Mrs. Yollis, started this international group blog three years ago.

You can click on the triangle facing up to vote for Yollis' 365 Project.

See full list on Listly

*    *    *    *    *

 Best student blog

I, Heather, have been blogging since last year, and I got nominated by Mrs. Yollis.

You can click on the triangle facing up to vote for 
 Heather's Perfect Post .

See full list on Listly

*    *    *    *    *    *

I was happy to see that I was chosen by my teacher, and people are now voting for us.

Voting will close at 11:59 P.M.  EST on

Wednesday, December 18th.


Thank you for your support!