Post-It Mosaic Video

 In art class, we were working on mosaics. So, my teacher showed us this really cool YouTube video about a college grad who made a whole stop-shot video of collages made of Post-Its! It's amazing how he put every single Post-It up just to take a picture. He probably used around 10,000 Post-Its and 100 rolls of film to create this inspiring video! To watch the clip, just click on the link below:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpWM0FNPZSs&feature=player_embedded

Please post a comment about your favorite part, if you liked the video or not, and something you were inspired to do by the video clip. I hope you liked watching it!

Preparing for Summer

I'm so glad it's time to prepare for summer! That means, getting ready for camp, swimming, staying up late, barbecues, no school and best of all, my birthday! I can't wait for the summer heat and jumping into my pool. It's so relaxing and fun to spend time with family and friends. Reading my by backyard hammock is great, too. I love to have lemonade stands with the neighbors and use the profits to go buy some ice pops. We've been ordering new furniture for the backyard. In fact, a few new lounge chairs just arrived! I love summer foods like watermelon, ice cream, and fresh fruit salads. It's always really fun to watch the bursting fire crackers on the 4th of July, so we're always purchasing fireworks and hearing protectors. The only bad thing about summer is the mosquitoes! There's such pests. I get eaten up alive, with welts all over the places. It's too tempting to scratch!! Well, I'll post some more when we get to the summer season.

Color Contest

Join in the fun with a color contest! Here's how to play:

• Comment your favorite color in CAPITAL LETTERS
• Underneath the color, list all the things you can think of that are that color
• Please do not type anything gross.... :(
• Do not be specific --- only general things (my <><><> is....)

 Here's an example:

ORANGE (my favorite color)
1 - pumpkin
2 - red fox
3 - orange fruit
4 - fire flames
5 - basketball
6 - goldfish
7 - nectar in flower

Whoever has the most creative and unique words listed, will be given a prize!! You must participate to find out the lucky winner and their little prize! GO! Start listing your favorite colors!!!!!!

Melanie Oudin

BELIEVE is the word on young tennis star, Melanie Oudin, has on her shoes. Melanie Oudin is now 18 and she played in many tennis tournaments, such as last year her biggest, the US Open. Melanie is my favorite woman player because she proves that anything's possible. Oudin defeated some of the top ranked players last summer. She never gave up and fought to overcome many challenges, even while injured. She would win many matches even when she was the underdog and was losing drastically. Melanie's strategy is to catch up in the end! Kind of like me while playing tennis, but sometimes I fail to catch up!!

The Truth Behind Reading

There's a lot more to reading than just reading the words and finishing the book. You have to spend time thinking about what you just read, making connections, predicting, creating character charts, jotting down anything on a Post-It and collecting background information! At school, we've been learning reading strategies. One of the things I always make sure to do in my reading notebook is starting a character chart. For those of you who have no idea what a character chart is, well, it's basically a list. All you have to do is write down the names of any characters in your book and then you can include their characteristics. For example, I just finished a book called Lost and Found by Andrew Clements. So, I wrote Ray Grayson and then wrote: brown hair, likes to play soccer, not too good at math, likes the Cubs. Another thing I'm always sure to include in my reading notebook is a Fact vs. Fiction Chart, but be careful with this one. It only works if the book you're reading is historical fiction. You just need to make a T-Chart, one side Fact and the other Fiction. Based on the book, you write anything in the book that really happened or background information that's real on the Fact side. Leave the other one for anything that was made up from the author's imagination. Another great way for me to keep track of my thoughts is Post-Iting. I like to mark important parts and write why on the Post-It. I also like to write down any questions or comments I have. Once a week, I try to do an activity about my book. Sometimes I write a letter to the character, make a collage, write down similar book titles, draw a comic strip, and much more. I hope this post was useful to all of you and that sometime, you'll give one of these strategies a try!

Candy Sushi

Candy sushi is one of the funnest foods to prepare and eat! It's pretty simple and the results are fantastic! Here are some tips and tricks on how to make candy sushi.

What Materials You Need:

• Rice Crispy Treats
• Dark colored Fruit Roll-Ups
• Red and black licorice
• Swedish Fish

Step 1: Flatten the Rice Crispy Treats to make the rice stuffing. If you flatten too much, you won't be able to wrap the Rice Crispy Treats, so make sure they're right in between thicknesses.

Step 2: Lay a wide strip of Fruit Roll-Up(s), to make the seaweed wrapping.

Step 3: Put the Rice Crispy Treats over the Fruit Roll-Up and make them stick together. Then, any way you want, you can put in the licorice, Swedish Fish, or even those Extreme Air Heads in.

Step 4: Roll the Rice Crispy and Fruit Roll-Up around the candies you've chosen to add and your very own candy sushi has been prepared!

Step 5: Enjoy your delicious candies and go back onto my blog to post comments!

Here's a couple different rolls of candy sushi:

Trampoline Experience

Do to all the blog party preperation, I haven't posted in a few days. Well, I wanted to tell you a story about my friend and I.

So, we were jumping on the trampoline on a nice sunny day. We were having a a lot of fun and everything. But after a couple minutes, we got a little bored. So, my friend asked, "Do you want to have a competition?"

"What type of competiton?" I asked her.

She grinned, "A jumping one!"

We decided to be the contestants and the judge. So, my friend and I got our cell phones and videotaped each others jumps and flips. It was a lot of fun. We made up some crazy ones like a banana peel slide, a diving board jump, and the horse trot. It was a lot of fun, but I got tired of moving around so much. My two favorite jumps were the back-flip and the diving board jump. The flip is just a regular backwards flip, but without any hands. The diving board jump is really fun because you go on 'tipy-toes' and them jump forwards, landing on your face. At least the trampoline is pretty soft!

After getting ourselves completely worn out, we went back inside to watch the videos. I made popcorn and we had lemonade. Exhausted, we slumped onto the floor and watched ourselves doing jumps. Each time the other person agreed that their friend had done a good job, the person was awarded a point. In the end, we had a tie of 14 points each. That was a problem. But of course, we both wanted to win so we decided on a grand finale.

Panting, we dragged ourselves back outside to finish up the game. After her performance, she decided to quit it was so hot! So, that was how our game ended. It was a tie. But dying of heat, we didn't care one bit.

IT'S A PARTY (#1)

I am writing this special post to invite you all great friends to join in Little Miss Fun's first official blog party!!!

When: Thursday, April 22

Where: this blog

Time: around 3:40

Purpose: to just have fun!

I hope you can all attend my first blogging party. Please join in the fun! There will be (virtual) food and drinks, chatting conversations, and so much more fun! Thanks so much for coming...

~ Little Miss Fun 46

Summer Penpals

I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE SUMMER!! There's so much to do and places to see during the summer. It's a fun time to hang out with family and friends. I really appreciate how lots of you comment and read my blog. So, I was thinking of some ways we could keep in touch. I know the majority of my readers are people I already know and they are my friends and relatives. But, I was just wondering if anyone would be able to spread the word about my blog. In other words, find a friend or anyone that you might know and trust to invite to my blog. I would love to be summer penpals with a lot of you! Just comment or email me about it. I would be able to write to you all over... from camp, home, and even on vacations! Having a summer penpal is a great experience. You get to know someone much more and it's fun to talk to someone, especially different people. I once had a penpal in South Korea and it was very interesting to learn about her history and background. Hey, look, now the girl and I are really good friends! Please help out in my new summer penpals program! Thanks!

Me

Hi, all my wonderful blog readers! It's really important to me that my readers know who I am, what type of personality I have. All that boring stuff. But it's because, the way you read my blog might change a little bit. I just want you all to get different perspectives from each of my posts. So, in order to do that, I'll tell you a little bit more about myself.

Well, I'm an energetic and curious girl who loves the summer. I spend almost my entire summer writing. Whether it's realistic fiction, poetry, or an informational article, I love to read and write. Even though I'm still very young, I love to travel all around the world. I also enjoy learning new languages and keeping up with my pen-pals. One of my goals to help make a difference in the world is to create peace worldwide. There's too much fighting between the countries. Too many bombs and missiles being fired at one another. Why can't we all just be friends? Well, I have this journal called "My Dreams" and it's full of pages filled with ideas that just burst out of my head. Outrageous things like opening a candy shop on the moon or publishing a story that every child in the whole Earth would know the title of. Since you probably figured out I'm really creative, I minus well just tell you that I love to scrapbook. It's really fun for me to put together words and pictures, making a memory flashback in my head. I love spending time with my family and of course, friends.

Now that you have learned a little bit more about the writer, please tell me about yourself. I'm really interested in learning about my readers, too! Thank you so much for all your help and support. Happy commenting! :)

Buddy Day and the Dance

For me and all my other classmates, this Friday was very busy. Right after getting to school, we got onto a bus to go to the middle school, LMK. There, we met up with our 6th grade "buddies" who we had been exchanging letters with for a few weeks. My buddy was a girl named Sydney. First, we sat in the auditorium and listened to the principal talk to us. Then, we went to one of the cafeterias for a bite to eat. For lunch I had a chicken Caesar wrap (it was MUCH better than the elementary school food!). Then, my buddy took me on a tour of the school and she introduced me to a few teachers. Lots of students and teachers kept saying, "Hey, I know your older brother! He looks just like you!" and I would just nod. After that, we headed back to the auditorium to listen to the band, orchestra, and chorus. That was the end of the fun day at LMK. But it wasn't the last fun part of the day.

A few hours after school had ended, the 5th grade dance party was happening! I went back to the middle school with a bunch of my friends and walked into the gym. IT WAS SO LOUD I COULDN'T EVEN HEAR MYSELF THINK!! The DJ was playing the music so loud that we had to scream to even say something to another person. It was crazy! Well, we danced around and sang; just had a good time. There were dance-offs for prizes, freeze dance, and "random song time". It was really fun, but I felt bad for one of my friends. She got a really big headache and had to get picked up to go home. We were really sorry for her because the dance was a lot of fun. We got to meet lots of new people from buddy day and now we were able to have even more fun with them.

Well, that Friday was very tiring, but it was lots of fun!

When I Grow Up

I've been recently been thinking about life when I grow up. It's kind of weird to imagine myself when I'm a grown-up. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. When I grow up, I want to make a difference in the world. I don't want to be a model or something worthless like that. I either want to be a teacher or an author, possibly even both. I think teachers are the most important people because they teach you everything: how to make friend, how to do math, how to read and write.... everything. I've always loved to write, even as a preschooler and when I was in kindergarten. Books are also really important to me because they can teach you just about anything and they can be so amazingly well written and fun to read. Sometimes I feel like I'm actually another character in the book because of how the author wrote the story. I have been recently doing a lot of volunteer work around the Purchase community. In fact, this upcoming Saturday is the senior citizen pancake breakfast. My classmates and I are going to our school and making pancakes and we've been working on place-mats and everything. We're going to serve the elderly food and we'll talk to them. Later that morning, I'm playing a song for them all on my violin. Well, that's one of the ways I like to make a difference in the town. But, when I get bigger, I want not only to make a difference in my state, but to do something that affects the whole world. Someday, I'll be someone important. But right now, all I can do is dream and believe.

Lice

I am staying home from school today. It's because this girl in my class got lice and her locker is right next to mine, so of course, I was the lucky one to also get head lice. It's SO annoying! I am really scared about going to school because I need to go to a specialist. That means I might not be able to go to school tomorrow. And that is a horrible thing. We're having a huge field trip to meet all the other kids who will be at LMK too. It's also the 5th grade dance. I am so annoyed at the girl because she's always keeping her locker open and never pushes her bag or coat in properly. Which is the only reason I had to get lice. Right before the end of the school year. It's going to spoil the best part. AHH.... I AM SO MAD!

The Absolutley True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

I am reading a really funny book called *The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian* by Sherman Alexie. I just read the part when the main character, Junior, starts school at a white high school out of his reservation. Everyone is acting like Junior is a threat to their 'coolness' and no one wants to be his friend.

I don't think it's very nice of the other teenagers to do that to Junior because, I mean, he's a person too. Who cares what color his skin is and what his background is like? I feel really bad for Junior because he is being bullied by the other kids and has been taken advantage of.

On one of the pages that there's a sketch, it's a picture of a person split in half, one side's Indian and the other is white. Since people on the reservation are poor, Junior's shirt is from K-Mart, his backpack is a garbage liner, his shoes are made of clay, and his pants are from the Sale isle in the Safeway Supermarket. Meanwhile, the white half is wearing a Polo Ralph Lauren collared shirt, khakis from Tommy Hilfiger, a Timex watch, the latest Air Jordans, and is holding an ergonomic bag (with fancy cell phone). I feel bad for Junior because everyone is judging him by skin and clothing.

On example is when Junior was just minding his own buisness, the cooler group boys came up to him and yelled. The teased, "Chief, Red-Skin, Tonto, Sitting Bull, Squaw Leader!" and started to laugh. Poor, helpless Junior could do nothing but sit there and try to ignore them. He knew he couldn't fight back or they'd beat him up, but... it wasn't very nice of his classmates.

*The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian* is a great book, but some of the word choice is really inappropriate, so I'd only recommend it for older kids. Many of the parts are funny, but deep inside, this book is meaningful and sad.

"Don't Cry Because it's Over, Smile Because it Happened."

I think that one of the most powerful things Dr. Seuss said was, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." That means so much to me and it's actually pretty sad.

I always tell people to stop remembering the past and planning for the future, but to live the present because that's the most important time. I think what I say is related to what Dr. Seuss had said many years ago. I think he's trying to say, stop regretting that it's over and be happy that is actually occured.

For example, if you were an orphan and then your mother came back to see you again, you would be so thrilled. But if she could only stay for a day, you would be sad when the time was up. I guess I'm trying to say that you should be happy for the time you had, not be greedy for more. Does that make sense to you?

I picked this quote to write about because it made my eyes fill with tears. I think it's so powerful to say that, because that's what many people actually feel. But, they just can't come out and say it. The clock will always be ticking, so you'd minus well just take advantage of the time you can have. Trust me.

New York Pet Rescue

For years, my older brother and I have been trying to convince my mom to get us a dog. Of course, we haven't succeeded. We were at a friend's house last night and the mother was talking about their dog. It was rescued by the New York Pet Rescue Organization a few years ago. The puppy is so well trained and never bites anyone, no matter the circumstances. The other mom was telling my parents all the pros about getting a dog: the kids do all the work, you're saving an abused animal, the kids will stop nagging, etc. So, I was looking at the website that she recommended and found the cutest puppy ever. Here's some information on the small, black puppy named Asia:

An adorable female 8 week old Labrador Retriever puppy and around 5 lbs. She is a very sweet and playful puppy, who likes lots of attention. She is the sister to Ari and Athena. She is the smaller of the two, but definitely can hold her own when playing with her siblings. She is the more cuddly one out of the three and likes to be close to her foster mom, especially when napping. She is doing really well with the paper training and is already starting to work on her housetraining and is starting to go outside. She will also let you know if she wants something. She likes to play with lots of toys. She is also in a home with three cats and everyone gets along. She should not be in a home with young children due to her age.

Other Blogs

Hi, everyone! I just wanted to recommend some other blogs to you that are written by my friends:

• Michaela: http://www.blowandpop101.blogspot.com/ 
• Zehra: http://www.spreadingpeacetogether.blogspot.com/
• Leela: http://www.blackcoatgirl.blogspot.com/

I hope all you Little Miss Fun readers enjoy their blogs as much as you like mine! 

Thanks,

Lauren

One Hot Mama's: Pulled Pork Sandwich

I just ate a pulled pork sandwich at One Hot Mama's Barbecue restaurant. It was a huge sandwich with a baked potato side dish. Overall, I thought it was decent. The menu said that it was award winning, but I was kind of wondering who gave it an award... :) Well, the sandwich was pretty flavorful and the bun was warm, but it was a little dry. The pulled pork sandwich was definitely better after I added a little bit of barbecue sauce. The baked potato at One Hot Mama's was good but loaded with half a stick of butter... it was pretty gross. I don't like eating too much or having anything super fatty and has too much topping. Well, I really don't think I'd ever go back to One Hot Mama's, even though it was voted the best barbecue in town.