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: