Fall Carnival

There is a Fall Carnival every year at my school. Kids come dressed up in different costumes every year, too. It starts with trick-or-treat in the halls of the bottom floor. The teachers go all around the halls handing out candy like its Halloween at home. After trick-or-treating there are rides, games, and food set up outside the school.

One of my favorites this year was the Velcro Wall. I had to wait in line a long time because a lot of children liked it, too, just like me. You have to get in a velcro suit and two adults try to bounce you high and throw you on the wall of velcro. You stick to the wall because the velcro suit sticks to the velcro wall. You can see me in the picture above. It was a ton of fun because I liked being high and I love heights.

I also liked the bouncy obstacle course which I went through with one of my friends. It was like being stuck in a million ways! Everywhere I turned when I tried to jump, I almost fell out. I was so scared, but finally I found a slide that goes down to safety. I was finally out.

My library teacher had her own booth. It was called the Book Walk. You had to wait a REALLY long time until you can play because tons of people liked it. The music was playing and you had to get in a circle and walk from number to number on the ground. When the music stopped, you stopped on a number, and if your number got called, you got a F-R-E-E BOOK! Can you imagine free books? There was a table set up with tons of books on it and you got to pick whatever book you wanted. I picked a Magic Tree House chapter book.

The food there was awesome. I had pizza and Sierra Mist. They also had Cotton Candy, popcorn, and Snow Cones, too.

I can't wait for next year's Fall Carnival. I hope they might have a new ride or game. If they were going to add one, I would like them to add a dunker where someone sits on a chair and you have to throw a ball and hit a target and dunk them in the water. I wonder if my teachers would do it. They would get dunked by me if they would. But, they probably won't.

Your friend,

Little Brother

Can a balloon blow up inside of a water bottle?

Second Grade Science is really fun. My two teachers make it really interesting. One day they asked if you could put a balloon in a water bottle and blow the balloon up. They wanted us to do a crazy experiment that I thought would work, but it turns out--I was wrong!

They started the lesson by giving two of us a balloon and asked, "What is in the inside of the balloon?" I knew what the answer was--There was gas in the balloon. Then they asked, "Can you have a balloon fastened to the top of a water bottle and blow up the balloon inside the bottle?" My hypothesis was--yes, you could blow it up, because I had air to blow into the balloon. Our teachers sent us back to our seats to explore our experiment. I went back to my seat and got started immediately.

I picked up the water bottle and blew as hard as I could. But, guess what, NOTHING happened! The balloon did not inflate inside of the water bottle. I was asking myself in my head--"What?" "Why won't it inflate?" I looked around but all the other kids didn't have success either. Nobody's balloon was blowing up inside their water bottle. It hits me like a ton of bricks. It is because there is already gas in the water bottle. The balloon can't hold air because there is the gas inside of it.

Some kids decided to squeeze the bottle and the balloon popped right out of the top of the water bottle into the air! It inflated backward! As they squeezed it, the air in the water bottle went backward and inflated the balloon. Amazing!

As soon as we finished testing our hypothesis, I wrote my conclusion on my lab sheet. My conclusion was--The balloon did not inflate inside the water bottle because there was already gas inside of the water bottle. For the balloon to inflate nothing else could have been taking up the space inside the balloon.

My teachers had research books out on our tables to read when we were done with our conclusions. I read about the insects of nature while the other kids were finishing their experiment.

My teachers rang the bell and called us up to the carpet for Closing Session. The teachers invited kids to share their hypothesis and their conclusions. When the kids were finished sharing their notes, now the teacher gets a little bit crazy and asks, "What would happen if I put a hole in the water bottle, children?" "Would I be able to blow up the balloon with a hole in the bottle?" I think in my head--It should be able to blow up because if there is a hole, when you blow up the balloon gas will escape from the hole, leaving more space in the bottle for the balloon to get blown up. As I raised my hand, I tried to remember what I had thought of in my head. I wanted to share my hypothesis with the class. My teachers called on me and I told the students that I thought the balloon would blow up because all of the oxygen and gas would go out of the hole and the balloon would blow up with no problem. My teacher does the experiment and what do you know, I was actually right!

This is just one of the experiments I did this year. I do tons more than just this. But, I think this one was my favorite so far in Second Grade. I think Science is awesome!

From the Science Learner,

Little Brother

Pennsylvania

The day after Christmas my family went to Pennsylvania to see my cousins, grandmas, grandpas, aunts, and uncles. And, we had two Christmas parties there. At my nanny's and grandpa's house I got Star Wars The Clone Wars Lightsaber Duels for my Wii and a Steelers blanket and hat. The Steelers blanket is as soft as a koala.

It snowed almost everyday while I was up there. I love snow so I was very happy. In fact, at my cousin's house we got our snow suits and gloves on and went outside. My cousin went snow tubing with me. My grandpa was on a four wheeler pulling me and my cousin. I fell out ten times into the snow, but my cousin only fell out six times. I had a great time.

My Lucky Day

I had a very lucky day on December 16, 2008. Do you want to know why? Because I was the winning bidder on the Advent Calendar that my class made. We made the calendar by putting reindeer, Santa Claus, and snowmen finger prints on the calendar. My snowman finger and thumb prints are on the back of the Advent Calendar. My snowman is on the back in the middle because my teacher put it there because I have a very big thumb.

There are 25 doors on the front and there is a bell on the 25th door. That door has a bell on it because it is Christmas Day. There are scratch off lottery tickets behind each door. Every day you open one door and scratch off the ticket. For instance on Christmas Day, I will take out the last ticket and scratch it off.

So far, I've won three free tickets and one dollar. I still have four more doors to go. Next year, I hope my parents will put candy surprises in each door.

I had a very very lucky day that day and I was so so happy. I thought I wouldn't win it, but I did. In about 15 years, I will have kids and I will put candy in the Advent Calendar for them.

Amazing Pop-Up Picture Atlas

I am reading the Amazing Picture Atlas. The book shows you every continent and the countries in the continent. It has amazing facts about Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, North America, and Antartica. If you go to every page, it shows you every country's flag, what language they speak, all the amazing animals, great sites, natural features, and what is produced. And, it has a little slide out page that shows you all the country's in that continent. If I was reading North America, it would say at the very top in a yellow box with black letters--Countries of North America.

My favorite continent to learn about is Africa. I just learned that Egypt is in the top right corner of Africa. I also know that chameleons live in Africa. And, my second favorite continent is Australia. I know that there is an island off of Australia called Tasmania. I also know that the biggest rock in the world is in Australia called Uluru (Ayers Rock), and it is in the very middle of Australia. My favorite type of animal there is either the koala or kookaburra. Koala's are not actually bears, they just call them bears because they look like a bear. They are actually a cousin to bears. They are really called marsupials.

I love this Amazing Picture Atlas book. I would like you to read it too because it has so many different facts about the countries in our world.

I Scream for Free Icecream!

Guess what my big brother has been learning how to do? You could guess by looking at this picture. He's been learning how to do a rubrik's cube!

One night over the weekend, on Saturday, my family went to Outback Steakhouse to eat dinner. He brought his rubrik's cube with him. It was all mixed up like the rubrik's cube in this picture. The waitress said, "If you solve the rubrik's cube, I'll give you a free dessert." I had a grin on my face, because I knew my brother could solve the rubrik's cube. He had done it before a lot of times. His friend taught him at school how to do it. I was psyched that we were going to get a free ice cream for dessert!

So... by the time she got back with our drinks, it was already finished by my big brother! After dinner, we actually got free ice cream. It came with chocolate syrup and a cherry on top. I thought the waitress was only kidding, but she actually brought it. I don't think she'll make that promise to anyone ever again.

That night was a great night, because I got free ice cream and went to Madagascar Escape 2 Africa.

My First Day of First Grade

Today was my first day of first grade. I had a great time because I have my best friend's mom and his godmother as teachers. They are really nice and they made my first day fun. I made a boomerang and a kangaroo with a joey in the pocket.

I went to an assembly. Bruce and his wife Tass bicycled around the world for 2 years and went to 22 countries! They traveled 14,000 miles on bicycles. I think their legs would be tired and their butts would be sore! They saw rhinos that hear very good and can smell very good, but they are almost blind. They tiptoed up close to get a good picture. Bruce and Tass also saw kangaroos. They camped by the kangaroos and one kangaroo even camped by them! They saw wild parrots and they also saw kookaburras. Kookaburras are a type of wild bird. Can you believe they even saw an albino peacock? They saw a penguin, too. They were about 30 inches tall. I can't believe that a wild monkey jumped on Tass' back to pick bugs out of her hair. Bruce took a picture. I would be super scared if a wild monkey jumped on my back.

Bruce and Tass saw many volcanoes. They hiked up the side of volcanoes. They even saw the biggest rock ever! They hiked in rainforests. In the rainforest there were pretty flowers and many animals.

This was the best day of any of my first days of school. I will have a great year!