Reading comprehension.

A telesccope helps us see things far away.
People thought that stars were holes in the sky.
Sputnik was a moon.
A spacecraft teaches us about the planets and NASA.
NASA sends spacecrafts into space.

This chapter is about exploring space.
You can see stars through a telescope.
Galileo made a telescope.
Sputnik was the first spacecraft.
Scientists are learning about space

Today's Art Project

Today, I worked on a very special art project. It was a project about the earth and the other planets and the Sun. My job was to color the earth.

This morning we heard a song about the Sun.  I went for a walk this morning and while I was out we had a lockdown drill.  We all went into the laundry room and waited quietly.  Dennis from O.T. was there and he told us a scary story. But it had a funny ending. 

I had some delicious pudding with my peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. My friend Mitch helped me feed myself. Lunch was delicious but Mitch's singing is horrible. He thinks I want to swing on a star.

This afternoon we watched part of a silly movie.

Last year, Miss Vicky worked for me.

The gift of good health

Miss Wall did not come to school today because she is not feeling well. I hope she will be back in school tomorrow. Even though Mrs. Fey was not feeling well yesterday she came to school. With so many people being ill, it is probably a good idea to write about what we can do to stay healthy.

One thing you can do to keep healthy is get enough sleep. Sleeping is important because it gives your body  time to mend. It is also a time when you can organize the thoughts in your head so that you don't forget what you learned during the day. A new study shows that people are more successful with diets if they get enough sleep.

Eating properly is a good way to stay healthy. Here's a good description of a healthy diet. "Eat food. Mostly vegetables. Not too much." Mitch says you should get 40% of your calories from carbohydrates, 30% from protein and the other 30% from fat. Make sure the carbs are from vegetables with a low-glycemic index. And make sure the fats are not saturated.

Exercise helps to keep us healthy. Just walking around in my gait-trainer is plenty of exercise for me. Today, my friend Mr. Tony came and we went bowling. It was awesome. Exercise helps us in many ways. It helps us to sleep well. It helps us to develop strong muscles. It even strengthens our immune system. It is especially helpful if you combine exercise with fresh air. I went to the fair and to the beach and it made me feel hot!

It is important to know what to do when you are feeling ill. A hot bath is one of the best things you can do for yourself. It relaxes you, so you can rest comfortably and your body can use all of its energy fighting the bug that is making you sick. It raises your body temperature, which activates your immune system. After all, have you ever seen a rubber ducky with a head cold?

I hope these hints will help Miss Wall and Mrs. Fey get well soon!

reading comprehension

The Sun is a big star.
We see many stars in the sky.
The Big Dipper isa picture in the sky.
The moon is pretty. It is made of Rocks and Dirt.
A full moon is when we can see all of the moon.

(Mitch thinks I can do much better if I try not to be so silly. But maybe the moon really is made of Blue Cheese. What does he know?)

Bowling for fun

Bowling is fun. Today was all about the bowling.

Our class is going to the Special Olympics. We are going to participate in bowling. There is an award for the best spirit. Our class hopes to win it. Today we made posters for the Clark Middle School Special Olympics bowing team.

Then we went to our adaptive P.E. class with Mr. Tony.  I was bowling with a foam ball and with foam pins. Last week, my entire class went to the bowling alley. We had fun.

You may wonder how I can bowl in a wheelchair. Here's how I do it.  I have a special frame that fits over my wheelchair. It has two rods that go down to the floor. I put the ball on it, and when I release the ball it rolls down the space between the rods, on then down the alley. Sometimes I knock over all the pins.

I enjoy bowling with my friends, but I would rather be jellyfishing with SpongeBob.

It's all news to me!

     October is time for the World Series, the championship of Baseball. Four teams are competing for the trophy. The teams are the New York Yankees, the Texas Rangers, the Philadelphia Phillies and the San Francisco Giants.
      My favorite team is the Giants. My last name is Gross which means “big,” and the Giants are BIG!! Baseball is fun.
     If you want to learn more about the playoffs and the World Series click here.

Saturn -- rings aren't just for bathtubs anymore.

• Saturn is huge. It is the second largest planet in our Solar System. Jupiter is the only planet that is bigger.
• You cannot stand on Saturn. It is not like Earth. Saturn is made mostly of gases. It has a lot of helium. This is the same kind of gas that you put in balloons.
  
• Its beautiful rings are not solid. They are made up of bits of ice, dust and rock.

 

Saturn is encircled by seven major rings. In this photograph, a section of the rings is hidden by the planet's shadow. The Cassini spacecraft, launched in 1997 to study Saturn and its rings and satellites, captured this natural color image as it approached the planet in 2004. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

What I read about today.

The Earth takes 365 days to go around the Sun. The Earth rotates around the sun.  The Earth's tilt changes the seasons. The Sun is good for people, plants, and animals. There is air around the Earth to help us breathe.

The three R's -- and I don't mean reading, writing and 'rithmatic.

The earth is the only planet we can live on. That is why we have to protect it. We need clean air, and clean water for humans to live on earth. What can we do to keep the air and water clean? Also, we use natural resources, like coal, oil and wood. What can we do to make sure that we don't run out of the things we need?

Mrs. Fey's water bottle has a good slogan on it. It says, "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." Those are three ways we can protect the earth. We can reduce our needs. We can reuse items, instead of just throwing them away. And we can recycle things that can be turned back into new ones.

What are some ways we can reduce? When we buy things in the store, we can look for products that don't have too much wasteful packaging. We can bring our own re-usable bags to the store, so that we don't have to waste plastic bags. We can use less energy if we dress warm indoors, so that we don't have to use up energy to heat the house so much. It is important that when people buy cars, they try to get the one with the best fuel economy, so that they do not waste gasoline. New types of cars -- like hybrids and all-electric cars -- can also save energy.

We can protect the earth by reusing things. If we aren't aware of this problem, one day there will be no more space for landfills to hold all our garbage. Also, landfills are very expensive, and if we have to spend money on them, there is less money to spend on education and other important things. How often have you used a piece of aluminum foil once and then thrown it away? Did you ever thing about re-using it? Our parents' generation used lots of disposable things. We can start thinking about things that have lasting value.

That brings us to the third R -- recycling. At Clark Middle School, my class goes to all the classrooms and collects the paper and cardboard that other students and teachers use. Then, we put it in a special dumpster so that it can be taken to the recycling center. The paper is collected and shipped to Washington, where it is made into new paper. By recycling paper, we save energy, we save space in the landfills, and we save trees that would be used to make new paper. The trees then can breathe in carbon dioxide, and breathe out oxygen, so that our atmosphere is healthy.

Can you think of some other ways to save the earth?

The Moon -- by Wysper and Mitch

Wysper and Mitch worked on this blog. Can you tell what part Wysper wrote?

The Moon is a natural satellite of Earth. That means that it revolves around the earth. It takes about 28 days for the moon to circle the earth. The moon also spins on its axis. It spins around once in every 28 days. Therefore, the same side of the moon always faces the earth.  The other side of the moon, which we cannot see from earth is sometimes called “the dark side of the moon.”

Actually, just like the planets, one half of the moon faces the sun, and the other faces away. Because the moon spins, it is not always the same side of the moon which is dark. And sometimes, the side with no sunlight on it faces the earth.

As it spins, more and more of the side that is illuminated by the sun faces us. We say that moon is waxing. At first it is a tiny sliver, but it grows to be a crescent, and then a full moon. Then it starts to get smaller, and we say it is waning.  The whole process is takes 28 days, and this is what we call a month on the lunar calendar.

 The gravity of the moon affects the tides. Wysper and Sponge Bob went to Bikini Bottom. The first human landing on the Moon was on 20 July 1969. During the Apollo missions of 1969-1972, 12 American astronauts walked on the Moon and used a Lunar Roving Vehicle to travel on the surface. Wysper and Sponge Bob were jelly-fishing on the moon.

Earth and Its Movements Related to the Sun

I learned that we live on a planet called Earth. Earth is always moving. It may not seem like it to us but the earth is moving very fast. The Earth spins on its axis. This spinning is called rotation. It takes 24 hours for the Earth to make one full rotation. One rotation is also called a day.

The Earth also moves around the Sun. When the Earth moves around the Sun it is called a revolution. One revolution around the Sun takes 365 days. One revolution is called a year.

My very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas.

We are studying the planets at school. I can remember the names of the planets by saying, "My very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas." Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune, and the celestial body known as Pluto. 

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. Mars travels around the sun once every 687 Earth days; this is the length of the Martian year.

Here’s a picture of Mars taken in August of 2003. At that time, Mars was closer to earth than it had been in the previous 60,000 years. It was still 56,000,000 kms away.  In this picture, you can see the red tinge to Mars..

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science System

The planet Mars, like Earth, has clouds in its atmosphere and a deposit of ice at its north pole. But unlike Earth, Mars has no liquid water on its surface. The rustlike color of Mars comes from the large amount of iron in the planet's soil. Mars is much colder than Earth. Temperatures at the Martian surface vary from as low as about -195 degrees F (-125 degrees C) near the poles during the winter to as much as 70 degrees F (20 degrees C) at midday near the equator. The average temperature on Mars is about -80 degrees F (-60 degrees C).

     The planet Mars is named after the ancient Roman god of war, pictured in this statue which is a from around 320 BCE. It is a marble copy of an earlier Greek statue of their god of war, Aires.

Many wars start in March, the month that is named after him. This is because armies tend to remain in place during winter, but they go on the march in Springtime. Also in the Springtime, the sun is in the constellation Aires named after the ancient Greek god of war.