What:

What happened in Birmingham. That would take years to write it all out. The shortened version of it is… In the South even after the war there was segregation. Segregation is when people are treated more highly or less because of their ethnicity. This story was one of a young girl, Carolyn. She was involved in many things in those days. She was in 16th Street Baptist Church when it happened. She also went to the Children’s March. She was mentally disturbed and depressed by these events even in her later years. She sat through one of the trials of the bombers who killed her friends. What stood out to me was that people could degrade others and think less of them because of their skin color I thought America was home of the free and the brave. I guess not. The segregation did not end there it may not seem that way but there are many active groups that feel that whites are higher than others.

So What:

I learned that we are a messed up race and world. The only reason that we go to Heaven is because of God. The lesson in this book is that people need to adapt more easily. And we need to forgive because she forgave those men who scared her and killed her friends. This is important because it is a lesson that should never be forgotten. Even though history tends to repeat itself. I hope that this never happens ever again. This is a racist world and maybe it will maybe it won’t but one wrong person and we could have another civil war on our hands but without military, people who think it’s wrong versus those who think it’s right. If it happened, whose side would you be one.

What Now:

I think differently now when I look at other people and realize that there is a lot more to others than what meets the eye. If I saw her on the street I would not recognize her before now I know her story and I would not look at her with pity. I would look at her and see strength. My response is that we are all children of God. And everyone is equal it is so hard to comprehend what she went through and I can’t imagine it. This bothers me and my parents were alive at this time but I have not heard one story about it either they did not know or it wasn’t a big deal in the North at the time. What I hope is that people remember and think about it hundreds of years later and reflect on it. This is something that should never be forgotten. The KKK still exists today and they still kill people just fewer and less often. This needs to end.

I learned that you can repel sharks with any rare earth elements. They should make watches or stuff to wear when you swim in the ocean with that stuff. I also learned that Hydrogen and Oxygen can actually be separated from water. You need electricity to do it though. And last but not least I learned that the human body uses more that 25 different elements in ways and quantities that are unique.

in science class we were given an assignment to create an instrument that had different pitches. I made an instrument out of pvc pipe, tape and my trombone’s mouthpiece. It sounds very interesting but it works and completes the assignment. We were going to make two but one of them cracked but we had a backup they don’t sound the same or look the same but they are close.

In Math and Science class we were given an assignment to come up with an idea to help prevent the loud echo in one of the staffs office and then present it to our teachers. Our idea was to put acoustic paneling on one of the walls so that it would prevent the echo by absorbing the sound waves. I learned that acoustic paneling can absorb echo therefore creating a way to prevent the echo in that room. We just finished presenting so we will find out how we did soon.

April 3

Today Apollo left to go on a raid. I wish he didn’t have to because I will have to take care of the house and the children. But then again I could use some more knives in the kitchen.

April 8

Apollo’s friend dropped by to see if he was back yet I told him he was not but he told me that the council had a gathering to vote to see if the helots could marry freely the majority of the gathering said no but the council changed the vote and said yes but I’m okay with that I don’t want to arrange marriages between helots. That might cause an uprising. I hope I doesn’t I don’t really like Sparta’s way of government. It only has thirty people in the council. Two king and twenty eight other members, also the members of the council have to be over sixty years of age and from a noble family. Once you join you are in for life and the council has more power than the gathering. In the gathering you can only vote yes or no.

April 10

Apollo came home today and he did not bring any knives. But I’m still happy he is home.

April 13

My youngest boy Eros, just left for school today and he will live in the barracks during his training it makes me sad because when I go on my daily walks I pass the barracks and all the boys are skinny and hungry because they don’t get enough food and are taught not to complain under any circumstances. I can still recall when I went to school, it wasn’t as bad as the boys school but we still learned how to wrestle, do gymnastics, and my favorite, combat skills.

April 14

Sparta is beginning to prepare for war so Apollo will be gone I am sad he promised to come home soon.

April 15

My friend’s husband died from a disease so now she is looking for another husband I hope that I don’t have to do that.

April 18

“Athena” yelled Apollo I jump and race to the door and there he is standing with two new slaves.

April 20

The new slaves are good at cooking which is nice because I’m horrible. Literally people never accept food when they come over.

April 29

Our helots rebelled so Apollo is gone again and I’m in charge of the house, oh joy.

May 3

The helots that rebelled were killed I secretly feel bad but I try not to show it.

May 5

My daughter and I went for a walk and we saw the girls wrestling outside the school she thought it was not ladylike it is horrible because she is so fragile. We are lucky the council let her survive but she will have trouble finding a husband because men want strong healthy wives.

May 13

The people from Athens showed up today. I have never seen them before the council is very upset. But the people from Athens want to trade for our money which are iron bars. But they want wagon fulls of iron bars in exchange for a tiny pot.

May 28

The council had the people from Athens drove out of the city and they took all their stuff hoping that they won’t come back.

Since Christmas I have been learning some new skills in school. I’m going to tell you some of them. In art we are learning to burnish colors. We have to do that after we drew a one point perspective drawing and we had to burnish it with colored pencils. The drawing had to be a part of the school and then we colored it with wacky colors. WHEW!! two done one more to go. In band we are learning how to Syncopate and we have to play a song called “Synco Rock.”  Syncopating is when you have to play off the beat. OK now I’m done you don’t have to listen anymore.

This paragraph was painstakingly written by Zoe Dekievit

In the last few weeks we have been learning about some interesting things. One of those things is Integration/Segregation. We read a book called Warriors Don’t Cry. The book is about a girl named Melba who volunteers to become one of the kids who will integrate into Little Rock High School. They are later called The Little Rock Nine. One of the other interesting subjects was another book that we read in culture class about a girl named Malala. She lives in Pakistan where there is a group called the Taliban that is lead by a person that wants the people to be overly strict about their religion, and Malala has to survive through this time of suffering. The last one is the difference between grace and mercy. We used an example. Ours was if you get pulled over and the officer is merciful they will probably just let you off with a warning. Grace is when the officer lets you off the hook and gives you a million dollars. So that’s what I learned.

In this project we started with learning a little about Egypt in the beginning and after we gave a group of first graders a survey that asked them what they would want in a museum exibit.  The questions that we asked them about were about Religion and Technology because those were our two themes that we had chosen the people that were in my group were Lauren, Georgia, and Sydney but Sydney was in Kenya for a little over half of it and missed presenting our exibit. We worked well and were able to do it with only three people.

I learned a lot about Religion and about how and why they mummiafied people its very interesting I also found some stuff that deals with justice and injustice. I also learned a lot about Technology and how they created so many things that we still use today like breath mints, eye makeup, and toothpaste. The people of Egypt had lots of good ideas. How they made people into mummies is so cool and a little bit gross. Like how they stuck a hook up the dead persons nose and squished the brain into pieces and then poured it out the nose.

I love to work in groups if the groups work well together and are able to help each other and make things happen. Preparing was a little hard but we made it happen the reason that it was hard is because there were only three of us and there was only a small space to put all of our things on and we only had three people to build and create things we had to change plans in the middle of things sometimes to make things work but it made our exibit even better. We made a lot of stuff like a coffin, door lock and jars. We also had some posters with information to look at so we didn’t have to explain all so it worked great

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The most fun thing about band is that once you get into it it seems so easy and you spend a lot of time with the other band members and you get to know a lot of people and you feel very proud when you do a concert or a parade. I would recomend joining band to anyone who is interested.

What I am learning about in math class this week is right now I am working on estimating decimals and some of the problems look like this 2.0993+1.256 tenths the tenths means that you have to estimate the tenths so you estimate the           0 and the number behind that is 9 and 9 is higher than 5 so you round 0 up and that would be 1. Then on 1.256 the tenth is    2 and the number after that is 5 and if the number after it is five and up then you round up so you would get 3 and the answer would be close to 3.4 or the answer is 3.3553. a couple days ago I also passed the test to go on to lesson three because I used to be on lesson two. So that is what I did in math this week.

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Book Reviews

CHAINS: A girl named Isabel and her little sister Ruth are sold to a young couple away from her beloved dead mother and master. This book is heart wrenching and at some point will put you in tears.

SPY CAMP: A boy has been going to spy school for one semester and is looking forward to spending some time with his family and friends but when he learns he has to go to camp he is a little sad. This book will give you the shivers like scaling cliffs or jumping from extreme heights.

MIDDLE SCHOOL
BOOK 3: Rafe is sent to a camp to help him with his school work but it turns into a war when the popular kids start the pranks and boy are they going to get it the war ends and Rafe gets sent home but there are always more books. If you get squimish then this book isn’t for you.

DEAR AMERICA: Cathrene is captured by indians she feels that they are animals and she is adopted but she feels that she will never be able to live or love these people. This book is awesome and a great quick read.

Stepping out of your comfort zone…
By: Zoe Dekievit
It may feel good to step out of your comfort zone once in a while. Maybe this story can help explain. One day at my cottage my brother tried to ski, after a while he did it. I was to scared to do it , but finally my family convinced me to. I fell a lot, but soon I got it. Then one time my cousins came over and I was water skiing and I fell in the part of the lake not far from our cottage and I decided to do a water start. I had never done one before so it was my first time. My face lit up with joy when I got up. It felt good to try something new.

I now know that I can do something and know how to do it and have fun doing it and here is another story with another explanation.

I feel nervous in tough situations you probably do to. This story might help explain. When I had to go on the outside of the tube. I was nervous and excited. I was nervous because I did not want to fall off, and I was excited because I wanted to try it . When I did it it was scary but I got used to it and now I love it and it’s not as scary as before, and I can get over a lot of fears if I’m not nervous and I can have a lot more fun.

On the last day of swimming the coaches let us jump off the high dive. I was nervous. I carefully climbed up the ladder, when I reached the top I stiffly walked to the line and took my place. I watched the other kids happily jump hitting the water with a splash. When it was my turn I walked to the end of the diving board and stepped off I hit the water with a “UMPH!” I loved it and I did it again and again because it was fun and I enjoyed it.

It feels good to try something new and even if you don’t do it right you still can succeed. When I was standing in line I saw all the other kids jumping and if I had not done it and walked away I would have missed out. Now when I do things like this I can have a lot more confidence when I do it.

Sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone is good. It lets you feel like you did something important. It lets you feel free. Like when I swam in the ocean. At first I felt free, then when I came into shore my dad told me that they were watching people catch sharks off the pier. I was too scared to go back in the deeper area. The deeper area was fun and I should’ve stayed in. When I went to Florida the next year I swam in the ocean a lot. The waves lapped lightly around the shore and I loved it! The waves were as big as me!
Stepping out of your comfort zone…
By: Zoe Dekievit
It may feel good to step out of your comfort zone once in a while. Maybe this story can help explain. One day at my cottage my brother tried to ski, after a while he did it. I was to scared to do it , but finally my family convinced me to. I fell a lot, but soon I got it. Then one time my cousins came over and I was water skiing and I fell in the part of the lake not far from our cottage and I decided to do a water start. I had never done one before so it was my first time. My face lit up with joy when I got up. It felt good to try something new.

I now know that I can do something and know how to do it and have fun doing it and here is another story with another explanation.

I feel nervous in tough situations you probably do to. This story might help explain. When I had to go on the outside of the tube. I was nervous and excited. I was nervous because I did not want to fall off, and I was excited because I wanted to try it . When I did it it was scary but I got used to it and now I love it and it’s not as scary as before, and I can get over a lot of fears if I’m not nervous and I can have a lot more fun.

On the last day of swimming the coaches let us jump off the high dive. I was nervous. I carefully climbed up the ladder, when I reached the top I stiffly walked to the line and took my place. I watched the other kids happily jump hitting the water with a splash. When it was my turn I walked to the end of the diving board and stepped off I hit the water with a “UMPH!” I loved it and I did it again and again because it was fun and I enjoyed it.

It feels good to try something new and even if you don’t do it right you still can succeed. When I was standing in line I saw all the other kids jumping and if I had not done it and walked away I would have missed out. Now when I do things like this I can have a lot more confidence when I do it.

Sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone is good. It lets you feel like you did something important. It lets you feel free. Like when I swam in the ocean. At first I felt free, then when I came into shore my dad told me that they were watching people catch sharks off the pier. I was too scared to go back in the deeper area. The deeper area was fun and I should’ve stayed in. When I went to Florida the next year I swam in the ocean a lot. The waves lapped lightly around the shore and I loved it! The waves were as big as me!

Mark41:10
Do not fear for I am with you do not be dismayed for I am your God I will strengthen you and help you I will up hold you with my rightious right hand.
Mark 16: 15-16
He said to then go into the world and tell all creation the good news that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved but who ever does not believe will condemed.
Matthew 29:31
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father. Even the very hairs of your head are numbered so do not worry you are worth more than many sparrows.

This is a list of things I love most about my mom.
-She works hard to let us have a nice house.
-She is always trying to help other people.
-She loves me and my family.
-She makes time to hangout with us.
-She is always there for me.

This list could go on and on but for this post I’ll just put the important ones.