Hi.  Thanks for stopping by my blog.  I'm in the sixth grade now.  I went back to public school in the fifth grade.  I'm getting ready to move to a new country for my Dad's job.

My little brother decided to leave public school in the fourth grade too.  He has started a blog.  He is doing a lot of different projects than I did during fourth grade homeschool.

You should follow this link over to his blog and explore some of the learning he has been up to.

Ollie Academy


Signing Out -
Eva

Drama Queen - A Superhero Story

I had another writing assignment from this book by Rebecca Olien, which I highly recommend.  The book is full of fun writing prompts and story ideas.  My job this time was to create a superhero and write about her superpowers.  Here's the finished product:

Meet Swan.  She is the daughter of the Sun and Moon.  At age sixteen million, she wanted to leave the Solar System and go to Earth.

Her parents gave her powers and sadly let her go.  When on Earth, she became irresistible, almost.  She had long flowing brown hair, deep blue moon dust eyelids, sea green eyes, and cherry red lips.  She wore a sea green dress that hid her legs and gave her the ability to fly.

Now you’re probably wondering what powers the Sun and Moon gave Swan before letting her go.  They highlighted some of her natural abilities and gave her the superhero name of, Drama Queen, because she is very good at acting.  On top of drama, her other powers are invisibility, super speed, and plasma ray.

Swan turned on the news (superheros need to know what is going on in the city).   “There is a fire downtown. Four children and their mom are stuck on the 8th floor!” exclaimed the news reporter.

Swan put on her special flying dress and zoomed through the air to the burning building.  She went in through the back door so she would not have a big crowd around her.  When she got in, she felt the hot fire; she flew as fast as she could could to the 8th  floor.  All of the family was huddling  in the corner behind the mom.

First Swan did some drama, acting like a silly clown, to get them all to stop quivering and to smile.  Then she used super speed to put the fire in the room out, like when a normal person blows out a candle.   And finally she used plasma ray to blast the roof off and fly each of them down to the ground, where she became invisible so as to not spill the beans about her identity.

Her work was done for today.  The family was safe.  As she flew home, she whispered to herself, “A beautiful defeat.”  Such a dramatic line.  The End.

Signing Off,
Evalynn and Mom

Screaming Balloons - A Sound Experiment

Materials:
2 Balloons
1 hex nut
1 marble

Methods:
Squeeze the hex nut into one of the balloons.
Squeeze the marble into the other balloon.
Carefully blow up and tie both balloons.  Be careful not to suck in the hex nut or marble.
Grip the balloon by the knot, with your palm down.  Move your hand in a circular motion.

Hypothesis:
The hex nut will rub against the balloon and make a moaning sound.

Observations:
The balloon with the hex nut makes a screaming or moaning sound.
The balloon with the marble makes almost no sound.

Conclusions:
The hex nut's uneven sides hit against the balloon, making vibrations, which we hear as sound.  The marble is smooth and has no sides to hit against the balloon, so it makes almost no vibrations.

I suggest you use two different colored balloons.

You can see the the pattern created by the uneven sides of the hex nut.

You can also see that the marble leaves a smooth pattern.

This is a video of the balloon with the hex nut.

This experiment was easy and fun.

Signing Off,
Evalynn and Mom

Race to Castle Enchantment

My assignment was to make a map and then write a story about how my main character gets through the places on the map to where the story ends.  So without further ado this is...

Race to Castle Enchantement

“Where am I?” muttered Sharlet.

There are four figures standing over her saying stuff like:

“It can’t be true!”  

“It’s not possible!” 

“What if the rulers find out there’s a human in our world?”

“Then we’re dead!  That’s what!”

“GET AWAY!” screamed Sharlet.  Suddenly, all four figures screamed and ran for their lives. Then Sharlet’s eyes focused and she saw. . . a two headed troll, a fairy the size of a pinky, and a giant talking, walking SUNFLOWER. 

“Where am I and what am I doing here?” demanded Sharlet.  The giant sunflower walked forward and said, “You are in the dream universe of Lake Beauty, and you need to leave!  Humans are not allowed here!”

“Well how do I leave Dirt Face?” argued Sharlet.  The sunflower did not like that one bit, but she still answered.  “You need to get to Castle Enchantment and open the door to the human world or else our entire universe will cease to exist!”  Everyone gasped!

“Well how did I get there Petal Brain?” asked Sharlet. This time the fairy answered because the sunflower was now violet with anger.   “Here, let me draw up a map,” said the fairy.  

                                                                   

“Well let’s see, first the Forest of Fears, then the Maze of Truth, after that the Cave of You’re Not Good Enough, and last, Lake Anger - then after all of that, you will reach Castle Enchantment,” the fairy said. “Well, what are we waiting for?” asked Sharlet. “WE! That is not happening,” said the sunflower.

“Fine. I guess that I will just stay here,” said Sharlet. “Fine. We will help you, but first everyone has to agree,” said the sunflower.  “Fine with me,” said the fairy.  “Well ok,” mumbled the right head of the troll.  “Hhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllloooooooooooo,” said the left one, who happened to be drooling.

“By the way we haven’t told you our names.  The right head of the troll is Nick, the smart one, and the one on the left is Rick, the not so smart one. The fairy is Main, and I am Sun,” said the sunflower.  “Well what are we waiting for? The Forest of Fears is only ten minutes away,” said Nick. “Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” said Rick.

Ten minutes later, Sharlet was at the Forest of Fears. As Sharlet looked over it, all she saw was a normal forest, but then she walked in and the sunlight was gone and so was the entrance, plus everyone else had just disappeared.  She heard them, but she could not see them.  Suddenly her fears seemed to be growing and she felt as if the life was being sucked out of her.  And it was.

Sharlet’s skin was getting white and wrinkley.   Her eyes suddenly felt like they wanted to close to escape the fears of the forest.  Then she heard a shout, “Don’t let the forest scare you!  It just makes you weaker!” screamed a mystery someone.  Sharlet took the stranger’s advice and she started to gain her courage back slowly, but then her greatest fear came out from behind the tree.  GHOSTS.

Sharlet screamed at the top of her lungs, then something swooped down from a tree and pulled her out on the other side of the forest. “Are you crazy?” demanded an enchanted boy who looked about 13 and was kinda cute.  “I am Sharlet, and I am trying to get to Castle Enchantment,” panted Sharlet.  The boy turned to Sun, Main, Nick, and Rick, who were all getting up from the pile they were in.

“Sun, you are taking a human girl through the top four obstacles? ARE YOU CRAZY!”  “Yes I am, Prince Tom,” said Sun.  “But you know the rules!  No humans allowed in our universe or we will be destroyed.  She must pass through the four obstacles in order to return to the human world.”

“What!? PRINCE!?!” exclaimed Sharlet. “Yes, I am sorry I did not tell you earlier, but I was stunned by your stupidness,” said Tom.  “Sorry, but I had to get to the other side of the forest to get to Castle Enchantment,” said Sharlet.

“Haha.  You think this is your last obstacle? Well then, I better go with you to the Maze of Truth.  You’re gonna need me,” said Tom.  “The Maze of Truth is an hour away, so we better get walking,” said Main.  So for an hour they listened to the two headed troll whine about the length of the journey until their heads spun and they arrived at the Maze of Truth.

“Be careful when you enter the maze.  You will have to face the real you in order to exit.  If you cannot, you will be removed from history,” warned Tom.

Sharlet stepped into the yellow colored maze and she saw the entrance slowly vanish behind her.  “Typical!” grumbled Sharlet, and then she saw an image up ahead. She slowly walked through a labyrinth of golden walls toward a glowing orb and saw herself inside of it - it was like a movie of all her actions from the past.  She watched the movie, looked at her real self, and froze.  She was mean!

She was pulling her little sister’s hair until she cried.  She was calling kids at school names until they burst into tears.  Then there was just the fact that she was always getting into fights and losing friends.  This was her.  Sharlet was stunned and It seemed as if she was disappearing.  She felt so hot and ashamed and then she screamed, “I Know how mean I am!  As soon as I get out of this maze I am going to change my ways and change the real me!”

In an instant, she was outside of the maze looking at a cave.  She had done it!  She made it through the Maze of Truth without being erased from history.   Sharlet wondered where everyone else was.  One after another, her guides popped out of the maze and landed on the ground at her feet.  They too had managed to escape.  Each one stood up and congratulated her, but not for long because they had the Cave of You’re Not Good Enough to tackle

“Well, Nick and Rick know the most about this cave,” said Sun “Yes, indeed.  This cave will try to tell you lies about how you look and how you do things.  The lies can lead you down the wrong path, so you best avoid listening to any mysterious voices,”  warned Nick.

So, like always, they entered the cave one at a time, and as they entered the entrance vanished.  Sharlet was always the first one in.  She found the cave to be pitch black.  She crept carefully forward in the blackness, and this went on for about 10 minutes until she heard a voice.

The voice whispered, “You’re not very brave.  You don’t know what you’re doing.  Follow me and I will help you.”  Sharlet remembered Nick’s advice.  She knew she was brave and smart.  She could figure this out on her own. Instead of listening to the voice, Sharlet walked the other way away from the voice, and as soon as she did, she was walking out of the cave.  She and the group were standing up to their necks in black water.

“Okay, I am guessing this is Lake Anger, right?” joked Sharlet. “Very funny.  You’re a clown.  Now listen to me - you need to dive under the water and swim until you overcome the anger of the Lake, then and only then, will you appear in Castle Enchantment,” instructed Sun  “What about you guys?” wondered Sharlet.  “This is something you have to do on your own,” said Tom.  Before sharlet could protest someone pushed her down into the black water.

Once she was under the water, she felt as if she was mad at everything, like her friends not saying goodbye and just pushing her aside like a piece of junk.  Then Sharlet remembered that she could not get out if she did not control her temper.

She counted to ten and took three deep breaths of the mystical black water to calm down.  Just then, she popped up out of the water and was standing dry as could be in front of Castle Enchantment.  This place was the most beautiful place Sharlet had ever seen in her life.

A lady stepped out to greet her, “Hello Sharlet.  My name is Princess Meamora, and I am guessing you need to get out of Universe Lake Beauty and return to your human world.”  Before Sharlet could answer, Meamora spoke again, “No time for talking.   To save my universe and return to your world, you have to answer this riddle: What have you learned on this journey?” rushed Meamora.  Sharlet thought about her adventures through the Forest of Fears, the Maze of Truth, the Cave of You’re Not Good Enough, and Lake Anger, and then she answered.

“In the Forest of Fears I learned that sometimes you need help.  I also learned that if you let your fears overtake you, then you will be weak.  In the Maze of Truth I learned that I have been very mean in the past and I am ready to change.  In the Cave of You’re not Good Enough I learned not to let people get me down.  I also learned that I am very brave and smart.  In Anger Lake I learned how to control my temper and accept what I cannot change.”

“You have learned a lot on your journey.  You have passed the test in time to save our universe from destruction, and now you may return to your human world.  When you wake, remember the lessons you learned on your adventures here.  Now farewell my human friend.”  Princess Meomora threw some sparkling dust in the air and waved goodbye.

Then Sharlet woke up in her bed, in her house, with the noises of her family all around her.  She had done it!  The dream universe was safe and so was she.  Sharlet would miss her friends, but they all needed to live happily ever after.

The End.

Signing Off,
Evalynn and Mom

The Three Branches of The United States Government

For the common core standards for fourth grade, I needed to learn about the three branches of the United States government and understand their major responsibilities.  To do this, my mom found some awesome websites that taught me what I needed to know through songs and games.  I love homeschool!  The links are listed below.

To wrap up what I learned, I created a government tree.  You can see that there are three branches on the tree, for each of the three branches of government.  And the leafy limbs attached to each branch describe the major responsibilities for that branch of government.  You can also see that the Constitution is the root system of the tree, because the Constitution is the root system of our government.

This was a fun project!  I like project learning better than test learning.



Flocabulary video on The 3 Branches of Government:

http://www.flocabulary.com/3-branches-of-government/?_hse=sandlerk%40tas.edu.tw&_hsh=1995c8646c5139f4ba397ca97b47c940&_hsmi=3036864



Games about the 3 Branches of Government and Checks and Balances:

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/usa_game/government/branches_government.htm

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/usa_game/government/checks_and_balances.htm

http://www.usmint.gov/Kids/games/branchesOfPower/

Signing Off,
Evalynn and Mom

The Pencil Boogie (a.k.a. Light Refraction)

I did an experiment on light refraction that I would like to share with you.  Light refraction is a change of direction in a light ray due to a change in speed.

I like to call this experiment The Pencil Boogie.  It's easy to do, but surprisingly fun.  Here's a video of the experiment:

Materials

• Pencil 
• Empty glass
• Glass full of water

Protocols 

• Put the pencil in the empty glass and look at it from eye level.
• Put the pencil in the water and look at it from eye level.
• Start to spin the pencil in the water slowly, then look at it from eye level.

What's Happening

• The light is playing tricks on you. Light moves slower through water than through air, so when the light enters the glass of water it slows down and changes direction.  When it leaves the glass, it speeds up again, making the pencil look bent.  This is called refraction.
•  When the pencil is put at an angle the light exits out at an angle, but if you hold it up straight the pencil still looks whole because the light is not at an angle. 

Signing Off,

Evalynn and Mom

Savannah, Georgia

My Grandma and Grandpa Woolf, and my Aunt Mallory, came to visit me at the beginning of April.  We took a trip to Disney World, and it was amazing!  Then we spent a couple of days in Savannah, Georgia.  We had a good time walking around, looking at the old buildings, learning about the city, eating at the Pirates' House, and playing at Tybee Island.  Here are some facts and pictures for your enjoyment:

Savannah's history began in 1733, the year General James and 120 passengers of the ship Anne landed at the Savannah shore.

During the American Revolution, the British took Savannah in 1778, and held it into 1782.

Savannah is known as America's first planned city.

Savannah was really worried about the Spanish, who lived in modern day Florida, attacking.

The city was planned and built around square parks. Everyone who lived in a house around the squares were assigned to protect their square in case of an attack.

Savannah's wealth came from cotton.  Many of the world's cotton prices were set on the steps of the Savannah Cotton Exchange.

According to USA Today, Savannah is the fifth most haunted city in the United States.

When I ate at the Pirates' House, this robotic pirate told me many ghost stories and said I should ask my server for more stories.

This was our server, Kim.  She told us a story about ghost children who haunted the restaurant she used to work at.  At Christmas, she put gifts out for them under the tree at night.  In the morning, the packages were open and the gifts strewn everywhere.

The Pirates' House is thought to be the oldest standing building in Savannah, and was built in 1753.

The Pirates' House today is a restaurant that is supposedly haunted by pirate ghosts.

We found this crazy looking pirate at the Pirates' House.

He photo-bombed the family picture.

My mom says the Pirate House has the best fried green tomatoes.

And the biscuits there are out of this world.

Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low was born in Savannah.

In the last 10 years, more than 50 million people came to visit Savannah.

Tybee Island is the easternmost point of Georgia and is unofficially considered Savannah's beach.

My brother and I created our own little beach town at Tybee that we call, EvieOllie.

The Sugar Shack is a nice little ice cream restaurant that has been at Tybee Island for more than 30 years.

 They serve the BEST almond joy ice cream EVER!

I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about Savannah and my awesome trip.

Signing Off,
Evalynn and Mom