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A Spooky Tid Bit From An Author I Love

I bet you thought I had forgotten about you guys as it has been so long since I posted something new, but don't worry I have a bunch of great stuff on the way. I wanted to share this excerpt, or small part, of Niel Gaiman's new book. He is one of my favorite authors, he has the best descriptions of things and has the perfect combination of spooky and funny. I think this beginning of the book is great, "there was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." Can you get any better than that for creepy? I think this fits in nicely this time of year and with our Poe unit. Do you think Poe might have had an influence on Gaiman? Read on and let me know what you think...

Excerpt: 'The Graveyard Book'

by Neil Gaiman

NPR.org, October 16, 2008 · Chapter 1: How Nobody Came to the Graveyard

There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.

The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately.

The knife had done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet.

The street door was still open, just a little, where the knife and the man who held it had slipped in, and wisps of nighttime mist slithered and twined into the house through the open door.

The man Jack paused on the landing. With his left hand he pulled a large white handkerchief from the pocket of his black coat, and with it he wiped off the knife and his gloved right hand which had been holding it; then he put the handkerchief away. The hunt was almost over. He had left the woman in her bed, the man on the bedroom floor, the older child in her brightly colored bedroom, surrounded by toys and half-finished models. That only left the little one, a baby barely a toddler, to take care of. One more and his task would be done.

He flexed his fingers. The man Jack was, above all things, a professional, or so he told himself, and he would not allow himself to smile until the job was completed.

His hair was dark and his eyes were dark and he wore black leather gloves of the thinnest lambskin.

The toddler's room was at the very top of the house. The man Jack walked up the stairs, his feet silent on the carpeting. Then he pushed open the attic door, and he walked in. His shoes were black leather, and they were polished to such a shine that they looked like dark mirrors: you could see the moon reflected in them, tiny and half full.

The real moon shone through the casement window. Its light was not bright, and it was diffused by the mist, but the man Jack would not need much light. The moonlight was enough. It would do.

He could make out the shape of the child in the crib, head and limbs and torso.

The crib had high, slatted sides to prevent the child from getting out. Jack leaned over, raised his right hand, the one holding the knife, and he aimed for the chest ...

... and then he lowered his hand. The shape in the crib was a teddy bear. There was no child.

The man Jack's eyes were accustomed to the dim moonlight, so he had no desire to turn on an electric light. And light was not that important, after all. He had other skills.

The man Jack sniffed the air. He ignored the scents that had come into the room with him, dismissed the scents that he could safely ignore, honed in on the smell of the thing he had come to find. He could smell the child: a milky smell, like chocolate chip cookies, and the sour tang of a wet, disposable, nighttime diaper. He could smell the baby shampoo in its hair, and something small and rubbery — a toy, he thought, and then, no, something to suck — that the child had been carrying.

The child had been here. It was here no longer. The man Jack followed his nose down the stairs through the middle of the tall, thin house. He inspected the bathroom, the kitchen, the airing cupboard, and, finally, the downstairs hall, in which there was nothing to be seen but the family's bicycles, a pile of empty shopping bags, a fallen diaper, and the stray tendrils of fog that had insinuated themselves into the hall from the open door to the street.

The man Jack made a small noise then, a grunt that contained in it both frustration and also satisfaction. He slipped the knife into its sheath in the inside pocket of his long coat, and he stepped out into the street. There was moonlight, and there were streetlights, but the fog stifled everything, muted light and muffled sound and made the night shadowy and treacherous. He looked down the hill towards the light of the closed shops, then up the street, where the last high houses wound up the hill on their way to the darkness of the old graveyard.

The man Jack sniffed the air. Then, without hurrying, he began to walk up the hill.

Ever since the child had learned to walk he had been his mother's and father's despair and delight, for there never was such a boy for wandering, for climbing up things, for getting into and out of things. That night, he had been woken by the sound of something on the floor beneath him falling with a crash. Awake, he soon became bored, and had begun looking for a way out of his crib. It had high sides, like the walls of his playpen downstairs, but he was convinced that he could scale it. All he needed was a step . . .

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The knife had done almost everything it was brought to the house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet.

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The man Jack was, above all things, a professional, or so he told himself ...

Taking Playing With Your Food To A Whole New Level.....

Hello Chipmunks!

So we made it through the week! Yah for the weekend!!! I hope you all do lots of fun things, but I know that you like me will be spending part of your weekend doing homework. Yes, I can hear you saying homework sucks, but here are somethings to make it more fun. Click Here, for a sight with a good explanation of cell division and some good illustrations and animations. There is even a little quiz you can take. This link takes you to a flash animation of mitosis, this is different than the link I included in the last post and I like it better. The animation is from this UA site if you want to check out the entire site. Now here are a few good clips from our favorite sight, YouTube.



This clip shows mitosis as it takes place in a real cell, very cool stuff.



This clip shows mitosis at the real rate it takes place!



Now here are a few clips about DNA and RNA replication. I think this makes much more sense when you see it rather than just read it. They go into detail that you don't need to know but the visuals are good.





This animation is a good explanation of RNA and what it does.



Now that you have strained your brain thinking about science here are some fantastic food photos for you.







And now I will leave you with, yes you guessed it, a mitosis song!

Cell Divison

Hello Darlings,

So what do you think about this genetic stuff? The concepts are interesting, but I know that they can also be hard. It is one thing to read about something in a book, and another thing to make a visual image in your head. I want to give you a visual way to look at the cell cycle and mitosis. Here is a link to a great web page with some animations that I think make the process much clearer. This link will take you to a really clear look at the parts of a cell. I will continue to look for more ways to make this stuff engaging and accessible so keep checking back!

Ms Deva

and now some science stuff for a change!

Hello All,

As you might have guessed from the video we started watching in Science we are starting a unit on genetics. You might not believe me right now, but this is really fun and interesting stuff, and I just know you will all be super into it! : P

Genetics and genetic variation is a complex subject, but it rests on a few basic and easy to understand concepts. I know Mrs. Hadinger will introduce all this stuff to you in class but I know how much you love YouTube videos so I pulled a few off of there for you. You can watch them and then impress us all with how much you already know!











So now that you have see the complicated stuff that modern science has discovered here are a few fun videos about Gregor Mendel. People, by which of course I mean science teachers, often talk about Mendel as the father of modern genetics. By just using pea plants Mendel was able to determine some really important things about genetics, like how our features are passed from one generation to another. He must have been a pretty smart and resourceful guy. But don't take my word for it. Hop into your time machine and watch the next video.



This next video is quite good, but it is about a 1/2 hour so watch it when you have a bit of time. It is about Mendel and the human genome project.



And because no post is complete without a rap song here is what you have all been waiting for the Geregor Mendel rap!



Alright, I just can't stop. This one makes me laugh, I would love it if one of you made something like this. I think it would qualify for some major bonus points!



And that truly is all. Now go do your homework!

Ms Deva

Fun Stuff, Including the Preamble Like You Have Never Seen It Before!

Hello Ladies and Gentleman!  Here we are almost at the weekend again, yay!  Sam has passed on some really great links (you rock Sam!) and so I am posting them to share them with you. So if you like them and find them useful, than thank Sam.  

Yes, I know you all have taken the metric system quiz in science already and all of you got A's I am sure ; )  but who knows, you may need a metric refresher sometime soon.  So here is the link to a YouTube video that gives you a great overview of the metric system.

Here is a School House Rock song that I think will help a lot in memorizing the preamble.  

Now that you have watched something educational check out this clip from one of my personal favorite TV shows, the original Star Trek.  I expect all of you to recite the preamble like Kirk now that you have watched this ; ) 

Here is getting ahead of ourselves a bit, but here is how a bill becomes a law.  If you thought the metric system rap got stuck in your head wait until you here this one!

Ok, that's all for now, but since I have gotten the hang of posting videos to the blog keep checking back for more!  And if you find something you feel will help  your classmates let me know and I will review it and put it up!  

Ms Abela

Four-Day School Week-Is It In Our Furutre?

Four-Day School Weeks: For Real Now

About a month ago, I wrote that a handful of school districts—due to rising fuel costs—said they could save thousands of dollars in school bus fuel by switching to four-day school weeks. Apparently things have really ramped up since then.

A recent survey says that 1 in 7 school boards nationwide are considering whether to drop a day off the normal five-day school week. About half surveyed said they were planning to cut out field trips, and more than 30% said they were consolidating or eliminating bus routes.

We've been down this road before. During the oil crisis of the 1970s about 100 districts implemented a four-day week also. One small study in Florida in 1973 found that half the students preferred it (Heck yeah: three-day weekends!).

But gas prices aren't the only issue: a shaky economy and some state budge woes led some districts to switch to a four-day week as many as four years ago.

Journal Topic 8/25

What is a preamble and where would you find one?

The 5 W's-Some Tips On Writing Your Current Events

Over the past couple days I have been hearing the same question from a lot of you, "how do I do my current event?" So I figure most of you are still a little unsure if you are doing the right thing. My suggestion is to read over what you have written and see if it answers the 5 W's.

What are the 5 W's? They are Who, What, Where, When and Why is it Important. If what you have written answers those questions you are good to go! If not you probably should go back and answer the ones you have missed.

To make it easy on your self you can write the 5 W's on your paper before you begin writing, sort of like this.....

Who:

What:

Where:

When:

Why Important:

This will help you structure your thoughts as you begin to write, and help you make sure you are getting the important details.

If any of you have found something that helps you compose your current events respond to this post and share it with your classmates!

Cheers and Happy Writing : )

Ms Abela

Hello Guys and Glas!

Here we are in 8th grade and at the beginning of a new school year! What an exciting and fun time! I am not going to be in most of your classes this year, but I am still going to be around to help out. I am going to use this blog as a way of hoking you up with fun and useful resources on the web, and little reminders as to when things are due. I will try to up date the page few days, so keep checking in for new stuff!

Right now the agenda for the rest of the week includes...

Mrs. Hadinger's safety quiz on Friday-remember you have to get 100% or you will have to take it again : (

and

Mrs. Fairbanks Social Studies map quiz-also on Friday. You will need to get at least an 80% so study hard! Remember http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/unitedstates.html
the online US map quiz is a great resource to help you study!

Ms Abela