McCord Laidlaw
A leap year happens every four years. This year is a leap year. It is 2012, and I am in fourth grade at Cambridge Academy. My teacher is Mrs. Fennell. We have learned a lot this year. We learned that on a leap year, February has 29 days. February has 28 days on the other three years. Leap years are important because they keep our calendars aligned with the seasons.
The next leap year will be in 2016. I will be fourteen years old. I will be in the eighth grade and will be learning how to drive. Maybe I will be in another play at GCT. I would also like to be playing sports in middle school. I hope to see Mrs. Fennell in four years, so I can tell her what I am doing.
Andrew Darby
Yesterday was leap day. It was an ordinary day. I went to school and to tennis and it was a lot of fun. During the next leap year I will be in eighth grade. I think I will still be playing tennis. I hope I will be a better tennis player. Hopefully I will still be at Cambridge. I hope I will be a smarter person. This is what I did during leap day and my plans for the future.
Sarah Dixon
Yesterday was leap day. This year is leap year. It seemed ordinary, but it was not! This year I went to school like any other day. I had an exciting thought in my head all day, it was leap day! I was thinking about frogs and for some reason I kept getting off track.
Sometimes I wish I could see the future leap day! I'm not sure what I will be doing then. I wonder what I will be thinking and saying. Mrs. Fennell says she will come to the middle school hall saying, "It is here, leap year is here." I hope she will and I hope you, in four years, have a great leap year.
Olivia Rowland
Yesterday was Feb.29. On leap day I was in school. The day after leap day was my birthday and I turned ten years old. I like leap year because you get an extra day to get everything done, but I also don't like it because it feels like we have an extra day at school.
Next time we have a leap day I will be fourteen years old and I will probably be in school. Next time they might have invented new things like a walking trash can or a talking oven.
John Turner
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Flying Fish and Puffer Fish both live in the same areas of the ocean. They are both the size of a teacup. They both have predators but they have different ways of defending themselves. Flying Fish jump out of the water to escape predators. Puffer Fish puff up so its predator will not eat it, and it is also poisonous and some have spikes. A Puffer Fish is a carnivore and a Flying Fish is an omnivore. Both fish travel in a school. A Flying Fish lives about five years and a Puffer Fish lives 4-8 years. Neither is uncommon. While a Flying Fish can reach high speeds, a Puffer Fish is a poor swimmer. They both have many similarities and differences. |  |
Lauren Parramore
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Polar bears and white seals have many similarities and many differences. They are both mammals and both live in cold environments, like Antarctica. They both are excellent swimmers and are both omnivores. Seals have fluffy white fur but as they get older it turns to dark gray. Seals can weigh 880 pounds and polar bears can weigh up to 1400 pounds. Their size might be different but they both can live up to 35 years. Polar bears live in caves and so do seals. These are some facts about polar bears and white seals. |  |
David DiBenedetto
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Crocodiles and alligators are similar in many ways as well as different. Both are classified as reptiles and both are carnivores. Their diet consists of birds, reptiles, and mammals. The habitats of both reptiles are different. They both reproduce by eggs. The crocodile lives in salt water and the alligator lives in fresh water. They are also different in their size. The crocodile is 150-450 pounds and the alligator is 450-600 pounds. They are both very shy. The crocodile's lifespan is 60-70 years and the alligator's lifespan is 50-70 years. These are the similarities and differences between the crocodile and the alligator. |  |
Sarah Dixon
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The Blue-Tongued Skink and the African Pancake Tortoise are both reptiles. They are alike in some ways but different in many ways. Both reptiles live in tropical habitats, are cold-blooded, and are very agile climbers. The two reptiles are flat in appearance, with the skink having a body similar to a snake. They differ in their diets. The skink is an omnivore and the tortoise is a herbivore. Not only are their diets different, but the skink is also bigger and slower than the tortoise. The tortoise lays eggs, where the skink gives live birth. Skinks can live 10 to 20 years and the tortoise can live well over 25 years. These are some of the similarities and differences of the Blue-Tongued Skink and the African Pancake Tortoise. |  |
Creighton Bowen - Untitled
Once there was an author named Will who loved drawing. One day he broke his leg and had to get crutches. He was very shapeless after that. Will just sat around on the couch and watched t.v. all day. One day an earthquake hit town. Will had to call his cousin to get him because he couldn't drive. Will was very thankful for his cousin. When they were driving they passed a lot of wheat fields, and ponds with a bunch of minnows in them…
John Turner - A Strange Bird
The official bird of the tiny speck of sidewalk number 3,961,287,310,502 is very strange. It is microscopic and shapeless, so it can shapeshift. It eats minnows and parts of worms. A worm will last a month before it is entirely eaten. One million pinches would not be noticeable from this small creature. A super genius may have made a machine that created them. That is what is so strange about this bird.
Lauren Parramore - Halloween Fright
It was Halloween night. I was having fun. I had gone through corn mazes, and I wanted to do the Haunted House. We were going there next. I could not wait. When I finally got there, I was the first one in. At the entrance, there was a floating creature above my head. There was a jar with a fake brain in it. Then I saw a shadow in the corner and I shrieked. I ran out as fast as I could! I never went in a Haunted House again.
Lauren Parramore
A tradition in our family is to make peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses on top. We get to pick which stencil we want to use for our cookies. My mom lets me use the rolling pin. Then we stick our fingers in the middle. My mom bakes them a while. When they are ready, we take them out of the oven and get Hershey kisses and put them in the middle.
Another tradition is we always go to Atlanta and go to the park and ice skating rink. There is a giant Christmas tree. We go to the mall and see the lights in the stores. We go to the aquarium also.
We feed the reindeer on Christmas Eve. On Christmas day we open presents and eat breakfast. Then we go to my grandma and grandpa. That night all the cousins come to their house and we get gifts from the whole family.
Patrick Festa
At my house we like to decorate the tree. My brother and I set up the tree and put lights on it. Then the shelf elf comes and he hides every day. Sometimes he even hides in the Christmas tree. My sister also comes from Dallas, Texas. I'm glad when she comes.
We go to my grandma's house and I see my cousins, aunts, and uncles. We go back to our house and have a really good Christmas. My sister leaves and I go back to regular old days. These are a few of my family traditions.
Sarah Dixon
My family has lots of traditions and these are some of them. One of my favorite traditions is a Dickens Village. It is very nice on the desk in our living room. My favorite pieces are the ice skaters, one of the churches, the toy store, theater, and a lot of the children. There is a man who sells chestnuts, a lady who feeds the birds, and a woman who has blueberries in a basket. I love this village and I always have.
Advent is next. We have an Advent calendar at my house. It is a Christmas tree. There are all these little figures that you put on the Christmas tree. The calendar is made out of wood.
We always get two trees and we have three little trees. The little trees are fake, one for Lucy, one for Mary, and one for me.
We have an ornament that is a pickle that someone always finds. Whoever finds it on Christmas morning gets an extra present. I hope we have more Christmas traditions soon.
Creighton Bowen
During Christmas time we go fun places and do fun things. We ride in my parent's car to go see the Christmas lights. After that we go to Connie Maxwell with my Grandparents to see the decorations. My Grandma and Grandpa come over on Christmas morning. When they do they hide a pickle in the tree and whoever finds it wins a prize.
Every year Santa brings us a reindeer ornament with the bell. We go to my Dad's parents on Christmas Eve to open some presents. We go to my aunt's house to make cookies for Santa and us. On Christmas Eve night we read The Night Before Christmas by the warm fire. On Christmas night our family comes over. These are all of our traditions.
Josie Rooney - Storm Story
My class had to write an essay. I was finished. It was cloudy that day and I was worried that the tornado sirens would go off. In dance class the tornado sirens were going off. We had to go into the bathroom. The bathroom door came open. I saw my essay flying by. I jumped for it. The tornado was right in front of me. I flew back and my teacher grabbed me, and shut the door. I screamed. We huddled together. The sirens stopped, and all was quiet. The next day we had to turn our essay in. I got a hundred!
David DiBenedetto - Mystery
One day there was a house and the next day it was gone and so were all the people who lived in it. The police checked the street cameras and all they showed was the wind picking up and then the house was gone! None of the weather people reported it. All they saw were high winds. They thought it was a tornado. Everyone else thought it was a tornado too. The police started to investigate and they found out that 2,578 miles north there was another sighting of a half of a house taken. Then 200 miles from that town, they found a house and a half and all the people who lived in the houses were there. All of them said the same thing. They said that they were in their room and the next thing they knew they were in the air. They didn't remember anything after that. But they know it was a tornado. The government named it Mystery. Fifteen years later, Mystery struck again. They know it was a tornado because it took a house, and nobody knew why at first...
John Turner - Two Tickets to Freedom
William and Ellen are slaves from Georgia. They are trying to escape. They have made it to Washington, D.C. with Ellen disguised as a injured white man. They barely made it to Philadelphia. They eventually made their way to England and had children. After the Civil War they returned to Georgia, and bought a plantation. They also established a farm school for poor people. That is just the basics of William's and Ellen's story.
Joe Benjamin
This summer I went to a church camp called Camp Prism and one of the activities was a zipline. There was a long line and then it was my turn. It was really fun. I could feel the wind blowing on my face. I was going so fast it was like being on a rocket. The zipline was very long and high and it was like swinging in the jungle. I could see a creek with lots of rocks and sand. When I got off we went back to the cabin to get a drink. That is one thing I did this summer.
Sarah Dixon
It was the last day of my trip to Yosemite with my Dad, sister, cousin and grandparents. We were in Little Yosemite Valley and my dad had left early in the morning because he went down to Big Yosemite Valley to get our car. We were going to meet him there once he had the car. We ate out of our cups, packed up, and hit the trial. It was a sunny day with pretty scenery and our last hike was five miles downhill. So there we were going 2,000 feet. My grandparents had to go slowly so I had to stop and wait. I always thought it was boring to stop, but twice it was different. The first time I was taking photos and looked up the hill I saw a really big brown bear! The bear had a yellow tag on its ear and had a very shiny deep black nose. It was huge! Everything about it was big, its head, body, even its feet were massive. Slowly my grandparents caught up and we went on. Later I stopped again, hoping to see another bear. Then out of the trees came another bear! It was really cute and had a chocolate brown coat. It was small and looked like a cub. It was an opposite of the bigger bear. After that we didn't see any more bears on the way down. We got to the falls; it was beautiful! Soon after we got to the car and drove to the hotel. The whole way I was telling my dad about the bears. Out of all I saw, like the marmots, weird looking squirrels, and fish, the bears were the coolest. This is the time I saw two bears!
