My Day With Nick Vujicic

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Today my mom took me to Los Angeles to hear a speech by Nick Vujicic. I had no idea who he was or what he was going to talk about. All I knew was that my mom was really excited to take me.

We drove to UCLA. I had never seen a college campus before. I liked it. There were a lot of college kids walking around and cafes and stores to look at.

Once we were seated, a man named Dr. Bill Dorfman introduced Nick. On stage I saw a person in a wheelchair and a few other men in front of him and behind him. I didn’t know who was who. The man in the wheelchair then got on a table and started talking. I didn’t realize he was Nick.

I was surprised because he had no arms or legs. My first thought was, “What happened?” I wondered if he had an accident. Maybe he fell off a skateboard or something else. I had never seen a man with no arms or legs before.

I learned that he is 27 years old and he is from Australia. He did not have an accident. He was born that way. He said that when he was just 8 years old, he was very depressed. He got teased all the time by other kids. They always told him he was ugly or that he looked like an alien. One day at school, he counted 12 kids who teased him and called him ugly. They were so mean.

He was so down that he told himself if one more person said it, he would commit suicide. The next person to call out to him was a girl. When he turned to look at her she said, “Hey Nick! You’re looking good today!” She made him feel so good that it erased his bad feelings from earlier.

Nick talked about what is cool and what isn’t cool. He said some kids think it’s cool to bully others, swear, or drink alcohol. Nick said these things are NOT cool.

I agree. He also said if you fall down or if you fail at something, you should never ever give up. Always pick yourself up and try try again. You should never give up because you never know what’s around the corner.

For Nick, if he had committed suicide, I would have never heard him, met him, or learned his important message. He is really funny, too. Nick said that he receives 30,000 requests a month to speak all over the world! I feel so lucky that I got to meet him and give him a hug.

I’m 8 years old and I really like school and my friends. But if I had his experience, I wouldn’t like going because everyone would tease me. The biggest lesson I learned was to never bully or tease anyone. Even though I’ve never teased anyone, not only will I not tease anyone in the future, but I also promise never to allow anyone else to tease anyone in front of me!

SCIENCE RULES!

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(Taken from Mrs. Yates’ Classroom Blog)

Mrs. Yates:

11/9/09

Dear Friends,

If you look up “science” in the dictionary it says the following: “Science is a continuing effort to discover and increase human knowledge and understanding through research. Scientists collect observable evidence, record measurable data relating to the observations, and analyze this information to explain how things work. The methods of scientific research include hypotheses (guesses) of how things work, and experimentation that tests these hypotheses.”

I hope this year you become inspired to ask your own questions, come up with your own hypotheses of how things work, and create your own experimentations to prove or disprove your ideas. You all have intelligent and curious minds and through innovative thinking, you can change the world! Think BIG! Tell me, what does science mean to you? What questions do you have? Maybe you are curious about biology: the study of the body and how it works, or maybe seismology: the study of earthquakes or seismic waves, or maybe physics: the study of matter and energy… the list goes on and on!

What interests you? Please respond in our new “Friendly Letter” format! Room 22 ROCKS!

Warmly,

Mrs. Yates

Max:

Dear Mrs. Yates,

Science is fun to learn! We are learning about fossils. Fossils are fun to learn about because they teach us and tell us what lived long ago. It also tells us what size and shape the plant or animal was. Fossils are also fun to learn about because we can use fossils to help us learn more about what it ate and what kind of plant or animal it was. I want to learn more about the moon, the solar system and lots of other things.

Your student,

Max

Dinosaurs

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(Taken from Mrs. Yates’ Classroom Blog)

Mrs. Yates:

Dinosaurs have fascinated Paleontologists for years. They are creatures that once roamed this earth and hold a mystery that we continue to try and solve each day. Write a paragraph about these mysterious creatures we call dinosaurs. Tell what you know about the time period, for example, when they existed. Talk about the characteristics that made dinosaurs different from each other, for example, what they ate and how they defended themselves. How do you think they became extinct and why do we, as humans, know so much about them?

Max:

Dinosaurs have lived long ago. They are very fun to learn about because no one has ever seen one. I think that dinosaurs got extinct because there was a lot of erosion. There were lots of time periods like the Jurassic period and the Cretaceous period. They all had different habitats like the plains, the forest, the swamp, and the desert. We as people know so much about dinosaurs because we have found so many fossils and imprints of dinosaurs. A meat eater is a carnivore and a plant eater is a herbivore but I forgot the one that eats plants and meat. If I were a scientist I would probably study dinosaurs.

A Festive Holiday!

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(Taken from Mrs. Yates’ Classroom Blog)

Mrs. Yates:

Halloween is an exciting holiday where the tradition of dressing up is magical, knocking on neighbors doors and receiving candy is fun, and staying up later than usual is thrilling! So tell me, what is it like on Halloween night? Use a lot of descriptive details so I feel like I am there with you! Use your voice in your writing to make me laugh or make me think about safety on Halloween night. Boo!

Max:

Halloween is a fun Holiday! For Halloween, I am going to be Darth Maul. My sister Mia is going to be Snow White. Darth Maul is a guy from Star Wars and he is a bad guy .He has a painted face, and he has spikes on his head, so watch out for him. Mia (who is Snow White) is a princess and she has a beautiful blue and yellow dress, has pretty eyes and gorgeous shoes. If you go trick or treating, you have to say three special words: trick or treat. I do not know what my favorite candy is. I just care that people have fun. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays!

Geologists!

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(Taken from Mrs. Yates’ Classroom Blog)

Mrs. Yates:

As we have learned, studying the earth can be very exciting. So my friends, what would it be like to be a geologist? What type of skills do they have to have to be able to do the job well? Why is their job important? What can we learn from these fabulous scientists? Would you like to be a geologist some day? Why or why not?

Max:

Geologists are a type of scientist. They study rocks, minerals, and soil. The kind of rocks that they study are igneous, metamorphic, and sedamentary. Metamorphic rocks are made from heat and preasure. Sedamentary rocks are made from sand and lots of other things and igneous rocks are made of lava and magma. I don’t know about minerals or soil, but soon Mrs. Yates will teach it to me. Geologists are important.

November 23, 2008

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I got my friend Chase some cool things for his birthday. One of them is a Ben 10 thing that creates some of his aliens. The other one is some really good pokemon cards. I can’t wait to go to his birthday party. It’s tomorrow. I wonder what everybody else is going to bring from him? Good bye for now

Max

June 19, 2008

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Hi it’s me Max again.

Today I am going to tell you about Harry potter again. Tonight me and my mom are going to read chapter 17. Right now Ron and Hermione are stuck. I don’t know if Harry can make it. If he does not make it, it will be sad. If he does make it, it will be happy. If I read it tonight I will tell you tomorrow. It’s very exiciting.

Good bye

See you tomorrow

June 18, 2008

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Hi

Today I’m going to tell you about playing on the computer. You can play lots of games on the computer like Hot Wheels and Speed Racer and Webkinz and Teletubbies and StarFall and Gogurt and Lego and lots of other games.

Good bye

June 17, 2008

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Today I am going to tell you about skateboarding. I am going to tell you about Mike. He is my skating teacher. He sometimes is nice enough to give me some stickers. He teaches me how to do everything in sckateboarding.

Two of my favorite things are dropping into the bowl and grinding. Good bye now

See you soon.

June 16, 2008

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Hi it’s me Max again. And you already know what I’m going to tell you about. Well, if you forgot I will tell you. it is my DS. I have 7 DS cartridges. One of them is Pokemon. I have two different Star Wars. I have two different Scooby Doos, one Monster Truck game, and Thrillville off the rails.

I have a red DS.

Good bye now