TWINS

Twins are two babies’ that are produced in the same pregnancy and they are born at the same process. There are two types of twins, fraternal which means non-identical, and identical. The reason I decided to write a blog about twins is because I myself am a twin. I have a twin sister named Julie. We are fraternal twins, and some people say we look alike but others don’t.
Me and my sister are Gemini baby’s, born on June 17. This year coming up will be our 23rd birthdays. Every since we were little we did everything together. My and Julie went to the same grammar school. When it came time to chose what school we wanted to go to for high school, we decided to go to the same school again. After high school we did end up going to different colleges. She decided to go away for school and I stayed local.
My and my sister played every sport together; we played soccer, volleyball, swimming, tennis, softball, basketball, and even track. When I was younger I loved being a twin and I still do. One day when I get married I hope I have twins. just because I loved always having someone there no matter what and I want the same for my children.

VOCABULARY:

Twins: two babies’ born during the same pregnancy

Pregnancy: when a baby is being born

Faternal: two people that do not look alike

Identical: something that looks like something else

Gemini: Horoscope sign

Grammar School: going to school from kindergarten to eighth grade

High school: grades ninth to twelfth

SENTENCES:
(1) If someone is born towards the end of the month in July their horoscope sign would be ________________________.
(2) This blue ball looks _________________ to that one.
(3) My little brother is graduation from _____________________ this year and he is going to college.
(4) Me and my sister, Julie are _________________ twins.
(5) My mother had a tough _____________________, because she had two babies in her stomach.
(6) All of the kids in my family attended the same _____________________, from kindergarten to eighth grade.
(7) Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are __________________, just like me and Julie.

GRAMMAR POINT:
In this blog I talked about my sister Julie and how we did everything together. In order to describe what we use to do I had to talk in the past tense. Go through my blog and highlight all of the past tense verbs.

After that, I want you to write a paragraph describing something that happened in the past. Make sure you use all past tense verbs.

IPAD

Apples newest release into the world of technology is its Ipad. The Ipad is amazing and could be used for the internet, tv, games, basically anything you want it to be. In order to work the Ipad it is used by a touch screen, so you use your fingers. The Ipad is fun, it words fast, and works like a computer but is smaller. Its device is a tablet pc with many cool features. With so many different reactions to the Ipad here is a list of some features.

• Cheapest version is 500 dollars - 16 gigs of storage (however this unit does not contain 3G coverage. This version is $625

• The device is extremely light and weighs 1.5 pounds.

• 10 hours of active battery life (active battery life is while the unit is in use)

• The battery is built into the unit (which means like many apple products after a year or so the battery life will start to get worse).

• The tablet contains high speed 3G


VOCBULARY:

Release: come out to the public

Technology: new world of computers and games

Ipad: built by apple and you can go on the internet and play games, basically do whatever you want

Device: something that was built

Tablet: the Ipad

Version: many different forms of one thing

Gigs: memory space



SENTENCES:
(1) The new video game has a _____________ date of July 1st.
(2) My computer runs so slow because it doesn’t have a lot of _______________.
(3) My brother has the fourth __________________ of the spider man game.
(4) Today there is new __________________ coming out every day.
(5) Brian built his own _____________ and runs smoothly.
(6) Apples newest invention is the _________________.
(7) The ______________ contains a lot of gigs.

GRAMMAR POINT:
If you go back through my blog you will see many descriptive words that i used to describe the Ipad. I want you to go back and highlight every descriptive word. After you complete that I want you to write a list of ten differnt descriptive words.

Seasons

The four seasons are winter, spring, summer, and autumn (fall). The difference between each season is the weather and also the hours of daylight. Seasons are a result of the revolution of the Earth and the Sun as well as the tilt of the Earth’s axis.

Spring:

Spring is between winter and summer and the days are close to 12 hours long with the length of the day increasing as the season continues. Spring months are March, April and May. This season is referred to as the rebirth usually because of the flowers coming out again.

Summer:

Summer is between spring and autumn and is the warmest of the four seasons. It has the longest days and the shortest nights. Summer months are June, July, and August. In most countries children are out of school during the summer and most people spend more time outside.

Autumn:

Autumn is also known as fall and is between summer and winter. The autumn months are September, October, and November. The night comes earlier and the days aren’t as long as they are in the summer.

Winter:

Winter is the coldest season of the year and it is between autumn and spring. The months of winter are December, January, and February. Winter has the shortest days and the longest nights.

VOCABULARY:
Seasons: at time characterized by weather

Weather: the state of the atmosphere in regards with the weather, hot cold, etc

Daylight: time during the day when the sun is out

Revolution: going round in orbit

Tilt: position of something being tilted

Axis: a straight line in which something rotates around

Rebirth: new or second birth

GRAMMAR POINT:
COMMAS:
Throughout my blog you will notice I used many commas. Some general rules for commas that Jennifer did not use are, to use a comma before a conjunction, after an introductory element, to separate items in a series o three or more things, and to separate adjectives.

I want you to go back throughout my blog and circle all the commas I used. After that is done you can go to this website and complete a test on commas.

Read through the information and do the quiz at the end.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm

Locks of Love

Locks of Love takes donations of hair from people of all ages but they hair that is donated must be ten inches or longer and it may not be bleached, chemically damaged or over processed; premed or colored hair.

Since I started college I decided that every two years I would donate my hair to locks of love. I did it in 2007 when I was a sophomore in college and I donated 14 inches. I also did it again this year and I donated 13 inches.

The whole process was quick and easy. First I waited till my hair got really long. After I measured my hair and I knew I could donate more than 10 inches I would make an appointment at the hair salon. Then the morning of my hair cut I would straighten my hair. Next I would go to the hair salon and I would put my hair in a low pony tail and the hairstylist would measure how much I wanted to cut off. After my hair was measure they stylist would cut it off and then put it into a plastic bag. Finally after I was done getting my hair cut I would put the 10 inches in the mail and mail it to Locks of Love. I plan on donating again in two years when my hair gets long enough. I feel that donating my hair is very painless and easy for me but it really can help someone else out a lot.


VOCABULARY:

Locks of Love: organization that helps children who don’t have any hair.
Non-profit: not looking to make money
Charity: nice and helpful thing to do towards people who need help
Donations: giving a gift to someone or a groups that is in need and not looking to get any money for it.
Wigs: made with hair that stands out from the head.
Medical conditions: something wrong with them that makes them sick
Bleached: to make lighter with the use of chemicals
Chemically damaged: something that is hurt because the use of chemicals
Over processed: use to much products on their hair
Premed: straighten with chemicals


SENTENCES:

(1) For Halloween last year I wore a pink ________ on my head because it matched my costume.
(2) Every year my mom collects our old clothes and she _________________ it to the poor.
(3) My sister wanted her hair to be lighter so she _________________ it.
(4) _____________________________ is a great __________________________ organization, that helps children in need.
(6). Jessica wanted her hair to always be straight so she got her hair _________________.
(7). When I use to play softball at Molloy College we would hold a _______________ event in order to raise money for breast cancer.
(8). You can tell when someone ____________________________and ____________________________ their hair because their hair looks really bad.
(10) My brother has a ____________________________ that enables him to play sports.


GRAMMAR POINT:

In this blog I went through a sequence of events. I want you to go back and tell me the five key words I used so I was able to tell the story in correct order.
______________________ ___________________ ________________

_______________________ ___________________________

After looking over my blog I want you to use the same five key words and either write a story about something that happen in your life or make something up. Make sure you use the five key words and you tell it in correct order. If you need any examples you can write about how to bake a cake or brush your teeth.

NY Mets

My family and I have been huge Mets fans since I can remember. My family loves the Mets, Jets, and the Rangers. I had a dog that we got in 1994, when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup, and we named our dog Ranger. My dog died last year and we got a new one within about three months, and it was the same year that Shea Stadium was closing, so we named our dog Shea. As you can tell my family is huge sports fan.

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team (the batting team) take turns hitting against the pitcher of the other team (the fielding team), which tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the batting team can stop at any of the bases and later advance by a teammate's hit or other means. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team records three outs. One turn at bat for each team is an inning; nine innings make up a professional game. The team with the most runs at the end of the game wins.

My favorite team is The New York Mets. The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City. The Mets are a member of the East Division of Major League Baseball’s National League. My favorite player is David Wright. He wears number 5 on his jersey and he plays third base.


Vocabulary:
Baseball: game between two 9 player teams
Hitting: someone uses a bat and hits the ball
Arranged: to place in a certain order
Square: having all four sides of equal length
Diamond: the space enclosed by home plate and three bases
Pitcher: player on each team who stands on the mound and throws the ball to the plate
Teammate: a member of the same team
Professional: job that someone makes money doing
Queens: a borough in New York City
East Division: one of the four divisions in baseball
Major League Baseball National League: there are two leagues in major league baseball.

Sentences:
(1) I wish I was a _____________________ baseball player.
(2) _________________ and __________________ are shapes that are used in baseball.
(3) The Mets are in the_________________ and the ______________________ of Major League Baseball.
(4) I live in _____________ which is a borough in New York City.
(5) My favorite sport is _________________.
(6) Kevin ___________________ the bats in size order.
(7) When John was ______________ he got hit with the baseball.
(8) My sister was the _______________ of our team.
(9) My sister and I are members of the same team so we are __________________.


Grammar Point:
Nouns:
A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract ideas.
All the highlighted words are nouns:

Late last year our neighbours bought a goat.
Portia White was an opera singer.
The bus inspector looked at all the passengers' passes.
According to Plutarch, the library at Alexandria was destroyed in 48 B.C.
Philosophy is of little comfort to the starving.

Can you go back through my blog and write down the nouns that I used in this entry?

Resource:
http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/nouns.html

Wii

Wii is a home video game made by Nintendo. It leads the nation in sales and is the most played video game now. In December 2009 it broke the record for best-selling console in a single month in the United States.

The Wii has a wireless controller which can be used as a handheld pointing device and detects movements in three dimensions. another feature is the Wii Connect24, which enables it to recieve messages and updates over the Internet.

Children today play video games way to much, so i guess having a video game where they are more involved is better then the regular games. Wii now has Wii Sports and Wii play. These games get the children active and they actually do the motion they want their character to preform.

HERES A VIDEO YOU CAN WATCH ABOUT THE VIDEO GAME Wii!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73yDRm8KaWY

Vocabulary:

Video game: an electronic game played by images on a video screen.

Nintendo: type of video game.

Sales: used for selling

Console: an electronic system that connects to a television used in video games

Wireless Controller: no wires are needed to be attached in order for it to work

Detects: to discover or find movements

Three Dimensional: giving the illusion of depth of distances

Wii Connect 24: connects the video game to the internet

Sentences:

(1) Most young kids like to play ___________________.

(2) ________________ connects the video game to the internet.

(3) When you play the game sometimes you see it in __________________

(4) Billy sits on the couch far from the television but he can sit far away because he has a _____________________.

(5) Wii had the highest ________ by any video game.

(6) A type of video game is ___________________.

(7) The _______________of Wii, where everything is store, is the color white.


Grammar Point:

Through out this Blog i used many adjectives to describe the video game Wii. Go back through the Blog and find the adjectives I used. After that i want you to descibe something you like with five adjectives.

Saint Patrick's Day

My favorite holiday of the year is St. Patrick’s Day. I am 100 percent Irish and I love celebrating this holiday even when I was little. In high school I went to the city every year to see the parade but once I got into college the week of St. Patrick’s Day; I was always in Florida for Spring Training for the Molloy College Softball team. So this year is the first year in a while that I get to go to the city again to celebrate the holiday.

Saint Patrick’s Day is an annual feast day that celebrates Saint Patrick, who is the most commonly recognized patron saint of Ireland. It is celebrated on March 17 every year. Most people wear green ribbons and shamrocks, which started in the early 17th century. The shamrock is a three-leaved plant which is used to explain the Holy Trinity. The New York parade has become the largest Saint Patrick’s Day parade in the world. Many people march in the parade including bands, firefighters, military and police groups, cultural clubs. The parade marches up 5th avenue in Manhattan .

VOCABULARY:

Holiday: a day on which one is exempt from work.
St. Patrick’s Day: is an annual feast day that celebrates Saint Patrick, who is the most commonly recognized patron saint of Ireland
Parade: a place where a bunch of people get together to celebrate an occasion. Spring Training: every year before the season we went down to Florida to get ready to play in games
Saint Patrick: who is the most commonly recognized patron saint of Ireland. Shamrock: a three-leaved plant which is used to explain the Holy Trinity

SENTENCES

1). Most people wear green ___________________ on St. Patrick's Day.
2). Every year i go to the city to watch the _______________________.
3). My favorite ______________ is St. Patrick's Day.
4). Every year the Mets go down to Florida for ________________________.
5). The patron saint of Ireland is _______________________________.
6). On March 17 we celebrate _______________________.


Grammar Point

Over the past four blogs i talked about two of my favorite holidays. I want you to read over what I wrote and I want you to write what your favorite holiday is. It doesn't have to be a holiday known to most people it can be from where you come from or your culture.

Earthquake in Chile

The recent earthquake that affected Chile really hit me and my friends extremely hard. One of our best friends, Tim, moved to Southern Argentina in September because he has never been there before and he loves to travel. In the beginning of February he called us and told us that he decided he was going to travel for two months; he was going to take a tent and just travel to different places he has never visited before. The only thing we knew was that his first destination was going to be Chile and he was going to spend a couple of weeks there after that he was just going to go with the flow and see where it took him.

When the earthquake hit on Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 3:34 with a magnitude of 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale and lasted for about three minutes. Many cities experienced the shaking, some were, Talcahuano, Arauco, Lota, Chiquayante, Canete, and San Antonio. The earthquake was also felt in the capital and in many Argentine cities. Seismologists estimate that the earthquake so powerful that it may have shortened the length of the day by 1.26 microseconds and moved the earth’s axis of rotation by 3 inches.

For at least three days after the earthquake no one could get in touch with our friend Tim. We talked to his family but they haven’t heard from him either. We got tremendously nervous, in anticipation for his phone call. Five days after the earthquake we got a facebook message from him saying that he left Chile a day before the earthquake and he was unable to get in contact with us only through the internet. I was very happy to finally here from him but I know understand the shock and emotions that people go through when they are unable to get in touch with a loved one and don’t know if they are safe.

VOCABULARY

Earthquake: a shaking or trembling of the earth.

Chile: country in South America

Travel: to go on trip or a tour

Tent: something that serves as a shelter; sheets of fabric with poles used for camping. Destination: a place worthy of travel or a long visit.

Go with the flow: to move on a course and see where it takes him.

Magnitude: great size, or long time

Seismologists: a science that deals with earthquakes

Microsecond: smaller than a second

Axis: the main line of direction

Rotation: moving around in a circle

SENTENCES:

1) The earth does a __________________ around the sun.

2) My friend Tim loves to ________________ and he visits all different countries.

3) _____________ is one country in South America.

4) I am going on a long trip and my _______________ is California.

5) When I go camping I like to stay in _______________.

6) He finished the race _________________ before Johnny did.

7) When I go out with my friends I usually ___________________________ and don’t care what we do.

8) When the earth shakes it is known as an _____________________.

9) The earth rotates on an _______________________.

10) When my brother Billy grows up he wants to become an _____________________ because he loves earthquakes.

11) The size of the earthquake is determined by its _____________________.

GRAMMAR POINT:

In the paragraphs above I talked about something that happened in the past. I used many verbs and most of the verbs were used in the past tense.

Can you find all the past tense verbs I used?

Write a paragraph using at least 5 past tense verbs talking about something that affect you greatly in the past.

WINTER OLYMPICS

The 2010 Winter Olympics is the 21st Winter Olympics which is held from February 12-28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The 2010 Winter Olympics are the third Olympics hosted by Canada. The others were 1976 Summer Olympics, and the 1988 Winter Olympics. 82 National Olympic Committees entered teams in the 2010 Winter Olympics; there are seven teams which are making their winter Olympic debuts; Cayman Islands, Colombia, Ghana, Montenegro, Pakistan, Peru and Serbia.
The Greeks held the first Olympic games in the year 776 BC (over 2700 years ago), and had only one event, a sprint. The race was run by men who competed in the nude. A wreath of olive branches was placed on the winner's head (in Greek, this is called a kotinos). The olive tree was the sacred tree of Athens, Greece.

There are fifteen winter sports events in the 2010 Winter Olympics. There are eight ice sports, three alpine skiing and snowboarding events, and four sports categorized as Nordic events.

ICE SPORTS: Bobsled, Luge, Curling, Skeleton, Ice Hockey, Figure Skating, Speed Skating, Short Track Speed Skating

ALPINE SKIING & SNOWBOARDING: Alpine, Freestyle, Snowboarding

NORDIC: Biathlon, Cross Country Skiing, Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined

VOCABUARY

Winter Olympics: many sports held every four years during the winter
Canada: a country in northern North America
Greeks: people who lived in Greece
BC: before Christ
Sprint: a short run that was called the "stade"
Nude: to wear no clothes
Wreath: a ring of flowers worn on the head
Olive branches: a branch of olive tree as a sign of peace
Winners: someone that wins
Sacred: something very special

Bobsleigh: teams of two or four make a run down an icy track in a sled.
Luge: is a small one- or two person sled that race against a timer.
Skeleton: one person rides a sled down a frozen track lying face down
Ice Hockey: a team sport played on ice, skaters use sticks to direct a puck into the other teams goal.
Figure skating: individuals or pairs perform spins, jumps, footwork on ice.
Speed Skating: skaters race each other on skates.
Short track speed skating: ice speed skating; four to six skaters race on an oval track.
Curling: team sport played on ice where they push stones down ice towards a target.
Alpine: sliding down snow hills on skis
Freestyle skiing: skiers do tricks down a hill covered with snow
Snowboarding: a skier is on one board going down a slope covered with snow
Biathlon: two winter sports combined
Cross-country skiing: skiersuses poles and skis to move themselves across snow-covered field.
Ski jumping: skiers go down a ramp and jump off and try to go as far as possible
Nordic combined: athletes jump off a ramp and also do cross-country skiing.


Sentences:
1) When I get older I want to take part in the _______________________.
2) It is very cold in _________________.
3) To my family the Cross is __________________.
4) None of us were alive during the ______ time.
5) Every member of the United States Winter Olympic are _____________.
6) My baby sister likes to go __________ after she takes a bath.
7) When someone wins the gold in the Olympics they wear a _____________ on their head.
8) The wreath is made out of __________________.
9) My best friend’s family is from Greece so she is considered a ______________.
10) When I saw the ice cream truck I ____________ towards it.

Assignment:
Since the rest of the vocabulary words are Winter Olympic events; I want you to pick five of the fifteen events that you would want to try and participate in or you would not want to take part in. Use clues and information from the text to help explain why you would want to or wouldn’t want to participate in those five Winter Olympic events.

Valentines Day

Every year I have celebrated Valentines Day with giving gifts, candy, flowers, and chocolates to all my loved ones. I have also celebrated Valentines Day with Anti-Valentines Day parties; where my single friends and I would get together for dinner and a movie.
In grammar school I learned a little bit about the history of Valentines Day but I never could remember it. I always celebrated it but never knew the reason behind it; so I figured some ESL students might not understand it either. The legend I remember was that Valentine was a priest who served during third century Rome. There was an Emperor at that time by the name of Claudius II. Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those that were married. With this thought in mind he outlawed marriage for young men in hopes of building a stronger military base. Valentine decided that this wasn't fair and chose to marry young couples secretly. When Emperor Claudius II found out about Valentine's actions he had him put to death.
There are other legends about Valentines Day and we will probably never know the truth behind it. I think that having a day to show our loved ones how much we care is a perfect idea.

VOCABULARY:

Valentines Day: February 14- in honor of St. Valentine and as a time for exchanging valentines
Celebrate: to observe in some special way
Anti-: opposite in kind, position, or action
Single: being alone
History: a story of real or imaginary events
Legend: a story coming down from the past whose truth is popularly accepted but cannot be checked
Priest: a person who has the authority to lead or perform religious ceremonies
Emperor: The word emperor is a general word for a ruler having total control of a country or region.
Outlawed: to make illegal
Military: of or relating to the army
Secretly: hidden or kept from knowledge or view

SENTENCES:

1) I _________________ took the movie from my brother so he wouldn’t yell.
2) My family ___________________ Valentines Day by having a huge dinner with a lot of deserts.
3) ____________________ is celebrated on February 14th.
4) My brother joined the _________________ in order to defend his country.
5) Some people hate being _______________ on Valentines Day
6) My sister decided to have a _____- Valentines Day party.
7) Along time ago many _______________ ruled the land.
8) What is the _____________ of your family?
9) Mellissa read a story about a _______________ who defended his whole country with only 300 men.
10) The government _____________ driving until you are 17 years old.
11) The ________________ in my Church read the Gospel during mass.

GRAMMAR POINT & ASSIGNMNET:

During some points in my paragraphs I wrote in the past tense.

Past tense: is when a verb is used to express an action or a condition that occurred in or during the past.
Ex: Every year I have celebrated Valentines Day with giving gifts, candy, flowers, and chocolates to all my loved ones. I have also celebrated Valentines Day with Anti-Valentines Day parties; where my single friends and I would get together for dinner and a movie.

Assignment: Write five sentences about what you have done on Valentines Day in the past.

VIDEO: about the History of Valentines Day

http://www.history.com/video.do?name=valentinesday&bcpid=6555686001&bclid=1672160848&bctid=1407959235