Author: erik2011

Letter to Denis-Erik

erik2011 0 - In The Footsteps of Marco Polo, 6th Grade Writers

Hi Denis,
My name is Erik and I go to Poughkeepsie Day School. I loved the video that you made with your friend Francis about the Travels of Marco Polo. My class and I watched it and loved it. I loved the humor in it like when you were riding through Afghanistan and you were stopped by a man with a huge gun. He was looking straight at your cigarette packet and you had to give it to him. You must have been so scared. I know I would have been.

I can’t believe that you actually survived illegally crossing borders and having to adapt to another lifestyle. If I was doing this I wouldn’t have lasted a day. All of that stress would have just made me quit but you guys just kept on going. It was very inspiring to watch your movie. It made me want to do more with my life.

My teacher told me that you did a presentation at Vassar College. Her class went to see you and said that you were a very good speaker. That would be great if you could come and talk at my school. I would love to hear you tell my class about what you did on your adventures and how it felt to be on this adventure.

Thanks,
Erik

William – Perseverence by Erik

erik2011 0 - The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, 6th Grade Writers

I think that if I was William I would have persevered and fought through the pain of building the windmill because I know that my village needs electricity to power their tools to farm and get food. If I did accomplish this then everybody would have one less thing to worry about. Also I would be looked up to by everybody else. I wouldn’t just be known as just “one of the kids.”  

SLC – Erik

erik2011 0 - Student Led Conferences, 6th Grade Writers

On Thursday, April 26 our school had Student Led Conferences. This is a time when each student comes to school with their parents and tells them about what he/she has done so far this year and their strengths and weaknesses as a learner. The teachers is there just to encourage the presenter (if he/she needs it) and keep everything in order. He/she would present work to back-up their statement. The whole thing takes about half an hour. The first twenty minutes the stuident talks and the last ten minutes are to let parents ask questions.

This was my third time doing a “SLC” but this year the teachers changed the style of it a little. In the years before, the students had to write everything down and then find work to back it up. This year, the teachers gave us a presentation template. The first slide was the introduction. The introduction just told his/her parents about what their child was going to talk about. The second and third slides were for the students strengths and weaknesses as a learner. The fourth and fifth was for work that the student wanted to show their parents. The pieces of work would be both for what he/she felt he/she really did well on and what he/she could have improved on. The last three slides were for the students goals. Those would be for what the student wanted to be better at in school. The student would only set two goals and at the conference he/she and their parents would come up with a third goal together.

As I said before this was my third SLC so I wasn’t really that scared, plus I feel that I am a very strong presenter. My parents thought that my SLC was scheduled at 9:30 when it was really supposed to be 9:00 so we rescheduled with my teacher to 10:30. When I was finished presenting, I felt like only two minutes had gone by when really it was thirty. I felt very proud after my presentation, like I had just climbed a huge mountain. My parents looked proud too. I had fun presenting and I can’t wait to do it again next year!

Challenge #6 – Erik

erik2011 0 - Blogging Challenge, 6th Grade Writers

Blogging Challenge #6

Once I get into high school or college, I would like to be a babysitter because I feel that I am great with kids. After that is all done, I would like to be a professional baseball player. As a little kid I hated baseball but as time moved along I realized how fun it was. Usually dads will teach their kids how to play a sport but this time it was the other way around. Since my dad grew up in Sweden he didn’t know a thing about baseball so I had to teach him about all the rules. I also taught my family in Sweden too.
I began playing as a catcher because I could throw pretty well for my age. Then about two or three years ago, I realized that I could pitch very well. I could throw very fast and very accurate. My top speed last year was 60 mph when the average is like 40mph or even 30moh. Since then I have been growing so I will probably be able to throw 75mph at the most.

Picture Challenge – Tin Tin – By Erik

erik2011 6th Grade Writers , , ,

Five, four, three, two, one, lift off! The rocket blasted right off the ground. My heart was pounding so hard that I felt like it was going to come flying right out of my chest. Captain Crawford looked super calm and Buster was yapping loud. I tried to shut him up but I really couldn’t do anything so we had to live with the barking. I decided to take a nap or at least try to.“Hey kid we’re here.” I looked up only to see Captain Crawford’s face and Buster laying on top of me. I pushed Buster off my chest and got straight up. I walked over to the window and looked out of it. It was a beautiful view even though it was all just rock.

The space suit was pretty hard to get on but after maybe twenty minutes I finally got it on. The real problem was getting Buster’s space suit on. Since he was a dog ,Captain Crawford and I had to put it on for him.

Our job was to find some moon rocks for the scientist to study. It was pretty easy since the whole place was one giant rock. Once during this adventure Buster got his paw stuck in a tiny crater so we had help him get out.  The rest of the trip was really fun. I bounced all over the place. I felt like a little kid again. Of course Captain Party-Pooper had to stop me.

After walking around for awhile we decided to head back to our ship. We walked around for hours trying to find the ship but we couldn’t find it anywhere. Finally we saw it. The only problem was that we saw foot prints going into the ship. We quickly ran down towards it.

When we went inside we saw maps on the ground and dog and human food everywhere. Now I  was really scared. Then all of a sudden a giants pickle-like thing came flying at me! I didn’t have anytime to see who (or what) it was because I was punching it like there was no tomorrow. I tried to get away but it kept on grabbing me. Finally I got it off me and ran into the space ship. “GO, GO, GO,” I screamed. The door closed and we blasted right off of the moon. I was glad that we were leaving. That was definitely the scariest thing ever when that thing attacked me. I couldn’t wait to tell everyone back on earth.

Blogging Challenge #10 by Erik

erik2011 0 - Blogging Challenge, 6th Grade Writers


I think my class blog was great!  We have had 4,231+ visitors since July 27, 2010 and 6, 915 visitors total.  I think by the end of the year we will have at least 7,500 visitors from all around the world.  We have written so many great posts like the “No School” post.  That was one of my favorite ones to write about because I had so much going on during that time of the snow storm.  I wrote many more posts too.  I have a total of 8 (9 if you include this one) posts.  I will be posting many more writing pieces and I will have lots of fun writing them.

Another thing about my page is that I have 6 comments total.  For about two seconds I thought that was fine but then when I saw one of my class mates, Zoe, had a total of 40 or 30 something comments I knew that I had to step up my game.  I sent an email to all of my cousins, grandparents, uncles and aunts saying that they should check out my blog and my page and leave a nice comment.  Sadly I have only got one comment from my grandmother.  I saw her at Thanksgiving and told her all about my blog.  I hope everyone else will comment.

Challenge #8 – My family – Erik

erik2011 0 - Blogging Challenge, 6th Grade Writers
Challenge 8 My family is very big.  In the first 4 generations I have about 35+ people on my mother’s side and father’s side combined.  Most of my family members had very interesting lives and some didn’t.My mother is from Massachusetts.  She was born there and she lived there for her entire childhood.  Her mother, Edith Dabney (I call her nana), was a nurse at the M.G.H hospital in Boston.  That’s where she met my grandfather, John Knowles.  They started dating, got married and then had 6 children.  Their names were Joe, Charlie, Jimmy, Bob, Muffin and my mother, Laurie.  A couple years after they had their last child, Bob, John past away.  Nana was very sad and so were all her children.  Later she met Lewis Dabney who was a pilot in World War 2.  They got married but didn’t have any children.   They lived many happy years together and they are still going to this day.  Nana’s children grew up very happy too.  Bob got married and had 3 kids and so did Joe.  Muffin got married but didn’t have any kids and Jimmy didn’t get married at all.  Charlie got married and adopted a child from China.  A couple months after they adopted Kagan Charlie died of unknown reasons.  That was another sad day for not just his mother and siblings but for all the husbands, wives and children of the siblings.  His wife was very devastated but she was Strong and raised Kagan all by herself.  We all get together on Thanksgiving and Easter.  We all always have a good time.

My father is from Sweden and his name is Johan (yo-hon).  If you saw him you would think that he is American because he has no accent and he has black hair.  He had a very sad childhood.  He was a foster child.  He was adopted first by some German people who already had kids.  They had him for about 2 seconds because my father wasn’t at all a very inactive or peaceful person in the world.  He went back in to foster care and then another family adopted him.  This family was great because no matter how bad of a trouble maker my father was the foster parents would never let him go.  My father had so many stories to tell me that I couldn’t even fit thew all in.  One of my favorite stories was when he was fooling around look for rocks and stuff when all of a sudden a giant swan came out of no where and chased him all around the place.  My father tried to climb up a wall and get away but right when he was about to jump over the swan bit him in the bottom!  You might have thought that swan were very pretty and nice but apparently their not.  He still has the scar from the bite today.  Another great story was when my father and some friends went a carnival.  He and his friends noticed that there was one of those spinning around rides.  His friends dared him to ride it.  He tried to refuse but his friends wouldn’t back down so he decided to go on it.  He had eaten a lot of food before that so maybe you can guess what happened next.  The ride started and as it got faster and faster my father started to barf.  He barfed all over the people below him including him friends!

My father came over to America when he was 18.  At the airport when he arrived he met his real mother, Cina and her mother Guja (gu-ya).  That was a very exciting and happy day for my father.  We go to Sweden every summer to go and visit his second foster parents and his grandmother.  His mother goes back and forth between Sweden and the U.S.A.  We always see her at Christmas though.

100 Word Challenge By Erik

erik2011 6th Grade Writers , ,
I opened the door. Thud! A peanut hit me straight in the forehead.  I feel back a little but quickly balanced myself. Another peanut hit me this time in the chest.  Before Jacob could throw another one I dove into his room and hid behind a desk. More peanuts came flying at me.  I looked around me but there was nothing for me to throw at him. Finally I picked up some of the broken peanuts that Jacob had thrown at me and threw them back at him.  After a minute I had none left. I had nowhere to go!

My Talk Book-The Giver by Erik

erik2011 0 - Book Corner, 6th Grade Writers ,
Do you know what it feels like to be frightened?  Well, that’s exactly how Jonas feels right now.  He may think that he is not frightened but you and I know that he is.  The Ceremony is coming up and he is about to turn 12.  He doesn’t know what his assigned job will be or what will happen next.  He doesn’t have a clue!  All of his family is trying to calm him down and help but all of this “help” is not helping.  The Giver by Lewis Lowery takes you on a very exciting different kind of adventure.  The author makes you think about what will happen next?  Jonas will soon learn the truth about the past and the old world.