Joanie’s Nature’s Classroom Post

Nature’s Classroom is something like a retreat for all ages.  It was so much fun. We played a bunch of fun games and my favorite game was Camouflage. Camouflage is a game where your field group leader said the word camouflage then we all had to go hide and we had 10  seconds to hide. Once we were all hidden, Sassafras our field group leader would try to find us but she could not take any steps. I really like Sassafras, because she was really nice!

 

I also really liked hanging out in our bunk. I don’t really know why but it was just really fun. We had so much fun, and Eden having her spaz at 5 in the morning Maya saying, “Eden are you ok?!” Then she woke me up so we all got up on Olive’s top bunk and started to sing “Do you want to Build  a Snowman?” Then at about 5:30 we all  got up and took showers. I can’t wait to go back next year!
My favorite memory from the trip was probably singing “Do You Want To Build A Snowman?” At 5 in the morning. I think I really got to better know the people in my bunk. We also played a lot of fun do you know me game and stuff like that! Over all I had a really great time at Nature’s Classroom and I can’t wait to go back next year!

Joanie’s Personal Narrative

I was sleeping in my bed with my warm fuzzy blanket and my stuffed dog at the hotel. This hotel was part of a water park where my family and I went on vacation. This water park was in Connecticut; it was called CoCo Key Hotel and Resort Lodge. The logo of the resort was a red parrot wearing swimming goggles, going down a waterslide in a yellow raft.   

 

My family was asleep in our room and my moms best friends were asleep in the other room. We woke to the sound of an ear piercing beeping! It was the fire alarm. We rushed out of our room and into the cold lobby where we found everybody sitting in fuzzy chairs wearing P.J’s and bathrobes because it was the middle of the night.

 

We were sitting in the lobby with nothing but silence. I had no idea what was happening. Then I realized Belle (my stuffed animal), was still in the bed. Belle is my webkinz dog. She is my favorite stuffed animal. I got her when I was about four years old from my dad’s best friend’s daughter and I named her after their poodle, Belle. I love her very much! When I realized Belle was missing, I said, “Mommy mommy I left Belle in the bed. Can you go get her?” To my surprise, she said,

 

“Yes honey, I will be right back!” It felt like hours before she came back.

 

I was so happy when she came back! After that I tucked Belle in my shirt and I said, “This is where she will sleep now!”. When I was seven I made her a bed out of a cardboard box and now that is where she sleeps. I think she loves her box!  

 

I was scared because I didn’t know if it was a real fire or if some one had been messing around and pulled the alarm. We waited, what felt like a long hour before the fire department came. In the lobby, waiting for them to say we could go back to the room. I  lay asleep in my mom’s comforting arms. After the long hour of silence, she carried me up to the warm room. She laid me in bed and tucked me in. Not long after, we fell back to sleep.

 

This is the link to the Hotel we stayed in! www.cocokeywaterbury.com

 

CoCo Key Weekend 366 | by brittreints

This is the water park I went to! I got this photo from Flicker  Britt Reints .

Joanie- Passion Post

I am Joanie and in this post I will be talking about my passion, which is gymnastics. I am on Mr. Todd’s Gymnastics Team (MTG Illusions). I am on level 4.  Now I will tell you how I started gymnastics.

One day when I was five, my friend Violet asked me if I wanted to take gymnastics at Mr. Todd’s with her. I said yes! That turned out to be one of the best decisions that I have ever made in my life. Then I QUIT! After that when I was about eight, I went to tumbling at Gina Marie’s for two years. Then when I was ten, I tried out for the Ultimate Gymnastics Team and I got on to silver! Now I am on the Mr. Todd’s Gymnastics Team.

I think bars and beam are my favorite events. On strap bar, a bar that you get strapped into, I can do five giants in a row! A giant is when you go around and around the bar. I compete a kip on bars. A kip is one specific way to mount the bar. I am working on my cast to handstand on bars. I can show you a fail video of my attempt of it. On beam I compete a back walkover and a handstand! On floor my, two passes are a round off back handspring back tuck and a front tuck. On vault I compete a front handspring. All these videos are of me.

This summer I am going to two gymnastics sleep away camps. I am going to one called IGC and one called WoodWard. I went to IGC last year and it was really fun. My whole team is going to WoodWard. It is going to be SO much fun!

 

Christmas By Joanie

Hi,

My family tradition is, gathering with my family Christmas Eve and hanging out and talking. I get to open one present that night too!  Next morning when I wake up, I call my grandparents and tell them that they can come over now. When they arrive we all gather by the stockings and take down ours then open them! Then we walk to the Christmas tree and we each pick one of our gifts to open first! I always pick the biggest one first. After we open all of the gifts, we hang out by the tree for the rest of the day and have fun!

Remnants of ChristmasCreative Commons License Benson Kua via Compfight

Blogging Challenge Reflection – Joanie

Hi,

This year was so fun and I had an amazing time blogging and keeping up with the challenges! I’d have to say that week #7 was my favorite because we got to write about nature and I love animals, so it was really fun for me! In week #7 I wrote about bunnies and I compared wild rabbits to housed rabbits.

I love the blogging challenges because they give you something fun to do for homework and it does not even feel like homework. I am so grateful to Miss W for creating the blogging challenges and I hope to do it again next year!

 

Fluffy white Jan & Peggy via Compfight

 

Week #7 The Fluffy Bunny – By Joanie

Rabbits can be found in the wild and or in a pet store. Today I am going to be talking about rabbits in the wild. Wild rabbits feed on grasses, plants, leaves, bark and fruit. Sadly most rabbits in the wild don’t live for long. They make nests in the ground and when people mow their lawn and or meet a predator then there is a big chance of the rabbit’s death. Many of you may be wondering how there is so many rabbits around. This is because they breed a lot and they have 1-14  babies in a litter.

Cookie is my rabbit. She is a lop eared rabbit. We know all the information about her because she was never a wild rabbit, she was always in a shelter. Only 50% of wild rabbits make it to their first birthday.

 Cookie- Mommy Get My Good Side

©Copyright this picture was taken by my cousin Corinne Fanelli, who gave me permission to use it..  This is my rabbit Cookie. I got her from a non-profit organization called Luv-N-Bunns!

Did you know that cottontail rabbits run in a zigzag pattern up to 18 miles an hour? Well it’s true they do!  I am going to compare the difference between a wild rabbit and a  house rabbit. First, I will start with house rabbits. House rabbits have a longer lifespan because they do not have to deal with predators. Also, they have a controlled temperature. If it gets too hot or too cold they could have a stroke. They can also get a stroke from being picked up too fast.

 Wild rabbits have a shorter lifespan because they have more risks of attack. It is better for a wild rabbit to be a wild rabbit because they know how to take care of themselves and it would confuse them to be in a different environment. Depending on what part of the world the rabbit is in, the temperatures can get very high or very low and that could cause death. Their ears can grow up to 4 inches long. It helps to have long ears because they can hear predators that are approaching. I think that you should help rabbits because they are very cute and a lot of them need homes!  I think they are amazing!

Baby Bunny Mark Philpott via Compfight     

This is a wild rabbit.

Blogging Challenge Week #5

Foods in America

 

 The most popular food in our country is hamburgers. The top ten foods on the list are all junk food or unhealthy food. I think that in our country we should start eating more healthy! Americans tend to be a little bit heavy and I think that we should start to watch what we eat.

 

Ancient Egyptians ate ground meat that was shaped into patties. I think that that is how hamburgers were invented. Fletcher Davis claimed to have invented the hamburger. According to oral histories, in the 1880s, he opened a lunch counter in Athens and served a ‘burger’ of fried ground beef patties with mustard and onion between two slices of bread; with a pickle on the side.

 

 

サウザン野菜バーガー

cinefil_ via Compfight

Blogging Challenge Week #4 by Joanie

Activity #2

Halloween night I go trick-or-treating with Violet, Petra, Lily, Ella, Ava and Alex. First we all meet up at the New Paltz Middle School, then we go trick-or-treating for like one and a half hours then it is time for the Halloween parade. After that it is time to go trick-or-treating again. This year after we go trick-or-treating  Petra and I are going to have a sleepover at her house. I am so excited for this Halloween because it is going to be really fun.

Jack Lanterns Jimmy via Compfight

The Pumpkin by Joanie

IMG_1133 The night before Halloween, Daisy sat down to carve her pumpkin. She carved a scary face, then took a knife, put it in some ketchup and stabbed the knife into the pumpkin. That night, she put the pumpkin on her nightstand and said, “goodnight.” After a while, she got up to check on her pumpkin and it was gone!

Soon after, Daisy heard a voice in her closet. It said,

“Come Daisy look what I have to show you.” So Daisy opened her closet and saw the pumpkin calling her name.

“Come into MY closet,” it said.

Daisy screamed “Mommy Daddy help,” but there was no answer! She ran into her parents room and she didn’t see them. She looked all around and still no sign of them. She thought they might have gone to the store, so she went back to bed.

 In the morning, Daisy got out of bed and went into her parents room to see if they had came home and sure enough they were sound asleep. “Mommy, Daddy where were you last night? ” They said they had gone to the all night store, so she went on with a normal Halloween day. She couldn’t wait to go trick-or-treating.

“Daisy,” her mom called to tell her it was time for school.

Daisy marched down the stairs and said, “Mom I am sick.”

Her mom said, “All right honey you can stay home from school but that means no trick-or-treating.” All that day Daisy was in her bed crying because she couldn’t go trick-or-treating.

 That night she decided to be defiant and snuck out of her room and went trick-or-treating. While she was out she passed by some bushes. They looked like they were glowing red… a hand then reached out and pulled her in. She screamed…

 

Week #3 Blogging Challenge

Activity #2

My grandfather, Joanie and Corinne’s (Joanie’s cousin) great grandfather, was a Presbyterian minister who spoke 4 languages: English, Italian, Polish, and Latin.  He worked in the coal mines at a very young age, 6 years old. He worked to send his siblings to school.  He started preaching the gospel when he was still in the mines and he “retired” after 20 years (age 26) and went on to graduate from college and theological school. He fell in love Joanie’s great-grandmother, Sarah, who was literally from the wrong side of the tracks in Pittston, PA.  He had a church there during World War II and often preached sermons about making money off of wars (profiteering).  He also preached that Jesus was dark skinned and that all nationalities were brothers.  His name was reverend Oscar Frederick Vitale (in Italian: Oscanio Frederico Vitale).

 

This was written by Jeanne Vitale, My Mom.