Happy Halloween

Halloween Eve is such a busy day in my house. It consists of baking all day, preparing music to scare the children and creating delicious candied apples. My family loves this holiday. Aside from the fact that they are all candy addicts, they thrive on being frieghtned. On Saturday night, my husband could not wait to go to the Haunted House in Bayville with the kids. He' s nuts! As they waited on line, their fear began to settle within. My husband was prepared to strike for protection. It was so much fun to watch. I, on the other hand am not that crazy. There is no need for me to be walking through a haunted house in the dark not knowing where I am, or feeling like someone is breathing down my neck. As my husband walked in one of the rooms, he felt like there was something around him. Sure enough, it was a scary being that made him jump. His heart almost hit the floor. As my husband and family came out of the house, I could see their white faces glow in the dark.

So, today as Halloween slowly passed by, I enjoyed the scary music, watching all the cute little children in their costumes and seeing my husband's excitement from all the candy my daughter received. They never grow up!

Here is a cute poem:

Haunted House

By Jack Prelutsky

There's a house upon the hilltop

We will not go inside

For that is where the witches live,

Where ghosts and goblins hide.

Tonight they have their party,

All the lights are burning bright,

But oh we will not go inside

The haunted house tonight.

The demons there are whirling

And the spirits swirl about.

They sing their songs to Halloween.

"Come join the fun," they shout.

But we do not want to go there

So we run with all our might

And oh we will not go inside

The haunted house tonight.

consist (verb)-to be made up of; to be comprised of

thrive (verb)-to prosper; to be successful

protection (noun)- to take care of someone; the act of protecting

haunted (adjective)- supposedly visited by ghosts
demon (noun)- an evil spirit; a mean person

whirling (verb)- to turn around rapidly; to spin

The police are supposed to be around for _________.

Some people say that cemetary's are ___________ with __________.

Artists _________when they produce and sell a new work of art.

Halloween _______of lots of candy and scary costumes.

The ghosts like to go __________through the dark skies.

*Grammer point

A superlative compares three or more nouns. This takes the comparison of nouns to the highest degree. An example would be: “My mother’s cooking is the best.”

One syllable words - add “est” to the word. Remember that it is sometimes necessary to double the final consonant. Examples are: strong to strongest and big to biggest.
One syllable words ending with an “e” - only add “st” like fine to finest or rare to rarest.
Two syllable words ending with a “y” - change the “y” to an “i” and add “est.” Two examples are crazy to craziest and silly to silliest

Can you add superlatives to the poem above.

Example: The greatest house is upon the Hilltop

For that is where the scariest witches live

http://www.english-the-easy-way.com/Adjectives/SuperLative_Adjectives.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr3ToYa_vIc&feature=related

I Can't Believe It!

Last Wednesday night, My friend Lj and I were driving home from school as we always do. While we were driving, we had a couple of close encounters. We could not believe how many times we were cut off on the road. People were speeding and driving like crazy. Needless to say, when I left her house, I ended up having a car accident. I could not believe it! I was driving east on Jericho turnpike when I noticed that the car to my right was beeping his horn because a woman drove from the outer right lane and cut him off. Well instead of stopping, she continued to drive into my lane and hit my car on the passenger side. She continued to drive on my car until she was able to pull off and get in front of me. I thought because of traffic, she would drive until she could pull over. We drove a couple of blocks and I started to think she wasn't going to pull over. So, I blinked my lights and followed her until she pulled into Wendy's. I could not believe what I was saw in front of me. She pulled up to the drive thru window to order food. That was it! I pulled up next to her and got out of my car and started screaming like a crazy person. You just hit my car lady! You #$@&*#@$#&*#@. I banged on her window until she finally looked at me. My blood pressure went up so much I thought I was going to choke the living life out of this woman. The worker's in the restaurant heard everything through the intercom. I screamed "CALL THE POLICE!, this crazy woman just hit my car!" So, I pulled my car up to the window and the workers looked at me like I was nuts. I noticed they spoke Spanish so I started to explain to them what happened and the woman would not stop. The called the police again and then the Manager said, "look, she is driving away." I ran out of my car to get her plate number and she drove off. Can you believe this? I was involved in a "Hit and Run" accident. What nerve of that woman to drive away. The police finally came and said they will try to find her and I need to calm down because its only an infraction on her part because my car was not badly damaged. Bologna! If this happened to the police, they would have gone nuts. So, I am still waiting for my police report and hopefully the cops can do their job well enough to find this woman. So, just in case there is a release of video from Wendy's to channel 12 news, I am really not as crazy as you might see on the video. I could just picture the headlines, "Crazy woman attacking a car at the Wendy's drive thru because she was starving for a burger!"

encounter (verb)- to meet unexpectedly; to be faced with problems

speeding (verb)- quickness; to go quickly

traffic (noun)- the movement of a number of vehicles

blinked (verb)-to flash on and off; open and close eyes rapidly

intercom (noun)- a system of intercommunicating (communicating); talking device

infraction (noun)- a violation of law

headlines (noun)- printed line at the top of a newspaper

attacking (verb)- to set upon violently; to make an assault; to be violent to someone

*Grammar point- A modal verb modifies another verb; it expresses possibility or necessity. Verbs like may or might suggest possibility. Examples: can, shall, must, should could, will, have better, have got to, have to

You can use the word "not" to make modal verbs negative. Example:He should not be late.

He might not come to the store.

Using the list of Modal verbs, can you write a paragraph suggesting what should be done after the experience above. Example: You should call your insurance company. You have got to call your mechanic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Drs2UuB2Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anjFtHbZabs

Word Search

r	e	e	g	l	r	b	m	i	m	a
e	t	a	a	l	p	i	n	h	o	h
t	s	t	i	e	o	i	t	e	c	d
n	k	t	p	a	e	r	n	a	r	t
u	e	a	r	c	a	e	n	d	e	c
o	r	c	c	f	i	d	u	l	t	n
c	s	k	f	n	l	a	t	i	n	r
n	o	i	t	c	a	r	f	n	i	r
e	c	n	g	n	i	d	e	e	p	s
r	s	g	n	c	a	i	c	s	f	a
b	l	i	n	k	e	d	o	a	e	o

encounter
speeding
traffic
blinked
intercom
infraction
headlines
attacking

LIFE IS A HIGHWAY

As I looked back into my life, I realize that my life truly was a highway of twists and turns. But, the final result is now here, and it was all worth the struggle. With great pride and happiness my first child graduated High School and I sent her off to a great College to prepare her for a prodigious future. Needless to say, I did not know I would now face numerous roadblocks. I left my daughter alone for the first time with 7 girls to share a room. I had to walk away knowing that I no longer have control. So, I left with a knot in my stomach and and a prayer that she would be fine. Well, I am proud to say I raised a very good and self sufficient daughter. But, she still needs me! Yeah! She has been sick and I have had to pick her up twice for her medical needs. The passed two weeks have also been quite an experience as well. My daughter turned 18 years old and should have enjoyed this momentous peak of childhood, but instead, she sat in her room crying. Why? Because of her boyfriend. Yes, she has been struggling to balance a long distance relationship. It is not working at all. I found myself trying to pick up all of her broken pieces. Not only has it drained her, and made it difficult for her to focus on midterms but it has given me more gray hairs and holes in my stomach. Her relationship has been suffering through cyber bullying and jealous people. I had to intervene with parents and "face book"to stop harassment. I can't believe this has happened to my daughter. As reluctant as she may feel to get back on her feet again, I remind her of my life and where we are today. As the days move on, I know she will get passed this horrible experience. Maybe these words can be a guide for her or anyone that feels that life has taken them on a highway.

Life Is A Highway lyrics

Whooo umm yeah...
Life's like a road that you travel on
When there's one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind
There's a world outside ev'ry darkened door
Where blues won't haunt you anymore
Where brave are free and lovers soar
Come ride with me to the distant shore
We won't hesitate
To break down the garden gate
There's not much time left today

[Chorus:]
Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long
If you're going my way
I wanna drive it all night long

Through all these cities and all these towns
It's in my blood and it's all around
I love you now like I loved you then
This is the road and these are the hands
From Mozambique to those Memphis nights
The Khyber Pass to Vancouver's lights

Knock me down get back up again
You're in my blood
I'm not a lonely man
There's no load I can't hold
Road so rough this I know
I'll be there when the light comes in
Just tell 'em we're survivors

[Chorus]

Gimme gimme gimme gimme yeah

[Chorus]

There was a distance between you and I (between you and I)
A misunderstanding once
But now we look it in the eye

Ooooo...Yeah!

There ain't no load that I can't hold
Road so rough this I know
I'll be there when the light comes in
Just tell 'em we're survivors

[Chorus: (x3)]
Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long
If you're going my way
I wanna drive it all night long

Gimme gimme gimme gimme yeah

momentous (adjective)- very important

prepare (verb)- to make ready; to make oneself ready

prodigious (adjective)- extraordinary, fabulous

suffering (noun)- to experience

peak (verb)- reach highest point

reluctant (adjective)- unwilling, offering resistance

1. After the girl completed her Masters degree, she felt as if she had reacher her ________.

2. Their 50th wedding anniversary was a ___________occasion.

3. The little boy was _____to give the stranger a helping hand.

4. People go through a lot of _______ after the loss of a loved one.

5. Students will need to _____ for the regents exams.

6. The wedding planner could not wait to throw her first _____ wedding bash.

*grammar point: a noun can be a person, place or thing and sometimes an abstract idea.

http://www.writingcentre.uottawa.ca/hypergrammar/nouns.html

http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsANoun.htm

http://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/what-is-a-noun.html

Can you name some nouns from the song above?

Example: road, wind, world

Columbus Day

I remember learning about how Christopher Columbus was a great man that discovered America. I remember reapeting "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue". We colored pictures of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria and acted out little skits in the class . Now that I am older, I think about "Why do we celebrate this day?" Colunbus first of all discovered the island of Hispaniola. Acccording to Samuel Eliot Morison, the Harvard historian, the author of a multivolume biography and himself retraced Columbus's journey, tells us of the horrible man Columbus truley was. In his book Christopher Columbus, Mariner, he tells about the enslavement and the killing: "The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide." In this book Morison refuses to lie about Columbus. He talks about his mass murders and describes with the harshest words: genocide. In Howard Zinn's book "A Peoples History of the United States," he says, "My point is not that we must, in telling history, accuse, judge, condemn Columbus in absentia. It is to late for that; it would be useless scholarly exercise in morality. But the easy acceptance of atrocities as a deplorable but necessary price to pay for progress (Hiroshima and Vietnam, to save Western Civilization; Kronstadt and Hungry, to save socialism; nuclear proliferation, to save us all)-that is still with us." Zinn continues to say," One reason these atrocities are still with us is that we have learned to bury them in a mass of other facts, and give them exactly the same proportion of attention that teachers and writers often give them in the most respectable of classrooms and textbooks."
So my friends, now that you are all becoming teachers, remember to think of this when you need to teach about Columbus. In my opinion, maybe you should do your own research before celebrating a lie and celebrating a man who committed genocide.

Link: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html

discovered(verb) to see, find or learn of for the first time.
biography (noun) a person's life written by another
retraced (verb) to go back over; to trace back to a source
genocide (noun) the killing of a whole race of people
atrocities (noun) a cruel act
deplorable (adjective) shcking; extremely bad

Unscramble each of the clue words.

PIRHAYBOG __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

CENDOEGI __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

BALPDROEEL __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

CERADETR __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

ASRECTIITO __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

SECDOIREDV __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

*grammer point: A verb tells about a type of action, such as to fly or to wish. It can also be used to describe a state of existence, such as to live.
Can you name some verbs from the paragraph above?