MR. EJ Says See you soon!

Ladies and Gentleman of Room 120,

Tomorrow is my final day as your Long Term Substitute teacher. Boo Hoo. I think you all are a great group of creative and energetic 5th graders. I hope that you learned as much as possible while I was leading the 5th grade tour. I will miss your energy, and I will never forget the month we spent together!

Remember what the children said to the man polling the canoe in the everglades? "Hurry up and poll us home" so we can go change the world!

Remember to stay positive and try to do your best in everything you do. Making mistakes is OK as long as you learn from as many as possible!

See you in the trees!

Mr. EJ

Long Division Practice Websites

Here are two websites to give you plenty of practice with long division!

Snork's Long Division Practice

and

Cool Math for Kids

Enjoy!

Yellowstone Fires of 1988: Then and Now

Here is a video of the fires of 1988. Why were the fires not all bad for Yellowstone National Park?

Fires of 1988-Then and Now

Decsribe Your Activity/Movement

Here is my example description of kicking a soccer ball:

Nervous ®Muscular ®Skeletal®Bone Break

pg.13-15     pg. 15, 18-19 pg 10,11,15, 19  pg 12,13

When I am out on the soccer field, I am sensing that I am playing soccer. My eyes send messages through my sensory nerves that tell my brain where the ball is.

The goal of soccer is to kick the ball into the net. The cerebrum in my brain knows the goals of the game and sends the message to my cerebellum, which controls movement, to kick the ball. The cerebellum then sends the kick message down my spinal cord, through the sciatic nerve in my hips, and down the nerve cells in my legs.

When the kick message goes to my leg, the motor neurons tell the muscles on the back of my leg to contract first to lift the lower part of my leg. Then, the motor neurons tell the rectus femoris muscle and the inner and outer vastus muscles to contract. This sweeps my leg down with power to kick the ball. At the same time, motor neurons are also telling my longus muscles in my calves to contract so that my foot points upward to strike the ball the right way.

Unfortunately, right before my foot strikes the ball, another player smashes his cleat right into my calve, and breaks my tibia bone in my lower leg. Pain messages rush to my brain on sensory neurons. Many blood vessels in my leg are damaged. Next, blood flows into the broken bone and makes a hematoma that stops the bleeding. After going to the hospital and getting a cast, bone cells begin to form in the area of the hematoma. They try to join the two broken ends together and reconnect the bone. The bone building cells turn to spongy bone, which eventually turns into compact bone. Compact bone takes many months to form and heal the break.

 

Here are links to the diagrams:

Muscular System

Skeletal System

Nervous System

Everglades Background Video

Watch this video to get a better idea of what the Florida Everglades are like.

Everglades Swamp Safari

Here is a map to show the location of The Everglades. Notice how the water flows south from Lake Okeechobee to create the Evergglades.

Personal Narrative: Collections

When I was in elementary school, I lived baseball. The Minnesota Twins were on fire! They won the World Series in 1987 and 1991. If you asked me who I would have lunch with if I could eat with anyone in the world, center fielder Kirby Puckett and first baseman Kent Hrbek woud be sitting right next to Michael Jackson in his zillion zippered leather jacket! These two ball players were the highlight of every summer I can remember of childhood.

Because I played and was in love with baseball, of course I collected baseball cards. At first it started at the local grocery store, the Super Value on the corner of 60th street and Nicolette Avenue in South Minneapolis. I would con my mom into buying a couple wax packs while waiting in line. I would tear off the wrapping and scarf down the rock hard pink bubble gum. Occasionally I would find other stars like Mark McGuire and Jose Canseco-the Bash Brothers of the Oakland A's.

Pretty soon, I graduated from wax packs and bumped right up to Double A card collecting. My dad had a student in his government class named Pete Petschel. He had a real collection and he even sold at baseball card shows. He brought in a couple of cards one day for my dad to bring home. They were in clear plastic sleeves that made them look so new and shiny. They looked beautiful. One of them, Willie McCovey was even older than I was. I was now hooked on baseball card collecting!

Later that year, I went to my own baseball card show. This was the big leagues of baseball card collection. I had finally made it! There were rows upon rows of glass cases, autographed baseballs, and previously worn jerseys. As I walked down the aisle, I saw amazing names like Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Sandy Kaufax. Card traders were buying and selling. It was safe to say I had walked right through the gates of baseball heaven!

In my own baseball career, I was a lightning fast second baseman who batted for average and stole bases like they were free. I modeled my game after the amazing stolen base record holder from the Oakland Athletics, Ricky Henderson. He was the ultimate lead-off man who belted more lead-off home runs than anyone else in baseball history.

I still love to go to a ball game and feel the crowd, especially at Target Field. I still have my baseball cards in a box in my basement. Inside that box is a countless number of cardboard cards that aren't worth all that much nowadays, but to me, they represent a magical time from my childhood that will be alive as long as I am. Never forget where you came from!

Mr. EJ

This personal narrative is dedicated to Bruce Johnson 1946-2009