The Sword in the Tree

The Sword in the Tree
by Clyde Robert Bulla
Report by Jonathan Hinrichs

One day there was a man that fell at the castle gate and it was Shan’s uncle. Shan was the son of lord Weldon and they lived in a castle and fortress called Weldon castle. As the uncle got better he showed that he was a cruel man.

One day Shan’s uncle and father went on a hunt to catch foxes, but his uncle really meant to kill him. When he got home then all the others left until just the uncle was alone and he said that Shan’s father fell in the quicksand. Shan and his mother cried and cried. Finally they had to leave the castle.

Shan went to Camelot to talk with King Arthur. Two days a month King Arthur would talk to the people about their problems. There was a huge room with a table that was the biggest table that he ever saw. King Arthur said one of his knights would go with him to defeat his uncle.

Sir Gareth helped him to fight his uncle off of his land. Then Sir Gareth was badly hurt before he came and he got a little hurt during this battle.

One of the old servants, Nappus, a great doctor, took a torch and keys and had Shan follow him. He led him to the dungeon and then he had some keys and he unlocked a couple doors and then they came to a room and there was a man laying there and it was Shan’s father! Then he ran to his father and they saw he was still alive. Then he tried to pick him up but his father said, “Oh no, you are a prisoner too.” But Shan said, “You are free!”

The Three Little Pigs

The Three Little Pigs
Retold by Abigail Hinrichs

One day a little pig said, “Can I have some hay? I make a house with it.” So the pig did! So him was making, making, making. The terrible wolf said, “Little pig, little pig, tuff, huff, blow yours house down!” He said, “I won’t let you come in, not by the hair of my chinney, chinney.” So him tuff and huffed and blowed the house down. The little pig runned away.

So the next pig wanted to build a house with sticks. But sooner the wolf comes and say, “Tuff I blow the house down” So the little pig run away.

The next pig got bricks and soon you know who came? The mean, mean wolf. He said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.” The pig said, “Chinney, chin, chin I won’t let you come in.” The wolf tuffed and huffed and the house did not blow down. So he got on the house and put his nose down (the chimney). The pig put water and the wolf jumped in the water and screamed, jumped out and ran away. The end.

Red Sails to Capri

Red Sails to Capri
by Ann Weil
Report by Jonathan Joseph Hinrichs

Red Sails to Capri is a story about a young boy named Michelle. Michelle lived on Capri, which means goat, and is an island near Italy. Micelle was with a fisherman, named Angelo, who was mending a net, when Michelle saw a boat that was moving into the harbor. The thing that was unusual about the boat was that it had red sails.

There were three men on the sailboat. They all went to Michelle’s house because his father had an inn. Michelle had to work for them because they were guests who paid money. Michelle got to know them really good.

One of the visitor’s names was Lord Derby. Lord Derby came to Capri to find beauty. He asked Michelle to show him the most beautiful spot in Capri. Michelle showed him a beautiful area. To get there they had to travel up a lot of steps until they got to a place at the steps where they could go up a trail and then they could go to a place where it was very beautiful. And then Lord Derby started to do his painting. When he was done he showed it to Michelle and it was not of the beautiful place it was a picture of the steps. Then Michelle said it looked like a stairway up to heaven. Michelle had never thought there were that many colors and so much beauty in the stairs.

Another visitor’s name was Monsieur Jacques. He came to find adventure. One day he wanted to take Michelle on the sail boat and they sailed around the island of Capri. Then Michelle said that all of the people who lived on the island took a big loop around a cove that was on the island. The people were too afraid that their ship would sink. They anchored and had lunch but they didn’t know what the danger was in the cove.
The third visitor’s name was Herre Nordstrom. Herre Nordstrom liked to eat two eggs for breakfast. He also liked to read. Herre Nordstrom wanted to find out why it was unsafe to go to the cove. Angelo was really going to make Herre Nordstrom not go to the cove. But he just had to go to the cove. Then all five men wanted to go to the cove to find out what the danger was. Everybody in the village was afraid of the cove except the three friends and Michelle’s father, Michelle, Pietro (Pietro was his friend) and Angelo.

When they got to the cove they had to lay down to get into the cave. When they got inside it was really beautiful because there was an opening under the water that let light in so it shone up and made everything look blue. They discovered that even though everyone was afraid there was really nothing to be afraid of. It was beautiful in the Blue Grotto of Capri.

The Iliad (Part I) by Homer, retold by Benjamin Hinrichs

**Disclaimer: The following content contains some descriptions of battle.

Paris was hunting and there was a flash of light and then Hermes came down out of the sky and told him there were three pretty ladies come and he needed to decide who was the prettiest. Hermes gave him a golden apple. Athena said that he would never lose a battle. Hera promised him that he would be the wisest man in the world. (That's just what I thought. (Ben's interjection)) The last goddess was the goddess of love and she said she'd give him the beautifullest woman in the world. Paris chose the goddess of love, Aphrodite. He gave her the golden apple and then he got to have Helen but she was already married to the King of Troy, Menelaus. Then he went over and stole her and then there was a war.

Then, Agamemnon took away Achilles' war prize, a lady. They got mad at each other and Achilles didn't want to fight to help the Greeks. Achilles was a really good fighter and the Greeks were getting hurt really bad and then all these people got hurt and there was a guy that came to kill and to put the ships on fire and Ajax was pushing all the Trojans away with his spear and then one of the warriors came and whacked off the blade of his spear.

One night, Patroclus and Odysseus went into the Trojan camp and stole some Trojan horses and chariots and the Trojans had the same idea as the Greeks. Odysseus and Patroclus went into the bushes when Dolan (a Trojan) went by. They threw a spear over his shoulder to scare him and they hopped out at him and said they wouldn't kill him. They asked him where all the Trojan stuff was and he was breaking all the secrets for his life and after he told them, they killed him. Then, they snuck in right where he told them and they stole all the horses and armor and they killed like 200 people and they snuck back to the camp.

Then, Achilles didn't mind about all the people getting hurt and he set all the Myrmidon army out and his best friend led and he wore his armor so that he'd look like Achilles but he got killed and the Trojan that killed him took off his armor, and Achilles didn't have any armor but he needed to get back into battle to fight to lead the Myrmidon army since his friend Patroclus was dead. ("He was sad." says Christian)

"The box was covered with arrows." (C) He got some really nice boxes and around the whole shield it had his whole life around the shield. The god of fire made the armor for him ("Because he blew it with fire, it came into tin!" C)

First, Achilles didn't really have compassion for all the people that were getting hurt and then his friend died. And he changed because it was his best friend and he was crying and all of the water-nymphs came up and asked him why he was crying and he told them why he was crying and he went back into battle and then he fought by the river and he killed so many people that it filled the water with blood. Then, he hit the water to clean out his spear and he hurt the water and then the water started fighting him and he had to fight the water and then the god of fire came down and blew fire on the water and then it stopped when he asked him if he would stop hurting Achilles.

This is as far as we got so far.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Three Billy Goats Gruff
By Abbie Hinrichs

One day there were three goats who wanted to eat grass and get fat. But they couldn’t because there was an ugly troll under a bridge. One day the littlest goat went on the bridge. “Who’s that walking on my bridge?” “It’s me.” “You can walk on my bridge.” Then the middle one came. “Who is walking on my bridge?” “It is me.” “I will eat you up.” “No fair. You wait for my brother comes, he’s bigger than me!” His brother came and the troll said, “Who is walking on my bridge?” “It is me” And he poked him with his horns and the troll fell off the bridge. The billy goats Gruff walked on the grass and ate it.

Paricutin

Hill of Fire
by Thomas P. Lewis
Report by JJH
10-5-07

There was a farmer in Mexico who thought nothing ever happened but something did happen. Everyday he would get up early and work in his corn field. And one time he was working in his cornfield when his son Pablo came out to help. Then the ox stopped because it thought there was a rock. But the plow really got stuck in a small hole in the ground.

Pablo and his father heard this rumbling sound and it smelled like rotten egg. Smoke began to come out of the hole and then an explosion! They ran and ran. Then Pablo’s father ran to the town and rang the church bell. Everybody came to the church and prayed. Then they came outside to look if it was still there and it was!

The people ran away to a different place of town. And then they hoped that it would be gone the next day but it wasn’t. Then there were people who came in uniforms that helped all the people move to the other part of town far from the volcano. Too far that the volcano wouldn’t get the people.

The farmer was saved from the volcano. He built another house and a new cornfield. Everyday he could see the glow from the volcano. Sometimes Pablo would get other children to look at the farmer and the children would ask his father, “Are you going to make another hill of fire?”

Grandma Gretchen's Visit by Benjamin, Christian and Dante

We picked her up from the airport and then we had lunch. We had big tongue sticks (fruit bars) and we had sandwiches and cheese pops (cheese sticks) and apple juice. ("And cream soda, Sawzie!" says Dante.)

First we went to the 'Prise (Surprise) and then we went to the Star of India. It was fun when we went to the Star of India because there were skeletons in the basement and Grandma got to come with us.

When we took Grandma back to the airport, we went to Seaport Village. We saw lots of boats and minnow fishies. It was neat to see the school of fish, when Grandma gave us her glasses to see them because the fish looked really neat.

Grandma read us Peter Rabbit and "row hoe, row hoe". She read us the dinosaur book.

I like Grandma because she comes to see us.

Goldilocks

Goldilocks
by Abigail Marie
10-2-07

There was a golden-hair girl and she had a dollie and she was picking flowers. She went to the woods. She saw a little house and clapped her hands. Her go in and started eating their food. She sat in the chairs. There was a momma chair and a daddy chair and a baby chair. That one was too soft and that one was too rough. Her sat in the baby chair and it got broken!
She climbed up the stairs and her go in the momma’s bed and that one was too soft. Her go into the daddy bear bed was too rough. The other one was just right. So she slept in the baby’s bed.
Then the bears came home. “Who eat my food?” said the daddy bear. “Who eat my food?” said the momma. “Who eat my food?” said the baby?
“Who got on my chair?” asked the daddy bear. “Who in my chair?” asked the momma bear. “Who got my chair and crashed it?” asked the baby bear.
When they went upstairs that daddy asked “Who get on my bed?” The mommy asked “Who got on my bed?” Baby said who get in my bed?” Her run out the house. Her run out of the bear’s house to her momma.

Riding at Aunt Marie's House
By Christian Hinrichs

When I went horse-riding, we went trotting a lot. I was riding Silver. He's a nice horse because he lets us ride on him. I like trotting because it's like I'm running. Aunt Marie told me to put my arms out and then put them down. When I'm trotting, she tells me to take my hands on and off of the saddle. It was really, really, really, really, really fun. Aunt Marie is nice because she lets us ride on her horse, and she really likes me and Ben a lot.

The Lizard Eggs
By Benjamin Hinrichs

Well, one week when the students came, one of the students said that they had some lizard eggs under their hose. I was interested in them and then next week, they gave them to me in a little container. I put some moss and water and some nice dirt in it and we looked at them with the microscope and I think they are skink eggs. We saw little tiny lizards in them through the microscope. They haven’t hatched yet, but I am still taking good care of them. And that’s all.

Vesuvius

The Sleeping Giant
By Jonathan J. Hinrichs
9-18-07

In Pompeii, which was built around two thousand years ago, there was a sleeping giant. It wasn’t really a person, it was really a volcano. Pompeii was a town that was built underneath the volcano. The people thought it was a beautiful mountain.

One day it started getting ready to blast off. All these people were just coming and coming to Pompeii, to sell things, and to buy things. And there were carts rattling which woke up the people. It started as a normal day. Then the people were looking out of their windows just as the volcano blasted off.
The volcano’s name was Vesuvius. It had hot lava and gases. The gases are what make the volcano erupt and go everywhere. The people started to hide in their houses or run out of their houses to the beach. They had to run to the beach to escape. There were little volcano pebbles falling on their heads. Some people found pillows to cover their heads. The volcano was not done. There were ashes that started to fill up the houses to the second window. Soon the city was buried, only the tops could be seen.
There was a little boy who lived near Pompeii who grew up and became a writer and he wrote about the volcano. Hundreds of years later scientists came in and they had a lot of excitement that they found Pompeii.
Now it’s more like a museum than a town. A lot of people came and scientists to see if the sleeping giant would wake up again. Then there were a lot of people who came from all these different countries, America, and Italy. Vesuvius and Pompeii are in Italy. They don’t know if the sleeping giant will wake again.

Twenty-One Balloons

The Twenty-One Balloons
by William Pene du Bois
Report by J.J. Hinrichs
9-25-07

There was a man, Professor William Waterman Sherman, who wanted to fly away for a year, or months, to be alone. So he prepared a hot air balloon with a house beneath it. The house had a bed made out of air and when he was getting ready to go he would give the command and he would go.

Professor William Waterman Sherman left from San Francisco and flew over the Pacific Ocean. The days were sunny days. When he needed to wash something he would just dip it into the ocean with his fishing pole. When he needed to go higher he would just release some junk, or old food scraps.

Then once there was a sea gull what went right into the balloon and got trapped inside. He was terrified and didn’t know what to do. He started throwing all his things off of his balloon. He made it to an island which was called Krakatoa.

On the island of Krakatoa he met a guy named Mr. F who helped him to go through a jungle to a diamond mine. The diamond mine was so sparkling that they had to wear dark glasses. Some of the diamonds were as big as little pebbles, some were was big as baseballs, and some were as big as boulders.
At certain times of the day the whole island would move. Well, all except where the diamond mines were. After they left the diamond mines the volcano started to shake.

Mr. F. took Professor Sherman to his house. His house was French. The next day he saw all the houses and they were all different. Like T was for Turkey. One of the most interesting things was that all of the men’s names were after the alphabet like Mr. T, Mr. F…

There were 20 families living on the island. For money they would take a few small diamonds and sail to any place in the world and sell the diamonds and get the material to build their restaurant on Krakatoa.

For fun the children built an airy-go-round. Where you build a merry-go-round with hot air balloons. There was a tall pole that was like a screw thing and inside a little round thing there was a screw what went up and when they landed the commander would tell them to pull the strings and they would pull them and they would go up and around. Then finally they would go off the pole and then they would just go right around and go until the commander to let all the air out of the balloons. Then they would let all the air out and they would land in the ocean.

The day the volcano erupted everyone was in a restaurant and they saw the wall break into two. They all fled on a sort of platform and finally they got off with parachutes. Professor Sherman had to run back and forth to let the air out of the balloons. He landed in the Atlantic Ocean where he was rescued.

Of special note: we read that there was a volcano named Krakatoa which exploded in the 1880’s creating the loudest sound ever recorded. Krakatoa and Pompeii are the two most famous Stratovolcanoes.