Celebrity of the Week-Leonardo

My name is Leonardo and I’m going to tell you about my trip during my winter break. I went to L.A and my parents took me to Hollywood, it was my first time going to Hollywood so we took a tour on a convertible van to go sight seeing.  We started the tour at the Hollywood walk of fame and got to walk on the sidewalk and see stars that have famous peoples names on them. We also got to see the Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theater. Then we got on a convertible bus that took us on top of a hill where we could see the Hollywood sign, and a view of LA. It was really cloudy so it was really  hard to see the sign and downtown L.A.

This is a picture of my Dad, my brother and me. You can see the sign behind us on the hill.

During the tour we got to see houses of famous people, such as the house where Michael Jackson died, the house of George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Howard Stern, Madonna, and many other famous stars.

This is Howard Sterns’ house, it sits on top of cliff, and has a great view of L.A.

After touring the Hollywood hills we went to Beverly Hills, and saw more houses of famous people. We also went to Rodeo Drive, and I saw the stores were famous people shop, but we did not see any famous people. Here is a picture of Rodeo Drive.

While driving around Rodeo Drive, Vine Street, and Sunset Blvd, I saw some fancy cars. My favorite car that I saw was a white and black lamborghini, lamborghinis are really expensive and very fast cars.

We did not get to finish the tour because it started raining and we started to get wet in the convertible van, it was also really cold.  Even though it rained I was happy that I got to see the real Hollywood!!

I was going to go to Legoland, but did not get to go because it snowed in the San Diego area where Legoland is at, so we ended up going to Knotts Berry Farm instead.  I had a great time at Knotts Berry Farm with my family.  I got to go on rides with my little brother and on rollercoasters with my dad. I had a great time during my trip to L.A because I got to see new places and spend time with my family.  I can’t wait for my next trip to southern California, because I really want to go to Legoland!!

I hope you learned a little bit about Hollywood.

The End of 2014!

I had good intentions on getting this post out earlier, but you all know the cliche'...better late than never! 

It's hard to believe, but 2014 is out and 2015 is here! As I get older, the years seem to pass more quickly.  December was quite busy with our visitor from the north pole, Jingle, a visit from Santa, making gifts, and learning a little about Hanukkah.

The Elf on the Shelf was delivered to our classroom straight from the North Pole as the package was covered in frost! The room was spiraling with excitement as we unwrapped the package. We quickly learned we had a boy elf and he needed a name. This is how we found our unnamed elf when we returned to school.

The kids took an online survey with some boy elf names and the majority vote was for Jingle...so Jingle it was!

Each day, the kids would practically run me down at the door, sometimes even forgetting our morning "greeting routine" just to get in the classroom to see what Jingle had done or what notes he left us from the day before.

 We quickly learned that he was not really mischievous, but more like a friendly elf. He left us kind messages and treats, decorated our whiteboard with lights and even shared a couple of jokes. He brought excitement and happiness to our room.

While Jingle was making his PRESENCE in our room, we were making PRESENTS for our parents. The kids were busy like little elves working on their gifts. They made a beautiful cards, decorated wrapping paper and wrapped their gifts!

Two Star Academy parents came to teach us a little about Hanukkah. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much the 2nd graders already knew. After the menorahs were lit, the kids enjoyed playing a traditional game of dreidel. This was an absolute hit!

On the last day of school for 2014, we did a gift exchange where everyone brought a gift wrapped book. I loved this idea because it meant everyone was leaving with a new book for the break. To make things more interesting, we did the book exchange "White Elephant" style. Can you guess the most popular books? If you said Minecraft, you were correct!  

One of my favorite parts of the day was watching a movie with the kids while eating popcorn, mini-cookies, and drinking hot chocolate, all of which was donated from our Star parents!

To top off this fun-filled day, we had another visitor from the North Pole...SANTA! He delivered "snowballs" (white glittery playdough) to each student, took a few photos with class and quickly grabbed Jingle before heading back to the North Pole.

Celebrity of the week~Landon

Hello, my name is Landon. I am going to tell you about my new puppy, Mila. My puppy was left in a shoebox at the shelter when she was just 5 days old. Because puppies aren’t supposed to leave their moms until they are 7 weeks old, the rescue had to bottle feed her every couple of hours. Mila ended up getting pneumonia because of the bottle feedings and the vet thought she was going to die. She was put into an oxygen chamber to help her live.

When Mila survived, the lady at the rescue named her Mila because it comes from the spanish word Milagro, which means miracle. What’s really funny about that name is that my mom wanted to name my sisters Mila but my dad said no.

My mom had wanted a new dog for awhile. We started going to shelters in the summertime but we didn’t find one that worked for our family. My dad was the one who found Mila on a website called Petfinder.com. What’s kind of funny is that Mila came from a cat rescue and not a dog rescue.

This is Mila’s picture from the website that my dad saw.

Me and my family went to meet Mila to make sure she would work for our family. We thought she would so we filled out an application to get her. We weren’t a hundred percent sure that we’d get Mila so that made us a bit nervous, because we already loved her. We ended up adopting her on October 18th and I was very excited to bring her home.

The first time I met Mila

The day we adopted Mila.

Mila has grown a lot since we’ve brought her home, we don’t know exactly how big she will get but we know she will be big! She has already doubled in size since we got her. We don’t really care how big she gets were just happy she is ours and we love her so much.

Celebrity of the week-Kyler

Last December, me and family met up with friends at a cabin in Soda Springs. It was snowing outside.

I went cross country skiing with everyone but the parents. I took a lesson but I didn’t need it  though.  My brother and sister didn’t take a lesson, they went on trails.

In the cabin, there were two bunk beds; we slept there for three nights.  

We had our Christmas party in the cabin and I got clothes from my Secret Santa.

Outside, there was a lot of snow.  

My brother built a snowman, we threw snowballs at each other, and sled down the icy street.

It was a lot of fun and I wish I could go back there next winter!

Here are some of the pictures during our Fun in the Snow: