Sunday, August 27, 2006

Letter to my teacher.

I had to write a letter to my teacher. Here is what I wrote:

Dear Ms. Bouton August 28, 2006
I am 9 years old. I didn’t always live in Tiburon. I was born in Des Moines, Iowa. I stayed there for a couple of weeks and then I went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house so that Grandma could take care of me, staying home and mom could work at the same time and I didn’t have to leave the house.

When I turned two, my mom and I got our own apartment. Then when I was three, we moved to St. Louis. Our downstairs neighbor was Carmella. I had my fourth birthday at a park in St. Louis. Then we went back to Iowa for a little while. We lived there for a couple of years. Grandma came to visit often and we had lots of fun.

When I was six, we moved to Chicago and stayed there for a couple of years. That’s where my mom met my step-dad, Cameron. They got married about a year after I met him. Now we live here in Tiburon and I go to Bel Aire School.

I like to play on the computer. My favorite computer game right now is The Lord of the Rings the Battle for Middle Earth. This is a game that is sort of like The Lord of the Rings but it only has the action parts and there is a battlefield that you have to claim and you get a certain amount of points. You can also get different amounts of points while playing the game while fighting and doing different tasks. What you usually do is try to destroy the enemy. But in one of them, what you do is run away from the enemy.

I have two cats. Their names are Dixie and Trixie. Dixie has a moustache and Trixie has a beard. They are entirely black and white. Last night, Trix was biting at my toe when it was underneath the covers. It didn’t really hurt, it tickled, actually. We were watching a movie. Mom and Cam asked me to be quiet and so I stopped bothering Trix.

I like music too. My favorite band is Green Day. They most definitely aren’t appropriate for school. The CD has a lot of bad words in it and it is very hard rock. The title of my favorite one even has a bad word in it. I like Kaiser Chiefs too. I think you might like that. It is hard rock but it doesn’t have that many bad words in it. There is a band with a funny name. It is called Chumbawamba and I like one of their songs. It is called, “I Get Knocked Down.”

So far, I think school is going great and that you are one of the best teachers I’ve had.

Your friend,

Sam E.

Music I like

My new teacher told us we could bring music to school. She was going to burn a couple of each of our favorite songs onto a cd that we could listen to in class.

I picked "Jungle Gym" from the soundtrack to Curious George by Jack Johnson and "Move Along" by the All American Rejects. Here is a letter I wrote to her about the assignment:

Dear Ms. Bouton, August 24, 2006


I like music too. At first I didn’t want to bring any music to share with the class because most of the songs I like best aren’t appropriate for school. My favorite band is Green Day. But my mom thinks some of the music I like is appropriate. She encouraged me to listen to some songs I like and divide them into groups.

Here is some music I like but don’t think I should bring to school:

1. American Idiot, Green Day, American Idiot

2. Kaiser Chiefs, Employment

a. Everyday I Love You Less & Less

b. Rest of CD

3. Recognize, Better Than Ezra, Closer

4. Easy, Cowboy Mouth, Easy

5. Devil’s Haircut, Beck, ODelay

6. Beverly Hills, Weezer

7. Detroit Swing 66, Gomez, In Our Gun

8. Mr. Brightside, Killers, Hot Fuss

9. Undone – the Sweater song, Weezer, The Blue CD

10. Rhett Miller, The Instigator

a. The El

b. This is What I Do

11. Where is the Love? Black Eyed Peas, Elephunk

Here is some music I like and think might be OK for school:

1. Jungle Gym, Jack Johnson (featuring G. Love), Curious George (#6)

2. Move Along, All American Rejects, Move Along (#3)

3. Jenny Was A Friend of Mine, Killers, Hot Fuss (#1)

4. Cowboy Mouth, Are You with Me?

a. Love of My Life (#7)

b. Jenny Says (#1)

c. How Do You Tell Someone? (#2)

d. Take It Out On Me (#4)

5. Do What You Want, Gertrude, Gertrude

There are more songs I like but Cameron is home and we are going to have dinner now. Let me know if you want to hear more or would like me to bring in more music.

Your friend,

Sam E.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

A day at Agate Beach

Almost a week ago, we went to Agate Beach and spent a while there playing on the shores. It was very rocky. Small crevices in the rocks that are full of water during high tide. When it gets to low tide, you can see the small craters in the rock. There are some sea creatures there. The beach was also full of seaweed. It would be almost impossible not to step on any seaweed when you go there.

We went at low tide. I got wet. That was the worst part, except for the stickiness. You could even touch all of the sea creatures in the tide pools but you had to get your hands wet first. You could even touch the sea creatures that are out of the tide pools. There were about 8 starfish there and there were even nudibranches. There were a lot of tide pools at Agate Beach. They were different shapes and sizes. There were also lots of slugs and a few crabs in shells. There were even a few empty shells.

This is a picture of a few sea anemones. When you put your finger in the center of one in the water, it would tickle a little bit. It would close up on your finger which you could just easily pop out.












This is a nudibranch that we found in a tide pool with the first starfish we saw. I thought it was very cool because of its gold body and its blue tail and head. I had never seen anything like it before.










This is a picture of what we think might be another nudibranch. I also thought it was cool because of its orangish spots all over and the whitish parts in between. It looked like the orange spots were popping up.

We didn't touch either nudibranch.







We are standing on seaweed looking into the tide pools and occasionally putting our finger into a sea anemone.



















We saw a rock that was hollow on the inside. You could see into it. It was arched on the top.
















I am standing on the rock that was in the last picture. It is in front of a very tall and steep sea wall.















Here is a picture of one of the starfish we saw. I think it is the one from the first tide pool with the first nudibranch.















Here I am holding a starfish that somebody else took off a rock. It is very hard to take a starfish off the rock. It hurts your hand to try.

















Mom was trying to take a starfish off a rock. I tried to take the same starfish off the rock. We couldn't get it off. It hurt our hands to try because the back of the starfish is very rough (and pretty). I think the starfish's skin is ridged to protect the starfish. No wonder we couldn't get it up.















The first sea anemones we saw were green. We also saw a few sea anemone that were pinkish-red.













Here I am standing and sliding down the rock. It was very slippery.
















Here I am putting the starfish I held back on a rock. It was half submerged and half above water. I thought I did a pretty good job.













This is the biggest sea anemone we saw out of water. It was about 3 inches wide at its widest point and 2 inches at its narrowest.















These shells were sticking to the bottom of the hollow arched rock. They looked like stalactites.












Here I am standing on a huge boulder. I don't remember much about this.


















These are very beautiful rocks. I think what may of made them beautiful was the coral on them.















This was the biggest sea anemone we saw under water. None of us stuck our finger in it. It actually might have taken them off. It seemed to be glowing.










Cameron is wearing his Project Homeless Connect shirt at the tide pools. He looks cool (but I am just saying that, so Cameron won't make me write another sentence about this picture.)


















Here I am holding a dead crab that I found in one of the tide pools underneath a rock. The back of his shell would open up but not fall off.
















This is the dead crab with his shell flipped up. On the top it was purple. The brownish-whitish things we think are gills. Its legs were about 2 inches tall. Its pinchers were about a centimeter tall.













Here I am standing up high on a tree that fell over, using it as a balance beam. My mom was being my spotter. I felt a bit scared. Before this, I had used a different log as a balance beam, and I didn't fall off once. But, I wasn't scared then because it was lower.




















Here I'm looking at the ocean waves and holding my walking stick. I felt vibrant and free.

On the way back, I ran through a small bit of water. My shoes got soaked. I also slipped into one of the tidepools. My shoes are still outside drying.










This is the earlier log that I was going on like a low balance beam that I went on on the way back. I fell off this one a few times, because I didn't have the walking stick. But my mom went back to get her coat. So, I asked her to grab it. And when she came back with it I said, "It wasn't hard to find was it?"

And she said, "No." This is because I stuck the stick into the sand right next to the place where Mom and Cam were sitting ... seen here and here.












Here my head is poking out of the sun roof. We stopped so me and Mom wouldn't throw-up from car sicness, because the road was windy.







These are pictures of rocks that we found at Agate Beach. The rocks there were very interesting. Here are three pictures of what three rocks there looked like.



Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Happy Birthday, Gramps!!!!

You are the best grandpa a kid could ever have. Lots of love, Sam

Climbing Mt. Tam

Here I am on Mt. Tam, sitting on a rock and getting a drink. I thought the view was amazing. I even took a few pictures.














I took this picture of the bay from Mt. Tam.














I made it to the top of Mt. Tam and I am standing next to a plaque. The plaque is engraved onto what was supposed to be a guard tower of Mt. Tam.














Here I am sitting on a rock next to the guard tower on the point of Mt. Tam. You can see this tower from our house. It is cool to look at it and know I've been there.












Here Cam is sitting on a rock that we found at the top of Mt. Tam. It is very close to the edge. I would be scared if I were there.




Here is a picture of Cam climbing another rock.


Here is a picture of me perched on top of a rock. I found a trail in a pit that led to the rock that I am perched on right now.










Cam took this picture of my mom and me sitting on the rocks. The sun was shining so brightly that it hurt to look at Cam. There were lots of bees and flies on this part of the trail, more than any other place on the mountain.







Here I am standing on a path that we found that was that was on a different part of Mt. Tam. It had a lot of tall grasses. By the end of the hikes, I was tired.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Sculptured beach

We decided to go back to the beach. We found these birds when we first got to the ocean. They were funny the way they ran into the waves in order to get food then ran away from the waves. I am having lots of fun in the very strong winds that are freezing cold.
I am running to chase after a quail, funny-looking birds with a thing like a rooster on its head.
This rock looks like it has the faces from Mt. Rushmore carved into it.
This is a piece of a creek that had a little bit of waterfalls.
Here, I am walking over the waterfalls and the creek. It felt like I was strong.
I think this rock would be very hard to climb.
There are three pieces of a crab here. It was pretty cool. The inside of the middle piece was hollow with absolutely nothing in it.
Here I am sitting on a huge rock. It was very cold and a little bit scary.
Here I am climbing out of the spot I was in in the last picture.
Here I am pretending to be strong. It was a joke.
This is a picture of the waves that are going into the small pools of water.
Here is a picture of me after I got wet from the waves. When I was standing on the edge of the rocks, a wave splashed up and got me all wet. I was very surprised.
Here is a picture of a hole in the rock that went all the way down to the sand on the ground.
These rocks are covered with clams.
My mom was a little afraid to climb on one part of the rocks. I helped her. Here is a picture of me and my mom in the big rocks.
Attached to a tree by the beach was a ball tied to a rope. Cam and I hit it back and forth. Later, I hit is by myself. I had fun hitting it as hard as I could. Here I am using it as a swing.
This is a picture of a wave crashing down at the beach.