Milk Weed Is Not a Weed
George Washington Carver said, “A weed is a flower growing in the wrong place.” A lot of people think milk weed is a weed. In fact weed is even in the name. But, to a monarch it’s a food and a home. In this paper I’m going to tell you about monarchs and what they need to survive. Hopefully I will convince you that milk weed is not a weed.
Monarch butterflies and caterpillars rely on milkweed for their survival. The monarch is just one species of a whole group of butterflies that need milkweed. A female lays 400 eggs each on a separate milk weed plant. Milkweed is the only plant that they will lay their eggs on. After the caterpillar hatches it eats up to 30 milk weed leaves. This is the only food it eats. It weighs more than 3000 times more than it did when it hatched when it’s ready to make its’ cocoon. If you ate that much you would weigh as much as a bus! After it hatches from the cocoon it needs flowering plants including milkweed for nectar. As you may see, monarchs need milk weed for their whole life.
Milkweed is important to milkweed butterflies and may be endangered of becoming extinct. Milkweed is called a host plant. It is called a host plant because it is the only plant a female monarch will lay its eggs on and the only plant a monarch caterpillar will eat. Milk weed is a perennial plant that is common on prairies. There are over 100 species and many are in danger of becoming extinct. Habitat destruction has reduced the number of milk weed. Habitat destruction is happening because of houses, buildings, and farms clearing out land which has milkweed growing on it.
Many people may not want milkweed in their yards even though it is good for monarchs. Some people think it is stinky, messy, and ugly. Others argue that it is a weed that takes over city lawns and gardens. But the monarchs and I say “milk weed is not a weed!” Milkweed is a plant that’s necessary for monarch survival.
I think it is important that people take action to helping monarch butterflies. Planting a butterfly garden is a good start. On one side it is good to have milkweed. Good type’s are common milk, showy milk weed, blood flower, and swamp milkweed. On the other side it is good to plant flowers such as butterfly weed ,butterfly bush ,lantana ,coreopsis ,cosmos ,hollyhocks ,lavender ,Liatris ,marigolds ,purple coneflower ,and zinnias. When you plant them you need to plant them in a lot of sun. They need sun because the monarchs need to warm their wings for flight.
Have I convinced you that milk weed is not a weed? You can make a difference for monarchs by planting milk weed instead of tearing it down. The milk weed butterflies will thank you!
Arizona
By Willow Skidmore
I went to Arizona for a week. It was hot there. I stayed in an apartment. The buildings looked Mexican. Once I saw a lizard while coming home from the store! It was cool. As soon as it saw us it went into a crack in the sidewalk. Then I went for a swim. Later, I saw a snake; it was a milk snake. There were also scorpions.
Arizona was peaceful. I could hear birds and water and almost feel the stillness. It smelled sweet and nature-like. There were cacti and palm trees. I love nature. Arizona is neat. It is pretty, for sure. I love Arizona. My family loves Arizona too.
Scratch Programming
By Connor
Scratch is a computer programming language meant for making games and videos. It is different from other programming languages, though, because it is designed for eight to sixteen-year-olds. Instead of using text for the programs, it uses pictures of blocks (like Lego blocks) that can be stacked to make a script. A script is made up of the commands that tell the program what to do.
Scratch is much easier to use than many other programming languages. It uses sprites, which are the objects in games. The hero, the bad guys, and even the start button are sprites. One of the best things about Scratch, though, is that it is open-source, which means it can be edited by anyone and that blocks can also be added.
Scratch blocks are separated into different groups called categories. Scratch has eight different categories and two different subcategories. These are Motion, Motor, Control, Looks, Sensing, Sound, Operators, Pen, Variables, and Lists (Motor and Lists are subcategories).
The Control blocks are the most important blocks of any program. This category includes blocks that tell the script when to start (called hat blocks). The Motion blocks control how sprites move. They are some of the most often used blocks in Scratch projects. The Motor blocks control a Lego motor that can be plugged into the computer, allowing people to make projects that control Lego creations.
The Pen blocks allow a sprite to act as a pen, drawing a line wherever it goes. The Variables and Lists are more advanced. They act as storage spaces. They can have both numbers and strings (any group of letters, numbers, and symbols) stored in them, which can be used to show the score and number of lives left in the game.
Looks change the appearance of sprites and control animation. The Sensing blocks can be used to ask questions and store the answers in a variable block. They can also control what happens in a program.
The Sound blocks are just what anyone would think—they control sound. The Operators allow addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as other things, which are useful for changing the values (such as the score) being stored in variable blocks.
Scratch is very useful for anyone who wants to learn programming, as it teaches basic concepts that can later be used in other programming languages.
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
Report by Maggie, founder of the homeschool book nook.
This slow-paced chapter book is full of excitement for some and rather a bore for others. Gregor and his sister Boots fall into the Underland, where they meet giant roaches, rats as big as humans, bats they can ride, and most of all the Underlanders, who, centuries ago, climbed down into the earth and made an underground city, following the lead of Sandwich, the famous explorer/scientist. In a frenzy to find his father, Gregor meets unexpected danger and some fun, too. I found the majority of this book to be boring, although some parts were rather exciting and kept my interest. If you like this book there are five more that can be found at your local library.
“This book is great!”, say Alex and Mountain, but both say the next book in the series is better.
My First Month of Homeschooling
I am very new to HomeSchooling and the reason why I wanted to be HomeSchooled was that I was in a school that was stressful for me. I now feel happy excited to learn everyday. My mom takes me to The Science Museum, Pump It Up, Leonardo’s Basement and Norse Mythology. I like learning that way. Every time I go somewhere I write about it in my journal, isn’t that great? I can’t decide which classes are my favorite.
My favorite part of HomeSchooling is science and math. I like book club, acting class and sleeping in. I feel better and not stressed now that I learn with my mommy.
Comic by Tyler
Maple Syruping!
Every year, I, my brother, my sister and my mom go to my grandparent’s farm in Downing, WI to collect sugar maple sap and boil it down into maple syrup. They live on 80 acres of land and have around 55 sugar maples that they tap each year.
We stay 2-4 days in their guest house and every morning we go around from tree to tree
and dump the sap from the 1 gallon buckets into 5 gallon buckets. Then, later, we go on top of the hill to dump buckets.
There are a few ways to collect sap. One of them (the way we do it) is to drill a hole in the tree and then stick a tap in the hole and hammer in place. You stick a bucket on the hook under the tap and-ta-da! You have tapped the tree! Another way to do it (I am not well informed about this one) is you once again drill a hole in the tree and then you stick a tap in that allows you to hang a bag and a cover which is what you hold the maple sap in. A third way to do it, though it seems kind of cruel to me – and they (big sapping companies) do not do this all the time – is to suck the sap out of the tree with a vacuum like devise, running tubes from tree to tree so all the sap goes into one big tank.
Getting syruping equipment is expensive, but taping sugar maples has so many great rewards: you get 100% pure maple syrup (so no more Mrs. Butterworth for you), 100% pure maple syrup is very expensive, in fact, 1 gallon of it is $60. It is also a lot of fun to collect the sap and your house smells wonderful from boiling down the maple sap into maple syrup! And making things like snow cones and taffy with the fresh maple syrup is delicious and fun! Did you know? It takes 40-45 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup!!
I defiantly think you should look into touring a maple syruping place. And if you live in the country, you should see if you have any maples, and if so, look into taping them!
Sapping is a lot of fun and rewarding too so if you can you should!
Cadence, 10
How to Make Delicious Pancakes
by Becky C.
I like to cook pancakes for my family as often as I can. This is the pancake recipe that I usually use. We usually double the recipe. You can add frozen blueberries– a half cup is good. Mix them in once everything else is almost combined.
It’s good to flip the pancakes when they start looking cooked around the edges, cooked meaning the bubbles stay put and the batter looks set. It’s much harder to flip when you add blueberries or if your pancakes are very large.
SACO Buttermilk Blend is a buttermilk powder. Our recipe is based on the recipe from the container.
¼ cup SACO Buttermilk Blend
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 egg
1 cup water
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
In medium mixing bowl combine Buttermilk Blend, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In small mixing bowl whisk together egg, water and oil; mix into dry ingredients. Stir just until combined.
Heat skillet or griddle to 325F, then lightly grease skillet. Drop ~1/2 cup of batter for each pancake onto skillet. When small bubbles stop disappearing, turn pancakes over and cook for 1 minute, or until bottom is lightly browned. Serve immediately.
Yields 10, 4-inch pancakes.
Barrio GrrrL Play Review
By Ellie
Barrio Grrrl!: A New Musical was awesome! I loved the music and choreography.
Barrio Grrrl is about a Latino girl named Ana who fantasizes about being a superhero. Her imaginary friend, The Amazing Voice, always cheers her up, even when her dad has a hard time at work or her mom is in the war overseas fighting. Ana and her friends make a club called the Waterloo Ice Cream Crew so they can have enough money to buy ice cream, but it gets Ana in trouble. When Ana’s mother comes home, Ana has to say goodbye to The Amazing Voice. It’s a really funny musical. If they ever come back to the Twin Cities to perform it, I would definitely go see it again.
Poem by Twain
The Beauty of the Snow
A world of white, the beauty of the dream.
Yet to be ruined by a simple sunbeam.
Is a fate it must endure,
For every day it grows fewer and fewer.
But still there is snow, white as cream.
By Twain, age 11
Breaking Down an Article-Bylines
A Byline is the next part of an article you see after the Headline. It is the part that says the name of the writer, and in large newspapers the job of the person who wrote it. For example:
John Doe,
Staff Writer
Normally the byline is between the Headline and the Text of the article. Examples of this placement include the New York Times. Sometimes the byline will have a brief summary of the article i.e. Scientists have found how to communicate with monkeys, as our Staff Writer John Doe discovers.
Notably, some bylines are placed at the bottom of the article, so as to have a picture, or other effect around the headline. A great example of this is Reader’s Digest.
Homeschool Gazette 