Pok-a-Tok

Pok-a-Tok was a ball game played by the Mayan's. Usually Pok-a-Tok was played to see who would be sacrificed for god. Mayans believed that god liked blood, so they sacrificed a lot of people and made themselves bleed on purpose. The Mayans had a large well, and Mayans did not know how to swim, so they would drown, because the edges were too high to grab onto. Pok-a-Tok determined who would be trrown into the well at a ceremony that they would have.

Pok-a-Tok was a game where if you were chosen to play would be a great honor. Even if inside, you are going, "Oh no; I'm going to die! Ahh!" on the outside you thank, and bow. You see, I was chosen to play, and that is what I did.

The day of the game, I went crazy, thinking about how at that time tomorrow, I might have been dead. I calmed down slowly.

I put on my gear:

I would not be allowed to use my hands or feet. I am only allowed to use my forearms, hip, and knee. This is why I don't have gear on my hands or feet.

The ball is very heavy. Sometimes they wrap rubber onto a human skull. "That is very heavy, but also bouncy.

I take my place, for the game is starting. A man of high rank, I think the god Halac Unic, throws the ball up. I catch it in by forearms and pass it to a teammate. He dribbles with his forearms, and passes to another teammate.

He shoots. Aww. It doesn't make it in. I am sad, and scared now. The other team has the ball.

They shoot, they miss.

We keep going, passing it back and forth between teams.

Nobody scores a

Wait. He's going for it, almost, Almost! It hits the ring, and bounces off.

Nobody scores a point. Our time is out, and the Halac Unic is displeased. We will all be sacrificed! I am very scared now!

April 2011

My Worst Party

Dear Diary,

Today, I tried to throw a party, but it turned out horribly. I had invited people from the World Record Book to come over. I was going to interview them and have dinner with them. I invited the clumsiest person in the world to my party and the person with the longest arms. His arms were so long that after he stepped back a few feet to put some plates away, the clumsiest person walked right over and tried to limbo under it, but failed completely. He was perhaps the shortest one there, but his head bumped right in to the long arms. Longest Arms tumbled over, smashing the plates into the person who gets hurt most easily, causing him to yell out in pain so loudly that the person who fainted the most and the person who could hear the best topped over each other.

Once everyone was back in place and I had finished setting the table, we all sat down. Next, Biggest Mouth tried to drink his water and it spilled all over his shirt. Clumsiest person tried to clean it up for him, but he ended up stuffing the paper towel up his nose and toppling his chair over, causing Worst Eyesight to walk over without seeing and topple over the next guest. Cleverest Person tried to move out of the way, which made Worst Eyesight fall over on his chair, knocking it over. The chair knocked over Cleverest Person, who in this case was not very clever, causing Biggest Mouth to spill even more wine all over him. Longest Arms finally saved the crash by putting out his strong, long arms, which Biggest Mouth fell into.

I decided to let Clumsiest Person try to dance with his arms close to him and away from the others. I turned on the music and everyone started dancing. This time, the person who saved the last bad event was the one causing it! Longest Arms was swinging his arms around wildly and hitting many people. Soon, everyone was on the floor except Clumsiest Person, which was very surprising. He made his way into the crowd. To my surprise, Clumsiest Person was not so clumsy anymore! I had cured him with my party! I think…or at least he was at my party when he was cured.

Soon, everyone left. Clumsiest Person became normal and will be removed from the World Record Book. So much for my interview!

Angie Z.

Mabel's X-Ray Vision

Mabel was in second grade. In science, her teacher talked to her and her classmates about the parts of the body and how x-rays can let people see through their body and see their bones and muscles. Mabel thought that x-rays were cool. She knew just what she wanted for Christmas, x-ray vision. The week before Christmas, she made her wish list. Mabel’s wish list sid:
This is Mabel’s wish list:
1. X-Ray Vision
2. A new stuffed animal
3. A big pack of gym
4. A bag of skittles
5. For Santa to give me one of these things.

On Christmas Eve, she wished upon a star that she would get X-Ray Vision, and she did the next morning. She could see throough walls and doors, and skeletons were walking around. She wanted to make a good use of her power.
A week later at school, she saw a lonely girl walking outside in the hall way. She was walking kind of like she was blind, toughing walls and tring to feel her way through the hall. Suddenly, the bell rang. Time for lunch! She would not mind being a little late for lunch, so she walked over to the girl she had seen before and switched off her X-Ray Vision by pushing on a button by her foot.

She asked, “Are you blind?”

The girl answered, “Yes, my names is Julia.”

“Mine’s Mabel,” Mabel replied. “Can I help you?”

“Uh, sure, thanks.” Julia answered.

“Then it’s like that, they were friends, and Mabel helped out anyone with difficulties such as blindness or deafness.
She became kind woman when she grew up.

02/2011

Elizabeth Tilley's Dairy

Dear Dairy,

The minute I woke up at 5:00 a.m., My mom shouted my name, “Elizabeth! Eeeelizabeeeth! Elizabeth Tilley, get up right now!”

“But mom, the rooster isn’t up yet!” I yelled back at her.

“Cock-a- doodle-doooo!” I suddenly heard.

“Okay, okay fine I’m getting up,” I said, as I rolled my eyes. I rolled out of bed, slowly, and moved around to get used to being awake. The fire crackled, and the rooster kept “cockledoodledooing!” I coughed a bit, and rubbed my eyes, the smoke! I couldn’t stand it. Every day I would wake up and smell smoke, see smoke, and sometimes I could sort of feel it on me. It was like this since I was born! I am fourteen now, so I have waken up like this for 5,110 days. I went outside hastily , and took a deep breath of fresh air. It’s horrible inside the house. The smoke is always wafting around. I wish we had something to prevent the smoke from staying inside the house. It’s even bad for your health. I think my friend told me so. Oh yeah, and there is smoke in the house, because I’m pilgrim. I wish I was American Indian. They probably don’t do this.

“Elizabeth!” my mother shouted

“Coming, coming!” Ireplied, loudly, so she could hear.

I wonder how she can even stay in there for a minute. I alwys have to come out for a minute every 5 minutes.

I told myself “It’s okay. Just come back out in 5 minutes.” I went into the house with my mouth covered with my hands. Well, I’ve got a whole day of chores ahead of me.

-Elizabeth Tilley

01/2011

Being old

When you get really old,

Your face starts to wrinkle,

Your eyes see things as yellow and blurry,

And there’s not much of a twinkle.




When you get really old,

Your hearing is bad,

Just like there are earplugs,

And you sometimes get mad.



When you get really old,

You can easily get sick,

You never feel too good,

And you don’t wear lipstick.



When you get really old,

You will probably be sad,

Because of what I have described,

And you’ll be everything but glad.


But when you get really old,

You can and probably will get retired,

You would would have lots of time,

And hopefully this was not because you got fired.


1/10/2011

Autobiography about Andrew Clements

Andrew Clements was born in Camden, New Jersey in 1949. He moved to Oaklyn and Cherryhill till sixth grade. Then, he moved to Springfield, Illinois.

Clements loved to read when he was young, and loved to observe things around him. He never woke up thinking he would be an author when he grew up, though. He thinks the only reason he is an author is because he loved to read and observe.

In high school, he had to work hard on writing. His teacher told him he was good at writing. That made a big impression on him. In college, he started writing a little for fun.

He took an extra year of studying, because he wanted to be a teacher when he grew up. He stopped teaching for two years after seven years of teaching. After those two years, he worked in the publishing business. Little by little writing became important to him. One day, he was asked to write a picture book about something that happens underwater for an illustrator named Yoshi, so he wrote a story called Big Al in 1987.

Then in 1990, he wrote the book Frindle. It got published in 1996, it was popular. He started writing more stories after that.

Now he lives in New York.

(This is primary, because it's an autobiography and autobiographies are not written by the person in the story)

11/2010

The mystery of the missing mechanical pencil

On Monday by 5:00p.m., Fifi yelled out, “Anyone needs help solving a problem? Anyone? Fifty cents only!” John walked by, and placed fifty cents on the wooden table. Fifi looked at John. He said, “Hey, I’ve seen you at school before.” John asked, “What school do you go to?” “Forest Edge,” Fifi answered “Me too!” John said, Fifi asked, “So, what’s the problem?” John explained, “Well, at school today, I left my mechanical pencil at class during first period. By the middle of second period I realized that it was missing. I asked the teacher for her permission, and then left with James. We walked back to our homeroom, first period. I spotted Monster Meanbully using my mechanical pencil. It had the same clean white eraser at the end, which had never been used, the same shiny, blue brand new pencil grip on it, and it had about ten pieces of lead in it. I think James didn’t see it because he scanned the classroom, and then said that he didn’t see it and we left with no luck. Later on during recess I asked if Monster Meanbully had taken my mechanical pencil but he replied that he had never seen it, and didn’t know what it looked like.” Fifi was silent for a minute taking in all the information, then took another minute thinking. Finally, he said, “Was there any mark you made?” “Well, yes, sort of, it had my initials printed along the rim of the grip.” “Tomorrow, meet me at the main entrance by 8:30 a.m. exact,” Fifi said. “Okay, but-“ John got cut off. “No questions, no buts, no cuts, no coconuts,“ Fif said. “But-“ John said, “Ah, ah, ah, see you tomorrow,” Fifi said. There was nothing John could do but walk away back to his house.

The next day, Fifi got to school by 8:28 a.m. He got inside by 8:29 a.m. John got there just as the clock ticked 8:30. Fifi explained what John should do, “Just before you leave for second period, wait in your homeroom for Monster Meanbully to come in. Ask him for the mechanical pencil. Show him your initials on the grip on the pencil. He’ll have to give it back then.” John replied “Okay.” He shrugged his shoulders.

Sure enough, just before second period Monster admitted that he took the pencil and returned it to John.

11/2010