Common known tongue twister:  How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?

Some other fun twisters:  How much seed could a sunflower seed sow if a sunflower seed could sow seed?

Twenty tiny tulip’s tickled ten tom turkeys, the ten tom turkey’s tickled twenty tiny tulips too.

Have fun!

Describe a pig pen where the pigs have wings and talons instead of legs and hooves.

Describe a spider web made by spider servants for a spider queen. 

Describe an underwater home for a boy/girl with gills and webbed feet.

Writing Prompt:  Do your own comparison of personal emissions.  Using the conversion site listed below measure your gas emissions.  One gallon of gasoline is equivalent to 19.564lbs of CO2 emissions.  In case you need a refresher of grams to pounds conversion it is 454g = 1lb.  When you’ve finished your calculations write an article based on your findings.  Also suggest ways people can save energy when using their PC and doing Internet searches.  For example: You might advise webmasters to reduce the use of graphics on their websites.     

Sources:

Times Online, Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches, New research lifts lid on links between CO2 emissions and internet searches: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5489134.ece

Conversion calculator for gas emissions: http://www.b-e-f.org/GreenTags/faq_pages/calculator.shtm under the driving section of the page.

     For example, you can discuss the controversy over who influenced Thomas Jefferson when he drafted the Declaration of Independence.  Most scholars believe it was John Locke since Jefferson used his model with only a slight adaption.  While some scholars believe he had different influences.

Something to think about:
     John Milton, 17th Century Poet said, “Let all with something to say be free to express themselves.  The true and sound will survive.  The false and unsound will be vanquished.  Government should keep out of the battle and not weigh the odds in favor of one side or the other “.  His principles of the “self-righting process” and “open marketplace of ideas” were promoted by Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson took it to heart and argued that, “any government which can not stand up to published criticism deserves to fall”.-1   Further Thomas Jefferson who was highly scrutinized by the press said, “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.” –Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787. ME 6:57″. -2 

  Sources:

1-  Terror on the internet, The New Arena, the New Challenges; Gabriel Weimann. 2006.  Chap. 7 Balancing Security and Civil Liberties, pg. 232.  also available online for preview: http://books.google.com/books?id=19iCbNOoYmIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Thomas+Jefferson+a+government+that+could+not+stand+up+under+criticism+deserved+to+fall&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPP1,M1 

2-  Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government- Freedom of the Press: http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1600.htm

________

Example of telling:

Bill’s brother, Dan, was murdered two days ago.  As he looked through old photos of Dan he felt angry, betrayed, and broken hearted.  It hurt him deeply, and he wanted someone to pay for it.  God had taken his brother, and now he was left to live with the guilt of it for the rest of his life.  Drinking dulled the pain, but couldn’t extinguish the lust Bill had for revenge.

Example of showing:

Bill sat in his room pouring through old photos of his brother, Dan.  Racing memories of their childhood, parties, late night calls for advice, and petty squabbles swam in and out of Bill’s drunken state.  He tucked the photos back into the album and chucked an empty bottle of liquor.   As it violently cracked into shards against the wall it bounced every framed picture off its nail with it.  He stared at the scattered pile of debris that rested on the floor.  Then as if struck, Bill jerked his twisted face up toward Heaven and groveled with fervor.  “Dan please come back”.  The tears soaked through his soul trying to drown the burning questions.  “Dan, why?  Who?”  He pleaded for the answers, he needed to find Dan’s killer.

——

Happy New Year!  To a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2009 for all!!

I am only one,
but I am one.
I can’t do everything,
but I can do something.
- Helen Keller

Writing Prompt for adults and children: Write about the different birds that find their way to your feeders. From season to season the types of birds change. Sometimes we are lucky to have rare birds and even birds that shouldn’t be in our neck of the woods. Write those observations and why you think they have migrated to your area. Is it global warming or did they just get off at the wrong exit? How often, if ever, do you see rare and unheard of birds at your feeders? Is there a common bird in your area that you have never seen?