How to Make a Swan

1. Put your origami paper down so it's a diamond.

2. Fold your origami paper in half so it's a triangle.

3. Unfold the last fold (keeping it like a diamond with crease down the middle)

4. Fold the two outside corners in so they meet up with the crease line. It should look like a kite.

5. Fold the new outside corners in so they meet up with the crease line.

6. Flip the paper over so you can see the crease line.

7. Now fold up the bottom point to meet the top point of the paper.

8. Turn the paper to the left.

9. Fold the paper up in half together.

10. Fold up the inner narrow triangle, this will be the swan's head and neck.

11. Fold down the top of the narrow triangle and it will be the beak.

12. Pinch the swan's body together and fold up the flaps to make it's feet.

13. And now you have completed your swan!

I hope you like it because I did!

Choose Your Own Adventure: Journey Under the Sea

I started a series called Choose Your Own Adventure. I liked Journey Under The Sea best because you get to explore under water. There were a lot of different endings. My favorite story path was battling a giant squid and finding a map to the center of the earth, then going to the center of the earth. It was really fun there! I read five different endings but I liked that one the best. I hope you like it because I did.

Magic Tree House #40: Eve of the Emperor Penguin

In this mission Jack and Annie get sent to Antartica. Antartica is at the south pole. Jack and Annie walk until they find penguins. Jack saves one.Then Jack and Annie keep walking until they get to a bus. They get on the bus. Then they arrive at a helicopter and fly to a place to get ready to go riding on the mountain. They have to go home because only adults can do it. When they are waiting for the helicopter they fall in a ditch and find the Emperor penguin.The Emperor penguin shows them the penguin that Jack saved. The Emperor said the penguin will help your friend, Merlin. They speed to Camlot to get Merlin better and then go home. I hope you like this book because I did.

Magic Tree House #39: Dark Day of the Deep Sea

In this mission Jack and Annie go to a deserted island in the middle of the sea. They see a ship and think it's pirates, so they go up to the tree house and hide. When the people get to shore, Jack and Annie see that they aren't pirates. They come down from hiding to see who they are. Three people stepped out of the boat, they were nice, not pirates. Jack and Annie asked if they could go on the ship. The man in the front said "ok, but still it's against the rules". The man in the front was named Henry, the two men in back were named Tommy and Joe. They go to the ship and a terrible storm comes so they go down to Henry's cabin. Then the bell rings and it means dinner-time. They go into the dining cabin and get the food. The food is dry biscuits, pickles and lime juice. I wouldn't like this dinner.

Jack feels sea sick so he goes up to the upper deck and Annie comes up to see what he is doing. She tells him, "we are not supposed to be up here!" Then a wave crashes down on them, and then another, and another, and another and another, until something loops around Jack, then Annie. They realize that they have been grabbed by an octopus trying to save them. Another wave crashes down and sends them into the ocean. This was my favorite part of the story.

The octopus looses his grip of them, they swim back to the ship to get on board. Once they get on board the men see that the sea monster that they were looking for was really the octopus that saved Jack and Annie. Henry tells Jack the secret of happiness. He needs this to bring back to Merlin to help Merlin get better.

Jack and Annie tried to get the octopus free and then finally the octopus breaks free. Jack, Annie and Henry go in the boat and chop the net. They return to the deserted island and Henry gives them a shell. Jack and Annie go home. I hope you like this book because I did.

Magic Tree House #38: Monday of the Mad Genius

In this book Jack and Annie go to Florence, Italy and look for Leonardo daVinci. Part of the mission was to work for Leonardo after noon through night to find the secret of happiness. When they find Leonardo he is in the middle of a big task. They help him, but what he wants them to do actually ruins what he needed done. Leonardo goes home and wants to leave Florence, Italy. Jack and Annie convince him to stay and to test one of his inventions that he has been waiting to test. The invention was called the Great Bird. He tries it but crashes.

Jack and Annie use a wand they got from Merlin. There are special rules that they need to follow. The rules are: it has to be good for others, you have to try your hardest or it won't work, and you have to say it in 5 words. They did try their hardest, it is good for others and they take out the wand and say "make. us. fly. like. birds." Wings appear instead of arms for Jack, Annie and Leonardo. This helps Leonardo fly in the sky because the Great Bird didn't work. This was my favorite part of the book.

I hope you like this book because I did.

Magic Tree House #37: Dragon of the Red Dawn

In this book Jack and Annie travel to Japan to find the 'secret of happiness' to help Merlin get better. Along the way they meet the samurai Master. He is also know as Basho. Basho helps Jack and Annie find the secret of happiness.

My favorite part of the story is when they were riding on the dragon. The dragon made it rain, and they needed it to rain or the town of Edo would burn to the ground. At first I thought they were going to get into a battle with the dragon in the book, but they didn't.

I hope you like this book because I did.

Magic Tree House #36: Blizzard of the Blue Moon

This is the fourth book of the mini-quest. The mission in this book is to find a unicorn on public display in New York City way back in 1938.

Jack and Annie go to free the unicorn but they don't know where it is. They think it's in the Bronx Zoo, but it's not. They go on the train but they don't know what stop the zoo is. They ask a girl who is really Kathleen, their friend. Kathleen tells them to get off at the wrong stop, which is a good thing because Teddy was sitting out there with a taxi. They didn't notice that Kathleen was the girl and Teddy was the taxi driver. Teddy left them stranded a foot away from the Cloisters Museum. Inside they find a unicorn woven in a tapestry. Annie thinks it's the real unicorn and calls out the wrong name because Merlin sent them only with a hint, not the real name. Then two people sent by the Dark Wizard call out the real name and the spell is broken and the unicorn awakes. Before people from the dark wizard rope the unicorn, Jack and Annie get onto the unicorn and ride back to the tree house.

Teddy brings Kathleen, Merlin and Morgan to the tree house but before it happens Jack and Annie turn the Dark Wizard's people into ducks. Then they fly away with the flock of ducks flying south for the winter. Merlin and Morgan take the unicorn back to Camelot and Jack and Annie go home.

I hope you like this book, because I did.

Magic Tree House #35: Night of the New Magicians

This is the third mission of the mini-quest. In this mission Merlin sends Jack & Annie to Paris, France. Their mission is to find four magicians and to tell them an urgent message that an evil sorceror is coming to steal their secrets. It is in the middle of the Worlds Fair of 1889. The streets are crowded and they don't know which four of all those people are the magicians. The magicians they have to find are the magician of light, the magician of iron, the magician of sound and the magician of invisible.

Jack and Annie have to find the secrets before the evil sorceror. My favorite part of the book is when they find out who the magicians are. You would never guess they are Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Mr. Eiffel and Mr. Pasteur.

I hope you like this book, because I did.

Magic Tree House #34: Season of the Sandstorm

This is the second book of the mini-quest. In this book Merlin sends Jack and Annie to a desert in Baghdad.

Right when they get there they have no idea where they are so they look in their 10 Rhyme book. There are only 8 rhymes left. They see one that says "make helpers appear out of nowhere". They use this rhyme and merchants appear out of nowhere. Their mission is to help the caliph spread wisdom to the world.

The most exciting part is when they used a rhyme to get back to the tree house quickly.

I hope you like this book, because I did.

Magic Tree House #33: Carnival at Candlelight

This is the first book of a mini-quest within the Magic Tree House books. In this book Merlin sends Jack and Annie on a mission to Venice, Italy.

Teddy and Kathleen give them 10 Magic Rhymes for the 4 Magic Missions. These missions are Carnival at Candlelight, Season of the Sandstorm, Night of the New Magicians and Blizzard of the Blue Moon.

In this mission they have to save the Grand Lady of Lagoon. They find out that she is really the whole city of Venice. They get to ride on the king of the jungle and save the Grand Lady of Lagoon.

My favorite part was when they fly over the ocean with the king of the jungle and see Neptune the god of land and sea.

I hope you like this book, because I did.

Magic Tree House #32: Winter of the Ice Wizard

One day in Frog Creek Jack and Annie were inside baking Christmas cookies. They asked to go outside and play. Then they found the tree house in Frog Creek woods. They race up the rope ladder and into the tree house. They saw a letter from the bottom of the tree house. The letter took them to a really icy place during the Winter Solstice. They saw a castle. When they got to the door they heard a voice "Where are Jack and Annie from Frog Creek?" They went into the palace and said "Here we are". The Ice Wizard said "You are not Jack and Annie, you are just children!". Annie said "We are Jack & Annie from Frog Creek".

The Ice Wizard then sent them on a mission to find his eye. They went to the place where the Ice Wizard said his eye was. The people there said they gave it to the Frost Giant.

Jack and Annie go to the Frost Giant's lair. The people said never to look at the Frost Giant or you will freeze to death, so they never looked at him.

Did they find the eye? You will find out when you read the book.

I liked this book because it is part of my favorite series. My favorite part was when they went to the Frost Giant's lair. I hope you like this book too.

Magic Tree House #31: Summer of the Sea Serpent

In Summer of the Sea Serpent Jack and Annie go on another of Merlin's missions from the Magic Tree House. They see a blue sea shell that has a rhyme on it from Merlin. Their mission is to go to the land in a time before Camelot. They have to get the Sword of Light before it turns dark or King Arthur will meet his doom.

They climbed out of the tree house and on the way to get the sword of light Jack remembered the shell said to call for help and the water knight will appear. Annie went over rocks and called for help. The water knight appeared with a funky looking creature. He carried them across the water on his weird looking creature and dropped them off on the other side. They went over big boulders and saw a big cave with a web in the entrance. Jack threw a stone, the web fell down and they climbed in.

Then they walked through half-way and water pushed them back and they got on a high cliff and the spider queen was right above them and made a web ladder. They climbed out and jumped into the water and two dolphins sped by them. They swam to shore, had a little rest and the dolphins were gone. Then they saw Teddy, their sorcerer friend. He introduced them to a new character named Kathleen. Then they noticed the two dolphins were Teddy & Kathleen. Kathleen is a selkie and part of their rhyme was to swim with a selkie. Selkies are dolphins when they swim and when they are on land, they are people. They swim with Kathleen through the the jellyfish cave into the bottom of another cave to find the sword of light.

They get the sword of light. They see that the giant green hills are really a sea serpent. The sea serpent says "to be worthy of the sword, you will have to answer my question" The question was "What is the meaning of the sword". Jack remembered that the rhyme said to answer a question with love, not fear, so they both answered it correctly and the sea serpent changed back into the green hills.

You have to read the book to see if King Arthur met his doom.

If you read this book I hope you like it because I did.

Magic Tree House #30: Haunted Castle on Hallows Eve

At the beginning of the story Jack and Annie were in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania. Then they went to Frog Creek woods, and went to the tallest oak tree, and saw the Magic Tree House. They climbed up into the tree house and they saw a leaf that had writing on it. They wished to go whereever that leaf came from. The leaf said on it, "To Jack and Annie of Frog Creek, On All Hallows Eve, look for me in the heart of the oak. —M."

When they arrived at the castle's forest they climbed down the rope ladder and circled around the tree trying to find the center of the oak. Jack saw a crack in the tree and tried to pull it out and it opened into a big doorway. They went in and saw Merlin, the magician, who had written the letter on the leaf. Merlin gives Jack and Annie instructions to go to the castle and find the Diamond of Destiny for the people inside the castle. He tells them that they will have a messenger to go with them. They discovered the messenger was their friend Teddy, from four earlier adventures.

When they get to the castle, they go up all the stairs, they go into the nursery and find a chess board moving on it's own and a knitting wheel moving on it's own. Their friend Teddy, the sorcerer, turns them into ravens and gets the Diamond of Destiny back from the Raven King. Then they go and put it back in it's holder and really they were always there but invisable, now they are visable and Jack and Annie go home.

This book was really fun and I recommend it. My favorite part was when Teddy, Jack and Annie turn into ravens.

How to make a Teradactyl Origami

Start with a square piece of paper.

First you fold it in half into a triangle.

Then fold it in half into another triangle.

Unfold the triangle.

Pull the bottom right point into the center crease.

Pull the bottom left point into the center crease.

It should look like an upside down kite.

Then fold each of the bottom points up and out, so it looks like a boat.

Pull the inside of it out.

Fold the inside down.

Put both top and bottom triangles to the right.

Fold it in half.

There it is! One teradactyl. I hope you like the teradactyl.

To make the mouth move you flap the wings.

Magic Tree House #29: Christmas in Camelot

I've been reading this series and it is really fun to read. I like when Jack & Annie go on trips back in time. This book brought them to Camelot. Camelot is a tale in the Magic Tree House series. They have to go and find the 3 knights that are missing in the King Arthur time. They have to find 4 things in order to save Camelot. My favorite part was when they went to the other world to find the four things because it was the most interesting.

Now I'm off to read #30.