Monday, April 11, 2011

Biographical Bonanza!


A biography is a true story about a person's life.
Mrs. Ranney's Class is currently reading biographies about
people who have made significant contributions to our world!



Artists, inventors, statesman, composers, doctors,
aviators, astronauts, and pioneers in many fields 
are among the amazing historical figures about whom we are reading!












We are each reading a library book, as well as doing research using
World Book Online.


 


********************
After reading about your biography subject,
please leave  a comment as if you are that person!


Be sure to include a few facts you learned from your library book or the online encyclopedia.
DO NOT PLAGIARIZE! (Use your own words!)

Watch the comments to see if you can converse with another biography subject you may know!

(Family members: You may want to choose your own biography subject and join in the conversation!)

9 comments:

  1. Ariel (in Mr. Avery's class)April 12, 2011 at 8:03 AM

    Dear Mrs. Ranney and class,

    I loved the post.:)
    It's very funny we are doing a Biography Museum. We are very exited to share with our school and relatives. I have Florance Nightingale. She is very important to me.

    Reading biography are very fun. I love learning about new people and interesting facts.



    Our class is also exited we have April vacation next week! My mom said I might be going to the Aquarium .


    Do you have April vacation?

    Hope you enjoy your day .

    From ,
    Ariel (in Mr. Avery's class):)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Mrs. Ranney and Class,

    This is my first time leaving a comment on this wonderful classroom blog. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Thomas Edison, the inventor of light bulbs and many other things. You may never have heard of me before, so I'm here to tell you about myself.

    First, I'll tell you about my childhood life, which was a long, long time ago. My father, Samuel, sold timber and land. Before I was born, my mother, Nancy, was a teacher. My schoolmaster, or teacher, said that I asked too many questions, and that I probably wouldn't do very well in a school classroom. As a solution to that, my mom took me out of school just three months after school started!

    Another important childhood event that I experienced was when I was just fifteen year old. I was selling newspapers, magazines, and candy, and I saw a station master's two year old son with a boxcar rolling toward him. At that instant, I jumped onto the rusty, old tracks and rescued him from being hit.

    I better get going because I've just received a letter complaining about the telephone!

    Your Old Friend,
    Thomas Edison :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Mrs. Ranney,

    Hello. I’m writing from Vienna, Austria. Although I’m very famous, you may not know me, so I’ll tell you a bit about myself.

    I was born in Bonn, Germany on December 16, 1770. I started to show my talent there at a very young age. My father taught me how to use my musical talent while playing piano, but he taught me in a cruel way. I didn’t become an astounding player until Christian Neefe, the court organ player, started teaching me in a more pleasant way. Every once in a while, Christian even let me lead the court orchestra all on my own!

    When I was eighteen, I went to Vienna for the first time, but I had to go back because my mother was very sick. By the time I got back to Bonn, my mother died. My father had a drinking problem, so I stayed to take care of him and my two brothers.

    I wanted to go back to Vienna to learn more about music, so I gave my father enough money to take care of my brothers and left for Vienna to study with one of the greatest composers there, Joseph Haydn. While in Vienna, I became a famous piano player.

    Right now I focus on writing quartets, sonatas, concertos, and symphonies. Most people really like my Fifth Symphony. Composing is a little challenging because I’m losing my hearing.

    From visiting your blog I see you have some musicians in your class. Maybe you would like to try playing one of my symphonies, they’re spectacular!

    Now I have to get back to writing one of my symphonies.

    Sincerely,
    Ludwig Van Beethoven (A.K.A. Beethoven)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Mrs. Ranney,

    My Name is Albert Bruce Sabin, and I am writing today for two reasons. First, it is Biographies bonanza, and I am a very well-known scientist. But secondly, it is Family Blogging Month, and I am a relative of one of your students! This student is a girl in your class, who, just like me, loves science and gets very excited about science experiments! She also loves to blog and is writing quality comments on the blog very often. Have you guessed who she is? I will let you guess for a second, and at the end of this comment, will tell you her name.

    While you may not know me by name, all of your students have benefited from my most well-known invention—the polio vaccine. Polio is a very dangerous virus that causes serious illness and can lead to death or severe disability. If you ask your grandparents, they are likely going to remember some friends or relatives that were affected by this virus in their childhood. In the 1950’s, I invented the oral vaccine, which is taken as drops by mouth. There is also another polio vaccine that is given as a shot and was invented by another scientist at about the same time. Together the two vaccines have changed the life of many populations in the world, as they almost eradicated the polio virus. Today, it is very rare for someone to get polio in the U.S. Although I am most known for the polio vaccine, I actually invented other vaccines as well and did some more seminal work on viruses.

    Have you guessed who my relative is? It is Ella. I am Ella’s great-grandmother’s cousin! Ella’s great-grandmother and I were born and grew up in the same town in Poland called Bialystok. However, later in life, my family emigrated to the U.S, and Ella’s great-grandmother, Liuba, emigrated to Israel. We are close blood relatives. In fact, some have commented that I physically resemble Ella’s grandfather.
    I would love to write more, but I have to get back to my laboratory to work on some new ground-breaking discoveries.

    Stay Healthy,
    Albert Bruce Sabin (AKA Ella’s relative)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Mrs. Ranney and Class,

    When I was three, I poked myself in the eye with an awl, which is a sharp tool used for harnessing horses. My eye became infected, and then it spread to the other eye, so I was blind.

    I went to the Institute for the Blind, in Paris, France. There I tried to work on an alphabet for the blind people. Thereafter, I stayed there to become a teacher. After that, I invented the blind alphabet, later called "Braille".

    All the best,
    Louis Braille

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Mrs. Ranney and class,
    Hi, I'm Natalie. Our job is to tell you a little bit about our Biography Museum. I am going to tell you about my character and ask you to guess who it is. My character is an animal scientist and her whole life, she wanted to be a scientist who studies chimpanzees. She was born in London, England in 1934. When she was a child, her dad and mom gave her a stuffed monkey named Jubilee. She loved Jubilee very much, and that developed her love of animals. She was also interested in Kenya, Africa.
    In the beginning, the monkeys didn't trust her. One time she was taking pictures and the monkeys chased her. Eventually the monkeys trusted her. They let her go around taking pictures and studying them. She loved the monkeys very much. Everybody said she shouldn't go near them, but she ignored them. She is still alive today. She still has Jubilee on her dresser today.

    Can you guess my character?

    Sincerely,
    ♥ Natalie S. ♥
    From Mr. Avery's class
    Plympton, Massachusetts

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear Mrs. Ranney and class,

    I find this blog very interesting. Let me tell you a little about myself. I'm Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone and other helpful things. Some of you may know a little about me, but I want to share some more.

    First, I'll tell you about me when I was a child. I was born on March 3,1847. My father Alexander Melville Bell taught deaf people how to read lips. My mother, Elisa Grace Symonds, was a portrait painter and an accomplished musician.

    Another important childhood event was when I took charge of my Father’s
    work while he lectured in the United States in 1868.

    I better leave now because the Hydrofoil has a hole in it.

    Warmly,
    Alexander Graham Bell
    (shawn)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Mrs. Ranney and Class,

    This is my first time commenting on any blog before. Let me introduce myself, hi I am Robert Fulton the man who invented the amazing steamboat. I might not sound that interesting because some of you have never ridden as steamboat before. You also may not have lots of interest in steamboats either.

    I was born on November 14, 1765, on a small farm near Little Britain in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Also, I spent my young life in Lancaster, and I showed inventive talent at my young age. Another thing I did was I developed a hand-operated paddle wheel to use for a rowboat, and I also built a rifle that had sight and bore of original design.

    I went to Philadelphia when I was 17, and I was apprenticed to a jeweler, and I soon began to win fame as a painter of miniatures and portraits. I saved enough money to buy a farm for my wonderful mother.

    At the age of 21, I went to England to study with the extremely fashionable American artist Benjamin West. Then, In London, I made a moderate living as an artist, but I became increasingly interested in scientific and engineering developments. I designed and built a steam-powered warship, Fulton the First, for the defense of New York harbor in the War of 1812, but I died on February 24, 1815, before the completion of that remarkable craft. The statue of me in Statuary Hall, in the U.S. Capitol is Washington, D.C., honors my achievements.

    Yours Truly,
    Robert Fulton:)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear Mrs. Ranney's class,

    I'll tell you a little about myself...

    I was born on May 20, 1920, I was born in Florence , Italy , My parents named me after were I was born, I have a sister named Partenope (this is an old name for Naples) I 'm called the lady with the lamp, Her fathers name is William Edward ______________. Can you guess who I am?



    I hope you had a great school vacation.

    From,
    Ariel (in Mr. Avery's class)

    ReplyDelete

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