Investing in Stocks

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In Language Arts, we read The Westing Game. In The Westing Game, there is a character named Turtle Wexler. Turtle really enjoys investing in stocks, so we decided to join in on the fun and invest in stocks! Well, sort of. We were given $20,000 FAKE dollars and we invested in six stocks. The stocks I invested in were Home Depot, Disney, Target, Nike, Amazon, and Starbucks. The stock that made the most for me was Home Depot, but other than that my stocks really sucked. My final profit at the end was $-964.43. At the beginning, we had the math specialist at our school come and help us set up a stocks spreadsheet and give us more details about the stock market. In the end, this was a fun assignment and I might invest in actual stocks. Thank you for reading!

The Last Cuentista and My Ideal World Process

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The Last Cuentista. Have you heard of that book? It is a science fiction novel written by Donna Barba Higuera. In my 6th grade Language Arts class, the first novel that we read is The Last Cuentista. The Last Cuentista is about Petra Peña, a 12 year old girl who has to go on a journey to another planet because a comet is going to destroy Earth. However, the planet is almost 400 years away! So, they have to put all of the passengers asleep while they travel. But, when the 400 years pass, she still remembers everything, but no one else does. Does Petra help bring back their memories? Read the book to find out! Personally, the book was not my favorite, but we all read books that we don’t like. But, I did like all of the cuentos, or stories, that Donna put in the book.

 

After we finished The Last Cuentista, my Language Arts teacher assigned us a task to make our own planet, our ideal world.  We had to make up a planet that we would love to live on. We had the opportunity to make up a name for the planet, design the planet, and write a blog post about the planet. You can scroll down on my blog page to read about my planet, Apollo! My planet’s name is Apollo, because some of NASA’s missions to the moon were named Apollo. On Apollo there were 10 lands that a person could live on, all named after different flowers that you could find on the land. There is a queen and nature and no racism, it is my perfect land. It was very fun to come up with my ideal world and draw a picture of it! 

 

 

After we came up with the planet, wrote a blog post about it, and drew it, we got to make a homemade book about it! We had a local artist, Peg Gignoux, come in and teach us how to make our books. We learned how to do Akua ink printing, collaging, and making covers! It took about four whole class lessons (about four hours) to complete the entire book. I went with an Earthy vibe for my book, having a blue/green cover.


On May 24th, all of the 6th grade ideal world books are going on display for my school to see. The whole process from starting to read the book to finishing our ideal world took about 7 months, from November to May. Keep in mind, we didn’t spend every single class working on it so we also read The Westing Game, invested in *fake* stocks, and did vocabulary! In conclusion, I enjoyed doing the project and had an okay time reading The Last Cuentista. Thank you for reading and have a great day!

My TED Talk Experience

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Have you ever heard of a TED Talk? Well I have, and actually, I have presented one. Well, not at a TED event but for my Language Arts class. At the end of the year in my 6th grade LA class, we are given an assignment to research a topic that we are passionate about and then present a TED like Talk about it. The topic I chose was The History of Gymnastics because I really enjoy doing gymnastics.

Although I really enjoy doing gymnastics, I didn’t know much about the sport so I went to Google to research more about it. Google did not tell me very much, so I had to research deeper into the topic. I finally found a website (The Smithsonian Magazine) that gave me the entire history of gymnastics. When I scrolled through the page I thought there was no way I could read all of the information but I took it step by step.

Before I even started researching the topic, I started to make my script which is a very bad idea. I only went back to the Google Doc occasionally and didn’t really care about the assignment until people started presenting. This is because I didn’t know how to tackle the assignment, but when I saw how my classmates did their talks, I started to get inspired.

That is when I went to the website and started reading about gymnastics. I learned so much about the history of gymnastics like how it was created in Ancient Greece and how it was used as a warm up before a person played a sport. So, I scraped my entire Google Doc and started making a Google Slide presentation about gymnastics. I then found images to put into my slideshow that showed the evolution of gymnastics and presented it for my family multiple times that night (Tuesday).

 

The next day (Wednesday), I went into my LA class and told my LA teacher that I was ready to present and I showed her my slideshow. She said that it was amazing and that the next day (Thursday) I could present in front of the class. I was kind of nervous since I had made my whole presentation in one night, but I felt more relaxed after Mrs. Donnelly told me that it was a great presentation.

Then on that Thursday, I went into LA class with my head held up high while I waited for the other presentation to finish. Finally, it was time for me to present my TED like talk. I was a little nervous but when I started talking, the nerves went away. Like a snap, my presentation was over and my classmates were clapping. It was very fun doing the presentation and researching about gymnastics. Hopefully you are now inspired to research about a topic you are passionate about. Thank you!

Chorus

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My current Fine Art is Chorus. When you take Chorus at my school, you learn all about vocal types, singing, vocal warmups, etc. At the end of the trimester, we choose songs to sing for our parents and perform with the band. This performance is February 28th for me, and I am very excited! We are singing five different songs that range from Hamilton to Bruno Mars.

My teacher is Ms. Richardson and she is fabulous! This trimester she has taught us so much about how our voices work, how to preserve them, and how to sing confidently. She helped us choose songs to sing with the 5th graders who are also taking Chorus this trimester. Ms. Richardson picked people’s names out of a hat and those people got to announce one of the songs. I am introducing the song “Pirate Story”, it is about kids pretending that there are pirates. Overall, Chorus has been very fun and I am very excited to perform!




My Ideal World

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Apollo is the best planet to live on in all of the Milky Way Galaxy. Apollo is the 3rd planet from our solar system’s yellow dwarf star. The solar system’s name is Aphrodite, named after the Greek Goddess of Love. Apollo has been inhabited by humans for 250,000 Apollo years. Apollo also has a 365 day rotation around its sun and one day on Apollo is 24 hours long. Apollo looks blue all over with patches of green and yellow scattered around the planet. Apollo’s skies are blue and its land is 25% flat, 25% mountains, 25% rain forest, and 25% desert. The weather on Apollo varies, some days it might rain silver raindrops and other times it might be a clear blue day. Apollo has 1 moon named Hermes.

 

Apollo has 75 trees per 200 feet and every human on Apollo has a garden in their backyard or on their balcony where they eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Every person, over the age of 3, is required to eat 5 vegetables and 3 fruits per day. If the person is under 3 years old, they have to eat their fruits and veggies in smoothie/mushed form. Every person, over the age of 10, is required to either walk or run at least 15 minutes a day to stay fit, if they are under the age of ten, they are required to spend at least 30-45 minutes a day outside. 

 

Before children go to 1st grade, they take a 6 month break and learn how to recycle, how to plant fruits and veggies, Apollo’s political system, how to be kind, how to care for animals, and how to care for others. Every grade from then on has to spend 2 weeks reviewing these norms. Children must start school in Pre-K when they are three years old. They must go into elementary school in 1st grade when they are 6 years old. They must go into middle school in 6th grade when they are 11 years old. They must go into 9th grade when they are 14 years old, and lastly, they must go to college or university the summer after high school. There is no homework at school, unless you don’t finish any work at school, then you have to finish it at home. The school year starts on the third Wednesday of August and ends on the last Friday of May. 

 

Apollo’s political system is a monarchy passed down from generation to generation. Apollo’s royal family lives in a city named Oaks Pointe in the patch (instead of big land masses, there are patches) Hibiscus Bridge. Apollo is ruled by Queen Annette Ali, her husband Brooks Ali is the King of Apollo but does not have the same duties as Queen Annette. Queen Annette’s family has been ruling over Apollo since the monarchy began 50,000 years ago. If Queen Annette were to die, her oldest child would take over if they are over the age of 25. If they are not, Queen Annette’s Vice-Monarch would take over until the oldest child is old enough to rule. Queen Annette’s Vice-Monarch is Bridget Cooper. 

 

There are ten patches on Apollo, Hibiscus Bridge, Peony Bridge, Tulip Bridge, Orchid Bridge, Lilac Bridge, Dandelion Bridge, Sunflower Bridge, Lavender Bridge, Cherry Blossom Bridge, and Marigold Bridge. These patches were named after the majority of flowers each patch had. All the patches are diverse in their land, greenery, and scenery.

 

Every person who has a full time job gets paid $200,000 per year, but $50,000 of their salary goes to the monarch’s team for taxes. Every person who has a part time job gets paid $50,000 per year and $15,000 of their money goes to the monarch’s team. The monarch’s team (which has 1,000 people in it) collects people’s taxes, funds for the houses or apartment, solves issues, helps the monarch rule, and keeps Apollo in order. 

 

Every family on Apollo has the same layout for their house but the colors and designs are different. The family gets to choose their furniture for free and they can have up to four tank less/cage less pets. Every person who lives alone lives in an apartment with the same inside layout and a 8×8 foot balcony. No more than two people and two pets that do not require a tank or cage, can live in an apartment.

 

All the technology, transportation, and jobs that are good and useful on Earth are on Apollo. There is no racism, ageism, sexism, bad drugs, alcohol, pollution, and rudeness on Apollo. There is lots of diversity and everyone treats everyone with kindness and respect, and that’s the way it should be.

Field Trip to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science

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On Friday January 27, my classmates and I went on a field trip to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences to reflect on what we have learned in science and history these past few months. We saw meteoroids, amazing exhibits, and learned so many new and cool facts. My favorite part of visiting the museum is seeing all of the live bugs, sea animals, and insects that the museum showed us. There were lots of animals including jellyfish, ghost shrimp, and snakes.

Another part I really enjoyed was the RACE exhibit where the museum exhibited different races and questions about race. Some questions they asked and answered were about how and why the pandemic affected certain races and what race means. It was very fascinating hearing different perspectives from different people from different races and how their races affect them and their lives. Overall, the field trip was very informative and fun! Thank you North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for having us!

Window or Mirror

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I recently re-read the book Wonder, a fiction book written by R.J Palacio about a little boy who has a severe face deformity and is going into middle school. I chose to read this book because I read it once in second grade and I wanted to read it again. Wonder is more of a window for me because I don’t have severe face deformity, I don’t live in New York, I am not in fifth grade, I don’t have a dog, and I do not like Star Wars. I don’t really choose between window or mirror books and I read an even amount of both. When I read graphic novels I normally read mirror books and when I read chapter books I normally read window books.

 One character I feel resembles me in Wonder is Charlotte Cody who shows August Pullman (who has severe face deformity) around the school. She is nice and friendly to Auggie throughout the book but is not friends with him. I feel like I relate to Charlotte because she likes to dance, she has two siblings, and she has lots of friends. Even though Wonder is a window book for me, it is one of my all time favorite books and I would definitely recommend reading it.

The History of Broadway

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Broadway this, Broadway that. I’m sure that you have heard the word Broadway at least one time before. The Broadway Theater, more commonly known as Broadway, are theatrical performances shown in 41 theaters located in the theater district and the Lincoln center along Broadway, a town in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

Broadway was founded in 1750, where Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established the Theater on Nassau Street. They performed Shakespeare plays and Opera Ballads.  The Theater on Nassau Street sat 280 people. As the shows got more popular, more and more theaters were built. Many of the shows performed in the 1700s and the 1800s were Shakespeare plays such as Hamlet. In 1866, the first musical premiered, it was called The Black Crook, it was a shocking five and a half hours long!

In the 1900s is when Broadway really took a turn for the better, they started installing electric signs outside of the theaters, it was nicknamed The Great White Way, and the broadway show Lightnin’ by Winchell Smith and Frank Bacon, was the first ever Broadway show to reach 700 performances. By the end of the 1920s, cinemas were a rage throughout America, actors, actresses, producers, and directors worried if the new invention, the cinema, would shut down Broadway. Thankfully, Broadway stayed open.

However, in the 1960s-1970s, Broadway lost lots of its audience, theaters, and shows. However, in the 1980s, Broadway came back strong! Its longest running show, Phantom of the Opera opened. Over the years, Phantom of the Opera has made $1.30 billion dollars! Also, in the 1980s a man named Joe Papp who established The Public Theater, led the “Save the Theaters” campaign, which helped bring more resources, audio, lighting, technical crews, etc. to the Broadway community.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Disney opened (over the years) 17 Broadway shows, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Newsies, and much more. In the 2000s, Legally Blonde,  Macbeth, White Christmas, Thoroughly Modern Millie,  Les Miserables, and other classics joined Broadway and helped Broadway get more audience members and theater fans. The Broadway theaters also held many popular 2000s and 2010s actresses and actors such as Sutton Foster, Hugh Jackman, Victoria Clark, Neil Patrick Harris, and Laura Bell Bundy who brought joy, laughter, and tears to the audience. Over the years, Broadway has had its ups and downs, but overall, Broadway has improved the American theater.

 

     

Wisdom Tales Project

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 Have you heard of Wisdom Tales? Wisdom Tales is a book written by Heather Forest. Wisdom tales are about different folk tale stories from around the world. My personal favorite Wisdom Tale is The Wooden Bowl, which is about an old man who moved in with his son and daughter-in-law. He tried to help out around the farm, but he was getting weaker by the day. He started dropping things and his daughter-in-law got mad and took away the glass bowels from him. His son and daughter-in-law had a baby and started ignoring his father. They gave him a wooden bowl to eat out of since they didn’t trust him to use the glass bowls. They soon realized that when they are old and frail they want to be treated well and how they want to be trusted enough to use a glass bowl. Lastly, they start treating his father much better, and they become one big happy family. The moral is treat others the way you want to be treated. This story originated in Germany, Europe.

In my Language Arts class, we had to make a project about a Wisdom Tale in the book. I chose The Wooden Bowl, which in the last paragraph I explained to you about. I made a comic for my project and I attached a picture to this blog post. I made the comic in Comic Life 3 which is an app that helps you make comics. I drew my pictures in the app Paper and inserted it into Comic Life 3. I hope you like it! Thank you for reading!