Brain Project by Julia

Juliabrain

In Language Arts class we have been working on drawing our brains. I included drawings of things that I think a lot about, things that I love to do, and things that are important to me. I think that this was a very fun project! I love how we got to be very creative and make the project personal. I also included some of the goals from my Life List. These goals are to get married, to have children, to become a camp counselor, to visit every continent, to go on an African safari, to run a marathon, to fly in a hot air balloon, to watch the Olympics live, to see my sister become an elite gymnast, to meet Blake Shelton, and to go to college. Tbere are a lot more goals on my Life List, but I only put eleven items on my brain drawing. I think that this project was a great way to end the year!

iPads by Julia

As you know, this year in our school we have been using one-on-one iPads for the first time. In my opinion, iPads have been really helpful. We use the iPads a lot in school, and I think that they are really beneficial to our learning. The iPads enable us to do research, make projects, and much more!
In my opinion, there is one downside to the iPads. The first is that the iPads were supposed to let us carry less stuff around, but really we ended up carrying just the same as going no paper, or maybe more. Personally, I think that we should have done all iPads or all paper, not both. Since this was only the first year using the iPads, maybe we will change in the next few years. Overall, I think that iPads are a great addition to our school’s learning program.

 

Membean by Julia

During the year, we have been using the online vocabulary program called Membean. I think that this program is very useful because it helps us learn words in ways that are easier for us to remember. Another reason that I like Membean is because the word that you practice are chosen for you, and what is best for you to to be learning as opposed to a range of words that “everyone should know and learn.” Plus, Membean also helps me learn root words, which is very helpful for identifying words that I have never seen. Overall, I think that Membean is a very good program.

 

The Ideal Teacher by Julia

 

 

 

 

 

Right now in Language Arts we are reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. This book is about a perfect society. The perfect teacher to me would be a lot of things. The perfect teacher to me would joke around with the class, but also be serious when teaching. One of the most important qualities in a teacher for me is motivating. Motivating can mean a lot of different things, but for me it means that I know that there is always someone that I can see when I get a not so amazing grade. Someone that I know will explain a concept to me until I understand, no matter how many times it takes. But most of all, someone that is like a friend to me. I know that they would be older than me, but they would be there for me like a friend.

 

Community Service by Julia

 

 

 

 

 

For our second community service of the year, my advisory went strawberry picking and then brought the strawberries to the Ronald McDonald House of Durham. I had a lot of fun strawberry picking with my friends, and it was even more fun knowing that we were picking for a good cause. At the strawberry picking field, there were two dogs that were so cute! One was a small dog, I don’t know what type, that followed us everywhere. The other was an older boxer who had surgery on her eye, and she wasn’t very friendly, she mostly wanted to sleep. The picking was very fun because we had a contest to see who could pick the most perfect strawberry!

After we had weighed and bought the strawberries we picked (we used money from our donut sales to pay for the strawberries), we went to the Ronald McDonald House of Durham. Once there, our “tour-guide” told us about the history of the House and the past renovations. We then got to see some rooms like the play area, the school area, and the kitchen. The best part of the whole day was when a little boy, he looked about four years old, showed us his awesome break-dancing! He was adorable and he had some great moves! I really hope that people at the Ronald McDonald House enjoyed our strawberries and that every child that is sick gets better.

While there, I realized how very fortunate we really are. I couldn’t imagine what would have happened if my sister got cancer or something like that. I love her more than anything in the world, and I have no idea how I would cope with her getting sick. The residents at the House are in my heart and prayers.

 

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The Ceremony of Twelve by Julia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Language Arts class, we are currently reading a book called The Giver by Lois Lowry. If I were to be assigned a role in the society, I think that I would be assigned the role of a Nurtuer. I think this because I love taking care of little kids and I have a lot of fun with them. I think that the hardest part of this job would be growing attached to the child you take care of and then having to let him or her go to another family.

 

“The Westing Game” By Julia K

For the past few weeks in Language Arts class, we have been reading a book called The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. This book is about a man named Sam Westing who died and is trying to find his heir. The trick is that the sixteen possible heirs have been partnered up and have to discover who murdered Samuel. W. Westing with a few clues that have been given to them. In the end of the book, there is a twist that will change your view of the book entirely.

My feelings about The Westing Game are mixed. I think that the book has a good plot but it is very confusing and I had a hard time following what was going on. Something that I like about this book is that there is no gory details having to do with blood and things like that. It is definitely a cozy mystery.

To prepare for the test on The Westing Game, we drew all of the characters in the book using the app Sketchbook Express and put the drawings into a trading cards app. We then filled out information about the characters. I did not really enjoy this process because I find it hard to draw on the iPad and the trading cards app we used was slow and we had a character limit when filling in information. I did learn a lot more about using Sketchbook Express, which I learned to really like.

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Hero Project by Julia K.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Mrs. Donnelly

In late January, we made hero pop up books in Language Arts class. I really enjoyed this experience because we got to be creative and we also got to make something that means a lot to other people. I chose to write about my father, Dave King, as my hero. I really enjoyed the experience of working with an artist and our books even got to go on display at the FRANK Gallery! We had a reception last week where the sixth grade, families, and heroes were invited to the gallery to see our books! My dad was out of town at the time so we went a few weeks ago. I had a great time at the FRANK Gallery because all of my friends were there and we all got to look at the books together! The display where the books are is so beautiful and it seems made for our books! Even though there were some ups and downs in making these books, overall I have had a great experience and I’m sorry that it is over.

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The Lady Or The Tiger by Julia

We read a short story in class called The Lady or the Tiger. This story did not have an ending so we got to make one up. Here is the ending that I wrote:

The Lady and the Tiger

By Julia

Eyes closing, heart pounding, the princess prepared herself to seeher lover, James, be ripped apart by the tiger as he confidentlypulled open the door on the right. The barbaric side of her decidedthat he would go to the tiger because she knew that she could notstand him being with another lady, and she knew that this is the fatehe would want. She closed her eyes tightly, as to refrain from seeingthe horror that was soon to happen, but she heard no roars, noscreams. All she heard was people cheering, bells ringing. But itcould not be, she had been informed where the lady was, and shewas on the left. But something must have happened, somethinggone wrong. She opened her eyes, and saw her lover giving her aquestioning glance, but instead of looking into his eyes, she fled thearena.

She ran back to the castle and stopped only to put a note in a loosestone where she and James had often left each other notes. Hernote had ink blots everywhere and her handwriting was rushed, butstill legible.

Follow me. You know where I am. Where the daffodils grow.

And with that, the princess ran. She ran from her father, fromJames’s new wife, and from her busy life. She just wanted to befree and do whatever she pleased. She ran and ran until shefound the place she and James had met; an old white gazebo,with daffodils covering the ground and climbing roses coveringmost of the peeling paint.

A week later, as the princess was tending to a small garden, sheheard someone approaching on horseback and turned her face tothe side so as not to be seen.

But she would know that voice anywhere.

“James!” What are you doing here?” exclaimed the princess.

“After I found your note, I decided that you had the right ideaand I decided to follow you so we can be together forever.” Jamesexplained.

“Oh James, I missed you so greatly. Now we can just travel theworld, and do whatever our hearts desire,” declared the princess

The lady or the tiger? Or neither?

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The Rescuers by Julia

The Rescuers

There once was a kangaroo named Carlin who lived in Australia. His best friend, Regan, was very funny and the two young kangaroos had fun wrestling and rolling around in the dirt. When they were both two years old, they went to go play with the other kangaroos. There was a kangaroo named Balor who was very popular, but was also known to be mean.

“You have permission to be with us,” commented Balor to Regan.

Balor then looked Carlin over.

“And you, well, you are so short and skinny. You will never be able to be anything special. Why did you even come over here? You do not deserve me or my friends.”

Carlin was so sad and wondered why Balor had called him small. Carlin had never noticed anything different about himself. Then, he looked around and noticed that even the kangaroos younger than him towered over him.

“Well, bye then Carlin,” Regan stated cheerfully.

That was when Carlin realized it. Regan was leaving him. Regan cared more about himself than Carlin’s feelings. But that was that, and there was nothing he could do.

“See you later, Regan,” Carlin replied, forcing a smile.

Then Carlin walked away and sat down by himself, watching the kangaroo that was once his best friend. Later that day, when Carlin was eating his food, Regan approached him.

“Hey, Carlin,” Regan said with a sneer.

“Um, hello Regan,” replied Carlin with uncertainty in his voice.

“You are so small and stupid, how could you even think that you had the potential to be anything? You will never be anything special, just a scrawny little kangaroo that never was,” commented Regan.

“But… Regan, how could you do this to me? You are my best friend!” protested Carlin.

“No, not are. Was. A mistake on my part. Something that I never should have done,” Regan told him harshly.

“What?” questioned Carlin

“Oh look, he’s so small that his brain must not have had enough room to fully grow. Let me show him something really special,” teased Balor.

With that, Balor started hitting Carlin. It hurt so badly that Carlin was close to tears.

After hitting Carlin a few times, Balor dropped Carlin on the ground and walked away with Regan. After this, Carlin decided to run away from his community. He had decided that he couldn’t stand people being mean to him and seeing Regan change like that.

A few days later after walking in the desert, Carlin was hungry, tired, and dehydrated. He knew that he couldn’t go much farther, so he just sat down on the ground and soon he was asleep.

He woke up later surrounded by a hippo, a dingo (an Australian wild dog) and a koala. After blinking a few times, Carlin realized that he was in a desert cave. When he took a closer look at the animals, he realized that they all had something unusual about them.

“Who are you?” questioned Carlin

“We are animals like you. We were rejected from our communities so we ran away and found each other. We call ourselves The Rescuers. I am Austin,” explained the hippo.

“And I am Baz and this is Ethan,” said the dingo.

“Oh, ok. Well thank you for rescuing me,” thanked Carlin

“You are very welcome. We enjoy finding new friends,” Ethan exclaimed

“Well, where do I go from here?” wondered Carlin

“You can go back to your community or you can live with us. Together we help animals like us and have fun together. We don’t care what you look like, we only care about your attitude and kindness to others. This cave here, this is our home,” Austin told Carlin

“I would love to live with you guys! I already know that you are kind because if you weren’t, I wouldn’t be here. Thank you so much!”

“You are very welcome!” replied Austin, Ethan and Baz.

And the four friends lived happily together for the rest of their lives.

This story shows you that just because someone is different, doesn’t mean that they are bad. Never judge a book by it’s cover, because you may be missing out on something special.