Book Recomendation

Book: The CandyMakers and The Great Chocolate Chase

Series: The CandyMakers

Author: Wendy Mass

Recommended by: Alice Nicassio

Can you imagine living in a candy factory and going on a trip where you have to find a type of chocolate no one will tell you where it is? In the Great Chocolate Chase, by Wendy Mass, four kids have to do exactly that! Logan lives in a candy factory and recently helped Philip make the Harmonicandy. He is on the chocolate chase. Daisy is a spy, she helped with the Harmonicandy too, but Logan, Philip and Miles know she is a spy. She is also on the chocolate chase. Philip is in a rich family and loves winning, he is the person who originally came up with the Harmonicandy. He is also in the chocolate chase. Miles is a regular boy who loves nature and learning things and he helped with the Harmonicandy too. Miles is also on the chocolate chase. These kids go on a road trip to find a certain type of chocolate that they used for the original Harmonicandy. Will they find it? Will they be able to successfully launch Harmonicandy into stores? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out!

Research Projects

In reading, we have been studying how to research. My group studied snakes. We came up with subtopics which were habitat, body parts, defense and prey. To make our research easier and more organized, we put our books in order from easiest to hardest. To find our subtopics, we looked in the books to see what topics appeared the most. Those were our subtopics. I learned to not completely copy what we saw in the book, and that I should write down my own ideas based on what I was reading. When we got all our information, we made a animal comic book! I put in some of the research from each subtopic. Then I found pictures, and made captions for them. The pictures all had snakes in them, so I made the snakes saying a fact that relates to the caption and the picture.

 

After this project, I took everything I leaned about research and used that in my country research project. I wanted to study Brazil, but I knew nothing about it so I needed a lot of research! To find research, I went to the library databases and did a google search at home. I found research that fit into the categories of the cultural universals which are Politics, Social Aspects, Economy, Beliefs and Cultural Arts. I put it all together to make it into a Comic Tour Guide Book titled The Cultural Universals of Brazil. My favorite part was learning about Brazil and putting it into a book in a fun way. The challenging part was organizing the pictures and captions into a good format.

Maglev Post #3

Final maglev train that can carry 15 weights safely and efficiently across the track.

The improvement I made to my maglev train was that on the tracks, I put two more strip magnets on top of each of the strip magnets already on the tracks. I didn’t put more strip magnets, or any other type of magnets, on the train. I didn’t because in an experiment, we put two ring magnets on a pencil with the north and north facing each other so that they levitated, and when I put another magnet on the bottom, the magnet on the top levitated higher. When I put  a magnet on the top too, it remained it’s normal height.

 

My final track and train has two rows of strip magnets with three strip magnets on each row. On the train, there are two rows of strip magnets with one strip magnet in each row. I think this train was successful because there were more magnets on the track than on the train. The train levitated higher because the magnetic field was bigger. Since there are more magnets on the tracks, those magnets are stronger, so the train can carry more weight.

 

From this process, I learned that maglev trains levitate because the magnets that are used to build the train, have the same poles facing each other. I learned that if the same poles are facing each other, then the magnet on the top, levitates. I learned that in the EDP, you can’t just start building right from scratch. You have to go through the ask, imagine, and plan stages first. I learned that when you are working with a group, you have to take turns to share your ideas. If you do not take turns, then no one will hear anyone’s ideas, and you will not get anything done.

Penny Dreadful

The book I recommend is “Penny Dreadful” by Laurel Snyder.

In the book, Penny Dreadful by Laurel Snyder, Penny, her mom and dad live in a mansion in NY. But Penny is extremely bored there. One day Penny’s dad came home and said that he quit his job. They no longer can afford the mansion so they move to Tennessee. Penny’s family realizes there are tenants in the same house that they moved to and they can’t afford this house either if her parents don’t get a job. Penny goes to look in Black Rabbit caves for treasure. She finds a treasure chest, but when she gets home and looks inside it there are only a bunch of old bottles. If Penny’s family gets some money, will it be enough to save them? I think this is a really great book that will keep you reading and wondering what will happen next. I think you’ll really enjoy it!