Month: December 2016

Clarinet Basics: Embouchure And Breathing

Home / Activities / Clarinet Basics: Embouchure And Breathing
by rpalaniappan24

An embouchure is the way you position your mouth on the mouthpiece. For the clarinet the embouchure is much different than other instruments. For the clarinet you have to fold your bottom lip over your lower teeth and put your upper teeth on the top of the mouth piece. If you push too hard with the bottom lip on the reed you will get a squeak. You should never get tighter on the embouchure for different notes, always keep your embouchure calm. When you are beginning you should take your time with getting used to the embouchure. It might feel uncomfortable at first but you will eventually get used to it.

The breathing for the clarinet is also a big part. My teacher taught me the wolf breathing method. It is when you keep your mouth in a still position and take in a quick breath. It can help you when you need to take breaths quickly in fast pieces. Honestly, breathing can be the hardest part while playing the clarinet for me because you need quick breaths and they can run out quickly. You just got to keep on practicing your breathing to get better at the quicker breaths in.

Here is a website that might help you when playing the clarinet : The Clarinet Net

 

 

Stop Motion Animation

Home / Uncategorized / Stop Motion Animation
by rpalaniappan24

Monday 12/12

What have I learned from Lego Simpsons Christmas. How To Catch Santa Claus

  • Go step by step and make small movements
  • Try to make everything look as realistic as possible
  • Ex. shake the person when they are laughing
  • Settings make it look realistic

Tuesday 12/13

What have I learned from If Only

  • When you draw you want to “move your drawing around”
  • Make your drawing come to life
  • Design, make, use

Wednesday 12/14

What have I learned from 5 Tips for Making a Stop Motion Video

  • Brainstorm your visuals
  • Create a storyboard for your stopped motion piece
    • Start with a script
    • Mentally visualize your story
  • Shoot to NOT edit
  • Add audio to give emotion and connect the story
  • Consider output

Thursday 12/15

What have I learned from Lego Simpsons Fishing. How To Catch A Shark

  • Don’t do too many movements at a time
  • Use different angles to catch different glances at what is going on
  • Ex. when a lot of time goes by, do big movements
  • When something scary or big make the character do a reaction

Rocket Iterations

Home / Rocketry / Rocket Iterations
by rpalaniappan24

Iterations For Our Rocket

The New Design Plans

What are the steps? How does everyone agree? For our second launch we are making a new rocket. We have to make some iterations. An iteration is when you are looking at your mistakes from your first draft of something and changing it to make it better. What my group did was talk about changing the nosecone and then after changing the wings. My group, The Roc-Kids, decided to take our nosecone and reuse it because we liked how it worked and didn’t want to have a different nosecone or bother with having to do the printing process again. It took a little while for us to agree on our wings because some of us wanted heavier wings and some of us liked light wings. We also wanted 3D printed wings because they are light but, the measurements could have been wrong and we might not have gotten it printed in time. Finally we agreed on having the same material for the wings, styrofoam, but a different shape. Since my group is a group of five it is easier to just do a vote and see what the majority of us like.

Building

How do you put everything together? What are the steps?For our nosecone we had to rip it off of the 1st rocket and take all of the tape out. That was hard because the tape was on the rocket and the nosecone was hot glued onto the bottle where the tape was. So we had to pick all of the tape off. Once it was clean we had to hot glue it onto the second bottle. For our wings we had to make the pattern on paper and then cut the shape out on our material, styrofoam. Once we got our styrofoam wings we put duck tape around them so they don’t have any air pockets which are not good for your rocket. And just incase the duck tape has any air pockets we pat down the duck tape. Then once we have finished all of the steps we have to hot glue the wings on. Before you hot glue the wings on the side of the wing that is getting hot glued has to be sanded down with sand paper and have nothing on that area and same with the bottle. You have to make sure the bottle is sanded well with sand paper and does not have anything on that spot.

Rocketry Launch #2

Home / Rocketry / Rocketry Launch #2
by rpalaniappan24
my group

my group

The 2nd Epic Launch

Being the Launch Master

What is a launch master? What do launch masters do? I was the launch master twice. Being the launch master means that you have to make sure everyone is ready. When everyone is ready to launch you have to scream, “Clinometers are you ready?” And then you start the count off. When we went outside for our second launch and we got to the field, it was time for me to get everyone ready for the first group, No Man’s Sky’s rocket launch.I had to get the first six people set up. For every launch there are six people apart from the group that is launching to gather their data. There are three people on each side. On each side there are two clinometer readers and one data recorder. I had to get them set up with all of their materials. I was also launch master for the last group, The Rocketeers. And I did the same routine.

Launching Our Rocket

What is it like to do a bottle rocket launch? How could another person feel about launching a bottle rocket? It was time for my group to do our 2nd launch. I was so nervous because I was setting up the whole rocket. One of my teammates filled the rocket with water and it was time for me to put the rocket with water onto the launch pad. I didn’t know how to do it so my teacher helped me. I put my hand on the mouth part of the bottle and flipped the bottle over. Some water spilled when I put the rocket onto the launch pad but not all of it. “Permission to pump?” Two of my teammates were pumping a bicycle pump up to 90, I did that for my first launch. “Permission to launch?” “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!” POW!  Another one of my teammates pulled the ropes and off our rocket went. It soared to the sky and then drifted back down. We were all so happy because our rocket soared so high.

Being the Data Recorder

What is a data recorder? What do they do? There are two data recorders. One on each side. They are there to take the hight that the clinometer readers gather so we can find two averages for each group. I was the data recorder #2 for the group, The High Fliers. I was with two of my teammates that were the clinometer readers. Once the rocket went off they had to catch the highest point that the rocket hit. It can be a very hard job and that is why I didn’t chose to take on being a clinometer reader. Once they locked the measurement I went around to the two of them to collect their heights. They had a bit of a height distance. Together their average was 23. How do you get and average? To get an average you have to add the two heights together and divide it by two but that isn’t my job what I have to do is just jot down the heights.

 

Expert Lecture #4 : Ronald’s Dad

Home / Expert Lecture Series / Expert Lecture #4 : Ronald’s Dad
by rpalaniappan24

Ronald’s dad came into our classroom and talked about his love of science. He is a chemical engineer. He also taught us about super critical fluids. Super critical fluids are much denser than gas and much faster than liquid. There are three phases. The three phases are liquids, gases, and solids. He said that you only succeed only 10% of the time.

Ronald’s dad told us what different things used to not be good for people. Dry cleaners used to use to use bad chemicals, but now they use super critical CO2. And the way that coco beans used to be processed to make coffee was not good for people either. Now everything is okay because people have changed the chemicals that go into their products.

 

Expert Lecture #3 : Rush’s Dad

Home / Expert Lecture Series / Expert Lecture #3 : Rush’s Dad
by rpalaniappan24

On December 9th, Rush’s dad came into our classroom and talked about the Supreme Court. Rush’s dad is an attorney. He talked about the history, the rules about electing people, and how it works. I learned that when you elect someone to be a Justice they are a Justice for their whole life until they retire or die. When you elect a knew Justice, the president has to elect someone and then take it to the legislators. There are three different courts that an issue might go through. It all depends on how serious the issue is.

The Supreme Court is the second highest court in the land. Can you guess what the highest court is? It is the BASKETBALL COURT! The basketball court is literally right above the Supreme Court. When you walk into the Supreme Court there is a sign that says No Playing During Court. It says that because when court is in action and a basketball game is in action you can hear the ball dribblig.

We got to take a quiz with two other people and all of us got a reward. The reward was a mini book that has the Constitution. Overall, I think that the third expert lecture was amazing and I really enjoyed it.

My Social Issues Book Club

Home / Reading / My Social Issues Book Club
by rpalaniappan24

My class has social issue book clubs. My book club is me, Drew, Lana, and Riley. I got so lucky with my group. We are starting with Counting By Sevens by Holly Goldberg Sloan. So far it is a great book.

My group reads at different paces. Some read slower than others. We read like ten – 15 pages at school and like 20 pages at home. If one of us are behind in the book with our school reading we can catch up at home.

I think that we all get along well together. We can agree on how many pages to read. We can also agree on what the social issues are.  We don’t argue and can comprimise.

Altogether, I think that we are a great group and I am happy that we got grouped together.

Thanksgiving Break In Genève

Home / Writing / Thanksgiving Break In Genève
by rpalaniappan24

Have you ever been to Geneva, Switzerland? Do you want to go? During this weekend, for Thanksgiving break, I went to Geneva Switzerland. And it was super cool.

Sites

I got to go to the U.N. (united nations), CERN (discovers science), Nations (all of the flags in the united nations), The Red Cross and Red Cresent museum, and Old Town (Geneva in the 1200s). When I was at the U.N. I got to go on a tour. Our tour guide was explaining what the U.N. is and what they try to do. I was a little confused. When I was at CERN our tour guide explained what they do. I learned that at CERN they blow up particles and try to observe new ones. When I was at Nations we didn’t go in but I saw all of the flags of the United Nations. At the Red Cross and Red Crescent museum we got to go and hear about what the Red Cross and Red Crescent do and their goals. To get to the old town we had to hike up a big hill. The old town was Geneva, but in the 1200s.

Foods

I didn’t have a normal thanksgiving. I didn’t have the normal food that we would eat, but I did have some yummy foods and treats. From Tuesday to Sunday I didn’t really have a lunch. I had a burger one day, a dark chocolate crepe, and the rest of the time I forget what I had. For dinner I  had Italian food and entrecote steak. But vest of all, for dessert I got chocolate macaroons.

Public Transportation

Since we didn’t rent a car, we had to take the public transportation. In Geneva they have buses and trams. Trams are pretty much buses and trains. They look like a bus, but they go on tracks and are connected to wires. They have certain schedules. Sometimes I got bored when we had to wait for the buses and trams because we sometimes have to wait a long time for them to come.

The Jet and Mountains

There are some gorgeous sites from Geneva including the jet and mountains. the jet is pretty much a big water sprout that is in the lake. The mountains that surround Geneva are The Alps and The Jura. The tallest mountain that surrounds Geneva is Mount-Blanc. Mount-Blanc is 15,777′ tall. All of the mountains are gorgeous. I think that these two sights are beautiful and if you ever go to Geneva I encourage you to look at the jet and the mountains.

 

The Jet in Geneva

The Jet in Geneva

Mountains from the airplane window.

Mountains from the airplane window.

Expert Lecture #2 : Olivia’s Mom

Home / Uncategorized / Expert Lecture #2 : Olivia’s Mom
by rpalaniappan24

I was excited when I walked in that morning and saw on the board, Expert Lecture two. Just after Thanksgiving Weekend Olivia’s mom came in and talked about the joy of giving to our class. What that means is that she talked about donations and charities. I enjoyed the presentation that she gave us because we were talking about what people do for donations and what they can do. We also talked about philanthropists and how they make a big change. Once the presentation was finished we got to pair up with a partner and make our own charity. We had to think about our mission, our goal, our budget, and our staff. It was awesome.  It was like we actually were actually making a charity of our own. We were jotting everything down. But at the same time it was also extremely hard choosing what our charity what it would do at the same time. Do you want to make your own charity one day? Are you interested?