Capstone Blog post #3

After SEVRAL long weeks of writing, researching, interviewing, and editing, I finally finished my capstone. For those who don’t know what capstone is, I will not review it three times so just look at my other blog posts.

So I finally finished my video and I am really proud of it. Mr. Casal, the tech teacher at my school, said that our Capstone project had to be better than the previous year, so I was worried that my video was not good enough.

So in my last blog post, I told you about my interview with my friend’s grandfather Rodger Hess, And I mentioned my aunt and uncle but I said that I was going to have my interview with them on the 19th of May. Well, right now it is June 13th, almost a month after my interview. Unfortunately, I did not get to interview my aunt because she was busy but I did get to interview my uncle whose name is Saamer Usmani from the Netflix series Inventing Anna.

He gave me great information on his experience in acting, and how he has witnessed acting changing over the years. I made sure to include him in my video. He told me, “Acting really responds to what is happening in society currently, and recently we’ve seen a shift towards more diversity in plays.”

Today we got ready for presenting, and the people who did ted talks and ignites had to record. Since I did WeVideo, I only had to introduce myself to the audience and had to tell the audience what it is about.

This will be my last blog post about capstone because what more can I add? Also, this will probably be my last blog post of the year. If you want more information about the history of acting here are a few good articles about Shakespeare:

https://kids.kiddle.co/William_Shakespeare

https://school.eb.com/levels/elementary/article/William-Shakespeare/353763

Capstone #2

As I said in my last blog post, we are doing a project called capstone project in school. Just a review, capstone is a project that every 5th grader has to do at the end of the year. You get to choose any topic you want, then research it, interview an expert (or two and three), and then put together this BIG presentation. Capstone is also the most important project in 5th grade.

Honestly, I am really excited to present my capstone. When I was in 4th grade, my friend in 5th grade told me about capstone, and I got really scared. Now I’m really confident in myself. Also now I learned that there will not be as big of an audience as I thought it would be. I learned that it is divided into rooms, so there would be about ten kids in each room.

On the 15th I had my first interview. It was with my friend’s grandfather who is a producer that has been producing for many years. He gave me a lot of information related to my question. He told me that the lights in the theater used to be the most expensive part and the sound was not that expensive, but now it is the opposite.

On the 19th I will have my second and third interviews with my uncle and my uncle’s wife. They are both actors and they are coming to have their wedding at my house, so it is perfect. Their names are Tedra Millan and Saamer Usmani.

In all, I am feeling both nervous and excited about Capstone. I am also really excited to Do my last two interviews. This will not be my last blog post because I am not done with this project, so you can find more information in my next blog post.

Capstone blog post #1

In school, we are doing a project called capstone. I know you might be thinking Camilla, you don’t need to talk about every project you do in school! Well, this is not any ordinary project. This is the most important project of the whole school year! Every 5th grader at the end of the year has to do Capstone. For this project, you have to choose any topic you want to do it on and then, make a curriculum wheel, research the topic, make a research question, interview someone, and make a BIG presentation to present to the whole grade and everyone’s parents.

I chose my topic because Acting is one of my passions, and I find it really interesting. At first, I was going to do water scarcity or twins, but we already did a whole science lesson on water scarcity, and in 3rd grade, I already wrote an article about twins.

My interview question is: how did acting evolve over the years? I chose that question because I have a lot of information about the history of acting and how it evolved. Also, I find the history of acting really interesting.

I chose my sub-questions because they help me answer my main question. some of my questions are: what is the earliest evidence of theater and acting? And, What role have women played in the theater and in acting over time? As you heard before, my main question is how did acting evolve over the years, and I think my sub-questions will help me answer that question.

At first, I was scared that I would fall behind but now I think that I am in a pretty good place. I am really excited to do this project and learn lots of cool facts, for example, a long time ago when girls did not have the same rights as girls, boys would play both woman’s roles and men’s roles.

Refugee By Alan Gratz

In the book, Refugee by Alan Gratz, I wonder how all of these kids get the confidence to do things, and how they get so brave. 

They are brave because Josef had to stand up to his dad by slapping him across the face. He was scared because his dad is the leader of his family, but he had to do it otherwise they would be sent back to Germany.

Mahmoud was brave because he stopped in front of a car to ask for help, at the risk of the car running him over. He did that about 3 times until someone stopped. Also asking for help is one of the bravest things to do.

Isabel was brave because she had to sell something that she loved just to get out of Cuba. Also, she was brave because she jumped in the water to save her best friend’s dad. That was brave because she had a risk of dying, but she did it because she witnessed her grandma dying because she drowned and she did not want that to happen to her friend’s dad.

I also wonder What the refugees’ journeys be like without the things that are helping the most?

In the beginning, Mahmoud had the soldiers in the car that protected him and his family because they were all trying to escape. They said that they would defend them. if that did not happen, then they would be more scared to leave. After that, a boy helped them find a home to live in. It was a run-down mall, but it worked as a temporary home for them.

something that helped Isabel is that she knew someone who had a boat. That helped Isabel and her family because her dad had to leave right away otherwise he would have to go to prison for the rest of his life.

Josef’s family got help from the boat that was going to Cuba. if they were not on that boat then they would never be able to go to Cuba, and the dad would go back to the concentration camp.

Rube Goldberg #2

In my last blog post, I talked about what I had done so far on my Rube Goldberg project. Well, it is about a month after that, so I have more to share about it. In this blog post, I will be talking about what I had to change, what I liked about it, what went well, and much more. It took a lot of time to build, and record, but in the end, it worked out just fine.

I was very happy that my rube Goldberg turned out great, and that it reached the number of steps it was supposed to be. I was really surprised that it worked with only ten attempts! As you might have seen in my last blog post, we had to draw a sketch. The sketch did not work in the end, so we had to tweak it a bit. Our final rube Goldberg was really cool and I was impressed with how we did!

After we filmed our Rube Goldberg, we had to make a video of it. We used an app called WeVideo.The video was fun but challenging. I fought a lot with my sister because we could only do the WeVideo on one device, so we had to take turns doing it.

Something that went well was how Raiya and I were really patient. I know how you might think that ten tries were not a lot, but we had around 50 dominos and 20 Jenga blocks. Those items were really hard to set up, and if one falls, then you and your rube Goldberg were doomed. To us, 10 tries took an hour.

Something that went not so well was how Raiya and I were constantly fighting. It was very hard making a 16 step Rube Goldberg with a sister. We fought about the silliest things like who would set up what area, and who would do what in the WeVideo. I don’t know how we even survived 30 minutes together. Our parents were constantly complaining that they could hear us fighting from all the way upstairs.

Another problem was my stubborn dog. He was waiting patiently for his treat, and when our Rube Goldberg revealed it to him, he did not see it and it took a long time for him to notice that there was a treat right in front of his face! He must be blind or something.

In all, this project was one of the most fun, exciting, and hardest projects I have ever done. I would love to make another Rube Goldberg if I get the chance.

Rube Goldberg Post #1

In school, we are making a Rube Goldberg machine. A Rube Goldberg is a machine that could do a simple task for you. It includes simple machines like a wheel and axle, pulley, wedge, lever, inclined plane, and screw.

I am working with my sister Raiya (visit her blog to see her blog post). For the Rube Goldberg, I needed a lot of supplies. Some of the supplies were a tennis racket, dominoes, Jenga blocks, marbles, golf balls, Tape, cubs, Lego, building blocks, rolled-up posters, string, and much more.

Everyone needed a task for the Rube Goldberg machine to complete. We decided to make the Rube Goldberg give a treat to our dog charlie It took a long time to plan for the Rube Goldberg machine, but in the end, Raiya and I figured it out.

At first, I was really frustrated that my Rube Goldberg did not work. The golf ball never fell in the pulley, and the dominoes kept on falling when I tried to set the dominoes up.

When the Rube Goldberg finally worked I was really happy. I was confident that I could succeed, and my confidence paid off! I am also really relieved that I am finally done.

Something that was challenging was, the Rube Goldberg was not long enough. Since Raiya and I were working as a group, we had to make our Rube Goldberg twice as long. At first, that was tricky because we could not come up with any more steps. It was really difficult, but we decided that we could expand more at the beginning and the end.

Another thing that was tricky was the simple task at the end. Like I said earlier, everyone has to have a task that the Rube Goldberg completes for you. For Raiya and I, we decided to make the machine deliver a treat for charlie, my dog. That was the easy part. The hard part was what we struggled with. We did not know how to deliver the treat to charlie. Luckily my sister came up with a way that we could give him a treat. The solution was, we would make a tennis racket spin, which would knock over a cup with a treat under it.

As I said a lot before, Raiya and I worked as a group. It was hard to work with her because we had separate ideas which were both very good. I think that it was a success that we managed to work together with only a little fighting. Normally when Raiya and work as a group, we fight a lot so this was very rare.

Another success is, how we did not get too frustrated if a thing did not work or even broke. Instead, we just fixed it, or even changed it, right away.

Overall, This Rube Goldberg was an amazing project and I would definitely want to do it again if I could. I hope that everybody else enjoyed this project as much as I did. If you want to see my sketch then scroll down.

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#3

Constitution project reflection

In my class, we did a constitution project and we all had to pick a subject close to the constitution and we had to study it and then write a presentation about it. I picked the 14th amendment. I worked with my friend Sophia.

The purpose of the constitution project was to inform us more about the amendments and the constitution. Also, it helped us learn how to make a presentation and how to gather information. Another thing that it taught us is how to stay within the time limit and not to go over it or under it.

I picked my topic because I thought that it sounded interesting. At first, I was going to do the 15th amendment and the 19th amendment but I thought that the 14th amendment related to the 19th amendment more than the 15th amendment did. Later on, I realized that I had a lot of information on the 14th amendment and non on the 19th. Then I decided to do my constitution project just on the 14th amendment.

To me, the research was the hardest part. when I had to write the script I realized that I did not have enough information about the amendment, so I had to add more. It was hard to find the websites to gather the information, but once I had the websites, it was easy.

It was not that had to get information for the script, but at one point, I ran out of information. I had to research more. Once I was done writing the script, I had to time it. I realized that my time was below the right time. once I fixed that, My script was fine. Then I had to go on to my slide show.

The slideshow was the most fun part of the whole project. I had to find pictures that matched the text. It was hard to find the right photos, but once I finished it was time to do the screencastify.

The screencastify was also very fun! It was hard to get the videos perfect, so I had to make a lot of them and I had to see which one I liked the best. It took a lot of takes, but finally, I found my favorite.

Overall doing my constitution project was very fun, exciting, and also tricky. I loved doing this project and wish that we can do another project like this soon.

 

Feature Article

Soccer Reflection and Feature Article

In school, I wrote a feature article about soccer and today I am going to share with you my reflection about it. It took a lot of work and writing, but I finally finished it, and came to the I came up with my subject because I have a very strong passion for soccer. I had some other options like tennis and dogs, but I knew the most about soccer, and I did it the most. Now I am happy I didn’t choose dogs because my sister, Raiya was doing it. 

The part that was the hardest and the most enjoyable was goalie. At first, goalie was hard because I did not know what to write about and I only had a little bit of writing. Then I thought about what a goalie has to wear, and how different it was from the rest of the team. What I am most proud of is my introduction. I am proud of that because I added a quote from a famous soccer player and I made it so the reader would want to know more. Writing feature articles are different from writing personal narratives because you have to do more research, and you have to know a lot about the subject.

Overall, writing my feature article was really fun and I had a lot of fun working on it. I love soccer, and I hope that after reading my feature article you will love it too.

Smoky Night and Fly Away Home Comparison

I am going to compare Smoky Night and Fly Away Home. One difference is the setting.  Smokey Night takes place in an apartment and then moves to a shelter, on the other hand, Fly Away Home takes place in an airport and stays there for the whole story.

One similarity is the massage. The massage in both stories is always to have hope. In Smokey Night, the cat showed to always have hope because the cat ran away but he was found. Also, in Fly Away Home, the bird showed that if you never give up and keep hoping then you will escape.

Another similarity is the characters. the characters are similar because, the main characters are both boys, and they both have only one parent.

In conclusion, both of the stories are similar and different at the same time. Also, they are very nice meaningful stories.

Drama Drive reflection and narrative

I had a lot of fun working on my personal narrative. Today I am going to talk about some strategies, some things that I want to improve, and something that I am most proud of. I hope you enjoy it!

 

One strategy/technique that I used is to re-read my narrative to see if it sounds right. This helps me because If there are any mistakes like grammar or spelling mistakes, then I will see them. Also, I can see if I need to add something like details. One example is, in the beginning, I wrote, “ My dad replies, as he stuffs one into the now cramped trunk.” that did not make sense so I rewrote it and now it is like this, “My dad replies, as he stuffs a big white suitcase into the now cramped trunk.” 

 

One thing that I want to still improve is to make my dad more in the story. I tried doing that a little but my mom still has a lot more parts than him.

 

One thing that I am most proud of in this piece is the description and the detail. I added a lot more detail in this piece than in any other piece. I think I improved as a writer. I am really proud of my work and I hope you like it too.