June 14

Capstone Blog Post #3

My Capstone experience was amazing. I learned so much about my topic. When I started the capstone project I barely knew anything about therapy dogs. Now I know so much more. For example, I know that a therapy dog needs to be over a year old to be a therapy dog! I’m finally done with my video and I am ready to share it!

 

Researching my topic was definitely the most challenging part of this project. It is the most challenging because if I did not get enough research my video would not be interesting. Finding the correct recourses for my project also took a long time. Sometimes the resource I had did not have enough information for my topic. I needed to change my resource and find a new one.

 

Finding an interview was hard because I did not think that I knew anyone that was an expert on therapy dogs. I asked my mom if she knew anyone that was an expert on therapy dogs. She said that one of her friends, Marisa Kaplan had a therapy dog. I knew I needed to interview her. Marisa said that tux worked with “The Good Dog Foundation” My mom emailed the good dog foundation to find someone else for me to interview. We came across Carly Goteiemer. We planned to interview her through email. 

 

Now that I had all my research I needed to write my essay. I put the essay into different paragraphs with each paragraph being one subtopic. Each paragraph was long and filled with information. Writing the essay was challenging and it took a long time to complete. I went over it a lot and corrected the parts that were not interesting. My friends and Ms. Robert also went over my essay to revise some parts. While writing the essay I needed to be sure not to say the same thing over and over again. I also needed to know which parts I should not add and which parts I should.

 

The process of making the script and the video was hard. While making the script I knew that each sentence could not be more than 6 seconds. The timing of my script was challenging because of the 6-second rule. I also needed to find images that matched what I was saying. I needed to split some sentences up and put them into a different wording. The video needs to be more than three minutes and less than six minutes. While making the video I needed to find the correct images I was looking for. When I eventually found all the images I needed to record my voiceovers. I needed to read my script on recording without getting the sound cut off because of my length of speaking time.

 

Overall the Capstone project on therapy dogs was very interesting. I worked really hard on this project.

Category: 5th Grade, Capstone, Social Studies | LEAVE A COMMENT
May 24

Capstone Blog Post #2

In the capstone project, we have come so far. We finally did the interview and it turned out great. We needed to do the interview because we needed to hear the information from an expert. We also were allowed to ask our own questions so that made it a lot easier to get more information. I thought that doing an interview would help a lot with the project. The interview needed to have at least 10 questions. 

Finding out who to interview was hard. At first, I did not think I knew anyone that was an expert on therapy dogs. I asked my mom to help me find an interview and she said she had a friend with a dog who used to be a therapy dog. I finally got an interview but I felt that I needed to interview two people to get a lot of research. My mom emailed a therapy dog company called the Good Dog Foundation. Someone there agreed to let me interview them! Writing the questions for the interviews was hard. I came up with separate questions for both experts. I added five subquestions to my first interview question slide. After adding my subquestions I needed to make other questions. For example One of my questions was “How long does training take and why?”

The interview was through email. When my mom found an expert I could interview the expert told us we could email all of my questions to her and she would email my mom the answers to all of the questions. When I got the questions back they had good answers. I was very happy with it. To me, it did not go as expected. I thought that it would at least be on zoom or a call. I learned more from the answers though. It gave me some information that I did not have.

Overall the interview was easy at some points but also challenging for the most part. I cant wait to see what is next!

Category: 5th Grade, Capstone, Social Studies | LEAVE A COMMENT
May 10

Capstone Blog Post #1

Capstone is a 5th-grade project for all schools, it is finally time to do the project! Although it seems hard I am ready to work hard on this project because it is one of our last ones. Capstone is about something that interests you. you are supposed to be excited to learn about your topic. You research your topic and you get an interview with someone that is an expert on your topic. You then take all of your research and turn it into a ignite, movie, or ted-talk. I am very happy, excited, and thrilled about this project because we get to research something we love and are interested in.

Coming up with a topic was one of the hardest parts of this project so far. At first, I thought of soccer. I realized I had always done that as a topic so I thought of doing dogs. That was too basic so I thought of dog jobs like a police dog. That would be my second topic. I wanted to do small kid businesses but while researching there was not much information. I decided to do dog jobs. Dog jobs were a specific topic so I needed to choose a certain job. I decided to choose therapy dogs because they are friendly, cuddly, and cute. They are also obedient. 

Coming up with my main inquiry question was hard, at first, I did not know what a therapy dog really was. I thought it was just to help pediatric patients in a hospital. While researching I realized therapy dogs are comforting meaning that they can help anyone in need. That made me realize I needed to change my question. I met with my teacher and she changed it to “Explain how dogs become therapy dogs and what do therapy dogs do?”

Coming up with a subquestion was not that hard. Since I already knew my main inquiry question I knew what I needed to figure out. For example one of my subquestions is “Do dogs need certain characteristics to become a therapy dogs and what are they?” Another one of my subquestions is, “Is there special training for therapy dogs?” One challenge with coming up with a subquestion was not making them yes or no questions. I needed to make a question that I knew could have a lot of answers and explanations.

From what I have done so far the capstone projects seems like it will turn out amazing. I hope the project just keeps getting better and better. I also hope the projects start getting easier.

 

Category: 5th Grade, Capstone, Social Studies | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 30

Immigration Interview – Blog Post #1

When I found out about the immigration project I was nervous because I could not find an immigrant that I could interview. I remembered my babysitter Manuela Chocoj was an immigrant and I could interview her. Making questions to ask her was hard because they needed to be questions that she could give a lot of details about. I got 11 questions to ask her. While making the questions I needed to think outside of the box. My friends and parents also helped make my questions even better than they were before. Overall interviewing Manuela was very interesting.

Preparing for the interview was hard but also fun. I needed to find questions to ask and I needed to find a day where I was free to interview her. I needed to remember that if she does not say much that I would need to ask her to tell more when the interview happens. While making the questions I did not have any resources. I got ideas from my friends and made most of them myself. While making the list of questions I considered removing questions that were not necessary and questions that were yes or no or only one answer questions.

The interview was not hard. It took 5 minutes and she answered the questions with a lot of detail. I had 14 questions to ask her and needed to write more as we were asking the questions because I did not have that much information to include in the video that we are going to make. While interviewing her I asked her to add a little more detail and sometimes she could not understand the question so I needed to repeat it to her. She did not get sad if I asked her questions about her old place. It did not give her bad memories.

In conclusion, the interview and preparing for the interview was very fun and some parts were hard. I am excited to start making the video.

Category: 5th Grade, Social Studies | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 11

Rube Goldberg Blog Post #2

Making the Rube Goldberg machine was very fun. It let me use creativity and confidence. I needed to be confident in my decisions and creative about what objects I would use. The hardest part overall was deciding what to use. At one point I tried using books that were not very heavy. I decided to use Harry Potter books instead because they were heavy and could play the piano. My project had 8 steps and worked on my 5th try!

 

While making the Rube Goldberg machine I learned a lot of things depend on weight and size. For example, when I needed to figure out what would make the toy car go down the ramp I needed to decide between one ball or the other. One of them was too light and would not knock the toy car down the ramp! the other ball knocked the toy car down.

 

Making the video was very hard. I needed to add all my videos, audio, and effects! my video was 2 minutes and 9 seconds long. I added in the text and wrote what I changed and which take it is. I also needed to add my sketch of the machine. The video was really fun to make!

 

In conclusion, the machine and video were very fun to make. It was hard to make the project and video but it was exciting, fun, and joyful to figure out what works and what does not. I would love to do this again! I give credits for helping and filming to my mom and director credits to me!

My sketch and Video:

Category: 5th Grade, Science, Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 4

Debate Plastic Bags Con

When I found out we were doing a debate about plastic bags I was very happy. I got a group and we started reading articles, highlighting, and annotating. That is how I got all my research! When we found out if we were on the pro or con side I was very happy with what I got! Even though I did not really agree with my topic I still researched it.  I got a lot of research from the articles. We started writing down reasons and evidence. I was focusing on how plastic was bad for the environment and my partner focused on how it is bad for the animals. We started doing counterarguments with My other group members that were doing the pro side. I did the intro and reasons. My partner did the conclusion and reason.  The debate experience was really fun!

Category: Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT
February 16

Rube Goldberg First Blog Post

Rube Goldberg – First Blog Post

 

The Rube Goldberg machine is a contraption made up of a lot of objects. You could use simple machines or other objects. It is hard to make and while you’re trying it out you may go through a lot of failures in the process. That is a very frustrating part of the Rube Goldberg machine.

 

When I heard about the Rube Goldberg machine I was excited to try something new and be very creative about it. Even though it was fun it was also really hard. When I needed to figure out all the steps and the objects it took a while. I needed to redraw my machine because the first drawing did not work out. Those are challenges of the machine.

 

While making the Rube Goldberg machine there was trial and error. If one thing did not work I would try something else. I needed to add simple machines and also replace objects with other things. That was very hard. While testing it out, it did not work sometimes. I needed to redo it. That was what it is like testing the machine.

 

Making the Rube Goldberg machine was very fun and hard at some points. All of the mistakes and revisions were hard to create. While making this project I needed to be creative and smart. The Rube Goldberg project was very fun.

 

Category: Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 21

Constitution Project Review

I chose the question “Why was the voting rights act of 1965 so important?” because the voting rights act of 1965 was life-changing,  People with dark skin were finally allowed to vote freely. Before this happened people with black skin were not allowed to vote freely. That was very serious so I wanted to get more information on that. The project overall was inspirational.

Researching the voting rights act of 1965 was very interesting and surprising. I found out a lot of things about what happened back then. For example, I found out that there were so many protests until dark-skinned people were actually allowed to vote. Something challenging was figuring out how many people were involved with the act. Another challenging thing I needed to do is figure out what caused all of this fighting. That was really hard to figure out compared to all the other challenges. All challenges were very interesting though.

The project was fantastic and awesome! I think I answered the question successfully. I answered why everyone thought it was so important and special. I wanted everyone to know how amazing this was for the world. I also answered who the important people involved in the act were. That is why I think I answered the question. The constitution project was great. I think a lot of people can learn from this just like I did research it.

 

 

Category: 5th Grade, Social Studies | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 26

Reading

In reading I have been reading for a half a hour a day. When I read I make story mountain about the whole story or how the character changes. You write traits, predictions and more. You also write about problems, build up, and resolution. We write what the character said did and what she might think.  Your character might be shy, or mean, maybe fearless. They could have a sidekick or a adviser maybe a challenger. A character always changes in a fiction story.

 

Here is an example of a story mountain that I did for Kristy’s Big Day:

 

 

 

Category: 3rd grade, Reading, Uncategorized, writing | LEAVE A COMMENT
March 6

Rosa Parks Biography Project

This is my biography project of Rosa Parks. I have been working on this project for a long time. And I hope you enjoy it you will learn about lessons learned, historical events, and a summary about her. After this you will some more stuff about Rosa Parks, more like a lot. Have fun!

Category: 3rd grade, Reading, writing | LEAVE A COMMENT