Westchester County Board of Legislators

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Did you know there are seventeen legislators for Westchester county? I didn’t know that until my class took a field trip to the Westchester County Board of Legislators. In this blog post you will hear all about what I learned on this field trip. You will also learn about all the things I enjoyed during the field trip.

Two things I learned from the trip are the steps of how a bill becomes a law in a county and about how legislators discuss and sometimes they disagree. The first step in a bill becoming a law is, it has to go through a committee of legislators, but not all have to attend. Also people from the public can attend the meeting. They go around discusing their opinions to the chairperson (he or she is in charge of the meeting). Then they all vote YAY (yes) or NAY (yes). If the majority vote NAY, then the bill stops there, but if the majority vote YAY, then the bill goes to a full chamber of legislators, clerks, public speakers, and the chairperson. There they go around discusing their opinions to the chairperson again. Then they all vote YAY or NAY again. If the majority vote YAY then the bill becomes a law. If the majority vote NAY it goes back to the committee to improve it. I also learned when legislators don’t agree they try to convince other legislators. Sometimes legislators get convinced when other legislators state their opinions. Sometimes legislators completely disagree with other legislators and they stand by their opinion.

Two things I enjoyed was being a legislator and meeting Legislator Benjamin Boykin. I liked being a legislator because we get to vote on laws. Everybody got to state their opinion/vote on a bill into the real legislator microphones and got to sit in a real legislator chair (inside of the real chamber that the legislators vote in). I liked meeting Benjamin Boykin because he is the real legislator for my district. We got to take a picture with him and he gave each and everyone of us a certificate of merit signed by him and the chairman.

In this blog post, you read about what I learned during this field trip and what I enjoyed during it. I hoped you learned an interesting fact from this post. Would you want to be a legislator for Westchester county?

First Week of Fifth Grade

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You have one hundred index cards in your hand and you and your team are building a tower. Oh-no it is tipping over! Crash! Your tower falls over. You restart. Your tower is getting bigger and bigger. Five, four, three, two, one! Your team wins! This is a description of the Index Card Challenge we have done so far. Read my blog post to learn more about what I have enjoyed so far in fifth grade. You will also learn about what I am looking forward to doing this year.

Two things I enjoyed this past week was Index Card Challenge and the 20×9 challenge. In the Index Card challenge we had one hundred index cards and we had to build a tower in fifteen minutes and at the end whoever had the highest tower won. I liked it because it was challenging to come up with a strategy to build it and my team won. For example all the towers kept falling over and sometimes it was good for us and sometimes it was bad for us. In the 20×9 Challenge you had to come up with an expression to equal twenty and you could only use the number six times. I liked it because you can also use different operations and fractions. For example 88 divided by 8 + 8 + 8/8 = 20.

Two things I am looking forward to are the Halloween Party and Hotdog Field Day. The Halloween Party is just with fifth grade and it is after school there is snacks, drinks, and music. I am excited for this because only fifth graders get to do this so it will be my first time. I also get to hang out with my friends. For example, two years ago my brother went to the party and he loved it. The Hotdog Field Day is a competition between all the classes. You do a bunch of sports/competitions. You also get hotdogs for lunch. I am excited for it because I like competitive sports and it will be fun to win. I also like hotdogs. For example I am on the Scarsdale travel baseball team.

In conclusion, I enjoyed what I did so far in fifth grade, and I am excited for the activities yet to come. In this blog post you learned about some of the things I liked and some things I am looking forward to this year in fifth grade. Are you or were you excited for the fun activities in fifth grade?

American Revolution Jacob Blog Post #2

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The topic I picked was a TED talk on Paul Revere’s engraving (The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King-Street). The reason I chose my topic was because at first I was studying the Boston Massacre and I couldn’t think of what my main topic was. Later on when I was studying I found a picture of Paul Revere’s engraving and that greatly sparked my interest. I am doing a TED talk because I am good at public speaking. I did not want to do an ignite because the slide auto advance.

When I was done with my narrative, I needed help with putting chunks of it into a script template. It was hard for me to even out and have enough information on each slide. I got help and I finished my script and moved on to memorizing it. My favorite part of the project was finding images and putting them in my slideshow. I also liked memorizing my script. I learned from this project that when you are finding information you can’t copy and paste you have to put it in your own words. Another reason I am presenting through a TED talk is because I have a lot of information and I needed more slides. I am very excited to present in front of the parents. Practicing has helped me memorize my whole entire script.

American Revolution Jacob Blog Post #1

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I chose to study about Paul Revere’s engraving (The Bloody Massacre that was perpetrated on King Street) because I was interested in how the engraving was important. 

At first, it was hard to find notes because a lot of websites about The Boston Massacre did not have info about the engraving. But my teacher Mrs. Rago found a great website for me and that is how I got all my information. In the beginning of the research phase I wished I had not copied and pasted every thing because it took a lot of time to make it into my own words. At first, I thought that would make taking notes easier, but I learned that if I just take notes in my own words it makes the work easier.

When I finished my research I started making it into a script and I was feeling good because I was actually doing good with the script.

I feel my project is going well and I am excited to present in front of the parents. I am good at public speaking so I have no problem doing a TED talk. I have a lot of information on my script, but I don’t think I will be able to remember it all. So I think I will take a long time  to memorize my script. I think I need help with memorizing my script.

Extreme Weather Reflection

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Before we chose our groups, I wanted to study earthquakes but when we chose the groups there were too many people that wanted to do that topic so I backed down and I did hurricanes. Then when I backed down I actually was happy because a bunch of my friends were in my group and I actually worked well with them. At first I stayed for a while but then I realized there are sometimes hurricanes in Scarsdale so I knew more about hurricanes than earthquakes. My subtopic was Safety and Prevention but there is no way to prevent hurricanes and it was hard finding a lot of stuff on just safety. A lot of members in my group helped me find information and I looked at some websites that had some good information. Before I made my script I took notes then when I thought I had enough I made a narrative using my notes. When I was done making my narrative I used chunks of it to make my script. When my group was done making our scripts we started to time our scripts and memorize them. We got two slides to speak our scripts. There were 15 seconds per slide and each slide got one picture. We had to make the pictures match the words you would be speaking and it was hard because there weren’t really that many pictures to choose from but eventually I found two pictures that match the words that I was saying. The thing that I am the most proud of is how much time I spent on the ignite.

Persuasive Writing

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Essay

Have you ever wondered why kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade have really big lockers and 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade have really small lockers? You might be wondering, “Why does the size of the locker matter so much?” Here are some reasons why I think the lockers in the 3-5 wings should be replaced with bigger lockers.

 

One reason that grades 3-5 should get bigger lockers is that K-2 have bigger lockers than grades 3-5. Grades 3-5 have more school work they need to fit inside their lockers so they should be the students that have bigger lockers. For example, kids in grades 3-5 have many after school activities and sports. They might need to bring things for practice to school with them or maybe instruments for band and instrumental. K-2 do not have instruments to bring to school, so they don’t need super big lockers. 

 

Another reason that grades 3-5 should get bigger lockers is that

 most students have backpacks with wheels, which don’t fit inside of the small lockers. This means they have to leave them in the hallway, which is dangerous because people can trip over them and can get hurt. Also sometimes when students are getting those backpacks from the hallway they can trip other students by accident. For example, For example, when I am heading up the ramp to PE the backpacks with wheels are always out in the hallway. People hit them and trip over them. I did just last week! If they were in the lockers, they wouldn’t be in the way and no one would get hurt.

 

The last reason that grades 3-5 should get bigger lockers

 is that some people need room to put some of their other belongings such as a jacket, a sweatshirt, or a lunch box. People sometimes have to bring their belongings inside the classroom and it is annoying having other stuff on your desk when you don’t need it. For example, maybe you have extra erasers or pencils. Instead of keeping them all in your desk, if you had room, you could keep some in your locker and grab them when you need them. 

Grades 3-5 NEED bigger lockers now before someone gets hurt from all of the overflowing stuff!

Reflection

I chose to write about getting bigger lockers in 3-5 grade wings in Heathcote because ever since the first day of 3rd grade I noticed that the lockers were too small for a lot of students. The steps of making a persuasive piece is first come up with some ideas. Next, choses an idea. Then write it on paper.Next in your drive you open a doc and type it in. Then open an Adobe video and add pictures. Lastly, record yourself reading the doc. The most difficult part of doing the writing is coming up with ideas.

Video

My Expert Book: Baseball

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I came up with the topic baseball because my favorite sport is baseball and I know alot about baseball but, I did not include everything I knew about baseball. The first step was to come up with ideas. Next I had to pick one of the topics and do a brain dump. Then I had to organize the brain dump. Next I had to make chapters. Then I started writing on paper. Next I used the paper to know what type on the computer. Then I added pictures and links to make my writing better. Lastly my parents came in and read my writing. I needed the most help writing on paper and coming up with ideas to put in my writing because I did not know what to put in each chapter. The most difficult part for me was thinking of ideas to write about. I learned how to crop images and how to make a cover page. I also learned that I knew so much about baseball. When my expert book was done I was really proud of myself.

This is my expert book.

 

 

Thank you for reading.

Personal Narrative- Reflection

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One thing I am most proud of in my personal narrative is my heart. I put most of the details in it. One example is there is a lot of dialogue and action showing me and my dad and I going down the waterslide. I think the reader will think they are going down the waterslide with me. 

 

One thing that was difficult for me was my ending because the end of my heart is like the end of my story so I had to do some action when I was in the pool. For example I said I canenballed into the pool.

Personal Narrative – The Water Slide

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“Today’s the day!” I said. “Dad, can we go to the water slide, finally? PLEASE!?”

“Yeah, we’ll go later,” said my dad.

“I can’t wait until later!” I shouted. “Can we go now?”

“Oh alright, Jake,” dad said. “Go get your bathing suit on.”

I ran to the bedroom and got changed as quickly as possible. “Ready to go,” I yelled racing back into the kitchen.

 

A few minutes later, we headed out to go to the water slide. When we got there the slide I looked up, and up and up, until my eyes reached the top. “Wow, that is really tall,” I thought to myself, even more excited than before. We ran to the bottom of the stairs and I saw a sign that said, “you must be 48 inches tall to ride this ride.” 

“Good thing I’m 49 inches, dad” I said pointing to the sign. 

“Then, let’s go!” dad said and we started to climb the stairs. 

Finally we were at the top. The lifeguard up there looked at us and said, “you need a tube!” 

“We have to go all the way back down?” I asked, disappointed.

“Guess so,” dad replied. We headed back down the stairs, grabbed a tube and hustled back up the stairs.

 

“Finally it is our turn!” I said happily. I stepped into the little pool of water and all of a sudden I got the chills. The water was so cold! Dad put the tube behind me and we sat down.

The lifeguard pointed at me and said, “you need to sit in the front.” I moved to the front and held onto the handles tightly.

“GO!” shouted the lifeguard, and gave us a big push. We went down so fast! I felt the wind blowing on me as we raced to the bottom. 

“This is so fun!’ I yelled as water splashed all over us.

 Water  came from the side and sprayed on us then it poured on us.There were so many twists and turns that I thought I was going to fall out of the tube. 

We were finally reaching the end when cold water poured on us and we cannon balled into a 12 foot pool at the bottom of the slide. I held my breath under water for 5 seconds before I popped my head up and asked,  “Can we go again?”

“Maybe,” said dad, as he walked to get a towel and dry off.