Category Archives: Writing

My Capstone Experience

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Have you ever done research on a topic you are passionate about, or did a deep dive on anything you like? I did a project called Capstone that is just that. My Capstone was about the Manhattan Project. I came up with a main question, What was the creation of the atomic bomb, and how did atomic spies help to save America. I had smaller questions to break this down, such as what the research and materials were, who the scientists were, who the atomic spies were and what they did, and what missions people went on. The process to create my presentation had a lot of parts, but overall, it was really fun!

When I was doing research to learn more about my topic, it was a lot more difficult than I thought. I had to go to individual websites to answer each of my sub-questions. I found many books that helped me along the way as well. When I was doing research for my first sub-question, I remembered that I had read a book called Bomb, by Steve Sheinkin, and I remember how it talked about how the atomic bomb was made physics wise. I got a lot of research out of that book. In my second sub-question, I used Norwich University’s website, and it gave me information on all the scientists individually! For my third sub-question, I found websites about some of the most important atomic spies. The websites gave me information on their betrayal, and all the information they stole from the Americans. I learned that the atomic spies were working for the Soviet Union, and were forced to gather classified American information on weaponry. Lastly, in my fourth sub-question, all the information I got about missions was in Bomb. Research was difficult, but when I found the right sources, it made life easier.

When I was doing my Capstone Essay, as shown here, I used all the research I had, and made my research into an intro, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I had around two pages of research for each sub-question, so you can imagine how long my essay might be. In my opinion, the essay was the hardest part of the process. It was not easy to plug research in an essay. When I had finished my essay, I realized that after I timed it, it was way too long. I had a fifth sub-question, and I had to delete it, because it would make my essay shorter, and make it sound better. My essay was different from what I thought it would be. I thought that the essay was going to be pretty short. I was very wrong. After my first body paragraph, I was already over a page. Even though the end result of my essay was very long, I still was able to manage.

My script, as shown here, was a long process. Using some techniques from an immigration script, I was in good shape. First, I needed to choose a TED Talk, or a WeVideo/Movie. I chose a TED Talk, because I thought that it would suit me, and my topic better. I felt that there would be more, and better pictures on Google Slides, than on WeVideo. Choosing a TED Talk infinitely made me feel better about the script making. I started with my script by copying and pasting my introduction from my essay, to the template. While I was doing this process, I had to make some changes because of the time limit I had. I copied and pasted, then re-adjusted the wording of my slide. I also had to figure out what pictures I thought might match what I am saying. Because my essay was so long, I had to cut it down to fit the time frame. After I finished each part of the script, I timed it. Then, when I was finished, I had a time of 5:45, which was perfect.

When I was making my slideshow, it was decently nerve-racking. I knew that everything would have to be perfect, and centered, and precise, and professional. I made my slideshow pretty quick, so I could be really prepared, and completely memorized, come the day of CapCon. The way I practiced was by doing one slide at a time. Once I felt like I completely memorized that slide, I practiced how I would really do it ten times. This made me feel really prepared. When I had finished doing this, I practiced doing ten slides at a time. Finally, I did the entire thing thirty-eight times before I felt completely ready. The week before CapCon, I practiced doing it at home every night. I felt very ready.

Overall, my Capstone experience was not as difficult as I thought. I was able to complete everything at a good time, and I never felt rushed, or upset because I wasn’t ready. I think that this was a great project for me, because it helped me a lot, with time-management, and much more!

 

 

Here Is My Capstone

 

Credit to Curling

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A lot of the time, you can try something new and end up liking it. I had never tried curling before on real ice and it was really fun. My class had been working on curling in phys ed and we went on a field trip to Ardsley Curling Club. I had only curled on the wood floor with fake stones on wheels. The delivery was different, sweeping made a difference on ice too. My expectations were different from the reality of what actually happened. I also realized that some things were easier than others. It was difficult, but also so fun! Some things were the same and some were different. The positions had no similarities whatsoever. Also, the coaches helped us understand and helped us play better in the game.

At school and at the curling club, some things were the same and some things were different. At school, we used plastic stones that were really light. But at the curling club, the regulation stones were 42 pounds. At school, we curled in the gym so we were on the wood floor. At the curling club, we were on ice so it was really slippery. At school we were given a carpet square to act like the ice but it wasn’t a perfect comparison. It was a lot harder at the curling club because Some of my expectations were that the rink was going to be really long but the curling houses were really big so it wasn’t as long as it seemed. I still had thought, wow this is really long. The delivery was harder but once you got the stone moving then you can get some momentum. You really have to put a perfect amount of force when releasing the stone. Sweeping helps to make the stone go further but more than half of the shots were still short. There was a really funny time when my friend had a great shot but I swept too much and the stone went just over. Another funny time was when my other friend had a great shot that would be perfect with strong sweeping, and I fell. “Ugh.” Welp, there goes that perfect shot, and my confidence, and my broom.  It was really hard but me and my team won! I was the one to make it in the house which was really cool. I accidentally swept too much and the stone went over the house. These are some of the similarities and differences between school and the curling club, and my expectations and the reality. 

At the curling club. We had coaches help us. The coaches were really nice and helped us figure out how much to turn the stone, how much to sweep, and how to do the delivery on ice. The coaches’ help really paid off because when we played in the actual game, we ended up winning. I had my friends in my group so it was really fun. We played against my other friends and it was a good match up. We all had good shots and some takeouts. When the other team had gotten a stone into the house, it wasn’t looking too good for us. Fortunately, my next shot was closer to the button than the other teams’. I had chest bumped with my friends and we all said “Let’s go!” The game was awesome. Before we even started practicing everything, me and my friends tested out the ice and I fell down right away. During the game, I ended up saying things like “SHORT” just to sound like I knew what I was doing. The positions in curling were kind of hard to understand. I was the first one on my team to deliver the stone. Then I swept twice, and then went to the other house to tell the sweepers which way to sweep. It was hard but everything paid off. Everybody had to work together to try and get the stone into the house. On my shot, my friends swept really well and they were the ones to put it perfectly in the house. It felt really good to know that I had just scored a point for my team! I’m so happy our class went on this trip.

 Overall the trip was so awesome. I’m so happy to have learned a new sport and enjoy it! It was pretty cool to have such nice coaches and they helped us thoroughly understand the game of curling in a way that we can both play it, and enjoy it. I had so much fun learning the right sweeping techniques, and the delivery. The difference between pushing off of a mat in the gym, and pushing off of a foot holder on the ice. Lastly, my expectations, versus the reality of the club. It was a really fun trip and I encourage everyone to always try something new.

Feature Article Reflection

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My feature article was really difficult but also really fun. There was a long process and I had the most amount of writing in the class. It was fun and hard but the final result looked really awesome.

From the beginning, I knew what my topic was going to be. I knew all the rules and statistics. My topic was football and at the beginning I had ten categories. The reasoning behind this was the fact that I had too many categories that were possible to add. I was able to narrow it down to five. I got all my writing in over a long process. I started out with how to play, and then positions, rules, teams, and the Super Bowl. I had some things that I wanted to include But I didn’t know where I would put them because they did not fit with any of my categories. Luckily Mrs. Cooper showed us that our writing would be formatted with space for pictures, vocabulary boxes, and fun facts.

Formatting was my favorite part. Since I had a lot of writing, I needed to be flexible with ideas for formatting. At first, my article was ten slides long. I worked some things out and narrowed it to six. I had a lot of vocabulary and pictures I wanted to include. That took time to think about as well. At the end of formatting, I had one issue. My conclusion was the only writing that I had left and It couldn’t fill up my Super Bowl page. My conclusion was tiny and I did not want to have an entire slide of pictures. I asked Mrs. Cooper and she said I could make a fun fact page. It ended up looking super cool and it threw in new ideas. Since it was on my last page, it made the article look even better. 

In conclusion, the feature article was really cool and I loved working and playing around with it. There were so many suggestions of what I could do to make my article as good as possible. I had all of the suggestions I needed and turned them into a cool and awesome feature article. 

 

 

 

Trick or Treat

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Oops. The makeup from your costume got on your shirt. Your arm seems dead from your bag of candy. It hurts. More candy, can you take the weight? I can’t believe I got this much. Think about it, you want more, use your younger sibling as a charm to get more. Halloween might as well be the best holiday ever. I think it is. The excitement, the fun, racing from door to door, and the candy of course. Yeah, it is really awesome.

Our school goes all out on Halloween and as 5th graders we get a perk. There was a 5th grade Halloween party and it was epic. The DJ was awesome. He took song requests and pumped people up. On top of that, some of the costumes were insane. My friend Andrew had an inflatable chicken costume that was around twice my height. Wait, there’s more, he also had a two foot inflatable chicken leg and a KFC chicken bucket. He really went all out. My friend Dowlat had a clown costume with a fake blood pumper and a mask that the fake blood went to. He was creepy. We also got to go to the gym. We played gaga and basketball. I brought my own football so I had a catch with my friends. I made a full court basketball shot with my football four times. Another thing that my entire school does is a Halloween parade. Everyone dresses up and we walk in the parking lot. All the parents come for the parade to take photos and admire the costumes. While I walked through the parade I spun my football on the pavement to make it look like I had scored a touchdown. I had a catch on a patch of grass with my friends. That was really fun. This is what was epic in school.

I wonder if barrels of candy are enough, I hope not. Certainly not for me. Because trick or treating means more than a couple barrels of candy. The first thing I did at night was go to my friends’ house. I had a ton of fun there. We played video games, ate a delicious dinner, and talked about funny things. While we were driving into the neighborhood, we stopped and me and my friends hopped out of the car and sprinted toward a giant inflatable chicken, by then we knew it was the perfect meetup spot… after everybody was together. We counted down to sprint to the first house. “Jackpot, no doorbell camera and just a bowl of candy outside with no note. This house better be raided, and by us. Scarsdale Raiders lives up to its name,” I claimed. I had the first hand in the bowl so I rampaged the house. That was probably the best trick or treating moment ever. I met up with my sister and realized she was a charm. She totally got more candy at every house that gave it up. I just made the excuse “she’s so young,” and it worked. The rest of my night was simple, give candy to trick or treaters, and get well deserved sleep, awesome Halloween right? It was really, really fun. 

After a long night, maybe sitting on the couch and greeting people that are trick or treating isn’t the worst thing. I mean you probably have barrels full of candy so you’re good for the night. I’d say you can go enjoy a good night’s sleep. You earned it!

First Week of School

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There is a minute left in math and you need to make eleven with four fours. What do you do, you finally figure it out four! divided by (the square root of four – four over four). You finally did it, you’re so happy. That’s how the first week of school has made me feel, really happy. It’s been so awesome and school just started. Great things have happened and there are great things to look forward to. I could not be more excited!

There are many things I enjoyed in the first week of school. For instance I really enjoyed the Danger of a Single Story Ted Talk. I learned the story of a Nigerian woman and her obstacles and strengths. I learned a story from a new perspective and it taught me so many new things. It was so awesome to see how a person that is very different from me grew up. I’d never seen something like that before. I also liked the identity map because I felt like I could express my traits and what I love most. The identity map was a great way to just unwind and have a little fun. I had unlimited options and wrote so many things that I love. In addition, I really enjoyed the Four Fours Challenge because I learned really good math that I didn’t know before. Also, I felt engaged in it while I was working because it was so fun. I couldn’t tear myself away from the paper, even though it was challenging. Finally, I think Ms. Cooper is really great because she’s really kind, fair, prepared, and organized which helps me learn really well. She is a perfect teacher for me because she not only helps me learn, but she helps me have fun while doing it. This is what I enjoyed in the first week of school.

There are so many things to look forward to during this school year. For instance, I’m really looking forward to the Bedford Ropes Course because I love obstacles.  I have done something like this before so I think I’ll be pretty good at it. It seems like it should be really fun. I’m also really excited for the student teacher volleyball game because every single time I’ve watched it, I want to actually play. I practiced just for this. I’m really excited and it should be fun. I’m also looking forward to Capstone because I’ve heard really good things about it. I love big projects with technology because I get to do some things I love and I’m good at it. Capstone is something in which I get to talk about something I love which would be so fun for me. There are so many things that I really like so that might be the hardest thing, to choose a topic. I am also really looking forward to the moving up ceremony because I am going to smile a lot. That’s what happens to me when I feel really good about myself. I also am going to enjoy the moving up ceremony because I want to end my year in a really good way knowing that my sister is going to be watching me. These are some things that I am looking forward to this year.

Overall, I loved the first week of school and hopefully you can tell. I’ll bet your first week of school wasn’t as good as mine, it would be impossible. I did so many things and there are so many to look forward to as you can tell. I really hope you learned all about my first week of school. How was your first week of school as a fifth grader? What were the awesome things that happened to you? What were you looking forward to? Think about it!

HF Writing

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I think that the unit went great. I learned a lot about historical fiction writing and writing diary entries from a different point of view was very fun. I can’t wait for the next writing unit.

The 3rd Grade State Tests

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The State Test for ELA or reading and writing starts on March 29th and ends on the 30th. It is two days long. The math part of the state test starts on the 26th of April and ends on the 27th. Both parts of the test are two days long. For ELA the first day questions are multiple choice this means that there is A B C or D and you have to pick the right answer, you have to think which one is the best answer. You’re going to have two sheets, one is the real packet and one is the bubble sheet. the bubble sheet is what the scorers scan through the machine to see what you got right and what you got wrong. The packet is supposed to help you if you have one answer in the packet and a different one on the bubble sheet.

For the second day of the state test, there are short responses where you have answer a question and then you have to use details from the text or paraphrase words from the test to prove your answer. There is also an extended response where you have to make an introduction with the title and the author’s name and you have to answer the bullets. The bullets are questions you answer and then give text evidence or paraphrase the text, the bullets are kind of like two short responses. At the end of your extended response, you have to make a conclusion where you answer the bullets in different words than your introduction, at the end of your conclusion you have to write the lesson learned once yo have done all of this, you are officially done with the state test for reading and writing.

This paragraph will talk about the State test for math.

The math State test starts on April, 26 and ends on the 27th. The first day is 25 multiple choice questions. Multiple choice questions are we have to choose A B C or D, we were persuaded to pick what felt best to us Some of them are questions that we haven’t studied in 3rd grade yet but we could figure them out because we learned a little bit of whatever the concept was, in the grades before. Personally, I thought that the first day was simple and there were no tricky questions. I had no difficulty on the first day. The words were not poorly chosen and I could understand every part of what they were saying.

For the second day of the state test for math, we had to do 6 short responses where you write the answer on three lines, we had to explain our thinking. there were also six multiple choice questions and you already know what they are. There is also a long response which is normally a two step math problem. I thought that the second day was harder than the first day because there was harder questions and more poorly worded ones. The questions were harder to understand and they were longer which made met tired. I had no trouble with the second day even after everything I just wrote. I will admit that the Math state test was easier than ELA State test. But I really liked both just the same.