Category Archives: Writing

My Class Trip

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Have you ever met Benjamin Boykin? Well I have, and it was one of the best field trips I’ve ever been on in school so far! Benjamin Boykin is our county legislator and we got to meet him on our field trip to the Board of Legislators. We got to take a picture with him and get his signature on our certificates for our mock legislature meeting. In this blog post, you will learn about what I learned on the field trip and what I enjoyed.

Two things I learned about the Legislative Branch of County Government are how the legislators hold their meetings in the Conference Room and how they organize the courtroom discussions. For example in the courtroom, they organize it so that each legislator has their own desk with the microphone and the paper (s) that shows what they’ll be debating on in that meeting. Then the clerks take attendance and someone leads everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

 And then also at the end, the clerks take attendance again. The legislators held their meetings in the Conference Room, there were tables with two chairmen or chairwomen and there were more seats for people to listen in on their meetings. For how the legislators hold their meetings, it was really cool to see how they would do it and take everyone’s vote and opinion on the bill and write them down in tally marks.

Two things I enjoyed most about taking on the role of a legislator were stating my opinion into the microphone and leading the Pledge of Allegiance. Whenever Chairman Dean called on you (if you were raising your hand), you would give your “yay or nay” and explain why to him. I enjoyed it because I got to listen to what other student’s thought and why they thought what they thought! Leading The Pledge of Allegiance wasn’t a huge job, but it was still fun to do it in the chamber. I got to lead The Pledge of Allegiance and then everyone said it with me after I said the first word or two.

In my blog post, you read about what I learned on my field trip to The Board of Legislators and what I enjoyed about it. I hope you enjoyed learning about my field trip! What was your favorite field trip? What did you learn and enjoy about it?

 

First Week of 5th Grade

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I think my first week of school went great, how about yours? My class did some really fun things like making identity maps and doing the index card challenge. In this blog post, you will learn all about the things I enjoyed in my first week of school and the things I’m looking forward to doing this year like field trips or fun projects.

Two things I enjoyed in my first week of school are the index card challenge and making my identity map. For the index card challenge it was fun to work in a group and see which team could make a free-standing structure using one hundred index cards in fifteen minutes. I thought it was cool because it was a really fun experience, even though it was frustrating when the tower broke down or when an idea didn’t work out as we had planned. For example, my team had an idea, so we tried it out, but it just fell over and then we had to try again. The identity map was when we put things about us onto a paper and made it colorful and drew little pictures around the words. It was fun because we got to be creative and make it however we wanted it to be with the things about us and the things that we personally enjoyed. For example, I like running, so I could’ve drawn a picture of a track in one of my boxes. 

Two things I’m looking forward to this year are moving up and the Volleyball Game against the teachers. Moving up is really exciting for me because I’m a fifth grader and it’s my final year at Heathcote. I think it will be fun because last year I watched the fifth graders when they had the moving up ceremony, but this year I’m one of the fifth graders! For example, I am the oldest in the school and even though moving up is later in the year, a lot of the fifth graders other than me are also excited, but sad to leave heathcote. I think the Volleyball Game will be cool because in my previous years, I always watched the volleyball game and rooted for the fifth graders. I’m excited because it’s only the fifth graders who get to do it and we get to play against the teachers.

Overall, I enjoyed the two activities that I wrote about in my blog post and I’m looking forward to the fun activities further in the year! I hope you enjoyed my blog post! What are you looking forward to in school?

 

Persuasive Writing Process

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   My Reflection On The Process

Writing my persuasion was a complicated and challenging process. First, we had to choose our topics and write reasons and examples. We also did something that really helped me out. We did webs and wrote everything we knew about our topics. When we came up with ideas for topics, at first I wanted to do gender association for myself, but then I had another idea to write my essay on racism. It was hard for me to come up with three reasons and nine examples, but I’m happy with what I came up with. Creating our essays and typing them was just about the easiest part of the process for me. Finally, we did the most fun part (at least it was in my opinion!). We created slideshows! I got to experiment and have fun with it. I had a hard time with recording my voice but Mr. Casal and Mr. Mitchell lent me a microphone and the recording box and I felt a lot better about it. Overall, I’m happy with what I came up with and glad I did what I did.

My Essay On Racism

Racism

          By: Rhea

 

In my opinion neither black or white have equity or equality between them and they should be able to have both of them instead of getting treated unfairly.

 

  My first reason is blacks and whites have different resources and this is not equal because one can have better than the other. You might be thinking: “Okay so why does that matter?” Well, it matters a lot because let’s say there was one really smart kid and one kid who needed extra help. The smart kid gets tons of compliments from the teacher and the kid who needs help just gets scoldings. Is that going to help the kid learn, NO! The smart kid needs a challenge and the kid who needs help needs help from a kind, patient teacher. One example is blacks had to move if a white wanted to take their seat on the bus, or it was possible to get arrested.  In fact on December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for disorderly conduct for refusing to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. A second example is whites had better treatment as well as resources. A final example is that whites also had better and more rights than blacks did. 

 

My  second reason is that blacks and whites couldn’t be together, chat together, sit together, or not even go to school together. In fact, on November 14, 1960, Ruby Bridges went to an all white school. Ruby and her mother were escorted with four federal marshals to the school every day that year and she walked past crowds screaming vicious slurs at her.  Blacks couldn’t just go over to a white’s house and start chatting with them. They would get arrested for pulling a stunt like that! Another example is they couldn’t be in a class together for some time. (Until Ruby Bridges came along)! A third example is that blacks and whites couldn’t sit together on the bus. In fact the front half was meant for the whites and the back for blacks to sit. My last example is there was no equity or equality! An example is that whites have better treatment. Blacks and whites couldn’t even be educated together for a while. A second reason is they weren’t even supposed to talk to one another! You might be thinking right now so what, why does this matter, but it matters a lot. How would you feel if you had a best friend and she was getting treated badly and you couldn’t even go to school with her, talk to her or play together with her? It is NOT fair and that needs to change sooner or later.

 

 My final reason is that neither of them got what they actually really needed in life. Maybe some of them couldn’t reach their goals or follow their dreams or they didn’t get the career they had wanted.  Part of the reason why they could not is because of racism, which needs to stop or it may get worse than it is. In 1963, King and the SCLC worked with NAACP and other civil rights groups to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which attracted 250,000 people to rally for the civil and economic rights of Black Americans in the nation’s capital. There, King delivered his majestic 17 minute “I Have A Dream” speech.

 

I might be just a nine year old kid, but after reading this you should go off  thinking of how differently blacks and whites were treated and how we can change all of this nonsense going on. Racism is a horrible thing that goes on around in the world and everybody needs to do their part to help change this. But everyone needs to do their part and help change this and put a stop to it or it can get worse.

My Video

Click here to watch my video on Racism!

ENJOY!

My Expert Book: Swimming Basics

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Writing my expert book was fun, but also hard at times. I enjoyed the process of it and learned a lot, but I am also excited that it is now done and I get to share it with friends and family! At times, when I was writing my expert book I struggled a bit, but I still kept writing! I feel proud of myself and also a little sad that this unit is over, but I’m excited for our next unit to start! At first it was a little challenging to decide what my expert book was going to be on. When I got an idea my pencil touched the paper and didn’t stop at all! No hesitations, or worries came to me. And boy, am I proud of myself now!

This is my expert book.


Thank you for reading!

Personal Narrative Reflection

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 Writing my personal narrative was fun but also hard work. It was hard to only pick one story but I know I’ll get to write more of them throughout the year. I enjoyed writing and adding more details and typing was actually my favorite part of the whole thing. It was a challenging process but I loved it! It was longer than I expected but fun at the same time. I can’t wait for the party on Monday. I’m going to have a blast sharing my personal narrative with others and hearing their personal narratives too.

 Writing has always been one of my favorite subjects so I’m excited to start our next unit and sad to finish this one. Editing was my least favorite part because it’s not easy to edit your own work and it was not much fun for me. I would say my favorite part was typing and it was fun to think of more exciting details! And also I want to be a writer when I grow up and write kids chapter books, I can’t wait to write another book!                                        

Personal Narrative

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“Why would she do that?”, I thought to myself. It was a bright sunny August morning, my mom’s birth month. I was lying on my bed reading one of my favorite books, Mallory Towers! Suddenly, my sister Kara poked her head into my room. “What?”, I asked with a puzzled look on my face. 

I do not like being disturbed when I am reading and Kara came into my room.

”Do you want to help me clean downstairs for mommy when she comes back from her interview?”, Kara asked me.

“Oh fine I tell her, I’ll be down in a minute”.

Secretly I really wanted to clean downstairs so mommy would be happy when she came back from her interview. I finished the page that I was on and climbed off my bed. I hurried down the stairs and started putting things from the table away. Kara glanced at the table and sighed, “Rhea put your folder away”, she asked. I frowned but did it anyway.When I was in the middle of stuffing my folder into my backpack I heard thumping down the stairs.It was Lyla my other sister. Kara and Lyla were twins. ”Whatcha guys doing” she asked, eyeing us.

”We’re cleaning” Kara started explaining to Lyla and telling Lyla what she could do while I kept on cleaning.

.   .   .

I was in the middle of wiping the chairs when Kara asked “What should we make for lunch?” We head up to Lyla’s room when we get there Kara says “we can make pasta salad”!

 I don’t say anything. I am not much of a fan of pasta salad.”Good idea”, Lyla exclaims.So we all head back downstairs. Kara is the captain because she has made pasta salad before and it was her idea. ”Rhea you cut the mozzarella, I will boil the pasta and Lyla you can…oh you can pick some basil”.

Kara and I both go down into the basement  to get olives and mozzarella for the pasta salad she gets the olives from the pantry and I get the mozzarella from the fridge. We go back up where Lyla has picked the basil and is starting to cut it into small pieces. Kara goes over to help and I get out a plate to cut the mozzarella on and a knife too and start cutting the mozzarella into chunks. Kara comes over to me “cut the mozzarella a bit smaller”. ”Okay, like this?”, I ask.

“Yep that’s good”, she answers.

.   .   .

After everything was chopped and ready we all pitched in to help clean the kitchen, I wiping the counter top when I remembered something! My mom had asked in the morning for me to get her a slice of carrot cake I sighed remembering what she had told me after. Kara or Lyla had to come with me unfortunately.I finished wiping the counter and walked over to Kara.”Mommy asked me to get her a slice of carrot cake can I go with you or Lyla, please”. 

Kara thought about it for a second “I guess you can go with Lyla I need some ham to put into the pasta salad anyways”.

”YES”, I exclaimed a little bit to loudly

 I  punched my fist into the air. Then I ran upstairs as fast as I could and into my room and grabbed some money to pay for the ham and carrot cake. I went back down just in time to overhear my sisters arguing. ”Maybe I should go with Rhea” Kara was saying. ”Or I could just go”, Lyla suggested. 

My jaw fell wide open I jumped out of my hiding spot. I stepped into their conversation “absouletly not it was my idea and plus I’m paying for it”!,I exclaimed

”Oh fine” Kara said, ”but hurry”.

 Lyla and I went inside the garage to get our shoes on. I slipped on my pink sneakers and tied them tight. Then I waited for Lyla to finish tying her shoes. We walked into the fresh air, the cool breeze blew into our faces. I brushed my hair out of my face. Together we walked to Balducci’s, a nearby store. Lyla was carrying her phone and I was carrying money for the cake and ham.

.   .   .

Slide! The door automatically opened for us, and so  we walked into the cool air conditioned shop. We Walked around the store for a bit and soon we were standing right next to the meat section in the store. Lyla found the ham, it was rosemary ham. I looked at the price, sixteen dollars.”That’s a lot for a packet of ham”, I gasped. ”Yeah”, Lyla agreed. ”Let’s just get the carrot cake then” Lyla suggested. ”Okay I don’t have enough for both anyway”. So we looked around for the cake section. I turned around the corner and there was the cake section. I was so happy I almost jumped for joy! I waved Lyla over to where I was standing. ”Oh good”, Lyla said coming over to me. We looked at all the cakes no carrot cake slices only the whole cake. ”Maybe we could get the whole cake”, I suggested eying the cakes again. ”We don’t have enough though”, Lyla exclaimed. She was right the whole cake was twenty five and I had twenty.

.   .   .

I had my head down and was trying to brainstorm an idea when I had it!”Lyla use your phone to call Kara, okay?” Lyla looked at me, puzzled but did it anyways. I waited patiently for Lyla to get onto the phone with Kara.”Ask her to bring ten dollars”, I begged after Lyla had gotten onto the phone. When Lyla got off the phone, she urged me to follow her outside. We walked halfway back where Kara was waiting for us.”Here”, she said shoving the money into my hands. Then she started to run back to the house. Lyla and I rushed back to the store and walked over to the cake section once again.”One carrot cake please”, Lyla asked politely. We payed for the cake and walked as fast as we could back to the house just in time to see mommy on her way to the house. She saw us and stopped.”Hi guys”, she waved to us.”Hi, we’re doing something so I’ll come back out and tell you when you can come back in okay?” She chuckled “Okay, if you say so”, she replied.”What are you guys up to?” “Nothing much”, I answered avoiding the question. I motioned for Lyla to go inside the house. I followed her into the house.”Oh great your back”, Kara exclaimed. And I told her that mommy was outside waiting. We cleaned and set the table to get ready for lunch.

.   .   .

I went outside to call mommy to come in.”You can come in now”, I told her with a smile. She followed me inside.”Wow” , she gasped. Lunch was already ready and on the dining table. The carrot cake was also there on a pretty platter. We all sat down to eat.”Yum”, I exclaimed after eating a bite of pasta salad. Soon the pasta salad was gone. I turned on the song happy birthday and blared it up loud. Then I returned to my seat and stood on my chair. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!, I sang at the top of my lungs and Kara and Lyla joined in. We all dug into the cake, YUM! We exclaimed together. ”This is delish”, I exclaimed with a mouthful of cake!

 

THE END!