Have you ever done a big project that you worked so hard on? Well, this is what capstone was. The 5th graders picked a topic that they were interested in. Mine was gymnastics. You had to make sure that you didn’t know too much about your topic. Then we had to make a question to do research on. We did research for two weeks and learned all about our question so we could answer it. Then we turned what we learned and researched into an essay about our topic. Then we turn the essay into a script. After that we created a slideshow. Then we memorized our script and presented it.
When researching, we had to make smaller questions inside the big one so it is easier to research. When researching my first question, how / why was gymnastics formed. It was hard to find articles about this because most articles about gymnastics are about how gymnastics is today. However, I did find some good information about how gymnastics was invented and why. My second sub question was about how the equipment and the skills have changed. This one was easier to find information on. My third sub question was how was the scoring then and now. That one was hard to find information on. My fourth sub question was how the levels work. I found a website that had all the information so I knew what I needed quickly and easily. My last sub question was how has the average age for the Olympics changed. This sub question was similar to the 4th where I found an article that had all the information but it took me longer to find.
After we finished researching, we turned all of what we learned when doing research into a long essay. It was challenging to take every little note and turn it into sentences. However I did like putting all of my hard work into real sentences so everyone could understand what I learned. It was also challenging because we only had a week to put everything we researched into the essay. However me and a lot of other of my classmates worked really hard and finished it before the week was over. My essay is here. I liked writing my essay because you gotta add a little bit of your own words with the research. Overall, the essay was fun to write but it did have some challenges with writing it.
When we finished our essay we had to turn it into our scripts. At this point is also when we decided if we were doing a ted talk or movie. I decided to do a Ted Talk because I wanted to put videos in my presentation. Also, in the place where we make our video there are no gymnastics pictures or videos. I also want to be able to talk to my audience directly and I don’t have to be perfectly on time. Before writing your script you have to cut a lot of your essay. For me I had to cut over half of my essay! It was hard doing that because I have so much information and all of it is important. However I did like separating my cut down essay into different slides because it was easier and it was fun to do. My script is here. All in all, doing the script was fun and sometimes hard.
After we created our script, if you were doing a Ted Talk, you created your slideshow. A slideshow has about thirty slides. Most slideshows have a consistent background color. Mine was light pink. You have a picture that matches what you’re saying on each slide. After you finish the slideshow you start memorizing your script. It was hard to get everything memorized. Some parts were easier because you wrote about it and said your script so much that some parts you didn’t even have to try to memorize because it was already memorized. However, I finished memorizing my script a week before so I had lots of time to practice. Finally, doing the final project was really fun.
In conclusion, Capstone was a super fun project and I loved learning about my favorite sport, gymnastics. All the hard work paid off and now I have an amazing presentation. I am proud of all the hard work I did from research to the essay to the script and finally to the final product. Would you want to do Capstone? What would you do your Capstone on?
In school we were studying immigrants and we interviewed them. We had to make questions to ask. Then we interviewed them and wrote down the answers to the questions. We then had to make a narrative and turn it into a script. We then timed the script and got our photos. Then we turned it into a video on a platform called WeVideo.
When making the video, first we had to make a script. We had to turn the narrative about the person we interviewed into a script. We had to break up the narrative into little parts up to six seconds. Then we asked our interviewee for some photos of them. When we were creating the video, if we couldn’t find a photo we could also look it up. I really liked making the script and narrating. However, getting all the photos and putting them in was hard.
After finishing the project, I ended up with a lot of information about the person that I interviewed. I learned about how much of a struggle it was to move and the reasons why some people have to move. For my grandma it was because of a revolution and because of what her parents thought of the climate and how the army works. When conducting I had to listen really carefully and take notes on what my interviewee said. When making the video I had to put all my technology skills and the things that I learned about my interviewee all together.
In conclusion, this project was a super fun way to learn about our friends and families past and learn about immigrants. It was challenging at some times and easier at others. It was an amazing project.
For this project we found a family member or a friend that immigrated and made sure that they are an adult. We wrote down questions to ask them then we interviewed them. After we wrote a narrative about them and made it into a script.
While preparing for the interview, we had to make questions to ask our interviewee. I found it really helpful to go to the websites that our teachers assigned for us that had sample questions. When creating the questions I had to make sure that they weren’t yes or no questions. I had to change a lot of mine or add a question like why? Or describe. To make the questions get more of an answer from the interviewee. We had to come up with fifteen questions to ask. It was easy coming up with the first five or ten questions but then it got harder because I had to start getting really creative.
I interviewed my grandma over the phone. I couldn’t do it in person because she lives in Canada! It was super interesting learning about her because she has such a crazy story. When on the call conducting the interview I learned to really engage with the interviewee. Like I didn’t ask about if she had any toys but since I seemed interested (and I was) she told me about this toy whose head got cut off so they could put money and jewelry in there.
Overall, the interview was super interesting and I loved learning about all the interesting facts. I liked preparing, interviewing and writing the narrative and script.
BING BING You wake up by your 7:15 alarm. You don’t want to get out of bed because you are so tired! But then, you remember…. you have a field trip today! The thought of your super fun field trip wakes you right up! You get out of bed and dress really warm. You dress warm because you remember how your teacher told you to dress warm. She told you this because you are going curling! There are so many different roles in curling. Some challenging, some not so challenging. But they are all super fun.
Sweeping was really fun. It was different than in school because you actually swept ice away! It was really fun sweeping. You got to work with friends. When you swept it really helped because it made the stone go either faster, or more towards the left/right. But you had to sweep really hard and really strongly to actually affect how fast or in what direction the stone goes in. For example, sometimes when we swept the stone it still went to the side or went too slow. You had to do a lot of teamwork with sweeping. An example of this is when you are sweeping you have to make sure that you stay in the back if you decided to go in the back or the front if you decided to go in the front. You need to make sure you stay in the back/front to make sure you don’t bump into each other
Delivering the stone was pretty different than in school. It was also really fun. I think this because in school we delivered with really light stones. On the trip we delivered heavier stones. But even though we had heavier stones they were much lighter than I expected. It was lighter than I expected because our P.E. the teacher said that it would be super hard and heavy to deliver. When I first tried delivering I had a pretty good shot. But it was too hard. When I delivered it hard it was good though because I knocked a stone out of the house so the other team didn’t get a point. But, again I delivered it hard because I expected it to be harder to deliver. My friends were saying, “Good Job Sydney! That was so good!” But I wasn’t looking at the house when I delivered the stone so I was thinking, huh? What just happened? Overall delivering the stone was really fun.
You are at the end of your field trip. You don’t want to leave because you had so much fun! It was even more fun than your expectations. And you had pretty high expectations for the trip. You got to try all the positions and you think you did pretty good. You get off the ice and get onto the bus. You daydream about the next time you will be able to go curling the whole ride back to school because you can’t imagine not going curling again. Overall curling was really fun, but different from school. I loved trying all the positions.
I love celebrating Thanksgiving, the food is amazing, I love watching the football games, and I get to meet up with my family. I did a lot of fun activities this Thanksgiving weekend. I will be sharing how I spent my thanksgiving weekend this year.
First, the first day of thanksgiving break I went into the city! I woke up at 7:00 and had a fast breakfast. Then I left my house at 7:22 to go to the train into the city! On the train I was working on a writing piece for school, and talking with my dad and my brother. After about 45 minutes I arrived at the grand central train station. I went out the back to my dad’s office and walked about two minutes. My dad’s office was really big and it was really cool to go in because it was my first time going in since my dad changed office buildings. When I was there my dad explained his work a little more to me and I had to play hide and seek with my brother.Ater a hour or two we went into Times square! We went to the m&m store, the hershey store, and this really cool donut factory! Then we went to pick up my other brother from his sleepover. When we were walking back we went into all the stores again. When we were in the m&m store we bought m&m slippers! They are so comfy! Then we went on the train to go home.
On thanksgiving I woke up late and I planned my outfit for thanksgiving day. I wore a really fall outfit. Then, I got starbucks for breakfast. At starbucks I saw my friend Daphne. After I ate I went to meet up with my brothers to watch their thanksgiving football games. It was at my school. I played with a second grader named Avery and for a little I played with a kindergartener named Juliet. We played on the playground and on the field towards the end and had so much fun. After that I went to my cousin’s house for Thanksgiving lunch. We ate, then we played basketball and I watched the thanksgiving football games. Then I went home and my grandparents came too. We had dinner together and we had a really good dessert. Then I went into my basement, did a little gymnastics then I got ready for bed and watched T.V. before bed. That was my thanksgiving. I really enjoyed it.
On Sunday, at 3 o’clock I went to a New York Knicks basketball game. They were playing the Phoenix Suns. When we got in the car we had to pick up my brother from his friend’s birthday party. My mom went in to get him and they took forever. When we finally got going I was watching a show on my phone. When we got there we walked about 10 minutes to get to the stadium. Then we waited for what seemed like forever to get into our seats. When we sat down my dad got me and my brothers hot dogs and fries. We were watching the game and the Knicks were down by 13!It seemed like the knicks would lose no matter what. At halftime We got popcorn and baked by melissa.It was so good! Then after halftime, in the 3rd quarter the Knicks somehow made a comeback and were even winning! Then, in the fourth quarter the knicks and suns were pretty much tied the whole time! Also, when the camera for the big screen in the middle came around for the last time it was just on me! I was so happy! Then with one second left, the Suns scored a three pointer! So the knicks got the ball with one second left, shot a three and it hit the rim but didn’t go in. Then we left the game and while we were walking back a celebirty was walking right behind us! It was so much fun!
In conclusion, Thanksgiving break was so fun and I did so many fun activities that I loved. I went into New York City, Had dinners with people, had thanksgiving, and went to a New York Knicks Basketball game. That’s how I celebrated my thanksgiving, how did you celebrate?
BEEP BEEP BEEP. That’s your alarm. You don’t want to get out of bed because you are so tired but then you realize…. It’s Halloween! You get out of bed so excited and get ready. And later you go trick or treating. This year, on October 31st I celebrated Halloween. I was a football player for Halloween. I love Halloween, it’s one of my favorite holidays. I will be writing about a few ways I celebrated Halloween in school as well as a few ways I celebrated at home.
First these are a few ways that I celebrated Halloween in school! First, the Friday before Halloween we had a party at school! It was so fun! First I got there and walked into the gym. I was thinking, oh wow this is a lot of stuff in here.There was a gaga pit, a foosball table, an air hockey table, a pop a shot, limbo, and a table where you guess how much sour strips were in the jar. I came about 30 minutes early so a few of my friends were there but only about 5 people were there. I started off by playing pre party gaga. I was playing with my friends and thinking, this is so fun and I love playing gaga. Then after that we went into the DJ room. There were a lot of snacks. There was a stand in the front with a DJ. I liked the music that he was playing.Then after a while everyone started arriving. I stayed in the DJ room most of the time and got a lot of prizes. Overall it was really fun. Next, also at school we had the heathcote Halloween parade! It is basically where everyone in the whole school walks around the front circle in their costumes and all the parents are on the side watching. I saw a lot of amazing costumes. I saw a lot of Wednesday addams. I also saw a lot of preppy cow girls. There were a lot of football and basketball players. A few that really stood out to me were first, a huge blow up chicken. The chicken also had a kfc basket! Also a few that I really liked were Taylor Swift albums.
Now, here are a few things that I did at home. First a few nights before Halloween I went booing. Booing is where you make a nice bag with candy and toys and drop it off at the person’s house, ring the doorbell and run! I booed a lot of my friends! I booed 8 people. My brothers booed about 7 people. And we had our Heathcote boos so in all about 24 people! It took a long time but we didn’t get caught! Also the night of Halloween I went trick or treating! I went with my friend Alya! We got a lot of candy and went to so many houses! It was so fun! We went for about 2 hours. We were both football players. We saw some friends along the way! But sadly we didn’t get any full size candy bars. Then, after trick or treating I came home and donated about half of my candy. I still had about a bag full of candy. I kept mostly chocolates. I love chocolate way better than candy. I loved everything about trick or treating.
Have you celebrated Halloween this year? If you did what were you? Overall, I really liked this year’s Halloween. These were the things that I enjoyed the most about Halloween. I liked everything at school and at home. I’ve always enjoyed Halloween and this Halloween I enjoyed too. I think that everyone that I know loved Halloween too. Did you go trick or treating? If so, what candy did you get?
Have you ever been to a ropes course? If you have, did you like it or not so much? I went to a ropes course for a field trip. It was called Bedford Ropes Course. It was very fun for me and I will be writing about how I used teamwork on this field trip and which obstacles I had the most fun on. Also what I learned about myself and also some of the other kids that were in my group for the field trip.
I enjoyed everything about the ropes course trip but there are three obstacles that I enjoyed the most.I am going to be sharing “The Indiana Jones”, “The Wire Walk” and “The Rope Swing”. First “The Indiana Jones”. It was basically Where there were a bunch of wooden beams. (if you don’t know what that is, it is about 6 inch wooden platforms that you need to walk or crawl on.) they were going up and down, left and right until you walked up one of the beams to a v shaped tree. Once you got on the tree there were metal handles on the other side of the tree. Then you climbed down mostly, but not fully down the tree. And after you got kind of down the tree you walked across a wire with another wire to hold on to and walk across. Then you go to a wire that is kind of in a v shape. It’s big then it closes to one wire then it opens up again. After that you walk across a few more wires with the wires about 4 feet above the other ones to hold on to. Then we get to the swings. There are four swings then a hanging rope everybody. You have to swing across to the other side swing, by swing, by swing, by swing, by rope. Then you swing from the rope to a wooden beam like platform about 4 or 5 feet off the ground then you are done. I really enjoyed this because it was a little challenging but not too hard. I was like fourth in line. While I was waiting I was thinking this isn’t going to be too hard. I’ve walked on many beams before and done tricks and flips on them. When I finally got to go and walked on the beams, I realized, this is harder than it looks. On some of them I had to crawl! Then when I finally made it across the beams I thought this next wire looks really hard. I think I’m gonna fall. But then when I started walking across the wire I realized this is really easy for me.Then after that was the one where it started in a v shape then it closed and opened back up again. I had to crawl on my knees for the first part then, then it got to the middle. I was thinking oh no it’s closing up. Then when I was crawling I fell and I was hanging upside down! I almost fell! Then I heard someone say, “Oh my god look at sydney she is stuck upside down!” I thought I was going to fall off but then I shimmied upside down across the one wire part. Then when it got back to being two wires I thought, ok Sydney, just climb back up. It will be just like the beam challenge at camp. Maybe even a little easier. You can do this. I climbed and pushed really hard to somehow get on top. But then finally I got on top and went on my knees to the next wire. Then I walked across the next couple wires with ease. Then finally I got to the swings. At this point I caught up with everyone else. I went on the first swing. I thought ok now swing kind of big to go to the second swing. Good now let go of the first swing and just grab the third swing. Good you got it, now do the same thing with the fourth. Now grab on to the hanging rope. Now grab on to the rope and swing to the platform. I wasn’t able to do it the first time and I fell. Then the second time I did the same thing but when I got the rope I grabbed higher. I was thinking Now just swing really high. I know you can do it . Then I swung and all the parents and teachers were saying, “Grab onto the platform!” Then when I did all the parents/teachers were saying, “Let go of the rope!” So I did and I was the only one to make it in my group. And that’s how I completed the first challenge. Then I did the “wire walk.” It was basically walking across a bunch of wires, short and long, right and left. For the first wire, it was very short so I just reached for the tree across and made it. Then I helped one other classmate. For the next one it was much longer. I had to sit on it sideways, kind of in a split with one leg on one side and one leg on the other side. Then I shimmied across the wire. Then I helped a classmate. I did the same thing for the rest of the wires. Then I went back and helped everyone else across. Our team finished first. The last one I’m going to share is The rope swing. The rope swing is where you grab onto a rope and you have to swing to the other side. I got across there by myself then I helped some of my friends by catching them once they came across. We never ending up getting to finish. That is what I enjoyed and why
Now I’m going to share a few things that I learned about people on the trip. First I’m going to share a few things that I learned about myself. First I learned that I can do all the challenges that we were able to try. I also learned that I didn’t let people stop me because they didn’t think I could do anything. Like someone in my group said, “No just let me get the rope every time because I am the only one that can do it.” But then I said, “No, let other people try.” then they said, “fine but you will regret it because you will fail.” But then I did it and it was not hard at all. Also a bunch of other people tried it and they could also do it easily. Also I learned things about a few of my classmates. First is Helena. She was super good at everything and she completed almost every challenge with ease. She also was super nice for example every time after she finished a challenge she helped people that were having a little more trouble. Next, Yana. She was great at the challenges and she was super good at making plans to help our group with completing the challenges. That is the few things I learned about my classmates and myself.
That was my Bedford Ropes Course field trip. Those are the three things I enjoyed and I learned.I think it helped our class with teamwork. I had so much fun at Bedford Ropes Course. I have always loved outdoor adventure. Have you ever been to a ropes course? If you have, have you enjoyed it?
Often times in pieces of writing there are things you can relate to and things that you have never experienced before. Those are called mirrors and windows. Today I am going to be sharing a few windows about the character Kek in the book Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate.
One of the ways that Kek’s life is a window for me is that Kek has to get used to America. I have lived in America my whole life. It is hard to get used to things in America for Kek. Kek didn’t know what a light switch was, he thought an apartment was a castle, he thought that school lunch was a huge food platter. He isn’t using things right. He put dirty dishes in a laundry machine.
Also a window for me is that Kek was a refugee. I was never a refugee. From the book I understand it was hard to be a refugee. I think that because Kek did not have a family, it was hard to learn english and learning at school was very difficult. He had to wait in lines all day just for a very small amount of food. He had no clue what anything was. He thought the trees were dead, he had no clue what snow was, it was hard.
In conclusion I learned that It is hard to come to America as a refugee. It makes me realize that life isn’t always so easy in America. I also realized that not every refugee ends up with an amazing, perfect life in America. Can you relate to anything Kek has been through?
You’re super into your identity map, sketching, coloring, outlining with a sharpie! Then, out of nowhere, your teacher says, “Okay everybody, time to pack up!” It scares you. But you’re excited because you finally finished after a whole week of roughly sketching, coloring, and outlining with a sharpie! There are many things I have enjoyed so far in 5th grade But there are only a few things that made my top three list such as doing the identity map, free choice lunch, and doing our locker sign. There are also things I’m looking forward to this year such as the fifth grade Halloween party, Hot Dog Field Day, and buddies.
There are a bunch of things I enjoyed this year so far in fifth grade. There are two reasons I enjoyed doing the identity map. First is that I really like doing art, and in the identity map it was basically all art. Secondly, I loved the identity map because you gotta be really creative and express yourself. Another thing I really like so far in fifth grade is being able to sit with the other class. I like sitting with the other class because in the other grades I didn’t get to. I also really like sitting with the other class because you get to talk to friends that you don’t get to see often because they are not in your class. The final thing I enjoyed this year in 5th grade this year so far is doing our locker sign. I really liked the locker sign because it was doing art. I love art. That is why I really loved doing the locker sign.
This year I’m looking forward to many things but there are only three that made this list. One of the things that I’m really excited for is the fifth grade halloween party. One of the reasons i’m really excited for the fifth grade halloween party is it is only fifth grade which means since I’ve never been in fifth grade before i’ve never done it before so i’m really excited to see what it’s like. Another reason that I’m excited for the fifth grade Halloween party is because I love halloween and one of things that I love about halloween is seeing everyone’s costume and at the halloween party you see everyones costume. Another thing I’m looking forward to is hot dog field day. I am looking forward to this because you get to be outside all day and it seems very fun. Another reason is I personally love hot dogs and I’m pretty sure you get hot dogs on hot dog field day. The last thing that made my top three list for what I’m looking forward to in 5th grade is getting our buddies. I’m looking forward to this because we get second graders this year and this is the first year where my buddie class is one of my brother’s class. Another reason I’m really excited for buddies is because I love playing with younger kids and that is exactly what you get to do in buddies.
In conclusion, I have liked everything so far this year and I can’t wait to see what comes next in the year. Of course there are things that I am looking forward to this year but there are also things that will come in the year that I don’t know about but I might like it even more than the stuff I’m looking forward to right now. What are you looking forward to this year?
For the ignite we got extreme weather groups. The groups were Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Tornadoes, Tsunamis and Hurricanes. I was in the tsunamis group! We decided what sub topics we got together. There were cause, effect, prevention and safety, how they are measured and important events for the groups with 5 people which were hurricanes and tornadoes. Caroline got effect, Eric got cause, Dowlat got prevention and safety and I got how they are measured.
After we picked the groups we did a lot of research. My teacher printed out different sheets for the different sub topics. She printed out cause effect t-charts for the cause and effect sub topics. She printed out time line for important events and she printed out boxes and bullets for how they are measured and prevention and safety. we worked on research for about 2-4 weeks.
Once we were done with our research we wrote a script. We wrote what we were going to say in a then in the script we made adjustments. There was what we would do from 0-15 seconds and then what we would do from 15-30 seconds. There were also 3 sections. There were what we were going to say and what we were going to have on the screen.
Then after the script we started to memorize the whole script and cut it or made it longer so it would be 30 seconds in all. It took most of us a few weeks to memorize it. It took me about 2 weeks.
Once we were done with that we made a google slides and put in the pictures we wanted to be in the real thing and we practiced with looking at the screen to see when the slides switch and make sure that everything is perfect we also practiced at home as homework to get it done quicker
Once we memorized everything and made our own google slides we copied and pasted our google slides into a presentation with our group. We practiced with our groups in front of the smart board. We started practicing on Monday. On Thursday we put all the presentations together and practiced how we would in front of the parents.
Then on the next Monday we went into the multi purpose room and presented our work in front of our parents. Then we were done with our ignite project.
