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?