In language arts, we were reading a book called The Last Cuentista. The book was about this girl and her family having to leave Earth because humans destroyed it. They went in a space ship to a new planet. But when they got there, some of the people on the ship wanted to start a new life and forget the old one, so they executed the girls family because they couldn’t erase their memory. They turned the girl and some other kids into servants to experiment on. They thought that the girl’s memory had been released, but it hadn’t. So she tried to find her family, but they were dead, so she snuck away from the ship with the other kids. Finally she found the people from the other ship.
After we finished the book, we had to imagine a new world. We wrote a paragraph describing how the world looked and the economic systems that humans will put there. My planet was called Planet Party. Then we had to draw our planet. After that, we made 3D books and drew what our planet might look like inside a box. We cut holes in the side, so we could look into it. Then we chose a front and back cover for our books. Mine was made out of red canvas. Then we printed our paragraphs and glued them to our 3D books. This was a very creative and fun idea!
This year in language arts, we were given 20,000 fake dollars to invest up in up to six companies. The same time we were doing this, our class was reading The Westing Game. One of the characters in the book was named Turtle. All the characters were given 10,000 dollars. Turtle decided to invest her 10,000 dollars to get more money. We made a spread sheet and put in commands to calculate how much money we got. I started with 65 dollars because a lot of companies were not doing good. But later on, I got more and more, until I got 950 dollars! This was very fun and it taught me how real investors earned and lost money.
Have you ever watched a Ted Talk? One day in Language Arts, my teacher told me that we were going to do a Ted like Talk. I had to talk for five minuets! That meant that I had to add a lot of details. Our teacher said that we could do it on whatever we wanted, but there were so many things to choose from, so I thought for a few days.
One Friday, I was playing my favorite video game, War Thunder with my friends. Then I had an idea! I could talk about War Thunder for my Ted Talk! So when it was Monday, I told my teacher I wanted to talk about War Thunder.
War Thunder is a video game based on World War One and World War Two. You can play as tanks, airplanes, or battleships with other people all around the world! There are also many countries to choose from, each with different vehicles. You can battle with other people and earn research with which you can unlock better vehicles on a Tech Tree. The graphics and physics are very realistic. Every vehicle in the game was actually made in real life!
To prepare, our teacher showed us actual Ted Talks to show how to present. They looked very professional. One of my favorite parts about this assignment, was that I got an excuse to play War Thunder during school days to take pictures. I also realized that even though five minutes may sound long, War Thunder is such a complex game, that I decided to focus on tanks, which was my favorite part. I put all of my pictures in a slide show, and made notes for important things to talk about.
After practicing, I realized that my talk was only three and a half minutes, so I decided to add a little humor and a slide with tips on how to do good. Finally it was time to present! I talked slowly so maximize the time. My teacher liked my starting question, which was, “Can you imagine flying over the reefs of Australia, hiding in the ruins of Machu Picchu, or sailing the coasts in a dangerous boat?” I really enjoyed making this Ted like Talk, and also maybe you can try out War Thunder too.
LA CIUDAD DE DURHAM
Hola! Yo me llamo Ishan. Yo tengo doce años. Yo voy a Durham Academy. Mi cumpleaños es el veinte de octubre. Yo vivo en Carolina del Norte. Voy a hablar de Durham, Carolina del Norte.
Primero Durham, tiene El Estadio de Toro. En el estadio de Toro, hay muchas tiendas. Tú puedes mirar béisbol. Hay un equipo en Durham. El equipo se llama Durham Bulls. ¿Cuál es tu equipo favorito?
Segundo en Durham, está la Universidad de Durham. La Universidad de Durham es una universidad buena. En la Universidad de Durham, tú puedes aprender en las clases. Hay muchas clases. Tú puedes caminar afuera. La Universidad de Durham es muy bonita. ¿Cuál es tu universidad favorita?
Tercero en Durham, hay El Jardines de Sarah P. Duke. En El Jardines de Sarah P. Duke hay muchas flores y plantas. Tú puedes caminar y mirar las plantas y flores. Puedes escalar árboles. Hay muchos peces. Puedes alimentar a los peces. ¿Te gustan las plantas y las flores?
Finalmente en Durham, hay El Museo de Vida y Ciencia. En El Museo de Vida y Ciencia, hay muchas actividades y exhibiciones. Tú puedes jugar afuera y mirar las exhibiciones. El museo es muy grande y divertido. ¿Te gustan los dinosaurios?
En conclusión, Durham es muy grande y moderno. También, Durham está lleno de personas y es cosmopolita. Tú puedes visitar muchas atracciones y comer en muchos restaurantes. Gracias por su atención.
One class I have been enjoying this year is PE. My favorite unit this year is the pickleball unit. I liked the pickleball unit because it is like tennis. I play tennis a lot. In pickleball there is a plastic ball with holes in it. The rackets are also plastic and small. The nets that we played with are low.
We did pickleball doubles so there were two people on each team. I was on Terrick’s team. First, each team played with each other. Then, the next class, we did a tournament. Each team was ranked. Me and Terrick only lost once. We were ranked number four. The top four got to skip the first round.
Our first match was a rematch and we won. Then we played another team and won. All the teams that were left were the top four teams now. After that we had to play the number one ranked team but lost. The number three ranked team also got out that round too. So we did a third place match and won. Then we watched the finals, which were the number one and two ranked teams. It was back and forth action, but finally the number two ranked team won. I really enjoyed this unit and I hope to do another pickleball tournament later.
One Friday we were going to the Raleigh Science Museum. We got in a big bus and we drove for thirty minutes before we got there. Once inside the museum our advisory and another went up an escalator. At the top there was a big whale skeleton. We read about it and saw some more skeletons.
There was a big exhibit about the animals and plants of North Carolina. It was a really cool exhibit because there was a forest two stories tall and there were some animals scattered around. There was also alive fish with long noses that I forgot the name of. We saw them get fed and moved on to the next one.
We walked across a sky walk overlooking the cars and the buses. In the other building, we saw exhibits about weather. Me and my wise friends, Jackson and David spent time reading each exhibit. We saw a simulator where we could change how much pollution there was in the world. We also read about animals affected by weather. Then we went to a big room where everybody else was. It was a dome where a big projector could show certain man made satellites orbiting Earth. Later, we went to a big room with another projector broadcasting a film about plants. Then we went back to the main building.
To get to the other side, we went over the sky walk except it was above the previous one. The floor and the walls had natural events that happened In chronological order. When we reached the other side, there was a big globe revolving in a circle. We could press buttons and lights would show, depicting where each landform was. Then we went into a big room which had a giant Acrocanthosaurus fighting a sauropod. The Acrocanthosaurus looked like a T Rex but smaller. It had real bones.
After that, we went outside to eat lunch. I ate with my friends. We talked about video games. Soon we were done and we went up a lot of escalators to the fourth floor. There was a bug exhibit. One exhibit that caught my eye was a cage with a lot of giant flying cockroaches. I thought it was pretty gross. They were all piled up on a big rock and eating fermented vegetables. Then we went to an exhibit about race. There were posters on the wall with quotes from different races.
Finally, it was time to go back to the bus. It was a really fun experience. I would like to thank the teachers for organizing this wonderful trip.
My Ideal World
by Ishan N.
One day a disruption in the solar system’s balance happened. The sun shifted and all the planets were misaligned. To make matters worse, Earth was on a direct path to the sun. Humans acted quickly and used their high tech technology to find a new suitable planet.
Luckily for humans, the disruption caused a chemical reaction on Saturn and made it suitable for humans. New minerals were discovered on the rings. Humans also calculated that by the time they arrived Saturn would have been back in orbit. All the countries finally worked together for the first time in a long time to send a space probe to bring back some entities. They decided to rename this Planet Party.
There is an atmosphere on Planet Party, that humans tested from a test probe carrying their high tech technology. The air is a mix of oxygen and nitrogen and another gas that when breathed makes one pure if sick. All the animals on Planet Party are disease free because of this air. Also, discovered by this probe, because of the disruption, the surface of the planet is covered with a mossy trampoline bouncy ground. The liquids on Planet party are always pure and taste like ice tea. Hmmmmm…
There is also food growing on Planet Party. There is a fruit bush that grows fruit that tastes like Kiwi. There are also purple pigs that are grown by trees. When eaten, it tastes like smoked ham. There are also green rats that lay eggs similar to chickens. There are plenty more foods too. All of these foods do not pose any allergic threat to any one because of the atmosphere that it is grown in.
Most of the animals on Planet Party absorb the atmosphere to grow. All of the animals breathe carbon dioxide and release the oxygen. Same goes for all the plants. Some animals have a similar resemblance to animals on earth, like dogs and kitties. Most of the animals are small and live in different habitats. Animals that humans bring will be adaptable to the environment.
Next, I am going to talk about the new and improved government that all nations on Planet Party would have to avoid power competition when humans get there. The government will be very similar to a democracy except more simple. Each nation will have a lord that people will elect that can do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t affect the way of government. But if they do something wrong, people will vote to elect a new lord, and there will be a group that says if there are enough votes and the lord committed a big enough crime. This planet is tax free. Instead of dollars, they use credits. All jobs pay credits and the minimum amount of credits they have to pay is 500 per month. Each company can sell things for a certain amount of credits, but the maximum amount is 200 credits
This very helpful gas on Planet Party also serves yet another purpose. It has a very small percentage of lithium which is used in batteries, which makes it a good power source for electricity. Once used, it can be released into the atmosphere and can be reused. All phones, tablets, and computers have unlimited cell service and one million terabytes of storage.
This planet is very ideal and that is why humans decided to make it theirs. Two years after the disruption happened, the space industry came up with a rocket that travels at light speed. Soon they launched and afterwards they arrived and all issues that were happening on Earth were fixed and humanity became peaceful once again.
I am reading Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children. It is a fiction novel. It is about a boy whose Grandfather died because of monsters. His last words were to go to the home for peculiar children. He realizes he is peculiar because he can see monsters. This book is a window because I can’t see monsters and travel back in time. I chose this book because it was recommended. At first it was a little creepy because it started off with his grandfather being killed by monsters. But later on in the book, I thought it was interesting, so I kept reading it. Right now I am half way through the book. I usually read window book because I find them interesting and I like fantasy and fiction.
The secret life of bees,
The bean trees,
The heart is a lonely hunter,
Great expectations,
The good earth.
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/754684876
I used a website called scratch to make this project. I think it was a unique and fun idea. My favorite part was making the characters talk in funny tones. I also liked animating the characters. It was sort of easy compared to some of my other coded projects, but it was fun to make.
The story is about a nymph named Echo. One day Zeus came to hang out with the nymphs. Hera got jealous and wanted to stop him, but Echo stalled her. Hera got mad and cursed echo to speak the last word of every sentence that someone spoke. Later Narcissist, a hunter came. He was obsessed with his reflection. Echo fell in love with him but could only speak the echo of what he said. The moral is: Having a high opinion of yourself is bad. For more information look at my Scratch project.