A Big Disappointment

           Today was Field Day at school. In my opinion, this was the worst Field Day in all the years I've been in school.
           For example, the stations were really unfair. They were all supervised by 5th graders. Once, I was trying to do the rope climb, and a fifth grader hurried over and told me to stand in a line. I saw one other person in that line. Then that fifth grader told the new people, who were her friends from the looks of it, to stand in a different line. That line was around 10 people long now. And then she came over to me and the other kid and asked us what we were doing in that line. She moved us to the back of the other line. I also got delayed around 10 minutes on the three-legged race because the fifth grader was too sloppy in attaching the velcro straps, and the thing broke, so I had to wait for the next race. If it weren't for these unfair people, I would have gotten a blackout and a trophy - I was only 4 stations away!
           Also, there were other unfair things. The most ridiculous of them all was the popcorn stand. I arrived there when there were around five people standing around the stand, and the 6-gallon bag was half full. I waited to get to the front of line, and by the time that I had asked "May I please have some popcorn?" there was a large mob of kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders pushing for popcorn. The woman said to a little kid: "Oh, aren't you sweet?" and gave him an extra helping of popcorn. They didn't say please or say thanks. Then she started serving all the others, and it looked as though she wanted to use up all the popcorn in the world on them. So I waited. And I asked again. And again. And finally, when all of them were gone, there came another mob. I was getting impatient now. All of them ran off with lots of popcorn, happily crunching their treats, without so much as a "I think that random kid should get some popcorn too." After the air horn signalling the end of Field Day and the start of the Spray Mr. Spray with Silly String event sounded, I finally couldn't take it anymore. I asked for popcorn one last time, and she noticed me. "We're out." she said, without any trace of sorriness. She scooped up a few kernels from the bottom and gave it to me. To get revenge, I raided the popcorn stand after the event, when the volunteer was gone, and found that there was still a lot of popcorn in there. A lot of people also cheated. For example, they got their hole punch first, and then just ran away without even doing the station.
           To sum up, I despised this year's Field Day because almost everything was unfair in some way.

Lucky Strike

           Today my class drove to Lucky Strike for a field trip. We only played in the arcade, no tickets allowed. Each of us got a 2-hr. unlimited gaming card.
           My favorite non-video game was the Laser Maze. You walked in, selected a difficulty, and then crept  past the lasers to the end, where you pressed a button to see your score. I completed the hardest mode in <10 seconds without hitting any lasers to get a score of 85.
          My favorite video game was "H2O Overdrive", a racing game. I enjoyed the powerful boats and the great power-ups. Best of all, I enjoyed the graphics. I liked to play the game because it promised new upgrades to your boat every few levels, and also that anyone could win (especially if you got the nuclear power-up.)
           All in all, I really enjoyed Lucky Strike for its Laser Maze and "H2O Overdrive".

Egg Drop Challenge

           Today was the school's annual Egg Drop Challenge. There were many entries, like parachutes, eggs in boxes, and even more commonly, eggs in ziploc bags.
           One of my favorite types of entries were those designs with just one egg in a ziploc bag, with nothing to protect it.  The firefighters tossed it down from around 60 feet, where it started freefall. Then, after zooming toward the ground for around a second, it hit the ground and the egg cracked with an ominous pop! It looked like many people wanted to make a big splash this year - there were a lot of that no-protection type of entry.
           Another of my favorite entries was the humongous parachute. The creator obviously spent a long time - it was an around 6 foot by 6 foot square of plastic bag material, or that plastic that is really easy to bend and is used a lot in plastic bags. The lightweight contraption took around 15 seconds to drop, going really slowly. It almost landed in a basketball hoop because it was blown really far away by the wind - it even went past the spectators!
           To sum up, this was one of the best, funniest, and most creative Egg Drops I've ever seen!

End Of Simulation

           Today marked the official end of my class's city simulation. On Monday the class will wrap up the simulation by counting all the money.
           I won the simulation. I have around $3,500. Nobody else has that much. If all my tickets were paid, though, I would have around $5,000. The closest to me were Rhea, with about $2,100, and Samarjit, with around $2,000. I enjoyed all the fun things that happened during the simulation, and I hope to do it again sometime.
           To improve the simulation, I think that all the wages should be pre-arranged as to not arouse too many disputes in the city council. My wage was lowered, among many others, while other people that didn't do as much had their wages raised. Also, the city council, which represents 4 out of 5 voting officials, voted to raise their own wage - which is really unfair.
            To sum up, I really enjoyed the simulation, but I still think it could be improved.

How I Earned A Lot of Money Today

           I earned a lot of money today in the simulation. Part of this was because five classes and a lot of parents came to the city. The classes were Parkin, Hobbs, Isaacson, Johnson, and another class. Each student got $20, and each adult got unlimited money. I also earned a lot from tickets and insurance.

           First of all, I sold a lot of items, and in total, I earned around $400. Kevin, my business partner, only earned $100. So I had to give him $150. But I still think I earned a lot. I sold two beanbags, a lot of origami, and some "Origamic Architecture". Kevin sold a lot of Shrinky Dinks.

           Also, I got $3963 from Bradley for tickets, but I had to pay away half to the city. I paid $2011, which is $30 more than I should have paid. I still got $1952, though, so I just thought that I already had enough money and I didn't bother to get the $30 back. From insurance, I earned around $700 because around 7 people bought insurance.

           To sum up, I think that the $2902 that I earned today was a lot of money!

First Customers in City Simulation

           Today the first class came into our city as customers. It was Ms. Anderson's 2nd grade class. Kevin and I earned $27 total. There were 26 customers in that class, each with $20. I think I could have improved my service and made more money.
           One thing I think I should do is make my service faster and more attractive. I think this because a lot of people at my store just left before I had a chance to show them some cool products. Other people just walked away, even though they said they wanted something. I think it was because they got impatient and wanted to go somewhere else.
           Another thing I think I should do is have more of each kind of product ready. I need a lot of each product - I only had two beanbags, but they turned out to be very popular among kids. I should take the opportunity this week to make a lot of products at home. That way I will have a lot of products, and I shouldn't be running out of stock. I should also make new products while nobody's asking to buy products from me.
           I really hope I'm sufficiently prepared for the five full classes coming in on Tuesday!

Earthquake in City Simulation

           Today there was an "earthquake" in the city simulation. Desks were turned over, and their contents spilled over the ground, and the garbage and recycling cans were flipped over. It took quite a long time to clean up.
           Our first reaction was chaos. Some people were picking money off the ground, because the money was technically fair game, even though you were supposed to be kind and return it to it's owner. Other people were running around, and panicking. They didn't know what to do, and the classroom was very noisy. People decided not to follow most of the expectations that our teacher had set at the start of the year.
           Then, we started trying to reach a decision. We held a city council meeting, and everyone started thinking of ideas. Then, people started finding notes in places around the classroom. After the notes were found, everybody thought that I should go "help" the city manager, also known as the teacher, because I was the "City Health Officer". But I didn't know what to do. In the end, we just gave up. Ms. Chen told us that we were supposed to come up with an organized solution, and that it wasn't my job to solve the problem.
            The earthquake today sure was a shock at the start, but as time progressed, I think we did cooperate better, and come up with better ideas. I think we did well in the situation.

Burke Museum

           Today my class went to the Burke Museum for a field trip.
           The first thing we did was to explore the exhibits. We looked downstairs and found out about Native American lives. We learned about baskets they made. We also learned what they lived in and how they made their houses. I was fascinated by some Native American baskets - they were really tightly woven to hold water. The weaving was so dense that I couldn't even see anything through it!
           After the Native Americans, we looked upstairs for the "PLASTICS Unwrapped" exhibit which showed plastic that was being wasted. There were plastic bags, medical equipment, and even electronic waste. We got to see how much trash was in an albatross's belly - there were just about thirty assorted plastic products sitting there on the stand. A fun part, though, was that we got to try walking and running on synthetic legs, and we also did a scavenger hunt. I thought that this exhibit was amazing and interesting - the synthetic legs were really fun to run with.
           We also worked on projects. There were bentwood boxes, red cedar wood fiber weaving, button blankets, fishing hooks, and masks in the Thomas Burke Memorial Room. The project I chose to do was fishing hooks. I taped a toothpick and stick together. Then I taped raffia on the same spot as the toothpick and wrapped the raffia around and around, doing figure eights and covering the tape. Then I stuck the bamboo skewer into the raffia loops and taped the raffia as far back as it could go on the skewer. I thought the fishing stick was interesting because I felt like I could actually make something from the past. I was fascinated by the skill required to use these tools efficiently and effectively.
           To sum up, the Burke Museum was extremely interesting for its Native American artifacts, its plastic products, and its amazing projects from the First Nations!

City Simulation

           Today my class participated in the "city simulation" again. There are two things that I enjoyed. The first of the two things is that the fines for the tickets that officers give out have doubled, so I am earning more money than ever. Also, I enjoy the fact that we have officially started selling merchandise from our stores in the city.
           I'm happy that the fines have doubled because I am one of the officers that gives out tickets. I like being able to earn more money from tickets. Plus, most people already have some tickets that haven't been paid, so the late fees and the original fee of the ticket also double. This way, I will earn way more money, and I can look forward to the tripling of the fines next week!
           Also, I'm happy we've started selling things because I have already made $26! I was just selling some crafts that I made - origami architecture, beanbags, etc. and people started crowding around the shop and buying stuff. I also had to pay a bit of fees for paper and other school supplies, so I counted that in and made $26.
           To sum up, I enjoy this simulation and I hope I can actually win this simulation - I earn a lot of money!

City Simulation Bids

Yesterday all of the simulation bids were opened. There are two very interesting bids - the ones from Rhea and Archit.
Rhea bid for land baron at a price of $5,900. Of course nobody beat her - everybody was seeking to earn money - I bid $3750 for a profit of $769 (with interest on loans calculated in). She bid too much - she will lose $2,078 because she will make $5,775 in revenue. Then you calculate in the 10% interest on loans (applied every week, it takes three weeks to earn the full $5775), and she loses $2,078.
Archit bid for library and netbooks. He only bid $11 for each - but he won! It was really funny. Nobody else bid for those things. I forgot to bid for them - they're actually very useful because you have to pay just to use a netbook, a book, e-reader, or any kind of textual entertainment.
To sum up, yesterday's bidding was really exciting!

Nature Vision: Watersheds

           Today my class had a Nature Vision lesson on what watersheds were and how pollution could affect them. A guy named Chuck gathered us around a large model of a suburban area - a neighborhood, a farm, a factory, a construction site, a small hill, a few roads, two rivers, and the ocean nearby.

           First, he asked us if we knew what a watershed was. We all thought it was a place to store water. But it turns out a watershed is anywhere that "sheds" water, like a hillside, or an angled roof, etc. To demonstrate, he poured some water onto the hill, and the water flowed through the "river" and to the "ocean".

           After that, he asked us about possible sources of pollution that could affect the watershed and what they would do. We came up with a few ideas for what pollution could do - it would kill fish, harming the ecosystem and ridding us of an important food source, it would make the water unsafe to be in or drink, and some others. Then, we started thinking about possible sources of pollution. Dog poop (like humans but unlike other animals' manure, dog dung has a lot of bacteria in it, so it's counted as waste), dirt loosened from chopped down trees, herbicides or fertilizers, pesticides or insecticides, and oil from leaky cars were just a few of them.

           Finally, we got to the fun part. After each source of pollution we listed, he added a bit of stuff resembling the item to the model. Later, we found out that the car oil and chemicals were soy sauce, the mud and dog poop were cocoa powder, and the fertilizers and insecticides were orange and green Kool-Aid mix, respectively. I didn't even know it was all edible (probably to keep it safe if one person accidentally ate some of it)! Anyway, each person squirted three times to stimulate the rain, and everybody had a lot of fun. A dog got "drunk" from all of the Kool-Aid - we made that up because somebody squirted it down, and it landed in a big puddle of brown-ish (orange and green) Kool-Aid and cocoa powder. The "fish" in the "ocean" probably would have died if they were real - it smelled disgusting, and the whole "ocean" was black and brown.

           All in all, Nature Vision was awesome!

Deserted Island

I would also miss my books a lot because I really enjoy reading. I feel strange if I don't read an books on a certain day, I would really want to start reading again, but I wouldn't have any books. I would feel bored, but also longing, for a book.
In conclusion, books and family are what I would miss the most on an deserted island.

Imagine you are stuck on an island. You don't have any possessions. If I were in this situation, I would miss my family and my books the most.

I would feel very lonely without my family because I wouldn't be able to talk to anyone or even play with people. I would feel unhappy, because I am very used to being with my family and I don't like being separated from them. I play with them a lot, talk and discuss things a lot with them, etc., so without them, I would feel bored and, more importantly, “family-sick”.

I would also miss my books a lot because I really enjoy reading. I feel strange if I don't read any books on a certain day, I would really want to start reading again, but I wouldn't have any books. I would feel bored, but also longing, for a book.

In conclusion, books and family are what I would miss the most on a deserted island.

Crazy Music Class

Today, in music class, we had a talent day. A talent day is a day when you can perform a piece of music in front of the class.

One song I enjoyed was played by Samarjit – and by Dmitri Kabalevsky (I forgot the name). The song was played very fast, and was very bouncy. It was hilarious. In the middle of it, he said “Oopsies!” and started replaying the piece. We were all rolling on the floor by the time he was done. The song was lively and full of energy.

After that, we started to learn a new dance to a song called “Pata Pata”. The dance was impossible – right heel out, left heel out, heel out & arms up, toe out & arms down, toe in & arms up, heel in & arms down, right kick, right kick, left kick & clap! The song repeated many times at a very fast tempo, and nobody could keep up to it.

To sum up, today’s music class was a very energetic one!

Happy April Fool's, by the way!

What Class Has Left An Impression On You?

What class has left an impression on you? Did you like math, reading, spelling, science, social studies, or writing? A few classes I know that have made an impression on me are my 3^rd grade math class, on parentheses and order of operations, and my 4^th grade spelling class (Unit “Chen 4”).

My 3^rd grade math class was one that made an impression on me because I, along with the rest of Mrs. Greer’s other 3^rd grade students, had to dance. Right in front of the 4^th graders, we had to sing and put on a show about how to use PEMDAS (an order of operations rule - "Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.") Mrs. Greer announced each group and called them part of the “Order of Operations Ballet”, which made it even worse! It was very embarrassing, although I will still remember PEMDAS for a long time.

One of my 4^th grade spelling classes was also a class that is very vivid in my mind because of a very funny event that happened. During the spelling Pre-test, Ms. Chen created a sentence for the fourth word, “raspberry” – “In the middle of summer vacation, raspberry sorbet is a great way to cool off.” Anyway, somebody suddenly started licking his lips! I looked at Archit and Ms. Chen, and they were laughing hysterically. I suddenly realized – it was Archit! I expect I will remember this incident for many years to come because it was so funny.

During these two school days, many interesting things happened; however, I have no doubt I will remember these specific events for a very long time. Even though events like these may seem like normal classroom events, some will ultimately impact your students for the rest of their lives.

PE - Volleyball's Worst Players

Today in PE (Physical Education) the topic was volleyball. I enjoy playing volleyball with a beach ball – I’m really good at it. But today, even though Kevin and I, the two best players in the class, were assigned to the same team, we still almost lost.

One reason we almost lost (and the main reason, too) was that three of our players, Suhani, Bradley, and Carmen, were really bad. If I could give them a rating, from 1 to 10, they would all get -∞s. All Carmen and Suhani want to do is sit around and talk. All Bradley wants to do is hit the ball every time, really hard. Frankly, I think if they weren’t playing, we would have won, even with the three-player disadvantage.  We almost lost because they got all switched to the front – we rotate clockwise – and they had to hit the ball the most. The back rank players didn’t even have a chance to help, because we had to stay behind the black line, and the balls were all flying in front of the black line. Bradley was trying to take the ball from his own front row teammates, while Carmen and Suhani talked, laughed, and danced, completely ignoring the ball! I call them “hyper-inactive players”.

Another reason we almost lost is that we were winning by a mile before our “hyper-inactive players” went to the front. We were winning 10-2, because Kevin and I had blasted the other team. Then, suddenly, it turned out the score was 10-9! Our “hyper-inactive players” had caused us to lose 7 points! And they ignored my yells to them about being attentive. They just stayed there, unmoving, until the ball hit the floor, when they picked it up and handed it to the opponent. We probably would have lost if the teacher didn’t announce that our PE section was over.

Our players in the volleyball game were simply unfair because the good players stayed in the back the whole time, while the bad players just ignored all the balls that were coming at them!

"My MiniHome" Projects

There have been some very interesting MiniHome projects that were presented over the course of the last two days.

One project, by Bradley Bialke, was aiming to create the most expensive house in the class! His house design hit the $154,000 mark, even though it was less than 600 square feet. He claims to have added green marble toilets with intricate gold inlays, each costing $15,000. Also, he claims to have solid iron doors ($5,000) and steps that are $2,000 each! He actually might achieve the most expensive house, if Suhani’s claim that her house is $7,000,000 is false.

Another project, by Ron Dubinsky, has a lot of calculations in it. He made a mistake at the very start, and this caused him to get everything else wrong. Another problem with his project is that his SketchUp model is missing a lot of stuff. He forgot a door, steps, a doorframe, and the follow-me rim. His presentation had too much stuff, as I said earlier. He included a bunch of trees (25 give or take 5) he wanted to fit in his 25 square-foot patio, along with bunches of potted plants, tables and chairs.

There were lots of crazy presentations today!

Field Trip to the Paramount Theatre

Yesterday I saw a few of Disney’s earliest silent films at the Paramount Theatre. The movies were accompanied by a large organ played by Jim Riggs, with Paul Hansen making the special sound effects. We watched three shorts, “Alice in Wonderland”, “Alice Gets in Dutch”, and “Alice’s Day at Sea”.

“Alice in Wonderland” was not actually about Wonderland, as you might think. It was more like “Alice in Cartoonland”. Alice, who was played by Virginia Davis, ran around and explored Cartoonland, meeting a few friends along the way. I liked the animation effects – they were spectacular.

“Alice Gets in Dutch” was actually my favorite cartoon. A boy in Alice’s class blew up a balloon and put some ink in it, while the teacher wasn’t looking. He told Alice to hold it, and blow it more. It ballooned outwards, and then the teacher saw the balloon. She demonstrated: “This is what will happen to all balloons that I find in my classroom.” And she popped the balloon. Ink covered her face, clothes, and most of everything else near her. I liked the cartoon part of it best.

“Alice’s Day at Sea” was my least favorite. It wasn’t very exciting, and all Alice did was dream she got shipwrecked and then wake up tangled in a net. I guess the part where the shark tried to eat her was okay.

To sum up, Walt Disney’s earliest films were pretty good!

Floor Hockey Unit

For the past few PE classes, we did our Juggling Unit, which I didn't like. But recently, just this Tuesday, we started our Floor Hockey Unit!

A game I liked was “Pirates”. “Pirates” helps to improve our stick-handling. In “Pirates”, there are landowners and, of course, pirates. The pirates go after the landowners, trying to steal their pucks. Once a landowner’s puck is stolen, he or she becomes a pirate. If a puck goes over the border, or the black rectangle, the person who hit it out has to do five clap jacks. I liked this game for its speedy tempo.

A warm-up I like was “Body Part Relay Race”. In this strange race, people line up in groups of threes. One person runs to the mid-line, and touches it with the body part of the day. Then, he/she runs back to the starting line, touches it with the body part of the day, runs to the end-line, touches it, and runs to the starting line and touches it, earning one point for the group. The second person in line does ten clap jacks. The third person does a wall-sit for ten seconds. The team with the most points wins. Kevin, Patrick Fan, and I always select each other as group members. We're the fastest runners in the class, so we always win. I like this warm-up for its ability to make people bend into strange positions to touch the floor with their body parts.

To sum up, I like this unit better than the previous one!

Battle of the Books Round 8

A few days ago was my 8^th and final round in the Battle of the Books. The Hypernovas lost 8-7 in a 10-point match against McAuliffe’s team. I feel that I have gained a lot of experience through this year’s Battles – I have learned many lessons in some very well-written books, and have learned how to be a good leader. One of the lessons I have learned is from Wonder, a book by R.J. Palacio. The lesson is “never judge a person by his looks, judge him by his personality.” In the book, August, a kid who is going to middle school, has a few genetic problems that make his face look abnormal. In the end, though, after the school year had passed, everyone starts to respect August for his courageous personality and kindness. I have learned how to be a good leader through the Battles, too. I learned that you just have to take full responsibility sometimes, and there’s no way around it. I had to read all of the books to keep my team alive, a very hard task. I also learned that pressuring people never helps; you have to ask them what the problem is and try to help. This happened with Kevin – I kept pressuring him to read the books, but he never did. It was a while later until I figured out from asking him that he couldn’t get his hands on any of the books (he always seemed to have something overdue or didn’t find the book he needed). I solved the problem by showing him the set of all 12 Battle Books that were reserved for the champions of Alcott. You could check them out even if you had overdue books, but you would have to be one of the champions. Even though my team didn’t win, it still was a very beneficial event!

Battle of the Books Rounds 6 & 7

Yesterday was the sixth round of the Battle of the Books. Once again, the Hypernovas proved dominant, this time with 14 points. The Fantasy Readers scored 12, the Bookworms 11, the One Way Ticket 10, the Quadruplets of Doom 9, and the Return of the ABMW 10. Once again, the Hypernovas achieved an almost perfect score! They will be facing off with the Fantasy Readers and maybe even the Bookworms, because they have two challenges! What will happen next?

Today was the seventh and final round of the Battle of the Books. Since the teams were mostly Ms. Chen’s kids (there was one kid from Ms. Lynch in the Fantasy Readers), the whole class came to watch while eating lunch! The score was close – the Fantasy Readers 13, and the Hypernovas 15! For the first time, the Hypernovas scored a perfect score! The problem is… they are moving on to the district against Blackwell, another school known for its well-educated students! The Hypernovas may be Ms. Chen’s first group of school champions, but what will happen with Blackwell in the Battles?

Battle of the Books Round 5

Yesterday was the fifth round of the Battle of the Books. The Hypernovas once again claimed first place, but this time with only 12 points and one challenge. The Return of the ABMW (Angry Birds Mighty Wargame) scored 11 points, also with one challenge. The Quadruplets of Doom scored 11 points because of one approved challenge. The Epic Flying Cheetas scored 9 points with two challenges. The Quadruplets of Doom will make it to the school finals unless the Return of the ABMW and the Hypernovas both have their challenges approved! What a close match… who will succeed at the finals?

The Hypernovas are expected to make it because most of the powerful teams were knocked out of the race just now. Their only competition is the One Way Ticket, another strong team that tied with them last time. But one question still remains… will the Hypernovas’ score keep dropping down? If it does, they may not make it! Team member Patrick Peng says: "I feel this is the worst we've ever done. We have to improve. Otherwise, we will not make it."

Battle of the Books Round 4

Today was the third official round in the Battle of the Books. The Hypernovas went against five other teams – the Return of the Twinkies, the Bookworms, the Book Ninjas, the One Way Ticket, and the Polka Dot Pie. The Hypernovas scored 14 points, just like last time, tying with the One Way Ticket. In third were the Bookworms, with 13. The Book Ninjas got 11, the Return of the Twinkies 12, and the Polka Dot Pie also got 12. The Hypernovas survived the round, along with the Bookworms and the One Way Ticket. If any of them wins the next two rounds, they will proceed to the district competitions! The Hypernovas are extremely excited. They really want to claim the school championship this year. But to do that, they will have to score 15 points in later competitions! Nobody knows just what will happen at the next Battle.
P.S. I forgot to write about the second official round.

Centrifugal Crash

Today our class played an interesting game. I forgot what it was called but I call it “Centrifugal Crash”.

Everybody got in groups of four, with two pairs of two, and sang a four-verse song while holding hands. One pair of hands would go on top of the other. With each verse, one hand would go over somebody’s head, until it looked like a woven circle of arms and bodies. Then everybody would put their feet into the center and lean back, pushing against the circle. The tune changed into a more exciting song, and everybody would keep leaning back and hopping in a circle counter-clockwise. The centrifugal force would throw all of us out and onto the ground, and it was really funny. We were supposed to let go once the tension got great, but once, Kevin and Patrick Fan didn't let go, and I was trapped between them. I got thrown out to the far side of the classroom, dangerously close to the wood piano.

It was a very exciting (and “moving”) class!

Unusual Houses

There are many houses, large and small, squat and tall. But which house is the best for you?

You will probably want to consider MiniHomes, the new rage! These houses are less than 300 square feet, and you can live in them comfortably. They are green and environment friendly. Also, most of them are very mobile. They can be towed around on their wheels, and then set down in a place where normal houses can’t go, like a rocky cliff or the beach.

Another interesting house is the zeroHouse by Japanese designers. Unlike other houses, the zeroHouse generates its own energy, collects its own water from the rain, and even  has a waste treatment system! Like the MiniHomes, though, this house is portable, and can be put where even MiniHomes can’t go – in shallow water. The helical anchor system allows zeroHouse to support itself in the ground. The house produces extra energy to charge hybrid and electric cars. The windows are triple-layered and the doors are Kevlar reinforced, with an automatic lock system. The house can resist winds of up to 140 mph.

To sum up, if you’re looking for a house, the you might want to consider classic homes and unusual ones.

Tooth is Lost and We Play "King of the Mountain"

Today I lost a tooth. At the start of the day, my tooth was wiggling a little. For three or four hours in class, I wiggled it and wiggled it. Greg lost a tooth. I didn’t wiggle it at music, but I started wiggling once I got to recess. I had already gotten the tooth off, and it was connected by a tiny tidbit of skin. I twisted it, and “Pop!” The tooth came out!

Today our class played “King of the Mountain” in Music. This game was very simple. Every student would sit in a circle, and rhythm cards would be handed out. The person who got the rhythm card with three sixteenth notes and one quarter note following it would be the King. The King would clap his rhythm and say the beats (sixteenth notes: tic-a-tic-a, eighth note: tee-tee, quarter note: ta, half-note: twooooooooooooooooooooooooo, whole note: whole note three four) and then do the same to another person’s rhythm. Then that person would repeat the process to his own rhythm and to somebody else’s. This would go on until somebody made a mistake. He would go to the right of the King, the dungeon, and everybody starting from the left of his original spot and ending at the King would move right one spot to the next card.

Jumbo Pyramid

1/26/13:

Today was the last day of our Speed Stacking PE Unit. Our class created a giant pyramid with a base of 20 cups! We used 107 cups in total.

We used a special and simple way to assemble the pyramid. We lined up in 4 lines, and the person at the front of each line added a cup from a stack of 12 and walked to the back of their line when the teacher called. The pyramid was soon as tall as or taller than Greg Sellers, the tallest person in our class. He is nearly 5 ¼ feet tall!

The teacher then told us to guess how many cups could be pulled from the bottom before getting the tower to topple. I guessed two next to each other, and I was right. The tower toppled from left to right, the opposite of the picture. It was tremendously interesting to watch the tower topple. It literally disintegrated with cups sliding down the sides until all that remained was a big pile of cups.

Speed Stacks Research

Today I did some research on Amazon.com. I want to buy some Speed Stacking cups with a timer and mat. I searched in the Toys and Games department, and chose “Speed Stacks Stackpack Assortment” for $40 by Play Along. One of the reasons I chose this set is because these are the cheapest cups I could find that have a timer and mat included. Some sets are $50 or $70, and most of the cups are above $100. Those are way too expensive, and some don’t even have good ratings. Others weren’t in good condition. The other reason I chose this set is because the ratings and reviews are very good. There are 12 reviews, 9 are 5-star, and 3 are 4-star. All of the reviews were happy and positive. The reviews say that these cups are very durable, fun for both adults and kids, educational, and great for hand-eye coordination. To sum up, I want to buy the “Speed Stacks Stackpack Assortment” on Amazon.com for the above two reasons.

Speed Stacking #2

At school, I participated in Speed Stacking again. This time, we had to fill in a score sheet with our times. I did the 3-3-3 in 6.18 sec, the 3-6-3 in 6.97 sec, the 6-6 in 9.00 sec, and the Cycle (3-6-3, 6-6, 1-10-1, 3-6-3) in 29.24 sec. My score for the 3-3-3 was bad, some people got 4.49. For the 3-6-3, it wasn’t the best either, some people got 6.27. For the 6-6, I did even worse. I couldn’t believe I got 9.00 sec. I can usually get around 7.00 sec. The Cycle was great, though. Only Fiona beat me with around 23 sec. To sum up, I think I should compete in Cycle tournaments.

Whiteboard Session

Today I participated in a whiteboard session from the JHU CTY Math Olympiad Course. A whiteboard session is a class on the computer using Adobe^® Connect. There were four other 4^th graders that participated in that session – Phil, Damon, and Manya. We talked a lot on the chat board, which I enjoyed the most. I enjoyed the chat board because it was very lively. Phil was annoying; he kept saying “okkookko”, “okokokokokok”, or “BYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYE!!!!!!” I liked talking about the teacher – I would always tell everybody when she was disconnected from the internet again. The problems were tricky. One problem asked: “Every two people at a banquet were served a chicken dish, every three a rice dish, and every four a vegetable dish. If there were 65 dishes, then how many people attended the banquet?” I solved the problem by finding the LCM of 2, 3, and 4, which are 12. 12/2 is 6, 12/3 is 4, and 12/4 is 3, so every 12 people were served 13 dishes. If 12 people equals 13 dishes, then 60 people equals 65 dishes. I had a really hard time at first, because I used the wrong method.

Speed Stacking

Today I speed stacked in the Alcott Gym. Speed Stacking is a competitive sport in which you stack up cups and then stack them back down again. Each set of cups includes 12 cups.
Today I practiced the 3-6-3 cup stack format. We stack up three cups, then six, then three again, and downstack all of it. I can do this very fast. After that, we had a competition.
I took 6.58 (6 and 58 hundredths) seconds to do it, getting me the title of third best in the school!!!

Google SketchUp 8

Today we had a chance to play with Google SketchUp 8. This is a 3-D modeling program where you can design buildings, furniture, and anything else you can think of.

One of the tools I like best is the Rotate Tool. The tool can rotate, distort, or stretch shapes. When I want to make a roof, I just distort the house’s top. The roof still has a flat top, so I distort the distorted sides to make the strange roof even more distorted. It turns into a crazy shape, and I call that a “roof”. Other times, when I need to make a sculpture, I draw a weird shape, and then distort it to make it even weirder. I add some water to make a fountain, and I have a sculpture!

Another tool I like is the Fill Tool. The tool can color in any selected area a certain color, like green. It can also fill the area in with a texture, such as wood, metal, or water. Finally, it can fill the area with a translucent or transparent color, such as gold glass or translucent blue. It has many uses, from making sculptures interesting to look at, to making a creation look realistic.

To sum up, I enjoy using SketchUp!

Here is a link to download SketchUp:

http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/download/gsu.html

Battle of the Books Round 2

Today was the second round of the Battle of the Books. And what an exciting round it turned out to be! The Hypernovas scored 14 out of 15, the Book Dolphins 10 out of 15, and both the Sea Serpents and The Champs scored 9 out of 15. Hypernova team member Patrick Peng made a mistake on the 13^th question, ultimately leading to the loss of a point that could have made the score perfect! During an interview, Patrick Peng said that the loss was because he was too nervous to remember the answer to the question: “In which book did a pap (dad) say that a jar of honey attracts more flies than a jar of vinegar?” The answer, he said, came back to him and seemed obvious after the Battle. The Sea Serpents and The Champs have been eliminated. They will not be competing anytime soon. However, the two remaining teams, the Hypernovas and the Book Dolphins, will be moving on to compete against fourth-fifth grade classes!

How much is a million?

Today the fourth graders in my class (except for Mallika, Archit, Rhea, and Swathi) presented their “How Much Is A Million” projects.

My project was on pencils. I learned that a million pencils put eraser-to-point is 18,500,000 cm long, 6,000,000 grams, and a million pencils put width to width is 700,000 cm. My favorite part was when the weight crushed the person.

Greg’s project was on flash drives. I learned that the length of a million flash drives is equal to around 140,000 football fields. My favorite part was the introduction, in which he crossed out certain parts of the text. “Today I will be presenting the project Mrs. Chen made me do I wanted to do. I had to will compare one million of an object to something else. The instructions said I have to I want to use two ways to prove each mathematical equation correct.”

Kevin’s project was on Eta Carina. At first, we settled in for a nice presentation, but then he said it was the sun, and then he said it was Alpha Centauri… anyways, it was a complete mess. The equations had too many big numbers and zeroes and took too long to explain.

Patrick Fan’s project was crazier. I think he plays too much video games. He included Sonic, Tails, Shadow, Mario, and some other characters. He also included too many animations and distractions. There was at least one thing flying around at any given moment.

All in all, I enjoyed watching some projects and did not enjoy watching others.

Art

            Today my mom’s Art Docent lesson was on Analogous Colors and Tints and Shades. She spent a lot of time preparing for this lesson. I definitely enjoyed the lesson and the project.

I learned a lot in the lesson. I learned that analogous colors are three adjacent colors on a color wheel. For example, Red, Orange, and Yellow, or Green, Blue-Green, and Blue are sets of analogous colors. Tints are the colors that are formed when you add white to any primary, secondary, or tertiary color. Shades are the colors that are formed when you make any primary, secondary, or tertiary colors darker. I think this is very helpful art information.

In the project, we each got a strip of a picture to scale up onto a large piece of paper. Then, we colored in the picture, the gray being the pure version of the color, the white being the tint, and the black being the shade.

All in all, to prepare the paints, the lesson, and the energy to keep us all in order and quiet, my mom must have used a lot of effort on this project. So,

Thank You Very Much, Mom!

Chess

The Greek Gift

Today I enjoyed Chess Club after school. First, I played Carson. I was up a pawn right after the fourth move, and I retained that advantage until the end. I lost two of my pawns and was just about to promote my third when it was time for the lesson. I knew I was probably going to win because his king was a long way from his other pawn, which I could take easily with my rook. Also, my pawn, which was two squares from promoting, would force the rook to take it, and I would be a rook up, and checkmate. After the match, we had a lesson on the Greek Gift. This is basically a Bishop sacrifice that gets rid of an essential shield pawn, achieving checkmate. After Bxh7, Kxh7, Ng5+, Kh7, Qh5, Re8, Qxf7+, Kh8, and Qxe8#. There were many examples of this, and other variations of the line, but it all ends up in checkmate or a major advantage. I think it is an amazing strategy. It is also flawless, easy to remember, and quick. The only position in which it does not work is when the knight on d7 and pawn on e6 are gone. After king takes h7, knight check, king escape, and queen moving out, the bishop comes to the rescue on f5, blocking the checkmate square. All in all, I learned a lot during this session of Chess Club!

Battle of the Books Round 1

Today was the Battle of the Books. The 4 teams of Ms. Chen’s class clashed together at lunch recess. One of those teams was The Hypernovas, consisting of Kevin Zhang, Daniel Dickman, Gregory Sellers, and, last but not least, Patrick Peng.  During the intense Battle, they fired answers at the 15 questions that could mean the survival or death of their team. At the end, they found out that they were tied with the Book Dolphins for first, each with 10 points. The Champs, with 7 points, lost (The Champs Lost!J). But the worst team by far was the Sea Serpents, with 6 points. Had this not have been the first round, the Serpents and Champs would have been eliminated. This was only a practice round, though. The Battle was VERY exciting!