The Stock Market Project

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Language Arts class was incredibly… interesting from the past month. One reason why is because we started our stock market project. As we were reading ‘The Westing Game’ by Ellen Raskin, one character, Turtle (yes, that’s her name), invested in the stock market and made lots of money out of that. And then our teacher had an idea. The Stock Market Project. 

Excited, we got to work right away. We started picking the companies we wanted to invest in, and we were off to a great start. Unfortunately, all great starts don’t have great ends. Though it was exciting with all the (fake) money, we lost SO much. At least I did. Guess I didn’t invest in the right companies for then. Our teachers helped us a lot though, and it was very fun. All in all, it was very thrilling!

Here’s a picture of my investments ⬇️

The Last Cuentista, Ideal World, & Book Making

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Everyone loves a good project. Keyword: good. Well, we did an AMAZING project called the ‘Ideal World’ project. It all started with our class reading the book ‘The Last Cuentista’ in our class, which was all about space and new planets.

 

The Last Cuentista ⬇️

 

 

That INSPIRED us to write a story for what would be our ideal planet. You can check out my other blog post called ‘The Perfect Planet or The Idea World’ to learn more about my planet, but the main thing about my planet is an ‘Icy Planet’. Basically Elsa’s world, without an Elsa. Yep, fun. It was very interesting seeing everyone’s different perspectives on the world and what their ideal world looks like. Even the visuals they made to go with their stories varied greatly from each other.

 

My Ideal World Painting ⬇️

 

 

Now you must be thinking ‘this is all interesting, but it’s not a project?’, because yeah, it isn’t. However the next thing we did was make a book sort of cardboard thing(?) that tries to illustrate our planet in the best way possible. And that was the fun part. Cutting, gluing, pasting, painting, we did EVERYTHING to make our project look good. The most interesting part of our project was that we used normal magazine papers to put our project together, which tested our resourcefulness and creativity. But in the end we did surprisingly INCREDIBLE.

 

My Ideal World Book ⬇️

 

 

We had a bunch of help from our teachers and I’m thankful how they guided us to do what would make us happy AND look good. And we finally made it.

 

 An artistic masterpiece. 

 

Talks and Tales

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Presentations may not always be fun to listen to, but they are certainly fun to make. Examples? At least in my class this example will work. You know how you see people make Ted Talks on TV’s and think they are INCREDIBLY smart for doing that? WELL, guess what? We did that. 

I made my talk about ‘Psychodynamics’, which is basically a subcategory of Psychology and talks about your conscious, preconscious, and unconscious parts of your brain and how they play one of the biggest roles in your life. 

One of the biggest tips to keep in mind when making a presentation (which doesn’t necessarily have to be a Ted Talk, any talk will do) is your body language. If you are fidgeting, stuttering, and don’t have the interest to do your best, others won’t have the interest to pay attention to your talk either. And that’s the first mistake, not capturing the attention of your audience. To capture the attention, the first and most important part is to be confident. Confidence is key, AND the most important part of public speaking. Eye contact, no ummms and uhhhs, and a smile on your face will do the charm. 

In the end, though you may be shaking in your shoes before starting the talk, after you start talking you won’t feel like shutting your mouth. You’ll be in the flow, and will truly enjoy it. 

 

I did for sure.

Can’t you tell by my smile?

Metamorphosis

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Metamorphosing is a very interesting transition of drawings. Imagine you draw a hot air balloon. Then add a string to the hot air balloon. Then add another string. Go on and on till soon it will become a jellyfish. Using metamorphosis is where you shine with your art skill because it is extremely hard to do. In art class, I drew a spray bottle, then added a tail to it, then added more details and finally it became a snake. I never imagined I would be able to make a spray bottle into a snake, because they don’t look alike at all. But turns out I was able to, as long as I went slow. Don’t rush, because if the change is too big, then it would be confusing. Don’t go too slow either because if you go too slow then the person who is looking at your art won’t be able to find the difference between the previous drawing and the current drawing, and you won’t have space to complete your art. Remember, however hard it is, don’t worry. The key part is that when you draw a drawing, trace it on another sheet of paper so you can use that to add your change. Once you add your change, then you’ll be able to trace the final part of your drawing onto your final paper. I hope you try metamorphosing, for it is very fun and entertaining!

 

 

The Perfect Planet

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The Perfect Planet

By Lakshmi

    No sharks, no corruption, no death. You could live however you’d like, with no worry, for however long you’d like. No fear of death. Why? Because there is no death. What am I talking about? The Perfect Planet.

    Imagine if you could create a world. A beautiful, fresh, immortal world. How would it be? Where would it be? What would be in it? Who would be in it? All of these questions, swarming in your mind, aren’t they? 

    If I could create a world, I would want it in the Andromeda Galaxy. The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest to our very own, the Milky Way. My planet would be located right in the center of the galaxy. I would name my galaxy ‘Alumap’. Why? The word ‘alu’ means magic and sorcery and Alumap is my last name spelled backwards.

    Surrounded by 3 moons (2 twin moons and one little one) and full of rain and snow, this icy planet would be quite far from other planets. Quite isolated. Though it may be freezing cold for others on this planet, natives, or people born on this planet, would find the chilly planet to be normal for them. Speaking of natives, people born on this planet are called ‘Alumians’, just like how people on Mars are called Martians and people on Earth are called humans.

   The scorching hot, red, sun we find on Earth will not be on Alumap. Instead, there would be little animals called ‘Rays’ that would fly around. Think of a tiny blue turtle that has a light so small, yet so powerful, on their backs. So powerful that light is, that it radiates the entire planet. However, there are millions of Rays. You are incredibly lucky if a Ray lands on you, for you become the next ruler of Alumap, regardless of your age, gender, or background. Many people who have heard of this from other worlds found this ridiculous, but no. Alumap has been with this philosophy for centuries, and they have had a successful economy. At night, the lead Ray will go to bed, with the others following, indicating it is the start of the night. Rays feast on plants called ‘Sapphires’. ‘Sapphires’ are named for their brilliant blue color and Rays absolutely love them.

    Gushing purple water is like a ring around the planet. However, the water from the  ‘Water Ring’ is redirected to the people when they need it. Corruption is not a thing on Alumap, for people are so pure. There is no death either, for once you touch the ‘Water Ring’, you are purified. However, the population is very low. Only 1 million. These select 1 million people are pure enough to stay on Alumap, thus the low population. It is simple in Alumap, no birth, no death. Every 8 million years, these 1 million people disappear into the air, and another 1 million people are made. No one knows how this cycle works.

    All in all, Alumap is a stormy, icy world that may strike fear in others. But don’t worry. When you live here, there is no need to be afraid.

    That is only if you live here.

 

 

Museum of Natural Science

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Image from DA Teacher

Another field trip, I was sure it couldn’t compare to Camp Hanes but it was a lot more fun than I expected. On January 27, we went to the Museum of Natural Science. In the museum there was… well, natural science. We left school at about 9:00 after a talk with the teachers about expectations on behavior. I’m sure we did fine on that. Then we got onto the bus. The bus ride was… chaotic? Yeah, chaotic. Fun, but chaotic. Some people sang, some people played games, I wanted to sleep but wasn’t able to, and some people just did nothing. Fun.

After we arrived there my group (which was Robbins, Salas, and Stanbury) went to the floor (I don’t remember its name) where there were interesting rocks and gems that we saw. It was very interesting. Very. Time flies fast when you’re into something. Especially when you’re trying to read everything in a 4 floor museum. Not that it worked. Lunch was supposed to be at 1:45 or so but we were starving so we decided to have lunch at 12:45. We chomped on our scrumptious meals outside and soon it was time to go back inside. We then finished touring the museum at about 2:00. Then we got onto the bus back (which was even more chaotic) and before we knew it, we were back home.

The museum was a really fun experience, and I look forward to more field trips this year.

 

 

Window or Mirror?

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A few weeks ago, I read ‘The Thing About Jellyfish’ by Ali Benjamin because many people talked about it. The first thing I noticed about this book was its title. Jellyfish? That’s not a common topic authors who actually want to succeed would write about. Oh well. 

I started flipping through the pages as my eyes trailed on the words. Hmmm. Interesting. It was an odd book. It wasn’t completely ‘out of worldly’ with witches and wizards and stuff like that. But it wasn’t about politics and sports and stuff like that either. It was about… jellyfish. I mean like obviously but it was different. It talked about how a girl figures out about a poisonous jellyfish, and how she thinks her friend got poisoned from that jellyfish. She goes to talk with an expert in that area. On the way she learns a lot about herself and others around her. It was a beautiful story with many emotions and a sad touch.

Now, let’s get into the real question. Is this book a window or a mirror? If you ask me, I think it’s somewhere in between. Which is odd as I usually pick mirror books. Why I think this is somewhere in between is because though it talks about a girl about my age, my best friend did not get poisoned by a jellyfish, and I am not as reserved as the girl in the book.

Overall, I think this book is very smartly written and has a beautiful ending to it.

 

 

Wisdom Tale Project

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I always admired my brother. Two years ago when I figured out my brother was going to do a Wisdom Tale project, I was ecstatic and waited and waited until I was allowed to do it. And it was finally my turn to do it. In case you’re wondering what I mean by it, I mean that my class would be able to do a project about a tale with a moral, or a Wisdom Tale.

I had many many options for what to do. Stop motion, rap, poem, and comic. I decided to do comic as it was simple and I loved drawing. I set to work immediately using the app ComicLife3. I did the story “Whose dream is this?” in which there is a man who has such a realistic dream about a butterfly that he wonders if he is a man dreaming of a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming of a man.

Have a nice day 😀

Wisdom Tale Project



How Sketching Helps Your Brain

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Sketching, drawing, coloring, art, are all ways to pass time. But do you know that sketching is proven to help your brain? To focus, the brain needs a focused mindset and a calm surrounding. Sketching exercises your eyes, your mind, and your hand. Let’s explore together how sketching in fact helps your brain to focus and to be in good shape.

Research from the National Center of Biotechnology Information proves that sketching enables your brain to think in a different way, letting your brain perceive things creatively. The second way sketching helps your brain is that it strengthens analytical thinking and focus. We, after all, use our brain to draw. The right side of our brain is used for our creativity, to think outside the box, and the left side of our brain is for logical thinking. This helps us both focus and strategically think. 

Next, sketching aids stress relief and relaxation by making us pay attention to details in the drawing, and mimics meditation. This, in turn, allows you to calm down and relax. The fourth way is that it helps communication skills. Sketching is a visual language, that has symbols, lines, and more. To sketch, you must find a way to communicate through pictures, and not words. It helps you convert your feelings and emotions indirectly and discreetly to drawings. Lastly, it helps coordination of our body. The more we sketch, the more our brain – eye – hand communication will increase and develop. Artists use both senses of sight and touch, and this coordination helps them become a better artist. The left side of your brain begins to reject the complexities of the art, and the right side allows your brain to take over with its creativity. This helps the artist, or you in this case, rely on your hands movement instead of using memorized drawing patterns.

In my opinion, if you’re a beginner but want to use this technique, start with simple lines. Just jot them down on paper. Then start with dot drawings, connecting dots. Finally, go onto abstract drawings, drawing whatever you feel. Whatever way you feel like doing, sketching will help your hands & eyes, in turn, your brain as well. Thank you for reading today’s blog post! Below is an example of an abstract drawing ⬇️ 



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