The Comic

What are Wisdom Tales? Wisdom Tales are short stories that have a moral. For this project we had to choose a Wisdom Tale and make it into a comic. I chose Fire, Water, Truth, and Falsehood from Ethiopia. Why this story? Well, have your parents told you that lying is bad? The moral of this story is to speak your truth. Don’t lie. So this connected to my life so I chose this Wisdom Tale. This story is about four characters going on a short journey and on the way Falsehood becomes greedy, starts spreading lies and also gets sneaky.

Visual storytelling. Not so long ago we had an artist come over to our school to give a presentation about drawing. His name was Brittain Peck, who is the father of Nia, a student at our school. Here is the link to her blog https://30niap.edublogs.org/ He taught us to draw with simple shapes. For example,he used Little Red Riding Hood. He made her out of triangles and then slowly added more details.

Next up is what we drew with. I drew with one app, Sketchbook. This app has multiple tools to make a beautiful drawing. First, it has a bunch of drawing items and I mean a lot. Then it has multiple layers to draw each character, scene or even to copy a picture. Sketchbook was very helpful to me in this project and maybe it will be helpful for you in the future. After we finished drawing we put the drawings in ComicLife3, an app where you can make comics online. This app was also pretty helpful. Overall, this was a very enjoyable project.

Daily Habit: Plank!

So lately in Language Arts we have been establishing a daily habit. The first daily habit was planking. We had to plank 30 seconds a day adding 15 seconds each week. We started on October 24th and ended on the week of December 11th. On December 14th, we had a plank challenge! I got fourth! I was able to do a plank for 7 min and 13 seconds. It was tiring but afterwards I felt like I really needed to run. Funny, right?

What is a daily habit? A daily habit is a habit like biting your nails except you do it every day. For this we were encouraged to try and do a plank every day. When you do a daily habit you get a compound effect. What is a compound effect? A compound effect occurs when you do something a lot and it gets easier better over time. This allows you to add a little more to yourself every time getting stronger at that skill. For example, we did a plank every day. Every day it would get easier to do this challenge. When it gets easier we just add some more time. This helps build the compound effect. Then when we finished, the amount of time we started with, 30 seconds, was much easier.

What is my new habit? Alright, next my daily habit will be doing 5 pushups every day adding 5 more each week. “Why pushups?” You may ask. Well, I have been wanting to do a push-up challenge for a long time. Finally, I have enough time so I am going to ROCK this challenge. How I know is because a quote is backing me up. The quote is Believe you can and you’re halfway there by Theodore Roosevelt.

Books

 

I think I read best when I am in a quiet space. I don’t exactly know because when I am reading in the car my family is usually having a conversation that isn’t important to me so I tune it out, but sometimes it is important. I still tune it out. Then halfway through their big conversation about whatever I hear something and I ask, “What’s that?” My parents tell me it is none of my business and I go back to reading.

I will say that this usually doesn’t happen and that I like to read in a quiet space. When do you read best?

What is your favorite book? My favorite book is Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I first found out about this book when my parents were talking about how I should read more challenging books over the dinner table when I was 9. I didn’t know what they were talking about but after watching the movie I was hooked and wanted to read the book. The next day I went to the school library and checked out the book. When I read it I found out it was a little different from the movie but that didn’t stop me from reading it. After I read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians I figured out I loved Greek Mythology, so I read the rest of the series. Then, I read nonfiction books about Greek Mythology.

Now you may be thinking, there are more books by Rick Riordan. Yes, I have read most of them. But which ones? I have read: The Heroes of Olympus, The Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, The Trials of Apollo and most recently, The Sun and The Star. I have been hearing there is a new one called The Chalice of the Gods but I have not even seen it. 

I have not really found a really good book in a while. Because of this I have been re-reading series. If you can, I would like it if you recommend a book in the comments. Thanks.

Window or Mirror

Eragon: Window or Mirror

A book I read recently is Eragon by Christopher Paolini. This book is an adventure fantasy that is awesome if you like fantasy. This book does have some fights in it so be careful. Just in case you don’t know what mirror books and window books are a mirror book is a book with characters that are similar to you or a plot similar to your own life. A window book is a book that is different from your life and it does not connect to yourself. This book is a window for me because I love to read books that have an unrealistic plot and make-believe animals. 

I usually choose window books and I rarely read mirror books. Some books I have read are the Percy Jackson series and all other books by Rick Riordan. I was originally going to use Brisingr because that was also a really good book but it was the third in the series. So that is why I chose Eragon.

Andrew, Origami Mode

A hobby I have is origami. I may not be the best at origami but I think it is really cool. I originally started when I was in kindergarten when I found a paper airplane book at school. Then when it was my birthday my mom bought me an origami book and paper.  I started to make all kinds of cool projects. In this post, I will show you how to make one beginner level project.

 

 

  1. First get a square sheet of paper and fold it from corner to corner like so. Make sure it is a sharp crease. 

 

 

      2. Do it again to make a X

 

       3. Then flip over and fold side to side, turn and do it again to make another cross

 

       4. Next pull the two corners in and flatten.

 

        5. After that fold the corners in to the middle (only the first layer)

 

        6.Open it up and pull it up.

 

        7. Do steps 5 through 6 on the other side so it looks like this.

        8. Next fold the points to the split/middle.

 

        9. Do step 8 on the back.

 

        10. Next pull a flap up as far as it can go and collapse it.

 

        11. Then pull the collapsed flap out so it matches with the other crease.

 

        12. Do steps 10 and 11 on the other side.

 

        13. Fold the head down and then fold the wings any way you want.

 

Thank you for reading my new blog post and please tell me if you were able to follow. If you did like this please comment and tell me if you would like another project.

          – Andrew

Andrew’s Camp Kirkwood Adventure

Camp Kirkwood

On the 30th of August, 2023 it was a normal day for school, a Wednesday in fact and I was dropped off at the bus stop with an abnormally large bag, a knapsack and a sleeping bag. “Why these items?” you ask. Well my answer to this question is, “WE ARE GOING ON A TRIP TO CAMP KIRKWOOD!!!” Early that week I packed up all my stuff I needed for the trip: clothes plus UNDERWEAR, some jackets and binoculars for reasons you can figure out. It was mandatory, it was on the list, to bring some flashlights. WHY? HOW SHOULD I KNOW WE DIDN’T USE THEM! 

So when we got to school with an abnormally large bag, a knapsack and a sleeping bag. We placed our stuff down and went to our advisory until it was time to leave. When it was time to leave we went to the front of the school, did Simon Says and packed our items in the bus. The bus ride there was pretty boring but we made it.

Camp Kirkwood was not anything like I expected it to be but it was awesome ,except for Hurricane Idalia,. As soon as we got to camp we got our  from the pavilion/ basketball court, went to our cabins and set up our beds. Then it was time for lunch but I was not hungry because I ate a lot on the trip. After lunch we did a bunch of activities, ate SPAGHETTI!!, and went to bed. The first day was good.

Earlier I mentioned activities but I am only going to tell you my favorite three,Gaga, Pool and the V swing. The V swing was an awesome experience at Camp Kirkwood. You may wonder what a V swing is so I am going to tell you! Imagine two 30 foot poles sticking straight up into the air and metal wires connecting them at the top. In the middle of the wires there are more wires going down until about 8 feet off the ground. You would get hooked on the structure and then your group would pull you up to one of the poles until you say stop. Once you say stop you yank a rope, disconnect yourself from one of the wires, and swing like a pendulum! IT IS SO FUN!  At the start you are scared to death and you innards are all scrambled but then it gets really enjoyable! You can fly like Superman and do all kinds of crazy poses!

The second activity I will mention is the pool. The pool was awesome. The first day you had to take a swim test, but it was pretty easy, just swim the length of the pool. Simple, no? Anyways, you would wait at the entrance of the pool and play in there until they said “Go”. My group would always play a game we called Moss. It was basically a simple game of jackpot. Sometimes when we got bored we would play Bulldog or Marco Polo.

Finally, the last activity was Gaga. I am sure you have played Gaga before. Let me refresh your memory. Imagine a rink with walls about three feet high. In the rink you would hit the ball with your hands and try to hit other people. It was really fun. Before Gaga there was something or someone very special, a pig. When I first heard about it I was like, “Are we going to have bacon?” But when I saw Bubbles the pig I was like “Forget about dogs I want a mini-potbelly pig.” Bubbles was not soft but she hit her bouncy ball like it was Ronaldo. It was crazy. If you see her you will think it is so cute.

I loved Camp Kirkwood and would love to go again. So if you want to go you will have an AWESOME time. I hope you will go to Camp Kirkwood and have a great time.