Author: elias1011

Nature’s Classroom Elias

elias1011 0 - NATURE'S CLASSROOM, 6th Grade Writers

Last week, we went to a place called Nature’s Classroom in Connecticut. We went there for a five day field trip. A day at Nature’s Classroom went for a long time. First we would wake up at 7:30 and take a shower and get dressed. Then we would go to the dining hall for breakfast at 8:00. Breakfast went on until about 9:00. We then proceeded to a two hour field group.

In field group, we learned about trees and outdoor life. I liked field group because we got to learn about different kinds of plants and why different things happened in nature. I liked my field group leader, Home Slice. We took hikes and in our last class we started a fire in the rain. The fire lasted a really long time, considering that it was raining.

We then had an hour of transition time. Transition time was a time when we could just hang out and take naps. During transition time, I liked to to play outside and in the floor hockey rink. Sometimes, I liked to just lie in bed and hang out. We were supposed to always get a drink of water and go to the bathroom so that we could go through class, without going to the bathroom or go back to get water.

After that, I went to lunch. Lunch had a full out salad bar, plus a great meal. It started at 12:00 and lasted for about an hour. Before ever meal we had something called, “positive shares”. A positive share was that, the counselors would call up a couple people and ask them a question, like, “If you could replace your hair with anything, what would it be”? People would then proceed to answer and then say something good that happened to them or that they did. We then ate our food. A while later, we would get a five minute warning. During that time, we would have a five minute challenge. A five minute challenge was a time when the counselors would call a couple people up and they would tell them to compete in some crazy challenge. After the challenge, we would have “clear”. Clear, was when we would have one person get up to the front  bring all of our compost, dishes and ort. Ort is the stuff that you put on your plate, but did not eat (the stuff that you could have eatin but didn’t). The stuff that is still on the platter or tray is not considered ort.

For the rest of the day, we had choice classes that we would choose in our field groups. We usually had two choice classes and/or another field group. At 6:00, we had dinner and that lasted for about an hour. We went through the same routine as at lunch and breakfast. Every night we had dessert which, I thought was kind of gross because that is a lot of sugar in a short amount of time. After dinner we had a night activity, during the night activity, we did a reenactment of the underground rail road.That was really cool. After the night activity we had quiet sing. Quiet sing started at 9:00 and ended at around 9:30. During quiet sing, we just sang cool songs and the last time we sang a song, we would get tapped on the shoulder, which meant that we could go and get a snack and go to the dorms. At the dorms we could be up and about until 10:15 and then we had to shut our door and be just with our bunk mates. A lot of people stayed up later than that, in their dorms (including me). The next morning, we woke up for another great day and I liked to take a shower in the morning. We were only allowed 5 minutes of hot water. I really enjoyed myself at Nature’s Classroom.

Imagination Day by Eli

elias1011 0 - Imagination Day, 6th Grade Writers

Yesterday, our school had a day called Imagination Day. It is the first time we have had a day like this and it was really exciting. Imagination Day is a day where students can teach classes on what they are passionate about. The first class started at 9:15 and it ended at 10:30. We then had a break until 11:00. At 11:00 we started our second class and that class went until 12:20. Each section of class time had a selection of classes to choose from.

I taught a class on devil sticking with my friend. Devil sticks are a type of juggling, to do them, one has to tap or flip a baton between two hand-sticks. We had a great time teaching the class and our students did really well. In the end we did a presentation of what we learned and we made music to go with it.

I was also in a class right before lunch. I was in a taco making class, where we made tacos. It was less of a class and more of a joint effort to make good food. The tacos were really good but in the end we ended up having a lot of extra time left. While we were making the tacos, I helped my friend shred the lettuce and I also cut the limes into wedges.

The Ballad of Dance and Moon Shoes By Elias

elias1011 0 - Choice Topics, 6th Grade Writers

Today, I went to my friend’s house to go to the movies. We were going to see a movie on the life of Jose Limon. It was really interesting but a little boring. We had popcorn and candy and that made it easier to watch..
I saw a bunch of people that I know there. When we got back to my friends house,the other friend that we went with and I ran around in the snow and snowboarded too. We then went inside and put on moon shoes. We took turns jumping on top of the snow and getting chased. It was really fun, but scary if you almost fell. When I got back to my friend’s porch, I slipped and fell on my back. I left and came home to write this.

Denis by Elias

elias1011 0 - In The Footsteps of Marco Polo, 6th Grade Writers

Dear Dennis,
I sat in the front row at Vassar College with my friend John. I talked to you in the beginning about your travels and how I really wanted to do something like what you did. I’m really inspired by what you did and I hope that your book is a great seller. I was the one who you talked to about missing school that morning.

-Elias
p.s. You look like a cross between Robert Downy Jr. and Hugh Jackman.

Favorite web 2.0 tool by Elias

elias1011 6th Grade Writers

My favorite web 2.0 tool is Skype. I like it because it has lots of things that you can do, like video chatting and IM’ing. I like Skype 5.0 because you can video conference with up to six people. I thought Skype should come up with something that would make it more like a social network. I got a Skype account about a year ago when a lot of people had them but then this year it got really popular. I think that it’s a good idea to use it in schools around the world!

Pictures by Elias

elias1011 0 - Blogging Challenge, 6th Grade Writers

I think that we should put more images in our blogging posts because pictures help to describe words. We should have them also because they can take something really boring and turn it into something really fun. I also think that they are good because they give you a picture of what you are reading.
I like to take my own photographs and post them. I like it because it’s fun to take them and I like them because they’re more personal than taking something off the Internet. It shows that you really care about the thing that you are writing about.
When you use pictures, you have to use either your own pictures or pictures from an organization called “Creative Commons.” Creative Commons is an organization that people put there pictures on. People put their pictures on sites and then they let other people use them. You can’t just take other pictures from the Internet because of Copyright laws.

This is my own picture that I took with my friend, Stella.

photo(2)


Skype by Elias

elias1011 0 - Using Skype in School, 6th Grade Writers

I wasn’t here when we Skyped with the other class but I use Skype all the time at home. I think that it would be a good idea to use it in class. I think that we should use it for a pen pal type tool. I think we should all get a partner in the other class and we use Skype to communicate with them.
We could use Skype in class so Shirley could teach us how to transfer quickly from text language to grammar. I think that we should all get a Skype account and use it for getting homework if we were absent or did not get it in class.

Ramapo Letter by Elias

elias1011 6th Grade Writers

Dear Bekah,

I really had fun at Ramapo! I hope that the sixth grade is going next year. I wanted to be able to do the outdoor high ropes, but I had fun doing it inside. I really liked having you for my counselor. I liked everything that we did.

I really liked doing the low ropes! I especially liked the rope swing one. I thought that it would be impossible to fit that many people on one block of wood, but we managed to do it eventually. I really think that it helped us build up on team work/working together. I also liked the one where you had to balance on the cable and hold onto the rope. I really liked the part where you had to switch because it was all in the trust.

I liked that we did those games in the beginning like the one with the “car keys” a lot! It was really teaching us to be aware of our surroundings. I also liked the blindfolded dodge-ball it was really fun. I really wish that I could come back!
From,
Elias

Dad by Eli

elias1011 0 - Choice Topics, 6th Grade Writers

Six weeks ago my dad was hit by a car while he was on his bike. He broke twenty-four bones and he was really lucky that there was no brain damage. He was in a hospital for a little while and then he went into rehab. He is doing really well! He just came back home two days ago and is in bed a lot of the time. He can walk but he is in a lot of pain and he needs a crutch.

My dad is really loving to be home and he loves the food,  food can taste bad after eating terrible food for six weeks. I really love it that I can see him every day. I used to have to see him only every Saturday. He hasn’t really been outside of a fixed place in six weeks.

He uses a computer all of the time. He usually is on itunes or his ipod touch and he really loves his new ipod. I love that he is back home with us. My dad has a website called Caring Bridges where he can post things to people that know about the website and he usually tells people about how his day went. They can post back in the form of comments if they want. I’m glad that he is home.