This year in Language arts, we wrote about our ideal world. Inspired by a novel called The Last Cuentista. It’s about going to a new planet, and we had to imagine our ideal planet.

We all wrote about ours. Here’s mine:

Welcome to Knutland! You will love it here.

 

It’s nice and hot like a steaming sauna. You can enjoy many of our beaches, sail into the calm blue ocean, or sip a coconut from one of our magnificent palm trees. There are countless things to do here, just like your imagination, that will be lit up if you make the magnificent decision to move to Knutland.

 

You could hop out on a boat to go and see dolphins or visit the many seagull nests on one of the islands. You could watch a sea turtle nest hatch and watch them all go out onto their majestic journey, like your future on this planet. They are very speedy, just like lightning. Are turtles fast on your planet? Probably not, because your planet is not as unique as Knutland. Our many wildlife will have you wowed.

 

The wildlife on Knutland is very diverse. Turtles and crabs are very quick, but the neon blue dolphins like to sit around. There are no sharks, but many types of fish that are all very quick. We have an animal called the yip monkey, that is like a monkey with wings, and is neon green and pink. It feast on coconuts. There are many breeds of birds. The most popular one is. The fanumbidi, that is extremely slow and fat, and is dark brown, and little specks of green.

Our beautiful planet is ruled by King Knut, who is making sure everything is ok. Our government also watches out for potential asteroids, protecting our planet like a strong goalkeeper in a cup final. Our government makes decisions, to be approved by King Knut. However, King Knut can veto or take away any rules, or make any new ones. He decides where and how we spend our currency. All of our money is made out of holos, not coins that get easily lost, just like on other planets.

 

If you decide to live on Knutland, there will be many kind civilians ready to help you, like a busy bee rushing from each flower to gather nectar. On Knutland, we believe everyone looks out for each other. Everyone helps. If someone makes a mistake, we all make a mistake, and learn and grow as a planet. We are like a strong team built by teamwork. If one falls, we all fall and help.

 

Our nation-of-the-art technology has asteroid detection, and if we see one on course, we will be ready at the blink of an eye, like a strong army prepared for anything. We can knock the asteroid off course. We have iPhones on our planet that will give you daily news updates, and have you prepared for anything. Also, in every piece of clothing, there is a device. Used for currency, news, and health updates in your body.

 

And that is why you should come to Knutland! 

 

 

I made the pictures in my book by gluing them down with the help of an artist that visited, Peg Gigonoux. I had a great time! Here are some pics.

 

 

 

Thank you to my teachers for such a fun project!

Hello Everyone,

In March my school went to an empty lot. Well, pretty boring you’d say, and you’d be right. But that empty lot would change in the next couple of hours. BECAUSE WE WERE PLANTING TREES! We worked with an organization to plant these trees. Also, Duke basketball had won the night before, so I was in a good mood and ready to plant some trees. I picked out a big tall tree. We dug a hole, popped our tree in, and filled it up with some soil. Finally we put a tiny fence around, and put a plastic link around the tree to keep it in place.

The tree wasn’t much…YET. In a couple of years houses would be built, and these trees are what the children will grow up in. It is so inspiring to know how important trees are. Thank you so much to everyone who helped!!

The 6th grade at my school went on a field trip to the Moorhead Planetarium, at UNC. We hopped onto our buses, and we were off. It was an average 6th grade bus trip, singing songs, waving at random people, goofing off, so yeah. Everyone was screaming at the top of their lungs. So that was fun. Finally, we got to the Planetarium. We settled into groups. Our group took a walk around the garden. We looked at the beautiful flowers, and laughed and joked around. Finally, we went inside to a little exhibit, about space, and other science stuff. We went upstairs and me and my friends went into this ‘space shuttle’ thing, where we could see what it would be like for astronauts in space, and the video tested us to see if we knew any constellations. Finally, it was time for lunch. We all had packed lunches, and we ate them with our friends. After we ate lunch, we went into this cool little theater thing. The show was amazing, I mean it felt like we were actually there on the space shuttle in the movie.

I felt like I was an astronaut trying to figure out how to go to Mars. Thank you so much to all the teachers and faculty at my school, and at the Planetarium for arranging this!!

Hello everyone, a couple weeks ago, me and my soccer team qualified for a tournament. The Rec Cup. I was very excited. My role on my team is Goalkeeper. Of course, I’m the only that can use my hands. After that, I can throw or punt the ball. I’m responsible for starting plays.

Defenders: Their whole job is to make sure I don’t have to try and make a save. I have really good defenders, so I don’t have to take big risks. Some of my favorite defenders on my team are Amare and Court. Amare is very fast, and great at defending, and can kick really well. Court is also good at defending, and also can kick well. He has a really high soccer IQ, and is good at fighting for the ball, and making challenges.

Midfield:

A midfielder makes sure the opposition can’t make it across. It’s basically like a defender mixed with a striker. My favorite Midfielders are Leo and Eli, who make good passes and are both fast,

 

Strikers:

They are responsible for most of the scoring. They must be fast, good at shooting, and have a high soccer IQ. I love all my strikers and all of my teammates.

 

Anyway, we had an undefeated regular season going into the tourney. Our biggest win was 15-0, and our smallest win, our only tie was 3-3, and it was hard because it was rainy and the ground was slippery. We won our first game versus the club team, Wolves, 4-0. Then we played the Renegades, and won 5-1. I let one goal past, me but did a great job on goal otherwise. Then, we had to play the team we drew. And that showed how annoying and how troubling rain is for a goalkeeper, and a team, because we won that game 6-0. At that point, we had won 3 games and had 9 points in our table. We had to play the Wolves on final time. They had seven points. A win is three points, a draw is one, and a loss is zero. So in order to win the cup, we could either draw, or beat the Wolves. We couldn’t lose. Finally, the game started. I felt confident on goal, and nobody scored until there was about 5 minutes left before halftime. My team committed a foul on the right wing, giving them a freekick. I was having trouble building my wall, and the ref blew the whistle before I could finish! So their striker kicked it over my head into the goal. I was very angry about how I was playing, and how the ref didn’t wait. But I can’t let that get me mad BECAUSE I HAD A CUP HERE TO WIN! The Halftime whistle blew, we were down 1-0. A had a big halftime hype up speech, and we came out there HYPED. The Wolves strung together some attacks, but weren’t able to score due to my strong goalkeeping, and our great defending. Finally, we had an attack! Our striker Judah, shot it, but it hit the top bar! I was so disappointed. But the Wolves strung an attack. Their striker came down the left side. I came out to rush him, a 1v1. (The striker usually wins this). Right before I went to the ball,  he passed it to a striker with an open goal, AND HE MISSED! I was so relieved. I took the goal kick, and we were basically back and forth until the last ten minutes. We had an attack going, and we passed it to our Striker, Ezra (he plays a big role in this post, so pay attention to him) and he shot it, and it went right by their goalkeeper! WE WERE EQUAL! So if the final score was 1-1, we each get one point, and we win the cup 10 points to 8. And we were hyped. But the game wasn’t over. The Wolves won a freekick along the left wing, and it looked good, but I was able to control it, and get our possession back. Finally, we had another attack. Ezra took the ball, got past a defender AND SCORED AGAIN! We were up 2-1, and had 12 points in the table over their 7. But we won another freekick in the defensive half, but they controlled it and got a bad shot off that I saved. I had to waste some time, so I laid down on the ball, which is just enough to not give me a yellow. Some parents were yelling expletives at me (I know, right?) as I was trying to waste time, and got  removed. I got up, and punted the ball. Finally the whistle blew. WE HAD WON THE CUP!!!

the moral of this story is never give up and work hard always.

Hello Everyone,

Today I will be talking about the famous author Adam Gidwitz and how he visited our wonderful school. Adam Gidwitz has written the Grimm series, which are scary tales about the Grimm brothers stories.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adam_Gidwitz_2016.jpg

Anyway, he visited our school, and talked about books he has written. He talked about his new book, Max in the House of Spies. It is about a boy in World War II. He lives in Germany, and his family was worried about the Nazis coming to power. This would be a normal thing to worry about. But Max’s family has 3 times as much to worry, because they’re Jewish. If you didn’t already know, the Nazis were a political party that took control from 1933-1945. They were led by their horrible dictator, Adolf Hitler. Hitler was ashamed of his countries loss in World War I. Hitler blamed it on the Jewish population of Germany. So Max’s family decides to send him to England, a place not controlled by the Nazis. Max doesn’t want to leave his family, but they make him go onto the train. He decides to sleep, and he wakes up with two magical creatures on his shoulders. Want more? Then you should read the book!

In early February, some of the DA Middle School went on the ski trip. Me and my friends, Aaron, Liam, Kareem, and Harris all got onto a Charter Bus at 4:45 in the morning. The 4-hour ride took us to Beech Mountain. First, we went to our Cabin, where we got our gear on. Finally, we got to the shop where we had to get our gear on. It took 2 hours just to be in line. Imagine this. About 50 people scrunched around you, talking to your friends, making bad jokes, being hungry, and living off energy drinks, and having to use the bathroom really bad, moving about 6 inches per 3 minutes, just to get ski gear. That’s it. Finally, I got my gear on, and waited for my beginner lesson to start. Me and my friends were all doing the beginner lesson too. First we learned how to put our skis on and do fundamental stuff like walk up a hill. You had to go sideways to go up.  Then we learned how to stop. They say put your skis in a pizza shape. (Spoiler: IT DOESN’T WORK!) there’s another way, where you turn. (I’m bad at turning, so I can’t do that.) and then there’s the least efficient way, falling. So the way to stop, I fell. Finally, lessons ended and we got to go on the beginner course. The beginner course was at a hill, and we had to go up another one. It was about a football field away, but it took us like 30 minutes to get there. Finally, we went up this escalator thingy to get to the top. First, I skied down. I felt like I was going too fast, (I was probably going at 5 mph), and I fell. I was in the “snow”, and I was halfway down. I tried to get up, but its hard to do on skis. Finally I got up, and walked to the top. About 5 more times, I repaired this. I was in the middle, feeling hungry, cold and miserable. And I had to use the bathroom real bad. Finally, I got down and went to lunch. I used the bathroom, and got some chicken tenders and two waters, and hung out with the boys. Finally, I got back on the slope, and finally started to ski a little bit! I got better over the hours, and so did my friends. Liam and Kareem went to go ski on the next level. Aaron could stop efficiently. Harris was also really good. ‘Jonah (me) was going down at a trillion miles per hour, and then intentionally falling dangerously,’ joked Mr. Lantzy, the P.E. teacher. Finally it was time to go back. We got back to school on the four hour ride back, and got home to share the experience with my family. I had a great time and thank you to the teachers and adults who helped plan this great trip!

 

Hello everyone,

Today I will be talking about what we have been doing in theater class. We started off the year with some fun exercises, and acted in small, short stories. We kept on working on our skills to get ready for our final project. I felt really happy, because we got to choose our groups based on the type of performance we were doing. Me and my friends did a Murder Mystery of the NFL, called Field of Screams. We performed about this year’s insane NFL season’s playoffs. Here is a quick summary: We open up with Tyler Bass missing his game tying field goal. Then, in the locker room, talking with Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs, the lights go out and Tyler dies. They talk with the police about the mysterious event, and the police decide to let them go. Next, the Eagles lose on an embarrassing loss to the Buccaneers 9-33, in Jason Kelce’s last game. In the locker room, with De’Vonta Smith and Jalen Hurts, the lights go out and Jason dies. They recover a pink knife. The police take it in. Next Lamar Jackson dies after he makes a big fumble vs the Chiefs, and dies in the locker room with Zay Flowers and Odell Beckham Jr. While talking with the police, Josh Allen suspiciously walks by, and they talk to him, later arresting him. They look at the knife seeing it was signed by Taylor Swift. Next at the Super Bowl, Taylor Swift is arrested and sent to jail. She wakes up the next morning in jail seeing on the TV that the Chiefs lost. Travis tell Taylor in his postgame interview, that he wants to break up. Taylor ends the play by saying: “We are never getting back together.”

Not many basketball fans follow high school basketball, but right now, it’s pretty hard not to follow it, because there’s one man that stands out. And I’m talking about 6’9, 200 lb Small Forward from Newport, Maine…

COOPER FLAGG!!!

Flagg is currently ranked 1st in recruiting, with a 97 scout grade. He is a McDonalds All-American, with 11 college offers, such as Duke, Bryant University, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Providence, U Albany, UCLA, UConn, and West Virginia. In late October, Flagg signed to the best school in the list, Duke. (Definitely not biased.)

Duke fans are looking forward to an exciting season next year.

In Language Arts, most of us have just finished our comic assignment. We all read most of the stories in a book called The Wisdom Tales. These tales are from many continents, countries, and religions. They always have a moral at the end, and a lesson to learn, that you can use in your daily life. Since we read most of the book, wrote a short summary, and learned the moral, it was time to put our knowledge to work. First, we had a visit from the graphic artist, Brittain Peck, who showed us how he makes his comics, and good tips for OUR COMICS THAT WE WOULD MAKE! Brittain is responsible for murals, pamphlets, and the logo of the Carolina Disco Turkeys baseball team. (I thought that was pretty cool.) After the great visit, we explored a couple apps to help us write our Wisdom Tale of choice. I picked the Red and Blue Coat, a tale from Africa. We worked on our comics for about a week, and then we were off for winter break. We came back, and had another week of work. At this point, most of us have finished. I would like to show you  mine:

Thank you!

I made sports stuff on tiermaker…

NBA teams put into a tier! Based on my liking and how good they are.

NBA Jerseys into a tier! Based on my liking and how good they are.

NFL helmets put into a tier! Based on my liking and how good they are.

NFL teams put into tiers Based on my liking and how good they are.