The best part of the Ashokan trip was the rope course because it had a zip line, it made us stronger and it brought our class together. The zip line was so much fun because it felt like you were flying.
The second best part of the Ashokan trip was the open reck because we got to speak about the fun activities we had, we got to hangout with our friends and 14 out of 20 people liked it. All the 6th grade girls used their time wisely.
The worst of the Ashokan trip was the Gorge hike mountain because it was steep, we had to hold on to the dirt and and we were already to tired.
But when my group reached the top we all cheered on Margaret and that was fun.
The second worst part of the Ashokan trip was the leaf fight because we all got dirty, we ruined the raked leaves and in all of the fuss Ben C.’s glasses fell off and broke. A lot of kids including me helped him find them, but one of the lenses broke and the frame was snapped. It was sad.
I did a fact to fiction story. If you don’t know what that is, it is a story that is part fact part fiction. I took a story that really happened and made it interesting. It was about a moose that was a demon over lord. It was a great story and I think I did an amazing job on it. It was a hard process and I loved creating this nature woman. I had a lot of fun making this story and I hope that you have fun reading it.
This summer I went to Boulder, Colorado with my family. It was a lot of fun and my favorite moment was hiking. My family was going to climb a mountain to the Royal Arch and on the side of the road we spotted a moose. A full grown big daddy moose. Its antlers were so furry. Its hair was very long and his eyes were adorable. I just wanted to hug him, but I know that it is very dangerous. My dad didn’t think so, he jumped out of the car and jumped into a pose and took a selfie. As he did he said,
“Moose selfie”. Then all the sudden the moose stood up on his hind legs, and changed into this seven foot monster with four arms and massive feathers sticking out from everywhere. His skin was touching every bone and two of his arms were huge muscles and said
“I am no moose, I am Galthzizco. The demon overlord.” We all froze. Then he said, “Can I help you such lovely people”. So my brother said,
“Can you show us where the camp site is?”. He looked as if he was as dumb as a rock. I thought that that was the day I die. It was the end. Goodbye world, I thought.
“Sure little boy” the monster said, “but I need something from you first. You must go find my daughter.”
“Ummmmm, where is she?” I asked.
“Don’t know, she ran away from me today.” he said. I sighed. This would never work, I thought. But we started walking around calling, “Galthzizco daughter” I didn’t think it would work, but then all the sudden I heard a voice. A soft sweet voice of a woman, flowing like water through a stream. I looked through the bushes and saw a beautiful lady in a tree singing. She had cobalt blue eyes like a lake and long tuscan sun hair down to her feet. She was wearing a parakeet green jumpsuit with flowers on it that framed off how tall she was. Her flip flops had fallen on the floor. Her skin was as white as irovy. She looked as delicate as a porcelain doll. She turned her head at saw me looking at her so I said, “umm, hello. Sorry for staring you just look so beautiful like you are supposed to be in a painting.” She smiled at me and jumped down off the tree. She walked slowly and softly toward me. I felt scared yet peaceful. “Thank you, my name is Hynthora. What’s your name?” She said.
“My name is Meadow. What are you doing out here?” I asked.
“Well, it’s a long story so maybe later I will tell you, but for now what are you doing out here?” She asked.
“I am hiking.” I said not trying to give away too much.
“Well hiker follow me.” Then Hynthora held my hand up and walked into the forest. I followed. I was about to say can you help me find this monsters daughter, but I decided rather not ruin this moment with a lady I found in tree. She walked like nothing in the world mattered, I would love to see her do a test I thought. She jumped up the tree like it was easy peasy. Then I tried and just looked awkward. She leant down and I thought she was going to help me up, but she did something way cooler. She got vines to wrap around me and pull me up. Was I too fat and heavy for her to pull me up with her arms, did she have to harness her powers to lift me a few inches I thought to myself. “umm, just a quick question. What was that because a normal person singing in a treetop by herself in the woods cannot use vines to lift an eleven year old girl to a tree?” I asked.
“Ok, you got me. I am not just a lady in the woods, I am…”
“A magical fairy princess?”I interrupted.
“No, that’s crazy! I am the queen of nature.”
“I was close.” I mumbled. She turned with a gust of wind and somehow changed all her clothing. I was like what? And she was all like that’s right girl, I can do whatever I want. Her jumpsuit had turned into a long pearl white dress. The dress was silky soft with a strapless top and corset below. She was wearing four inch high heels made out of glass and her toenails colored arctic blue. Her hair had turned to a dark chocolate brown with a frost blue ribbon pulling it back. Then when I looked at her face it was lighter than before and now she was wearing black mascara and rose red lipstick. The only thing that didn’t change was her eyes. The were still the same calm cobalt blue eyes that I saw singing in the tree. I felt safer knowing that she was the same person in the tree. “Now your turn” Hynthora said.
“Um I can do that. I am a normal person, so sorry.” I said.
“No I mean tell me the truth about why you are out here all alone.”She responded. I kind of felt bad because of the things I said after that, but I remembered that she is a fairy queen thing so that made me feel better. “Well, I am looking for a girl. She ran away.” I finally said.
“Oh, who is the person that sent you to find this girl?” her voice sank.
“Um, this monster guy named Gathzinc or something.”
“Galthzizco, It is Galthzizco” She sank farther down with her voice. “I am his daughter. And I know what you are thinking. How can I be so kind and he be so mean. I got the kindness from my mom.”
“You also got her looks.”
“No I got them from my dad.”
“But he is so…”
“Ugly, ya I know.”
“I was going to say he looks like a badger fell into acid, got kicked of a plane that hit another plane mid air and fell onto a car that was on fire then run over by a truck that exploded and then a bird died on him.”
“That’s a bit harsh don’t you think?”
“No not at all.” I jumped down and heard something in the street. I motioned for Hynthora to come quick. I tip toed to the street as silently as I could. She was coming off the tree very slowly because her heels were so high she could barely stand. I looked through the bushes and I saw my brother talking to Hynthora dad. I listened in closer.
“Little boy wouldn’t you want a super power?”
“Yes I would.”
“Well then just give me your soul.”
“Wait what… I did not agreed to tha…” And his voice trailed off as the monster sucked the soul out off my brother in front of me. I gasped. Hynthora saw this and ran out to her father. I could hear what was going on, but I watched closely. She yelling at him and he was yelling back. She picked up a rock and threw it at him. He didn’t like that, so he grabbed her by her arm, but she didn’t take that nicely so she wrapped her vines around him and squeezed tight enough that it hurt but didn’t kill. That’s when I got out of the bush.
“Need any help?” I asked
“No I got him. And now I will bring your brother back.”
“With a magical spell?”
“No, by hitting my dad in the stomach.” And with that she gave him a good whack in the back and my brother’s soul returned to his limp body. He looked dazed for a bit, but then he stood up.
“Are you ok?” I asked. He nodded at me and hugged me. Hynthora shook his hand and then hugged him too. My mom and dad came out from the forest with a shocked expression on their faces. So I explained everything to them, from vine lady to soul sucker.
Then Hynthora said, “What was the wish that you wanted?”
“Ice cream!” River shouted like a nit wit. With that we all had ice cream in our hands.
“River! I will kill you! But not with the witnesses, so thank you for all your help but that was not the right wish.”
“What’s done is done. I can not do anything. I must go so peace.” And Hynthora disappeared. Our rented car had somehow disappeared with her. We were left in the middle of nowhere and we all had ice creams. My brother sighed and licked his ice cream. My mom and my dad sighed as well and looked at me. I sighed and then we all looked at the road and started to walk. It took a long, long time, but we did it. We got up to the Royal Arch. The view was amazing. I didn’t want it to end. The sun set and we all laid on a rock and sighed.
I class we are reading the book Beowulf. It is all about this character named, take a guess, Beowulf. He is not an ordinary hero because he is short, disproportionate and blind. He takes down this monster named Grendel but another monster pops up. Every chapter we are supposed to write down the new characters, a chapter summery and define the words we don’t know. We broke up into groups to draw the characters. I got Wealtheow, the queen.
I am very proud of this and I think it shows my best work. My partner Milei, was not the one who did the work. She could have done a lot more, but I am happy she tried.
This summer I learnt and did a lot of new things. I planted a raspberry bush from a seedling and then it grew berries that tasted delicious. I loved them, they tasted so natural and I felt like I could fly with enjoyment. I also just got a desk for my room and I built the chair all by myself. I feel very proud of myself. I am typing this reflection in the chair and it is very comfortable.
I visited Rehoboth Beach in Delaware and Boulder in Colorado this summer. I have been to Rehoboth Beach before, many times. In fact, I’ve been going since I was a baby. This summer I went fishing at a lake right next to the house that I was staying at and learnt new tricks to get the fish, for example, putting the bait on the surface and bobbing it up and down to attract the fish to the surface. We ended up getting over eight fish with those tricks. That’s a lot of fish for me by the way. I also saw some beautiful birds on the lake like herons and cat birds. In the evening, we saw bats flying above us catching all the little insects in the sky.
After we drove back from the beach, we flew to Colorado. I had never been there before. Did you know that it is basically on a big hill. The altitude was so high it messed with my head. after I recovered from the altitude changes, I loved every minute of it. It is so different than New York City. There are mountains just around the corner (at least in Boulder, where I was staying). I went hiking almost everyday. It is so hard to remember that people live there all year long, it is like a vacation spot. Here, there are skyscrapers everywhere. Oh and did I mention that they have to go 3 miles just to the nearest shop. in NYC it is normally a block or two and you’re at a store.. And we use a lot of public transportation in NYC. Also the people are a lot nicer in Boulder, I’m not being mean when I say that, it’s just an observation. My dad bought me a pocket knife there, it is really sharp and I cut myself the first and second time I used it. He got it for me because I was in the wilderness and it seemed like everyone had a knife. One of the boys I was staying with actually bought a hatchet!
I think that the best experience was going camping. This was the first time I went camping, but I will never forget it. It was a six mile hike up and down all the way there, then we slept one night and went all the way back. It was really tough also because we were carrying 40 pound backpacks. I do think it was worth it because I saw the night sky there. It was beautiful. The stars are amazing and that is because there is less light pollution there and we are higher up. We went out to a lake with a log over it in the middle of the night and it scared me so much because there were bears and elk out there. I was just scared of the bears. We had a water purifier that blew my mind.All you had to do was pump the stream water through it and it made it safe to drink! I didn’t get any sleep that night cause it was so uncomfortable being slightly tilted downwards with my head below my feet and we kept hearing animals beside the tent. The people in the tent with me were Steve (my dad’s best friend), Ethan (Steve’s 10 year old son), Josh (Steve’s 14 year old son), my dad and my brother River. My mom and Steve’s wife stayed at home. I was the only girl! I really built a relationship with the family we stayed with. As much as I liked Boulder, I do like where I live in Brooklyn.
When I first arrived in Boulder my family and I went to Shakespeare’s play called Much to do About Nothing. I loved the outfits and that it was done by really good actors. It was very funny and I went to bed at midnight because of it going on so long! While I was in Colorado my mom and dad wanted a full experience, so we hiked up the Flatirons and The Royal Arch. If you don’t about The Flatirons they are three peaks in Boulder, Colorado. They have put new hiking trails all the way up each one of them. It was 3 miles fully up hill, but the view was amazing. You could see almost everything for miles and miles. Then we heard of a hike to the Royal Arch and my parents had to do it. The Royal Arch is an arch formed by two boulders leaning on each other. There is one single tree up next to it. It looked too good to be true. The wind was intense up there, but it helped cool us down. That trip was very active.
At the end of summer vacation I took Olivia b. advice and got my ears pierced. It didn’t hurt and I love the outcome of how they look. I have had no problems with them yet so I feel very lucky. Summer vacation has been a lot of fun and I am overwhelmed with joy for school.
If you have a positive mind even when you fall down, you are more of a hero than superman. You don’t have to have powers to be ready for round two to break your resilience. You get stronger each time. While Ulysses was not being a hero when his mind was drifting, Joanne Magee is determined to get through the jungle of life. He couldn’t keep his head from giving up, but Joanne had a positive mind all the way through her journey. Even though Ulysses made it home over 20 years, Joanne made it through a tough two years of two heart breaking events that changed her life.
Ulysses might have made it through hard life struggles, but he is the exact opposite of a hero. He kept falling back down and didn’t get back up that fast, but most of all had a negative mind bringing him down and pulling him off the his goal. In the book “The Adventures of Ulysses” by Bernard Evslin, Ulysses was heartbroken and yelled at his men (on page 40). He didn’t think they might have feelings too about being in view of Ithaca. Ulysses wasn’t thinking about his men and that’s not a heroic trait. His sadness was quickly turned to anger and anger is not good. Now lets stop talking about Ulysses and his non heroic traits and start talking about a real hero. I have a modern day hero in mind and this one is very close to me indeed. This amazing woman is Joanne Magee.
My modern day hero is Joanne Magee. She is a hero because she made it through a tough two years with not one, but two terrifying events. She had a surgery that changed her physically and a loss of her father that changed her mentally. Joanne persevered through these events and came out the other side with a positive mind. She was determined to get through the rest of her life. She was selfless. After three weeks of recovering from her surgery Joanne was back on her spinning bike and after five weeks she was full on running again. Seven weeks later she was back in work like nothing happened. That really shows how much she bounced right back just so the people around her were happy again. You can’t say that that is not heroic of her. She is definitely more of a hero than superman.
Another hero that you should already know of is Neil deGrasse Tyson. He is a hero because he is determined to tell our generation about life and the world we live in. He wants to tell and warn us about the solar system and the universe. Neil is just like us, he has a wife and kids. He wakes up in the morning, goes to work and then comes back home. The only difference is that he is try to make the world a better place everyday by teaching more and more people about our history and our future. Neil has devoted time and effort into learning and teaching about life and he is not giving up on the world. If you don’t think he is a hero than I don’t know who is.
Are there heroes in New York? YES. There are heroes all around us, just no one notices them. You probably see 20 heroes each day. You can’t see a persevering, positive, determined and selfless person just by looking at them. Those traits are invisible. You can’t judge a book by it’s cover goes for humans too. If we didn’t have those heroes humans would always be sad and angry. We take them for granted. There are some people in life that don’t notice these people, but there are heroes are all around them. They just didn’t look up. If I didn’t have joanne magee I wouldn’t be able to make it through life. When I was little she picked me up when I fell down and now she has taught me to have a positive mind just like her. I would probably turn into a corrupt person without her.
We wrote the essay to show other people that there are heroes everywhere. They are not superheroes, they are our heroes. They are better.
The sports group had a lot of fun. Me personally, had an amazing time. I loved rock climbing and it was a lot easier
than I predicted. I loved jumping off the wall in my harness.
Before we even got started we had a test. We had to count all the “f'”s that we could find in a paragraph. I guessed 24 because that’s how many I counted. I found out later that it was 34. After that I still couldn’t find them. Then we tested team work by all standing on a piece of fabric and we had to turn it inside out without touching the ground and we all started on the fabric.
It was really hard, but we mastered it and turned it over. I think my favorite moment was the course because. It was a challenge that ended up being a lot of fun.IMG_7736
I ended up finding out how to control my center of gravity on the trampolines over a lot of practice. I failed a lot, but I had a lot of fun.
