6th Grade Reading and Writing Goals
Reading
I want to read The Count of Monte Christo
Writing
I want to write a 20 page book
Summer Reflection
I had a very different and fun summer this year. I tried a lot of new things that I have never thought of doing.
When I went fly fishing I learned a lot about the sport’s aspects. My favorite part of my fly fishing experience was doing a perfect rollover cast. It is a hard cast where the line is in the water in front of you and you flick your wrist and the line basically flips and shoots forward. It was also a disappointing experience because I caught nor saw a single trout in the river.
It was scary when I decided to jump off the cliff in Sculptured Rocks. I built up my confidence that I would not hit a rock below. Also, I didn’t want to wait and chicken out like a few of the kids in my group. To solve that problem I jumped in as soon as possible because if I waited I would stand static on the edge for 2 minutes out of dread. The water was icy but refreshing. I swam down the river and hopped out. I faced my fear of jumping off cliffs/huge rocks near water.
My favorite part of my summer was when I went to Croatia. I learned so much about the country’s history and culture. When I saw the famous lizard at Postojna Cave I was fascinated by its physical traits like a lifespan of 100 years. It can endure 11 years without food or water and it only lives in that one cave. I bought a mug with the lizard on it. I went to Predjama Castle which is built into a CAVE!! It was ideal for defending against armies. When I first laid my eyes on the castle I was in awe. The view was breathtaking. When I walked inside I explored the different parts of the magnificent structure. They had a torture chamber, a chapel, and a safety bunker in the cave that had a small tunnel that led out the other side of the mountain. Those two places were the most memorable for me although I also had a good time kayaking on the Adriatic Sea around the islands. I kayaked 9 kilometers that day.
I felt a feeling of fascination on my trip to Croatia and when I went fly fishing on a river. This was because I felt very curious about every new thing I learned and all the new things I learned were very interesting.
When I jumped off of the cliff I felt a feeling of great satisfaction. The second my feet left the edge I felt like I could do anything. I felt unstoppable.
That was my reflection on my summer.
Croatia Trip
I did a lot of things and had a lot of fun at the countries Croatia, Slovenia, and the city Venice in Italy.
This is Croatia on a map.
First I flew to Paris since you can’t fly directly to Zagreb* from Newark’s airport.
*Zagreb is the capital of Croatia.
Here I am in “AÉROPORTS DE PARIS” in the photo above
This photo is me at a café in Zagreb. This other photo is of a famous church in Zagreb.
Then I drove to Slovenia to go to these places.
I went to Predjama Castle which is a castle built into a cave.
I also went to Postojna Cave that is the home to a lizard that can live up to 11 years without food or water and it has a lifespan of around 100 years.
I then drove to Motovun which is back in Croatia. The town is located on a mountain. They are known for their tasty truffles.
This is a photo of Motovun.
These are Istrian DONUTS!!!!
I had these in Motovun.
Istria is a region in Croatia.
Then I went to Istria and stayed at a nice hotel.
Then we went to an amphitheater at a city named Pula.
After that we went kayaking on the Adriatic Sea and went by islands. We stopped at an Island called Red Island because the walls of the Monastery were red from rust.
I also went snorkeling at Red Island.
Then we kayaked back to the hotel and the next morning we woke up at 4:30 to get to the ferry which showed up at 6:15. We arrived in Venice and had a lot of fun before we left the next day!
This image is sideways.
Anyway I had a great summer vacation in Europe!
Flyfishing
I went to my country house and woke up at 6:00 in the morning to go flyfishing in a river. We did not catch anything or get any signs of fish. Despite that I learned a lot about flyfishing concepts, casting, and flies!
Sculptured Rock
This summer I went to Camp Kenwood in New Hampshire. I went on a field trip to a freezing cold river with extremely big rocks on the sides. I jumped off and had a blast with my friends at camp. Out of around 70 kids I went 45th.
This is us jumping.
This is the freezing water
This is all of us shivering and waiting.
Summer Reading
By Gennifer Choldenko
By
Nancy Farmer
(Chronicles of Prydain)
By Lloyd Alexander
By Eoin Colfer
(My favorite this summer!)
Hero Essay
Heroes are people who convey loyalty when threatened and scared, who are hopeful when all is lost, and show selflessness when they themselves are desperate. Heroes are people who, despite all the chaos and conflict around them, still remain strong. Ulysses, the ancient Greek hero is actually quite similar to Anne Frank, the Jewish-German hero. They both fought in the darkness, which was caused by people repressing them physically and mentally. Ulysses and Anne Frank both demonstrated very deep and heroic qualities in their lives. A hero will always demonstrate those qualities, no matter how tough the scenario.
Ulysses was a hero because even when he was desperate, he was still selfless. While a normal human would be selfish when scared, Ulysses always shared his resources when he had little to nothing. On page 96-99 of The Adventures Of Ulysses by Bernard Evslin, Ulysses and his men were starving on an island that had a scarcity in food. Ulysses shared the food that he had gathered and never stashed any away. That is amazing. That made me truly believe that he was a hero because he cared for his men even when he was in hard times too. Sharing when you are in need was my deciding point in Ulysses being a hero.
Anne Frank was a hero that worked really hard without much feedback, but she always kept her qualities of compassion and selflessness in hard times. She was an extremely compassionate person throughout her life, no matter what she faced. Anne expressed her compassion deeply when she comforted her dying, sick sister in the rough nazi concentration camp. It was when Anne was hopeful that everything would get better with her and her sister in the camp that I realized how powerful and heroic of a human being Anne really was. That is why Anne Frank is a hero. She was always positive even though everything around her was negative and she never gave up.
These two people were very powerful in their ability of hopefulness and selflessness. It is amazing how they could give and share even in the worst of situations. They both never gave up. That to me is very inspiring. If everyone was like that then there would be less poverty since then everyone would share, no matter how bad their own life was. If everyone was hopeful then even when life is bad, everyone would stay on the bright side and never give up. That is paradise. That is a hero.
Discovery Day Reflection
One thing that I liked about our philosophy trip on discovery day was that I got to talk to a psychic. I have never done that before and it was very interesting talking to someone who believes that they have powers. I do not believe in psychics still but talking to her really opened up my mind to the world. On this trip I delved deeper into meditating and learned about the Buddha at a meditation center. It was very fascinating when we talked about different stages of the mind, an example would be conscious, subtle, and very subtle. After all of that I really want to learn more about meditating. It can help people relieve stress and problems in their life. I am curious to know about different types of meditation.
(P.S. The psychic read my mind! #ScaryAndAwesome)
Reflection On Website
I am very pleased with the outcome of my website. I worked extremely hard on it. Especially the javascript money rain. I would do this again numerous of times. I think I would make my design a little bit more serious and prettier in the future. I had some challenges with somethings working and somethings not, but I figured everything out and now there are no errors.
Here is a link going to my website
Tessellation
This is my tessellation. In case you don’t know what a tessellation is, it is a pattern that repeats it self forever without any gaps or spaces. It was hard to find the right shapes in order to make this tessellation. I had to be creative and try a lot of things. This is the successful result.
