Hello Readers!

A while ago in LA we were reading The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera and we were prompted to create our ideal planets. Mine was called Rapax Kaino, and was all about sports! I wont give you too many details,  but my story was a day in the life of a citizen of my planet, Rapax Kaino. To decorate the inside of our planet books, which fold in many ways and hold our stories and some landscapes of our planets, we worked with artist Peg Ginoux to make these beautiful prints with paint and leaves. Heres my planet book:

I wrote a lot of my story. We only needed about 12 paragraphs for my book though, so a lot of action-sequence-scenes didn’t make the final cut. Those stories are in a little pamphlet on the side of my book. It was so fun making the art and decorating the book. The hardest part was definitely cutting out little people playing sports.

Thanks for reading! This will be my last post so thanks for everyone that tuned in over the year!

Hello Readers!

Guess what! Our grade went on another field trip. And this one may have been the best one yet.

We got on the bus and we were waving at cars. That’s probably my favorite part of field trips. When we got to the Planetarium, we got to go to all the cool science exhibits where they had space rocks and games related to space. Then we got to go to the science show. They scientist talked about many different principles of science, and then he shattered stuff using liquid nitrogen. Fun stuff!

Next we had lunch. I only had a pbj sandwich, even though I don’t like them. I also had cheez-its and my teacher gave me some Body Armour energy drink so everything was ok 👍. Then came the best part! We went to the dome show! It was a really dark dome with projectors that projected a show all around you. The one we watched was about how a human trip to mars would go and what would have to happen before a trip like it could be done.

This was an amazing trip and I highly recommend going to a planetarium!

Hello Readers!

As you all know, I LOOOOOOVE sports. And it’s not just football and frisbee anymore! I’ve been playing a lot of sports recently and I wanted to tell a bit about my most recent seasons.

Lets start last fall with my football season. I may have already done a post on this one, so I’m just going to sum it up. I started the season off as a receiver. I’m a pretty good receiver so I was excited. Three games later I hadn’t been passed the ball once. That’s a lie, I had been passed the ball once, I called for the ball, put my arms up and looked at the ball, ready to catch it. And then someone else on my team came and ran me over, trying to steal the ball but making us both drop it. A couple games later, our center – the one who snaps the ball to start the play – was having trouble snapping, so I tried to lend him a hand, as I can snap pretty well. Everyone saw how good I was at center and they put me in as center. I was fine with that. But then next game I played center again. Now in our league, the center is allowed to go out for a pass, but I was never allowed to do that by my coach. I had to stay and block, even on the plays where no one was going to rush the quarterback. The other thing about our league was that there were only two teams. Our’s and one other. So we played them every week. And we lost, every week. But since we were the only other team, we had to go to the championship. And somehow we won that. I didn’t do anything all season. But I still got a shirt 👍.

Let’s move to my next season, which was ultimate frisbee. I have also done a post on this so I wont go too into detail. I had a great team and we won some games. I had a bunch of points and it was super fun. We went to the tournament and did pretty well!

Next season I played was a soccer season in the spring. I was MVP every game with at least one goal every game. I improved really well since the beginning of the season since I’d not played soccer before that for about 3-4 years! So I played pretty well I think. My team was really good. I played right wing most of the time. Next year I will be playing for my school.

Next season was a tennis season. It’s still going on and it overlapped a bit with my soccer season. I’ve been playing tennis for a pretty long time but I’ve only recently been getting good. I’ve won a lot of my matches and it’s really fun! I also get to play for my school next year so that will be great!

The season that is just getting started is summer swim team. I’ve been on the team for a long time and I’m not too bad of a swimmer. I usually don’t like swim team practices because they are in the morning and the pool is cold, but this year they have a heated pool! Everything is so much better! I actually look forward to practice these days!

Later on in summer I will have another football season, so wish me luck. My dad will be coaching this year so I might actually get to play!!!!

Hello Readers!

Recently my school went on ANOTHER field trip. We went to plant some trees. It was pretty fun, mostly because I got to dig a hole with a SHOVEL. I really like shovels. One time I dug a two feet hole in my yard but then I had to stop because I realized there was a power line running through the hole ☹️. But back to the trip. No power lines could stop me here! Here are some pictures of me at the trip.

As you can see I was very interested in the tree planting demonstrations. And I had a great time digging. I didnt even stop to look at the camera! I felt really accomplished when I was done. And dirty. I was pretty dirty too. When we got back to the school we watched a documentary on trees that naturally regrow or something like that. It was hard to tell because it was in German for some reason. It was really cold too.

I recommend planting a tree, volunteer at a local tree planting thing and plant one. It’s fun and cool to think that generations maybe hundreds of years later will play and benefit from your tree! Trees are pretty permanent (unless they get cut down, that is) and they last a long time.

-Signing off Ajay, very excited for school to be over soon.

Hello Readers!

Have you read ever A Tale Dark and Grim? What about the Inquisitors’ Tale? How about The Unicorn Rescue Society? Max in the House of Spies? Why am I asking you this and what do they have in common? Well if you’ve read the title of this post you probably know that…

Adam Gidwitz came to my school! So did another school in the area, to also watch Adam Gidwitz. If you haven’t heard of him he is a great author, who by the way wrote the books listed above. He is famous for breaking the fourth wall and he is super funny. He told us a bit about his books, but he mainly focused on his new one, Max in the House of Spies. I don’t want to spoil it for you but it is pretty cool. It is about World War II and spies and magical creatures.

SO GO READ SOME OF HIS BOOKS!

Recently in History class we were learning about Egypt, but also power, trade, and culture, the main ingredients in civilization. So we did a project in which we each chose one of those ingredient, and an example of that ingredient in ancient Egypt. I chose the female pharaoh Hatshepsut as an example of institutional power. Here is a video of my slides:

Thanks for reading and I hoped you learned something. It was really fun and I’m proud of it because I got a really good grade on it and I felt like I did well on it.

Hello Readers!

In case you didn’t know, I play a sport called Ultimate Frisbee

Image from Wikipedia

It is a very fun sport. Many people don’t know about it though, and it is often confused for frisbee golf. The way it is played is one team bucks the disc to the other, then the latter tries to advance the disc up the field and into the end zone for a point. But they can only run without the disc in their hands, and they have to pass. Meanwhile the other team is trying to stop them by intercepting or blocking passes in the air. That is but a brief synopsis, but that’s all you need to know for now.

The main season is winter, but I play a league with two recreation seasons in fall and spring and one league that ends in a tournament in the winter. It’s very fun! This winter I’ve been on a team of 11 people. The thing I like the most is the diversity. People from ages 9-15 play in my league, and both boys and girls play.  I also love the teamwork and sportsmanship. I don’t know about other teams, but my team is great. We are all really nice and sportsmanlike, and we have great teamwork. We communicate great on the field. Some of the other teams we’ve played have been not the nicest, like the last team we played kept calling fouls when nothing happened, or faking fouls. And another team’s coach was yelling at our coach and our team, and their players were yelling at each other. But our team is great!

Here is our lineup:

Me/Ajay/Sonic (sonic is my frisbee nickname)- I am a receiver. I’m the fastest guy on our team and I probably score the most points. I run ahead of the disc and go for long advances

Atticus- Atty is the handler. He was with me last year at the tournament where we got third. He throws long hucks for me and the other receivers. He also throws short skilled passes in clutch moments.

Riley- She is also a receiver. She stays a little bit shorter though. We’ve had some great plays together, where one of us catches it 5-10 yards from the end zone, then the other one runs ahead and the former passes them disc for the point. Her parents both played ultimate and she’s a great team player.

Aidan- He is a handler and a great defensive player. He’s had some great hand blocks and has thrown some powerful points. He is really nice and pretty tall. He does it all with some catches. He is always the first one to volunteer for handler.

Keen- He is also a handler. He’s been at all of our games, and his dad is one of our coaches. You can tell how committed he is because he’s gotten so much better throughout the season.

Benson- Benson is a receiver. He stays short and gets those crucial passes so we can work our way upfield. Always improving, he is a great part of our team. We’ve had some plays together where he gets passed the disc, then I run quickly ahead, and he gives me a pass.

Victor-Vic is a handler. His fakes with the disc are amazing and you can tell how much he loves to play. He doesn’t get overzealous and through deep hucks that he can’t make,  he’s been throwing nice short passes to advance the disk. Everyone loves Victor!

Teddy- Teddy is not the loudest player, but he’s always out there giving it his best. And by that I don’t mean he’s not good. In fact he is very tall and is crucial in big passes. We also say he has fairy magic because he magically gets the disk whenever it’s thrown around him.

Livvie- Livvie has improved the most this season. The first game she had never played before, and by the tournament she had the disk as much as everyone else and was making great catches and passes.

Joey- Joey has only been at 4 games, 3 of those in one day at the tournament, but he still is great at taking feedback.

Archer- Archer is the tiniest guy on our team. He’s in 5th grade but he is great. He’s famous for catching anything, especially big passes into the air that come down really fast, and that no one else would go for. He’s also pretty low down and makes great sliding catches.

That’s my team! Recently we had our tournament. Sadly we didn’t win any games. But all the other teams had practice 3-4 times a week  and we practiced for 20 minutes each week. So thanks for reading, I’ll give you more updates when the spring season starts up.

Recently in LA we have been reading the Wisdom Tales. After we took a test on them, we each made a comic about one of the tales.  We used a digital drawing app and Comic Life 3 to create these. I chose The Prodigal Son from the Christian tradition. I also chose to modernize it. Enjoy!

Thanks For Reading

Be on the lookout for my next post, My Frisbee Team!

Hello READERS! Before we start this is a tribute to 30patricks so let me give you the link to his blog http://30patricks.edublogs.org.

Now if you read his blog, then you know his thing is rants. Now I write an article in a student-owned fake-newspaper at my school called Tinted Lens (I might write about that later) under the alias Enroh Yaja (don’t ask) and recently I wrote about Christmas for our Christmas special. It was basically a rant on Santa (a ranta) so I revised it and put it in here.

A Ranta

Santa Claus. The myth goes that he was an old Turkish man who put ORANGES in peoples’ SOCKS! Like what the heck? Ok that’s creepy, and who wants to eat their foot fungus? Then he meets some elves in the forest and “saves” them from other humans. Ok that sounds kinda sus…

I mean who’s to say he didn’t enslave them? And now they do Some pretty sus stuff for him, but we’ll get to that later. Now that we’ve gone over his history, let’s go over what he does today. Okay so apparently his elves work 364 days a year, and get to rest for one day. And the movies always leave out one thing. If I were working 364 days a year with only one payed vacation, I would quit (if I could) but that’s the thing; are they paid? I’ve never heard anyone talk about their pay. Maybe he gives them some cookies? I don’t even know. And what would he pay them? They’re stuck in the arctic circle, how could they use money. I hope he feeds them at least. Now while they’re working, what is he doing? Does he work too? I don’t know. I feel like if you want to make a convincing argument that someone this fantastical exists, you can’t leave gaping holes in the lore! Now let’s get to the creepier side of Santa. Where should I start? There is the popular point, isn’t he breaking and entering, how does no one know where he lives, or maybe something about the millions of mall santas. While those are all good points, I’ll get to them later. I want to talk about the elves. So, does anyone have an elf on the shelf? I do. And I know a lot of my friends do. And they all look like perfect angels. They all look like 10 year olds with their perfectly smooth faces, dimples, and good haircuts. THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME! And the elves can’t all be that perfect. So where are the others. Santa might not be the jolly old man we all know. He is probably ashamed of the non-homogeneous side of the spectrum, and makes them the ones that stay back and work. Here’s another problem with the elves. How do they get into your house? Magic or Mischief? Were they thieves before they were elves? How do they know how to get into the houses. All I’m saying is, when December rolls around, check your locks. Alright let’s talk about Santa. I’m guessing you’ve been waiting for my perspective on “how does he get into your chimney.” Ok I’ll acknowledge the elephant in the room. He’s fat. Like gigantic. I’m not going to deny it. I know a lot of you have probably been waiting for me to address the question of, how does he fit down the chimney? My thoughts exactly.  But take a step back, and what about him flying through the sky? He’s bound to have run into a few planes flying at those high speeds. And then he just parks on your roof and slides his big belly down your chimney. Now me personally, my family has a screen over our fireplace, and it’s always perfectly intact Christmas morning. And a lot of people don’t have chimneys! Me included! So what kind of “magic” is this “Santa” using? Lockpicks? Does he break your windows? I don’t know but this santa guy sounds like a fraud. Now what about the reindeer? Where did he acquire flying reindeer? Because I’ve never seen or heard of them in the wild. So did he domesticate them and then kill all of them except nine? Or does he just keep all the others in his basement. And what about when Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen die? Does he just name some other reindeer Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen? Now how about Mrs. Claus? It’s 2023 people! She doesn’t get so much as a cookie! And you expect me to believe that santa just eats millions of cookies in one night? Because I see crumbs on the plate. So he must have eaten the cookie instead of saving it for later.

Whoever this Santa guy is, I have a problem with you.

So thank’s for reading, and remember, I haven’t even talked about the other “magical” figures out there, so stay tuned for more, and remember to have a great holiday season no matter what holiday you are celebrating.

Happy Holidays!