Tech-Taters

Hello everyone,

In New York, spring is springing. It has just started to get around 70˚ F (21˚ C) and it hasn’t dropped for three days! I am lucky to live a block away from a park where there is always something surprising or fun going on, and is usually bursting with color in the spring. I decided to go on a special outing in celebration of the arrival of spring.

As you can tell from my majestic language, I am excited.

My outing was a photo outing. I tucked my two year old Kodak into my pocket, and headed out the door and downstairs to the lobby. I was happily surprised to see that the tree outside my building was in full bloom, but stupidly I did not take a picture. Finally I arrived at the park, and the first thing I saw was a display of yellow, orange, pink, and purple flowers. Here are the pictures I took of those.

I took some other pictures on my photo outing, which I will reveal too.

This is an art installation up in the park, and I thought it was really pretty. This picture almost looks fake, doesn’t it? The sculpture is a little crazy, but there is always odd art up in that circle. Do you like it?

That is one of my favorites. There are two more that I like, here they are.

This tree was an outlier, because it was the only one around that had absolutely no blooms. This picture is kind of dramatic, maybe it has something to do with the gray sky…

Last one. Here goes…

I don’t exactly know how this one came up, maybe when I got a little thirsty .

I love taking photographs, and the park was just so perfect today. I am lobbying for my parents to get a family Nikon fancy camera, but for now I am using my nice little Kodak which I got two years ago for my birthday. And by the way, none of these were edited.

Is spring springing where you are? Are you excited? I hope you are inspired to go out and take your camera!

-Claire

As you already probably know, our teacher Ms. G is awesome! She is also an Australian teaching in New York City (and has a kind of funny accent ) So, on Jan. 26 our whole class celebrated Australia Day! Australia Day is the day that the first settlement was made on the Australian island. Since there were too many prisoners in England, they would send them to Australia and they would be in prison there. On Australia Day we learned Aussie terms like snags (sausages), ankle biters (toddlers) and chewie (gum). We listened to Australian songs (We are Australia) and studied a famous Australian person in history. I studied Dorothea Mackellar, a famous Aussie poet. I am glad that we have an Australian teacher, and that we got to study and celebrate Australia Day! Australia sounds like a place I would definitely like to visit!

-Claire

Our Aussie Mascot!

I chose geocaching as an activity on the school trip to Black Rock (read about more it on a previous post) and I have completely fallen in love with it. Geocaching is when there is something hidden (it is called a cache), and it is logged as a GPS location. Someone else can download the file to their GPS receiver and go hunting for the cache.

Geocaching is a fun way to go on adventures in places that maybe you are familiar with or places that you have never been to. For me, it was interesting to go exploring Black Rock to find the caches hidden all over with my partner. We were looking for little pink strings that my tech teacher hid. My favorite place where one was hidden was under a little platform. I also liked the ones that were hidden in the forest. It seemed to add a little bit more adventure. I have always lived in the city and the big forest seemed so daunting to me. Also, there was the anticipation of looking for the cache and then the excitement of finding it.

Usually, there are little surprises to find in the caches. The good thing to do is either: keep the surprise inside the cache, or replace it with another little surprise. This way, if another person comes to hunt for the same cache, they will find something there. On the file, there might be a description. Always read that so you know how hard the cache is to find, how hard the journey to finding it is (slope, terrain), and it might tell you some extra things you need to bring. Maybe it will even give you a few hints.  Also, remember that compass! Unless you have a superhuman sense of direction, you will need a compass to go where the GPS tells you to go.

A GPS is a very cool device. It gets information from satellites in outer space, and it knows where it (you) is. You need to be outside though for it to get the signals. Then it has the destination marked, and it tells you where you need to go (eg. go northeast 100 degrees). When you need to go in a different direction, the message changes. When you get close, it says “arriving at point ____” and even then you still have to find the actual cache. Go to geocaching.com to find out more about geocaching, and maybe find a cache hidden near you to find! I personally know there will be one near you!

-Claire

Anya and Kalik

Anya glanced nervously down at her sister Kalik. She was tugging at the rim of Anya’s thick fur jacket recently made by Anali, one of the only people in the Bear clan who was skilled at making clothes. Some people said that Kalik, only four winters old, had animal sense. Anya could tell now. Her sister felt something bad was coming.

And suddenly, Anya saw a quick shadow run through the winter woods. It was the coldest season of the year, and Anya knew she should be helping set the fire. Oh, why couldn’t Pa be home from work with the hunters? I want him to come home for the first meat of the year…

Anya saw it, barely. Its white coat blended in perfectly with the snow, except for the black, concentrated eyes staring right at her. A wolf.

Kalik started whimpering. “Kalik,” Anya called, “Go back into the hut. Don’t be afraid! I will come when I am done.” She didn’t feel as strong as she sounded as Kalik ran into the hut. How was she, only 11 winters old supposed to scare away this large, terrifiying wolf?

The wolf approached her and the hut. She wondered whether the wolf had passed through the rest of the huts. She hoped not. She didn’t want anyone to have been hurt. But even her hooded fur coat couldn’t stop her from being numb all over and make her brain think straight.

Anya thought through the possibilities of winning. She couldn’t fight it or kill it because Pa hadn’t taken her on hunting lessons yet. She would have to use her smarts. She didn’t know that that was one of the best things to do.

Running inside, she saw the first thing that could help her, her father’s extra bow. But no, she didn’t know how to use it and wouldn’t dare waste it — they take so long to make. But the next thing she saw, she knew would work. She grabbed it quickly and ran back out.

The wolf started to growl. Its beady eyes said, I will conquer you. Anya had never felt this way. Pa had always done this kind of work. And he did it with such ease. Why wasn’t he back yet?

The piece of fresh meat was in Anya’s shaking hands. She had to throw it, as far as she could, into the woods. But what if it didn’t work? She would have wasted her whole family’s dinner.

She closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to see the wolf. It came closer — she heard the wolf’s silent steps. Even closer, she could feel its breath. Pow! Her arm went up, and with all her might she flung the meat into the forest.

When she opened her eyes a crack, the wolf was gone. Just as she had hoped, the wolf had run after it.

She stumbled into the hut in complete disbelief. She had done it! Kalik was there. Anya knew her sense had told her the whole thing. Kalik was giving her a great big hug.

by Claire

Tomorrow, Friday the 15th, all the fifth grade will perform their air bands. It. is the Rock the Block Assembly, where if you want to do a dance to a song with friends, you can, but it is in front of  grades 3, 4 and 5. We are all very excited. Today we had a practice, and tomorrow we will have another practice before the assembly. It will be great!

Some songs people are doing are The Gummibear song, Baby, Jukebox Hero, Hey Soul Sister, Dynamite and many others. So, tomorrow, class 5A will excitedly shuffle down the stairs and in to the MPR. Everyone will laugh, sing and cheer as Air-Banders go up on the stage and have their  45 seconds of singing, dancing, and star power. And I, for one, and hoping for some good costumes!

-Claire