What's Happening in 6th Grade in December... by Rachel Williams

The penny wars have begun! Currently, going through the classrooms, students are bringing in pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and cash to help raise money for the “Make-A-Wish Foundation.” Remember, one penny is equal to one positive point and any other coin/dollar is worth negative points. Still bring in other coins to bomb other classrooms and put them in negative points. The penny wars will continue through Thursday, December 17. That's two days before winter break! In expressions, we recently finished our Laurel Burch animals and our Indian Silhouette. We are now working on our Jai-Ho dance. We have Indian Cultural Day coming up which is Friday, December 18. When we return from break, we will start learning about Ancient China in Social Studies. Last week, we did a week of code in Science/Tech. People used https://code.org to make games on Flappy Bird, Star Wars, Minecraft, Infinity Play Lab, and Play Lab to make their own games. Once again, winter break is coming up December 19- January 4. We are almost in 2016! We have some exciting things coming up, have fun!

Book Review on School for Good and Evil By Santiago

Whatever you say this isn’t a girl book! This book is a great book, written by Soman Ghanaimi. A great book filled with Fantasy, and twist and turns. Join Agatha and Sophie on an adventure, both these girls live in a town known as Gavaldon, which is surrounded completely by woods. Every 4 years, the “school master” comes to take 2 children, one good, one evil. The children that are taken go to the fabled school for good and evil, where ordinary children learn how to become monsters or great heroes. Sophie and Agatha both qualify for one of these two roles. If you want to learn more, then embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

I thought this was a great book, I would rate it a 4 and a half stars out of 5. I really like how the author took examples of real fairy tales and used them to relate to the book, it really helped me understand the book. I would definitely recommend this book to others, especially if you like fantasy. It’s filled with one twist in particular that may make you not like the author at first but I thought that was great so if you like twists then read this book. If you’re looking for series then you’re in luck! This is a series with 3 books. Overall, I think this is a great book.

 

Penny Wars by Nicole Krushke

On December 8th, 2015 all of the Leading Edge students who are in 6-8th grade started a change war. Basically, a change war is a fun and competitive way to donate to the “Make -a- Wish Foundation”. Each class either has a milk carton or a glass jar. Each student had a choice to donate money into the container. The twist is that a penny is worth plus one point but, the rest of the coins and dollar bills equal negative points. It’s minus the value it is worth. For example, a quarter equals negative 25, dime equals negative 10, and so on. The objective is to get as many points as possible during the “war”.

All of the collected money will be donated to an organization called “Make -a-Wish Foundation”. The Make-a-Wish Foundation is an organization that arranges experiences, also known as wishes, for children with severe medical conditions. The change war ends two days before Winter break which is on December 17th. Every penny really does count, it can someone happier which is a big deal. I think this is such a clever and fun way to donate to a great cause!

Picture Sources:http://www.nateswish.com/images/IMG_4444_New.jpg and wish.org

NCS Girls Soccer Tournament By Mika and Kennedy

Just recently on December 1, 2015 our Natomas Leading Edge Knights girls soccer team had a tournament Bradshaw Christian. We played a total of two exciting games. In the end the knights didn’t get first, however with the help of our incredible coaches the whole team including Nuha Ghamian, Reyna Velazquez, Leah Miller, Emily Tang, Caitlin Law, Minerva Perez, Mia Collins, Kennedy Wise, Sofia Flores, Alex Clemons, Mika Shinoda, Sonia Singh, Mariana Jones, and Salma Qudiri worked very hard to earn 2nd place in the entire tournament.

The first game was at 2:05 versus Mills Middle School. During the first half of the game the score was 2-0 knights. Our coaches told the team that they were doing great and we all agreed with them to. Each and everyone of the soccer-loving players had been playing the best they had played all season. During the second half Natomas Charter scored three more goals. However for the three goals that we scored the other team scored one, but when everyone heard the ringing of the referee’s whistle they immediately knew the game was over. The final score of that game was knights over Mills 5-1. Then the soccer team pridefully walked over to the next field where Mitchell awaited us. 

After we won our first game against Mills 5-1 we played Mitchel. During this game we played the hardest that we had ever played together this whole season. In the first half of the game we were staying strong while our goalie was making amazing stops, and the defense marking and covering everyone, while the offense was trying hard to get a goal. However, Mitchell's defense was also staying strong and not giving up, while their offense was working very hard. After the first half the score was 0-0 . Our coaches told us that we were doing great, and that we needed to keep it up. In the second half we worked even harder than we did in the first half, but Mitchell was also working harder. With about 10 minutes into the second half of the game Mitchels goalie drop kicked the ball, and there player got a breakaway and scored which made the score 0-1. Unfortunately our team couldn’t get back up on the leaderboard so we lost the Championship game 0-1. But the girls on the soccer team played an amazing heartfelt game.

Overall the Natomas Charter Knights girls soccer team represented our school amazingly. Our fantastic goalies Leah and Mia only let in two goals throughout the tournament. On the other hand our forwards and midfielders scored 5 goals in the two games that were played. So, when you see somebody who was on the girls soccer team congratulate them because they did an outstanding job!

India Maps by Alyssa and Grace

Ancient India is fascinating to learn about! In our unit for ancient India, we have been learning a lot about everything India from a long time ago. Learning about how the Indus Valley civilizations formed, how they ended, and all the other things like their culture. We really enjoy all the projects that we have done. The best one was the relief map. We have learned a lot about ancient India and can’t wait to learn more.
We have not completely finished the relief maps yet, on Tuesday, we had just started them. We started of by drawing the lines of longitude and latitude, which took longer than we expected. After that we molded the land into the cardboard box. When I did it, I did not know there was flour to stick on our hands in so the the dough stick, so the dough cover our hands and the desks. We’ll be painting them on Monday once the dough is dry. Overall it was fun, but messy.

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The Land of Stories Book Review by Sanjeev and Tanner

So our book log was a book called “The Land of stories” by Chris Colfer and we both enjoyed the book! The book is sci-fiction in a way and fiction. The main characters are Chase and they get trapped in a fairy tale land and meet lots of Fairy Tale Characters like red riding hood. The book is emotional in a way and is meant for teens. The book is 400 pages long and on my experience the book was good and interesting. -Sanjeev

The rating I would give this book would be a 9/10. I loved every moment and this felt like the show “Once upon a time” as a book. I recommend this book to sci-fiction and fantasy fans. I think you would enjoyed this book even if you don’t like sci-fiction fan or a fantasy. I think their was a few things they had to fix but still it was a good book and recommend this book to anyone to read. -Sanjeev       

For my side of the book, Book “Land of Stories” is a really good book and had action and fantasy. This book also has a climax that is perfect for the book. The book is about Alex and Chase who sets off into a book of fairytales, but they aren’t happily ever afters all the time. When they both jump into the book, the evil queen escapes from the “jail” and starts to take over the kingdom one by one, while the 2 kids are not really knowing what is exactly going on there. Later, Alex and Chase are joined by their grandmother that has been gone ever since they were born, but them 2 did not know who she was. After a while, the 2 start pitching in on defeating the queen. This book captures on how and when it should end.I would definitely give this book a ⅘ star rating. This book was an amazing fantasy novel and I am already getting started on the next one. -Tanner