Scary Stories by Mrs. Meindl's Core Class

"Too Ghoul for School" Rally by Dhanisha and Daniel

Too Ghoul for School Rally from Dhanisha Ratilal's Point-of-View

Just recently we had our first school rally, and it was haunted house themed. Many of the leadership members dressed up in scary costumes and put ghostly makeup on to creep us out. All of them were coming out from behind pillars are scaring us, and I got scared by only one person, and that was Grace. When she came out from behind the pillar, I couldn’t see, and she screamed right in my face so I got scared. Then, because I got scared, I screamed, only to realize that it was Grace.


One game we played at the rally was a mummy wrapping contest, where one representative from each core class would go up and to see who the other two representatives in their grade were. There were 3 representatives in each grade, and two people were given a toilet paper roll, and the third person was the one who would get wrapped. What was supposed to happen was that the winners were the people who got their person wrapped the most, and 6th grade definitely won for that. What ended up happening was that who ever cheered the loudest won, and 7th grade beat us on that.



We also watched the first Leading Edge Live of the year. It included some of Mr. Shane’s jokes, questions, what has happened so far in the year, and some people answering a few questions. There were a lot of funny parts to the video. It was all so much fun and I can't wait for our next rally!!

Halloween Rally
Another Student's Perspective by Daniel Prasad

Just Recently we had a school rally! Our school rally was a Halloween theme. There were so many events happening in the rally such as, and haunted area where the students walk in. There was also a witch (Mrs. Meindl) and scary music. In the rally they made 6th, 7th, and 8th graders wrap up a teammate as fast as they can. The winner would be who did it the quickest and who had it the most wrapped. But in the rally they decided to see which grade had the loudest clap and 7th grade won. In my opinion we should have won because we had Dez the most wrapped.

Then there was the Taiko performances. Taiko is basically hitting a drum to different beats. I was in Taiko myself and I have to say it wasn't easy performing in front of a lot of people. The two beats I played were what we call “Hey” and another called the “Indian Beat”. I think I did good and in all three performances were pretty hard. But I had really good teammates to help me understand what I’m doing. In the end I think the Rally was a lot of fun. My favorite thing it the rally as the entrance because I love scares and Halloween. I hope you guys enjoyed the rally as much as I did.

Spirit Week by Gurneet Bring

Spirit week is here! Spirit week basically means to do something special each day according to the schedule. So this week is Natomas Charter’s spirit week. All students don’t have to participate but students who do dress up, do crazy things, and support our spirit week. Here are some of the spirit days.

Monday was wear school colors according to grade level which was 6th graders wear white, 7th graders wear black, and 8th graders wear red. Another option was just to wear any school shirt, sweatshirt, and any jersey. Lots of people supported this day and represented our school colors. Now let me tell you about Tuesday.

On Tuesday you are supposed to dress like a twin/clone. How you do that is you pick your friend or a student and find any clothing or accessory you guys have alike. For example you could wear the same pants, shirt, and accessory or something that looks similar. That is basically how you support twin/clone day. Now here’s Wednesday.

Wednesday is crazy hair day. To support it you do crazy things with your hair. For example you can dye it, shape it into different ways, make mini ponytails here and there, and use gel to make crazy shapes. It is originally called “Frightful hair Day” because your hair can be really crazy and unique that it is frightful. The next spirit day is Thursday.

On Thursday you wear clothing inside out or backwards or you could do both. For example you would turn a shirt inside out and make the tag part where your face is to make it backwards. On Friday it is “Crazy Socks Day”. On Friday you can wear different sizes, colors, and shapes of socks. And since on Monday it is Halloween you get to wear your Halloween costume. That is the Natomas charter School- Leading Edge spirit week.

"Apples 4 Ways" by Jaden Rona

Expressions is the best class to express creativity and different forms of art. Currently in Expressions we are working on a project called Apples 4 ways. This type of art consists of four separate sheets of paper, each having different techniques of art. This project uses paper, collage, charcoal, watercolor, colored pencils, e.t.c.

I used charcoal for one project, then cut paper on my second, colored pencil on another, and for the last one I did zentangle.

My favorite one to do is the zentangle and also the one where we cut paper to make the apples into the shape they are supposed to be.

You can be as creative as you want with them. I also like the idea of a collage apple because of the shading. You can use other pictures to create dark and light aspects of an apple. Where you put the pictures can make your project look almost 3D.

There were tons of students who used different types of methods. We were able to decorate our drawings the way we want and take our creativity to another level. Can’t wait until they're finished.

What's LE like right now for me? by Rohan

Hello everybody my name is Rohan Sheemar and this is my blog. I am going to discuss about my school activities and what I’m involved in. First, I would like to say that I really like my school. When I was at Star Academy, I always wanted to know what Leading Edge would be like. Since I have been coming to LE, I have gotten to know my teachers, principal, staff and all the students.

I enjoy all the classes I am enrolled in. My subjects are P.E, Expressions, Core, and Math. Many of my classmates are from Star Academy. In P.E., we are doing something called "Create a Game". It is where you group up and you are the only one allowed to choose 3 things from the choices given. Once your group has everything, then we have to be creative and create a game. If you are not participating with your team then, you will have to sit out and not play your groups game. There is paper that you will have to fill out. You will test your game to see if it actually works. Then you would group up with another and explain to them how to play our our game. After that they would explain to you what their game is and how it works. The other team would grade you on how well you explained your game. Our game had paddles, tennis ball, and bowling pins. We used the paddles to hit the tennis ball with and then we tried to get it in the basket. If you get it in the basket and it hits the pins then you can get extra points. So that was our Create a Game.

Expressions is very fun because you are allowed to listen to music while you do your projects. The project that we are working on right now is a apple project. All we have to do is design an apple and use oil pastels, charcoal, etc, and more. So you are required to create 4 apples and your are supposed to put it into a collage. The collage can be in many different shapes as long as it’s a collage of the apples. In my project I used charcoal so I could get that shadowing. I did not want to use watercolor because I am not the best at water coloring them.

In Core/Science Tech we are working on this project called Solar Oven Design Challenge. So what you do is you group up and you are designing a solar oven. So what my group did was we had a box and you had a type of insulator. We would get a thermometer sensor and we would see how high the temperature would be. We just did this project and we are still continuing it. In Core/Social Science we are doing a lot of thing such as learning about Mesopotamia, preparing for that test and much, much, more. In Core/Language Arts we are getting ready for the Mesopotamia test. This test is going to be a 7 paragraph essay on the test. Core is very fun for me and the other students in my core class.

Hope you enjoyed my blog!

Digital Storybooks

Inspired by the beautiful picture book Weslandia by Paul Fleischman and our studies of ancient civilization traits, sixth graders wrote their own civilization stories. Here are some that decided to go with a digital storybook format. Just click on the books below to read them.

Insulation Challenge-By Ajay Trinh

Lately in Science/Tech, we’ve been working on insulation. Insulation is an object that traps heat. In class, we work in groups and experiment what objects are good insulators. The objects that we (and most people) chose to use were, tin foil, styrofoam, plastic, and cardboard. We used a wireless temperature sensor as a thermometer which would give us information on to a computer. Our group wrapped our items around the plastic cups we used to see which would be the best insulator. For our group, the best insulator was the styrofoam. It was styrofoam because when we put it into the water then put the thermometer sensor in, the temperature went up.

I learned that a plastic wrap was a not so good insulator too. One of our big problems was that when we tried making a hole for the thermometer sensor through the tin foil ripped some which was a minor problem. Another problem was that sometimes the water was too hot and melted the cup! The majority of the time, the temperature stayed at one spot, then either moved down a little, or moved up a lot (probably because the sensor was warming up and we needed to give it time). This experiment was awesome! I hope we get to do it again but with more insulators!

6th Grade Volleyball by Jasmyne Warren

During the 2016-17 school year I was on the school volleyball team. Volleyball was really fun and I thought it was a good learning experience. I had missed tryouts for the season but my coach let me join anyway. It was hard at first because I had never played volleyball before. As I got better it was much easier. On the team we all had nicknames, mine was Jazzy. My team was a good team, played well, and accepted each other. We played a total of 11 games.

In volleyball I learned how to set (in front row) and bump (in back row). I liked bumping better but I was better at setting. When I played in games and served most of my serves made it over the net. It was exciting to play in games but I got nervous at the same time. Our eleventh game in volleyball was the championship that we won because we work together well. I really liked volleyball and want to do it again next year.

My school offers different sports. The sports we have are basketball, soccer, volleyball, and track/field. In the spring I am going to do track/field because I want to become faster at running.

Leadership by Jensen Sim

 Recently I got into Leadership, and a lot of stuff is happening already. I went through a nerve wracking interview process. I’m very happy and relieved that I got into this; now I can help the school more and use my knowledge from 5th grade to here. My team is very positive and encouraging. We are also extremely creative. Mrs. Meindl came up with a phrase “Too Ghoul For School” for our next rally theme, and one of my teammates came up with “Halloweek” which we are going to use for the spirit week before Halloween. Here is a picture of our new Leadership team. 

The majority of leadership kids I know, but it is also good to make friends. I think leadership will be a good experience for me because it will help me and the school. It will improve my leadership skills and improve my dignity. Leadership is a big part of the Leading Edge Community so I am honored to be part of it. It will also improve the school because we will make more exciting events and a safer environment.

Padlet Book Logs by Jessica

Padlet is a website that six graders are using this year to give their opinions on the books that they've read. It is very useful for other students because they get to see what their classmates thought about a book. So they could see if the book is worth reading. In fact, recently my class made it a bit more fun by getting to scan our classmates' QR codes with the iPads and see what they thought about the books they read so far this year and over the summer. 

It also comes in handy for the 40 books Challenge to remember what we have read and for teachers because they can see how much you're reading. I think it is the best website to comment on and review books because it lets you explain what you liked about the book and tell special highlights that you liked about the book. 

Lawrence Hall of Science by Michael

Last Friday Leading Edge sixth graders went on a field trip to the Lawrence Hall of Science. It was lots of fun. First we had some fun outside on a giant DNA strand and a big plastic whale as well as ate lunch.Then we went inside and started looking at exhibits. There were lots of exhibits that were interactive...Like one where you scaled a wall like a gecko. 

Then we went to a class called "Engineering with Hydraulics". There was another class called "Fantastic Gases". In Engineering with Hydraulics we had to design an arm to lift a weight using syringes, tubes and wood building blocks. After the class we looked at some other exhibits. Next we went outside to a beautiful courtyard with a great view. Even the pond outside was an experiment! Then to the gift shop, where some people bought stuff. Then the long ride home...What a great day!!