Taiko Drumming by Jordan Florento

When my brother told me what Taiko was, I was amazed! The sounds were magnificent and the different sounds of different drums were so creative! Some were small and some were big, each playing a part of the song. At my first Leading Edge Rally, the Taiko team performed for the whole school and that inspired me to try out for Taiko.


The Taiko training was on Wednesday, 8:00 A.M. When I walked into the Taiko room, I was amazed about how many people signed up. When we divided into groups, we practiced the audition beat and people were still learning. Before that day, my brother had taught me because we both thought the audition was the next day. The Taiko member said that I drum very good.

There were about two to three practices. I noticed there were less people practicing and others weren’t interested anymore. I saw people get better and I too. Besides, we needed to work on our synchronization and playing the right part at the right time. When we tried playing the audition beat alone to see if we need help, it would be nerve racking and frightful. Some people went fast and sometimes messed up.

When it was day for the auditioning, it was scary. There was drums outside for people to practice before they go inside and perform. I was practicing and telling myself just to play the music and don’t focus on anything else. After that, I figured out that 8th graders were going next, I wished good luck to them and tell them “I hope you pass!” After that, the 6th graders go next. When they finished the audition beat, they heard them saying that they did bad and messed up and rushed. When it was my turn, I was very scared in the inside and confident in the outside. When I came inside the room, I saw Taiko members that were judges. They would write down stuff that is happening during the audition beat of each person. I played the beat and went fast at one part, then played the song well. I felt like I did splendid. After a week, my expressions teacher Ms, Meindl told me early that I have passed. I have informed some people that I know. After about one to two weeks later, there was a list on Ms. Meindl’s window about the people who passed. I saw my brother had passed and I was happy for the other people who had passed.

Our Mentors by Jeffrey and Diego M

Mentors can help anybody in many different ways. They also make fun activities like social activities you did in the beginning of the year. They are very nice and they check up on us once in awhile. Everybody has their own group of students with 2-3 mentors. They always make everybody feel welcome to our school. Mentors are part of a group called WEB(Where Everyone Belongs). In eighth grade anybody can apply to get to be a part of the WEB leadership too!!

You get your mentor when you first start the year when you have orientation. All kinds of people are in your group, like some people you know that went to a different school, but used to go to your school, or some of your friends might be in your group, or even some people you’ve never seen before and don’t know one thing about them!

Just recently our mentors came in and talked to us about the 5 Leading Edge Pillars. These pillars are Technical Savvy, Critical Thinking, Building Leadership, Cultural Diversity, and Global Thinking. We are having a parent conference in three weeks. We will talk to our parents about our work, our goals, and challenges. We’ll also make a digital portfolio to showcase our work.

In conclusion, our mentors are people that help us throughout the year and make us feel welcome to Natomas Charter School.

Book Review by Yathin

My Life as a Ninja

By:Janet Tashjian

I think My Life as a Ninja was a great book, it is about a boy named Derek and his friends trying to uncover a mystery about who vandalized the school with an artwork of a minotaur with graffiti. Ever since Derek and his friends tested out a video game called Arctic Ninja they have been obsessed with ninjas.So they started to take Junior Ninja lessons their sensei is Sensei Takai, but soon they figure out that all they do in their lessons are to stay silent. Then at school the principal announced that the school had been vandalized and will do anything to catch the vandals. So Derek and his friend in a wheelchair Umberto decide to put their ninja skill together and try to catch this vandals. So they try to catch the vandal, but something goes wrong they get caught by the principal, and the principal thinks that they are the vandals. So the principal tells their parents and they get in trouble. The next few days another mural of the minotaur was graffitied onto a wall of a high school so Derek and his friends began to collect clues, but then as Derek walked across the hall he saw a glimpse of Umberto’s backpack and saw a can of purple spray paint. So Derek starts to think Umberto’s the vandals and he doesn’t trust him. Derek mom’s birthday happens and caricaturist appears and draws everybody and Derek asks him if he could look at his drawings and on the last page he saw a minotaur grinning back at him. So he starts to think that the caricaturist is the vandal. So he decides to follow him at night thinking he will be there and he was he was staring at the artwork. Next night he goes to the same spot hoping to find him there but he found a new person graffitiing the walls with a minotaur. The vandal takes off his mask so he could take a breath and Derek found out it was Felix his dad’s colleague. So he catches him and Felix gets sent away. I hope you all take the chance to read this great book!!

Lawrence Hall of Science by Jordan and Jackson

So we went on a field trip to the “Lawrence Hall of Science Museum” and it was soo fun. When we got to the Museum the first thing we did was eat lunch. We ate lunch outside on the big blue whale, the spiral statute, and by the fountain. When everybody was done eating their lunch we went inside the building and we were able to explore for a few minutes. But after that we got to go and dissect squids, well I mean at least my group did, though there were two other groups, fantastic gas, and hydraulics. But man dissecting the squids was so fun.

We learned a lot about our squids too. Like how eat, and what they prey on. Although I do still have one question, what preys on a squid? I wonder. And then after we learned in one of our three classrooms we were able to explore all the other fun activities there were to do. Such as floating beach balls, along with our paper airplane aerodynamics, and planetarium. I believe that's what it was.

In the hydraulics group we were supposed to make creations that could move in two directions or could hold six or more ounces. The materials we used were syringes, long rubber tubes, water, and other things like pegs and peg boards.

Lawrence Hall of Science by Mari

Today was the day we went to the Lawrence Hall of Science. During this field trip, we got to do a variety of cool things. This included dissecting squid, learning about hydraulics and dry ice, and checking out some awesome exhibits.

The first thing we did was eat lunch. During lunch, we had time to play. There was a giant whale and a life-sized model of our DNA. We also had an opportunity to take photos of the amazing view.

Next, it was time to go to the labs. We got into our groups and went downstairs. I was put into Squid Dissection. We got to dissect a squid and learn how it survives.

The very last thing we did was look around in the exhibits. This included math, weather, and animals. My personal favorite was the animal area. There were lots of insects like butterflies, cockroaches, bees, and even walking sticks!

I had a great time at the Lawrence Hall of Science. I definitely think this is a field trip to remember. I think everyone will have an amazing time at the Lawrence Hall of Science.

2017 Varsity Volleyball Tournament by Amanda

This year varsity volleyball did a blast this season playing their games, the best part is that they won all! But the most important match was Championships. The Championships were located at our school. There were 4 teams who made it into the tournament. Varsity played the 2nd match and the 4th match. They played against Capital for the 2nd match and guess what……they won! Now it was time for the final game to see who is going to win the tournament, Knights vs Mills! It was the second set, everyone was excited… it was the winning point…..and boom they won! The Leading Edge families cheered and was so happy! And that’s a good end to their season.

First Dance of the School Year by Ava

On 10/6 we set sail to our first dance of the school year! Mrs.Meindl’s leadership team worked very hard for making this dance special. The school dance themed was cruise themed which was pretty cool cause we were setting sail to our first dance. Everyone was enjoying the food, music, and hanging out with their friends.This year we decided to have open up the outside of the MPR for more people to hangout if they just want to enjoy spending time with their friends. This is a night that the 6th graders will never forget. Especially since it was their first middle school dance.

      

Chess by James

Every Friday, in Mrs. Meindl’s classroom, everyone plays chess. Sometimes, two people will play for fun, or two people will challenge each other to a competitive game. It is a chance, for some students, to have a break from the school day and relax. Or, for others, it is a chance to challenge their friends to a long, heated match. Almost everyone loves it. A lot of people probably didn’t even know how to play chess before Mrs. Meindl taught them. There are a lot of good chess players in class, and it is crazy to see how easily they beat you, but also fun. I think I’m speaking for everyone when I say that Mrs. Meindl is an amazing teacher, and that chess is an amazing part of her class.


Comments About Chess

Gage-”I love playing chess, just for the fun of it.”


L.J.-”It’s fun and intense.I like to play competitive games.


Shaine-”I like the game. It’s fun. I learned a lot.”


Yathin-”It’s fun, exciting, and it involves lots of strategy. Sometimes I try hard to win, or I just play for fun.”


Audrey-”It is glorious, but I like to draw while I play, because if I don’t, I get very bored. I mostly just play or fun. I don’t like when people scream a lot, though.”

LE Basketball Team by Aziel

The LE basketball teams are going to be good. I see the many of the varsity team playing everyday at lunch.They look pretty good out there already. They talk to each other, know hot shoot, have defense, know how to dribble, and they know how to be teammates.They can be good, I have seen them play now they need to do in the basketball season.They know how to play pretty good with each other. I have some friends on the team. Their names are Xavier Bowen and Isaac Tong. They are pretty good at basketball. Xavier is in 6th grade and Isaac is in 8th grade. The basketball season starts this month.Their first game is in the middle of this month, on the Tuesday after October break. Xavier feels like this team is doing well so far. He said, “We have a good team and a lot of good players.”

When I asked some of the players about the season, they said they need to be smart always. The varsity basketball team has one sixth grader, a couple of seventh graders, and then the eighth graders. They are aggressive. They can take some wild shots sometimes, but they are practicing to get better. The varsity basketball team I believe will do well this year. The basketball team is I think will have a lot a have of ups and downs. The team will do good though. I predict they will have a great season.

GO KNIGHTS!

Art Project by Danny B.

In this blog post I am going to be talking about the recent project of the apples 4 ways this project was already due but I decided to talk about it in this blog post. The apples 4 ways was when you had to draw an apple and then color/making it different than others. For example one of the apples had to be a collage as in putting materials like fabric or newspaper to make a simple object. There were three more that you could make one of them were a colored pencil or oil pastel, Mrs. Meindl said that marker would ruin it so that was not one of them. The second apple could be shaded with only black and white and charcoal which Mrs. Meindl provided, you would shade the apple, and then use charcoal to make the apple more darker. The last apple you had to do was water colors this was the easiest for me because water colors take a lot of room so it would get done faster.

In this project there had to be a background in every of your apple drawings except for the shaded one (black and white) Mrs. Meindl told that the background could not be childish as in no clouds or sun especially with faces.this project was worth a lot of your grade and if you finished it then you can’t get a very bad grade. This is the apples 4 ways project and a recap on this is that there is needed color pencil/oil pastel for one apple, fabric, tissue, and colored paper for a second apple and water colors and shading for the last apple that was all of this project for Mrs. Meindl.

Leading Edge Volleyball by Paris

On Thursday, there was a girl volleyball game. The team has six and seventh graders. The people on the team were Jasmyne, Hailey, Sophia, Lauren, and Lauren M, Paris, Myah, Reese, Ava, Amanda, Skyline, Juliana, and Sarah. The game was at our school. A lot of people came to support the team and they cheered for everyone. They also were very excited they were cheering as loud as they can for their teammates. Everyone was playing hard and were very aggressive and they had some very good plays. They almost lost the first set but they with teamwork they caught up. At the end they won the game! But sadly it was the last game for the junior varsity team. They almost made it to the championships but they didn’t. Even though they didn’t make it to the championships everyone was happy and cheering even though they didn’t make it. That’s our week. Thanks for reading! I hope you like our blog!

The Book is Better than the Movie! by Sam A.

My Book Review about

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games was a great book with lots of action and I really enjoyed this book better than the movie because I felt it was more descriptive. The story is about people being separated into 12 districts, they are very poor and hardly even have food. Each year two young people from each district are picked randomly to go fight in the Capitol. The young people are selected as tributes and they are forced to basically kill or be killed, there can only be one survivor. There is a brave teenage girl named Katniss, she was brave because when her little sister’s name was called to be a tribute to go participate in the hunger games, Katniss stepped forward and took her little sister’s place. Everyone is forced to watch the hunger games on big televisions while each person eliminates the other. 

This book is filled with lots of action and you will probably find that once you start reading it is hard to put down.I have a hard time choosing favorite characters because I think they are all unique in their own way. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good book with action, suspense, and a good survival story.

Hope you enjoyed my book review.