Friday, December 21, 2018

Indian Cultural Day 2018 by Zach

For Indian Cultural Day, we did some pretty cool stuff. First, we got to do Rangoli chalk art with
Some students wearing traditional clothing styles.
three partners while some people including me got to set-up our backdrops for the skits with Mrs. Meindl. We saw how to do some Rangoli art in Math class on Wednesday.

Then after the Rangoli, we all went into the NPR to get ready for the expression skit performance and Takio. Fourth period puppet show went first, then the 4th period dancing to Jai Ho. Their skit was really good and their dance was awesome. Then Mrs. Bibayoff’s two core class skits Demons in the Desert and Prince Five-Weapons and the Sticky-Haired Monsters. I was in Prince Five-Weapons. The skits for Core were for extra credit, and I really enjoyed doing them.


Up next were the skits and dances for 5th period expressions. Since that puppet show had a lot of people in it, the dance only had eight people in it but it was one of the best ones. Then after that, my period, 7th period had to do the dance and skit. I was performing in the skit and my role was Yama, the Hindu god of death. I really enjoyed doing the skit of Savitri and Satyavan in a puppet show. Then after our puppet show, 7th period did their dance to Jai Ho. All of the dances and the puppet shows were amazing! Then Takio performed a really good performance with their Japanese drums. And to top it all off, we got some delicious Indian food that parents provided for us. So all in all, Indian Cultural Day was awesome!


Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Award Ceremony Gives Out a Lot of Awards By: Zeeyad and Vishruth

The trimester one award ceremony was first scheduled for Friday 11/30/2018 but it got canceled and the date was changed to 12/3/2018, which is Monday. This really marks who did great during the first trimester. It is great to have a nice ceremony to celebrate personal achievements.

One of the most prized awards includes the high honor roll which will be awarded to students with 90% and above in all their classes. There is also just the normal honor roll which is awarded to students with 80%- 89% in all their classes. The principal's award is awarded to the same students as the high honor roll.

The most auspicious award is the pillar award. Every teacher picks a student for each pillar tech savvy is how well you work with technology, global thinking is thinking outside the community, cultural diversity is the cultures and religions in the earth, Problem Savvy is the thinking of thinking in solving problems skillfully, and building partnership is how well you can work with others.

Some of the people who won the super prestigious pillar awards in 6th grade include Anirudh, Andrew, and Vishruth Gudipati (Me). The high honor roll and honor roll had a great turnout as almost everyone was in one or the other. There are way too many to list though especially 8th grade.

All the teachers were able to give awards in 6th grade the most abundant award was critical thinking and innovative thinking. I want to thank the teachers who were able to give pillar awards including our core teachers Mrs. Bibayoff, Mrs. Leporiere, and Mrs. Meindl. And of course, our principal who gave out the honor roll and high honor roll.

We asked questions to some of the pillar award winners. We asked: How do you feel about winning the pillar award? Do you feel like you deserved it?

Andrew H. said, “I think that I deserved it and I felt very happy and proud when I heard my name called.”

Anirudh M. said, “I believe that I deserved the award and was glad and proud to accept the award.”

That was our report on the LE award ceremony. Hope everyone was able to accept an award! Thank You for reading this blog! Please check out the pictures below!

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Mummy's Tomb by Nate and Stanley



Recently, on the 9th of November, Leading Edge had its annual Mummy’s Tomb play to celebrate their unit on Egypt in Social Studies. Mummy’s Tomb is a play in which “tour guides” played by students, lead a tour group through the Nile and into a tomb. There were three pairs of tour guides per class, therefore making nine pairs of tour guides; each pair included a dumb tour guide and a smart tour guide, both of them would play an important role in the play because they are the main characters. The rest were characters like mummies, the Sphinx, Egyptian gods, and more. There were scenes in the play such as, the weighing of the heart, the mummification scene, and let’s not forget, the Thriller dance mummies. For those of you parents, students, and/or other people who couldn’t make it, here’s how things went down.

We started in the Multi-Purpose Room with the “King Tut” (performed by Jaxson) and “Walk Like An Egyptian”(performed by Sofia P), then the tour guides, under Mrs. Meindl’s instructions, started leading their tours, first was Mrs. Meindl’s class, then Mrs. Leporiere’s, and last but not last, Ms. Bibayoff’s class. Many of the tour guides that have not yet lead their tours performed as backup dancers for the “King Tut” and “Walk Like An Egyptian” performances. Once a tour was told to start, the tour guides, along with the tour group would go along the Nile, telling facts about it as the group walks along it. Then, the smart tour guide would stop the group right in front of the hallways entrance, and that was the scene of the Nile Beast(Landon) and the Ostrich(Max), the Nile Beast would chase the Ostrich and the Ostrich would get killed. After that scene, the group would continue to walk toward Ms. Bibayoff’s room. There would be a scene where tomb robbers were killing, then the group would proceed to Ms. Bibayoff’s room (the entrance to the tomb), but the door was covered in hieroglyphics. This is the part where the dumb/dodo tour guide would read the hieroglyphics, which said, “Do not enter or you will die,” Just before entering, Mariah, who was supposed to be an injured tour guide, who warned the group to not enter, as her group “all died when they went in there, only she survived” But the tour guides would ignore her warning and go in the tomb anyway. Inside, there was a king (Mark) and queen (Shalom), who were in their eternal rest, which they were soon to be awoken by the dodo tour guide, by touching them. The dodo tour guide touches the queen/king, and the queen and king order them to be killed, as the group try to go out, they would be blocked by earthquake zombies. The group heads to the main area, where the mummification scene began. Anubis (Nate), a high priest (Maya E), canopic jar girls (Kayla, Alaiya, Breanna A, Sofia N) would be performing a ritual on a dead body (Eric). Spoiler, the dead body tries to scare the group after been told by the priest to examine it. After that, the tour group heads toward Mrs. Leporiere’s room, as they enter Hall of Terror, which is a part of the class where there will be students who try to scare the group. At the end of the Hall of Terror, there was a snake pit. The snake(Nick) would eat/kill its victim (Evan M), after that, the group heads to the front of the classroom to see another mini-play, this time it’s a weighing of the heart, starring Anubis (Atharv), Osiris (Ibraheem T), the two souls (Ibrahim D and Daniel Y), and Amnet (Moses). One of the souls would weigh heavier than the feather of Ma’at, the goddess of truth, and justice, their heart would be fed to the god Amnet, who would eat the dead soul’s heart, and one would proceed to the Afterlife. Right after this scene, the tour group would go out, but get stopped by two guards (Lamont and David) to answer the Sphinx’s (Maya G) riddle. The riddle would be “What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the noon, and three at night?” A fake tourist, played by a student would shout out a random answer, and then he/she would be killed by the guards. Then the dodo tour guide would say the correct answer (a man), and the group would be granted access to the treasure room (Mrs. Meindl’s room). Once the tour group entered the room, the dodo tour guide would immediately focus on the treasure in the middle of the room. The dodo tour guide would take it, then Joaquin would kill the dodo tour guide. Then the queen (Emily) gets mad, and the gods Ma’at (Sam), Seshat (Lien), and Thoth (Andrew) would decide how they would punish the dodo tour guide. Then the king (Mycah) yells ENOUGH, and bring the mummies alive. Then the mummies dance and after the dance is over, the tour guide leads the group
back into the MPR where the tour finally ends.


That was a lot to say (or type), but the entire thing was really fun, and if I ever had a chance to go back to do it all over again, we would.

Friday, November 9, 2018

We’ve got spirit, yes we do! We’ve got spirit! How ‘bout you? by Bailey



Last week I participated in my first Spirit Week in middle school. Each day we was assigned a theme and the core class with participating students received “spirit points.” The core class with the most spirit points at the end of the year receive some sort of prize. I was sure there would be tons of students that would participate during Spirit week.

On the first day of Spirit week, we wore our pajamas to school. My mother hates pajama day, but I love it. This seems like an easy day for me. I get up and don’t really have to get ready. Everyone must have felt the same because there were a lot of students in pajamas on Monday. It was fun to see so many students participating in this. I think it helped to see others showing school spirit because it made it more fun to continue the week in spirit wear. On Tuesday, we had “sports day.” Most students wore their team jersey. It seems like the most participation came from kids who already play a sport. This was especially true to the kids that play soccer. There were lots of soccer and baseball uniforms. Although I play a sport, I didn’t not wear my sports outfit because I swim. This was the only day I choose not to participate. I guess it would have been easy to just wear one of my mom’s jerseys.

Wednesday had the largest group of participation because it was Halloween. Students came in costumes. Although there were not a lot of homemade costumes, I thought the ones that were not store bought were the most creative. I really liked Sam’s costume as a wind up doll. Her hair was up in two buns and rosy cheeks like a doll. Her parents made a turn key that attached to her back. I came as a “she wolf.” I’m not big on wearing dresses, but it was fun because my friends all dressed up for Halloween. It definitely made it easier for me too.

My personal favorite spirit day was “Twin/squad” day. My friends Mariah Brooks and Maya Goodwin wore the same shirts, jeans and converse. I thought there would be more people who would coordinate with their friends and dress up for this day, but I hardly saw anyone else participate. However, Mrs. Leporiere really stepped it up by dressing like Mr. Shane. It was clever and fun. I would have liked to see other student participate more, but it’s ok, it was still my favorite.

Finally Friday was “class color” day. Six graders were supposed to wear white, seventh grader wore red and eighth grader wore black. Our six grade class had pretty good participation. This was an interesting day because it was the first time, you could see immediately which grade people were in. You also saw where the different classes hung out during lunches and breaks.

I was a little scared to participate in spirit week, but I'm glad I did. I think most of the students felt the same. I know I will be better prepared next year.

Stranger Things Rally by Evan



This month we had our first rally. Since it was Halloween, the theme of the rally was “Stranger Things.” We were dressed up and ready. The rally was LOUD with Taiko drumming and the chant of the crowd. They had the letters for Will. They also had Demogorgons and recreated characters from Stranger Things. All of Leading Edge was there at the rally.

One person was chosen to represent there homeroom in each class. If you were chosen, You participated in the Eggo-waffle eating contest. I believe this was was inspired by Eleven in Stranger Things because she loved Eggo waffles. After that, all the people in the gymnasium were asked to line up with their homeroom teacher. From there, you played telephone with your class until you could get the answer right. Once you got it right, you were dismissed.

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Quintessence: A Book Recommendation by Landon

Quintessence 

Book by: David Walton



Today I’m going to be telling you about an awesome book I am currently reading. The book is called Quintessence and it takes place five hundred years ago. The characters in this book live in a world that believes alchemy to be a true science. When a ship that was coming back from a supposed paradise returns with everyone on the ship dead people start to ask questions. They begin searching the ship and discover a few animals from the “paradise” with powers such as being able to pass through walls and telekinesis.


This book is in the fantasy genre and is a really good book for fans of the Percy Jackson series and also is just an awesome book in general. I really like it because it has an amazing plotline that is really fun to follow. I recommend it and think that people should read it if they are looking for a good book to read.

Friday, October 26, 2018

Upcoming Events by Moses and Cameron


HALLOWEEN IS AROUND THE
CORNER BUT THAT'S NOT THE ONLY THINGS….

The rally is coming up on the 31st so make sure you bring your NCS spirit!!! Also the Mummy's Tomb is coming and make sure you fun-filled night. Then we have a no school on Veteran's Day. So don’t come to school that day!!!! LAST BUT NOT LEAST HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!! HALLOWEEN is a very scary night so make sure you have a scary costume or a scary mask. 😈

"Halloweb" Event by Destiny


The fall social was a event for all of LE and PFAA sixth graders .The event started at 3:30 and ended at 6:00. It was for all sixth graders and their eighth grade web leaders.The first thing we did when it opened was waiting in a line to get a bag because we were going on a scavenger hunt for candy and puzzle pieces!There was approximately Nine to Ten courses to go to for the scavenger hunt which were all around PFAA and LE. Next when we were done collecting the candy and the puzzle pieces we sat down at the auditorium and put the puzzle pieces together that turned out to be a cute coloring pumpkin picture.After we were done putting the puzzle pieces we lined up outside the multi-purpose room for a little while, then as soon as we went into the Multi-Purpose Room we put our backpacks down in the corner and went into a line for pizza popcorn and soda for the movie then we sat down at any table to watch the movie (but everybody sat with their friends).Then the movie started we watched the movie coco and everybody sat down , before I get into more details here are some words from kids who went!

Interview:

Savannah from LE : Q ;”how was the experience”?

“The experience was very fun,we got to hang out with our friends,build puzzles ,whachcoco while eating pizza and popcorn,and basically went trick or treating because we went to the stations collecting candy!


Faith from LE:Q : “How was the experience”

“Its was good I saw all of my friends ,the pizza and candy and popcorn was good but they ran out really fast and not everybody got to have a chance to get seconds.”


Mark: Q : “How was the experience”?

“It was fun he liked the movie I really enjoyed the scavenger hunt he really liked it and hope there will be another one”


Dzoveeg: Q : “How was the experience”?

“It was fun because I got candy and I like the scavenger hunt because we had to work for the candy I liked the movie”


Conclusion: To me its sounds like all four people ha really fun at this event and hope soon there will be another one just like it!Thank you for listening.


Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Fall Dance by Maya Espinoza



We had our first dance of the year on October 5th 2018. Everyone was really excited about it. At the dance there were a lot of people and the music was playing really loud. They had soda, candy, pizza, and fruit. Everyone was dressed really fancy. I thought the dance was really cool and I had a lot of fun. I even asked some of my classmates what they thought.

Here's what Alaiya Smith thought of the dance. “It was fun there were some technical difficulties with the music but it was still fun. The food was really good I liked the pizza and the candy.”

Here's what Isabella Bellucci White thought of the dance. “It was really fun. I loved hanging out with my friends. I enjoyed the free food. The music was awesome but it stopped working towards the end.”

Here's what Kaylani Potts thought of the dance. “I thought it was cool for my first dance. I didn't like how the music stopped it started skipping so they had to stop it. They wouldn't play some songs that people wanted and it could of been clean.

Here's what Andrew Hong thought of the dance. It was really interesting. I didn't really dance at all. I liked the food. I was mostly just hanging out with my friends instead of dancing. And I really liked the songs.”

Here's what Joaquin Tang thought of the dance. “I liked it the music was a little loud that's why I didn't stay inside. I was hanging out with my friends. I really liked the fruit and the soda.”



Monday, October 15, 2018

Busy Week Before the Break by Anika and Miya



The week before the Fall Break was loaded with fun activities and events. The first event that happened was the field trip on Tuesday to the Lawrence Hall of Science, there were also soccer tryouts on Tuesday and Wednesday then on Thursday there was the volleyball tournament and on Friday - the dance

Tuesday, October 2nd all of the sixth grade boarded buses and drove to the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, California. The bus ride was long but it was worth it. We got there bright and early in the morning and at 8:00 sharp we left the school. We thought that it was a very fun and educational field trip and everybody else seemed to have a great time.

There were three main parts to the field trip, the exploration time, the lunchtime, and the lab time.The Lawrence Hall of Science had many hands-on exhibits. One of the things we got to see was a giant globe that showed water currents. They did an experience where they dropped shoes into the ocean and people found them on the beach. It showed scientists how water currents worked. We even got to see some animals, like a snake and some bugs.

The most unique thing we did on this field trip was dissecting squids! First we watched a video about squids eating, swimming and hunting. Then we learned about the squids structures and functions. One of the structures that we learned about is the ink sac and the function is to scare away predators, when the squid is threatened. During the dissection we learned where the beak is and were the spine is on the squid.

Since it was clear out there was an area that had an amazing view where you could see all of Berkley and parts of San Francisco. We also could see Alcatraz and some other islands from the deck as well. This field trip was very fun and we are looking forward to more!


Friday, September 28, 2018

Early Human Museum by Mariah and Maya G



The 6th graders at Leading Edge Academy have been working on their very own museum. The museum is an Early Human museum, that has many replicas of artifacts dating back to almost 6 million years ago.

This museum was not an easy task. The process was long, hard, and difficult. First, they had to choose what group they were going to make artifacts of. Some classes had assigned groups, others had students choose. Next, you brainstormed what you will be making. Each group was required to have a digital portion, and many did presentations. After that, came the hardest part of the project.

Lots of groups decided to make amazing replicas of tools, food and even houses! One group even made a costume! It was very accurate! Bows and arrows, spears, fires, and more were all created! The hardest part was making the dioramas. Some of the students made diorama inside of boxes. The early farming town of Catal Huyuk was made by a group of students, by wrapping boxes with paper, hot glueing them together, and painting it. The Australopithecus group made a diorama of life back then inside a shoe box. In the end, all the groups projects turned out amazing!

Museum Video Tour



Australopithecus Animal Horn                                             Neanderthal Skull





Early Human Tree Cave Ar



Homo Sapiens Bow and Arrow                                       Neanderthal Fire




Homo Sapiens Fishing                                              Homo Erectus fire


LE School Clubs By: Daniel and Eric


Taiko: Taiko is a Great way to connect with friends, Beating drums, and having fun with friends Before school!

Makerspace challenge: This is an after-school program that contains working as a team to complete fun and competitive challenges in the media center from 2:50 - 3:30!

Engineering: This engineering club Is a really fun activity club that contains flying drones, making robots and much more exciting and fun things.

Chess club: Chess club is a fun and challenging club for kids that want to play chess with their friends at lunch! Chess club Is on Fridays, on lunch, in Ms. Meindl's room

Leadership: Leadership is a student club where you can help create school activities such as dances, rallies, spook grams, and much more.

Math Olympiad: The sign-up sheet is a blue colored slip which you can get in Mrs. Leporieres’ room. The first meeting isn’t until next Wednesday!

Open gym: Open gym is an after-school activity and is for people that are getting picked up late from school and have nothing to do. Open gym is only on Fridays and is from 3:00 to 4:00.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Long Walk to Water


First Blog by Mrs. Leporiere's Class:

One Book, One School.

There’s only one book the whole school is reading, and that’s Long Walk To Water, New York Times Bestseller, created by Linda Sue Park.


The book centers around Nuer Tribe, Nya, who brings her family water from a pond every single day and Dinka Tribe, Salva Dut, who must survive a war. between the government and the rebels. Both live in South Sudan, a country with limited sources of food and water, and both stories are true.

Linda Sue Park was a nine-year-old girl, who had published a haiku in a 1969 Trailblazer magazine. Ever since then, she had created many other books such as her first published/written book: Seesaw Girl, A Single Shard, which was awarded a 2002 Newbery Medal, When My Name Was Keoko and more books. She has now made another book called Fatal Throne, which I suggest if you like to read Historical, medieval times.

Overall, Long Walk To Walk, A Single Shard and more are fascinating books that’ll keep you in it all the way until the end.


A Second Blog by Marcellus and Nick on A Long Walk to Water:

A long walk to water is a book that the whole school is reading. It is about how Southern Sudan was changed. It’s a two-part story in the same place but in a different time. The characters that is later in time is named Nya and the one that is earlier name is Salva. Salva is dealing with war in his part of the story. Nya’s problem is they can’t find enough clean water.

Her village does not have good health including her younger sister. Salva lost his family after a tragic event and it is to dangerous to go back. As the war rages on the rebellions are the ones fighting the government for freedom of Sudan. Salva had to travel with people that he barely knew. Back at home with Nya her father was talking to some suspicious men. Salva was still running from war for a long time.

Read the book to find out what happens to Salva and Nya and check out photos from the Leading Edge Academy family event below:



Friday, September 14, 2018

Early Humans Unit by David and Atharv

Image result for stone toolsHello, people of Leading Edge! Today, David and Atharv have decided to do a blog post on the project of early humans museum and the unit. Our museum project is specifically about the homo erectus. Other groups are focusing on other topics like Homo Habilis, Homo Neanderthal, Early farmers, and hunter-gatherers. For the project, people have tasks to complete like making a presentation, making a diorama, or making life-sized cardboard models! We even got to play a game about hunter-gatherers vs farmers and we chose farmer because we literally farmed candy and eat our rations (Hershey kisses). The game was also very fun because we got to use our imaginations and made forts, it was a lot of fun being in the shoes if the early farmers. Other people also got to be animals like deer, bears, and some even gotta be the great one and only hunter-gatherers!

It was really fun because we got to do a lot of great activities! In these team, we created special types of exhibits. In these teams were the student leader that would put us on task and made them focus so they could get the job done. The project has been a success so far for many people, no one has broken down yet which is good and people have worked together like clockwork! Thank you for listening to our Blog! We hope that you have a good time reading your blog as much as we did making it!
Our authors show off one of their museum artifacts.

Friday, September 7, 2018

Leading Edge Student Sports By: Emily and Samara

Here’s the scoop on how sports are going so far in the fall season at Leading Edge:


Mr. Shane’s Perspective

“I think the teams have been working really hard,” says Mr. Shane the P.E teacher and coach of the boys' soccer and cross country team. He says that he thinks the teams have responsibly dedicated their time to the sports and that their hard work has paid off. He thinks the Volleyball varsity players are “Champs” and that they are playing well.


Pep talk before winning the game
against Bradshaw.
Photo by Karisa Bibayoff

Boys’ Soccer

As most of the boys' soccer team would say “It’s really fun to play at the games.” As Jacob (an eighth-grade player that has been on the team for quite a while) “Everyone has good sportsmanship and the coaches are really experienced.” Another person said, “It's really fun to play other teams.” Another mentioned, “Most of the people we play have good sportsmanship.”




Girls Volleyball


JV Girls won their first set against Bradshaw.
Photo by Maggie Bufflebe
We were able to interview a couple people on the Volleyball team and one girl on Varsity named Ava says “Some teams we’ve played had good sportsmanship, (like Bradshaw) but others (like Mills) weren’t very nice.” We heard that “One of the best parts are doing warm-ups and sometimes I get really nervous but excited too.” Also, the team is so far on a losing streak but the practices have been better.


Cross Country Team

“It’s fun to progress and get better,” says Nick, one of the runners on the cross country team. Even says “The best part is meeting new people and the coaches.” While interviewing a few runners they all had a lot to say about the coaches. All of them agreed that the coaches were “experienced and really nice.” “The coaches let you work at your own pace and they push you, but not in a strict way,” says Maya Goodwin. We heard that it wasn't a very competitive sport and that it was mainly about what you can do, not what others can. We also heard people have really good attitudes even if they don’t run the fastest.

The season is just getting started! Everyone is welcome to cheer on the team at the games. Most are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Check the schedule with Mr. Shane or in Mrs. Bibayoff's room.


Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Earning a Bachelor or Masters Degree by Romanpreet



Some of you might not know what a masters degree is. It is when you read a certain amount of books and earn a degree in our class. Without realizing it I had earned mine. I kept telling myself I will tell my teacher today but I kept forgetting until she asked me and now I have told her. I have skipped my bachelors and went on to my masters. I am very proud of that. A bachelors is reading 10 books and masters is reading 25 books.

I still want to keep track of how many books I read so I am going to take my padlet to 7th grade. I still have not finished adding all the books I have read on to my padlet but as soon as I find time I am. I want to go above and beyond but I guess it’s too late to do that now. It is the end of the year! WHOO-HOO!Image result for books

Saturday, May 12, 2018

"Eat Your Heart Out" open house by Tanay




Every Year we have an Open House. It’s to show parents what we do at Leading Edge and PFAA and to welcome new students to LE and PFAA. It had food trucks (the grilled cheese was awesome), performances, gift baskets, bounce houses, and games along with booths and a display of what we did this year. A lot of people (old students, new students, visiting families, families of students, etc.) came this year and many people say it was the best they’ve had on a long time. There were many student volunteers that helped out with games, set-up, clean-up and a few also worked in booths alongside their parents.

Every LE class did a giveaway like Ms. Meindl’s class did a Barbeque Party Gift basket, Ms.Leporiere did a baking/dessert basket and Ms. Bibayoff did a Dinner and Movie basket. Some classes also had games to show what they did. Ms. Bibayoff had a Pop the Balloon game with a Sphero, in which you had to pick a battle suit, a Sphero Droid and a competitor. You then had to see who could pop the balloon the fastest. Ms. Leporiere also had a few games. One of them was a 4 corners-like game but with more squares. Ms. Leporiere also had a game where you had to make pictures out of triangles.

The teachers had exhibits where they showed what students had done. It was fun to see what students had come up with and how the teachers presented it. Ms.Meindl’s classroom was filled with Photography from Locke, paintings from winter and our Greek Architecture structures. Ms.Bibayoff had a nice slide showing us doing stuff in her classroom. And Ms. Leporiere had students do a live presentation on scale factors. The Taiko Drummers did an amazing performance as well.


Don’t forget about the food! The Open House had two food trucks and ice cream. My favorite was the grilled cheese. There were also other performances from rock bands to little girls dancing to comedy. Overall I loved the Open House and if you missed it you missed a lot.

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Teacher Appreciation Week by Kloie


Image result for teacher appreciation day What happened this past week was teacher appreciation week. Many students have been giving little things to the teachers that teach them new things to grow. Most people may have brought a little gift card but other were quite unique! One of the more unique gifts that were gives out were a flower in a flower pot. It's quite cute how everyone pitched in on appreciating their teachers for the week. Also, some parents went to each teacher's door and gave them coffee and a brownie. Other students at PFAA had gotten big pieces of colored paper and hung them up on the teachers' door. Then they wrote nice things and pictures on the paper for the teachers to come and see. It’s very surprising that the students at Natomas Charter School went above and beyond with this teacher appreciation week.





Monday, April 23, 2018

Leading Edge Greek Olympics 2018 by Diego A.



The Greek Olympics was made in ancient greece, the people built the olympics to honor Zeus, the god of all gods and the sky. During the olympics people were not to allowed to bring their weapons because they were in a turce. All wars came to a stop during the games that were held every four years in August.

With the war being stopped the people were happy to enjoy the games and participate. They had chariot racing, boxing, wrestling, running, horse racing, the long jump, disk throwing, and spear throwing. Women could not attend the olympics but had a womens festival called Heraia to honor Hera the wife of Zeus.

On Wednesday I participated in the Greek Olympic Sports. I did the shot put where I threw a ball and I got 3rd place. I had fun participating in the Greek Olympics. I saw kids doing the disk throw, the jog-a-thon, and the shot put.



The experience I had during the Greek Olympics was good because I only participated in the shot put event. I also got to play with my friends as I watched my classmates in their events. I was on team Olympia and we beat team Sparta and Athens.

Friday, April 20, 2018

Greek Olympics by Sky and Caitlin



The Greek Olympics was really fun for the sixths graders. It was also a very fierce competition. We started with the preparation of the Greek Olympics. Then we went out to the blacktop. There we did our chants. We all had really good cheers but I thought ours (Sparta’s) best. A lot of other people would agree.

Before the games…





Before the games started we all were making posters or practicing our chants. Also we did a lot of face painting and spraying hair. It was really fun. It was also funny to see all the faces. We were walking outdo to the blacktop and as the other classes were coming out, the Sparta team would boo them. It was really funny! Then Sparta and Olympia were on the blacktop and Olympia was saying “Let’s go Olympia!” and Sparta would say “ SHUT UP OLYMPIA!”( Until Mrs. Meindl came and told us to be more positive). It lasted for a while but it was pretty funny. Also the classes gods/ goddesses were funny. Ali Anwar was Hera, that was really funny because he had a bunch of makeup on and a wig. Reese was Zeus, and Jeffrey was Ares.

All of the teams had there own chant. Olympia went first and there chant was “ North south east west Olympians we are the best. We’re not second. We’re not third we’re the best you’ve ever heard. GO OLYMPIA!!!!

kick them smash them beat them to the ground. Olympia we rock this world will send you to the underworld. What what are you got we got it all we rock so hard will make you fall. They also had Mari and Maya doing gymnastics. Athens chant was “ We a re ancient Athens!And we are the best!If you COME AT US! Then we'll destroy like the rest! We are ancient Athens !And we are proud
Sparta and Olympia will never bring us down !We are ancient Athens!And we are here to win!If you try to mess with us! We'll put you in the binGo, go go, go Ancient Athens Fight, fight fight, fight ancient Athen Win, win win, win ancient Athens!
WE ARE ANCIENT ATHENS!!.

The Sparta chant in my opinion was the best but I was in Sparta so maybe that’s why. Our chant was “All around the world people want to know who we are so we tell them we are Sparta. The mighty mighty Sparta! Hamata hamata HA HA x3. I’m fired up! You fired up? YEAH! I’m fired up! You fired up? YEAH!” 1 2 3 (Kenneth) THIS IS SPARTA!!! (James & Audrey) NO NO NO we are not that nice! This is what Sparta is all about! Your blood will fall on the ground, we will feed your bodies to the hounds. Nasty cuts and broken bones galore, even then we’ll still crave more. Long we’ve waited for this day, ro us this is just child’s play. We’ll look at your losing faces with disdain, get ready t feel the pain. GO SPARTA!!!

Then games started. Next was the 50 yard dash. The Sparta girls won ( Caitlin and Jenna) and for the boys Olympia won (Paulo). After the 50 yard dash was Shot Put. Olympia won ( Savannah) for girls and Olympia won for boys ( Deontae). Then was wrestling, Olympia won for girls ( Ava) and Athens ( Toby) for boys. After that was discuss, Athens won for girls ( Lauren) and Sparta won for boys ( Tanay). Then came the Long Jump. For girls, Olympia won (Paris) and for boys, Athens won ( Xavier). Last but not least was the Relays. Sparta won by a lot for the Girls ( Jenna, Audrey, Neilani and Caitlin). Then for the boys Athens barely won ( Tobi, Aziel, JV, and Xavier). It was fun but it was also very competitive.


It was really fun afternoon and a great experience. But… there were a few downsides of it. Some people got disqualified, some people said that some teams cheated, and some people said that some of the calls were wrong. There was a lot of talking about it after. Other than that most of us had a great time! After all that we had ambrosia and nectar (rootbeer and orange floats) and we talked until school was done. The Greek Olympics was so amazing!

April is Poetry Month

Here are some poems written by Mrs. Bibayoff's class using Storybird. Storybird is an online site that allows writers to use a large library of user-created artwork to inspire stories and poetry.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Favorite Event by Paetyn



This trimester was my favorite trimester so far, but the event that mostly stood out to me in this trimester is the rally because it celebrated a huge and awesome project that the 8th graders did. We had a rally in the PFAA theater room to watch the third prize winning team’s video about trying to prevent sex traffic and drugs. I thought that their video was really good because they got to interview police and companies about their topic and they had a lot of good editing and speeches.

This was really exciting because there were people from a couple of companies that try to prevent this kind of stuff and they were at the rally with all of us. Their teacher gave a little speech out to the whole 8th grade and then the team got many awards for having one of the best projects. This was really cool to watch because there were so many teams that were competing each other and they were the ones that had won. I hope everyone enjoyed watching it too!

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Upcoming: Greek Olympics by Luke

The Greek Olympics is in a week from now. I will be talking about what's it’s about. The sports that
will be in the Greek Olympics are Shot Put, Discus, Long Jump, 50-meter dash, Wrestling, and Relay team. Each 6th grade class will be competing against each other with each event having kids in each class. There is a boys and girls team for each sport. Each class also gets to choose what city-state they want to represent.

So our class (Mrs. Bibayoff) voted on a form and of those that voted most wanted to represent Athens which is blue (but other classes could be it too if they got more votes). Here are all of the people that will be competing in each sport for our class.

Image Source: https://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1324847
-ancient-athletes-by-jenimp
Girls Discus: Lauren Kyla
Boys Discus: Alan Jordan
Girls Shot Put: Kloie Naqiya
Boys Shot Put: Ammaar Luke
Girls 50 Yard Dash: Abby Huddy
Boys 50 Yard Dash: Tobi Keylen
Girls Long Jump: Maggie Dahlia
Boys Long Jump: Jackson Xavier
Girls Wrestling: We still need 2 Volunteers
Boys Wrestling: Hudson Tobi
Girls Relay Team: Huddy Maggie Abby Naqiya
Boys Relay Team: Aziel Tobi Keylen Xavier


At the end of the competition, we will have Ambrosia and Nectar to celebrate. We need parent volunteers to help send in ice cream and soda for those treats of the gods.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Spring Break by JV and Keylen

Spring break is almost here and we’re going to ask what some students are doing for spring break. Some people’s spring break is unplanned for now. And some people are going to fun places like disneyland, going out of town, LA, and other fun places. Most people are playing video games for spring break. Spring break is two weeks to enjoy a sweet vacation and have a break from school.
JV is going to San Diego and might go to his friends house for spring break and Keylen is doing basketball and going to his friends house for spring break. We asked some people and here is what some of them said, Ammaar said he is playing fortnite, Hudson said his grandma is coming over to his house, Kloie is going to San diego, Amanda is going to reno and SF, Donevin might go over to Ammaar’s house, and Brody is going to the park. I hope you have a great spring break!!!

Friday, March 16, 2018

Ancient Greece by Ryan





Ancient Greece is our 2nd to last ancient place we’re going to learn about. We have already learned a lot about ancient Greece. The main city states we learned about were Athens and Sparta. Athens was about the arts and trade, and there was not much war, but Sparta was all about war. The most fun thing we have done so far is the God posters. Jeff and I did Ares. Ares is the God of war and one of my favorite Greek Gods. We had many other Gods also. In our class, we had every son and daughter of Cronus. The main ones were Zeus, Athena, Hades, and Poseidon. We also had monsters, Medusa and the Minotaur. We are reading The Adventures of Ulysses and are making a map about the places Ulysses went to. The last thing we did in Core that is related to Ancient Greece is our myth books. We are working on the Murder in Athens mock trial and I think it will be fun!

In Expressions we made Greek urns. We had a paper version and drew pictures of daily life in ancient Greece. I drew a man with a horse. Our main project so far in Expressions was our myth video. I worked with Jeff and Yathin. We did Perseus vs. Medusa. I was Perseus, and Jeff was Medusa. We acted out the myth and got a 25/25. We also got to show our video in front of the class and everyone liked it. Our current project we’re doing right now is our weaving project. I’m almost done and I think it looks well. I am also looking forward to the Greek olympics!

So far ancient Greece is really fun. We did art projects, videos, and maps. I am very happy that we have more to come of ancient Greece. Hopefully everyone else and I learn more about ancient Greece and do well on the test!

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

End of Trimester Two by Hudson M. and Toby T.

LOOKING BACK: 

So the second trimester was really fun we did lots of projects that were exciting. One of the biggest things we did were the Chinese New Year parade. I think that that was probably the funniest part of the second trimester. Everybody would get a part in the parade and we would make it like a real Chinese parade. For Unit work we started Greek Unit and we already did India and China. The biggest field trip we went on was Marin headlands where we spent two nights in the Marin Headlands near San Francisco. We went to a small town called Locke. It was where we learned about some past Chinese immigrants who lived locally.

LOOKING FORWARD: 

Some exciting things that we are going to do is a Trojan war play where we will be reenacting the Trojan war. We also are going to be finishing our Greece and Greek unit work. Another thing is the end of the year field trip at Scandia. I think one of my favorite things that are coming up is the Greek Olympics. I think that this is going to be one of my favorite things in the third trimester because it will really feel like it is the Greek Olympics. The events we will do in them are Track and Field events.
This was a picture from Locke (Picture credit: Hudson McBee)

History Day by Gage and Dan


On Saturday March 3, 2018, Gage and I competed in History Day at Inderkum High School. Our History Day project was about the Wright brothers and how constructive conflict fueled the invention of the world’s first airplane. We competed in the exhibit category, in the 6-8 grade division.

We were interviewed by 3 judges. No parents were allowed in the interview. They ask us about our project. They asked us for example, “How did you guys come up with this project?” They also asked us how our project went with the History Day theme conflict and compromise. The interview lasted 25 minutes.

Dan: This was a cool experience because this was our first year of doing History Day. I want to do History Day next year and the year after because I know how to do it now. It was kind of scary because it was our first time doing it but it was still fun to learn about something new with a friend.

Gage: The questions we were asked were really good because they made me think more deeply about our topic. The judges were nice and easy to talk to. I would want to do this next year. I am mad at myself for not finishing the model.