Student Compliment Project

Rome "Insta" Posts

We challenged the sixth graders this week to make Instagram style posts based on our studies of ancient Roman leaders and Roman landmarks. They did a fantastic job! Check them out here:

https://padlet.com/mmeindl/ibh736p5ejjc511x

Covid 19 poems by LE 6th graders

April is Poetry Month 2020

If we could time travel ~ Leading Edge 6th Graders

Eleazar 

I would travel to ancient India around the year 2600 B.C. I would travel back then because the Indus valley was supposedly the most peaceful of all the ancient civilizations. Around this time period was the peak of this civilization. What interests me is the civilians, never had a war or some other conflict. They had no weapons or other objects that would be crucial in a battle. Instead, they had peaceful lives and farmed. They also had interesting cities, each building was around tow stories tall. Another fact that I found interesting is that there is no evidence of having social levels. That means that everyone was equal, more or less. I would like to see the Raja during that time. I want to see how the civilization was built.




Saket

I would rather go to Ancient Greece than the Ice Age. First, Greece in my opinion is more beautiful, this is because Greece had very nice cities like Athens after Percilies renovated it. While the Ice Age did not have civilized cities. I would like to meet Perciles because he was Athens ruler in the golden age. I would also like to meet Alexander The Great because he was one of Greece's greatest military commanders. (And maybe in the Ice Age i would like to meet a mammoth.) In Greece I would like to see Athens, (something is was going to see until covid.) And is the Ice Age I hope to see ice, and to sleding.

Abigail

I would rather go back to Ancient Greece than the Ice Age because I love the type of architecture they used back then and because of the golden age. Ancient Greece was very beautiful. I would like to meet Pericles and Ulysses. I would like to meet Pericles because he led them to the golden age and I would ask him questions. I would like to meet Ulysses because of how courageous and brave he was. If I were to go back in time to Ancient Greece, I would like to see them building the Parthenon.




Megan

If I had a choice to go back in time to an Ice age or Ancient Greece I would pick the land of the mythical gods, Greece. I say that because I would like to learn all about the legendary myth, about heroes, tragedies, and romances. Durning to time of 500 to 300 BC in the city of Athens was the Golden Age, and in the Golden Age, the Greeks had architecture, art, and their own civilization. While in the time of the Ice Age people had to travel and they didn't have as many resources for food and warmth. The Ice Age also didn't have cities and communities. But in Greece's time, they had many important people in life that made important things for today. For Example democracy and architecture. But the one person I would have liked to meet is Ulssyes because I would have loved to hear his voyage from the Trojan war and back. As I said before architecture was a big thing back in time and if I were to do to any place to see in ancient Greece is Athena's temple. There I would love to learn scalping and archery.

Tania Khan

We have learned about many ancient civilizations but ancient Greece interests me the most. Ancient Greece, 750 BCE-130 BCE. Ancient Greece was one of the most influential civilizations to have ever existed. This time period interests me the most because of the developments it has made such as drama, geometry, war, and theater. I personally love watching shows and drams and I am happy they created such a thing. I like how they were great with there wars and daily lives. Such as being able to win a war and to enjoy their time by watching comedic and tragic dramas. I would also like to watch the Olympic games and see how they were played. I would also like to see the Pollis and just examine how it looks. I would like to meet Herodotus, "Father of History". If I could ask him one question I would ask, what was the most important historical event to have happened in the ancient Greece civilization?




Noah

I would travel back to Ancient China in 221 B.C., where it was first unified by Emperor Qin Shi Huang because China at that time was very strong and safe. Something that interests me most about the time period is the philosophies since they were so interesting and I would love to learn more about them. The first person I want to meet is Emperor Qin's advisor, Li Si to ask him why he punished scholars so harshly. I would like to see the Great Wall of China under construction so that I can visualize how much hard work it took.



Akith

I would travel back to ancient Mesopotamia because of how calm it seemed to be. Not many wars and the life back then was very simple, not too many restrictions and the invention of irrigation and other different strategies on how to find food. I would like to meet The Ruler of Babylon, Hammurabi. I say that because I have so many questions to ask him. Like how he got the idea to make of code of conduct and many more! I would like to see the many jobs that the people have and see what the irrigation systems look like too. I also want to see how they used domestication. Is it how we do it now or is it a different way. That's why I want to go back to Mesopotamia.

6th Grade Historian Journal Project by Akith

At the week two mark of Distance Learning, 6th graders started a journal to log in their own life updates and how they respond to COVID-19. They are asked also to record things they see or hear around them. They can also put a social media post they created, a picture or video they created, a picture or video they saw online, a playlist of songs to capture this time, a news report they have read, an artifact or document that shows how the event has affected their family: a grocery receipt, or an email from their teacher.

Students can add to the slideshow presentation once or twice a week. Students are also given some questions to answer if they can’t think of anything. For example, for my journal, I put in a picture of an empty IKEA parking lot because I saw that lot empty one day. I also recorded what my mom, her friends and I did to prepare and how we are keeping up with the news. I also mentioned how the past week and this one has been “crazy.”

^ This is my project ^

I really love this project personally because it is like a diary and I get to jot down my feelings about this virus and how I am dealing with it. Some things that I couldn’t put down on the journal is that I don’t like that we can’t go out and visit our friends or go to gatherings like parties. It is more boring at home now but at least I get to spend more time with my family. One other thing I like is that I can manage my time where I can do more work than needed for one day and I can use the rest of the next day to watch something. All in all staying home has a bunch of Pros and Cons.

Blog Post:Ulysses By: Alexander

Ulysses is a book about a hero that has to save his people and survive the torture of the angry sea god, Poseidon that is mad at him for what he did. It takes Ulysses 10 years to return home, because of 1. Poseidon is making the sea harsh and with all the power the sea has and 2. He has to go to wars, and he gets very tired because of all of the wars he fought. Almost every day, someone has to do a reflection of the chapter that was given to them. Then about every 1 to 2 weeks, we have a quiz about the chapters we have read during that week. Also, there are many chapters in the book, and by the end of the trimester, we hopefully will finish this book that is filled with many adventures and a little romance upon the book.

This book is not the same cover as ours, but it is the same book we are reading. This book is action because from what I’ve read, I’ve seen that this individual is a legend somehow by surviving the terrors of Poseidon with the sea, and encountering a cyclops, so this character is very interesting to look upon and in some way, he has some power because eventually, he returns to his home and away from the sea god, Poseidon. That is what I wanted to post a blog on. Hope you liked how I described this character in an interesting way. One last thing before I end this discussion. Maybe we’ll be able to do activities with this book. :)

Chomp Stomp Dance by Jonathan

There was another Leading Edge dance on the 28th of February. That counts as our 2nd dance this year. The dance was called the Chomp Stomp. The style of the dance was prehistoric. There were paper leaves and dinosaur posters. There was also a dinosaur that was painted, it was huge! There was also a mountain type thingy that was chilling in the corner of the dance. The dance was very very loud. Some people said it was almost like a concert. It was very fun to hang out with your friends at the dance. There was a lot of room to chill at and a lot of room to have fun in. The food was amazing. There were chips, drinks, candies, etc. There were a lot of people there. Possibly everyone in Leading Edge! Some people wore formal stuff and some people just wore something everyday/casual.

The DJ’s at the dance were two 8th graders, Ava and Amanda. They mostly played popular songs on

this app called Tik Tok. They played some popular Hip-Hop songs like, “The Box'' by Roddy Ricch. At the dance there was some love sprinkled on top of the dance as well. Some people danced together with love in their eyes. Some people danced with people jokingly. Some people stayed back and regretted the decision to come to the dance. Some people ate a whole bunch of food. Some people were having lots of fun. There also were people recording others which was kinda sketchy. Or maybe they wanted to expose the people dancing on their social media accounts. Everyone there was very nice. It was basically school but having no rules and you could have as much fun as possible. Some people didn’t like the dance and acted mad. Well overall the dance was very fun. It was an amazing experience for the second dance. I would recommend coming to all the dances if you were able to. You wouldn’t regret it.

Locke Field Trip by Kailani and Sambriddi

The whole sixth grade took a very fun field trip to Locke, California. The town of Locke was built in 1915. We went to a historic Chinatown where Chinese people used to live. One of the things they had there was an old schoolhouse where kids went to school for extra lessons. At this schoolhouse, kids would learn Chinese reading, Chinese calligraphy, art, etc. They also had different buildings such as a boarding house, gambling house, houses, etc. A few people actually still live in that town. There was also a church, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, theaters, etc.

Another very fun thing about the ancient Chinatown was that we got to take a look inside of the exhibits that were there. For example, we went to a boarding house and got to take a look at the rooms that the Chinese stayed in during the 1900s. It was very fascinating to look at and see how the Chinese lived in those times. We also went to a gift shop where they had ancient Chinese artifacts and clothing you could purchase for great prices! We also saw statues of well known Chinese leaders like Confucius.



While we were there we took some amazing pictures just like some of these:

Being able to spend a day at Locke was an amazing experience for us. We got to look at so many amazing Chinese artifacts. We also got to learn how the Chinese people lived in the 1900s. It was overall a very fun experience!

Marin Headlands by Kaitlyn and Kyleigh

Marin Headlands was a super fun field trip. When we got there we all sat around the campfire and eat lunch while our trail group leaders told us what was going to be going on for the next three days. After that, we all went to our cabins. Then it was hiking time. Everyone got a tour of the camp. After that, it was our free time! At the end of the night, we had a campfire where we danced, sang songs, and did a lot of acting. Most people were very tired so most people went to bed very fast.

The next day we took a huge hike that was three miles! We hiked up a mountain and then we to the Point Bonita lighthouse.At the Point Bonita lighthouse we had a mindful moment and then we drew a memory of our trip so far. Almost everybody loved the lighthouse because of it’s beautiful views. After that everyone was exhausted so most people relaxed for a little bit. On the last day, we all did different things with our trail group leaders. Some of the groups went on small hikes and some groups cleaned pots and plants in the nursery. After that we got on the bus to go home. It was a super fun experience to share with our classmates and we all had a great time. Speaking of great time, there were a lot of fun memories we made together such as on the second night we all went on a night hike with our groups. They were all in different spots but the views were absolutely gorgeous. Something else we all did was sit by the campfire at night and played a fun game and sing a song together. 

It was super fun to sit by the campfire at night with all your friends looking up at the stars. Something else that was super fun was when we went across the bridge to get to the lighthouse, that also had an amazing view of the city of San Francisco and all the black sand beaches and the ocean of course! We all had a good time enjoying the views and spending time with each other on this wonderful trip.

Chinese Year Wheel by Noah and Victor

The Chinese Year Wheel is a fun and creative project done by Leading Edge 6th graders. Every year there is a new zodiac for 12 animals. The wheel must first, have the years of the animal. Second, the Chinese character of the animal. Third, the characteristics of the person born in the animal's year. Finally, it has to be neat and colorful. If you want to go above and beyond to get extra credit, then you can add nice things to your wheel like-colored paper. A lot of the wheels are turning out to look really cool, as you can see in the examples shown.

The order of the wheel was determined long ago in a race hosted by the Jade Emperor (one of the most important gods in the Chinese religion). The Jade Emperor stated that the first, twelve animals to cross the river would get a year in the zodiac named after them. At the start of the race, a cat and rat convinced a kindhearted ox to give them a ride to the end of the river. When they were near the end, the rat pushed the cat into the river, jumped off the ox, and achieved first place. The ox was able to acquire second place. In third place was the tiger who had a tough time swimming through the river currents. The rabbit showed up in fourth place by hopping from stone to stone, but at the last stone fell off. It was then a large shadow cast over him and a powerful gust of wind blew him to the finish line. The dragon came in fifth place because it was he who helped the rabbit. He also helped make rain for villagers suffering a drought. Soon after came the horse who was very close to securing the sixth spot, until a snake who had been hiding in the horse’s mane jumps out and stole sixth place. The horse finished seventh place. Later arrived the goat, monkey, and rooster. At the start of the race, the rooster found a raft, but he couldn’t paddle all on his own. The rooster decided to invite a goat and monkey to help. The rooster and monkey let the goat finish eighth. The monkey came in ninth with the rooster following her in tenth place. Soon later in eleventh place, appeared the dog who spent much of his time playing in the water. Finally, after a long time, entered the pig in twelfth place who took a long nap and floated on his belly to get at the end. With that the years of the Chinese Zodiac were complete. Eventually, the cat reached the end but not in time to get a Chinese Zodiac named after him, this is why to this day, cats always hate rats.

Girls Basketball by Tianna

he JV and Varsity basketball girls an amazing job playing against Capital Christian. Even though both teams didn’t win, it was still a fun way to start the season, and your not always gonna win all of them. But Jv team was great. Their team was aggressive on defense and offense. They went up to grab rebounds,went for steals, and took so many great shots. The Capital Christian Girls were very rough against the JV girls and very tall compared to them. But our girls fought till the end and never gave up no matter what the score was. The JV girls played amazing defense which lead to their great offense. Even though the score was 2-20 ( Jv girls having 2 points) they never gave up and were aggressive the whole game. They kept supporting each other through misses and makes. But overall the Jv girls played their hearts out and played till the buzzer no matter what.

After the Jv girls played it was Varsity’s time to play. There were a lot of nerves especially for the younger girls on the team but it soon went away by how supportive the Varsity girls were. Just like the Jv girls the Varsity girls were playing aggressive going up for rebounds and passing it up the court for layups and fastbreaks. They were communicating on defense and offense and made sure the younger girls had confidence in themselves. They also played amazing defense which lead to great shots and passes on offense. The final score for the Varsity game was 24-17. It was a very close game until the last few seconds when Capital Christian got the lead. Capital Christian was very rough and they were pushing a lot but our girls did a very good job with having good sportsmanship and keeping their composure. It was a tough loss but we still have many more games to go and this is just the beginning of the season.

Indian Cultural Day By: Madison C

Indian culture day is an amazing day that Leading Edge celebrates. There’s food, henna, dances and so much more. It’s an amazing day. Indian culture is mostly for 6th graders but 8th graders and some parents come too. Each Expressions class competes in a competition to see which class dances the best to the music (Jai-Ho) and Mrs. Meindl thinks 5th period Expressions will win. She was right, the 5th period dance was awesome!!

People got their henna done when they came to me and my friends bazaar station. People got to look at stations while it was their classes turn. There were a lot of cool bazaars, chess, fashion, Divali lamps, jewelry, Indus Vally artifacts and more. Everyone did a good job on their bazaar projects.



We got to go outside and do chalk where we drew our top two Rangoli designs. Then we went and drew them on our concrete squares. Everyone’s chalk design looked amazing! I have a lot of fun doing this with my group!


Taiko! Taiko did so good they were outstanding! I really enjoyed watching taiko with my friends. People were dancing to the music taiko was playing. I really enjoyed the drumming, they always do their best. After watching the performance there was Food... and a lot of people went and got Indian food.



I really enjoyed Indian Cultural Day! It was so fun I really had a good time. I will remember this day for a long time.

India Day Bazaar by Manteg and Noah

On the day of the bazaar. people are going to make booths with projects. There will be one hands on activity and information. It will be on wednesday of next week. It is a school event. Anyone can come to the India Day Bazaar.During the Indian bazaar we will have a slide show that we are presenting with one item. The slide show will have a little information about the topic we are researching. For our bazaar, we are researching about ancient Indian chess.Because Alex me and meant it like to play chess a lot. Other groups might be doing stuff related to ancient India. Some groups might be cooking food for the Hands-On activity. It will be located in the Leading Edge area by the MPR.

World Problem Research Project by Zain and Tavio

Our world project research is a world wide project that 4th to 6th graders make . So kids in Science/tech decided on a topic, did research, and created a couple slides about a worldwide problem . If you get third place you get $1,000. And second place gets $5,000 and first place gets $10,000 and a trip to Washington D.C . And did I mention that the money prize is not split into the people in the group, it is each?

My world project research was about world hunger . I learned a lot about it and it was extremely sad . I learned that every one out of seven people are hungry . And that a person is pronounced dead of hunger every second. I hope I can help find a solution to end world hunger. I also hope that soon no child will ever be pronounced dead of hunger and will never go to bed hungry.

Expressions by Sanika

I really like my Expressions classes and the art projects we do. One of my favorites was the “Apples 4 Ways”. We used different art materials to finish each apple drawing. I loved using the hot tray that melted wax on the paper. The Modigliani self-portrait was also one of my favorites. I liked how we tilted the head on the long necks. I have 7th period Expressions and I like doing art at the end of the day. I love art because it gives me a chance to relax and to be creative. We are studying India right now and we did a silhouette project of Indian animals. I put in an elephant, a kangaroo, and a bear. We also are doing weaving projects.

Movie Monday? by Diego

There was a movie night that was supposed to happen on Monday, November 4th. Unfortunately, it was canceled due to a lack of people showing up. I think part of the problem was the soccer and basketball games that were happening at the same time, and there also may have been a lack of communication with the students and parents. My parents never got an email about the movie night, so they did not know where or when the movie was being held. Also, the email that I did get did not say that there would be a three dollars charge for the snacks.

The movie that we were supposed to watch was Coroline. The options were Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, Coraline, Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, and A Wrinkle In Time. I think the only reason Coraline won was that only a couple of people voted. I voted twice; once for Spiderman, and once for A Wrinkle In Time.

Brownies, cookies, soda, and popcorn were some of the foods that they were selling at the event. They ended up refunding my money and giving most of the food away. They said that they would try again after Thanksgiving break. Hopefully, the communication for the next movie night will be better, and more people can attend. I attended the previous movie night, and it was a lot of fun, so I would like to see the one for Leading Edge succeed.

GIRLS SOCCER TEAM BY EMMA

We have had a fantastic season and have one game left. We are undefeated and the team can’t wait to play in the soccer tournament in December. Our coach is Mrs. Perry who teaches at Star. The team is a mix of 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade girls.

On Tuesday, we won the game 9 to 0!




I am sad that the season is almost over. Soccer at LE is a great way to have fun and meet friends. Come out and watch our last game on Thursday against

Mummy's Tomb by Vallery

Note: Mummy's Tomb is an annual Leading Edge Sixth grade tradition spanning 21 years.

In Mrs. Bibayoff’s class, we had the mummification scene, king, queen, guards, glam girls (girls holding Canopic jars), the mummy, a priest, earthquake zombies, and Anubis the jackal.

In Mr. O’Brien’s class, we had the Hall of terror. They had Osiris, Ammut, Anubis, a soul, a sphinx, and many more scary stuff. 

In Ms. Meindl’s room, they had Bastet, mummy dancers, and many more. They played the song “Thriller” by Michael Jackson. The riddle of the sphinx was, “What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the noon, and three in the evening”. The answer was a man. My role was Anubis the jackal. I had to say only one line.

This event was really fun! I enjoyed it so much. In Mrs. Bibayoff’s class, it kind of looked like Christmas because of the warm white, cool white, and blue lights.

Basketball Game by DJ

At the basketball game on Monday, they played Mills at home so me and my friends went to go watch JV play. They started off rough.  Then they started to pick it up and eventually started to score points.This picture shows what the score was at half time. They did come back at the 2nd quarter because the other team was winning.

Then out of the 2nd quarter, they started hot. It wasn’t enough because they started to lose. Then at the end, they ended strong but they lost by one point. It was a sad loss. They might have lost this game, but they can’t be discouraged because they could still bounce back from that loss and win the last game.