Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Fourth Grade In A Snapshot

This was an awesome year. I've got a lot of experience that I will keep for life this year. Now I know school is fun. I've had to be very responsible ever since I became an intermediate.

I joined the Student Council for the first time this year. The Student Council is a group of students that makes decisions for the students of our school. I wanted to run for the treasurer. The treasurer keeps records about how much money the school has. I wrote a 3 minute speech with the help of my parents. I was going against a lot of people. Although, I lost for the treasurer's post, I became my classroom representative. We chose the winners of the Pomeroy T-Shirt Contest, the spirit days we would have this year, and we ran the Student Store.On 6/6/08, we had our last meeting. We had a pizza party at our last meeting. It was six days before the last day of school. I also had my Student Store shift on that day. My partner, Anthony, and I made a ton of money for the store.

I joined chorus for the first time this year. Chorus is a group activity for students who are willing to sing. 12 people participated in chorus. It was managed by Mrs.Stalder and Mrs.Woo. We sung 12 songs from around the world, and three from America. The foreign songs were from Ireland, Germany, Italy, Israel, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Kenya, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, and Cannada. All the girls except two quit chorus, but all the boys stayed to the very end. We also had to draw posters representing each country. I, with the help of my dad, drew the Red Square of Russia and the Leaning Tower Of Pisa of Italy. We also had several lines each. We had to memorize them. Thanks to the lines I had, chorus enhanced not only my cooperative singing skills, but my public speaking skills as well. We had three performances. each time we showed the same thing. First we performed for the 4th-6th graders, then to the kindergarten-3rd graders, and finally, to the parents of the chorus members. On the day after our last performance, we had a pizza party.

We had kinder buddies in our class year round. We helped our kinder buddies with art projects. My buddie's name was Vernon. We also did special things with our buddies. In November, we watched a movie about Thanksgiving. In March, we had an Easter egg hunt with our buddies. In May, we went with our buddies to the Oakland Zoo. On the day before the last day of school, we saw our buddies' graduations. They sung a lot of songs. After recess on that day, we saw our buddies for the last time. Everyone ate popsicles and played tag.

This year, we learnt about Missions. When we were done with the Mission unit, we went to Mission San Juan Bautista. My mom was a chaperone for that fieldtrip. We explored the mission. We had questions given to us and we tried to get the answer. We went to buy ice-cream after lunch. We also went to gift shop and bought some amethyst stones. My favorite place was the church. The church had a black cat in it. I also discovered a secret passageway outside the mission, but it led nowhere. We also saw many stage coaches in the mission.

I went to the District Science Fair for my second year running this year. My science project determined which over-the-counter antacid neutralizes stomach acidity most efficiently. I tested 4 antacids. I also took pictures and wrote a log about my project. It was also my sister's first time in the District Science fair. I did many experiments for three months. First I found some very acidic foods. Then we found 4 bases, or antacids. Then we measured how much the pH was. pH is how much hydrogen ion concentration is in a solution. Anything under 7.0 is an acid. Anything over 7.0 is a base. 7.0 is neutral. Water has a neutral pH of 7.0. I also learnt many formulas. My mom helped me do my experiments.

One of my greatest achievements this year is being the top reader in the school (1-6th grade). At the end of the year, I had more than 678 Reading Counts points. The people who got closest to my amount of points had 600 points. Last year, I wanted to get 500 points. I had the most points in all the primaries. I stopped at 510 points. I could have made 600. This year, I wanted to get 600. When I got to 600 points, unlike last year, I still had a lot of time until the end of the school year. So I decided to get 700 points. I was almost there on the day of the last Reading Counts assembly, but after that assembly, there was no more Reading Counts for the rest of the year.

I got many academic awards in fourth grade. I had to work hard to get them. I got academic awards for science, the Science Fair, Social Studies, Math, and reading, but I didn't get the fine arts award & the physical education award. The reading award also had a key chain and Borders (book store) gift card with it. The rest of the awards came with coupons for restaurants. At the end of the year, I got 11 academics awards. I even got a special gift from my teacher for being top reader. And finally, I got my report card. I got a O (Outstanding) in everything except art. I still got an S in art, which is good. And my most important award is my ticket award. I got the most tickets in the class. My teacher gave me 2 free AMC tickets for any movie more than 2 weeks old. It doesn't even have a money boundary.I also got responsibility, caring, and sharing awards. In fact, I got 2 responsibility awards. I also got the O.D.S award (Order of Distiguished Service award).



I worked with Mrs Downey, Mrs.Stalder, Mrs.Woo, Mrs.Patner, Mrs.Anand, Mrs. Rasmussen, Mrs. Melinda Manalo, and Mrs.Brown this year. I did chorus with Mrs.Stalder and Mrs. Woo. I did O.D.S. for Mrs.Patner and also did Student Council with her. Mrs. Anand was my science teacher. Mrs. Melinda Manalo was my physical education coach. Mrs. Rasmussen was my buddie's teacher. I did O.D.S. for Mrs. Brown. Ms.Downey was my class teacher and I also did some O.D.S. for her. Mrs.downey taught me a lot of things. She is also my favorite teacher. She was also our temporary physical education coach. She also helped me make new friends. My good friends this year were Stephen, Tiffany, Rachel, Nicola, Vishal, Andre, Aniruth, Anthony, Christopher, Hannah, Miguel & many others too.

I started to play the mridanga, which is an Indian musical instrument, this year. I started learning in October. I'm getting better now. I'm learning from the famous mridanga player Sriram Bramhanandam. I'm now learning things to play for a rythym called Adi Tala. On the last day of school, I played in front of my class. I've been learning how to play the mridanga for almost a year.

I also started to play soccer this year. I'm not the best player on my team. My teams name was the Demons. We were all under 10. We lost lots of games, but we won a few. We still won our last game. But since we didn't beat the lions, the opposing team in our most important game, we didn't go to the finals. I got the most improved offensive player title.

I passed the gold level at Happy Fish Swim School and I'm going to be on a swim team through the summer.

I also learnt how to play tennis this year. I'm slightly better at tennis than soccer. I can keep balls in play and I'm pretty good at Running Doubles. My favorite things are Getto Tennis, Around The World, King Of The Court, and Running Doubles. I really like doing drills as well.

On the whole, this was a very eventful year & I miss school. I hope fifth grade will be as good. I'm looking forward for a terrific summer.