5th Grade: The Final Frontier

The 2008-2009 school year ended on 6/11/09. I was in 5th grade. After the dismissal bell rung on that day, I was a middle-schooler. This year, I've done many things inside the classroom.

We had second grade buddies this year. We went to their class about once a week and helped them with reading, writing, art, and many other things. Me and my friend Tiffany's buddy was a second grader named Kyle Wu.

I ran for Vice President in the Student Council of our school this year. I made posters and wrote a speech. Last year, I was unsuccessful in my campaign to become school treasurer and my friends older sister won. However, I still became 1 of my classes representatives. This year I was also unsuccessful and another 5th grader named won. However, this year, I couldn't even become a representative. Another 5th grader who campaigned for Vice President, and a sixth grade classmate of mine became the representatives.

I was also a student valet this year. During some weeks, I had to get to school at 8:00 A.M. instead of 8:15 A.M. I would help people get out of there cars and to school on time. I did it for both sessions this year, went to two student valet pizza parties, and got an award for being a student valet for both sessions.

This year, I was also in the Pomeroy School Newspaper Club. The teacher-in-charge was my sister's, Swathi, teacher, Mr. Gabe Roldan. We each wrote articles for the newspapers. However, there were very few, out-of-date issues. I did 4 articles and 1 interview.

In December, on the day before Christmas Break started, we had an all-day Christmas Party. We had a gift exchange for those who brought gifts, we ate snacks, and we watched a movie. We also celbrated with our buddies. We ate treats, watched the movie The Polar Express, and helped our buddies with some work.

In February, we celebrated the 100th day of school by reading for 100 minutes.

Sometime in March, our teacher, Mrs. Jennifer Grist, had a baby! His name was Aidan Walker grist and we saw him multiple times. We had a substitute teacher named Mrs. Amy Colvin for the rest of the year.

We had a number of field trips. We went to the San Jose Technology Museum and watched a movie about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We also went to see the play version of the Nutcracker and my dad was one of the chaperones for that field trip. We went to an Oakland A's game as well. I support the A's. The A's were in a baseball game against the Texas Rangers. The Rangers lost miserably. The A's even scored a grand slam! Since the scored a grand slam, if we took our game ticket stubs to a participating Round Table Pizza, we would get a free personal pizza. However, I lost my ticket stub. We also went to the San Francisco Zoo. We also had a picnic with our buddies at Albert Augustine Jr. Memorial Park. Since we had a lot of leftover field trip money, we had pizza, juice, and cookies. On the next day, the 6th graders in our class went on a 6th grade picnic. My class' 5th graders and Mrs. Armstrong's class' 5th graders had nothing short of a party. We watched the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop , did special art, played board games, watched a taped Oprah Winfrey episode about immigration, and had about an hour of free time. On that day, the 4th graders were also gone for a 10 ½ hour field trip to Columbia State Park in Sacramento from 7:00 A.M. To 5:00 or 5:30 P.M.

We also had an open house on 5/21/09. My family and I went to the ice cream social, my sister's 3rd grade square dancing performance, and some of the school's classrooms.

This year, I was in the Pomeroy School Chorus. I was also in it last year. We sung 6 songs and practiced them for about a month. We also studied our lines for about 3 weeks. Our musical was called Pirates!: The Musical. pirate ship but the pirates laughed at him and kicked him off their ship. However, he stows away on board the ship, gets caught, and must do some things to avoid a watery doom.

I think last year's musical was better, but I still liked this year's musical. We performed in front of our school on May 27, 2009. It was actually a dress rehearsal. On the 28, we performed in front of our parents. On the second of June, we had a pizza party. I thought Chorus was really fun.

We had a Field Day on 6/2/09. We played games, ate ice cream, and had a lot of fun.

On the day before the last day of school, my grandfather was supposed to go to India, but his flight got canceled and he stayed for an extra day. I made him a card. At school, we saw the 3rd (I think) annual yearly 6th graders V.S. Teachers softball game! I support the teachers every year. The 6th graders lost like the Texas Rangers did during our Oakland A's game field trip. We had a party as well and ate snacks while making personal memory pages.

I got many awards this year too, like last year. I got the O.D.S. award which is the most important award at our school. Only students who try their best, behave well, and help people for at least 5 hours get the award. A number of times, I got Student Of the Month awards (Decision making, Responsibility, Education). I also got 5 principal awards this year at the end - of - year awards ceremony. The awards I got were: Outstanding Effort, Outstanding Language Arts, Outstanding Social Studies, and Outstanding Science. I got the DARE most inspirational student award & medal & a medal for Reading is cool program of SJ Sharks. I really wanted to get them.

I woke up at 6:00 A.M. on the last day of school. We said goodbye to our grandfather on the way to school. We were late on the last day of school! We saw the 6th grade graduation, cleaned up the classroom, and then we watched the movie Bedtime Stories. When the dismissal bell rang, I had some teachers and people sign my yearbook and I went home. When we got inside, I half expected my grandfather to come and congratulate and talk to me like he always did. Then I remembered that he left.

It's been a great year! I have one more year at Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School! It will be full of great memories like this year! Right now, I'm officially a

Middle-Schooler!

Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

On the 2009 Memorial Day, my family and I saw the new movie Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

It starts quite some time after the events in Night at the Museum. Larry Daley, the old night guard, is now the rich CEO of the company Daley Devices. When he goes to the New York Museum of Natural History, he finds that it was closed for renovations. He learned that only the Teddy Roosevelt, Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, and the magical tablet of the pharaoh Akhmunrah are staying and the rest of the exhibits were being sent to the National Reserve under the Smithsonian Castle in Washington D.C.

He heads home when he gets a frantic call on his cell phone by a miniature cowboy friend of Larry's named Jedediah. He says that Dexter, a cappucin monkey stole the tablet and the were being attacked by Akhmunrah's older brother Kamunrah, who was trying to take the tablet. Larry rushes to get to Washington D.C. With the help of his son, he is able to sneak into the depths of the Federal Reserves and save the tablet. However, just as Larry got it, it activated and Kamunrah captured him. Larry was forced to give Kamunrah the tablet. However, he tricks Kamunrah and says he thought Kamunrah was after the Cube of Rubik, which he said turned all who opposed the user to dust. Larry then opens an octopus exhibit he had stumbled upon and distracted Kamunrah. He escapes with the help of American General General Custer and woman pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart.

Will Larry escape?
Will they win the battle?
Will he and his friends be killed?!?!?!
All this will be answered by watching the movie.

Rating: 10.0

My Grandfather

My grandfather – ‘Viswanath Ajja’ is visiting us this year. He came during the 2009 Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School's winter break on February 17, 2009. It was the first time in 4 years that he came. Since then, he has helped us a lot and we've had a lot of fun with him.

Ajja keeps us working and always encourages us to work hard and always listens when we want to show him something. My mridanga(drum) teacher says that I'm improving. I think Ajja is affecting this because he is praising & encouraging me. He always tells us that we could do better and always keeps us on task. He can also cook very well. He makes delicious French fries for us occasionally.

Ajja also plays with us when we've done our work. He plays tennis and badminton occasionally We like to challenge ourselves by playing with him.

We also celebrated his birthday on March 12, 2009. He turned 63. I made him a card, poem, and word search. We also celebrated his anniversary on May 12, 2009. I made him a different poem and card for that.

We went to James Lick Observatory on top of Mt. Hamilton with him as well. We have done many things with him, such as helping him take care of my baby cousin Avinash. We played games as well. One of the more recent things we did with him was taking him to a really good restaurant called Saravanaa Bhavan. We ate our lunch there and he said he really liked the food.

Sadly, Ajja is going back to India on June 10, 2009. I'm going to feel very sad. However, at that point, school will almost be over. My grandmother is coming after Ajja leaves. My entire family and I are also going to India for the first time in 3 years. I can't wait for July 3rd so that we can go and visit all our relatives in India.

From February 7th to June 10th, Ajja has helped us achieve our goals. He will be a constant inspiration. I will miss him when he leaves. I want him to visit us again.

June 11, 2009

Ajja left for India today, June 11, 2009. His flight yesterday was canceled. It was me and my sister's last day of school. Ajja left in the morning. However, when we got home, I half expected him to come and congratulate and talk to us like he always did when we got home from school. When he didn't, I remembered he had left. I feel sad, but also a bit happy because he is going to see ajji and the rest of his family in India again.