The Stock Project

 

Throughout the last month our class has been doing a project about stocks! We each choose 5 companies to invest a total of 20,000 dollars. I really liked this project because it was a good real life experience of how the stock market works, and how anything can change in the blink of an eye. Two teachers named Mrs. Donnelly, and Mrs. Sprague helped us a lot throughout the project, which was very helpful.

This project connects to the book we were reading called The Westing Game. One of the characters named Turtle Wexler loves the stock market, and reads the paper every morning about the stock market. Later in the book she invests in multiple companies making a lot and losing a lot of money. In the last chapter when she is older, the book says that she made 4 million dollars, lost it all, then made 6 million dollars. That is how powerful and often the market can change.

During this project we used a spreadsheet, and formulas to record all of our data throughout the month. This was incredibly helpful to keep everything nice, tidy, and overall easier to manage! I loved this project so much and I’m excited to see next years 6th graders do it too!

My Band Experience

 

This trimester I had band as my fine art, so far I’m enjoying it a lot. At first it was slow, and we weren’t going fast, and for the first week, we didn’t even get to play! But, we quickly progressed through the trimester learning new techniques and new songs. During this process, Mr. Lovett helped us through the whole thing and I couldn’t have done this without him.

I played the instrument called the baritone, and I loved it! It’s quite the big instrument and there are only 3 keys to play, so you have to use your voice to play different notes and patterns. One of the biggest things was articulation. Articulation made the notes sound, the way the notes sound by making each note clear and using the tongue to do that. The instrument is huge with long pipes going around and through the whole instrument, which I think is kind of cool.

You HAVE to take care of your instrument properly, or it wont play! Doing stuff like putting it back in its case, making sure it’s clean, handling it gently etc. Those things will make sure your instrument stays fresh, and ready to play. Overall, I really enjoyed band!

Image from: http://jupitermusic.com/international/products/brass/baritones/

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