Is it Summer, or is it still Christmas?

Gosh, I am in a really Christmas-y mood. And lately, if you've read my previous blog post "Putting down the first Blocks", you know that I love playing Minecraft. And, since I'm in a Christmas-y mood, I've decided to build something in Minecraft, Christmas themed. And, Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, and I mean, come on, Christmas and Minecraft together, that's like heaven in your hands. So today I'll be making a tutorial for you all to learn how to make a.....Santa Bakery! 

The things you will be needing:

   -wooden sign

   - white wool blocks

   -furnaces

   -red wool blocks

   -chests

   -wooden gate

   -cake

   - glass panes

 

   The first thing you should do is find some flat area, and put down 11 white wool blocks.

  

   

    Then on one of the sides of the line of wool blocks, place a white piece of wool block that doesn't fill in the corners.

    And bring all the blocks into a line with 11 blocks in each line, and make sure the corners aren't filled.

    Then place two red wool blocks like this, and then later break the wool block on the right.

    Then make the red blocks go as far as the white wool block line, and go all the way around to create a spiral shape.

    Keep on building the red wool blocks up like this until you get to the top. 

    Once you get to the top fill it in like this.

    Then place three red wool blocks on top to make it look like an weird L-shape.

    Then break the red wool block on the corner and place a white wool block like so.

    Then create a two width block entrance. 

    And put two wooden gates on the entrance.

    Break all the red wool in the middle of the three sides to create windows.

    Put a gate on the left side of the Santa hat so nothing can get in without you opening it.

    Put glass panes on all of the holes, except the one on the left.

    Then on the right side of the Santa hat put a furnace in the middle with chests on either side, and then label it "Work Station".

    Then in the middle of the hat do the same thing except name it "Decorating Station" with a sign.

    On the left side of the Santa hat, just put a sign labeled "To-Go Station", and then put a cake in front of the gate.

    At the entrance you could put a "Welcome to Santa's Bakery" sign if you'd like.

    I hoped you enjoyed this tutorial, and try it out for yourself! (Sorry it's such a 

long tutorial)

We have saved our School

   We've been coming up with a lot of ideas. And humanity has been saved (or at least I think so). The fifth grade has been coming up with ideas to change our school into a better place. Fifth grade classes have been trying to reduce the amount of paper they use, the amount of plastic cups used, and the amount of bullying around the school. After pondering about some ideas that could change the bad ways of our school, we all finally came up with.....[DRUM ROLL], ways to reduce the amount of energy used in the school.


   We started seperating into seperate groups and assigning each group different assignments. Me and my partner chose to do the teacher interview, and we kind of worked with a pair of partners that came up with the questions for the interview. I think it's really important that we interview the teachers to see their whole point of view of the whole reducing the amount of energy. I think the teachers especially use a lot of energy (no offense). Everytime I walk past the teachers lounge I always see the light on in there, and it really bugs me. One of the pairs of partners even made a poster that said to turn off the light, but I guess no one pays attention. So I'm definitely angry about that. The teachers even said in the interview that our world will become a horrible place if we keep using energy like this, so they should really try to remember to turn off the lights when no one's in there. There's even a huge poster in there to remind them. So that's definitely something we need to work on.

   I don't know if this counts, but in second grade I did a project fairly same to the project I'm doing now. The second grade was trying to give orphans some new books and toys. So, with the help of fourth graders, us second graders decided to sell lemonade. Since it was summer, and a lot of people were playing outside, we guessed they would come to the stand at some point to cool themselves off with a cool drink, but boy were we wrong. People apparently had brought water bottles with them so they weren't really that thirsty. We decided to move the stand to a running trail. I'd walk on the trail with my cousins before, and it was really tiring when I didn't have any water with me, and I noticed only a few people brought water with them. When we sent the stand there we got way more costumers than before. It wasn't a lot, but it gave us enough money to get the orphans a few books and toys.

   I think my project went okay. There was a lot of...how should I say this, technical difficulties. But, I managed myself fine. I was really happy how the video turned out. I've always wanted to make a professional video. And now was my chance. After lots of researching on what apps I should use, I finally decided on Imovie. And I made the right choice. I could trim parts, and add parts that were funny or interesting, it was really hard at first trying to make the voice go right, and making the video not too long, but after awhile I got the hang of it, and then after a few days I was finally finished with a masterpiece.

   

   

 

Exhausted but Excited

   I am so tired right now. Today we just went to middle school to take a tour of it. I am in elementary school, so next year I'm going to middle school. So, to show what middle school was like, we went to the middle school. We took a bus there, and it was so stuffy in there! I felt sick to my stomach. On top of all that I was dripping in sweat.

   When we finally got to the middle school campus at last, I took a leap of relief off the bus, and scurried for fresh air. I went into the entrance of the middle school, and panic flowed throughout me. Middle School students were on either side of the entrance waiting for us to come in. All the teachers were real nice, but I especially liked seeing all the rooms. Though I hated walking up and down the long spiral staircase.

   I think it's really important that I get to know what middle school will be like since I'm going next year. I think I'm moving though. It's still important though. Last year I went to take a tour of the middle school I was supposed to go to, but then we moved. And over where I live they still count 5th grade as part of elementary school. But, basically all middle schools have the same rules, so its nice to know a bit more on how middle is the same or how it's different from the middle school I was supposed to go to.

   

Putting down the first Blocks

   It wasn't until a few months ago that I finally got the Minecraft Pocket Edition. I was at school when I found out that there's this program where you can get free apps. I checked it out at home, and the next thing you knew I was filling up my Ipad with all sorts of apps. But, it wasn't until I pressed the download button for Minecraft PE that the adventure really started.

   I'll be honest I wasn't very good at playing Minecraft, oh, who am I kidding I didn't know a thing about it! But, with how lucky I am to be born in the generation of awesomeness (a.k.a better tech than the time of my parents), I did a bit of research online and I learned so much. A few weeks later I was joining in my friends world, happily stealing all of their goods. I started out playing in Creative Mode a whole bunch, but after a while I got bored of just building for endless hours, with no mobs making respawn every minute. 

   I decided to get the REAL adventure started (hopefully this is the last time I say adventure in this blog). The first time I played survival it was normal. Then as I watched the pretty sunset go down, I watched in horror as mobs spawned everywhere, I ran to block after block having a trail of mobs behind me. I luckily got them of my back due to their short span of attention. Those were some scary mobs back then, but I'm a pro at this now. Whenever I see a mob now, I just run away waving my arms in the air (can you do that in Minecraft?). But greatly that's not what I do when I see a mob. I quickly press on my sword and start tapping my screen furiously at the mob. 

  I still switch back from Creative mode and Survival mode, and I'll admit I'm not a pro at Minecraft, but I do know I enjoy playing it a lot. Sometimes I laugh when I think back to my first time playing Minecraft, but that was in the past when I made the mistake of critizing the history of technology.

How fast can you read?

   Last year in fourth grade near the end of the year my teacher did a sort of test/assessment. A few days before the test/assessment, my teacher told the class that she would start giving the tests out AGAIN. I transferred in the middle of the year on October 8 (I can't believe I still remember). But, I was at the school when I was in third grade, but then I transferred back (long story). Anyway, where was I, so when I found that out my legs started getting all shaky (I tend to have them problem when I'm nervous). But then she announced that another girl and I didn't have to do the test, and I was like "YES!!!" (inside my head), she said the people who got a great score for the test last semester didn't have to do it this semester. The next day, while I was happily doing some writing, the teacher suddenly announced that I would still have to do the reading test/assessment (also the other girl). As each person got called up one by one I was trembling. When it was at last my turn, I started sweating. My hands felt all moist and sticky. I sat down and started reading from a short little story. I read as fast as I could not even stopping when I made mistakes, because then I could get father into the story so I could get a better grade. Before I knew it I had finished the test. As I was walking down the aisle  back to my desk, many people were looking at me in awe. I later found out that I got one of the highest scores for the test (not trying to boast). I could have improved on stumbling over words, and I'll make sure to remember that if I ever do that again.

What will happen next?

   Have you read my blogpost " The Book that hooked my brain"? If you haven't you should scroll down and read that first before reading this. If you try reading this without reading the other blogpost it will help you know what's going on a bit better in this blogpost.

   I've been reading this exciting book, and I'm dying to tell you about it. The book I spend everyday wishing I could read on and on is called Goodbye, Vietnam by Gloria Whelan. There is a very poor village in Vietnam. In the village there was a family. Which included Mai (oldest), Anh (middle), Thant (youngest), Mom, Dad, and the grandma. With the government threatening to take away Dad and the grandma, Mai's parents decided to flee Vietnam. So with Mai's dad skillful mind he got a boat fixed for many people to flee to freedom. Then it took nights and days until one day..........I'm not a spoil the book so if you want to find out what happens read the book yourself. 

   I would recommend this book to people who like adventurous stories, and are people who are always like "Must keep reading" until midnight. Goodbye, Vietnam definitely has it's ups and downs but it's a great book. I had doubted the book in the first place but when I got to the voyage it was like I couldn't put the book down, but I had to because I didn't want to get ahead of my group. But, really don't doubt a book, I think this book is like a cream puff. The outside tastes bland, but once you get into the middle you can't put the book/cream puff down. Together they taste incredible. But like cream puffs not everyone likes Goodbye, Vietnam, but still you never know unless you try (that kind of rhymed).

The Greatest Creation from Dominique Ansel yet

   Dominique Ansel is just coming up with too many great ideas. First it was the cronut, and now the waffogoto. 

The waffogoto is basically just affogoto. Affogoto is an Italian dessert. It's ice cream with espresso drizzled on top. It's usually served with vanilla ice cream though. What's different about the waffogoto is that the ice cream is shaped like a waffle, so that's why it's called the "waff"ogoto, and not just affogoto. The waffogoto is served with a maple syrup espresso, which melts the ice cream waffle, freeing bits of Belgian waffle and tapioca bubbles. Dominique Ansel said that in the end it's kind of like a milkshake. I have never tried any of Dominique Ansel's creations, but just looking at the cronut and waffogoto makes my mouth water. I would really want to try the waffogoto someday, but maybe when I grow up since it has espresso. Although I would kill for some cronuts anyday. 

I think Dominique Ansel is so amazing in so many words that I can't even say. I mean I would have never thought of combinations like a crossiant and donut [cronut], and affogoto, with ice cream that is shaped like a waffle, and when melted frees pieces of tapioca bubbles and Belgian waffle. 

If there was a word in the dictionary that was the definition for all the good things in this world, I would describe Dominque Ansel's creation with that word.