Book Review: Divergent

Divergent By: Veronica Roth

By: Kate

The book “Divergent”, takes place in the future (sort of like “The Hunger Games”) and there are 4 factions, which are like large groups of people, but all the factions live in the same city. The factions are: Abnegation, Erudite, Dauntless, Candor, and Amity. You are born in one faction, but at the age of 16, you have the opportunity to switch factions.  Beatrice Prior grows up in Abnegation, and then when she is 16, she chooses Dauntless. Dauntless is a very risk-taking faction. For example, they jump on and off trains, have many tattoos, etc.

Then the 16-year-old transfers, which are the people that transferred to Dauntless from another faction, go through Initiation. Initiation is when the teens get trained on how to throw a knife, shoot a gun, Dauntless things like that. In the book, Beatrice makes some hard decisions like, who to forgive, who to betray, and who to trust. Because, little does she know, there aren’t many people she can trust. She must make sacrifices, and fight her way to the top. And Beatrice doesn’t even realize what she would do to protect the ones she loves….before she actually has to.

100 Word Challenge: Kate

My Ultimate Adventure

    Slowly, I drift under the cold and salty water trying to push myself up to the surface, but failing, continuously. Suddenly, I see a faint glow far in the distance getting closer and closer to me. Before I know it, it is a few inches away from me, but I am still sinking. It looks like a dolphin. No, a unicorn.

    Suddenly, a voice says, "I am a dolphicorn. A dolphin mixed with a unicorn." Before I can say or do anything, the dolphicorn lifts me up and fly out of the water, up into the cold, dark night sky. 

100 Word Challenge: Kate

I felt a jerk and my head hit the back of my seat. Before I knew it we were up in the air. Then when I looked out of the plane window, I saw a quadricorn. Its horns were neon yellow, with sparkles.  It's body was rainbow and it's eyes were, so bright, like the sun. Its tail was pink, but the weird thing was, every couple seconds the tail would change colors. Then it farted purple butterflies. I asked the guy sitting next to me, "Do you see that?" I pointed out at the quadricorn, but it was gone.      

Social Studies: Colonies and Flags

Colonies and Flags

By: Kate

    In social studies we are now in our colonies which are groups of four to five people. We had to come up with names, mine is ‘The Religious Rebels’ because my colony is a religious freedom colony.

    After we chose our colony type and our colony name we have to create a colony flag. My colony flag has religious symbols in the corners such as a cross, a jewish star and a Yin Yang. In the middle it has a backwards R and a regular R ( Religious Rebels).

    What is the name of your colony?

Book Review: Jump Ship to Freedom

Jump Ship To Freedom Book Review

By: Kate

    Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier is a great historical fiction book, and also has a lot of facts about slavery. It is about a 14 year old boy in the mid 1800's named Daniel Arabus.

    Him and his parents belong to the Ivers'. Daniel's dad fought in the Revolutionary War to buy his family's freedom. But now he is drowned and dead and the only evidence that they are free is a soldier's note that is now in the hands of their masters. When Daniel makes a bold move to steal them back he finds himself on a ship with only the notes, headed off to the West Indies to be sold. When the ship blows way off course, they find themselves in New York, Daniel's only chance to escape.

    During this long and exciting adventure, Daniel learns the true meaning of freedom.

    Would you like to learn about slavery?

Reading Ladder: Slavery

Wanting to learn more about slavery?  Learn from Kate and her reading ladder below:  

Slavery

1. The Rise and Fall of American Slavery By: Tim McNeese - A couple mini stories about the lives of slaves.
2. Minty By: Alan Schroeder - A story about Harriet Tubman which takes place in the 1820’s.
3. Anthony Burns By: Virginia Hamilton - A biography of a slave in the 1850’s who escapes to Boston.
4. War comes to Willy Freeman By: James Lincoln Collier - A free 13 year old girl who’s dad is killed by the British during the Revolutionary War and her mom abandons her.
5. Stolen Into Slavery By: Judy and Dennis Fradin - A story that we all read and enjoyed about Solomon Northup a free man who is stolen into slavery for 12 years.
6. Forge By: Laurie Anderson - A book about Curzon who is a runaway slave passing for a free man.
7. Jump Ship to Freedom By: James Lincoln Collier - A great historical fiction book about Daniel Arabus, a 14 year old slave whose father fought in the Revolutionary War for his family’s freedom but Daniel and his Mom had their freedom papers stolen, their only proof they were free.

PE: Hidden Valley Ski Trip

Hidden Valley Ski Trip

    On Thursday, fifth grade went on a ski trip at Hidden Valley. After watching a safety video and getting our boots on, we went through ski school, which was seven stations such as learning how to get your skis on and off, side stepping up a hill and weaving through cones on the bunny slope.  After you got through ski school you were free to ski, but you could only go on the chairlift if you had a grey ticket. I went on one black diamond hill and it was really fun.Unfortunately the rope tow was not a highlight because kids would fall down and then they would be blocking you so you would have to get off.

Also there was a mini chairlift and it was really good for people to learn how to ride the chairlift because it wasn’t a hard hill and the chairlift went pretty slow. It was fun to see people learn how to ski and improve if they had skied before. I can definitely see how kids say this is the highlight of fifth grade.

What was your favorite part of skiing?

OLW: Participate

One Little Word

    By: Kate

    In class we have been working on our OLW (one little word.) Your one little word is basically like your new years resolution like think, learn, etc. My one little word is participate. I chose this word because in certain subjects like math and science sometimes I don’t participate as much.

After we chose our one little word we had to create a visual of some sort such as a wordle, a google drawing or a drawing on paper. I chose to do a wordle.

What is your OLW?