Category Archives: Durham Academy

What We Did In Our Language Arts Classes This Year

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This year in my language arts class we have done so much! Some of the things that have happened include a book we read earlier in the year, The Last Cuentista. The Last Cuentista‘s main story takes place in space around a super weird planet. It was a super interesting book! In The Last Cuentista, one of the main characters mentions cuentos, which are basically stories passed down through generations. It’s cool how in a story they mention another form of stories and I think that’s important because books and just stories in general are so important to a child’s learning. Connecting to the cuentos, we actually got to make a cuento about something we wanted to share. 

Another thing we did this year was after we finished The Last Cuentista was we made our Ideal Worlds. Like I previously mentioned, The Last Cuentista took place in space and around a really cool and weird world. So everyone in my class got to make our fun and funky worlds. Mine was focused on government and democracy because that stuff is super interesting to me. If you want to read it I made a blog post about it previously! In addition we got to draw what we thought our Ideal Worlds would look like. 

One of the most recent things we did was we made books with Peg Gignoux. Mrs. Peg is an author and illustrator and every year makes books with the whole 6th grade! In our books, we include our Ideal World as well as our Cuentos. It was a really creative way for us to think outside of the box because it was a multilayered book meaning that behind the center page there was a whole different world. My book ended up looking red with a bunch of stunning plant prints. 

I loved everything we did this year in language arts. From writing stories to making the books they would sit in to talking about the stories and even reading other stories!  Thanks so much to Mrs. Donnelly for being so supportive and teaching everyone so much. Also, thanks so much to Mrs. Peg and the rest of the 6th grade team, this was one of my favorite school years ever and I learned so much! To the 2022-2023 school year, you were such a rollercoaster! 

Movement!

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Movement performance

Right now my fine art is Movement, which I’m loving! I love movement because of Mrs. Norkus who lets us use our curiosity in our project and lets us be really creative! Right now in Movement we are working on our final projects, this might be my favorite thing we have done all trimester! Why it’s my favorite thing we have done all trimester is because as long as we are following the guidelines we can do any dance we want!                                                     

I also like the walkabouts and stretches that we do so we can exercise! I like these because it is an opportunity for us to walk outside, get fresh air and most fun play on the playground! The stretches we make up with partners which is really fun and we can be as creative as we want! In Movement, we also play lots of fun games,  like swipe the Tic Tac box, Night in the Museum and my favorite Asparagoose! All in all, Movement is really creative, fun and at the same time super relaxing! 




 

My Ideal World

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By: Jake

My ideal world is probably different from yours in many ways. My ideal world is not anything you know, my ideal world is self-sufficient from any other planet, galaxy, or solar system. My ideal world has a name, meet Abstract Astronomy. Abstract Astronomy has 500 days in a year, 25 hours a day. School starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 4:00 p.m. Any child must attend school until after college. AA’s school system is fabulous. All schools are free for any child. At age 19 everyone must have a stable job and be self-sufficient unless they physically or mentally can’t. At age 60 any citizen can stop working and retire. All children until age 18 must be enrolled in a physical sport as well as an organization working towards a cause, both are run through the school system. 

In AA all animals are unable to go extinct because no hunting is allowed without a permit. Transportation is all electric and there are no accidents because everything is on tracks. There are flying cars but they are only used for emergency purposes. The military can go wherever but anyone else can only go 150 feet above the ground. All buildings can only be 300 feet at the most.  In the case of a war the military will put a draft into effect for 25 percent of all able citizens.      

A big part of AA is the fact that everything is free, to some extent. In AA all non essentials are needed to be paid for. All essentials are free though. For example, the government will assign you to a house but if you want a nicer house then you must pay extra. Everyone gets paid very little because essentials are free. The governments will give registered businesses a set amount of money to pay the employees. 

In AA the justice system is very essential in life. The system is built on checks and balances. There are three branches of government: law makers, (Legislative) the people who carry out laws, (Executive) the people who evaluate laws and take away laws, (Judicial). Any buffoons or criminals are innocent until proven guilty. When a disruption to society is proven guilty they are fined, put in a correctional facility, or put to death.  If it is a minor fine then they are just fined for example speeding in a car or not paying for something that is a want. For major crimes, for example murdering or severely hurting a human, you are put to death when proven guilty. The person that committed the crime only goes to court if the police are going to put him in a correctional facility or put them to death. 

In Abstract Astronomy the physical appearance is a little funky. Sixty percent of all surfaces is land, therefore forty percent is water. Even though 40 percent of the surface is water that is not enough so AA also has water 600 feet under the surface that can be pumped up straight into living accommodations. In AA the power lines are underground so that you don’t have to see some funky lines in the air. So in conclusion, after all has been said and done Abstract Astronomy is very creative and unorthodox to you but to me it’s fair and well balanced.