Pictures by me

In every class you have the big end of year project. For our language arts class, it was reading  Squirm and writing a book. Squirm is a book by Carl Hiaasen about a boy named Billy who goes to visit his estranged dad in Montana. Billy thinks this will be a normal trip, until he learns about his dad’s secret government job, where he’s gone for days, leaving them with no clue where he is or if he’s safe. But when Billy and his stepsister Summer find their dad missing and his tires slashed, they wonder just what he’s gotten into. And how far he will go. Squirm was a really good back and had tons of twists that threw me off every time. The characters were really cool, and I learned a lot. Then it was time for part 2.

After reading Squirm our teacher announced that we’d be working with a local artist to make our own books on endangered animals. First, we went to the WWF page and searched for the list of endangered animals. I picked the Pangolin. It’s super cute and adorable, but that’s the problem. Pangolins are scaly mammals and they are also the most trafficked animal in the world. People will cook them for their meat but the biggest problem is fashion. People will illegally shoot them and turn them into handbags or boots. We researched endlessly about habitats, foods, and why they are endangered until we were finally done and ready to make our books.

Making our books was a long process. We worked with Peg Gignoux, an artist in the Triangle area who makes really cool art. First, we used rollers and stamps to make patterned and textured paper. Then we cut them up and turned them into collage books. It was really fun, except the glue was super sticky, and I had a pencil stuck to my hand. I made a jungle scene except my pangolin was a bit too small and you can’t see it. But I still think my book turned out great.

Then was the time for the actual story part. For the story we had to write as if we were the animal. At first, I didn’t know where to start. There were so many ideas and things I could and couldn’t do. At first I had a more survival idea, but then it turned into something else, then something else, and at the end the final project was different from the beginning. You could barely tell they were the same idea. The process was challenging especially since we had to read it in front of the class. But it all went a lot smoother than I expected, and it was really fun. I hope we can do this again.

CANVA AI

A couple of days ago, our school went to the Museum of Life and Science. First, we went to the animal encounter. We got to pet a bearded dragon, snake, and ferret. They were all really cute but the ferret was by far the cutest. We also went exploring and played a giant game of tag in the tree house. The tree house is actually a lot of houses connected by rope bridges high up in the trees. There were a lot of spots to hide in and use for evasion so it was really fun! Then, to cool off, we went inside the museum. We touched a cloud and played games. There also was an origami center where you could just chill and fold. But the best part of all was definitely outdoors. We saw wolves and lemurs, then went to the Earth Moves section to play another round of tag. Then we went to the mist zone. The mist zone had little places that spewed out mist. It didn’t completely obscure our vision but it made it a little hazy and great for tag. The museum was really fun, though I wish they made a mist maze. I still had a great time and hope to come again.

From Canva Ai

Everyone has heard the stories, maybe it was pirates, or bandits, or nazis but everyone has heard of lost treasures. Some of them are legend but some people swear that the rumors are true and go on long hunts to find them, but most turn up with nothing. Here are a couple random undiscovered treasures.

First the Flor De La Mar. The Flor De La Mar was a Portuguese ship built in 1502. Weighing 400 tons she was a good ship but had a couple of problems. Her weight made her hard to maneuver and was prone to leaks, and would often get stuck in channels and straits. In 1511 after the conquest of Malacaa Alfonse of Albuerquerque decided to use the ship to transport the treasure from the Sultans Palace. It sailed along the Sumatran state of pasé but got caught in a storm and wrecked on the shoals killing 400 members  of the crew. In November 20th the ship had sunk to the bottom of the river along with the estimated 2.5 billion in treasure including 80 tons of gold, numerous precious gems, and Alfonso’s personal riches. To this day the ship has never been found.

Second, the bitcoin hard drive. In 2013 a British man named James Howell was cleaning his house and had his (ex) girlfriend toss out a “blank” hard drive. But he soon discovered that the hard drive wasn’t blank. He had mixed up hard drives and had sent the one with the key to 400-800 million bitcoin to the dump. When he found this out he did everything to get it out, he offered to buy it, asked to remove the trash, and eventually sued the city council, but nothing worked. He eventually gave up but the hard drive is still in cell 2 of the Docksway landfill buried under  25,000 tons of trash.

Lastly “the secret”. The Secret: A Treasure Hunt is a 1982 book about “fair people” who leave the old world leaving behind twelve treasures. But the book holds a suprise. By solving riddles from 12 pairs of paintings and verses it will lead you to a location in America where if you dig you will find a key inside a ceramic casque. The key can be redeemed for jewels in a safe deposit box by the author.  Since the beginning of the hunt only 3 out of 12 Jewels have been found. The keys can be found in San Francisco, Charleston, Roanoake, St Augustine, New Orleans, Montreal, Milwaukee, and New York.

Maybe one day someone will find one of these treasures but for now they still remain out there somewhere in the world waiting to be found.