Hello viewers,

This is related to the new LA project about fingerprints. I will be giving you some interesting facts about fingerprints that you might have not known about before.

A fingerprint is an impression or print made by the papillary ridges on ends of your thumbs and fingers. Papillary ridges are the surface ridges of your epidermis (your outer skin).The epidermis is anchored to the dermis (your inner skin).

1. Everybody has a unique fingerprint, yours isn’t the same as anybody’s.

2. Fingerprints stay the same, even as you grow and age.

3. Burns do not affect your dermis or dermal papillae.

4. Fingerprints are used by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation, in the United States).

5. In the FBI, they recognize eight different types of fingerprints: double loop, central pocket loop, radial loop, ulnar loop, plain arch, tented arch, plain whorl and accidental.

6. Loops are the most common type of fingerprint. Around 65% of people have loop fingerprints.

7. One of your fingers can have a different fingerprint pattern than another.

8. Arches are the most rare type of fingerprint. They only make up about 5% of people.

These are the sources I used to find the information about fingerprints:

Hoover, J. Edgar. “fingerprint”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Apr. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/fingerprint. Accessed 18 May 2023.

https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/papillary+ridges

I hope you found this post interesting.

Hello viewers,

In language arts, we were assigned a project. In this project, we were supposed to make a book that included scenes from our Perfect World project. Artist Peg Gignoux helped us create these books. Visit artist Peg Gignoux’s website at https://gignouxart.com/. This is how we created these books:

1. We painted leaves of plants with Akua ink and printed them on paper.

2. We used large, strong construction paper backgrounds and glued the printed leaf papers on them.

3. If you wanted to have extra images, like animals, you could cut out shapes. I cut out a dragon by drawing it and then I cut it out.

4. Cut out a shape in the front pop out part of your book.There should be an image behind it.

5. Glue everything on including the text of your Perfect Planet project and you will be done!

If you have a question about something I mentioned, please ask your questions in the comment section below this post.

Image above: A rainbow dragon spraying poison out of its mouth.

Above to the left: a red leafed plant. Above middle: A sky dragon breathing fire. Above to the right: a rainbow leaf plant.

An above view of my book.

Hello viewers,

In language arts, we were assigned a new project. It is called the fingerprint project. We are suppose to find out what type of fingerprints we have. I have two different types of the main category whorls: plain whorls and central pocket loop whorls. What type are your fingerprints? Feel free to comment your type of fingerprint below this post, in the comment section. How is this related to what we are doing in language arts? In the Westing Game, the heirs of Sam Westing are trying to figure out who is the murderer by playing the Westing Game. Each of the heirs are paired up with another heir and are given clues to try to solve who is the murderer. The Westing Game is a cozy mystery, meaning that it is not very dark and the humor is real, people aren’t being sarcastic when they’re cracking jokes. Some mystery books are solved using fingerprints by the police/detective that you hire. Although, the Westing Game isn’t solved using this.

There are a lot of different types of fingerprints.These types include sworls and arches. Arches are the most rare type of fingerprint. Sworls are the second most rare.

Below, I have attached a picture of the different types of fingerprints and what they look like.

On Tuesday, April 18, 2023, Chamber Theater Productions (a professional performing arts theater in Boston, Massachusetts) visited our school, Durham Academy.

They performed multiple plays: including The Monkey’s Paw, The Necklace and The Tell-Tale Heart. 7th and 8th graders watch all three of these and 5th and 6th graders got to watch The Monkey’s Paw and The Necklace.

Below, I will give a summary for each of these plays except for The Tell-Tale Heart.

The Monkey’s Paw

The Monkey’s Paw was about a woman who went to India with her husband. 15 years later, the woman returns without her husband, he died in India. She returns with The Monkey’s Paw, which will grant however obtains it 3 wishes of their choice. She visits some of her friends who are greedy and interested in The Monkey’s Paw and the wishes. They will get their three wishes, but at what cost?

Review: 9/10. An outstanding performance filled with suspense and action. I felt like I was inside the performance, not watching it. It was very engaging.

The Necklace

The Necklace is about a woman and her husband. They’re invited to a fancy party and the woman wants a nice dress that she doesn’t have. So, the husband spends a lot of money buying her a nice dress. After this, the woman asks for a pretty necklace. So, she borrows one from a wealthy lady. The woman had lots of fun at the dance. Later in their lives, she and her husband are old and poor.

Moral of the story: If you always want more, you will never be satisfieed.

Review: 8/10. An interesting story featuring an important moral. Also, it was engaging.

Overall review: An exciting and engaging performance. Highly reccomend to anyone who would love some great theater.

An image taken during their performance of The Monkey’s Paw.

Hello viewers,

We were assigned a new project in language arts called: My Story. You have to write a story of one of your experiences or a story that you were told. This is mine.

All of this information came from my grandfather. Thank you, Grandfather!

As a young boy, he lived in Alexandria, Virginia. He has 2 sisters and a brother. He was the second oldest in his family. He had an older sister, Bev, who was about ten years older than him. He had a younger sister, Sue and a younger brother, Craig. 

 My grandfather played baseball as a young boy when he was between 10 and 14 years old. He played on a Little League team during the summer. Also, he played for one year in high school. He didn’t play on the JV team because he didn’t make the team.  

 Batting helmets were first used in Major League Baseball in 1941 by the Brooklyn Dodgers. Two of the players on their team, Joe Medwick and Pee Wee Reese had suffered head injuries, so the General Manager of the Dodgers, Larry MacPhail made the whole team wear them.

 In the one year that my grandfather was playing baseball in high school, he was trying to steal second base and the pitcher threw the ball to the first baseman and it hit him on the way. People came out to see if my grandfather was okay. Afterwards, he went to sit on the bench. 

Then, when his older sister, Bev (who was a nurse) came, she thought that my grandfather should go to the hospital. Then, the doctors at the hospital kept him overnight because they thought he had a concussion. My grandfather wasn’t to do any rigorous sports for a week or two. After those one or two weeks, my grandfather went back to doing regular activities and that was it!

On Tuesday, April 18, 2023, Chamber Theater Productions (a professional performing arts theater in Boston, Massachusetts) visited our school, Durham Academy.

They performed multiple plays: including The Monkey’s Paw, The Necklace and The Tell-Tale Heart. 7th and 8th graders watch all three of these and 5th and 6th graders got to watch The Monkey’s Paw and The Necklace.

Below, I will give a summary for each of these plays except for The Tell-Tale Heart.

The Monkey’s Paw

The Monkey’s Paw was about a woman who went to India with her husband. 15 years later, the woman returns without her husband, he died in India. She returns with The Monkey’s Paw, which will grant however obtains it 3 wishes of their choice. She visits some of her friends who are greedy and interested in The Monkey’s Paw and the wishes. They will get their three wishes, but at what cost?

Review: 9/10. An outstanding performance filled with suspense and action. I felt like I was inside the performance, not watching it. It was very engaging.

The Necklace

The Necklace is about a woman and her husband. They’re invited to a fancy party and the woman wants a nice dress that she doesn’t have. So, the husband spends a lot of money buying her a nice dress. After this, the woman asks for a pretty necklace. So, she borrows one from a wealthy lady. The woman had lots of fun at the dance. Later in their lives, she and her husband are old and poor.

Moral of the story: If you always want more, you will never be satisfieed.

Review: 8/10. An interesting story featuring an important moral. Also, it was engaging.

Overall review: An exciting and engaging performance. Highly reccomend to anyone who would love some great theater.

An image taken during their performance of The Monkey’s Paw.

On April 19, 2023, Colonel Terry Virts visited our school, Durham Academy. Colonel Terry Virts is a retired American NASA astronaut. He talked a lot about space. It was very interesting. Some questions that were asked include:

Q: Can you dunk a basketball in space?

A: No, it would just pop out of the hoop. You could only do it if you did a bank shot (when it hits the backboard and then goes through. The arc of a basketball shot (how it comes up and then comes down wouldn’t work, the ball would just go straight.

Photo Above: Colonel Terry Virts, Former US Astronaut

Also, he mentioned of fun it was to sleep in space. You had two choices, either you could bolt down your sleeping bag so it wouldn’t move or you could not bolt it down and you would be floating while you were sleeping. Cool, right? That’s what Colonel Virts thought. So, instead of being bolted down, he chose to let his sleeping bag float freely in the air as he slept.

He has written a couple of books. Images are below:

One of Colonel Virts’s books: The Astronaut’s Guide to Leaving The Planet (illustrated by Andres Lozano).

Dear viewers,

I am posting more books that you might want to read.

1. The Map of Flames series (Two books) By Lisa McMann.

Page count: 384 pages

My review: 4.5/5 stars

This book is about 8 supernatural criminals (they have supernatural abilities that aren’t normal) who live in a hideout close to Estero City. They couldn’t live in Estero City because of their supernatural abilities. Each supernatural criminal has a different ability, but some of the criminals abilities are similar. There are five supernatural kids in this book: Birdie, who’s supernatural ability is to be able to communicate with animals, Brix, Birdie’s younger brother’s supernatural ability is to heal quickly after hurting himself. Tenner, who is about the same age as Birdie, is to be stay underwater without breathing for over an hour, he get see well in the dark and hear from a distance. Seven’s ability is camouflage, he blends in with anything he is next to. And finally Cabot, who doesn’t have a supernatural ability except for her great intelligence. 15 years ago, some of the parents left and never came back. The rest of the parents, except for Birdie and Brix’s dad, Louis. Louis gets ill and suddenly, dies. One day, Birdie discovers a map in her father’s things. There are some words: Go to Estero, find your mother, give her the map. The map is to a hidden stash of money. Supernatural people are hated in Estero. Birdie knows what she must do: follow her father’s last directions and find the stash. Do Birdie, Tenner, Cabot, Brix and Seven have what it takes to adapt to a different area and get their mother out from a jail cell?

Hello viewers,

We were assigned a new project in language arts related to the book: the Westing Game (by Ellen Raskin).

(The cover of the book).

This project is connected to the book because one of the characters in it is named Turtle Wexler and she is a daredevil who is interested in money and the stock market.  One of the main characters in the Westing Game.

One of the teachers at Durham Academy helped us create our spreadsheet with the formulas needed.

For this project, we got $20,000 fake dollars to invest in any stocks we wanted.

These were the rules:
1. You can only buy US stocks.

2. You can buy a maximum of 6 stocks

3. You can buy a minimum of 3 stocks

I got 5 stocks:

1. Visa stock (credit card company). A share costed about $230 (on the day I purchased it).

2. eBay stock (online shopping company). A share costed about $45.

3. Crocs stock (footwear company). A share costed about $145.

4. General Electric stock (electricity, e.g. microwaves). A share costed about $97.

5. General Motors stock (motors, e.g. car motors). A share costed about $35.

Companies sell parts of itself to people. A part/ fraction of a stock is called a share. Below I will list the amounts of shares I purchased for each stock I bought.

1. Visa stock: 30 shares.

2. eBay stock: 54 shares.

3. Crocs stock: 40 shares.

4. General Electric stock: 30 shares.

5. General Motors stock: 54 shares.

I chose my stocks by looking at how well they were doing (e.g. today, five days, 1 week, one month, 6 months, one year, 5 years, max). Max means when the company became a stock on the market. If stocks were doing poorly, in more than the five days and today section, I decided not to buy them.

(An example, the Netflix stock).

Currently, my stocks are doing pretty well. Ever since the Crocs stock dropped $30 in one day (which happened a few weeks ago), I have been around $-1,300. I think that in the long run, all of them are going to go up.

The logo for my investment company: Dragon and Benjamin investments.