Art Adventure : Story by Hrishika

For her 5th grade writing prompt Hrishika had to write a fictional story. Click on the picture frame below to enter her "Art Adventure".

Speech : 5th Grade

This year the topic for the 5th grade speech was "Do the right thing". The speech had to be limited to 320 words maximum. Hrishika was one of the seven students chosen for the school level. Here's what she came up with ......

Have you ever done a helpful deed and then have that warm feeling of happiness bubbling up inside of you? By doing the right thing at all times, that feeling will constantly be flowing through you, embedding serenity in your mind. To me, Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote means, be understanding, do the right thing even if no one is watching, and be eco-friendly.

You should understand that everyone has their own point of view. If you have a disagreement, instead of quarreling, you should listen to the other person’s thoughts. Who knows, you might even agree with them. If you still disagree, try to make a compromise.

Doing the right thing when others aren’t there implies just as much as doing the right thing when in a disagreement with others. When others aren’t there, the idea of doing the right thing can easily falter. For example, if you were walking on an empty street and saw a purse, what would you do? By giving it back to the owner whose hard earned money it is, you will show how trustworthy and dependable you truly are.

Being eco-friendly is another way to show how you can do the right thing. We can pick up litter, save energy, recycle, and much more to show how much we care about our planet, and how thankful we are for what it’s giving us.

When I think about Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote, I personally think: be tolerant, do the right thing even if no one is watching, and be eco-friendly. We have the power to make the Earth as beautiful, wonderful and breathtaking as it truly is. All we have to do is the right thing. If we all set our goal to doing the right thing, we will find everything we ever wanted, since it will fill us with the pleasure to know we are helping everyone, everything, and the Earth.

Global Warming Report : 5th Grade

Hrishika chose to work on "Global Warming" for her Earth Sciences project this year. She spent several days researching on the subject and wrote, edited and typed it all by herself. She also had to make a PowerPoint presentation for her class and give a quiz. She scored a perfect 100% on her report which got her an A+. Click on the cover page below to read her report.

Here's are the links to her PowerPoint presentation and quiz:

Global Warming Presentation by Hrishika

Global Warming Quiz by Hrishika

Since working on the report, she is putting more emphasis on being GREEN!!!

Art In Action : 4th Grade

Hrishika took part in "Art in Action" as an after school activity. The class would meet once every month. It was a fun class. Here are some of the artwork by Hrishika:

At the end of the year they have an art show and here is some of the artwork from the art show.

Enjoy!!!!

Stock Market Game : Award Ceremony

Hrishika's team got to attend an award ceremony for their second place win in Stock Market Game (SMG). The award ceremony was held at Bank of America in San Francisco's Financial district. Each winning team got to give a speech.

Here's the text version of their speech:

We are honored to be here today to share our experience about the Stock Market Game. Before we were in the stock market game, we all thought that the stock market was something to do with business and money. Through this experience, we learnt what Stock Market meant and how to invest our money carefully. Our biggest highlight in the game was when we found out we were in second place, all the way up from 13th place just a few days earlier. The best thing we learnt was even if the stock value is high; it doesn’t necessarily have to be good.

The way we chose our stocks, was we chose companies that we knew people use a lot, and rely on. The stocks we chose were Skechers, Fed Ex, Apple, Yum brands, Children’s Place and Scholastic. All of our stocks performed very well, except for Yum, which we traded for Microsoft.

The things we learnt about long term planning, saving and investing, are if you are not sure whether a stock will earn or lose money, do not invest in it for long-term. Also, you have to plan carefully before you buy a stock, or things might go wrong. To save money, don’t use all your money on one stock, in case that stock goes down.

Our team worked well together and we enjoyed working with each other. When we couldn’t decide on which stock to buy, we listened to each other and did what seemed more sensible. Our funny experience was when we typed in random stocks and one of them turned out to be a good stock, even though we didn't invest in it because we didn’t know what it was.

When we begin working and earning money, we will save money and invest some of it in stocks, so if our investing doesn't go well, we have a backup plan. When we think about our participation in the stock market game, the thought that stands out the most is that we learned two important things, first to invest our money wisely, and second to closely monitor our stocks, which helps us to know if we need to trade any stock. It was a worthwhile experience.

We all thank SIFMA Foundation and SIFMA member firms for making the stock market game and giving us this opportunity. We also thank Ms. Fleischer, for teaching us the stock market skills we now have. Thank you.

Here's a link from an article published in San Jose Mercury news regarding the SMG.

San Jose elementary and middle school students beat hundreds of other schools in a virtual stock market game. - San Jose Mercury News

Doodle For Google : 2010

Hrishika's school registered for the doodle for google art contest in 2010. The theme was "If I could do anything I would". Here's what Hrishika came up with. She would "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle". She was one of the finalists from her school.

Explorer Diary : 4th Grade

As part of the 4th grade projects, students had to write diary entries for an explorer to include some important and relevant information about the explorer in his own words. Also the students were asked to make the diary look old and worn out by using different techniques. Hrishika's had to write all about Sir Francis Drake. In the following slide show you could take a look at the different diary entries Hrishika came up with for Sir Francis Drake's diary.

School House Rock

This year Hrishika got to take part in a musical, "School House Rock". PTA hired Starting Arts, an outside company to help with the musical. Basically Starting Arts asked for 100 kids in total, so they could divide them up into 2 groups of 50 each. Each group was further divided into four sub groups (A, B, C & D). Only around 70 kids signed up for the play, however. That meant there was only one group. What that translated into was more kids in each sub-group and kids had to perform in four shows instead of just two. So Hrishika was in Group C. Each group had to learn two songs plus a third song which all the groups had to perform. Hrishika enjoyed learning and performing. It was a fun experience overall.

Mission Brochure : 4th Grade

As part of the 4th grade projects, Hrishika had to do a mission brochure. Her mission happened to be "Mission Santa Clara De Asis". Here's her brochure.

She drew the picture of the mission on the front cover.

In the middle of the brochure she wrote about how the mission evolved over the years to it's current state.

On the back of the brochure she wrote about some important facts about the mission and a map and directions to get to the mission.

California Relief Map : 4th Grade

Each student was asked to make a California Relief Map, using dough, salt, and water. At school, first she made an outline of California on paper. Using this outline, she formed the relief map out of dough. Once the dough hardened she painted the relief map. The map was mounted on cardboard.

The following recipe was used to make the salt dough:

• Mix together 4 cups of flour and 2 cups of salt.
• Slowly pour in 1 ½ to 2 cups of water. (Add water only as needed.)
• Knead well.

Map includes the following:

• The San Joaquin River
• The Sacramento River
• The Sierra Nevada Coastal Range
• The Coast Mountain Range
• The four main regions (desert, Central Valley, mountain ranges, coast)

Field Trip : Fourth Grade

This year Hrishika's class went on a field trip to Sacramento. This was an all day (7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M) field trip and covered some of the important spots in California history. It is an important field trip for 4th graders since it covers lot of what they have learnt in social studies this year.

This field trip was different in the sense, that the kids got to ride a luxury bus instead of a school bus. They were allowed to eat food on the bus and watch DVDs. So the kids were super excited. Here are some of the sites they visited and the pictures taken. Click on the links (links appear in orange) or the picture to find out more about the places visited.

• Eagle Theater
  
  



• Sutter's Fort
  
  



• State Capitol Building
  
  



• Wells Fargo Museum
  
  Here's a link to read more about the Wells Fargo's history
  
  



• Railroad Museum
  
  Here's another link to read more about Railroad Museum History.
  
  

Here's slide show of all the pictures from the Sacramento Field Trip.

Speech : 4th Grade

This year's topic for the fourth grade speech contest is "Peace - What It Means to Me". The student speeches are supposed to characterize what peace means to them in either a global, local, family or personal context and describe why peace is essential in the world or community they live in. The speech limit is 300 words.

Hrishika chose to write about inner peace. She wrote the speech all by herself without any help. I was completely in awe when I saw the content of her speech. Considering that she is only 9 years old it had quite a deep meaning. I was speechless (pun intended). The following is what she came up with for her peace speech.

PEACE

Have you ever wished you were always happy, never sad, angry or afraid? Well if you have, peace is the key for you. If you tell me the words inner peace, there are three main things I’ll think about. One is how it feels to be in peace. Another is yoga and meditation. The third is how inner peace is a treasure.

There are many different feelings going on in a moment in peace. When you’re in peace, your mind is clear and all your troubles vanish. You feel free to be yourself, and happiness flows through your whole body. When your mind is clear and relaxed, you earn peace, and the power of being happy and calm. Being in peace is like a bird, flying free, after being stuck in a cage for a long time.

Yoga and meditation are two ways to bring peace to your mind and body. Meditation is a way to be peaceful. It helps you be calm, and sets your mind in the state of peace. Once you do meditation, you can really focus and think about the things that matter to you. Yoga brings relaxation to your body. It helps eliminate stress. It also helps you to think clearly.

What’s truly a treasure to you? To me inner peace is an important treasure. Inner peace not only brings happiness but adds relaxation and harmony to our lives. Inner peace can’t be given to you, but you can earn it if you try from all your heart. With inner peace, your worries are behind you, and wonderful things are the only things you think about.

As I told you, the three things important to me about peace are, how it feels to be in peace, how yoga and meditation help achieve peace, and lastly, how inner peace is a treasure. Peace is important to this world since peace brings a sense of joy and harmony, which makes this world a better place to live in.

GIFTed Program

In third grade before the school year ended Hrishika got tested for GATE ( Gifted and Talented Education ). Some of the teachers told us that the test has gotten lot harder. Also because of the budget cuts in the state of CA, they said the number of kids and the frequency of the classes will also be reduced.

All that said, she got into the GIFTed program and I'm very proud of her. She did it all by herself. She did not receive any extra coaching, nor did I spend any extra time with her on that. Bravo!!!

On September 15th this year she had her first GATE class. She said it was lot of fun. As part of the GATE class they got to make bandana. As soon as she got home from school that day, she wanted to rinse the bandana and keep it for drying. By the time we got to it it was the day after. After that she had to wait for it to dry. She was so excited with the outcome. I think it looks good.

Heritage Quilt

Hrishika had to do this project for her class. Each child was asked to make one quilt square that represented their heritage. Hrishika decided to do a peacock for her quilt, since it was the national bird of India and very colourful. Each child was given a 6"x6" square black felt piece to do the quilt.

This is what she did. She first drew the outline of the peacock using a white crayon. Next she cutout the shape of each feather using a brown card stock. Next she glued a circular silver bindi on each of the feathers followed by a blue colored gem on every single feather. This took most of her time. Next she stuck some of these feathers on a silver twist tie and glued them in place on the felt square. Then she made the peacock body, face and feet with white model magic and colored it with green, peacock blue and brown respectively. Lastly she glued all the body parts on the felt.

It looked amazing!

Science Project: 3rd Grade

For this year's science project Hrishika decided to work on the "Phases of the Moon". She tried explaning as to what causes the phases of the Moon. She made the model of the Moon using styrofoam ball and model magic. She glued it to the top of a CD holder. It looked great. She used globe for an earth and a flashlight for the Sun.




Pictures showing the "Full Moon Phase" with and without light in the room.

Me Collage

At the beginning of the school year each student was asked to make a Me Collage. These were the instructions. Make a collage that is "all about YOU". First think about what makes you unique. Then start gathering materials to create your own "Me Collage". Draw, cut out pictures, or glue things to your collage that tell us what makes you You.

This is what Hrishika came up with ....

She had the following pictures:

• Harshul : whom she absolutely adores.
  
• Grandparents : whom she loves dearly.


• Michael Phelps : All time olympic record holder with 8 golds.


• Tom Brady : QB of her favourite football team.
  
• Backpack : Since she was so excited to go back to school after summer vacation.
  
• Chocolate : Need I say more.


• Chocolate Ice cream : Her favourite flavour.
  
• Board Games : Her favourite pass time.
  
• Star Wars : Her favourite movie series.


• Hawaii : Favourite place to visit.
  
• Gift Card : She loves collecting unique gift cards.

Happily Ever After

The Mysterious Witch

By

Hrishika Basava

May 2007

It was a cold, dark day in the forest where owl sleeps on his big, long branch. Owl was very kind. He had sharp eyesight at night and slept during the day. He had brown fur. Usually the butterflies and fox sneak up to his nest at daytime. One day a strange animal came to look at his nest. Who had sent him there? Suddenly the animal went away. Nighttime came again. Owl woke up. He found some fur. "Who came?" he said. He thought and thought. He thought for so long that daytime ame, he drifted off to sleep again.

One day that strange animal came again this time with a shimmering witch! The witch said, "Make him sleep fpr 100 years!" A spark of light flew in the air and landed right on owl. Night came. Owl still slept. Daytime came. Owl still slept. Night came. This time his sister, the magician, came and almost broke the spell when the witch came! She siad, "Wanna fight?"

The magician said, "Yes."

The witch said, "Make tree branches fall."

The magician made the branches towards the witch. Finally, a rock hit the witch and she died. The magician broke the spell.

"Thank you a lot, sister," said owl. After that, all was well in the forest.

WINTER is ........

Waking up and I see raining rainy weather.

Icicles hanging down from my house.

North pole I shouted, I'm in the northpole.

Time to open presents mom said.

Excited me I told my mom the story.

Recognized me it was just a dream!