“My mother will never eat pumpkin pie again.” 

Just dessert 

    There once was a girl named Veronica that had a bob cut with bangs and liked to wear dresses. She had a friend named Garsila. She had very long hair and a very long neck. Garsila liked to wear sweatpants and sweatshirts.  Veronica liked to cook and bake a lot. One day she was making a pumpkin pie and she lowered the knife and it grew even brighter. It was like it had a mind of its own. It flew up and it came right to her chest and stabbed her in the heart. 

Veronica’s  friend Garsila liked to play basketball and soccer.  But one day she was playing basketball and the ball went on the road  and she didn’t see the car, and the car didn’t see her. The car hit her and it  just drove away.  She was playing with her friends and they didn’t  know what to do, except just stand still and eventually call 911 but it was too late. She was DEAD!!

 

Veronica’s mom came home and saw that she had bled out on the floor. Her mom was crying and crying and she just couldn’t stop. Veronica’s mom was sobbing and said “at least she died doing what she loved.” Veronica’s mom also found a half cut up  pumpkin pieces so she could make the pumpkin purée and pie dough on the counter. 

 

Now Veronica and Garsila are dead, they are ghosts now.

 “I can’t believe I died from a knife that literally had a mind of its own,” said Veronica.

 

 “I can’t believe I died from a basketball that went on the street and a car hit me,” said Garcila. 

 

“I bet your mom will hate basketball,” said Veronica. 

 

“I think your mom will hate pumpkin pie and any other pie from now on,” said Garsila. 

 

“Just saying pie makes me hungry,” said Garsila.

 

 “Well, hearing the word basketball just makes me bored,” said Veronica. 

 

“You want popcorn” asks Veronica 

 

“Yes I want popcorn,” said Garsila. 

“Ok I will make it for us then we can watch a movie” said Veronica. 

 

“ I can’t hold the bowl of popcorn it just falls out of 

My hands,” said Veronica 

 

“Ha,  what really let me try to wait you weren’t lying it literally doesn’t  work,”

 Said Garsila. 

 

“Anyways, you know what Veronica I think when I died I looked like a dead animal on the road” said Garsila. 

 

“You know what Garsila when I died I probably looked so gross on the floor in the kitchen,” said veronica.    

 

 So now we  have to learn how to be  ghosts. That won’t be hard. Actually  it’s harder than you think. First we have to learn how to control ourselves as ghosts. We have to learn how to hold things and how to not fall through floors. So they practised and practiced until they learnt how to control to not fall through the floor. And they also learned how to hold things. Now they have mostly learnt how to be a ghost but now they have to learn what their ghost symbol is.  Garcila said, “I think my symbol is a blue bird, because I liked to play outside a lot and I always thought  blue jays are the nicest.” Veronica said “ I don’t know what mine is, I just need more time.” 

 

Veronica’s mom wanted to figure out if someone, something, stabbed her daughter in the  chest.  Garcia’s mom wanted to find out who killed her daughter. So the mom’s tried and tried by themselves to find out what happened. But they couldn’t so they called the police and they found the person that hit garsila. They did a trial and he was found guilty so now he is in jail.   No one could find out how the knife got into her chest. Veronica’s mom got the detectives, police, and investigators.  The only thing they thought of was suiside. But the thing that actually happened was it was like the kine had a mind of its own. But no one will know.

 

 

   

 

   Do you know what a pencil tastes like? Is Chewing a pencil Just a Bad habit? What about if it gives you self comfort? Do you have anxiety or stress? Or maybe just social anxiety? It could also be linked to oral sensitivity? But if you do chew on pencils does a blue or yellow one taste different?  What about an eraser? Did you know that of the 20 billion pencils made each year around the world over 5 billion get chewed! I’m Georgia Smith and I’m here to tell you why I think pencils get chewed. Could it be because of anxiety, stress, or self-comfort? Oral sensitivity or just a bad habit? Well, “are you ready to find out!?” 

 

Do people bite their pencils because of oral sensitivity? You may ask what is oral sensitivity?  Kind of like thumb sucking or biting your nails. Pencil chewing has been connected to the oral phase of childhood development. Some signs of oral sensitivity are bite marks on old toys,  sucking on clothing, liking extra extreme food flavors or constant gum chewing. Sensory receptors in your mouth can be hypersensitive or hyposensitive. What does hypersensitive mean? Hypersensitive means that you avoid some types of foods and you are extra sensitive to certain textures and feelings in your mouth. What does hyposensitive mean? Hyposensitive means your mouth needs more feelings and textures and you may put things in your mouth to stop fidgeting and 

.disrupting in class. Some kids that chew their pencils can be Hyposensitive.

 

Do people also bite pencils because of self comfort if you have anxiety, stress or social discomfort?  The B.C. Children’s

 hospital says that “Anxiety means feeling worried, nervous or fearful. We all experience anxiety at times and some anxiety can be helpful. For example, feeling some anxiety before a test, interview or public-speaking can help motivate you to prepare for it.”  What is self comfort? Self comfort is a way to calm oneself when faced with a stressful situation. Sometimes in class kids when they feel anxious instead of biting their nails or tapping their fingers resort to biting their pencil. Life’s awkward and sometimes a socially intimidating moment can trigger our most self destructive behaviors. These behaviors can occur to try and calm the mental and physical toll that anxiety creates. But you might also be wondering what social anxiety is because I did say something about it in this speech before.

Social anxiety comes from having to film something, read something out loud or having to present projects to the class, parents, teachers, any family or just any crowd. Sometimes to deal with these anxieties kids chew their pencils.

 

Last but not least  is it just because it’s a bad habit??

What is a bad habit and why do people have bad habits? A bad habit is something that is really hard to stop once you start. Most of the time the reason for bad habits is simply a way of dealing with stress and boredom. Everything from biting your nails to tapping your fingers to wasting time on the internet can simply be a response to stress or boredom.  There are so many bad habits  I can’t list them all, but here are a few  like nail biting, tapping things with your hands or fingers, pulling out hair, being on a device all day, losing your temper and smoking. Why is biting your pencil a bad habit? By biting your pencil not only does it increase your risk for germs that cause illness by giving bacteria and viruses a free trip into the body, it also is an easy way to spread those germs to others, too. Is the paint on a pencil toxic to humans? The paint on the pencils some time ago used to have lead in it so it was toxex  but now the paint does not have lead in it so it is not toxic  anymore.  Chewing your pencil may be unhealthy for you. Like chewing on ice, this habit can cause teeth to chip or crack. When you feel the need to chew something, chewing Sugarless gum is a better option.  

 

As you heard there are many reasons why people chew pencils. The question is why they do it and why it’s bad for them. The most likely reason is  from oral sensitivity, self comfort, anxiety, stress or maybe it’s  a bad habit. No matter what, biting your pencil  is bad for you, bad for the environment and bad for your teeth. If you want to learn how to stop chewing your pencil you’ll have to wait for my speech next year…how to stop on chewing pencils.

 

This is how i make a cootie catcher.

1. make a square out of paper (colored or regular paper).
2. now take the square and fold it into a smaller square by folding in the the 4 corners.
3. flip over the paper and fold in the corners again.
4. turn it over and you will see 4 little squares. (so you did it the right way).
5. pic up the things that are the flaps for your fingers.

Hi last week we had scientist in the school! We did fun experiments like make small chemical explosions and make purple turn into a piney red color, we also made a liquid with water and red cabbage powder and it smelled really bad. These are the ingredients we used for the experiments, red cabbage powder, baking soda, Epsom salt, flour, vitamin c and water. We did  experiments to find out what was in the misery powder. First we put it in water to see if it would turn into a liquid goop like when we put the flour into water and it made a liquid goopy type of thing and we also looked if it sunk to the bottom like the mystery powder. Then we mixed the mystery powder with some vitamin c powder and cabbage water to see if it would erupt like the baking soda and the vitamin c powder mixed together and we added cabigge water. It did erupt and it did sink to the bottom for the flour test. So we figured out it was flour and baking soda!

Hi today I will be talking about my two paragraphs. You may be thinking what two paragraphs well it’s my       1. mask paragraph   and my 2. Minecraft paragraph . So in english class we had to write two paragraphs about two different things that my teacher found in the news in two different  articles. So we all had to write a paragraph about masks and Minecraft. We all wrote about the same two articles but we all wrote about them differently and with our own opinions. I feel like I did a better job on my Minecraft paragraph than I did on my mask paragraph because I explained  my thoughts a lot more. In my minecraft paragraph I used a better hook and also used a better introductory sentence. I also feel like I also didn’t do such a good job in the end few sentences in my Minecraft paragraph because I feel like I rushed through them. Also near the end of my Minecraft paragraph I feel like I didn’t use as many transition words as I could have.  So just a quick recap of why I feel like I did a better job on my Minecraft paragraph then my mask paragraph. 

1. I used more transition words
2. I used a good hook
3. I had a good introduction sentence 
4. I expand my thoughts more

So that’s why I feel like I did a better job at my Minecraft paragraph. Thank you. the end!!!

What? You don’t know what Minecraft is? Then I’m going to tell you why it’s a great tool in education. To begin with, it gives kids a break. What I mean is that you get to play a video game but you still have to learn how to play, build different stuff, play with your friends, and learn science. Secondly, on the education side of Minecraft, you can learn more science. For example, you can make a balloon out of latex and helium. Although I don’t know a lot about the education side of Minecraft, I know you can still build more. You can also get rare blocks and get all sorts of other cool things. Coding is a good thing in Minecraft but it is also good in the real world. It is a good life skill, it is a good thing to know in science too. Yes, Minecraft is a great site but it should not be used all day because it’s the teacher’s job to teach us, and we also should not be on our devices all day. Therefore, Minecraft is perfect to teach us cool things and to help us learn but it should not be used all day at school.