Variety Show Skit

There are three characters. The characters are Nikhil, Sam and Shivaum. Shivaum is going to tell how the skit works. Shivaum comes out scratching his head and says, "Where is the invisible chair?" Shivaum looks behind and say, "Oh, right here". Shivaum blows and dusts it off. Now, Shivaum sits on the invisible chair.

Nikhil comes and says, "Hi Shivaum". Shivaum says, "Hi". He says, "What are you doing Shivaum?". Shivaum says, "Sitting on the invisible chair". Nikhil says, "Can I join you?". "Sure", Shivaum says.

Sam comes and does a cart wheel. He says, "What are you doing?". They say, "Sitting on the invisible chair". "Can I join you guys?". Sam says. They say, "Sure". Sam blows the dust off the chair, but before he sits he says, "Wait this isn't the invisible chair". Shivaum and Nikhil say, "It's not?". Sam says, "No, its not. The invisible chair is over by Mr. Chapman". Then everyone fall down.

Hopefully the audience laughs.

Pasta Market

Pasta Market is a restaurant where you can eat pretty good Pasta. I go there when it is my turn to pick the restaurant. I will never stop going to Pasta Market. I sometimes call Pasta Market, the Pasta Place. My favorite is Spaghetti with Sprite and Garlic Bread. You could sit outside or inside. My dad always orders the eggplant Parmesan, which looks like a Pizza but is kinda weird. I like to put a lot of cheese on my spaghetti.

My dad says he will take me to Pasta Market for a week everyday. He thinks I will get sick of Pasta Market.

My day out to watch the San Francisco Giants 5/10/08

Today, I had a baseball game at Saratoga Little League.

After the game, I went to watch a San Francisco Giants game. It was convenient being on the Giants team as I didn't have to change my clothes. We drove down and parked in Parking Lot A. We then had to take the stairs upto the Oracle suite on the four floor.

We were finally inside the Giants Stadium, at&t park. They were playing against Philadelphia today. Everyone in the stadium was dressed in orange and black. Philadelphia got the first run - it was a home run. We then hit our first home run. Whenever we got a strike, the audience cheered.

I ate a hot dog, peanuts, pizza, garlic fries. I drank coke. It was good.
I played on the computer inside the room with my brother.
We watched the Pistons play on the TV too.

I loved the game.

Star Testing 5/4/08

Star testing week at school is when we have to take a test. This test is about what we learnt over the school year. You take this test in the month of May. In 2nd grade you have star testing for 3 days. In 3rd grade you have it everyday. Each day you have Math and English. My dad got me a lot of books. There were five books. One particular bad book at one hundred forty seven pages. There were two big books.

I was a bit nervous at the start of the test. I know I got a question wrong in Math. It was a fraction question. My mom told my teacher that I got one wrong. I hope I did good in the star test. I want to get 600 out of 600 in Math. I would like to get advanced in English too. Mrs. Greene kept looking at my answer. I thought I could get 600 out of 600 in both the tests.

St. Patrick's day Leprechaun Trap

St. Patrick's day is an Irish holiday. it sometimes is called St. Paddy day. The St. Patrick's day parade was first held in Boston in 1737. In 2006, half a million people came to the parade. The traditional meal on St. Patrick's day is corned beef and cabbage. To celebrate, people drink Irish beer, Irish Whiskey, Irish coffee and also wear green clothes. Those who are caught not wearing green can be pinched. Many basketball teams were Kelly green hats on this day. Clovers celebrate St. Patrick's day.


Here is a video of the St. Patrick's day parade in Dublin Ireland

For my school project, I built a Leprechaun trap. I was pretty excited about it. I got up and ate my regular oatmeal that morning. When I was dropped off to schoool, I ran to my class and put the trap on the back table as Mrs. Greene had asked us to. The first bell ran. We kept looking at the Leprechaun trap. Five minutes later the second bell rang. Nathon and I passed out the day math. During Math, we made our own playground. You could work with a partner. Nathon was my partner. We had two pages and we made a lot of stuff, but I kept thinking about the Leprechaun trap.

How did I build the Leprechaun trap?
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Barry Bonds

Bonds after break Hank Aaron's record

Barry Bonds plays baseball for San Francisco Giants. He hit 762 home runs and holds the world record. Bonds went to Arizona State University. In 1986, he was drafted by Pittsburg Pirates. In 1993, he started playing for the Giants in San Francisco. His salary for 2005 season was $22 million. On August 7th, 2007 Bonds hit the 756th home run to break Hank Aaaron's home run record. Today his home run record of ??? is unbroken.

Check out the video of the 756th home run.

Mexico Cruise 12/10/07

Mexico is the fourteeenth largest country in the world. It is our neighbor to the south. The language they speak is spanish. I have been to Mexico when I was two years old. I had gone to Puerto Vallarta. During Christmas Holidays, I am going on a cruise to Mexico. This is my second visit to Mexico. This time it is on a cruise ship though. The cruise ship will stop at Los Cabos. This city is at the tip of the Baja California in the Baja Peninsula. A peninsula means it is surrounded by water on all three sides. This tourist town has lovely beaches. It will be fun.


Check out the video of the cruise ship Carnival Elation.

Well...I did go on that vacation. This was a cruise ship called Carnival Elation. It was huge. There were 2300 passengers in the ship and 900 crew members. The ship was 855 feet long and weighed 70,000 tonnes. The maximum speed was 31 knots, but the ship traveled at 18 knots (1 knot is 1.15 miles). The cruise ship had cabins, restaurants. They also have kids club called Camp Carnival where you can play video games, air hockey, Foos Ball and other kids activities. There was lot of food in the cruise ship. I really enjoyed eating Pasta. I also enjoyed sitting in the jacuzzi in the open air deck. I also enjoyed playing miniature golf. This was a fun trip.This is the famous arc of Los Cabos at Lover's Beach. We saw it from the cruise ship and also from up close while sailing to the snorkeling area.

Bouncing Ball experiment

In this experiment we bounce two balls together. The bounciness of the ball is elasticity. When you drop the balls together, the potential energy of ball #1 is transformed into Kinetic energy when it hits the ground. The ball #2 gets more energy because it already has potential energy. But ball #2 also uses the kinetic energyfrom ball #1 that already hit the ground. So you will see ball #2 fly in the air. Watch out here it comes!

Oil Spill in San Francisco (11/14/08)

Video of the oil spill

On November 7th last week, a container ship carrying oil hit the bay bridge in San Francisco. Some oil started spilling. 58,000 gallons of oil was spilled by this ship. Many birds and sea mammals died because of the oil spill. Some San Francisco beaches are still closed because of the oil spill. California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared an emergency after the oil spill.

Now, fishermen are not allowed to fish for crabs. The crabs have bad oil on them and we cannot eat them. Fishermen cannot make money now. Sea-birds cannot fly as their wings have oil on them and they cannot flap their wings. Also, water now sticks to them and makes them cold. The oil and water increases their weight and they sink in the water. 1500 people and 53 ship are trying to save these bird and sea animals.

The worst oil spill ever was in Alaska with over 10 million gallons of oil spilled. The effect of this oil spill is felt even today in Alaska

Daylight Savings Time (in short DST)

When the clock falls back by one hour in fall, and springs ahead by one hour in spring, that is DST. Germany started using DST in 1916. America started using DST in 1918. DST means we are saving daylight. This started during summer to enjoy the long hours of sunlight. In summer, due to DST, we enjoy a longer day, as the sunset happens one hour later than it would. When we get home in the evening, we turn on the electricity later and thus we save energy. My parents had to reset the clocks by hand before, but now clocks automatically change time. Recently, President Bush pushed back time change in Fall by a week, and in spring by 3 weeks. DST has some good points and some bad points. Farmers don't like it but stores do love it.

Aruba - Hidden Paradise

Aruba is an island nation in Central America. It is 17 miles from Venezuela in South America. Aruba was a colony of Holland until August 1985. Gold was discovered in Aruba in 1800 and later oil. Once the gold and oil was exhausted, the economy is now dependent on tourism. Tourists from all the over the world USA, Holland and South America visit Aruba. Aruba is famous for its white sandy beaches and dry tropical weather. Aruba is only 19 mile long and 6 miles wide. We saw Aruba in less than a day. The rest of the time we spent by the pool and the beaches. You could walk almost 300 yards into the ocean. I only walked 20 yards. My vacation was fun.

Are you Smarter than a 5th grader? 1/22/2008

It is a show on TV and also a hand-held game that you can buy from Target. It is also
a game on Nintendo DS.

If you are on TV with this game - you get money. There are many levels.
You start with $1000. If you keep answering correctly and get above $25,000 even if
you lose then you get $25,000. Otherwise you get $0.
iYou can win a maximum of $1,000,000.
Even rocket scientists have not won $1,000,000 on TV.

My brother won $1,000,000 on the hand-held game. It is a fun game!

Alphonso Mangoes

Alphonso is a mango which is the king of all mangoes (and Mangoe is the king of all fruits). It is the most expensive mango and is found in the western part of India. Last year, these mangoes were allowed to be imported into the United States for the very first time. We can make candies and smoothies with these mangoes. Eating a mango helps fix liver problems. It is very high in Vitamin C. It can help me increase my appetite. Mangoe season is very short, it starts in April and ends in May. I ate one on Monday, it was delicious.

Studying effects of daily pollutants on plants

Purpose :
To see the how different things help the plant grow

Description
I wanted to test whether oil, water, fertilizer, salt water, coke and Detergent helps or does not help the plant grow.

Hypothesis
I thought coke would help the plant grow the most because it has lots of sugar
I thought the oil would not help because I did an i-search on the oil spill in San Francisco. That oil spill did lots of bad things.

History of Plants
Over 3,000 million years ago, there was no oxygen on earth. Appeared the Blue-green algae which lived in the sea and can still be found in the water today. The air was made out of carbon dioxide only back then (no Oxygen).
Later after a few million years, some new plants starting breathing the Carbondioxide and released oxygen.

Discovery of PhotoSynthesis
In 1649, Jan Baptista Van Helmont did the first biological experiment in which the ingredients were measured accurately and applied on a willow tree (very similar to my experiment)
In 1772, Joseph Preistly, the British man who received the recognition of discovering oxygen, found that a piece from a mint plants could restore the air in a container with a burning candle
In 1796, Ingenhousz suggested that this process of photosynthesis causes carbon dioxide to split into carbon and oxygen. Then the oxygen is released as a gas.
In 1804 German scientist, Julius Mayer, showed that the energy of sunlight is captured in photosynthesis.

What is Photosynthesis?
Photosynthesis provides us with most of the oxygen we need in order to breathe. We, in turn, exhale the carbon dioxide needed by plants.
Photosynthesis is a process in which green plants use energy from the sun to transform water, carbon dioxide, and minerals into oxygen and organic compounds. It is one example of how people and plants are dependent on each other in sustaining life.

Procedure
I labeled the plants and kept them in separate containers.
In each plant I put the labeled thingy
E.g if it was labeled coke I put a little bit of coke in it.
I made sure I put the labeled thingy into the plant everyday, at pretty much the same time.
I did this for 2 weeks.
After 2 weeks, I left it out in the rain and sun to see what happens for another 4 weeks.

My Observation
In the first week the plant with coke and oil were doing pretty good
But at the very end -
The plant in which I poured only water did the best. It has grown the most and is doing well.
Oil did the 2nd best.
Fertilizer did OK – it will survive
The plants in which I put Coke, Detergent and Salt-water died. They have fungus on them now

Why was salt harmful?
Salt affects plant growth mainly through:
The sodium in salt is poisonous for the plant
With salt water the plants cannot drink much water, known as water stress and
They also miss out drinking some minerals particularly potassium that is needed for them.

Early signs of salt water damage
(a) darker leaves than the normal color of bluish-green,
(b) smaller leaves and
(c) stems with shorter spaces between leaf nodes.

Detergent / Oil / Fertilizer / Coke impact on plants
The impact of oil is inconclusive.
We probably put too much fertilizer and that burnt out the plant. But I think it may come back as it is still alive.
Plants don’t like coke
Detergent is released out in the environment so should not be harmful. But I am surprised that the plant died.

What would I do differently?
I would like to do this experiment in summer when there is more sunlight and then my experiment results might be different.
I would like to measure the oxygen that plants release – in specific conditions.
I would like to use different level of quantities. For example in 3 sets of plants, use 1 TBSP, 2 TBSP and 3 TBSP of Coke every day.

My Conclusions
Water is good for plants.
Coke, salt water and detergent water was quite harmful to plants
We should treat our environment with care.

Halloween imported into America

Halloween came to America from Ireland and England. Halloween is believed to be the time for magic. It was believed that spirits walk on earth on the day of Halloween, that is why we dress up in costumes to be like them. Long ago, to protect children from evil spirits, salt was sprinkled on their hair. Halloween costumes were sold in American in 1930s and kids started trick or treating in the 1950s. Stores now make a lot of money during Halloween. There are lots of scary shows and movies during Halloween. I watched a scary show . I really enjoy Halloween specially the trick or treat part.

Mars is pretty close -

Mars is the 4th planet from the Sun. Mars is pretty close to earth now. It will be this close again in 2016 when we are in 11th grade. It is actually 55 million miles away from. This is not nearly as close as in 2003, when Mars came within 35 million miles, the closest it would come for 60,000 years. When Mars gets close to earth it is called Mars opposition and the US Space agency, NASA launches Mars rovers to go land and explore Mars. The Mars Rover called Mars Phoenix is traveling to Mars and will get there in May 2008. Mars can be seen in the eastern sky all of December. On December 23rd, we have a full moon and Mars will be directly below the moon all the way through January 2nd. Make sure you check it out on that day. It will look like a red diamond in the sky. We plan to go to Foothill College observatory to check it out on Friday, just like we did in 2003 when I was two years old

Spring 3/25/2008

The weather warms up and we find flowers all over.
Snow begins to melt and we have streams that overflow.
When the cold arctic air crashes against the warmer air from the south.
we can have tornadoes.
The Pacific and Atlantic ocean also get hurricanes.

Cultures all over the world celebrate the arrival of Spring.
Easter, is one way to celebrate spring.
In India, they celebrate with the festival of colors called Holi.
Some cultures celebrate Nowruz.
I helped my dad plant daffodils, tulips and other bulbs in our garden and they
are now blooming. We planted them in thanksgiving and have waited a long time for
them to emerge from the ground.

March Madness 03/18/2008

Is March Mad? A month cannot be mad, can it? “Good Point”, I say.

ESPN thinks it is truly madness! They mean with the college basketball NCAA tournament, where 65 teams get picked out of more than 300 to play for the college basketball championship. There are four zone, East, West, Midwest, South with 16 teams in each zone.

California has the most teams in the 2008 NCAA tournament, a total of six. UCLA, Stanford, UC Berkeley, USC, San Diego, St. Marys. We have final four tickets this year. My brother and I are going to war to figure out who gets to go with my dad.

I like UCONN and Georgetown the most. I think UCLA will win the championship. My brother thinks it is North Carolina. But he is wrong!

My upcoming trip to Hawaii 03/30/08

The state of Hawii is the 50 th state - became part of USA in 1959.
It is made up of hundreds of islands.
The eight major islands are
Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe,
Maui, and Hawaii or Big Island.
We are going for spring break to Kauai and Big Island.

On Big Island, we will see volcanoes that have already exploded and
we will walk on the hot lava.

On Kauai, we will see a Water Fall, we will go snorkeling at a beach
and also check out a mini Grand Canyon.
We will also see a Spouting Horn that throws out salty surf with a groaning sound.
The legend is that it is a giant sea lizard trapped that is crying.
Maybe, I might see the giant sea lizard.

I am looking forward to my spring break trip to Hawaii.

Full Moon 5/20/2008

Full Moon

Full moon is on May 20^th, which is today. The full moon appears once every 29.53 days. At full moon the earth is between the moon and the sun; at new moon the moon is between the sun and the earth.

Some calendars of the world are lunar, that is based on when the moon is full.

The new moon rises at sunrise and is visible in the sky all day. The full moon rises at sunset and is visible most of the night. It is not visible during the daytime.

Full moon makes bad things happen. That is called the Lunar Effect. The full moon is supposed to cause strange behavior. This has been proven by studies. People gain and lose weight depending on whether the moon is full or new. When the moon is full or new, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun are combined. At these times, the high tides are very high and the low tides are very low.

Sometimes, in one month, we can have two full moons. That is called a BLUE MOON. Which month may skip having the full moon? Can anyone tell? The correct answer is February, because when it has 28 days, the full moon creeps into March. The next February that will not have the full moon is in 2018.

Can we have three full moons in the same month? No way!

Corals 4/22/2008

Coral are found in the sea. They are marine organisms.

They first appeared 542 million years ago.

Some forms of coral become hard as they ooze out calcium carbonate.

The hard rocks that we find in the ocean are fossils of such marine organisms.

Such hard rocks together can form an island on its own. Corals can alter their skeletons to match the chemistry of the seawater – the only known animal to do this. A natural bridge we saw in Aruba was made out of coral. Coral reefs are important breeding and feeding grounds for many ocean species. They also protect the shore. We use coral to make natural tiles for homes.

All about coins 10/11/2007

A penny is worth ONE cent. A penny has the picture of Abraham Lincoln.

A nickel is worth FIVE cents. This one has the picture of Thomas Jefferson.

A dime is worth TEN cents. A picture of Franklin D. Roosevelt is on the front of the dime.

A quarter is worth TWENTY-FIVE cents. A picture of George Washington is on the front of the quarter. A picture of the bald eagle is on the back of the quarter