NaNoWriMo is Never-Ending (and we love it!)

Though we have left the month of November, and all that novel-writing that comes with it, we are still reveling in the work that NaNoWriMo inspired and yielded. Even as we march towards the beginning of a brand new year (Welcome, 2017! We can't wait for you!), Orange Band students are still contemplating the characters, settings, and plot twists that filled our time together.The inspirations for our novels are varied: previous NaNoWriMo projects, our favorite authors and stories, each other's work and ideas, and the stories we wish were in print, but simply haven't been written...yet! Throughout the work on character, setting, and plot, however, we have come to realize that most stories have a shape to them. Orange Banders looked at how the venerable and prolific author, Kurt Vonnegut, visualized these shapes. Afterward, students created their own story shapes, and we saw that our stories and style of story-telling varied just as widely as our inspirations!In addition to goal setting for word counts (which nearly all Orange Band students have met or exceeded!!), kiddos set goals for the impacts their novels make when they are released into the world. Some of the Orange Band NaNoWriMo goals are:

• Jeevan: I want people to know what they see may not always be the truth.
• Lucy: My goal is to show that polar bears are awesome.
• Roman: My goal is to make my novel a great story to read and to share it with my family.
• Charlotte: My goal is that I want to get little girls out of their princess dresses, and get them to see the true princesses--and get them to BE like true princesses without magic.
• Amiya: My goal is to make people laugh.
• Phoebe: My goal is  to show that dead people aren’t really dead, and that you might not kill someone by dropping a knife on them, so don’t try!

From the inspirational to the macabre, Orange Band NaNoWriMo projects will have it all!NaNoWriMo even infiltrated student blog post topics...NaNoWriMo, by Amiya DasMy Nanowrimo story is about two brothers, one brother’s friend, Betty, and a very old treasure. The story begins in 1851, when John Devell goes from New York City to Placerville, CA, to find gold during the California gold rush. He finds a lot of gold, and hides it in a cave near Placerville. Unfortunately, he gets on the boat back to New York City, forgetting his treasure, and he doesn’t remember until it was too late. He makes a treasure map and gives it to his Great-Grandsons, Robert and Edward just before his death. Robert is drafted for The Second World War in 1940 and is reported missing in action in 1942. His plane crashes in the French Alps, but he moves back to Chester, Nova Scotia in 1953. Edward lives there, until he rediscovers his copy of the treasure map in 2016, and decides to go on a road trip with his friend Betty. Robert rediscovers his copy, and he goes on a road trip too. They meet just after leaving Chester, and decide to race to Placerville. NaNoWriMo Reflection, by Roman StadlerNaNoWriMo was a great writing opportunity. I wish we can have it forever because it’s that fun.  One reason why NaNoWriMo is fun is because on Wednesday, November 30, we had NaNoWriMo the whole day and it was also Pajama Day. our class sipped hot chocolate while writing our stories. I would get sugar crazy so I would get more ideas in my brain to write about. We also had a  super fun time writing because we got to make our stories up and write whatever came to our minds. Everyday after lunch during quiet time we wrote NaNoWriMo. I loved writing NaNoWriMo in peace and quiet because I can concentrate better. My word goal was 2,001 and I have 2,010 right now. I am super excited because I accomplished my word goal. If you ever get an opportunity to write a story, use the NaNoWriMo process because when you reach your goal you will feel like you are proud that you accomplished a difficult and complicated story.Other Orange Band kiddos looked to the coming end of the arc to focus their blog posts:Future Field Trip, by Lucy RubensteinI think that we should go to the zoo! One reason is that it is the by land arc and there are lots of animals there that walk on land. The zoo is pretty big to so we would be walking all day, and  we would be moving by land. Also there are lots of cute animals there. It is important to realize that  the zoo is just really fun to go to anyway. For this reason I think we would all probably enjoy it and we would learn about animals that walk by land.☺As the Expression phase of the By Land arc looms, Orange Band students also contemplated possible projects.Expression Project, by Justin BebeeFor our by land arc I am going to turn the entire earth into a bluetooth speaker. And I am going to study how sound travels by land. But mostly turn the entire earth into a bluetooth speaker. And then I can play annoying music to the whole world. And since the music is coming from the earth, they wouldn’t be able to tell who it is. That would be so cool. Then we could play clapping, and people will think that the clap is happening. That would be funny. Still other Orange Banders considered our future endeavors--in our band space, and Brightworks, as a whole.My Persuasive Blog Post, by Charlotte JewellI think we should redo the table that we built and make it only white board because people keep scratching it and it hurts my ears. Our table than we have now has whiteboard and blackboard, I think that we should redo the actual board part because it does not fit correctly either like you could fit it this way but you couldn't fit it that way. I think we should use shower boards instead of foam because when people flip stuff or when you don't have a clipboard and your pencil goes through the paper and then it goes through the table it would damage the table, I think we should also paint the table (or the unfinished book shelf, if you didn’t know we were working on a bookshelf, we are making a bookshelf because our old bookshelves back came off so we have to make new one if ). I think we should paint the table Orange (because our band is orange and I like orange or we can paint it blue).A Persuasive Blog Post, by Jeevan BhatiaI think that Brightworks should teach a different language. Languages have a lot of different things behind them, for an example, a culture. A language doesn't just teach you  language it can teach you a different syntax and new culture. You can learn how to write and read in a different way. I mean, Brightworks teaches a lot but not like this.  Communicating in different languages is something that you can use for a lot of different reasons, for an example, in an emergency. If someone that knows about the emergency is the only one that can help in the emergency, and  only speaks one language and that language is not the one you know, then what?  What  happens if no one is there that can help? I speak 3 languages English, Spanish, and Mandarin fluently. I use to speak Spanish a lot better than I do know. When I was younger I spoke 5 languages.  When I first came to BWX I asked a lot of people if they spoke any other languages and no one spoke any other languages. I  mean one or two people spoke one or to other languages but not really fluently. I  can speak Hindi a little bit but not fluently. Anyway learning a language expands your Brain. Don’t eat Hershey's, Nestle & Mars Chocolates!, by Phoebe PringleDo you want to know how Hershey's, Nestle & Mars get the kid slaves in the first place? Let's back up. Hershey's, Nestle & Mars uses kid slaves in Africa to harvest cocoa beans. You know, I’m ten. A kid my age would be on a cocoa beans farm harvesting cocoa beans.  If the kids if need to go to the restroom they have to go on the roof or in a cup. Now back to the top question: Hershey's, Nestle & Mars bought or kidnaped the kids. To conclude don’t eat or buy from Hershey's, Nestle, & Mars.As we say goodbye to 2016, we hope the Orange Band has given you something to reflect upon...Happy Holidays