Collabrating Constructively

In Literature Discussions, working with a partner benefits us because we get to help each if we need help. If we had chosen a bad passage or a bad question, our partner would help us choose a better one. Our partner would look through and find better and more detailed ideas to help us  understand the book better.  Challenges we faced were, questions. My partner even had trouble thinking of one. I knew that is was going to be tough thinking of one for her too. Sometimes if she thought of one it would relate to mine and the responses would be the same which also would kind of be the same question.

Literature Circles Reflection

In humanities, we are doing something called literature circles. Lit. circles is where we read a couple chapters in a book then we have to find an important part in there, which we can explain. After that we have to pick two questions that we can answer and answer them. Finally we write a connection or a reaction and two vocabulary words with a definition and page number. My groups discussion did improve my understanding of the book, True confessions, however my group filled in all the gaps.





 During our discussion, we get a little over excited when we talk about each part in the story. Each and every discussion, we tend to predict what's going to happen in the next chapter from the past chapters. Way back in the book, we found the bad guy and the good guy. All of us put a little knowledge into discussion and guessed the rest of the book. The most important thing we discussed was probably our predictions because, they all had some actions in the story even if it didn't have to do with the bit we chose. In our last discussion, we talked about a person called Mr. Edwing who had been shot. This was an example of what we talk about and how we put some thought into who did it. Also in the book, Charlotte, a main character was given a dirk by Zachariah, the cook for the crew. This was important because it would protect her later on in the story. Captain Jaggery is now showing himself off unlike earlier in the story, it seemed he was trying to gain her trust.





 Charlotte found a pistol in Mr. Edwing's chest. This was strange sense only Captain Jaggery said he only had guns locked up in his cabinet. Captain Jaggery tortures his crew if they don't listen to him. One time in the story, he had cut off Mr. Cranick's arm because he didn't listen. He wiped someone 50 times because they weren't listening to him. Captain Jaggery really has a part in the story. Without him there would be no conflict in the story. A prediction I made was that, Captain Jaggery was going to steal Charlotte's knife that Zachariah gave her and frame her.

Symmetry

This is a picture of me holding an eraser. It has 1 line of symmetry down the middle of it.

Watching Fireflies

Last week 6B got to go on a field trip to Kuala Selengor. We got to see fireflies, go on a boat ride and plant mangrove trees. Out of the whole trip my favorite part was seeing the fireflies. I loved watching the trees light up like a Christmas trees. I had seen fireflies before but watching them in a peaceful boat ride was the best thing.

I watched other boats stop at trees and pull off a firefly but the person driving my boat didn't. I was getting pretty upset because I badly wanted to see them just a bit closer. He kept riding along but I knew he would stop sooner or later. He stopped at tree that only had a few fireflies and it wasn't the brightest tree at all. He picked off a baby firefly, so small that I didn't see it's glow. I thought it was dead so I dropped it but then it had a huge glow. My friends that were on the boat with me decided to take it. I guess the tree we stopped at was for baby fireflies sense it was such a small glow.
 All of a sudden I saw a something moving in the water. At first I thought it was a reflection of the boat but then I realized that it was some kind of fish. I was frightened bye its long body shape. My friends and I thought it could be an alligator. There were more and more and more when I looked around but they didn't seem to bother anyone so felt a lot better. We did a U turn but all the other boats had stopped to see more trees. I asked him if we could go closer to the trees again but he said no. I was so jealous because everyone else was holding one. Finally we were back and my friends still had the firefly. I held it out to show people but then we saw a fine that said if we take one you would have had to pay 1,000 rm. I was nervous hoping that no one saw besides my class mates. I set the little guy free. Then we hopped on the bus and our fun night ended.
This was just like planting mangrove saplings because it was also really fun. I was so excited to get dirty but when I arrived, after the stories I heard from my friends, it was going to a muddy day. We put on our boots and my gloves so that mud wouldn't get on our hands and shoes. Off I went in the muddy forest. I finally started to sink. My friend who was pulling on me fell and sense my feet were buried in the dirt I couldn't help my self stay stable. It was a hard fall. Unfortunately a crab crawled up my boot. I almost screamed when it pinched me. I stayed on the side standing on roots from bigger mangrove trees and watched my friends. They fell every second sinking deeper and deeper in the mud. Finally when they got to the other side there were no more saplings left. They had walked far and didn't get to plant anything so they were a little upset especially the people that were the muddiest. It looked pretty irritating. The funnest part of all was getting washed off. We were sprayed with a hose on full power. It felt to me like I was sitting on nails but I didn't mind because when I saw that my classmates had already taken showers. I got jealous. At that time I just wanted to rip off the mud. Overall the trip was the most fun I have had in school.

The Time I Showed Courage

There have been a few times in my life when I have needed courage.  Learning how to swim was one of those times. When I was four years old I went to California. The hotel where I stayed, had a huge pool. I didn't know how to swim yet so I spent my time there learning with little swim tubes around my arms.  One day, I swam across the pool with the tubes on.  I felt really proud of myself.  Then some kid my age said, "I can swim across without floaters."  I got so upset because I thought everyone swam that way. I kept practicing over and over again but still not without my floaters.


 A few days later when I was swimming, that kid was there again. "Gosh you still can't swim without floaters?" I got so angry at him. " No I can swim without them if you didn't know." This made him jealous. "Prove it then." He said. I got really nervous. It was a deep pool but a small length. All of a sudden I felt better. "I can do this no worries." I whispered to myself. "Go." He shouted. I was off swimming like crazy to the other side. He was following behind me. The kid struggled to keep in front yet he moved slowly. I knew that sense we were just starting to swim maybe it was okay. I realized that the floaters made me better at swimming and sense he didn't that affected his swimming skills. During the middle I stopped and looked behind. He had given up the race. " Hey girl you win." I had beat him and that made me proud.

This example shows courage because I realized that I could do it and overcame my fears. The boy had been mean to me which made me want to prove to him that I could do it.

What do artifacts tell us about the lives of early humans?

Artifacts tell us many different things about early humans.  Early humans loved art.  They carved things into stone and painted on walls. These images depict their everyday lives and these art pieces were used in their spiritual rituals as well.

The first painting is called  Cave Painting of Animals. This painting has lots of  animals on it such as horses and bison. Whoever painted this could have used it to honor spirits. He or she also could have used it to capture the magical powers of certain animals.

Another painting is called Cave Painting of Shapes and Hand Prints. This was found in Argentina. The hand prints are very tiny because the early humans were also very tiny. The hand prints could have been the artist's way of signing their picture.  It also could have been used for rituals.

The third artifact I really enjoyed is called Clay Sculptures.  It had two cracked buffalo standing next to a rock with sort of a blue glow in the background.  These sculptures could have belonged to a certain clan.  They also could have been used for ceremonies held deep inside the cave.

By examining the artifacts, we can all learn a little bit more about the early humans and all the painting and sculptures they made.  We can take a peek into the day to day lives of these early humans and see what they held sacred by seeing what they may have used in their rituals.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Archaeologist

If I were a social scientist, out of the three choices I would be an archaeologist.
 I would be an archaeologist  because I always like studying about it and I think it is a very interesting social scientist. I would really like to go on an adventure like Indiana Jones would. He has to find treasure and other awesome things like glass cups. He has to guess passages and other stuff. He has to find out all the important things about that artifact.

  I sometimes act like an archaeologist in my daily life. One time in Redang, I found pieces of plates that came off one of the ship wrecks in the early 1600. They were worth a lot of money. When I found the pieces of plates I felt like an Archaeologist.  If I were an archaeologist I would want to dig up treasure or a lost city. Also one time in Cambodia I found thick plates. My grandpa said that they were from a long long time ago because they were thicker then every day plates. Also one time in Washington D.C. I was digging in my backyard because I had just seen Indiana Jones for the first time. I found cups that looked over one hundred years old. Probably not, but I was still really surprised. They were a mix of brown and grey mabye from all the dirt. It was amazing to think about all the facts like where it is from, who it is from, how old is it, what does it mean, why is it here, did someone lose it, should I keep it burried and more.

These times in my life are out of one hundred times. I hope that when I am older I can say many more times in my life that relate to an archaeologists job. That is why I chose an archaeologist.

All About Me

My name is Raissa and I was born in Washington D.C. which is in America.  I spend my summers in D.C. with my friends and family. There they eat burgers and hotdogs. These are some of my favorite foods.  The weather is cool so it's fun to go outside and play.  I moved to Malaysia in 2008. I loved Malaysia because of it's weather. It was exactly like America. The other things I like about Malaysia are, the monkeys, the colorful clothing that they wear for their traditional dress.

I am a quad meaning that my mom got four kids at a time.  I have 1 sister, and 3 brothers.  One of my brothers has down syndrome and autism.  He goes to a special needs school.  My youngest brother is in 4th grade.  My favorite book is Unfortunate events, The Wide Window because it always kept me guessing.  My favorite food is chicken and cheese pizza because it's flavor is just so good.  An academic goal I want to achieve this year is getting straight A's in all my classes.  My social goal is to play with my old friends but still make some new ones. I hope that even though there are some people who are new to ISKL I could still be friends with them.