Wonder

Ms. H's class finally finished our first read aloud of the year, Wonder, by R.J. Palacio. The book Wonder is about a boy named August (Auggie for short), and he has a unique face. The story is basically how he starts school in 5th grade after being homeschooled for his whole life, and what he goes through.

Words I would use to describe this book are:

• Marvelous
• Exciting
• Amazing

I think the message the of the book is not to judge someone by their appearance because appearances (and faces) don't matter, and only a person's personality is what should be judged.

Summer is my favorite character because not only was she Auggie's really close friend, but also acknowledged Auggie for who he was and not what he looked like. Summer is a great friend to have, because she would give up a lot of opportunities to be your friend.

I would definitely recommend this book because it was very meaningful, and what Auggie went through is realistic, yet very interesting. The book showed feelings that a real person might have and also many friendship problems that are pretty common in the real world. R.J. Palacio made fiction feel true.

Semester One Reflection

Semester 1 learning

Grade 5 Memories

Genre Pizza

This semester our teacher set us a challenge to read eight different genres, in 14 weeks. The genres we had to read were:

• Mystery (The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer)
• Historical Fiction (Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls)
• Non-Fiction (Exploring the Ocean Depts by Peter Jedicke)
• Biography (Michelle Kwan Quest for Gold by Mark Stewart and Mike Kennedy)
• Science Fiction/Graphic Novel (Percy Jackson Graphic Novel by Rick Riordan)
• Fantasy (The Anybodies by N.E. Bode)
• Realistic Fiction (The Steps by Rachel Cohn)
• Action/Adventure (Escaping the Giant Wave by Peg Kehret)

I completed the challenge the day before the due date, and to celebrate we ate as much pizza as humanly possible. I ate 3 slices of pizza, and to measure up the unhealthiness, I ate a grape. The genre I enjoyed the most was Historical Fiction because I read an interesting book, and I like to compare and contrast my life, and the life in the 1800's.

The genre that I did not enjoy was Non-Fiction because I don't like how there aren't fun stories.

A genre I discovered I like is Mystery, because they are really intense, and interesting.

Next semester we are going to do Genre Pie, and my advice to myself is to send an email to Ms. H instead of a conference, because you may not have time to do a conference (by speaking).

(Picture to the right: You see me in the background waving!)

(Picture to the left: I'm sitting next to the girl in green!)

 

Words of Advice to Myself

Today we had our first Gecko Bucks Auction, we are going to have two more this school year. Here are some advice for myself for the other auctions:

• Don't buy TOO much food (8/9 things I got were food).
• At first, don't bid for things 
• Save money for what you want the most
• Use all money (or most of it)
• Don't be too noisy

I think the most fun was to see the happiness and craziness people had in them while getting the things, and I it was really fun getting real things with (non-real) gecko bucks. 

Service Learning Reflection Semester One

Our preparations for our field trip to the Christalite Methodist home was very well thought out. First my class first got into groups of two to think of as many craft ideas as possible. Then two of the groups got together to make groups of four, and together, we picked our number one craft we wanted to share with our class. Soon after the gatherings, we had a blind vote to see which crafts we would do. Finally, we came to a decision to decorate Christmas trees and styrofoam balls.

I think that the time-out room was the most interesting part during the tour of the Christalite Methodist Home, because since my eldest sibling was young, we also had a time-out for when we were bad. Before the trip, I thought that my family was the only family that had "time-out" rooms. I was also surprised by the amount of time they put the "trouble makers" in the time-out room for! My parents used to put us in time-out rooms for only 5-10 minutes.

During the craft activity, I helped by getting the materials while Nadia watched the three residents we were working with. I also guided the residents with markers, pipe cleaners, and glueing things on. There was one lady out of the three, and she kept on laughing at her work, and teasing the other two, but they didn't talk to us.

My biggest takeaway is coming out, and being glad that I could make some people happy. We all could tell they were delighted because of there smiles, thumbs up, handshakes, and waves. I rarely see people get so psyched when 5th graders like my class visit them. Though I couldn't speak their language I knew that they were happy.

On my second trip to the Methodist Home, I will try to socialize more with the residents, and I will try to mentor the residents more by teaching them how to decorate the crafts better. I will also smile more, because they smile back.

The most interesting thing about today was seeing that the residents could do sooo much. One guy was playing Kinect bowling, and got 4 strikes in a row! Another person copied a resident's Christmas tree so well that they looked identical to each other! I'm really glad that I can make people happy no matter what language they speak.