Personal Narrative Reflection

I have grown as a writer by adding more internal thinking. My PN on Demand didn't have much inner thinking, whereas my personal narrative had a lot. I am more confident in applying more thinking into my narratives after having lessons about it, and after using it. My biggest challenge in writing personal narratives is getting writers block. I always get stuck during writing periods. I surprised myself by seeing how much I can improve in just a little more than a month! I received a lot of helpful feedback from my peers and teacher (Mrs. K) about how to improve my writing.

Push and Pull Assignment Reflection

We had to complete an assignment for Social Studies on the push/pull factors for Singapore and American history. We did this using resources in class, and Google Maps. Some new skills I learned were how to use Google Maps, and how to make my assignment pretty by changing the colors.
An interesting piece of information I learned was where the Chinese stayed in Singapore. I think this is interesting because I thought Chinatown is called Chinatown because they sold Chinese things, not because that's where the Chinese people lived!
A similarity I found between Singapore's and America's history was: A lot of reasons people left their home was because of the lack of safety.
If I had to do this again, I would remember to do my homework!

Google Advanced Search Techniques

I think that knowing Google Search Techniques are important, because you can narrow your search down to find specific results.

Here are some things we learned about:

• Put quotation marks to find the exact words in the search.
• Write:
  allintext:_________ <-then your search, to find the the exact words you wrote, in your results.
• Write:
  allintext:_________ -_______________
                ^ then your search            ^
                                                what you want to exclude
  
  To show what you want to exclude and what you want.
• Got to search tools to refine the search by time reading, reading level, country, etc.
• Search what you want.
• Go to Settings.
• Go to Advanced Search.

Non-Fiction Expert Group Presentation Reflection

We have just finished our non-fiction presentations. My group were experts on Germs. Here is our presentation.

The most interesting I learnt about was germ fighting cells and how to keep germs away. An interesting fact I learnt was nose hairs help keep germs away

My job in my group was to make the slides look "nice" and to talk about germ-fighting cells, and what they do.
What I would do differently next time is to look more at the audience, and explain what I'm trying to say more precisely.
I enjoyed making the presentation the best, because we got to do whatever we wanted for making the presentations or poster.

Hour of Code

Today, Monday the 9th of December (Naina's B-day) began the week of coding. We completed our first hour in the grade 5 group room. Here's the coding website we used.

Coding is important to learn because you can delete unimportant things and you can add in important things needed.

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!)

 

PE Reflection

Crunches



My strengths and improvements are to constantly do my crunches in a nice pace and rhythm. I definitely improved on my stamina, and I don't breath as heavily. Also, doing crunches isn't as hard as they used to be for me.
I need to improve by not swinging myself up, and making sure that my feet don't slide.


Push-ups




My strengths are going down to a 90 degree angle and my back is straight.
I have to work on not being too shaky, and build up my push up stamina.

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. 

Essay Comparison

I now know that the difference between a personal and persuasive essay is that persuasive essays have a convincing voice, and is also someone trying to persuade an opinion to others. Personal essays try to state a opinion, but not in a persuading way.

I improved from my on demand essay by planning out the essays more, and using more topics that I care more about. My on demand essay, I had trouble thinking about a topic that I cared about, so I decided to write about a topic that other people really care about. I also added in more mini, peronal stories in my persuasive and personal than the on demand essay.

Writing my persuasive essay was easy because I truly believe in my topic, and I had a more convincing voice than in my on demand essay, and I added true facts, and many mini stories, but writing my persuasive essay was also difficult because I had to add in mini stories and facts, and we also planned everthing out on a planning sheet.

My new learning in this unit was that adding mini stories and facts add a loud and more convincing voice rather than just stating your opinion. I also learned that you should always care about the topic your going to write about.

My Personal Essay

Music Makes Your Life Better

Do think of music as a life changing thing? Well I do. From my point of view, I think that music makes people’s lives better. After reading my essay, you will see without a doubt, I believe that music makes your life better. Just in case you didn’t know, a lot people listen to music to calm them down when they're stressed, and people also like to relax while listening to music. Listening to music also makes people happy, and many people are in great moods while singing along to music. Also, if you're in the music business you have fun, travel the world, (and sometimes) earn money.

From my point of view, there is no doubt that music makes your life better. One supporting reason to my statement is music can definitely help people bring down stress. Recently, my counselor, Mr Felice, taught my class that a way of releasing stress, by listening to classical music and breathing properly. Releasing stress isn’t the only great thing music can do. Music also helps people calm down and just THINK. I know this because I love to watch music concerts, and they always calm me down. Whenever I look around full music halls, I see that many people share my same interest in music as I do. This summer, I watched “Mostly Mozart”, and I saw an old lady really relaxing while listening to the music… In her sleep! (I know this because she was snoring… Loudly).

It’s really hard to escape music. You hear it in advertisements, you hear people singing, nursery rhymes… Everywhere! I went to a music camp called Kinhaven, and you can hear music wherever you go. Every mealtime, a table would plan to burst out singing, and soon the whole mess hall would be singing in harmony. I guess EVERYONE likes music. I remember when I was younger, I went to the subway in New York City, I wondered why there were so many people making music- singing, playing the guitar, and playing the piano. Now I know why: Everyone likes music. My family loves to play music in the car, I guess it just makes us happy. Everyone can sing, maybe not very well, but I still stick to my statement -  Everyone can sing. I like to sing when I’m happy, despite the fact that I’m not such a great singer, and the fact that my sister lectures me on how terrible I am at singing. One of my ultimate favorite types of music is classical music. My flute/piano teacher loves classical music so much that 90% of the music she gives me is classical.

In case you don’t know, if you’re in the music business doing competitions, they can be really annoying and stressful, but you have a really fun time at the end. I have been to Rome, Japan, and America for music competitions and all the places I mentioned had great, fun, parts to them. Rome had the nice, beautiful landmarks, Japan had the great food (and the $1.20 store!), and America had my family’s house, so I didn’t feel too much like a tourist and uncomfortable. Travelling the world is also very exciting. Musicians can travel the world just to play music! Some of my musical friends have been to Russia, Hong Kong, US, Japan, and so many places JUST for competitions and performances. One of the great things about doing performance and competitions, is you can also earn money… Almost every performance and competition my friends and I have done, we earned money. Music is definitely not about the money you earn, but I believe its about sharing music around the world, and having a great time. Summarizing my whole essay, without a doubt, I know that music makes your life better.

Music gives us life changing moments. To me, music is a bit like whether. I absolutely hate rainy days because they make me sad - same with music. When music is sad, I also feel sad. On sunny days, I’m happy for some reason - same with music. When I hear happy, nice music, I feel happy too. Music makes your life better.

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.

UN Day Reflection

I enjoyed the food the most on UN day because I tried really delicious foods.

The yummiest thing I ate was the Paella that Michelle's mom made because it was delicious. I liked it sooo much that I asked Michelle for the recipe.

I dressed up in a Hanbok because the Korean traditional outfit is a Hanbok.

To create the show, Ms. H's and Mrs. Guettler's classes got into groups, and each group got appointed to a nursery rhyme. Later on, we painted and drew pictures of the nursery rhymes we got assigned to. Then we found out the TRUE story to each of the nursery rhymes. Meanwhile, Mina and I got a parts for the introduction and conclusion speeches. After we perfected our parts, we put everything together. The hardest part for Mina and I were to say the WHOLE introduction in 15 seconds. We practiced so much that I memorized my part, but I ended up reading the script just in case. At the end, I realized that this year's UN assembly was one of the best... in my opinion.

Science Center

My new learning today was how to make hard candy, and what the ingredients did to the candy. For example, the corn syrup made the hard candy transparent and shiny, but if you were to make hard candy without corn syrup, the candy would be ugly, opaque, and non shiny. I also learned that candies are chemical reactions. Another weird thing I learned was honey is bees' regurgitate (puke).

I most enjoyed making and eating the cotton candy (or candy floss), because it is my favorite type of candy. I also didn't know that cotton candy machines can be killing machines.

What I would do differently is to make the lollipops (hard candy) in a more comfortable position, because the lollipops were hard to put in my mouth. The lollipops in some other science groups weren't as hard as my group's so they got to change the shape of their lollipops. This makes me think that they made their lollipops in the wrong temperature (because hard candy is supposed to be hard).

The first picture shows me stirring the sugar syrup on a heating pad, and the second picture shows some hard candy another group made.

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Reading Log Reflection

In my reading log I notice that I'm reading just right and challenging books. I know this because readers at 5th grade typically read 3/4-1 page per minute. I'm typically readying 20 pages in 20 minutes for my just right books, and 13 pages in 20 minutes for my challenging books. A new genre I am passionate about is realistic fiction because I can really relate to some situations that the characters go into. One reading habit that has helped me this year is having big group discussions in our read-aloud book Wonder by R.J. Palacio because I can hear other people's thinking, and I can see the book in different lenses.

RLA Reflection

In Reading, we have been learning new ways to think about our novels. The most helpful type of thinking for me has been envisioning. An example of this is:
"I can can Hugo walking in the shadows in the train station, and I can see him go into his secret passage. This makes me think that Hugo is a mysterious boy. "
This envision I wrote was about the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.
Envisioning helps me because I can see what the character is seeing and somethings I can understand what the character is feeling.

Science

We have finished Investigation 1 in Science. It was on Mixtures and Solutions. The new learning I discovered was how paper filters work and what solutions and what diatomaceous earth is.
The most interesting thing I learnt was that evaporation can separate solutions. What I enjoy about science is learning new scientific words.

My Self Reflection