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!)

 

Tabitha Jump-A-Thon - Visit by Janne Ritske

Today, Janne Ritske will be visiting us to discuss her foundation, Tabitha. 

We will be doing the Jump-a-thon on Tuesday, 21 January to raise funds for this worthy cause. Here are some things I learned from the Tabitha website.

• Tabitha has made an impact to  407,616 families with 3,260,928 dependents from 1994 to date.
• The Cambodian families saved US$3,369,223 this year.
• The Cambodian families purchased US$21,626,575 worth of goods and services

Here are questions for Janne Ritske:

• What inspired you to start Tabitha?
• Who has the ideas for what to make for Tabitha sales?
• How did you start Tabitha?
• What's your daughter's name?
• How many times have you been to SAS?

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.