Literature Circles!!!!

 Literature Circles is not necessarily my favorite assignment, but it's not the worst (or is it?) Right now, I am reading the novel Hatchet. Literature Circles are basically something that helps you to understand novels by letting you choose 2 passages you thought was important, 2 questions you have, 2 responses you have TO the questions, 2 connections, and 2 new vocabulary words. 


Many people wonder why we review our literature circles in groups, better yet, how the discussion helps our understanding of the novel. Hatchet is a very complex book. It's the kind of book where you have to read between the lines and really know what the text means. The discussion helped me to understand the novel because of 2 reasons. One reason occurs when you share ideas with your group. When someone shares their own idea, you start to think about other thoughts that you forgot to put on your literature circle. This can help you understand the book more because it gets your brain working even more than you thought was possible. For example, someone might think a character as mean or snobby, but you thought of the exact opposite! They give examples and reasons and you find out that it can work both ways. 


People make different kinds of connections. Some people base their connections on different books or movies.  I tend to base my connections as personal ones. One connection was about when I was alone, since Brian was all alone on the on the plane and in the forest. My other connection was how I am also put into a group FULL of boys! I have so many examples (well, only 2). One example was in 5th grade when I was put into a group of 7 BOYS!

URL: http://www.zunal.com/myaccount/uploads/hatchet(4).jpg

Line of Symmetry!!!

This is a picture of the drinks bar. I toke this picture when I was in Pangkor for a holiday. The line of symmetry is right in the middle of the triangle.

MUD, MUD, MUD. YAY

Last week, on October 14 6B went to Kuala Selangor for an overnight field trip. It was really fun. We planted mangrove, hiked, went on a train vehicle around the area to see historical places. My favorite part of the Kuala Selangor field trip was all the MUD!!! When we went to plant mangrove trees, we got so muddy!

As I walked, I was thinking about the mud. How will it feel like? On the outside, I was just smiling hugely. At first, we were walking on a log. Then, there were no more logs to walk on! I took one step into the mud, WOOO!!! The feeling of my feet sinking down into brown goo made me wince. I tried to make my way over to where everyone was already planting. I realized that if I fell now, I would have no one to grab onto! The next moment, I noticed that I couldn't move my legs! I was stuck! I felt myself losing balance. Since I was already so far underground, all I had to do was use my legs to pull myself up. I pulled my right leg as hard as possible. I didn't budge. Since I had gloves on, I didn't care if my hands got dirty or not. I started to dig with my hand so I can get my leg out and finally one leg was out. I still had to figure out how to get my other leg up. My friend passed me a stick to support me. It didn't help very much know that it broke! I wiggled my foot as much as I could. Then my boot started to come off! I pulled it back on. I finally got out of the mud and onto the log. I looked around to see if anyone needed my help to get out. I saw that someone needed my help so I tried to help that person. Instead, I just got her muddy. It didn't help very much. I was balancing on the log. Since no one else needed my help, I asked the guy for a mangrove to plant. He gave me one. It was so fun planning the mangrove tree.

As I walked out of the mud, I waited for a few of my friends which were Cheyenne and Raissa. Not a good idea. I got stuck AGAIN! This time not so far in, so it was easier to get out. Once I got out, I took my gloves off and wiped my hands on my shirt. I walked over to my shoes and took my boots off. My socks were already half off my feet and they were so muddy. I slipped my feet into my slippers. I tried to figure out how to hold all of my belongings. My water bottle, socks, boots and gloves! I decided to slip my gloves and socks into the boots. I gave my water bottle to someone else which was the teacher. I dragged myself about 5 meters onto the path. I dropped my boots and nearly fell down. The muddy boots were so heavy! I couldn't figure out how to hold them without dropping them every 5 meters until 1/4 the way home. I decided to put my arms into the boots and put my hand where my feet normally go. Cheyenne was the one that told me to do that. I didn't really mind if my hands got muddy because it's not like I could never ever wash them or anything. So I continued walking towards the hostel. Even though I thought I found a better way to carry my boots. I knew how to hold the boots now but I still got tired really easily. This was not exactly part of my favorite part of the field trip. It was after this part that I LOVED!

Since we were so muddy, it wouldn't make sense to just clog up the showers with mud. So first we got hosed down. Since I kept stopping on the way back, I was one of the last people to get hosed down. Everyone else came out nice and clean. I was SO tempted to go give them a huge hug. When I was hosed down, I still had some mud left on my shirt. I went to shower and I felt too clean. I wanted to go back into the mud. MUD ROCKS! MUD IS THE BEST!!

URL: 1) http://www.google.com.sg/imglanding?q=MANGROVES&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1T4TSHS_enMY339MY339&biw=1003&bih=501&tbs=isch:1&tbnid=knDCD8zfPXqg2M:&imgrefurl=http://krishnanrr.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/11/the-mangroves-of-pichavaram.htm&imgurl=http://www.sulekha.com/mstore/krishnanrr/albums/default/Mangroves.jpg&zoom=1&w=500&h=375&iact=rc&ei=yZS9TMn7LI_-vQPZxp0M&oei=spS9TJi3DouyvgOd04l7&esq=2&page=2&tbnh=168&tbnw=216&start=8&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:8

First Swim Meet. Scared Scared Scared!!!

  In Humanities, I am reading a book named "Call it Courage". This book is about a boy named Mafatu, the boy who is afraid. He was afraid from the sea because of his mother who died in there but he wanted to win himself so he decided to run over his fairness. He went to another island and survived there with his dog friend Uri. This book really tells about "Courage". And today I will be telling you about the time were I showed courage.

When I showed courage I was in the beginning of  4^th grade in The International School of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL) and I just had the first swimming competition against Mont Kiara International School (MKIS). Usually on the first swim meet in the year we stay at our own pool and Mont Kiara kids come to us.  I was really scared on that day, I felt like I have never swam in my life.

As we were waiting for Mont Kiara kids to arrive we had to do our warm up. Before we finished the warm up Mont Kiara kids were here. We got out of the pool and Mont Kiara kids went in. When I sat down on the floor, my stomach got butterflies thinking about losing the races or something bad like that. All these thought ran through my head like racing cars. I got so nervous. But I pulled myself down and tried to enjoy the first swimming meet. I thought to myself if I might as well lie down on the floor so I don't have to think about all these bad thing that could happen.

Event 1, 2, 3,4,5,6, and finally event 7 came that was my butterfly. “Oh No,” I said to myself. I got my card, the card that they record the time on and waited. Then we had to go on the block. As I stepped on the block my heart pumped so fast and the butterflies in my stomach grew bigger and bigger. Ready, Set, Go. I jumped in the water and started swimming but as I jumped my goggles fell off in the water and I couldn’t see that well. That made me go really slow and after a while my swimming cap fell off too. That made me even go slower because my hair was long and if you have long hear, that slows you down.  And after I finished the race I started crying. Then my father said to me that what happened is normal for swimmers and I did a great job. He also said that that was all because of my fears. But for my next race with was breaststroke, my favorite stroke I overcame my fears and I got first place and I got a gold medal. That was one experienced I had when I showed courage.

 I think one of the ways to show courage is to overcome our fears. Like what Mafatu did, we need to overcome his fears. I think we have a lot more meanings but this is what I think. Showing courage is important to our life.

Investigating the Past!!

What Do Artifacts tell us about the lives of early humans?

Have you ever thought or wondered why did early humans draw on cave walls? Do you know what kind of things can artifacts tell us about the lives of early humans? Artifacts can tell us a lot of things about early humans like how they lived and how the ate. What kind of food they ate and maybe memories they had. Actually the main thing that tell us about how early humans lived is their artwork.

Cave Painting of Shapes and Hand prints

This is painting is of animals maybe Antelopes, cats, Giraffes. Most hand prints are red or white. It looks like the ocean on the corners of the painting. The spiral could be a tornado, black hole, Hurricane. I learned that scientists believe that the handprints were the way an artist sigh a painting. Some scientists think that geometric shapes had special meaning in rituals.

Cave Painting of Animals

It is a picture of horses, Oxen and Hands of an animal or a moon. It has branches of trees. On the corner it looks like a cave opening of animals that’s hurt. Maybe horses are going to see something that happened. Ox holding a leaf in its mouth. It looks like a cliff. A few animals lying down, resting. View of the animals of how clouds look like. Looks like the sun just the rays in gold. Some scientists believe that the artist tried to capture the magical powers of certain animals. Some think that painters believed in spirits and created art to honor or influence them. The cave was a place of worship and that paintings were used in rituals or ceremonies.

Clay Sculptures

It is a picture of 2 rock buffaloes. Maybe in the background there is a hole there or a waterfall because there is a lights coming out. There are some footprints at the very front. Also handprints are on the sculptures .There are glittering pieces of rocks in the dark which might be eyes. One buffalo doesn’t have a tail. One buffalo has a big thing at the bottom of them and the other doesn't. The picture is of 2 bison were found in a low room, deep inside a cave in France. They were made about 10,000 to 14,000 years ago. The cave belonged to a certain clan. Used in an Important Ceremony that was held deep inside the cave.

I have learned from all these paintings that people have different thinking and I also learned how archeologists, historians and geographers are like detectives who solve the mysteries of the past, they ask questions and study clues from hypotheses.

  

Which Social Scientist am I?

Hi Everyone!!

For Social Studies, I learned about three main Social Scientists which they are called, Archeologist, Geographer, and Historian. And I chose Historian. 


Definition of Historian: 
* A person who likes to study about history.
*A writer and an expert of history. 


The first reason why I would probably want to be Historian is because I love learning about the past. I think it is interesting to find out about the past. I also like reading about history and to be a historian you have to be able to read about past and so that is my second reason and I think it will be interesting to read old letters and documents that people wrote years ago. The third and the final reason why I what to be a Historian is that I like to travel around and explore places.

I think I would be good at it :)

1) URL: http://www.google.com.my/imgres?imgurl=http://www.henrytrotter.com/scholarship/images/historians-of-africa.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.henrytrotter.com/scholarship/historians-of-africa.html&usg=__scWz88guFa7qpift6vYgEuMfxbo=&h=358&w=330&sz=54&hl=en&start=0&tbnid=PHRlQaiLSOC4XM:&tbnh=126&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhoistorians%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D707%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=428&ei=N2FnTOSGH43XcMTakZAF&oei=N2FnTOSGH43XcMTakZAF&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:23,s:0&tx=100&ty=37

2) URL: http://www.google.com.my/imgres?imgurl=http://jba.truman.edu/pe01456_.gif&imgrefurl=http://jba.truman.edu/old/2009%2520courses.stm&usg=__NynhdytzvheYgpBx3o7PxsBr8wY=&h=365&w=394&sz=13&hl=en&start=18&tbnid=qzYh6QKbJHatMM:&tbnh=115&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhistorian%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D707%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1

   

"Myself":)

I am Sarah Ali Gaafar and I am from Alexandria, Egypt. I am a student in The International School Of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL) and I am in 6th grade. I have been in Malaysia for 4 years. I have one brother and his name is Ahmed and he is in 10th grade. We moved to Malaysia because of my father's work. My farther work in a company called, "Lafarge Cement."

I would like to share with you some of my interests and hobbies. I like to do a lot of thing for example, I like to play Basketball, Volleyball, Frisbee, Tennis and sometimes Soccer. I love to read mysteries and fantasies books. I love swimming so much. Swimming in my favorite sport. I started swimming when I was 3 or 4 years old and I am also a good and a fast swimmer. I like to fast so much in Ramadan. I started fasting when I was 4 years old . Fasting is really fun for me. My favorite subjects are PE and math but I also like to study about history. My favorite food is Egyptian food and I also like to eat my mum's pizza. I also like to watch my mum cook the food so I can learn from her. My top 2 favorite colors are Purple and Sky Blue. 


I would like to share with you some adjectives that describes me:
Sporty person: Because I love to play sport so much. Friendly person: Because I treat people with respect. Kind person: Because I like to help others. Finally: A hard working person.


My academic goal is to improve in my writing skills. Another one of my academic goals is to learn about the history of other countries. My social goal is to make new friend in middle school. My other academic goal is to try to get at least an A in every class.

I hope this year will be one of my best years!! :)