Student Led Learning Review

by 042694 on April 18, 2012

This morning, I showed my mom and dad my work that I did over the year. I showed them my math, literacy, art, PE, French, Chinese, Performing Arts and technology. My mom and dad asked me questions about my work, such as, where I get my supporting points for writing persuasive texts. I answered that I got it from the internet and through my research. I think that I am able to understand more after I answer the questions and that going through my work helps me think about what I learnt from it. Mom and dad asked questions about what they didn’t understand so I could teach them about what I know. For example, for performing arts I was able to teach them about chords and passing notes. After this review, my dad learnt a lot more about what I was doing at school. My mom learnt about new applications that I use and how they work and my dad wants to use them at home. My dad also knows now that I communicate with people from different places through blogs and that the blogs are a good way to communicate with people that I don’t know. What I learn is different from what my sister learnt when she was in grade 5, for example they had different Unit of Inquiries, they didn’t have blogs to communicate with other people and they didn’t have Student Led Learning Reviews. I think the Student Led Learning Reviews are very useful for me to talk to my parents about my learning.

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Save the Earth

by 042694 on March 30, 2012

The earth is our home, and we need to care for it, but sadly, we don’t care for it too well. Not caring for our home would cause air pollution, water pollution and bad health. All this can harm us, the animals, wildlife and the environment. All the vehicles on the street, all the electricity that we use or all the trash in the water or on the streets all happen because of us. Do these bad things really need to happen because of us? Of couse not. So what can we do to stop this? We can recycle, carpool, and think before we do something that could affect the earth. Another thing that we can do is participate in the upcoming Earth Hour event on Saturday March 31, 8:30 p.m. During this hour, turn off all your lights and use candles instead. Remember to spread the word so that everyone can participate in this! Doing this can save a lot of electricity and let the earth rest for a while. WWF (Word Widelife Fund) Australia came up with this idea in 2004. Slowly, it started to develop into Earth Hour.

It is important to take care of our earth because if we dont, we will have to live in a “dirty” surrounding. Whatever we do to the earth will come back to us eventually. Nothing will just disappear, unless we start taking action. So remember to recycle, carpool, and participate in Earth Hour!

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Iqbal

by 042694 on March 27, 2012

After reading Iqbal by Francesco D’ Adamo, I feel very touched by how Iqbal Masih changed the many lives of different kids who went through child labor.

Iqbal is very brave and has a lot of courage to stand up to Hussain Khan and lead the rest of the children working in the carpet factories to freedom. He has risked his life quite a lot of times while trying to find the road to freedom because whenever he tried, he would get caught and get sent to the tomb, somewhere where he could die. I surely wouldn’t want to do that because I am not as brave as Iqbal. He wasn’t the only brave one though. After he cut up the blue Bukhara, I think the rest of the kid’s courage started to build up also. Iqbal is a really great leader, and I think we should all try to learn from him and start to be a leader also. I also think Iqbal never gives up and is determined to do what he wants to do because even though he got in big trouble the first time he rebelled against Hussain Khan, he still didn’t stop but kept trying and trying, so in the end, he succeeded. Also, once he makes a promise, he keeps it no matter what happens. “Fatima, next spring you and I are going to go and fly a kite. Remember that, whatever happens.” He promised Fatima, and during spring, they really did go fly a kite together. This is another great personality from Iqbal that I think I should learn from because it can help us achieve our dreams and goals, just like Iqbal.

“……Everyday in Pakistan seven million children get up in the dark before dawn. They work all day, through evening. They make rugs, they make bricks, they work the fields, they go down into the mines. They don’t play or run or shout. They never laugh. They’re slaves and they wear chains on their feet……”

That quote above was from a speech that Iqbal was going to give to hundreds and thousands of people in Sweden. In my opinion, I think Hussain Khan (master of the kids, including Fatima and Iqbal) is a very mean person because even though he erases the lines on the work slate right in front of the slaves, Iqbal realized that when the kids aren’t watching, Hussain adds some lines back. That’s why they are never released from the factory and their lines are never cleared off.

Together, I think all the kids in the carpet factory work very well together and are very good friends because Iqbal leads them to freedom, Maria teaches them how to read, Fatima, Ali, Salman and Karim help Iqbal while he’s in the tomb. They also talk together at night, which probably makes them feel more comfortable. I certainly would feel better if I had friends that were goingthrough the same feelings to talk to.

I can relate this book to the central idea – “Actions can support or deny access to children’s rights and opportunities.” – because by making the children work in carpet factories or brick kilns, the masters have already denied access to children’s rights. Iqbal and the Bonded Labor Liberation Front of Pakistan have supported access to children’s rights by giving all the slaves freedom.

In the end, Iqbal gets murdered by a few Carpet Mafia. I think the Carpet Mafias murdered him because since they know that he will start to become more and more famous after he gets an education and becomes a lawyer, and that their business will be stopped quickly because more and more people will slowly believe Iqbal and take action. They could have murdered him so that he couldn’t stop any of them anymore and they could continue their business. Fatima and Maria have kept Iqbal with them all the time, even when he was murdered.

 

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Gossamer

by 042694 on March 22, 2012

Gossamer by Lois Lowry is about Littlest One – who is a tiny creature learning about her job which is giving dreams – and her teacher Thin Elderly. Every night, they visit an old woman’s home to give her dreams. But when she adopts John, an angry orphanage, the Sinisteeds (which are dreadful creatures that try to stop the innocent dream givers) start to give John horrible nightmares. Will Littlest One and Thin Elderly be able to stop the Sinisteeds?

I really liked this book because there was always friendship behind it. I especially liked how everyone was very patient with John, even though they knew that he was bad-tempered. For example, Littlest One kept on giving him the sweetest dreams that she could give him so that he could be happier, and the old woman trying to cheer him up by playing games with him.

Lois Lowry wrote this book with a lot of descriptive words that described the “fragments” of the dream clearly and interestingly so that the readers would be able to imagine the dream more clearly and be able to visualize it. Another thing that I liked about Lois Lowry’s writing is that he lets the problem slowly develop, so that the readers will really want to keep reading to know what the problem actually is and to know how it is going to be solved.

I also liked how Lois Lowry ended the book because at the end, a new dream giver is born and he is called New Littlest. Littlest One soon realizes that the names that they have can’t always be their names, so Littlest One is now called Gossamer because of her touch. I think the names that the characters get are very creative because they all fit their personality, age or look. For example, Most Ancient is the oldest one out of all of them, and Thin Elderly is very thin. Most Ancient will not always be the oldest one, and Thin Elderly will not always be the thinnest one. I should try to make my writing more interesting by using some of the techniques that Lois Lowry uses to get his reader’s attention.

I would strongly recommend this book for people that are interested in books about friendship and helping each other, no matter who they are. I suggest other books by Lois Lowry also, such as The Giver, or Gathering Blue. I recommend Gossamer for grades 3-5 students. ;)

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Texploration: Spicynodes

by 042694 on March 19, 2012

During texploration today, I explored a website called Spicynodes. This website helps you create mind maps easily and quickly. I think this tool is useful for school use because sometimes in school, you need to use mind maps to show your different thoughts. Mind maps are easy to create and you don’t need to write full sentences when using them – just the main points like jot notes. Using Spicynodes, I created a mind map about school and took pictures of the steps that I had to go through in order to get to my final product. Here are the steps and pictures:

1. I chose a theme for my mind map:

2. I typed in all the information I wanted for my mind map:

3. Spicynodes helped my transfer all that information into the mind map theme that I chose. When you click into the website, you won’t be able to see the full mind map – you need to click on the bubbles to see different parts of it. Here is the link to my final product:

http://www.spicynodes.org/a/bb39871c722a62c7dd923dae9385333b

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Summative Assessments

by 042694 on March 16, 2012

These are the two summative assessments that I did for this unit. One of them is a persuasive text supporting incineration and the other one is showing my understanding of the impacts that different waste management strategies have on the communities and environments.
Persuasive Text:
View more documents from grade5a.
My Understanding:

2nd Summative
 

View more presentations from grade5a.


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The Lost Hero

by 042694 on March 15, 2012

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan is about Jason, Piper and Leo who go on a school field trip together to the Grand Canyon. Jason awakes on the bus, realizing that he doesn’t remember anything that happened before he fell asleep. He doesn’t even remember who he is. While they are there, a huge storm hits, revealing all the “secrets” to Jason, Piper and Leo. Jason, Piper and Leo soon realize that they are all half-bloods, and that they need to go on a mission to rescue Hera, and Piper’s lost father.

I like how Rick Riordan started the book by already creating a problem – Jason forgetting everything. This got me very engaged and made me want to keep on reading. Throughout the whole book, there has always been a lot of action happening, or lots of problems that made me very engaged in the book.

One of my favourite parts of the book was when the storm hit on the Grand Canyon because it was one of the things that led to the rest of the story. I also liked this part because it was very engaging, with all the actions and small problems that happen to the characters. I also learnt more about what was going on, and more about the characters.

I like how Rick Riordan named the chapters by the main character in that chapter. For example, if that chapter was going to be in Leo’s perspective, then the chapter would be named Leo. I like this because it is not confusing and I can know about all 3 of their perspectives and thoughts, not just only one. This is also good because without the actual title of the chapter, I am always wondering what will happen next.

I strongly recommend this book to you because it is a mix of different genres. I would also recommend you other books by Rick Riordan if you like this book, such as The Percy Jackson series, which is also very good. It is related to this book also. I hope you will consider reading these books by Rick Riordan! :)

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Our Fourth Unit: How We Organize Ourselves

by 042694 on March 15, 2012

“Societal decisions made about waste management affect communities and the environment.”

Recently, we finished our fourth unit, How We Organize Ourselves. During this unit, I learnt about the different waste management strategies that we have: landfills, compost, dumping, recycling, incineration and reduce/reuse. I also learnt about the different impacts that these waste management strategies have on the communities and environment.

During this unit, I learnt about the advantages for dumping, even though it is illegal. For example, open dumping (dumping on the streets) can let poor people earn some money because they can pick up the rubbish and sell it to other people (eg. recycling centers). Also, ocean dumping (dumping in the ocean) can help slowly help create more land and more reefs, which means that there will be more habitats. Recycling also has some disadvantages, such as the extra pollution that there will be when more factories are built and when more trucks have to come and go for the extra recycling bins. There are a lot more advantages and disadvantages of different waste management strategies.

I really learnt a lot during this unit and I realized how much trash we threw away each year. Before, I never really thought about the different waste management strategies, their advantages and disadvantages and what happened to our trash after we threw it away. Now that I know more about it, I also think about it more. I think this was one of the units where I learnt the most because I did a lot of research, and I didn’t really know about it before. This was also a really interesting unit.

I liked going to the S.E.N.T. landfill during this unit because I was able to learn a lot from that field trip and use it in my summative assessment later on. I also enjoyed it because it was a great experience to see how landfills operate. I also liked going to the Eco Park, and learning about plastic recycling.

Some of the skills that I developed throughout this unit are: research skills, communicating skills, thinking skills and writing skills. I developed my research skills by learning how to choose the right type of graphic organizer. For example, because this time we needed to research 4 different things for each strategy, I chose a four column chart to organize my information. I developed my communicating skills by giving speeches and having more confidence every time. I learnt that while giving speeches, you need to have good posture, a loud and clear voice and eye contacts. I think that I slowly improved on all of those skills because of all of the practise that I was able to have. I developed my thinking skills by writing persuasive texts and arguing for different sides, which helped me improve dialectical thinking, such as “The CDNIS Cafeteria is a Valuable Place in Our School”. Collecting information from different places and then putting it altogether would help me practice using the skill: synthesis. I also improved my writing skills by writing a lot persuasive texts and finding out what I needed to do to make it better each time.

I hope that everyone will realize how much trash we throw away each day into the landfills and how much trash we can actually recycling or reuse. If we all recycling and reuse, then the amount of trash going to the landfills will be reduced and there will be less pollution. We will be living in a safer environment, and have better health.

Remember to always Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!

Here are a few videos that are about trash:

The Story of Stuff
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Journey of Our Waste
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Journey of a Plastic Bag
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No Such Things As Dragons

by 042694 on March 8, 2012

No Such Things As Dragons by Phillip Reeve is about 2 people – Brook and Ansel – who climb up Dragon Mountain to hunt a dragon that has been haunting the people living in the village for a really long time. Brook is a dragon hunter and Ansel is a nine-year-old, that is mute. During their climb, they encounter a lot of big and small problems. They start to see signs of the dragon, but Brook has been saying that dragons don’t exist, and that he has just been pretending all along. But do they really exist?

My favourite part of this book was when they get into the cave and find Else, the girl that was “sacrificed” to the dragon. I liked this part because it was nice to know that she was still alive so that her mom can stop being worried about her. I also liked this part because even though Brook and Ansel have never met Else, they still quickly and easily become friends with her.

I like how Phillip Reeve wrote this book because he also put in a big problem at the end, just like how Robert C. O’Brien wrote Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. I realized that a lot of authors do this because by doing this, the readers will be very engaged at the end, and if the authors write a sequel, then the audience will read the sequel. I also liked how he wrote down all the thoughts of Ansel so that we would still know what he was thinking even though he couldn’t talk.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading books that include fantasy, adventure and action because this book has all those three things. I hope you will consider reading this book when you have time!

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Photo of the Day

by 042694 on March 3, 2012

Stratus Clouds, Greenland

Credit: National Geographic, Photo of the Day

When you first look at this photo, you may think that it is just a painting, especially the mountains at the back. But it is actually a real photo, taken by National Geographic in Greenland. The light of dawn caused the picture to look painted.

I chose this photo because I thought it was pretty cool to have a real picture look like it was a painting. I never get to see this view in Hong Kong so I really admire this view. I am amazed at how the dawn light can cause this effect because I never knew that light could “paint” pictures. The beautiful colours of the sky make me feel very clam and relaxed. I hope that one day, I will be able to see this with my own eyes!

 

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