My Weekly Updates

May 6^th, 2011 Weekly Update

• New IB Unit (The Human Body)
• 5D and 6D’s Assembly
• Camp Groups
• French Test Results
• Sarah Brennan’s Visit

At last! Finally, we get to another NEW UNIT!!! This is our last unit for this school year. Our new unit’s programme overview is “Who We Are” is from April 26^th to June 16^th. We will learn about the different systems and the insides of our bodies, our summative assessment was to have a test, wait NO it is an EXAM!! I am really scared for the EXAM because I have NEVER EVER have an exam of Unit of Inquiry before. On Friday, we had to think of questions about the human body, and what we really wanted to know. I thought for 10 minutes or so, and I finally came up with a question that my teacher approved. Question, “How do arteries help your human body?” (If you didn’t know, arteries are the blue lines that you see on your hand wrist, and they are everywhere in your body) I am very excited to learn this U.O.I because we can learn about the skeletal system; digestive system etc. 1 of my goals is to find out the answer to my question that I wrote down.

I have camp next Wednesday, wait I have CAMP!!!!!! I am so excited, happy for camp because we will have different kinds of activities mainly focusing on Physical Education all because of our U.O.I. There will be night hiking, rock climbing, raft building and even bread making! We will be going to 3 days and 2 nights, and we have something that is called The Great Race activity, which is the most important. DRAGONFLY organizes this camp. We will have different groups to be in. I am in the GREEN group, with Mr. Macpherson and Mr. Hues and our group name is BBQ PRETZELS??!!  I am really looking forward to camp, and I might even make a new post about how camp went!!

Do you know Sarah Brennan, one of my FAVORITE authors? Well, she came to CDNIS to meet a few lower school students and 5E, no other grade 5 classes!! She gave us a small poetry workshop about different types of poems, and how could we use them. She told us about her favorite poems and I really had fun! She talked about limericks, Haikus, free verse etc. She had a game with us. The game was she would give us a word, and when she pointed at you, you would have to give her a word that rhymes with the word she said. Example:

Sarah Brennan: Cat (points at you)

You: hat (Sarah points at Justin)

Justin: Rat

And so on and so on until you run out of words, the reason she is only visiting our class throughout all the grade 5 classes is because we always participate in her different poetry competitions, and a lot of our classmates won. I enjoyed the poetry workshop with Sarah Brennan, I had lots of fun and laughed a lot!

April 29th 2011, Weekly Update

• Student Led Learning Reviews (SLLR)
• Watched Ai WeiWei and Pale Blue Dot
• Started Frisbee in P.E.
• Rohaan’s Birthday
• Glue our “Found Artifact”

What a short week! On Friday we had Student Led Learning Reviews, AKA (also known as) SLLR. If you had seen my post which was before Wake Up World. The Time is Now, it was also about Student Led Learning Review. Before I entered the classroom; I was so nervous and was wondering if I was going to do a good job.

When I went into the classroom, I went to the Literature corner first. I decided to do Lit. Circles with my parents and read Iqbal. I also explained what would we do in Lit. Circles and what are the jobs.

After that, I went to the IB/ Unit of Inquiry corner, we had to choose a Unit of Inquiry and my parents would have to ask me some questions about that unit of inquiry. I was so scared that my palms were sweating because I was unstable at this corner. Finally, I still managed to answer all 5 questions.

Then I went to the math corner, where I was doing a math game with my mother and father. Since there was not a lot of time left, they asked me how many triangles were in a hexagon and I have shown them how do figure it out.

We also went to the computer corner, which was my favorite, I have showed my blogs to them, put a blog post on and told them how to put a video on my blog. I told them how to add different widgets and change the themes.

I then went to Chinese and music, since these 2 are not so important, I will not write so much about it. For Chinese I had to show them my Chinese project that Katie, Ashley and I have been working on. For music, I told them that we had to write short song and what was passing notes.

You ever played with a Frisbee on the beach?? I did, just once. In P.E. I learnt how to throw Frisbees to your partners, you had to have your body sideways, left foot front for left-handers (I am) bend your left arm and swing it. Let go when the Frisbee is aimed at  your partner. The difficulties I had was throwing  it exactly to my partner because I always threw it sideways and not straight to my partner.

Remember in some of my posts I talked about finding our artifacts?? Well, this week I have to take my found artifact on the beach and glue it back together so the owner can find their  own artifact. After gluing your found artifact back together, we left it on our table and other people would come rushing in to find their own artifact. My artifact was actually a bowl, but since there were missing pieces, it turned into a half-bowl sort of thingy.

That is all we have done this very SHORT week, hope you enjoyed my update!

April 1st 2011, Weekly Update

March 25th, 2011 Weekly Update

• Mosaics
• Last Tee Ball Class
• Alan Dick Memorial Walk
• Last Swimming Class
• Coordinates
• Buried Artifacts Project
• Last swimming class
• Life Saving
• Evening of the Arts Auditions and Results

On Thursday, we went to The Aberdeen Sports Ground to do The Alan Dick Memorial Walk. Our principal, Mr. Dick died on September3rd, 2009. Mr. Dick was a positive person, every time after school he would wave good-bye.  Our school had to do a Memorial Walk every year to remember Mr. Dick. We had to walk as many laps as we could or we could run if we want to. I ran about 5 laps and walked the rest. From grade 4-12 had to walk from the school to the Aberdeen Sports ground, when I was walking down we could pick a partner.

On Friday, we had to do our Buried Artifact Project to make a clay piece. which is our artifact. After we carved the artifact, the teachers would break it in a few pieces and hide it in the  beach, and we had to glue it back together. We would have to dig up someone else’s and find who the owner was. My artifact was called “The  Tondo” and was a black drinking cup. It was from Greece and shaped like a pot, and the middle there was a butterfly shape. When we finished carving the artifact, we would paint it.

On Friday, there was a Evening of the Arts where we could show our talent and perform it at the end of March. I and my friend, Audrey decided to perform a song we had composed. I would play the piano while she played the recorder. Our song was about 1 minute long, when we had to audition I was very scared because I might make a mistake. Then, she would give us a piece of paper that told us if we got into the student showcase and in the end, me and Audrey got in.

March 18th, 2011 Weekly Update

• Mathematics: Angles
• Started Mosaics
• H.K. History Museum
• Sarah Brennan Poetry Winners
• Chance Fortune and The Outlaws
• Prepared “My Buried Artifact” Project

On Monday, we started geometry, and started on angles. We learned about different names of angles. When 1 degrees – 89 degrees is called a “acute” 90 degrees is called a “straight angle” 91 degrees – 179 degrees is called a “obtuse” At first, I was in the 2nd group and now I am in the 1st group. When we had to measure angles more than 180 degrees, I found it sort of hard to measure, but when Ms Carmen taught me how to measure those kind of angles, I found it easier.

On Wednesday, we went to the Hong Kong Museum of History. We went there to learn about what was it like in the past, we had to choose 2 exhibits and write about what we saw, what we learnt and what caught my eye. I wrote a exhibit about tombs and what was in the tomb. The 2nd exhibit was about Chinese marriages where they had a “Hair Combing Ceremony” and there were examples of Chinese gifts and bowls. I really like the field trip.

On Thursday, we watched a play called “Chance Fortune and The Outlaws” there was this boy named Chance Fortune and  was in a school with his superpower friends. The main characters were Chance Fortune, Iron Maiden, Green Lantern, Spacey, Psychic, Deliah and Superoin. The play was about where The Outlaws had to beat the other team, The Invisible. They had to use superpowers to stop each other from getting the flag, and whoever gets the flag wins. In the end, The Outlaws won the game.

March 4th, 2011 Weekly Update

• Dodge ball for fun at lunch
• Worked on PSAs
• T- ball in P.E.
• Read-a-thon activities (Dr. Seuss birthday, book swap etc.)
• Swimming classes
• New unit- cemetery visit

On Monday, we started our PSAs, which were short form for Public Service Announcement, we had to do a PSA on one of the articles of children’s right. I did mine on Article # 9, about the right of living with your family. PSA had to be 2:00 minutes at the maximum. PSA had to gain your attention, so more people to watch it. We had to use Google images and music to make it. I found the PSAs a little hard to do because it was hard to make sad music in Garage Band.

This week is the last week of the Read- a- Thon, we had different activities to do. March is our eco-friendly month of the year, so we have different fun activities from a ECA called “Join the Team, Play it Green” Stefanie have joined the ECA and I come with her. We had different activities that are eco-friendly like (throttle the bottle etc.) We had cupcakes baked by only 1 of the CISPA parents. The cupcakes were to celebrate Dr Seuss’s birthday on March 2nd.

On Monday, we went to the cemetery for our new unit of inquiry. Our next unit was about Where We Are in Place and Time, it connects to our unit of inquiry because where we were in the cemetery where it was old times and in a different place.  At the cemetery, we had to jot notes about what we learned about in the cemetery, also, we were given a camera to take pictures at the cemetery. My job was to take jot notes and to find information about the headstones and the graves.

February 25th, 2011 Weekly Update

• Friday’s Pajama Day and Pancakes
• Lit. Circles continues…
• Grade 5 and 6 assembly by 5C + 6C
• Storyteller Lynne Kirk in LLAC
• Preparing for World Math Day
• Recount for summative assessment
• Mathematics: Proportion & Radio

Hop out of bed and get on the bus! We had pajama day on Friday, where we could wear pajamas, slippers, bring stuff toys and pillows! We have pajama day because if we wear pajamas, we need to give $20 for a charity called Heifer International HK. I wore my pajamas and brought a stuff toy horse! It was so fun, even though I couldn’t eat any pancakes, I played with my friend’s stuff toys.  Also, I wish I could have pajama day once a month!

“Read with expression, just like Lynne Kirk!” On Thursday, a storyteller called Lynne Kirk came to our school to tell us a story. Her story was about this prince with his servant. One day, they heard about the most beautiful princess in the world. The prince was determined to marry the girl as his wife, but to marry the girl was to keep her awake all night just by talking. Sadly, the prince failed, but the servant was able to keep her awake, so they got married. Lynne Kirk was reading with expression, using actions and was talking loud enough.

For our summative assessment, when our Sharing The Planet ends, we have to write a recount. Our recount is when we make up a child, and we are that child talking about our point of view. The child can’t have 1 of the children’s right. I wrote about a beggar named Hernia Jones who talked about her life. Then someone comes and helps her, so she can have that right back.

January 21st, 2011 Weekly Update

• 12 minutes run and sit-up test in P.E.
• Literacy: started recounts
• Class novel- Iqbal
• Field Trip to SENT landfill
• Chance’s birthday
• Poetry workshop with Sara Holbrook, Michael Salinger
• Watched “This Is It” in performing arts
• Unpacked the new Central Idea

What a stinking, but fun field trip to the landfill! On Thursday, my class, 5E went to the SENT landfill in Tseung Kwan O to see/know how much trash was dumped in one day. There were 3 main landfills in Hong Kong, the SENT, WENT, and NENT landfills. We went in to a room to watch a slideshow about landfills, and different types of trash, such as domestic trash etc. After the slideshow, we did a tour about what would happen to the trash before it was dumped in the landfill. Finally, we went to see the landfill, this landfill was used the most often in HK. In the landfill, we could see the tipping area where the garbage trucks put the trash there. Lots of birds were there finding food waste, somebody was wearing plastic bags on their feet! They were to keep their shoes clean. We went to the top of the landfill to see the whole view of the landfill, it was humungous! Our tour guide, Jenny told us it was about 80 million square feet. Even though I found it a little disgusting, I had a great time.

I meet 2 famous poets that came to our school to teach us about poetry! On Thursday in the morning, Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger came to talk to us about different kinds of poems. I have to learn to talk like them, they used expression, spoke loudly and clearly. Michael Salinger chooses 2 volunteers from my class. They came back and when Michael read a definition poem, the 2 volunteers had to act 1 of the words out. Each of them did a fantastic job, next time I hope I get chosen!

This month, we have a new U.O.I (Unit of Inquiry) which was about children’s right. Our central idea was cut in to 1-3 words and we had to write the meaning of each word. Our central idea was: Actions can support or deny children’s right and equal opportunities.  We moved in groups of 4-5 persons to a next station. At first, I found it really difficult because some of the words I didn’t understand such as deny, but now I know what it means: to not admit/accept. In the end of our unit of inquiry, need to memorize it. I hope I can memorize the central idea in time before the end of the unit!

January 7th, 2011 Weekly Update

• “If” poetry competition winners
• Finished the movie “A Christmas Carol”
• 3 little pigs in French
• Playing handball in P.E.
• Field Trip to Eco park
• First rehearsal for “ Let’s make it happen”
• Second summative assessment “Tracking the trash”
• Preparing class represents speeches for term 2
• New math unit (Mixed numbers, Improper Fractions)
• Finished our old unit of inquiry

On the first day of school, Monday, 3rd January 2011, we had our field trip! The Road next to the Eco Park was made out of old tires and the tiles in the Eco Park were made out of bits of glass. We went to the Eco Park so that we could learn more about our planet. We also went with 5C, first 5E (my class) was in the visitor’s center, 5C (the other class) went to a plastic recycling center, and then we switched. First, we went to an animated picture where we kept on buying presents and we didn’t reuse the wrapping paper. After that, we used our smart card so we could log in into the computer. The computer was to tell us about trash, for example every year, we produce about 118 planes in the landfill or 3095 cars or 6000 people. We learnt about what was being thrown away: plastic, oil, cameras and even an old radio from the 80’s, which could cost about $200! I think they could have place the Eco Park somewhere else because the Eco Park was right next to an incinerator.

This week, we had our 2nd summative assessment was called “Tracking the trash.” Our 1st summative assessment was called “Standing in the Spotlight” where we had to try to convince other people not to burn trash. Our 2nd assessment was to find out what kind of trash was produced in CDNIS and how to get rid of trash in Hong Kong. We had to choose 2 different kinds of trash, I choose plastic bags and paper. We had to write what kinds of ways we could get rid of that plastic/paper. Sometimes it was hard to find the reason on the Internet because they didn’t have the right answer. I had enough time to finish my assessment because I used one lunch period to finish it.

Next Wednesday, we’re having a Concert called “Let’s make it Happen” it is where we go into different groups where we rehearse by ourselves. I was in the dance group, so almost every Sunday we go to Rael’s (our leader) house to practice. There are different groups such as drama, rap, dance and technologies. We spent 80 minutes rehearsing where to stay or who is first or last. It turns out that our dance were last. We also had to sing “We are Able” which was our class song. Everything was lead by our music teacher, Mr. Shaw. Our dance was a assembly line, first was Rael, then Katherine, also Stefanie and finally me.  I hope our concert goes really well.

November 11^th, 2010 Weekly Update

• Remembrance Day Service
• Mr. Dave & Audrey’s birthday
• Cyber safety with Robyn Treyvaud
• 1st swimming class
• LEAP van
• Spelling program
• Terra Master Green Roof
• New unit in P.E. – Hockey
• “If” poems for poetry contest

This week, my favorite activity was Remembrance Day Service because we had to remember the soldiers who sacrificed their life of fighting. I felt really sad and upset when I was watching a YouTube video about people putting poppies beside their grave. Even girls were brought to war to be a nurse/doctor, most of them went to war and never returned. Some of them who went to war returned all wounded. We used poppies to put beside graves, and from now on, on Remembrance Day we wear a poppy, which is pinned, to our shirt. The World War 2 ended on November 11, 1918 at eleven o’clock.

Now for another of my favorite activity, was going to the LEAP van. (Life Educational Activity Program) I wanted to write about LEAP van because we can only go once a year, this time we learnt about smoking and how people can convince you to smoke. Cigarette is made out of carbon monoxide and tar. A cigarette includes mothballs, floor cleaners and more. In the world, 13% people smoke and 87% don’t smoke. Also, we played a game, the teacher will ask you a yes or no question and if you agree, you go to the agree side, if you don’t agree, you go to the disagree side. In the end I got ½ right. We watched a movie about Chris wants to try out a cigarette, but won’t try it unless his friends try it out, but nobody wants to try the cigarette out. We also played a game is when you have a partner and one of them is Chris and the other is James, the person who plays Chris has introduces the cigarette, and the person who plays James has to fight back.

Finally, I want to tell you one of my favorite things I did this week. We decided that we will put a garden on top of the 10th floor library! We wanted to do that because Li Ka Shing, a rich man would donate $3000.00 dollars, to make a garden, so if we voted enough, we could get that 3000 dollars and make a garden on top of the library because if we are learning about nature or the earth, we can go up there and learn about nature. Our garden might include an outdoor classroom so we can go up there. We just need 2 more persons to vote and we will win!
I helped my mom and dad vote for the Terra Master Green Roof.