Our Brand New UOI: Heritage

Thursday January 28

The day before yesterday, I think it was,  our teacher told us we were starting a new UOI. This is the UOI after Who We Are. This one is Where We Are in Place and Time. Our topic is Heritage. I'm actually very excited about this.

Some things we learned at the beginning; We broke the word Heritage down into different words. The first one we found was age. And that explained to me that Heritage is very old. The next word we found was herit. Which reminded my teacher of inherit, which is to have something that was owned by someone else. The next (and last) word we found in Heritage was heir (pronounced air). Heir means like, someone ready to take over as king or queen OR lead a business/company/family. 

I really would like to know more about my ancestors because I like learning about the past related to the future! And I want to ask my mom/dad/grandparents if they have anything their ancestors (or mine) gave to them and they still inherit it. 

My New Math Goal

This morning, my teacher told us to open our computers and go inside our math folder in Google Drive. Then we had to fill out a math survey she made for us. When we finished, she told us that we had to type a blog post about what our new Math goal is. So here is mine...

The old math goal I have been working on is learning to solve addition and subtraction problems without giving up by December.

I think that I have achieved this goal because now I can solve them without giving up.

The new math goal I want to focus on now is memorizing my 7 times tables. I am going to achieve this by playing multiplication games on my iPad every day with my mom. The deadline for this is the end of February. If I have not achieved this goal by then, I will not make a new math goal until I have achieved this one.

UOI Who We Are Presentations

Date: Tuesday January 19 2016

Name of Activity: Who We Are Presentations

Unit: Who We Are

Learner Profile: Knowledgeable

Attitude: Independance

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A few posts ago, I talked about the UOI presentations for our research. Well, this week we are preparing our presentations. The only thing I don't know is if we are showing them at our assembly this week because every Friday we have an Elementary School Assembly. Anyways, the kids in my class are each going to show their research in a different way. Some chose posters. Others chose Google Slides/a Slideshow. And some kids (including me) chose a video. And since I have a YouTube channel, I will make a video and post it on that. I was inspired to make the video the way I will make it by another YouTuber (I think her username is LPSFireProductions). She made a video for one of her  teachers teaching people what it means to be Human. Anyways, that is how I am presenting it. Whenever I make another post after we made our presentations, I'll insert a link to the video I made.

How this activity shows being Knowledgeable is because to make a good/great presentation you have to remember what you have researched and what you know/found out about this topic.

How this activity shows being Independent is because you have to think by yourself about how to do things and not ask for help about the easiest things you can solve by yourself. But if you need help with something else that is hard and cannot find out, you may ask someone.

I think I can improve on remembering to bring headphones when I have to record my voice.

Writer's Workshop: Stories

Date: Monday January 18 2016

Name of Activity: Writers Workshop: New Stories

Unit: Who We Are

Learner Profile: Reflective

Attitude: Creativity

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Last time in Writers Workshop, we have finished writing our memoirs. Then last week, we started writing new stories, or pieces, of writing. I'm writing a narrative, which means it's made up. My story is called: My Haunted House 2. Yes, I am first writing the 2nd one because the thing is I already wrote the first book on my dad's iPad, so I wanted to start writing the second one first. When I finished writing the 2nd one, I will write the first one and send it to my teacher. Also, I know what you're thinking. YEP! I was inspired by Goosebumps to write this story. I just can't help it!! His writing is just SO GOOD!!!!!!

How this activity showed being Reflective is because you had to think about what you did wrong in your last story and fix it in your new story.

How this activity showed being Creative is because to make a good story, you have to use a pig of your imagination to have people get interested in your story.

I think I should improve on having better handwriting when drafting my story cause when I draft, my handwriting is all thick and sloppy and smudged on the page. I guess I should remember to sharpen my pencil before drafting my stories!

Media Arts: Posters

Date: Wednesday January 13 2016

Name of Activity: Media Arts Posters

Unit: Who We Are

Learner Profile: Thinker

Attitude: Creativity

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Yesterday, in Media Arts, we had to create our own posters that we would hang up around the school. There were 2 subjects we could choose for our posters: Recycling and Library. The subject I chose was Library because I absolutely LOVE reading! There were 2 mini-subjects in Library and Recycling: Cans and Plastic for Recycling, and Book Abuse and "Keep Calm and Read" for Library.

I chose the Book Abuse. I don't really know why but I think it's because for Christmas I got a Goosebumps book and it was the Campfire Collection and the 2nd book in the collection was Ghost Camp and at the end of the book (or the end of the story), someone wrote a NEW ending to it which made me really sad that someone would do that to a perfectly good book! So I guess that's why I chose Book Abuse.

Anyways, when we finished our posters, we had to walk around the classroom and look at everyone's posters and choose the top 5 for each topic: Recycling and Library. And when we finished, the top 2 people from each topic would hang their posters up around the school. I don't think I would be voted from many people because my poster is not THE BEST poster in the world but I will be happy for whoever is voted.

How this activity showed being a Thinker is because when putting in pictures for the poster, you have to think of what pictures are appropriate for your poster. So let's say that I am making a poster on recycling tin cans. I want to add some pictures and I search up cans and what I scroll down and see a Coke bottle. I want to use that. So I click on it. What's wrong with using that image? It's NOT a can. It's a BOTTLE! So in this activity we had to be thinkers.

How this activity showed Creativity, is because of the way you design your poster. The background, the fonts, the pictures you use all that stuff. In my opinion fonts is a big one! I'm not exactly sure why but I guess it's a big one.

I think I can improve on putting on some more text on my posters next time I want to make one.

Who We Are: Final Assessment

Date: Tuesday January 12 2016

Name of Activity: UOI Final Assessment

Unit: Who We Are

Learner Profile: Thinker+Knowledgeable

Attitude: Commitment

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One week before the Winter Break, my teacher told the class that they had to make up questions for the final assessment which would be to research an answer for your question.

How this activity showed being a thinker is because for a good question, you have to think of one that is specific. For example, this is your question: Why do we breath? (I am not sure if this is just a random question or anything). That might be a good topic but you have to try to change it to something more specific.

How this activity showed being Knowledgeable is because you have to use what you know to make up a question you want to figure out.

How this activity showed having Commitment is because when you start to research an answer for your question, and can't find the answer, you start to give up and complain and sit there doing nothing. But you have to have commitment to do this. So let's say you are on your computer, ready to research. Your question is let's say: How does smoking affect your lungs/breathing (I that's my question!). You search up BrainPop.com and click on a video about your lungs. After the video is over, you still don't know the answer to your question. What you shouldn't do is be lazy and give up there. What you shouldn't do is think That's it. That is the end of my research. I can't find the answer on this website. That's it. Nope. You have to think, Ok. This website doesn't give me the information I want so I'll search up another website. I'll go to KidsHealth.com. You still don't find the answer there BUT in one of the articles called Smoking Stinks!, you see that they mentioned a website called smokefree.gov and you decide to go there. Yeah you get the idea don't you?

I think I have to improve on taking notes about way more things because when I had to take notes on the topic I was researching, I think I missed writing down some important things about it. So I think that I need some more lessons on note-taking.