In class we have been reading and talking about the book “The Giver”. Jonas the leading character in the book has been assigned to be a receiver. In Jonas’s community the jobs are assigned. Then our teacher asked us to talk about our future.
I am still thinking about my future. I want my future to be successful. Have a nice job, pass collage and be happy. I guess my parent want me to be happy and successful too. I don’t really think about the future but think about now. Thinking about the future can come in the future.
A friendly young Dutch girl is riding her new bike to school. She passes a huge old windmill across the wide lake. It is surrounded by straight rows of colourful tulips. Afterwards she passes the old cultural cheese market full of excited tourists. People are walking on wooden shoes hearing klick klock klick klock. Riding in the fresh air with culture surrounding her is the best way to ride to school. The minute you step in Holland you too will be surrounded by amazing culture, great places, and beautiful landscape.
Holland is full of wonderful culture. Windmills are a big part of the culture in Holland. It is the one thing you cant miss.When you see a windmill you think about Holland. The large wooden blades spin around in the bright blue sky. The windmill smells like wet wood that has just been cut down, the fresh smell of nature. In the past they used windmills to make flour. They lay the grain on a circular rock and let another stone roll over the grain. Then it finally turned into flour which they used to make bread. Sometimes the local people still use the windmill to make flour but that doesn’t happen often. The windmill is important to Holland. It has been a culture of Holland for years. Windmills will be on nearly every beautiful souvenir you buy in Holland. Another symbol of Holland is the beautiful Dutch flag. The Dutch flag is horizontally red, white, blue. The flag is shown everywhere in Holland. First the rebels fought for the colour of the flag under a tricolour of orange,white,blue the colours of the prince’s coat of arms. They went with the orange, white, blue flag. However at the end of the 18th century the french ruled the country then the flag remained red, white, blue. Now the beautiful flag is flapping in the Dutch air. Holland is full of culture and you can’t miss it.
Holland also has amazing landscape. When the sun rises up the tulips open. Raindrops hang from the old wood of the windmill look like angels that have fallen from the sky. Birds flutter around the blue sky. Black and white cows wander to the long ice-cold lake in the green land. Holland is extremely green and is the flattest and lowest country in the world. It has a lot of beautiful farmland with different crops and vegetables. The seasons in Holland are completely different to each other. In the summer it is nice and warm to go swimming or walk to the lovely park . However in the Autumn the leaves of the bolt trees fall and turn yellow or orange. Children play with the colourful leaves in the lovely forest. Then when the spring starts the colours of the spring emerge. The animals wake up and the flowers grow. The white snow melts and the tulips grow. Children and families riding on there bikes enjoy the colourful spring day. The cows are mooing and graze on the green grass, on a spring day in Holland. In the winter it is freezing and snowing. The warm fire places go on. Families are all together in the warm cozy house. The landscape in Holland is lovely and greenYou can never be bored in Holland. Holland is the place to be when you want to relax and have fun. The historical places are amusing. There are the megaliths. These are located in Drenthe which is in the north of Holland. The megaliths are made out of huge boulders that are stacked on top of each other in the shape of a small hut. The megaliths can be seen in other parts of Europe. In Dutch megaliths are called “Hunebedden.”In the past they used in to lay dead people in the megaliths. They used it as graves. They used to lay there belongings next to the dead body like old pots. It is similar to what they did with the bodies in Egypt. There is also the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. The house shows how Anne Frank lived and which people helped her in the Second World War. Not only are there historical places in Holland, but there are also places like the beach. The beach is even fun on a cold winter day. You can go to restaurants drink hot chocolate with some delicious apple pie. Then when the summer starts and the sun shines the beach will be filled with excited tourists and some local people that are enjoying there hot summer day. In Holland you will never be bored there is always a place to go!
In class we have been starting to read the book ‘The Giver’. Jonas (the lead character in the book) lives in a perfect world. Every thing is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. Now the teacher has asked us what is negative and positive about this community.
The positive thing about this perfect community is that there is no room for worries, you don’t have to worry about any thing. You won’t find war in this community. I bet that they don’t even know what the word war means. The people don’t have to do much but they do have to follow the rules.
Negative things about this community are that every thing in this community is assigned. The babies are not your own, you get them in December do it is every ones birthday in december. When your 9 you get a bicycle and you get your ribbons removed from your hair. When your 12 you get a job that is assigned as well. The people can’t choose for there selfs and have a lot of rules. They are only aloud to have 2 children, one male one female. There are to many rules and you won’t have any freedom anymore!
In class we have are going to start reading a novel called “The Giver”. Before we start reading that the teacher made a survey with statements for us to fill in. one question was:Families are much closer when they share their feelings.We had to agree or disagree about this and this is what I think:
Agree, families that share their feelings are closer because they would think about what it feels like and help them by solving the problem. Feelings is great to talk about because it can make you feel better and bring the family together. The rest of the family would know what is happening and try to do something about it to help their child or parent. So I strongly agree that sharing your feelings with your family makes the family closer.
In class we have been talking about voice and word choice for our magazine article, here are some things we did.
For voice we first wrote a paragraph about what makes us, us. It was really hard to know what makes you you because at this age you haven’t really thought about it. we highlighted the main words in the paragraph some words were: respectful, dancing, music. everything we wrote was private to us you didn’t have to share it just rip it up into a million pieces.
After we had to define voice. We said that voice is the part you go to. voice is the thing that belong to you. everyone can have their own opinion on this, everyone thinks different. We also had to practice different voices with the same passage, first scary and then we made it into a story for little children. This is what did for voice but it was challenging.
What we did for word choice is talk about the synonyms. synonyms are words that have the same or nearly the same meaning. The choices you make as a writer will affect how readers respond to your ideas.
Another thing we did was look at grammar, verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs. then we went off and used some grammar in our magazine article.
this is what we did for the last few weeks. I learned that if you used more describing words and bigger words the paragraph your reading is much more interesting.
In class we have been talking about organization and how to use it in a article.
First we took 3 main ideas in a fact chart my main ideas were Culture, Great places and Beautiful landscape. After we wrote supporting facts that had to do with the main ideas we choose.
For culture I had: they used windmills to make flour. First the flag of Holland was orange, white ,blue instead of red, white, blue. For great places I had: They have a historical cheese market, There are allot of places to go wherever you are. for beautiful places I had: Holland is the flattest country in the whole world, Holland is very green with allot of farmland.
After we did all this we did some more research on the topic, and we asked people what they knew about the topic by making a survey. With those answers we had more information to go on with the paragraph.
France was split into estates, the third estate was very different to the second and first estate. You have been put into an estate the day you were born it depends on where you were born and who gave birth. The third estate is 98% of the population and is full of poor and unhappy people. They have to work hard to get money but still 80% of the money they raze goes to the king or queen. They have no right to say anything and think for there self’s. They are being treated badly by the king and people in the first estate. the king doesn’t care about the people and only think about himself. The nobles are in the second estate and controlled all the top jobs. They did not have to pay much taxes to the king and were rich enough to buy their own food for their whole family. They also had control over the guns, weapons and canons that they used in the army. The priests were part of the first estate and were very very rich, they had control over the people and their wealth. They took all the money from the people in the thirst estate and didn’t care hat happened to them. The time of the French revolution was a harsh time for the people in the third estate but for the people in the first estate it was a dream come true.
In class we have been talking about the six plan rubric. That is a rubric about how to make a story or a article whatever you want. In class we have to write a magazine article and this is how I planned it.
First we had to choose a topic my topic was Holland I made a brainstorm about Holland and what we could talk about. But the topic was still to vague. So we wrote 5 words that you wanted to talk about. They were: Go to cheese market, weather, windmills, Amsterdam and tulips. Then we made those words in three main ideas. Beautiful, great places and culture. With those words we made a topic sentence.
The minute you step in Holland you will be surrounded by culture great places and beautiful landscape with colourful tulips.
By making this sentence the reader will know what you are talking about and would want to read on, instead of saying now I am going to talk about holidays in Holland.
Develop and adapt active reading skills and strategies
In class we were reading a book called Esperanza Rising. We have been using different skills and strategies, like Summarize, predict, visualize, clarify, ask Questions and make connects.
I liked making connections with Esperanza. This Strategy helped me understand the story better because we compared Esperanza to our lives and that helped me feel what she felt. When I am reading I make connections by looking at my life and Esperanza’s and comparing them, how would I feel if it happened to? What would I do?
In class we have been Washing, sweeping and making Tortillas. We did this because when Esperanza’s house burned down she had to go to the use and work all day but she never worked, it was her first time, she had no idea how it worked and she just tried to copy what Hortensia did but then some people came and laughed at her. Esperanza was really hurt. So we did the same with the class even the workers in the school were laughing. I wrote a blog about this day.
I use connections allot. At first I didn’t really make connections with the book but when the teacher told us to do that, I began making connections with Esperanza had the other people in the book. Now I like to make connections because it is easier to read and understand. Next time I would begin making connections from the start.
I didn’t use the strategy clarify, some words were hard but then I just read on and I would still understand. But next time I would use clarify because it does make it a bit easier.
Understandand respond to ideas, viewpoints, themes and purposes in texts
In class we have been talking about different class and how it relates to Esperanza and us.
In the world there are different classes, some people are rich and some people are poor. We all live in different kind of classes. Like in an airplane there are different classes. Some people fly with business class and others fly with economy class. Sometimes it is not fair, the people in the higher class get a better education and have more food and water and still they are not happy about her life’s they want more money or more clothes but the people in the lower class will not even be able to have these things. They just have to live with what they have, they have no chose. Mostly the poor people are friendlier then the people in the higher class. But the poor people don’t give up and keep trying.
I understand class in the book as Esperanza being in a higher class but still connecting with the lower class by loving them and finally being one of the lower class people but she is finding it is hard because she has to clean and sweep but she never did those jobs and didn’t know how to do them. At first when Esperanza’s house burned down she went on being in the lower class she didn’t notice it at first but then she was surrounded by people in lower class and started to notice that she wasn’t rich anymore she didn’t lots of money but instead she had to work in the fields and live in a small cabin. From then on she had to live a whole different life.
Class changed allot in the book first it was all about higher class, about Esperanza living in a big house and having servants but then her house burned down and she had to move to the USA and live in the house were her servants lived. She had to sweep the floor and clean dirty dippers. People were laughing at her because she never did it before and didn’t know how to do it. But then she got used to it and worked all day, she got used to be lower class and not having people dress you and not doing everything for you.
Now I learned that class is not that important, are if you are in a higher class you don’t just have to hang out with people with the same class you can also be with people with the lower class and live with them. Maybe one day you are in the higher class and then suddenly the next day you can be in the lower class. It can change. When I read the story of Esperanza Rising I was impressed by how Esperanza got used to the work fast and learned how to deal with the situations. No matter what class you’re in, high or low, we are all the same, we are all humans!
Analyze how writers’ use of linguistic and literary features shapes and influences meaning
The great Depression.
the great Depression started in 1929.No one has ever figured out the reasons for the depression. The Great Depression hurt the economy badly. People who had money in the banks lost every penny. If a person lost their savings in a bank, they were not insured for it. On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, otherwise known as “Black Tuesday,” the stock market crashed nationwide, losing in total $14 billion dollars. The country was not ready for such a thing. People ran to get the money out of their accounts, but there was none because the bank had used it. The people lost their jobs and
no job meant no money to pay the mortgage or buy food and clothes for the family.
Times were hard whether you lived in a city or on a farm, whether you were an adult or a child.As a result, about 250,000 young people were homeless in the early years of the Depression. Many became nomads, traveling the highways and railways.
Choose one simile, one example of personification, and one metaphor.
Simile =Mama, Hortensia and Carmen hugged as if they have been best friends forever.
I think I won’t just give a hug to someone I just met but if I know them for a while I would give them a hug. But I do understand why they did because they need to support each other because they have a very hard time, there house burned down and they have to move to another country. They live with each other and work together they see each other every day so they have to get along or they will have an even harder time.
Personification = the wind blew hard that night and the house moaned and whistled.
A house can’t really whistle and moan but if there is some wind the house will sound like it is whistling and moaning. Esperanza’s dad has just died and it was a dark night so to set the scène they used wind and make it sound scary.
Simile= She remembered standing on a chair with her arms outstretched like a bird ready for flight.
She was waiting for someone to put her dress on, she stretched her arms like a bird. It is a bit weird that she was waiting for someone to put a dress on because I am not used to it I would just do it alone. But she never learned how to put a dress on by herself. Later on in the story Esperanza stood in the bath tub waiting for Hortensia to clean her but then everyone was looking at her with confused faces. They were not used to it but then Esperanza fled as she was getting red. She felled embarrassed and didn’t know what to do.
Edward the VI was born on 12 October 1537 and died on 6 July 1553. Edward’s mother died of child bed fever just days after the young prince was born. While he lived, Henry visited his son only on occassion, and with his death, the nine year old prince became king. Edward was a sombre child. His uncle, the Duke of Somerset, gave him very little money or priviledges and was very strict with him. But in the beginning of 1552, Edward became sick with the measles and with small pox. By his birthday, he was coughing up blood.
He was important to history because he was the very young king of England. Edward talked his advisors into letting him take control of England at his 16th birthday, two years short of the time he would have otherwise.
He was portrayed as a powerful person because was very young and was in charch of England.
What do you think about him? Do you think he was brave to control the country?
days after the young prince was born. While he lived, Henry visited his son only on occassion, and with his death, the nine year old prince became king. Edward was a sombre child. His uncle, the Duke of Somerset, gave him very little money or priviledges and was very strict with him. But in the beginning of 1552, Edward became sick with the measles and with small pox. By his birthday, he was coughing up blood.