Room 229

Here are some lists of ways to have fun in the rain:

1.    Find a raincoat and an umbrella.
2.    Close all the windows and doors in your house before you leave- you don’t to make your house flooded with water when you’re outside
3.    Open the umbrella and turn it upside down. Leave it where it doesn’t fly away-this well make umbrella collect raindrops.
4.    Find some good puddles to jump on.
5.    Make a river around the playground-dig the ground to make water flow.
6.    Water your plants.
7.    Throw shoes in the street and try to throw it far-rain makes shoes slide farther.
8.    Did the rain stopped? Get a camera and a friend to take pictures of you running in the street.
9.    Pour the collected water in umbrella to your friend.
10.    Go home and wipe yourself.
11.    Now… pretend to read books before somebody finds it out!!!

Raindrops

here are some riddles that I found on google that you can try out!

Two planes take off at the same exact moment. They are flying across the Atlantic. One leaves New York and is flying to Paris at 500 miles per hour. The other leaves Paris and is flying to New York at only 450 miles per hour. Which one will be closer to Paris when they meet?

Johnny’s mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child’s name?

I have 2 coins totaling 55 cents, but one is not a nickel. What coins do I have?

Please comment if you have answers!

thank you! helen

For our 5th grade field trip, we went to the Ancient City.
Ancient City is a place where famous monuments all over Thailand are placed as a small duplicate of a real one.
I explored Thai culture by learning about Dvaravati, Khmer, Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, and Ratanakosin(where we are living) period.
It was cool to learn about different cultures from different time, and I learned to understand how people lived during past.
We also learned about Thai architectures. As times goes by centuries, housings changes from using mostly wood to bricks, and to what we see in temples these days.
It was an interesting field trip because I saw cows near the road. This is a cow I saw in the Ancient City.

A cow in the Ancient City

I thought it was awesome because at first I thought it was a buffalo.
For transportation around the Ancient City, we rode bikes around to explore.
First thing I realized was that the bikes were old!!! The bikes were rusty, but fortunately bike worked pretty well.
We were working as a group and we needed to pick jobs and to be responsible for the work. I was a photographer.
I learned that our field trip connects with exploration because we were exploring what we didn’t know and now we do know about Thai culture.

Khmer temple

This is one of the Khmer temple.

The original size of a temple is 10X bigger than this!!!
I think it’s suppose to be bigger because it was really hard to go through with your helmet on. Then I realized that we can go around the temple.
This was my best field trip in 5th grade.

helen

In room 229, we were experimenting about environments and how water tolerance affects the plants. We observed the plants and find the optimum environment and the range of tolerance.
We have set up the experiment like this:
Dry soil/ 0ml of water
Moist/ 0ml
Wet/ 40ml
Very wet/ 80ml
And finally, Swamp-Very wet/ 120ml
Our table chose each seeds to observe. I was observing barley.
11 days after planting, the data was: 2 barley seeds germinated (out of 3) in the Moist/ 0ml condition. No seeds germinated from other environments.
Since there was no data to compare to, so there was no optimum for barleys.
I think there was more surrounding environments that affected the growth of barley. The temperature and the humid weather might change the result.
More information:
Moist/0ml     Tallest plant; plants with most leaf; length of the leaf; longest root
Day 5-                    4cm                        -                                            -                               -
Day 8-                    7cm                        1                                            -                               -
Day 11-                  9cm                        1                                        1.5cm                         3cm

Barley Result

Plants we Experimented

How well do you know Helen??

1. Which sport do I like to watch?
a. Soccer
b. Tennis
c. Football
d. Badminton
e. Hockey

2. What is my favorite T.V show?
a. iCarly
b. American Idol
c. Pink Panther
d. National Geographic
e. I don’t watch T.V

3. What is my favorite Ice-cream flavour?
a. Cookie Dough
b. Rocky Road
c. Cookie and Cream
d. Vanilla Chocolate Chip
e. None or all of above

4. Which city was I born?
a. Bangkok
b. Seoul
c. Berlin
d. Seattle
e. None of above

5. What is my favorite pizza topping?
a. Cheese Thin
b. Cheese Thick
c. Pepperoni Thin
d. Pepperoni Thick
e. I can’t remember the last time I ate pizza

6. If I had to eat one food for a month, what would it be?
a. Donuts
b. Pasta
c. Cookie-and-Milk
d. Water
e. Gummi Bears

7. What is NOT my favorite color match?
a. Gray and Pink
b. Green and Blue
c.  Brown and White
d. Purple and Turquoise
e. None or all of above

8. What is my favorite holiday?
a. Sonkran
b. Christmas
c. Weekend
d. April Fool’s Day
e. Mondays

9. What is my favorite fast food restaurant?
a. Subway
b. McDonald
c. KFC
d. Starbucks
e. I don’t have one

10. What is an ideal present for Helen?
a. A phone
b. A plane ticket to Paris
c. A multi-coloured toe socks
d. iPod Touch
e. A laptop
Please comment to write your answers!

I will soon be posting the answers to these questions.

Hi this is a story about a girl who gets a dog for Christmas then the dog runs away. See how she gets over this problem!

My CIAS
By Helen

Remember the day of first fall of snow; it was the day of Christmas, and it was the night of Miracle. She was a Christmas gift from Mom and Dad, which I’ve never thought they would give me such a thing. I opened it up with a surprise in my eye, hoping for a dog. And there it was, the most amazing scene in my life: She had the most clear eyes that I ever seen, sparkling. She blinked, and then smiled. A dog smile. I quivered. I stretched my hand for her softness. I felt warmth, softness, so delicate, it would disappear if I let it go. Her tail wagged. I named her Patricia.
I tried to thank my Mom, and say it was great, but nothing came out.
“It’s all your hard work, Elise,” said Mom. “Now there’s no more payback I need to give you, is there?”
I shook my head. Dad just looked at me with a smile, but I didn’t know what he was trying to say. I tried to escape the awkwardness, and so I moved on. I looked at Maribel’s gift, the way she give it to me on Christmas, wrapped around with a blue ribbon, tied up on the top. Never managed to give me such a thing. It was a drawing of a white dove. Somehow it was related to her; Her and a dove, and that she would fly away, fly away, free.
In the first two weeks, Patricia was too weak to play. But she grew however, and managed to follow me everywhere I go. And everyday when I came back from Maribel’s house, she was eager to see me. She was a delightful one, Patricia. And today was her fist time catching a ball. She wagged her tail, showing a huge grin in her face. Morning dew was gone and it was getting hotter.
“Let’s go inside,” I murmured.
I didn’t know how she knew it; and headed home before me.
Winter break was over, and I got busier and busier as time passed. I had lots of activities and I came home with tiredness showing on my face. I sat down on sofa, turned on TV and laid still. I sighed. Then I saw my mom bending over to fill Patricia empty bowl. Surprised, it used to be full every time. I pretend to watch TV, and tried not to notice Mom and the empty bowl, but it was too big to hide. Mom got a little annoyed. Finally she stood up.
“Maribel and Carla is coming over,” said Mom.
“Okay,” I replied. I turned off TV and took out my homework.
It was when I realized something strange was happening. It was not the rain that started to knock on my window. Where did Patricia go?
“Patricia, where are you? Come over here.” I whistled.
The rain poured harder, but I heard no sound. ‘Perhaps she might be sleeping’ I thought trying to get my fear away. But I shook it away. ‘Where could she have gone?’ I didn’t know where she went. All of sudden I got so confused and tears started to rise in my eyes. I took a glimpse at the door. It was perfectly locked and I was perfectly sure there was no way out. It didn’t matter. I slammed the door open and started to run. Everything was going too fast.
Tears started to stream down my eyes, but I felt nothing. The rain poured harder, as if it is trying to stop me. I kept running.
“Cia! Where are you? Please!”
Words seemed liked echoing in my ears and no one could hear. Everything was too wrong to go right. At last I fell and couldn’t get up.
Then I saw a hand. It was Carla.
“Are you all right? We were going to your house remember?” she said, surprised.
I took Carla’s hand and got up. When Maribel saw me I was about to run, she grabbed my hand.
“Don’t,” she said.
Carla put umbrella over my head and tried to calm me down. “Maribel’s right. It doesn’t help right now.”
“Patricia, she’s… she’s…” I couldn’t say.
Then silence.  Rain was pouring down and down the umbrella. Carla stretched her hands out. “We have to go. We’ll walk you home.”
Carla wrapped me with a towel but I kept shivering. I was mostly shivering with my fear.
“It’s getting late,” said Carla. “When will your parents be back?”
I didn’t answer. All I wanted to do was to sleep and wake up with as nothing was happening. I closed my eyes.  “Elise is sick, she has a fever!” It was time last time when I heard them talking to my mom on the phone.
—
It had been long since I went outside. I was mostly afraid it would start over, from beginning to the end. I was getting better though.  I opened the door. I swallowed. Slowly, I touched the ground with my feet. I started to walk, noticing every bit of changes.  Dandelion seeds were flying, taking time to follow the breeze of the wind. It was white as the day when first snow had fallen. Flying over, past my head, as if it is asking me to catch it. This was the last promise of spring and it gave Patricia and Maribel the last chance to come back. I opened my arm, trying to grab the seeds. I closed my hands, brought them down to my face and opened them. There was nothing. Patricia was gone. I tried again. The seeds slipped out of my hands. Maribel… there was nothing to do now. She had moved the day I was sick. I froze, terrified. Nothing was there to see, and nothing was there to keep. I ran to my house, never looking back.
It was when I was walking home from school. Autumn leaves fell and streets were full of leaves. Without intending, I found a box near a playground, about two feet long and one foot wide. At last I couldn’t hold my curiosity for what that box holds onto, and came closer. I gasped when I realized what was inside. It was a beagle with a brown spot on its head. I ran my fingers in my pocket. I found one euro and eighty-seven cents.  It wasn’t enough. I didn’t want her to have unfortunate life like what Patricia had. Remembering the memory of Patricia, I shook my head, turned around and took five steps. ‘Bark’ I stopped. ‘Bark’ a tiny bark was mixed with a roaring sound of wind, and it faded, but it kept echoing in my ears. It was alive sound of hope. I ran to the box and looked up at the sky. Sky never seemed to be as clear and high as this one. ‘I knew it’ I thought, but I was sure everyone in the world could hear it. This one was another spirit of Patricia. Her tail wagged, the way Patricia did. Another day of miracle had come.
—
“Elise,” said Carla in the middle of the art class.
I looked up. “Yeah?”
“What are you thinking? I asked you like thousand times.”
I looked at my painting. Never good as Maribel’s.
“Guess,” I smiled.
“Give me a hint.”
“I know you can read my mind. Just go.”
“Maribel.” Said Carla, a smile in her face that sure she got me.
“I was thinking about Patricia.”
Actually I was thinking of neither of them. But I went along with it, anyway. The only thing I remember about them, or at least I tried to remember, was that Maribel was alive, somewhere far from home. But not Patricia. She is not alive unless she is with me. She does not exist. And she was my dog.

Hello everyone,

After some unfortunate delays, we now have the next two installments of Room 229’s Historical Fiction Podcast Series available on iTunes.

Tamara, Emma, Karis and Juliana refer to Goldstone, and teach about building the world of the story in your mind.

Tasha, Helen, and Sophie refer to Esperanza Rising, and teach about walking in the main character’s shoes.

Goldstone Source Esperanza Rising Source

Hey you!

Getting tired of reading historical fiction books?

Can’t understand the meanings in the book?

Want to be a better reader?

Then keep on reading!

These strategies will refer to “Esperanza rising” by Pam Munoz Ryan.

And the strategies are:

Building the world of the story in your mind

AND noticing who has the power.

First of all, strategy building the world of the story in your mind is used when you tries to visualize where your character is at and what situation they are in. It is very useful when there’s no pictures in the book. For example, when the book was describing the Esperanza’s dress, I imagined it as a blue dress with laces on the edges-dresses that you might see in the movies. But then, afterward, the book gave more descriptions about the dress and I made some changes to my visualization. The thing is, people imagine things differently so you can make some changes after.

Another strategy is by asking yourself, “Who has the power”. This strategy is exellent to support your thinking and showing evidence and the proof in the book. This strategy is especially for historical books since many people didn’t have many rights to stand up for themselves. I inferred that Tio Luis had the most power because he had spies all around him and he burned down the Esperanza’s house. But keep in mind, that different people might have power as the story goes on. Like when the tragety happens to Esperanza, she suddenly loses her power. By using your background knowledges and text clues, you can infer the book with supports and details.

Well, that’s it!

I recommend to use these strategies on “Esperanza Rising”. I, as a learner, I learned that it is very useful to use strategies while reading because we can understand the text better. We can feel how characters feel, making the book come to life.

Hope this strategies will help you…

helen

Explorers. What do you think at first when you hear this word? Is it closer to hero or villain? Explorers in the Age of exploration are villains because explorers treated their crews badly. In addition, explorers are villains because explorers destroyed the civilization of the natives and started the slave trade when exploration started.

When explorers go exploring, of course, they need a crew on their ship. Explorers trick or capture people and that’s how exploration starts. Back in the age of exploration, not many people wanted to explore. They especially didn’t want to be a ship member because you don’t know what lies ahead. Furthermore, it was easy to get disease, such as scurvy because you can’t get enough vitamin C. Because of this condition, explorers had to kidnap people to start its journey. Wither they like it or not, once the ship went sailing, they cannot come back. The journey to the unknown started. For example, Christopher Columbus tricked his crews into believing they have traveled less far than what they actually had. He decreased the distance he traveled each day when he told crew. Each day, he told his crews that they had sailed 10 to 40 miles less than they actually had.

During the Age of Exploration, Europeans landed in America where Aztecs lived. Explorers destroyed their civilizations by taking their gold, land and fighting with the Aztecs when they can’t trade. The explorers’ main goal was to trade gold so they can bring wealth to themselves and to their country. So if they couldn’t trade, they used their weapons to get the gold. Taking the Native Americans’ land started in the late Age of Exploration when people needed more land to live and grow crops. Since European’s weapons were more powerful than the natives, eventually the natives lost their land. Explorers were destroying their civilizations slowly; natives didn’t realize it until it was too late. For example, when Samuel de Champlain formed an alliance with the Huron and the Algonquin against the Iroquois. He did this because he wanted to explorer the river passage to North and West. Just to achieve wealth for himself and for his country, he made the Iroquois lose the fight. By destroying the civilization of the natives, explorers in the Age of exploration are villains.

When exploration started, the slave trade started. It started when Prince Henry, the Navigator, brought ten Africans to Europe. Since the Europeans needed more people to work on their farm, the salve trade was successful and more ships were sent to Africa to bring back slaves. These were done with force and the natives felt no comfort.

With these actions, explorers discovered many new places and many new inventions. Without explorers, our lives wouldn’t be the same as today. But what explorers didn’t discover was themselves; they didn’t realize their actions were wrong, or they couldn’t help it.  Maybe it was too early in history for that. It’s just that behind the hero parts, there are always villainous things following.

-Helen

For our field trip, we went to the Ancient City.

I explored Thai culture.

We learned about Dvaravati, Khmer, Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, and Ratanakosin period.

It was cool.

We also learned about Thai architecture and how people lived during that period.

This is a cow I saw in the Ancient City.

Image Source

Awesome.

We rode bikes around the Ancient City.

Bike was old!!!

I was a photo taker.

It was really interesting that our field trip connects with exploration.

Image Source

This is the khmer temple.

The real one is 10X bigger than this!!!

I think it’s suppose to be bigger because it was really hard to go through with your

helmet on. Fortunately, I realize that we can go around the temple.

This was my best field trip.

helen