Lego stuff

Hi everybody, these few weeks I've been working on some custom made Lego figures. you can get them too! as long as you provide me with the needed Lego pieces and a reasonable price I'll try to make just about anything! warning, the harder the Lego is, the more expensive it gets, but the most expensive one is only .about two ringgit.

Collaborating constructively During Lit Circles

"OK, class. for the next lit circle, you will be working with a partner! Viet and Pasha, Harjot and Yu Ern, ......... Laura and Tem, Owen and Stephanie...." that instant, I had a strong feeling that this lit circle's going to be a lot less stressful, and a lot more well done.After I finished it, I think I like to work in partners a lot better than working alone. I was able to get help when I needed it, And I was also able to use the knowledge my partner had to better understand the book. Of course, I also had to share some of my own knowledge, but now, we both understand the book equally well. also, by working together, we finished much earlier and was able to get feedback from the teacher sooner.


there were not really many problems during the lit circles, but the hardest part was during the weekends. we were not able to contact each other orally, but we did send messages to each other by writing notes on the Google doc itself, or by our school E-mail, so that was a minor drawback.


By working with a partner, I was able to exchange information about each of our understandings of the book. everything was much clearer, the storyline, the mysteries of the book, and why we thought the characters acted in the book. Other than that, everything was pretty clear to me already! 


as an ending statement, I think working with a partner made my lit circles a lot better than before, as we were able to give each other feedback and help.

Lit Circle reflection.

In school, we are now doing the second literature circle in this year, and tis time, we are reading a book called the true confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi, the author of many other books I like. Tem, Stephanie and Laura-Marie is im my lit circle group, and this is the reflection about the discussions so far...

1. How your groups discussion helped you better understand the novel. Write about of some of the key ideas from the novel that your group discussed and how these were important to the plot of the story.



Actually, Having the discussions helped me understand the book a lot better. after we finish our proper discussion, we would start a new one about all our points of views, what we noticed in the book, what we liked, what we were confused about, and sometimes even ways the author could improve the book. We often get into heated arguments about what will happen later on in the book, Tem told us that she has read the book before, and told us that a guy in the book (Zachariah) was not a bad man, I tried to back that idea down with evidence from the book, but I finally got it into my head that he is a good man. Generally, we talk about whether a man is good or bad, whether someone or something will change the storyline somehow, and predictions for the rest of the book, we were really able to understand the book and the main character (Charlotte) better.


2. Describe some of the connections that you made during your discussion.


I don't really make connections from the book to my life, I mean, face it, not many people have been on a huge ship all alone with a murderous captain and a crew wanting revenge.But I did make some reactions, like the observation I made about Avi really concentrating on suspense and describing the scene, allowing us to paint a "picture" in our minds about what's going on! 




3. What predictions do you have for the rest of the novel.


Normally, I don't make predictions for books, unless it's a series with many books in it.But Avi just put too many clues for us to ignore! personally, I think that The captain will commit a murder, and push the blame to Charlotte. It hinted it might at th start of the book, and I also think someone (maybe Mr. Cranick) could (maybe) die somewhere in the book.

Symmetry in KL!

I took this photo of an iron kettle. In this image, there is one line of symmetry, going down the center kettle, kind of cutting it in half.

Kuala selangor school trip

            "... and we will be planting mangrove seedlings tomorrow morning!"  Wow! we actually get to help plant a mangrove! That's what everybody thought as we walked back towards our rooms, ready for a good night's sleep. Maybe some people ignored the mud soaked people-from-other-groups, but I didn't. I could hardly believe my eyes! the people walking back looked like a swamp monster out of a horror movie! Of course, I thought that it wouldn't be that bad, if I just didn't move around too much, and if I maintained my balance, I would only get my legs dirty! But nature had to prove me wrong.

            The next day was complete pandemonium. The people supplied us with gloves and boots, but the moment a person stepped foot into the squelching mud, they were screaming, complaining, or trying to get themselves out of the mud! I looked around, and found a small stick lying around, so I grabbed it, and dug myself out of the ground. That was at least a thousand times worse than I thought it would be! The mud is soggy and full of water. I was stuck at one place for about five minutes before i could get out. during that five minutes, I found a mud-skipper! I caught it and named it Tommy, but I let it go. Finally, I reached
a place where I got a mangrove seedling, used A thick stick to punch a hole in the ground, stuck the seedling's roots into the hole and tied the plant to a bamboo stick to support it.

           The way back was much worse than when we were in the mud, the mud got in our shoes, so we had to walk back to our rooms still squelching. but wait!!!  we walked forwards, not right! Mr.Sheflin got out a hose!!! YAYYYYY!!!!! we cleaned ourselves up the best we could, and walked back to our rooms to change, we were as clean as a whistle!We got changed into some decent clothes, packed all our belongings and headed to the buses, ready to go home.

The brave moment of my life

            There are not many brave moments in my life, but the one there is required a lot of guts to get through. The bravest moment was the two days of climbing one of China's steepest and highest mountains. Huang Shan, otherwise known as the yellow mountain is not the tallest mountain in the whole of China, but it sure is the steepest! Huang Shan is famous for its steep hills and dangerous stairs, but it is also known for the fascinating shapes of pine trees and the bizarre formations of the rocks on the mountain.James Cameron created the movie AVATAR based on this Mountain!

           So there it was, the magnificent mountain stood before us. In just a minute, My family, along with two of my friends and their families would be stepping into a cable car to the station high up in the mountains so we could start our journey through the mountains. As we were carried up the mountain, we looked out to find endless woods, fascinating trees and rocks that look like they are going to topple over any minute! That was enough to convince all of us that the following two days were going to be FANTASTIC!!!!! We stepped out of our cable car. the air was cold up here, the ground felt moist, and the towering mountains intimidated me. Even at hundreds of meters above sea level, the station was crammed with people. most of them were walking down a narrow stairway. I could tell it was really old. Obviously we followed the people down the steps and that led us to more steps, and more steps. to us kids, this was never ending torture to our legs, but after five long hours, we reached the peak of the mountain. Or so I thought. I stood at the peak, thinking we reached the full height of 1864 meters. But I was Wrong... I turned my head around and saw another colossal mountain looking down at us. I couldn't believe it.But we all walked on After another hour of Dangerous mountain-climbing, we Made it to the hotel.

            The hotel was not exactly what you would call a good Hotel, but it was the best there is. In fact, it was not bad! Everything we needed was there, but My friend got a small case of altitude sickness. it was not pretty.but he turned out fine.

            The second day turned out to be far more tiring than the first! Everything I had described in the second paragraph was at least two times worse . The mountains were steeper, the floor was wetter, the air was colder, and the worst of all, there were more people in our way! I was relived when we finally got back to the cable car station! On the way back down, I thought about the whole trip How my friend got altitude sickness, how tired we were, how I almost lost the others. Of all the trips in my life, this was the hardest.

How did early humans use art to express their feelings of the world?

           Early humans left an amazing record of their lives, and it was all recorded on cave walls! Even back then, humans used a large variety of colors, ranging from dark brown all the way to bright red!They were also smart enough to figure out many different ways of getting the paint onto the walls! To make paint, they probably used colored mud or pigment- any natural materiel that can be grinded into powder, added to water and be used as paint. How they made different textures was the fun part, scientists believe that early humans put paint into hollow bird bones and blew the paint out , making fuzzy textures. Of course they also used paintbrushes made out of human hair, moss or animal  fur.

            these early humans drew many, many things. they drew the world around them, the animals they hunted, the scene of a hunt or maybe even a regular day of an early human's life!But sometimes they drew imaginary creatures they have never seen! Scientists think that because of the mythical creatures, they could have created a religion, and the paintings gradually transformed into: Language!

            To help you better understand what the early humans drew and made, I'm going to introduce two of the many pieces of art that early humans made. They are almost completely different, as one is a sculpture and one is a painting.but as you read, you can find some similarities between the two.

             The first object I am going to introduce to you is the painting of a man, an injured bison and a spear thrower. This painting was painted almost 10,000- 16,000 years ago. It was found in Lascaux, France.the painting was outlined in black, probably charcoal, and the bison was painted on a sandy coulored background and the man and the spear thrower was painted on a white background. the picture clearly shows a bison goring a man with the face of a bird. laying next to the man, there lies a spear thrower which looks like a stick with a bird on top of it.Scientists think this painting had three possible uses, the first one is the painting  was a part of a hunting ritual, asking the gods for a successful hunt. the second possibility was it was a record of what actually happened. the third possible reason was that it was just a decoration.

               The other object is a pair of sculptures of bison made of clay.this  was sculpted around10,000 to 14,000 years ago. they were also found in France. it was made out of gold clay. the ancient artist probably took a long time to do it, as the fur and their faces are carefully carved.Scientists think it could be part of a coming-of-age ceremony, as children footprints have been found near it, or it identified wo the cave belonged to.

                I think those early humans have more artistic ability than I'll ever have!

What Social Scientist?

            Out of three different types of social scientists, Archeologists, Historians, and Geographer, I think being an Archeologist would be the one that interests me the most, mainly because I always wanted to be a paleantologist, Archeology seems pretty close to Paleantology, just that their areas of study are slightly different.So I would like to share three reasons Why  think I would qualify as a good archeologist .

             My first reason is because I always liked to search and look in a specific spot for a specific thing. Maps are usually really fun to decipher too! My second reason is because I think playing in the dirt was fun for me when I was small, so when I grow up, it's going to be a piece of cake! My third reason  is simply me always wanting to make a great find that would be known throughout all times. Sometimes I think this job can be risky, but it's worth it!

Out of school days.

            As many of you may have noticed, I have already missed two days of school. The reason behind that is a really annoying fever.It started at about 3am in the morning the day before yesterday. That was when I found out that I couldn't  come to school.   
             My Mother took me to the hospital yesterday, the doctor said I mmight not be able to come to school for the rest of the week.  I think I am getting better, I hope that I can come back to school by tomorrow !    

Introduction

         Hi! My name is Owen and I am a malaysian middle schooler. I have lived in both Shanghai, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I am now studying at the best American System school in K.L,  I.S.K.L .  and I am now in sixth grade. I am an only child, but I have many friends that i would be happy to call "Brother" . My father works in a company called Deibold, they make safekeeping boxes and ATMs.

          I have many hobbies, but my favourite three is; Building, I love building, but I cannot build anything out of normal materials, and when I do, it usually isn't strong enough! so I use LEGO as a tool for building. My second hobby is simply hanging out with friends! I have no brothers and sisters, so I enjoy company with the people of my age! My last hobby is tocollect pets, idealy turtles, I think they are a fun, yet easy to take care of kind of pet.  My favourite Genre of books are fantasy books, and out of those, I love the Harry Potter series the most. My favourite colour is yellow, that has a reason to it; my name is Ooi Zi Xuan, that "Ooi" is translated to Huang in chinese.Huang means yellow!

          I would also like to share three adjectives that would best describe me:
Curious, Because I constantly learn things, and I want to learn even more!
Keen: Because I am keen to see , learn ,taste, smell, and hear new things!
Loyal: Once I  make a promise, I will try my best to deliver it!My friend, Maxwell has a motto; A deal is a deal, you can't back out on it! I try hard to follow that motto too!

          I am looking Forward to this school year, I know I will study hard and enjoy this year of academic fun!