New Years Resoloutions

To enter 2011 I made two resolutions, first to become a vegetarian, and second to exercise more. I wanted to become a vegetarian because I always feel guilty of murder when I eat meat. I don't like killing things and even though they are just animals they are still live things and I just can't eat that. I will still eat fish because it contains omega 3 and that is healthy. I will eat chicken soup no more than once a week but when I go to my friends houses I will not make their parents make me a vegetarian meal, I will just eat whatever is there even though it makes me feel extremely guilty. I will also have to eat more tofu, beans,dairy, and other meat free things. But I don't really mind these things if it means I am saving a life, I say this, but I don't think I could ever become a vegan! And I need to exercise more because I like to eat sweets and junk food so I have to burn it off somehow. Apart  from climbing once a week and tennis and rollerskating every now and again I plan to participate more in PE and try to get better marks so that my fitness level rises. I will also try to do some sports during lunch break and what I would really love to do is go ice skating twice a week but we are in Malaysia and that does not happen here so I don't think that is possible. I really need to improve my swimming and I have a pool at home so I can practice and I can improve my fitness while also improving my strokes. These are my two new years resolutions and I hope I can keep them up and enjoy my life at the same time!

During the holidays I went to England and Germany, and Thailand and Laos. I know it sounds nice but truly it was a disaster. We were on the plane to England so that we could catch a connecting flight to Munich, Germany. Unfortunately we went the day that England had a huge snowfall and Heathrow airport closed and our flight was diverted Frankfurt, Germany, which is a three hour drive to Munich. We got off of the plane and I hadnot slept for the whole flight and I was sooooooo tired!!!! We went to the luggage carousel and waited for five minutes only to hear the announcement " All passengers from the flight from Heathrow please proceed to counter five to be provided with a hotel while we locate your luggage" It was something like that. At this time I am not going to document the words I heard after the announcement was finished, there were a lot of British people on that plan and they did not use the most appropriate of all words to express their feelings. My dad was trying not to swear as he said, our luggage is tagged through to Munich and these *#@$!s are going sort this out for us soon! I was so tired, all I wanted was a bed and I would sleep. I was also constantly looking out of the window to see the snow, I had not seen snow for three years and I was amazed by it. So we went to the hotel and slept for a night and got a rental car the next day and drove to Munich. We saw my German Oma ( grandma) and went shopping in one of the many Christmas markets, but first we bought clothes.We had fun but it was time to go to England, we did have one bag for our new things.

We also had a great time without luggage in England and on Christmas day we celebrated with cousins and other family. After that my grandma in England started acting weird because of the drugs she was taking for her Parkinson's. She was using a flashlight as a toothbrush and she was upset because it would not work, she also burned the kettle by setting it on the stove which was still on. When we came back home for one night we were exhausted and tired. The next day we left for Laos and almost immediately after we arrived I got strep throat  and in Laos in Luang Prabang there were no good doctors so I used up most of our painkillers before I recovered. My brother went biking with my dad and fell, scraping a quarter of the skin on his knee off. Soon after that we went to Railay Beach in Thailand and finally relaxed a little bit. Those were the places I went on holiday and as you heard it was not the most enjoyable of all holidays but some people have evidently had worse.

Something nobody knows about me is something I only just figured out which is that I sleepwalk and talk. I know this because once when my mom came in to tuck my sister Amelia in I got up with my eyes open and I walked all the way around the beds to my brother Jaspers bed. My mom asked "Johanna, why are you over there??" I ranted back at her " I don't want to see Amelia go to the bathroom!!" My mom realised that I was actually asleep and came over and gently shook me I shook her off and walked all the way around to my bed, said "Because it is disgusting!!" And closed my eyes. And I got all this from my mom because I do not remember any of it !!!!
So that was my New Years Resoloutions, What I did on Holiday and Something that Nobody knows about me.

Literature Circles, with a partner!

In our most recent Literature Circle, we got to work with a partner. This had many benifits, like you could ask your partner to check your work in only one section and tell you what was wrong with it and make suggestions for improvement and vice versa. One difficulty we had was that my computer would not open the Document so I could not work on improving my work. My partner and I overcame it by me telling her(on chat) what I needed to improve and then she typed it. I learned many things about the book through this because when I read my partners important passage I saw what she thought and I started to think, what if Zachariah is still alive, what if, what if...

Literature Circle Discussion

In our litrature circles I am doing a book called True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. We always make loads of interesting predictions like, Mr.Grummage is Captain Jaggery, the crew is going to attack Captain Jaggery,Zacharias is going to kill Captain Jaggery and the stowaway on the ship is Mr. Cranick. These predictions opened some new doors for me and I understood the book better when I had some idea what would happen. We made connections from our previous books and told what had happened in those books which could help us figure out what would happen later on in the story. Litrature Circle Discussions helped me to understand the book and made me want to read more.

Blog post of Symmetry

I took this picture of my moms hair band.
In this image the hairband has one line of  symmetry going vertically through the middle of the hair band.
The line of symmetry goes through the 8th ring of the hair band.

Kuala Selangor

About a week ago, grade 6 went on a field trip to Kuala Selangor which is the home of fire-flies and Bukit Melawati. One of the things I liked was planting the mangroves,this is because we had a lot of fun doing it, even though we did get muddy. First, we walked down to the mud swamp where we would plant the mangroves. Then we put on our gloves and boots.

It was time to enter the swamp, the guide showed us how to plant the mangrove saplings and we clambered eagerly into the swamp. Once we got in though, we were not quite as eager to work. I fell down after taking one step and then, after two more steps I was stuck. I absoloutely could not move because the mud was so sticky! I used my hands to pry my boots out of the mud. It worked but, my gloves got so muddy that they looked like clumps of brownish grey mud. I took two more steps and was stuck again,this time someone pulled me out and I ran to the nearest tree root and sat on it, exahausted. Then I started again,fell over three times in five steps and was stuck again. This time I just fell over in exhaustion and suddenly my feet came free, without my boots. My socks got really muddy but I got my boots out of the mud and got to another tree stump. I stood on it and asked the guide if I could plant on now. He said there were no more to plant so I actually did not plant a mangrove sapling but after he said that, I got off of the stump and ran to the dead trees on the side of the swamp. I hung there for a while and then I sprinted back to dry land. I made it without even getting stuck or falling. I walked back to the hostel carrying my muddy boots and gloves,I was  muddy but satisfied and happy.

When I got back to the hostel Mr.Sheflin hosed me off with a hose and I went and had a shower and got changed. When the others got back we ate lunch and relaxed for a while. Then we got on the bus and headed back to school. Planting mangroves was a really fun expierence for all of us. We got muddy and had fun,every kids dream! It was good for us but it was also really good for the environment because mangroves clean the air. We had sooooooooooooooo much fun that day.

A time when I showed courage

One time that I showed courage was when I was at my friend Julia's house and we went out to walk her dog up and down the road. Julia lives in Ukay Heights, and that is a dangerous place for more than one reason, (weird people and also,her house is on the edge of a cliff) we were just walking along when this guy sitting on the hood of his car stopped us.

He asked what the dog was called and we told him(Misty) he petted the dog and asked us where we lived. We were silent for a bit and he asked us again "Where do you live" and lit a cigarette. We didn't know what to do so I did some quick thinking and said "We are sisters and we don't live here, we are just visiting" this was belivable because I have blond hair and Julia has light orange hair. He seemed to be interested, but he asked where we were staying and I told him that we were staying there and pointed to an undefined spot in the distance but that our parents were in the house right next to us.

Then he said that it was nice to meet us and moved out of our way and we ran to Julia's house and got in as fast as lightning,terrified. I think that that was a time when I showed courage because that was really scary and to this day I still think that guy is going to come and find me. That is also like Mafatu and the sea god, the sea god wants to claim Mafatu and I think that guy wants to claim me. But I also thought I showed courage because I had to  make a belivable story when this guy in front of me was basically making my mind get blocked with one scary thought - kidnapper and my nerves were telling me to scream and run but I didn't because he would chase me.

Ancient artifacts tell us about the lives of early humans because if you find an ancient sculpture you know that people were able to sculpt a long time ago.It also shows that in prehistoric times people weren't as dumb as they are made out to be.

Spear Thrower,it has a carved horse near the top of it and it looks like a type of staff that the leader of a prehistoric group might have held while doing something religous. It is in color and has desighns carved around the top underneath the horse.What I learned is that ancient people also had a sense of religion and they were good hunters compared to us nowadays.

Clay Sculptures,they  look like buffalo or bison  and are grey in color. They are also cracked because they have been worn down by falling rocks, and other natural happenings.they do not have many details but you can still see that they arte supposed to be bison.What I learned from this is that in prehistoric times people did'nt use dyes or paints to colour their sculptures I also learned that the prehistoric people usually made sculptures or paintings to describe an event or religous happening.

Cave Painting of Animals,this picture has a herd of animals running away from another There are many colors and it is quite descriptive although the shapes of animals are not so clear. The animals look like they might be horses but they could also be deer.I learned that prehistoric people, although strong didn't make the clearest pictures.

Those are some things about prehistoric pictures that I hope will help you to learn more about prehistoric times.