Vocbulary Pictures

Exhaustion-

Methodically-

Swoon-

Abruptly-

Muttered-

Inflammatory-

Fettered-

Prophet-

Mimicking-

Incredulous-

A Christmas Carol

By Charles Dickens

*****

A Christmas Carol is my favourite classic. It follows the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge, a crabby, money-loving businessman whom Disney's Scrooge McDuck is based on.

Scrooge's story starts on Christmas eve, exactly 7 years since his business partner, Jacob Marley, had died. Scrooge ended Christmas eve by putting down an offer of a Christmas dinner by his nephew and denying some money to men who want to donate to the poor. Then he grudgingly allowed his clerk christmas day off and left his counting house for home.

But Scrooge wa in for a big surprise when Jacob Marley decided to visit him. 7 year-dead Jacob Marley. Marley warns Scrooge of their wasted time on Earth and that Scrooge will be haunted by three spirits.

After that Scrooge finds himself whiling through time, seeing the fate of all he knows and reliving his most emotional Christmases. My favourite part is Fezziwig's Party, a party in full swing with two fiddlers that Dickens describes unbelievebly.

Scrooge's journey through christmas past, present and future has made many films and I have just seen Disney's A Christmas Carol, 2009. An animated movie and very well pictured, after reading the book and seeing the movie I relised that the two were almost identicle. To the left is Scrooge from the 2009 film, whom I think has a very accurate expression on his face.

Vocab Words- Picture deffinitions

Placid-

Immaculately-

Subtle-

Feighning-

Unequaled-

Water Questions 2

1. (Q) List the main reasons for water scarcity.
(A) Low rainfall, variations in climate, land degradations, population growth and water pollution.

2. (Q) What is a drought? What type of hardships do you think that a drought could cause if you were living in a village in a poor country such as Ethopia?
(A) A drought is when there is little or no rainfall and water scarcity in a large area. Hardships would be problems with washing and quenching thirst.

3. (Q) How does land degradation affect the supply of fresh water?
(A) It stops infiltration and creates run-off, thus transforming more fresh water from rain into salt water in the ocean.

4. a) (Q) What is El Nino?
(A) The strong winds that occur when the wind reverses over the Pacific.
b) (Q) Why does El Ninooften cause drought in Australia?
(A) Wind blows away storm clouds and water vaper in the air from Australia.

5. Observe the map showing the global effects of El Nino in 1982-83.
a) (Q) What effects does El Nino have on the availability of fresh water?
(A) El Nino takes away a lot of water from south east asia and Tasmania.
b) (Q) Name the countries and describe the problems that arose from decreased rainfall caused by El Nino.
(A)Indonesia; more air pollution and forest fires, Philippines; drought, Papua; drought and famine, Australia; drought.

Water Treatment Plant

As part of grade 6's 'water' unit we visited a water treatment plant. There we walked around the plant and learnt how they cleaned the water from the river.

Our first station was the filters. Water flowed into the water plant from the river and flowed through a filter to take out all of the large pieces of junk in it. It then went on to flow through a finer filter which took out all the tiny pieces of junk.

The second station was where special chemicals were mixed with the water to create floc. Floc is a combination of dirt in the water that the special chemicals make coagulate. The floc floats to the water.

Station number three was where all of the water flow into large pools to let the floc settle. Once it has floated to the bottom of the pool the floc is called sediment.

Station four is where chlorine is added. Chlorine kills most diseases and dirt. The disinfected water then flows out through a filter which removes all remaining chlorine and surviving diseases.

Our final station, station five, was a room with a few vials and chemicals where water is tested to see if it was potable, which means able to drink. Here we compared the dirty water with the clean water and saw the difference.

After the tour of the water plant we saw a movie about how to save water. In all it was an educational field trip.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey

*****
by Trenton Lee Stewart

Mr.Benedict, Reynie and the crew are back! For the second mysterious installment Mr. Benedict decides to hold a world-wide treasure hunt as a 1 year anniversary for defeating the evil Mr. Curtain. But Mr. Benedict's evil twin isn't gone forever! In fact, he has just struck again... by kidnapping Mr. Benedict and Number Two! Just when everyone was going to have a happy reunion! What could happen next? Why, a world wide hunt for the missing twosome of course!

New cast members are added into this life-threatening puzzle. Cannonball and Captain Noland help the children race across three adventure-filled countries in the fastest ship ever known to mankind... the Shortcut! McCracken leads an evil force against Mr. Benedict's strong troopers. Then there is Her Majesty the Queen, Kate's new falcon friend. But all of Mr. Curtain's carnivorous comrades are back too! Jackson, Jillson, Martrina, S.Q... all of the master mind's extreme executives are back and as mean as ever! (Except, maybe, S.Q.)

But along with these evil crew-members come the ten-men, business men armed to the teeth. Pencil darts, whip ties, shock watches, calculator bombs, even laser pointers with real lasers!
How can Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance work past these thugs? The answer lies in a book of hags and bullfrogs, clues and warnings, pigeons and falcons, deserted villages and dusk-wart, salamanders and sea-planes. Will team Benedict prevail, or will rules, schools, tools and fools be too much for them?

Water Questions

1.(Q) What percentage of the world's supply of water is fresh water?
(A) 2.5%

2.(Q) Where is the world's supply of freshwater found?
(A) In ice, rivers, lakes, the atmosphere and ground water.

3.(Q) Even though the supply of fresh water is abundant it is still a problem. Why?
(A) We do not capture enough rain water.

4. Observe the map of world average annual precipitation (opposite).
a)(Q) Describe the changes in rain fall that occur as you move from the southern to the northern tip of Africa.
(A) The land starts with a low amount of rainfall, then in the centre of Africa there becomes more rainfall and up at the northern tip there is again, little rainfall.
b)(Q) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the western to the eastern tip of Australia along the Tropic of Capricorn.
(A) For two thirds of the way rainfall is scarce, but as you reach the eastern side rainfall is more common caused partly by the Great Dividing Range.

5. Observe the map above of water availability per person.
a)(Q) Which parts of the world appear to have a large amount of water available per person?
(A) The northern end of continents seem to have the most water per person.
b)(Q) Which parts of the world appear to have a small amount of water per person?
(A) The northern end of Africa seems to have the lowest water per person rate.

6. Observe the diagram of water use.
a)(Q) What are the main uses of water?
(A) Agricultural and industrial uses are the two main uses of water.
b)(Q) Which uses have increased the most over the last century?
(A) Agriculture and Industrial uses are the two water uses that have increased the most over the last century.

Bintaro Lama

As part of grade 6's water unit, we visited Bintaro Lama Kampung and learnt how they purify their water.

We split into groups and visited 3 stations. My group's first station was 'water quality'. One way of showing how clear water is was to pour water into a thin cylinder with a cross or circle on the bottom. Then you look through the top and see how clearly you can view the cross or circle.

A way of getting rid of dirt in some water is to run it through a 'sand filter'. The sand filter that Bintaro Lama owned was a large barrel with layers of sand and gravel in it. When poured in the top of the barrel the water first had to seep through 45cm of fine sand. Proceeding that was 5cm of fine gravel and then 10cm of large gravel. Once water has seeped through the whole barrel it would come out the other end, with most of the dirt stuck in the sand or gravel.

The last station was a way of killing bacteria in water. The inhabitants of Bintaro Lama cleaned water bottles with soap and then rinsed them. The bottles were then filled with water and left on a roof of a house to be in full view of the sun's rays. All bacteria would burn and die after the water was left on the roof for 6 hours.

Lastly we learnt a hand-washing jingle before heading back to the buses. It was amazing to learn how many ways to clean water a simple kampung like Bintaro Lama has.

Gringotts by J. K. Rowling

In English Class we were told to read a poem and then make a video of it just to improve our video skills on pinnacle 12. So I read Gringotts from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter.

The Water Cycle

Evaporation:
The graphic to the left shows H2O flying into the air. The H2O (or water as we shall call it) actually turns into a gas first. Water in gas form is called vapor. Vapor soars into the air, higher and higher until it is cooled.

Condensation:
To the left you can see a lovely graphic of a cloud.

When water vapor is cooled it becomes a liquid again. Water then floats on air and becomes fog or clouds.

Perspiration:

A graphic of rain to the left is linked to perspiration.

When a cloud is submitted to very cold air it will rain. All of the little water droplets that were riding on the air fall to the ground as rain. If submitted to extremely cold air, water can freeze and fall to Earth as snow or hail.

Infiltration:

To the left is a graphic of mud. When water hits the soil as rain it can create mud. Once water hits the ground it seeps into the earth. This is called infiltration. Soon it will find its way to the sea, which is where most water is evaporated. Then the cycle starts again.

Personal Narrative

Water War

I ducked to avoid two large squirts of water. In my crouched position I fired three shots at Connor. Two hit home. But as I was low down and Connor was now standing over me, I was an easier target for him. I was squirted at least for times before I got away.

I was at my friend Connor’s house. I had come over to stay the night. I couldn’t wait for tomorrow, when Connor and were going to wake up early and play his Xbox. After that we were going to have pancakes for breakfast.

But today we were bored. We went outside to play with water guns. Its not that we weren’t allowed to play with the water guns, it’s just that we hadn’t exactly told Connor’s mum. We were playing out in Connor’s backyard. It has a porch separated from a large grassy area with cloth walls. On the grass area there was a clothesline, a tree house and two boys having a water war.

I ran to the tree house, all the while exchanging inaccurate shots with Connor. I ran to the tree house’s ladder. Unfortunately I was too slow to climb the ladder. I was shot in the back by Connor. When I reached the top of the ladder I rushed inside the tree house and looked out the small window. Connor had already ran out of my range. I made a note to myself not to retreat to the tree house again.

I climbed out safely because Connor was so far away. I ran after him but he ran to the front of the house. He expected me to follow him but I didn’t. I knew that once Connor reached the front of the house he would run inside and out the back door. So I hid behind a rubbish bin, waiting for him to emerge.

After barely a minute the back door opened. I crept around to the end of the cloth wall.
Quick as a flash I turned and squirted. At Connor’s mum. At Connor’s soaked, astonished mum. Somehow I don’t think I will be getting many big pancakes for tomorrow’s breakfast.

10 Vocab Meanings

Resurrected- Brought back to life or usefulness.

Pledge- A vow or a promise.

Spontaneous- Quick and without thought or planning.

Discreetly- Without attracting attention to yourself or an action.

Preposterous- Completely out of the boundaries of here and now.

Rowdies- Plural of rowdie, people who are causing no harm but are not following the minor rules.
Brazier- A type of metal crate used as a fire place by lighting a fire in it.

Putrefy- A rotting substance with a fetid smell, usually a dead animal.

Martyred- Giving up or sacrificing something for another thing which you strongly believe in.

Scouring- The literal meaning is to work hard to scrub a saucepan but now more commonly means to search very intently with your eyes.

Harry Potter and the goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
by J. K. Rowling

*****

In The Goblet of Fire, the fourth book in the Harry Potter series, Harry gets entered into a deadly competition called the tri-wizard tournament. During the tournament, Harry gets attaked by a dragon, almost drowns in the lake, and poisoned by an acromantula (giant spider).

He gets trapped at night with Snape and Filch around, acused by the ministry of magic of conjering an evil mark, and misses out on going to the ball with his crush.

And if all that isn't enough, Lord Voldemort is BACK! I mean BACK, in flesh and blood to wage his second war against wizards and witches everywhere.

Graveyards, evil snakes, annoying reporters, new spells and the quidditch world cup!

You couldn't many more breath-taking scenes in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!

The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Mysterious Benedict Society

Trenton Lee Stewart
*****

The Mysterious Benedict society is a book of great action and spying. In this fabulous book four children are recruited to help save the world against an evil mastermind.

Reynie, a great puzzle solver and logic thinker, Sticky, a boy of great intelligence and can remember everything he sees, Kate, a natural spy in ways of sneaking and climbing with her own supply of gadgets, and Constance, an annoying three-year-old are all recruited by a mysterious Mr. Benedict. Mr. Benedict and his company, Rhonda, Milligan and Number Two, are intent on stopping an evil mastermind who is nun other than Mr. Benedict's twin, Mr. Curtain.

So Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance are sent as students to the Learning Institute of the Very Enlightened (LIVE) to uncover a plot of brain-washing and thought broadcasting, traps and codes, and winning and losing. These children agree that they must have a name and agree on the Mysterious Benedict Society...

Vocab Story 1

The theif tip-toed to the science department. It was the building with the corrugated roof. When he was sure no one was looking he smashed the window and crept inside.

The science lab had a fetid smell to it. Te theif looked around and spotted his target; a frothing vial. He took one step toward it when the sound of the door being slammed open made him stop. He felt like he was gagging.

'Stop right there you nefarious theif you. This is intolerable.' shouted the guard that strode inside. 'You'll be sent to a very desolate prison cell for this.'

The theif hated getting caught. But he hated getting caught by that perticular guard because he was a very conceited guard. The guard wore a guard's uniform and a frivolous hat.

So that was how the nefarious, fetid theif found himself gagging in a intolarable, desolate cell for trying to steal a frothing vial and how the conceited guard won a frivolous, corrugated badge.

10 Vocab Sentences

1. When I walked into my bathroom I smelled something fetid so I dicided to find out what it was.

2. This afternoon I nearly slipped on the corrugated tiling on my roof.

3. If I saw someone nefarious I would ring the police.

4. My teacher said that it was intolerable to break into the classroom.

5. My dad's coffee was frothing at breakfast this morning.

6. In my science class I learnt about how to use a vial or a test tube.

7. The ghost town was very desolate because it was in the middle of the desset.

8. My dad was gagging on his frothing coffee this morning.

9. It turned out that the fetid smell was a frivolous bar of soap.

10. The fetid, frivolas bar of soap was bought by my conceited, bossy cousin.

6 Sentinces That Me, I Mean I, Wrote Correctly

1. My mother, father, brother and I live in Jakarta.
2. On the way to school my friend said hello to me.
3. I tripped on my own feet.
4. I talked to some friends.
5. Some friends talked to me.
6. It took me a week to finish my project.

Galaxy of Fear Series

Galaxy of Fear
by John Whitman
*****

The Galaxy of Fear Series by John Whitman is a Star Wars series based on the adventures of siblings Zak and Tash Arranda, their uncle Hoole and their droid, D-V9.

There are 12 books to the galaxy of fear series named Eaten Alive, City of the Dead, Planet Plague, The Nightmare Machine, Ghost of the Jedi, Army of Terror, The Brain Spiders, The Swarm, Spore, The Doomsday Ship, Clones and The Hunger. All in all not the most attractive of names.

Zak and Tash are orphans who live with their uncle Hoole. Since Uncle Hoole is a scientist, studying different lifeforms, Zak and Tash visit many different planets. But after they start to trouble the imperial, an evil dictatorship, they try going into hiding but often stumble upon danger. They have been imprisoned, disected, menaced by zombies and attacked by shadows. A very exciting series.

I thought that galaxy of fear was a series that made you want to read the next book. My favourite book was Spore because it had a lot of good action.

Characterisation-Zak Arranda

In the Star Wars Galaxy of Fear series by John Whiteman, Zak Arranda is one of the three main protagonists. He has very life-like feelings that everyone can relate to. John Whiteman has done an excellent job at bringing him to life.

On page 7 of The Doomsday Ship, Zak thinks that his Uncle Hoole and his Sister are his last surviving relatives. He cares about them and would do anything to keep them alive. Zak also cares about his dead parents and thinks about them a lot and often dreams about them. In all, the thing that Zak cares about the most is family.

On page 5 Zak notes that he lives in The Shroud, a small spaceship that moves from planet to planet. Zak has had to live there ever since his home planet was destroyed. Zak's uncle is a scientist who studies life forms on different planets and is the reason The Shroud keeps moving around. Zak often wishes that he could settle down on a planet and live a normal life.

On page 6 Zak states that his main problem is to escape the imperial, a dictatorship whose evil scientific experiments Zak and his family have ruined. They are now on the run and Zak, who has been betrayed many times by harmless looking characters, is usually suspicious of anyone that he has not known for a few days.

In all Zak has some real world emotions, such as when he is annoyed by his sister, jealous of his sister's talents and frightened in a crisis. John Whiteman makes Zak Arranda a very believable character.

Earthquake

Earthquake

On the 2nd of September, 2009 an earthquake hit Java. This gives me another opportunity to mention nature's balance with humans (see Taiwan Environment).

Jakarta is in the ring of fire and so is likely to have an earthquake. The earthquake was weak in Jakarta but a bit outside of the city, there has been reports of at least 44 people dead. Some houses in Jakarta are weak and fell down during the earthquake.

This earthquake did not cause mudslides, such as typhoon morocat did because the ground in Jakarta is flat, not hill-covered like Taiwan. This shows how natural disasters work in different areas. I also mentioned that many people died. This shows how people work with the natural disasters. But not as many people died as in Taiwan due to the lack of mountains.

All this shows how the environment, natural disasters and people work together in different ways.

J. K. Rowling

J. K. Rowling

*****

Miss Rowling is the author of the famous Harry Potter series and my favourite author. J. K. Rowling has a website at jkrowling.com which is where I got most of this information.

On her website J. K. Rowling states that she often plays minesweeper while typing up her story. She also says that the best way to write a story is to do so while in a cafe.

J. K. Rowling started writing at the age of 12 and had her first Harry Potter book published in 1997.

Harry Potter and the Prisnor of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

****

In J.K. Rowling's third book of the series, Harry Potter starts his year by magically inflating his aunt and takes the knight bus to the leaky cauldron. Ron and Hermione's friendship is braking up because of Hermione's new pet and Harry believes he keeps seeing death omens. A vicious wizarding killer that betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort has broken out of Azkaban, the wizarding prison, and dementors are sent to guard Hogwarts and are after all of Harry's happy memories.

Its a pretty impressive start to the year but soon even more things go wrong. At Hogwarts school of witch craft and wizardry Harry takes on two new subjects; divination ,whose teacher is convinced that Harry could die any second, and care of magical creatures which is luckily being taught by Harry's friend Hagrid, but quickly goes wrong when Harry's rival, Malfoy, is trying to give Hagrid the sack.

At the end of the year Harry nearly reaches his limits when he comes face to face with the escaped prisoner of azkaban, Lord Voldemort's old servant and a werewolf. A prediction is made that states that Lord Voldemort will rise again and Harry fights about one hundred dementors who try to suck Harry's soul out. Will Harry survive to see his next birthday?

The prisoner of azkaban is very exiting and will make you want to never put the book down.

Taiwan enviroment

In August 2009, Taiwan was hit by typhoon Morocat. In my class at JIS this gave us a great chance to look at the environment and people involved as it ties in to our social studies unit.

When Morocat hit, Taiwan had the worst typhoon in fifty years. When Morocat hit, Taiwan had over two metres of rain! When Morocat hit, buildings, including the hotel shown to the left, were destroyed. All this is because of the environment and the people who live in it.

When Taiwan was flooded, the water rushed extremely fast, which is what destroyed towns and buildings. If Jakarta was flooded, however, the water level would slowly rise. This is because Jakarta is flat and the water would just build up. But Taiwan is mountainous and when the water hits the top of a mountain, and rushes downhill, the water comes with tremendous force.
In the case of the above hotel, the water dug into the earth below the hotel until it fell over.

Another natural disaster caused by Morocat were mudslides. The mountains around Taiwan are covered with a layer of dirt. When the rain falls, this dirt slides downward and creates a mudslide.

Both natural incidents above killed many people, which wouldn't have happened if people didn't live in Taiwan. This shows how people and the environment work together.

Bone-final books

I am reading the final books of the BONE series and they are UNBILIEVEBLY AWESOME!!!
Thorn's dreams come together, Phoney finally finds real money and the Lord of the Locast's plan is almost complete.
The pawans join forces with the rat creatures and in the end one of the main characters sacrifice themselves.
If you've read the other BONE books you will love BONE: TREASURE HUNTERS and BONE: THE CROWN OF HORNS!!!