Analogy for Adding Fractions (by William)

September 17, 2017

Dear Ms. West,

Thank you for teaching me so much about fractions! A fraction is a part of a whole. I learned that a fraction is made up of a denominator and a numerator. The denominator tells how many equal parts there are in a whole. The numerator tells how many parts are shaded. To find equivalent fractions, you have to find a common divisor or multiplier, then divide or multiply both the denominator and the numerator to get the same value. If you apply the divisor to both the denominator and numerator, you are simplifying. If you are multiplying, you are unsimplifying.

When adding or subtracting fractions with unlike denominators, you need to find a common factor to make the denominators the same. I have an analogy. When people are getting married, they need to find common ground (same denominators). If they don’t, the couple needs to convert to have common ground, then just add the numerators to form a new family (answers).

I hope I can learn more on fractions!

Best Regards, 

William 

Book report - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (By Ethan)

  This is a book report about the very well-known book “The adventures of Tom Sawyer” written by the one and only Mark Twain, which I read during the summer. The story takes place in a fictional little town that goes by the name of St. Petersburg in Missouri. The plot is set near the Civil War in 1861. The book was first published in 1876.

  Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He went by his pen name Mark Twain writing. He was born 11-30-1835 in Florida, Missouri and died 4-21-1910 in Redding, Connecticut. When Samuel was 11 his father died. Due to this, he had to quit school to help work for his family. Around 10 years later, he trained to be a steam boat pilot. After the Civil War started, he began writing newspapers. It was here that he developed his author brain.

  There are times when one may read a book that contains part(s) which he/she may never forget, not even if years have passed after reading them. I am going to say the most memorable part in the book was at the end, when Huck tells Tom how he dislikes the widow’s ways. It was so hilarious. The dialogue of Huck was like a clown bound hand and foot. When we read it, we laughed until we could hardly breathe. This may be a memory I might never forget until the very last day my heart is beating.

  I have visualized many things reading about Tom Sawyer. I can imagine how painful it must feel to get hit with Mr. Dobbin, the schoolmaster’s ferule. It is hard to read the part about Becky and Tom getting stuck in the McDougall’s cave without perceiving how agonizing it must be to get trapped in there without food or water for a week. And you might feel very creeped when reading the part where Tom and Huck hide in the grave yard at midnight listening to the trio of men; Injun joe, Dr. Robinson and Muff Potter brawling.

  There exists the most memorable part which is also surprising. Tom, instead of letting Huck stay as he is, tries to convince him to follow the widow’s routine. This is really unusual since in the whole book the events caused by Tom show how mischievous he is. But, at the end of the story, BAM! Like a wizard has crawled into his cortex and changed it, Tom turns good and starts persuading Huck to stay with the widow. Shouldn’t friends accept them as they are? There are two reasons we thought of: 1, Maybe the author just got a little lousy. Or 2, Maybe Tom really did change. I believe Tom changed because he saved Becky from the grasp of the cave, and sought out the treasure and now everyone is treating him like Batman or Superman.

  Tom Sawyer is an absolute must read, despite the treasure trove of hard words it holds. So, grab a copy, cozy up in your bed, and enjoy The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 

Writing with Meghan-14 (1 hour) By Ethan

Part 1 Quick writing: observe a picture provided by Meghan

1. There are flowers everywhere.
2. Impossible to count all of them ( Is it 14, 15 or 16?) !!!
3. There are near-invisible flowers on the white background.
4. There is a blue stripe at the bottom.

Part 2 Nouns

• Person - Mrs. Long, Mom, Dad, me, Meghan, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Beethoven, King Charles the Third, Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh
• Place - Hog Warts, Norman, NYC, Beijing, India
• Thing - Flash light, cat, dog, cap, bag, long skinny window, violin, teeth, microbe

3 noun sentences

1. Mom and Dad are my supporters to grow.
2. I have been in Norman, NYC and Beijing for more than 2 days at one point.
3. If I weren't allergic to them, I would have 1 cat and 1 dog as pets.

Part 3 Who did it? Case File for the eyes of detective Ethan only

Crime!

On November 22, a man dressed in black robbed a bank on main street. According to reports, the man used no weapon, instead he relied on physical strength to intimidate the tellers.

A witness identified the man as about six feet tall with big muscles. One of the tellers states the man wore a ski mask.

You are the detective assigned to this case. It is your job to track the man down.

Evidence!

• approx height - 6 ft
• approx weight - 265 lb
• clothing worn - ski mask, black outfit
• weapon used - none
• casualties - none
• injuries - none
• physical evidence - curly brown hair, size 11 footprint
• witnesses - The tellers

Suspect # 1

• name - Lance Steward
• age - 24
• height - 6'1"
• weight - 210 lb
• shoe size - 10 1/2
• hair color - blonde
• motive - bank refused to give him a loan
• hobbies - fishing, reading

Suspect # 2

• name -John Evans
• age - 36
• height - 6'
• weight - 320 lb
• shoe size - 11
• hair color - red
• motive - had a run in with one of the tellers
• hobbies - watching Netflix, weight lifting

Who do you tell the police to arrest?  John Evans

Statement

Write a statement to the police explaining why he was the one who robbed the bank. Include evidence and motive.

I believe John Evans is guilty because he is exactly 6 ft tall, has a size 11 foot print, and he weight lifts to make himself strong. Lance is innocent because he must not be that strong since he does not weight lift and his shoe size is too small. I think that the hair belongs to John Evans because  a lot of red hair looks red while a single hair could look brownish. Maybe when John ran in the teller, the teller did or said something that made him want to rob the bank.

"We the jury find the defendant guilty of bank robbery."

Good Job Detective Ethan!

Thanks to you, the criminal is safely behind bars.

Writing with Meghan-13 (1 hour) By Ethan

Part 1 Quick writing: observe a picture provided by Meghan

1. There are 2 horse grazing.
2. They are different colors.
3. Is this a Wyoming scene?
4. It looks like desert.

Part 2 Define

• Noun - A person, place, thing or idea.
• Verb -  An action.
• Pronoun - A word that replaces a noun.
• Adjective - A word that describes a noun.
• Adverb - A word that describes a verb, adjective or another adverb.
• Conjunction - A word that connects two other words.

Part 3 Create a sentence

• Write three names

1. Riley
2. Giant Microbes
3. Peter

• Write three actions

1. Play
2. Run
3. Jump

• Write three places

1. The Land of Solar and Lunar Eclipse
2. Mars
3. Pluto

• Write three adverbs

1. Very
2. Slowly
3. Deadly

• Write a sentence using the highlighted words

Giant Microbes are very fun to play with, but do not play with them on The Land of Solar and Lunar Eclipse.

BAM!

                                        Told you!

Writing with Meghan-12 (1 hour) By Ethan

Part 1 Quick writing: observe a picture provided by Meghan

1. If the sofa were human, it would feel very angry.
2. The volume of the sofa is approx. 30.3 ft3.
3. A science fact: Sofas usually weigh around 0.25 ton.
4. A science question: If humans have human cells then do sofas have sofas cells?

Part 2 Long Letter Word Game

Level 1: Time: 5 minutes

1 letter: a

2 letters: it

3 letters: hat, dog, hot

4 letters: bell, open, bake, iron

5 letters: float,chest, ruler, green

6 letters: little, prince, minute, lonley

7 letters: abandon, jealous,strange, vulture

8 letters: happened, attacker

9 letters: continued, aardvarks,yardstick, blowtorch

10 letters: artichokes

Level 2: Time 7 minutes

5 letter phrase: got it

6 letter phrase: go away

7 letter phrase: an apple

8 letter phrase: I like you, I am tired

9 letter phrase: I am hungry

10 letter phrase: come in soon!

Bonus point: Time 3 minutes

13 letters: encyclopedias

13 letter phrase: Good afternoon

Level 3: Time: 1 minutes

Fill in vowels: Y (o) (U)   W (i) n!

Part 3 Essay Friends are important, but everyone has a different opinion of what makes a good friend. Explain what, in your opinion makes a good friend.

How to be a good BFF

I think what makes a good friend is a kind attitude, a willingness to help, protect and serve. The very best friends also share. Sharing also makes a good BFF.

Kindness: Being friendly and kind can make you very popular. Lots of people will want to be friends with you if you act nicely towards them. They will also act nicely back to you.

Helping: It's good to be a team! wanting to help others will cause many people to admire you. This is a good tip for people seeking a good companion to be friend with.

Serving: Helping and serving are very much alike. If you are willing to serve others and support them they will like you and help you back and then you will likely become good friends.

Last, sharing: sharing is an excellent way to get friends. If you share, then people will know about it and will want to play with you. And that brings you one step closer to being friends.

Conclusion: There are lots of tricks, tips, steps and ways to be a good BFF. If you can find an excellent, very good way to master all of them, you can become friends very quickly.

Writing with Meghan-11 (1 hour) By Ethan

Part 1 Quick writing: observe a picture provided by Meghan

1. Their hands are moving like mad!
2. They must be very excited.
3. They are in a stadium of an unknown sports.
4. Why is THE PICTURE SO YELLOW???
5. Is the camera lens smeared with gold?

Part 2 Simple/Complicated Paragraph

• Simple:  Lily is walking. She goes in the store and buys soup. Lily then warms the soup and feeds it to her mother. Her mother is very ill. The soup makes her better.

• Complicated: Lily, the magnifying glass is taking a stroll to the glass market. She enters, trips over a glass water melon, and falls flat on her face. She gets up, walks to the soup department, and buys a can of red hot, molten shatter material. She goes home, feeds the soup to Mother Microscope, who has pencil disease, and she is immediately cured!

Part 3 Prep for Essay - Plan

Rules are important. What are the most important rules at your school and why are they important?

Main Topic: Rules

Rule: No bullying - Why? They could get hurt

Rule: No littering - Why? No more rat kingdom

Rule: Respect your teacher - Why? Because they work hard to give us knowledge.

Conclusion: Respect school rules and people

Writing with Meghan-10 (1 hour) By Ethan

Part 1 Quick writing: observe a picture provided by Meghan

1. Lots of detail on this piece of fake currency.
2. 20 dollars of paper.
3. It's DIFFERENT from the usual twenty dollar bill.
4. It's white instead of green.
5. This is a perfect example of counterfeit money.
6. A criminal might use something like this.

Part 2 Simple/Complicated Paragraph

• Simple: One Saturday morning Fred's television broke. He was mad. Frank went to the store and reluctantly purchased a new television. Then he was able to get home in time to watch the football game.
• Complicated: It was 7:38:21 Saturday morning, and Fat Fred switched on his bacteria-sized, hairy, triangular, white TV. But an evil amoeba ate one of the wires and it would not turn on. Fred was out-of-the-galaxy mad, he drove on his virus at one fifth of a millimeter per hour. 2 minutes later, he shoved his angry self through the sliding door. He swam to the TV sets and bought a zooplankton-shaped TV that smelled of anchovies for one microcent (currency for microbes). Then as Fred drove home, he thought “Oh, no! The Zika virus football game is going to start!” Fred rushed home, planted his new TV and turned it on just in time to see Ebola viruses leading the beginning band!”

          Meanwhile, the bacteria police caught the amoeba and threw him in jail.


I dedicated the writing to the world of microbes.

Part 3 Informative writing: If you were able to travel into the past, where would you go and why.

I have traveled to the year 1995 to see Mom and Dad get married. I see a rose in the teeth of my papa. My parents whirl, twirl and smile. Then I see kiss! Everyone cheers. The preacher says to Mom," Do you declare this man to be your lawful wedded husband?""Yes." Says Mom. Everyone yelled like crazy. And that how they give birth to me and now it is time to journey back to 2017!

Writing with Meghan-9 (1 hour) By Ethan

Part 1 Quick writing: observe a picture provided by Meghan

1. The only color is the front man's blue shirt.
2. Are they cheering for the Red Sox?
3. They look very busy spreading the Cheerie-cheeries all over wherever they are.
4. Is the blue-shirted man's pants backward?!
5. They are not very slim. ( Well, some aren't)
6. They are all holding streamers.

Part 2 Persuasive - your teacher is debating if she should assign homework. Persuade her not to.

Central Idea: Not having the teacher assigning homework

Reason 1: No more mountains of anti-stress toys

Reason 2: No more angry after school sports coaches

Reason 3: No more "I'm late." remarks for after school classes.

Conclusion: Homework can lead to serious

Part 3 Informative Writing: Write a letter to your Principal saying what you think needs to be changed about your school

Dear Mrs. Dixon,

There are some things that I think need to be changed about Roosevelt Elementary School.

1st, the classrooms are toooo small. Would you be so kind as to make them 999 nonillion times bigger?

2nd, The library needs to have 20,000,000 more books.

3rd, Install a soccer field on the roof.

4th, We should host a teacher mannequin throwing contest. 

5th, The playground needs to have a sextillion swings. 

6th, The computer room should have 900,000,000,000,000 more computers.

7th, To prevent back pain, and hundreds of trips to the nurse's office, why not put some pillows on the chairs?

Your student,

Ethan Li

Writing with Meghan-8 (1 hour) By Ethan

Part 1 Quick writing: observe a picture provided by Meghan

1. There is a lamp and open book on a table.
2. The lamp is pretty.
3. The background is black.
4. The book looks very old.
5. The table is barely visible.
6. The working, turned-on lamp is bright.
7. The Lamp is also tall. (Maybe 3ft.)

Part 2 Complicated Sentences: (create a complex sentence from the simple one)

• Simple - The dog crossed the street.
• Complex - The dog a German Shepherd, whose neck was so high, his head hit the Moon, chased a herd of goats across 3512th st. in Chicago. And his head hit our one and only Moon and the Moon exploded and chunks of it rained down upon the city. Piles of metal, glass and rock is all that remains of Chicago Illinois. 
• Simple -  Fred is riding a bike.
• Complex - Fred Teglagulpa is riding a KVPS 2000 Dirt Manz dirt bike at 20,000 miles per hour when his shoelace becomes undone, got caught under the wheel, and the bike flipped forward, tossing off Fred. He flew through the air, did 900 trillion somersault and landed face down on the other side of the Mars.
• Simple - Bob ate a burger.
• Complex - Wow! Bob thought as he stared up at the Burg-99, a 1000-foot burger. He planned to eat it all when no one was watching, which he did. But when he was eating the last few patties, Bob's stomach burst open. Stomach acid and half-digested food splashed out onto the street, flooding the city and eventually the entire Earth. Then Bob died.
• Simple - Maria is feeling nervous.
• Complex - Maria shuddered in her car seat:" Mom, what will happen? What if I fall over? People will laugh at me and life will be ruined. I've always feared dance recitals."   " You won't. Trust me." Said her mom. "But the stage is so slippery. And wet. "  Maria started jumping up and down in her seat. Her head punctured a hole in the roof which caused this event: she was dancing with a damaged brain. She fell over, then she got up started dancing again, and fell over again. She started dancing but kept falling down. She fell over 100 times before shouting " I give up!" and sprinting out of the theater.

The Los Angeles County Natural History Museum (by William)

I recently visited the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum two times.  There are many exhibitions to explore and the information is abundant.  The following are some of my favorite exhibits. 

 

The Nature Lab consists of many hands-on projects including the surviving and thriving game, and drawing animals.  There is the story of P-22, the puma who controls Griffith Park.  P-22 had to cross two freeways to get to the park.  One night, zoologists found him and gave him a numbness shot to put him to sleep.  They did blood test, and gave P-22 a collar to track him down.  Later he woke up and scampered away.  Now he is the king of Griffith Park.  I think P-22 is very brave.

P-22's Photo by Steve Winter (from Internet)

The Hall of North American Mammals is amazing.  The displays were made very real.  The models are beautiful and the backgrounds are very detailed.  My favorite display was the Bison Display, there were strong bison roaming and the scene was at Wyoming on the wide prairie.  

The Gem and Mineral Hall is filled with sparking and delicate gem stones.  I also had the chance to touch real jade and a meteorite which is much older than the earth.  The gems and minerals are the treasures of mankind and wonders of the mother land.

The Butterfly Pavilion is a temporary exhibit due to weather conditions.  It is filled with gracious butterflies, puny aphids, and pretty ladybugs.  The monarchs, queens, mourning cloaks, while peacocks, swallowtails, and zebra longwings had a flurry of colors.  The butterflies of different species can mate if they want to, but their hatchlings will not reproduce.

A white peacock landed on me

 Extreme Mammals is a temporary exhibit as well.  It talks about what makes some mammals extreme.  For example, we are extreme for our huge brains.  Have you heard of the Indricotherium, Thylacoleo Carnifex, or the Bramatherium Megacephalum?  All of these extinct mammals have features that made them extreme.  Indricotherium is the largest mammal that ever lived, Thylacoleo Carnifex is a mammal had the strongest bite, and Bramatherium Megacephalum looked like a beaver that had horns.  The used the horns to burrow. 

The museum is like a 3D encyclopedia where you can touch pieces of history.  You can see the actual sizes of animals, the glows of gemstones, and feel humble and small.  

P.S. Mom didn't want to show my face, so I'm covered by PVZ2 Melon-Pult.