From Feature Article to Historical Fiction

This feature article unit will benefit my historical fiction writing piece. Next year we will be writing a historical piece. You are probably thinking, how do these two genres connect? Well, when people write historical fiction pieces they write about the past, a time that was before they were born. They normally choose a very specific date or a specific event such as World War 2, the Titanic, Mt. Vesuvius, etc... So in order to know what it was like back then, you have to research. When we wrote this feature articles we had to research a lot about our subject. We all chose subjects that had interested us, and most of us had never researched about them. So basically we had to start from scratch. We had to go on the internet and research our subject. We learned how to find reliable website and different ways to search the same thing. One of the ways that we learned if a website was reliable was if it had .edu, .org, or even .gov. We also learned how to translate someone else's writing and put it in our own. Now, for the historical fiction, I will be able to get very effective research and know if it is very reliable. Also, now I know that I am able to write many genres. This year we have coved many topics such as poetry, realistic fiction, persuasive essay, and feature articles. I have been able to write all of the topics and find each of them fun. Historical fiction will be another genre that I will try. I think having so many writing experiences will help me write the piece. I think this because I have written so many pieces that I am used to trying new writing techniques. I am excited for 8th grade so that I can write this historical fiction and I know that I will be able to write that piece.

SAS Primates at Play

Today during science we went to the Primary School's play grounds. We first went to the kindergarden play ground and were able to study the Kindergarden's movement and behavior. We only got to observe them for a couple of minutes but they had to go. In that time we noticed that there was a lot of calls, grunts, head shaking, staring, foot stamping, charges, raised eyebrows, posturing, grinning, cowering, averted staring, pouting, wrestling, grooming, hitting, huddling, and holding hands. After we watched then, we got to play on the second grade play ground. We were running around and acting like mature 7 year olds. Ms. Thome took a video of us playing. When we got back to the classroom we watched the video and focused on Liam. He was very active and was all over the place. He was running around near the chains, the tunnels, on the bridges, and underneath the tower. He disappeared a  couple of times but he would pop out of where he was. It was one of the funnest science classes ever.

Primate Behaviors

Today in science we learned about primate behaviors. We learned about 3 kinds aggressive behaviors, family relationships, and play behaviors. For agressive behavior I learned that they puff out their hair. That is kind of like when us humans get goose bumps. Also they will start charging at the animal that they are being agressive towards. This is like when we are running around or when a dog barks. They primates will strongly stare at the opponent. This is important because this shows territory and shows status. Normally if a fight is engaged then one of the primates will back down. We learned that primates have similar families to humans. The mother spends a lot of time with the baby. For the first couple of years the primate mother will carry her baby belly to belly or back-pack style. This is like how human mothers spend time with their child for the first couple of months. This is important because it forms a bond for the mother and baby. Also for primates the father sometimes stays around but other times they don't. As for siblings, the primates have a protective instinct. The other sibling will look out for the younger one while the mother is busy doing something. This is like humans because normally the older sibling is also very protective over the younger one. And lastly we learned about play behaviors. One primate will sometimes give another primate a out stretched hand, inviting them to play. The normally "rough house" and wrestle. It normally doesn't get too agressive and they normally don't get hurt. It is like when humans wrestle with their friends or siblings. This is important for primates because it helps them understand more about themselves. For an example, their limits (how much they can take) and others limits. This forms friendships which is really important because primates need friends too.

Studying: Is it Worth the Stress?

I'm really excited to research my topic. My topic is about over studying and the stress that comes with it. The topic matters to me because I can really stress myself out by madly studying or over working on a project. I wanted to know what the effects are on me and other people that stress themselves out even more than me. I know that there are other people who get more nervous about studying than me and I wanted to know what really happens. Whether it is about what happens to the brain and body when you are that stressed out, or what happens to your social life when you are so focus on studying. Does your brain soak in much more information when you intensely study for many hours in a row? Does your social life start to shut down? Can there be a equal balance of a social life and a study life? Also I want to know if studying for too long really pays off on your test and if it is really worth it. For an example, is it better to study for three hours and get a eight hour night sleep before a test, or is it better to study for six hours and get a three hour night sleep. I have never pulled a "all nighter" studying before, I always get a good night sleep before a test and that works pretty well for me. I know lots of who do that and they seem to be happy with that as well, so I'm very interested to find out what is the best way. I am really excited to learn about my topic and I hope that my reader also find it interesting.

DCA

1. Respect and Protect Yourself

• Not putting anything inappropriate online
• Not posting anything that could damage your future
• Not posting things that you wouldn't want someone else to see
• Not posting anything too personal
• Not posting anything that could show your location or put you in danger

2. Respect and Protect Others

• Not posting anything that could hurt anyone else's feelings
• Be the up-stander not the bystander
• Stand up to the bully
• Don't be the bully

3. Respect and Protect Intellectual Property

• Only download things on legal sight such as Itunes, steam, etc..
• Don't download anything else
• Don't download anything illegal

4. Respect and Protect Property

• DON'T DOWNLOAD ANYTHING FROM P2P (peer to peer)
• Don't download anything illegal

5. Why is DCA important? Why do schools have these agreements?

I think that it is important because this keeps people safe. When you download something illegal then a virus could be going into your computer and also I could get into a lot of trouble. Also you don't want to put yourself or others in danger by reveling too much information about yourself. If you don't follow DCA then you could get in more trouble then planned.

Computer Care

One of the many things that I learned during the computer care class was to not have food and drinks near my computer. Drinks are the worst thing to have near your computer because even a couple drops can damage your computer. So now I know to NEVER have drinks near my computer.

Using My Laptop