Book Trailer

http://www.box.net/shared/daydsb82u8

The Alchemist response

The Alchemist response by Wara Sang

Voki Reflection

1. Could you use Voki before starting this assignment? no

2. Would you be able to use Voki independently in another assignment? yes

3. Do you understand how Voki can be used to show your learning in any subject? yes

4. Did you use the social networking feature of Voki ethically and responsibly? yes

5. When you didn't know how to work something on Voki (e.g. getting an account, logging in, adding text, adding special effects ect.) were you able to work through your problem(s) on your own?
yes

6. After completing the "I Love to Read" assignment, did you find any books featured on your classmates' vokis that you might be interested in reading? yes

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

P-Q-P Memo

To: Michael Scott
From: Sara Wang
Date: February 2011
Re: P-Q-P Memo to the Author
Dear Michael Scott,

I really liked your book “The Alchemyst”. It was a very creative way of exposing readers to different historical events and legends. I liked the confusion at the beginning of the novel, it showed the unusualness of the magical world and how it clashed with Sophie and Josh’s beliefs. It gave suspense so that I couldn’t put the book down, and drew me into the plot. There were many questions that kept me going. Also, I learned about a lot of gods, goddesses and mythological characters from the story. For example, Hekate was probably based on Hecate, a Roman Goddess and Scathach was a Scottish warrior. “The Alchemyst” is the epiphany of an entertaining book that educates as well as tells a fantasy story.

The one thing that I don’t understand about how you wrote the book was why you put the dates. I thought the dates were redundant and made the story seem longer than it was. Each day was half of the book, so not many days pass throughout the book. Usually dates are found in books that happen in a longer period of time or written in a journal format. One day seemed a lot longer than usual according to where you put them in the book. Without the dates, the reader will probably forget about which day it is, which I don’t think is a problem; it will also cover up the fact that a day seemed more than the normal 24 hours. Another question I have is what sparked your imagination to write about Nicholas Flamel and all these legends? I think it is an interesting topic to write about and is very unique.

To make the story even better I think you should have just stuck to one region’s myths and legends. By combining them, it makes the mythology and history from different places mix and can be confusing. For example, the Morrigan is from Irish mythology, the Bastet is from Ancient Egypt and Scathach is from Scotland. If the mythological characters were from the same country’s legends, the characters would be easier to follow. Also, to make the book even better, it would be good to add some humour once in a while. It never hurts to laugh a little. When Josh and Sophie found out about Nicholas Flamel and all the magical creatures it would be nice to add some laughs.

Proud Piece #1

My proud piece is the Mesopotamia test in Social Studies. I picked this because I got one hundred percent and I learned a lot about ancient civilizations and their enduring contributions to the modern world. I am proud of this test because Ms. Gray rarely gives full marks. :) (This is the front, the actual work isn't shown...)

Stars and Wishes

Stars:
1. I did well on the math tests
2. I Volunteer for school and community activities with Sports Council

Wishes:
1. To write with more detail and communicate my ideas better in ELA

More important Technology

Today I visited the blogs of the follwing people and learned about the different technologies:

Test Case Katherine: Archery, which was invented around 64 000 years ago in the late Paleolithic Period.

Little Ox (Ann): Paper, which was invented more than 2000 years ago in China by Ts'ai Lun.

F.Y Bookworm (Frank): Magnetic Compass, which was invented in medieval Europe in 1302

Akira (Andrea): Eyeglasses, which were invented in 1270 in China and 1280 in Italy

bub's baluba blog (Vicky): Flat glass mirrors, which were invented in 1291 in Venice, Italy

An Important Piece of Technology

The Pencil
When: Graphite was found in1564; the actual wooden pencil was invented in1795
Where: Graphite found in Borrowdale, England; actual wooden pencil in France
Who: Nicholas Jacques Conte invented the wooden pencil (in 1795)
Why: To easily write things down and the ink was darker than the previously used lead



Information from:
http://www.pencils.com/pencil-history
http://www.whoinventedit.net/who-invented-the-pencil.html
Picture from:
http://www.pencils.com/pencil-history

A Serve, a Bump and a Volley

I opened the door to the gym
The change room was where I went in

Everyone came out with their shorts
And the coach introduced us to the sport

After showing us the ways to move the ball
We were asked to try and do them all

I kept on getting upset
For it was a struggle to get the ball o’er the net

Bumps were hard to aim
For the ball was never tame

The volley was hard to win
A perfect one required no spin

This was a new sport to me
And certainly wasn’t as easy as 1, 2, 3

Although I messed up so much on the court
It became my ultimate favourite sport

This sport called volleyball was so jolly
With a serve, a bump and a volley