In Art we made geometric patterns. I enjoyed figuring out what pattern I would use and what colors I would use. I also found it cool to learn how to use an exact o knife. I also liked positioning the pieces. Here is my geometric shape drawing:
In art we made Medieval illuminated letters. Mine was an M, that was blue with grape vines circling around it. I really enjoyed making my illuminated letters because I got to work with a bunch of different materials. Here is my illuminated letter:
In music, we are making our own pieces. We each chose a style and we are all composing a piece for our style. I chose classical Chinese music. I chose classical Chinese because I really like the way it sounds. I think it sounds really smooth and I really like the instruments that they use. I also take Mandarin for my world language, so I think Chinese music is a very important part of Chinese culture, and I’m going to China next year. I noticed while composing my piece that Chinese music runs very smoothly, and the notes are never more than a skip apart. I also noticed that in Chinese music, they use a lot of violin. One other thing that I noticed about Chinese music is that there is a pentatonic scale, so you can’t use E or F. It is cool to compose a Chinese piece because I haven’t really composed a piece that is not jazz. All of the other pieces that I have written have not been a particular style, so I think it’s cool to listen to my piece and ask myself, “Does this sound like it would fit with Chinese music.”
Here is my piece and my blendspace:
In Mandarin this quarter, we have done a lot of different learning activities. We each drew an alien and described it, and then everyone listening to your description has to draw the alien you described. We also each chose a person to describe, and everyone listening had do guess who we were describing. Here is my quizlet set. Some of the last sentences are the sentences that I used to describe my alien and my person:
We also learned Tai-Ji. We spent a month learning it, and then we even preformed it during the chinese new year festival! The festival was very fun. I got to try a lot of different foods and watch different people preforming different things:
In art class, we made a bunch of different pieces of art. We made wire sculptures, observational drawings, portraits, geometric patterns and fabric collages. One piece of art that I was particularly proud of was my fabric collage. I am in the medicine guild, so my felt was related to medicine. It was of a table full of different potions. In guilds, I’m a wise women. I sell love potions and different little objects that do different deeds such as keeping evil away. In the fabric picture, my hands are reaching down to grab a jar of leeches.
In Humanities, we are doing a writing piece called “Who the Heck are You?” It is where we each chose a person to interview, and we decide on questions to ask them about their backstory, and then maybe even decide on some followup questions to ask. After you have recorded your interview with your person, you write an article about them. After you write your article, you write a blog post about how the whole project went. I chose Robin Pianoforte, at the front desk. I decided to interview her because I don’t really know a lot about her backstory. I am really excited to get to interview her and learn a lot about her.
In Science we did a project where we recorded how much of each food group we eat. The food groups are Grain, Protein, Dairy, Fruits and Vegetables. After we recorded our eating habits, we all tried to change our eating habits so that we were eating better. After, we recorded how much of each food we were eating and turned the before and after into a pie chart.
In Humanities, we did a project that I really enjoyed. We all got into groups and chose one famous women from the middle ages, and made a presentation about them. I got to be the leader of that group, and I think I did better as a leader. My group did Trotula. Trotula was a famous doctor in the middle ages, who specializes in midwifery and gynecology. I worked with Marlowe and Stella, and we decided to do a play. I was very proud of this project because I think that we found a way to make the play funny, but also teach the audience something. Here is the script for the play that Marlowe, Stella and I wrote:
Narrator: Trotula was a very famous doctor in the middle ages. She lived for approximately 40 years, from 1050-1090. She was born as a noble, where she was expected to be waited on, and try on gowns, but she wanted to do more.
(Trotula and her dad are sitting at the table)
Trotula’s Dad: Trotula, it’s time for you to go get fitted for your gown. Your appointment started 5 minutes ago.
Trotula: No! I was hoping to go take a tour of the University of Salerno. I want to be a doctor!
Trotula’s Dad: (Laughs) Oh Trotula. You were always such a jester.
Trotula: No I’m serious. I actually want to be a doctor.
Trotula’s Dad: Fine You may go do your little tour, but be back by supper.
Narrator: It was hard for Trotula to be a doctor, because people didn’t believe that Trotula would follow through with her dreams.
(Trotula is at the University of Salerno)
Trotula I’m so excited to take the tour of the University of Salerno! I wonder where the tour guide is?
(Trotula sees tour guide)
Trotula: Oh, I was looking for the-
Tour guide: Ma’am, your husband will be back in a few hours, if you want you can wait here.
Trotula: No, I’m here for the tour!
(Tour guide looks at list)
Tour guide: Oh! You’re Trotula? Come right this way.
Narrator: When Trotula got into the University of Salerno she took a lot of courses on Midwifery and Gynecology.
(Trotula is sitting in class surrounded by boys)
Teacher: Many Midwifes learned their professions from their own mothers with knowledge passed down from generation to generation. Frequently, a midwife attended as many as three hundred births each year.
Narrator: She also read a lot of books by famous physicians, such as Hippocrates.
(Trotula reading a book by Hippocrates for whole scene)
Hippocrates: Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity
Trotula: I could have thought of that!
Narrator: At the University of Salerno, Trotula met a man named John Platearius, who was also a doctor. She married him and had two kids named Matteo and John Junior. Usually, when women had kids, it held them back in their career, but for Trotula it did the opposite. Trotula kept practicing medicine and treating patients.
(Trotula is sitting in a chair helping a patient)
(The patient is coughing)
Trotula: You must use water to clean your hands, five times a day. John Junior, would you go get the soap please?
(John Junior goes and brings back a bar of soap and gives it to the patient)
Patient: Oh! I’ve never heard that before! Whose advice is it to wash your hands?
Trotula: It was my idea. Washing your hands takes the germs away, which keeps you healthy!
Patient: Um… Okay… I guess I’ll wash my hands five times a day? Thank you?
Narrator: When Trotula’s sons grew up, they too were interested in medicine and were proud of their parents. Trotula then wrote very useful books including The Compounding of Medicine and The Diseases of Women and Their Cure. These books were read by tons of people. Trotula inspired generations of women to become doctors.
(Inspired women is reading Trotula’s book for whole scene)
Trotula: “when you visit a patient you need to ask where they have a pain, you need to take their pulse, you need to touch their forehead to see whether there is a fever and you need to ask whether they have shivers. Look at the expression on their faces and see and feel whether the abdomen is treatable , whether there is ease in urination, and give to each patient great attention.”
Inspired women: Wow! Trotula’s a genius!
Narrator: Lots of women to come went to the University of Salerno, and were not discriminated against as women.
Inspired Women: Greetings! I’m here for the-
Tour guide: Oh! You’re here for the tour! Come right this way!
Narrator: Trotula died of an unknown cause, but her ideas and knowledge lives on!
Over the quarter, the 6th grade has been reading Beowulf. While we read Beowulf, we annotated. There were three steps we needed to do while we were annotating. 1st, we needed to underline and define words that we didn’t know. 2nd, we needed to underline parts of the book that were important and last, after we read a chapter we would need to write a chapter summary. Annotating is important because it helps you have a better understanding of the book. Also the chapter summary can help you find parts of the book if you want to go back on it. I am very proud of my underlining parts that I thought were important. I think I did a good job of determining weather or not a part was important. I think I could have done a better job of writing chapter summary’s and I think I could improve on that. I really enjoyed annotating overall.