In Mandarin, the 8th Graders sent us all pen pal letters and we had to respond to one of them. I chose 陈菲’s letter. We had to cover multiple topics and respond to all of their questions. One thing that was challenging was responding to some of their questions because we didn’t know some of the vocabulary that they used. Overall, it was a really fun project.
Diary Entry About Guluband
Dear Diary,
At the Sibi Fair, Dadi did something that made my heart feel like it was “crumbling up inside me like a burning piece of paper.” (page 62). I am trying to forgive father but I feel that without Guluband, a piece of my heart is missing. I hope that Wardak is not hurting him. Dadi was talking to his Baluch friends and they said that the Iranians and Arabs like to sacrifice the camels for the feast of Eid(page 45). The thought of Guluband ever getting killed makes me sick to my stomach. I hope Mithoo is okay back home. I am wishing that he didn’t forget me. He is only a little baby. I can’t wait to see Mama and Phulan when I get home!
Sincerely,
Shabanu
This is Shabanu. She is the daughter of Dalil Abassi and she has a mother as well. She has a thirteen-year-old sister and she is married to Murad as she has come to age. She is also a nomad so she lives in different parts of Pakistan before she is married. She has an aunt and two little cousins. She also has a dog named Sher Dil and a camel named Mithoo. She takes care of all the camels and goes to the Sibi fair with her father to sell them.
How to Survive a Sandstorm by Shabanu
We just had a really large sandstorm cross our camp. The winds were blowing hard and whipping our skin. Even in the safety of our mud hut, dust still got in and made our throats as dry as the desert sand. I am so happy that we had shelter but this is what you should do in case you are outside in a sandstorm.
Step 1:
Put a chadr or turban over your face so that you are protected and the sand doesn’t go into your eyes, nostrils, or mouth. (If you are outside, make sure to have a lantern so that you can see your way through the storm) “With my chadr over my face, I can open my eyes enough to see the haze of the lantern in Dadi’s hand, the light reflecting from the dust in a tight circle around him.” page 111
Step 2:
Try to find shelter. If you see a small rock or an abandoned jeep try to hide behind it to make sure no flying objects hit you while the storm passes. If there are no possible shelters around, crouch down in a little ball to minimize the chances of getting hit by a flying object.
Step 3:
Get to high ground. The sand always goes into the dunes and low to the ground, so the storm will be less forceful at the top of a hill. Look for high ground if you can find a safe, solid, high point, but only if the storm doesn’t have lightning and there is no danger of being hit by really heavy, flying piece of debris. If you have a camel, have it sit down and press yourself against its side so you are safer from flying objects. Camels are well adapted to surviving in dust storms.If you’re in sand dunes, do not seek shelter right on the leeward side of the dune. The high winds can pick up huge amounts of sand very quickly, and you could find yourself being buried in the sand.
Step 4:
Wait out the storm
This is Shabanu. She is the daughter of Dalil Abassi and she has a mother as well. She has a thirteen-year-old sister and she is married to Murad as she has come to age. She is also a nomad so she lives in different parts of Pakistan before she is married. She has an aunt and two little cousins. She also has a dog named Sher Dil and a camel named Mithoo. She takes care of all the camels and goes to the Sibi fair with her father to sell them.
For this poem, I was inspired by the weather on my birthday. In early November, you can tell that it is still fall because the leaves are falling. By the last day of November, you know winter is coming. The process of writing this poem didn’t take that long because it is a haiku. This is actually the first and final draft. I didn’t find anything very challenging but if there is one thing I could change it would be to make everything rhyme. I hope you enjoy my poem!
Late November
Leaves on the sidewalk
The wind is getting colder
Winter’s in the air
How does the structure of a macrophage fit its function? Well, this is how…
Macrophages are blobs. They have microtubules in them. Microtubules are long, bendable filaments that make cells malleable. Microtubules are made out of a protein called Tubulin.That allows the macrophage to move around and morph into different shapes. Because they can morph, they can move around and engulf antigens. If you had a specific structure, you couldn’t do that. It’s ability to morph is perfect for its function.
This is my illuminated letter. I used different amounts of water and acrylic paint and used ink tools to get precise details.
This is my quizlet set. We have all been documenting sentences/structures and vocabulary in our personal quizlet sets. We also include sentences from projects. For example, I put down sentences about my alien for my project so I can look back at those sentence structures for future reference.
Above is my Plague Letter. In Humanities, we had to write a letter to a friend or family member about the plague. I wrote to my mother. I was the princess of France and I was suspecting that the plague was coming. I wrote a letter because I was going to run away to the mountains. When I was writing, I had to constantly remind myself to not use the word “got” and also to say that I had the plague because if I had it, I wouldn’t be writing a letter. I had to talk about the plague so I wrote that I had a friend in Germany who was also a princess. Her father had the plague so she described the symptoms along with the dreadful flagellants. This post shows that I know a lot about the plague and how the symptoms play out. I didn’t have any goals that had to do with writing.
Revision is adding more to a story without worrying about mechanical errors. Unlike editing where you try to fix all of the mechanical errors in your piece. In revision, you don’t change anything. You just add things to the story to fill in gaps of the story arc that you missed in your first draft or making a part in the story more interesting or clear.
In my piece I am not very proud of my revision job. I fixed gaps in my story arc and made parts more clear but I feel like I didn’t make my story more suspenceful or interesting.
