In science lately, we talked and learned about the climate change around us. We talked about the carbon cycle and how it will affect our environment. Here are some questions that I had to answer about carbon.

Carbon FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions)
1. What is carbon?
Carbon is an element. With the help from oxygen, carbon and oxygen joint together and formed carbon dioxide. It’s a gas, and it’s odorless and colorless. Carbon has the ability to bond with other elements. Carbon could attach with Hydrogen or oxygen or both. Carbon can make up any elements by attaching to other bonds or atoms.
2. What is carbon dioxide?
Carbon Dioxide is made out of one carbon attached to two oxygen atoms. Carbon dioxide is non- flammable and odorless.
3. Where is carbon found?
Carbon could be found anywhere. They’re everywhere.
4. How do plants get carbon?
Carbon moves from the air to plants. Food is made of carbon and it helps the plants to grow (photosynthesis process).
5. How do animals get carbon?
Some animals eat plants and the plants have carbons in them. However, for some animals that don’t eat plants, could eat other animals that ate the carbons from other places.
6. What activities release carbon
into the air?
For plants, probably the respiration, where the plants releases the carbon to the atmosphere. On the other side, it could be when the fossil fuels burned; it releases the carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere as well.
7. Where is carbon stored?
Carbons were stored in the deep ocean or under the surface or the atmosphere of the Earth.
8. How do fossil fuels form?
Fossil fuels were created from dead plants or dead animals and even though they were dead, the bonds are still active. The dead bodies were buried under the surface of the earth or the sea. Now, when these bones are burn, they become a fuel.

Algebra 1… Hummphh, I’m not that good in algebra, well, generally in math. I was so happy when I got to know how to deal with Rational Expressions! I learned how to find the excluded value for each rational functions. Here is a sheet that I did in class.
Rational Functions

As usual, in language arts class we have to find 20 vocabulary words from our daily life, well, mostly from what we’re reading.

Vocabulary Words
1. Atrocious: terrible, dreadful
From: The song supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, first line
Sentence: “Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious”

2. Precocious: intelligent
From: The song supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, second line
Sentence: “if you say it loud enough, you’ll always sound precocious”

3. Sequined: star, bead
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 169
Sentence: “That bow was from the world I wanted out of, while the strutting, sequined partnership I had with Radine was exactly how I wanted my life to go.”

4. Prestigious: important, impressive
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 170
Sentence: “Meanwhile she graduated from baton twirler to song girl, a much more prestigious position in those days.”

5. Assented: agree
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 170
Sentence: “When they finally assented, I was grateful.”

6. Mortified: ashamed, embarrassed
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 171
Sentence: “If one of them had asked, of course, I would have been mortified.”

7. Ludicrous: foolish, ridiculous, preposterous
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 172
Sentence: “Surely her example spurred me on to pursue what now seems ludicrous, but at the time was the height of my post- Manzanar ambitions.”

8. Capitulate: surrender, give up
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 175
Sentence: “I was ready to capitulate without a groan.”

9. Coronation: The act or ceremony of crowning a sovereign
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 179
Sentence: “She took charge and helped me pick out the dress I would wear for the coronation.”

10. Sedate: calm, cool
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 180
Sentence: “You look so… sedate.”

11. Thwart: frustrate
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 171
Sentence: “Easy enough as it was to adopt white American values, I still had a Japanese face to thwart my social goals.”

12. Tippling: drunk
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 172
Sentence: “He had been tippling steadily for two days, when he started vomiting blood from his mouth and nose.”

13. Ultimatum: taunt, challenge
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 178
Sentence: “He stood there, hands on hips, glaring at me, and not at all satisfied with this ultimatum.”

14. Boisterous: energetic, active
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 12
Sentence: “The people around us were hardworking, boisterous, a little proud of their nickname, yo-go-re, which meant literally uncouth one, or roughneck, or dead-end kid.”

15. Uncouth: bad manner, impolite
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 12
Sentence: “The people around us were hardworking, boisterous, a little proud of their nickname, yo-go-re, which meant literally uncouth one, or roughneck, or dead-end kid.”

16. Coarser: rude, uncouth
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 13
Sentence: “A coarser and exclusively masculine use of the word, which implies gross stupidity.”

17. Ambush: trap, surprise attack
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 12
Sentence: “Each day after school I dreaded their ambush.”

18. Prowling: stalk lurk
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 13
Sentence: “The secondhand dealers had been prowling around for weeks, like wolvesm offering humiliating prices for goods and furniture they knew many of us would have to sell sooner or later.”

19. Lacquered: polish, gloss
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 13
Sentence: “She had brought along her pottery, her silber, heirlooms like the kimonos Granny had brought from Japan, tea sets, lacquered tables, and one fine old set of china, blue and white porcelain, almost translucent.”

20. Validation: confirmation
From: Farewell to Manzanar, page 187
Sentence: “It was simply her validation that all those things had taken place.”

In art class, we thought about ideas to make a shoe out of clay. We learned how to find a part of yourself, and turn it into an art work.
If I were a shoe…

Umm, we have learned about the civil war for a month now, and to gather all the ideas together, we were assigned to write a summary in 3 paragraphs about the American civil war.  Our social studies teacher was actually grading on our writing process, and when we found out, some people were shocked. Some of us or all of us didn’t follow the whole writing process. So, what we learned from this assignment is that we have to always use what we have learned over the years with our teacher.

Brainstorm:
- The nation breaks apart
- Divided into North & South
NORTH – Union
- had more population than the south
- had more manufacture
- Abraham Lincoln as the president

SOUTH – Confederacy
- had more plantation land
- had more cotton
- Jefferson Davis as president

Civil War:
~ a war inside a territory
~ a war within a country
~ war between country men
Citizens from the same country go to war against each other
Secession: separating from the country -> political separation -> new laws -> new leader -> new government
Sectionalism
Compromise of 1850
Fugitive Slave Act
Anti-slavery lit
Kansas- Nebraska act
“Bleeding Kansas”
Dred Scott Decision
Lincoln- Douglas Debates

* The problems that leads to secession *
* What happened after the secession *

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War

THE CIVIL WAR

The causes of secession:
Sectionalism
Compromise of 1850
Fugitive Slave Act
Anti-slavery lit
Kansas- Nebraska act
“Bleeding Kansas”
Dred Scott Decision
Lincoln- Douglas Debates
Slavery
Blah blah blah
Secession begins

Conflicts —> 1861 – 1865
Lasted —> Confederacy Surrenders
Slavery during the war
Blocking international intervention
Emancipation Proclamation

The Civil War

The American civil war occurred in 1861-1865, where the nations broke apart and divided into the North and the South or the Union and the Confederacy.  The North had more population than the South.  They had more manufacture which means they construct and had more inventions than the South. Abraham Lincoln was elected as the president for the North. On the other side, the South had more plantation land, and had more cotton to grow. Jefferson Davis was elected as the South’s president. The main conflict in the American civil war was slavery. The North wanted to abolish slavery, they didn’t want slavery. On the other hand, the South wanted slavery to stay. Abraham Lincoln wanted to stop slavery from spreading to other new states. However, some states did not agree and seceded.

The two armies met at the first battle of Bull Run.  The congress of the south met at Richmond, the North was attacking them. However, the South had been waiting for the North to make a move. The Confederacy (South) won the first battle. That was not the only battle that happened, there were more battles in Virginia. President Lincoln still wanted to capture Richmond. He sent a general to Virginia. When this happened the war spread north, and Washington D.C. was captured. The battle of Antietam occurred. Both sides fought in Maryland. The confederacy wanted to fight on Union land, so the North would have fewer capabilities to farm or to go to war.  The Union found a copy of a secret strategy of war in the northern territory, and they prepared a counter attack. The union won the ‘bloodiest, single day battle of war.’ The Union started blocking the sea with ships so the confederacy wouldn’t be able to trade. This caused the war at sea, where the confederacy made an armored (iron) ship.  It was so strong that it was the most terrifying ship that they had seen in that time. With their armored ship, the confederates started to trade and their economy rose. The union didn’t stop, when they saw the confederate’s ship, the union made a stronger armored ship and much more daunting. The Union won the battle. They had other battles, the Union made the western strategy, and both sides fought for the Mississippi River. The far west, where they had the battle of pea ridge,  the union outnumbered the confederacy, and union won most of their battles.

At the end, the south surrendered. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln, effective on January 1, 1863, declaring the freedom of all slaves in the South. To thank the North, the slaves joined the Union. It was an official order to end slavery. There were contrabands from the Southern. There was also the Habeas Corpus, which is the constitutional protection against unlawful imprisonment. The reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation was that the African Americans joined the north and became a part of the military on the Union side. The abolitionists had more military, and they had the supports from Great Britain and France. The copperheads, wanted the war to end, and objected the abolition. They complained for the unfairness of the force. The civil war ended with the south still trying to defeat the north; however the South did not reach their goal.

In ESL,  we talked about the poems by Shel Silverstein. We had to choose 3 poems of his, and memorized it. We would change some parts of the poem but still in the same format. It’s is similar to the poem by Emily Dickinson in Language Arts ( you can see below). It helps us to be involve in poetry. To help us in our Language Arts class.

These are the three poems that I chose,

TURTLE
Our turtle did not eat today,
Just lies on his back in the strangest way
And doesn’t move.
I tickled him
And poked at him
And dangled a string in front of him,
But he just lies there
Stiff and cold
And sort of staring straight ahead.
Jim says he’s dead.
“Oh, no,” say I,
“A wooden turtle cannot die!”
– Shel Silverstein

Homework Machine
The Homework Machine , oh the Homework Machine,
Most perfect contraption that’s ever been seen.
Just put in your homework, then drop in a dime,
Snap on the switch, and in ten seconds time,
You homework comes out, quick and clean as can be.
Here is is – “nine plus four?” and the answer is “three”.
Three?
Oh me…
I guess it’s not as perfect
As I thought it would be.
- Shel Silverstein

No difference
Small as a peanut
Big as a giant,
We’re all the same size
When we turn off the light.
Red black or orange,
Yellow or white
We all look the same
When we turn off the light.
So maybe the way
To make everything right
Is for God to just reach out
And turn off the light!
- Shel Silverstein

In this section in language arts, I learned about Emily Dickinson and her poems. I learned to know about her lifestyle and where she found her ideas. She was a woman who stays in her room all day, and never come outside to show herself. In this poem #585, our assignment was to change some parts of her sentences. Her poem was a comparison between a horse and a train. My assignment was to change the comparison to a tiger and a train. I learned how to keep a structure of a poem, but having a different sentence than the original.

Emily Dickinson Poem Edited

Okayy, here is my 20 vocabulary words which I took from the books that I read. I supposed we have to do this vocabulary “sheet” and a quiz once in a month? probably. But, I like it, I’ve been having good grades on this, and the quiz is not that hard. And it’s a good way to learn more words from our everyday life :] I learned new words to use in my everyday life because of this activity.

20 Vocabulary Words 23-09-09

ESL ( English second language) is a class where it helps you to know more and to learn more about English. Yes, it is my second language, and I know there are other people who has English as their second language but their not in ESL. Well, let’s go back in track. ESL helps me with other works from other classes. In social studies class, we learned about the 13 colonies, and to help us understand more about the colonies, my ESL teacher gave me vocabulary words that are use for “colony talk”, so, we had to make a power point about it. We had to find the definitions and to understand the word.
Vocabularies in ESL No Name