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✨Korean Culture!✨

Hi! Recently, my class was tasked with writing a Ted Talk about something important to us. One classmate did hers on researching before getting a pet, another did his on overfishing, but I did mine on Korean Culture, since I am half Korean. Here are some of my favorite parts form my script!

Hi! I am half Korean and my mom is full Korean. It isn’t immediately clear, however, but there are some clues. For example, in my closet, I have a hanbok! That is what you call a traditional Korean outfit.

So next, let’s move onto food! There are all kinds of Korean food, but I think the most famous kinds are kimchi and Korean BBQ! Kimchi is a side dish of salted and fermented vegetables, and is usually spicy. I personally am not a huge fan of kimchi, but try it out and let me know if you like it! Korean BBQ, however, is one of my favorites. It is a way of grilling beef, pork or chicken. In restaurants in Korea, there will usually be gas or charcoal grills built into the dining table so the meat can be grilled in front of you! It’s pretty cool.

Let’s talk about Seollal! Seollal is the Korean New Year. It is on the same day as Chinese New Year because it is based off of the Lunar Calendar! Even though I personally do not celebrate it, I do know about it. The most important part of the Seollal celebration is the ritual honoring your ancestors. The ritual is called charye which is where the females of the household prepare food for the reverence, or respect, and the males present the food to the ancestors. The final step of the ritual is called eumbok, where the entire household gathers together to eat the food. This step allows ancestors to bless the household for the upcoming year.

So, last up, I thought it would be fun for me to teach you all some basic Korean words. First up, we have hello. You say this two ways: 안녕하세요 and 안녕하세요 (annyeong and annyeonghaseyo). Annyeong is hi and annyeonghaseyo is hello!

I hope you learned something new, and thank you for coming to my Ted Talk! <3

 

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✨a forest of words!✨


On Saturday, we visited the FRANK Gallery! There, my classmates’ tree books were displayed! Here’s how we made them!

First, we screen printed. We did this by taking a screen with words cut out. Then, we took a squeegee and some paint and spread out the paint. Then, when you remove the squeegee, you are left with neat lines!

Then, we folded the base of our tree books. It was a big piece of paper painted blue that we folded, then glued the pieces that we screen painted on top.

Next, we did Akua ink! That is basically where you have a pad of jelly, almost, and put a little bit of akua ink and spread it out with a brayer! Next, you put something on top, we used leaves and flowers, and put a piece of paper on top of that. Then, you brayer the paper so all the ink transfers to it, and lift it up! There you have a rally pretty art piece!

After that, we did collages! We took some scrap pieces of paper from legt over akua prints and collaged onto our tree books! We also added some pockets that were coon envelopes! Later I added some pieces of writing into them. I added three envelopes.

I added three writings! I first added a piece of writing I wrote about a role model in my life – I wrote about my cousin, Remi. The second piece of writing I added was my life list! A life list is basically a bucket list, or a list of things out want to do before you die. I also wrote a story about the stars! The last piece of writing I added was a poem I wrote about called “When This is Over,” where talked about what we will do when Covid is over.

The last thing I added was my wish. My wish was “I wish for the world to be healed.”

The books were displayed at the FRANK Gallery! http://www.frankisart.com/

The amazing local artist, Peg Gignoux, helped us with out books! http://gignouxart.com/

Thanks for reading! <3

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✨Frances Dowell Stories!✨


Over the past few months, my class has been writing stories called our Frances Dowell stories! Frances Dowell is an author that helped us with our stories! She took us through the parts of stories, and here they are!

1. What if? To start a story, you fist come up with a what if question. To start mine, I thought, “What if I was blamed for a murder I didn’t do?” Then I made a whole story around that one question by just writing whatever comes to my mind.

2. Opening action scene: To start your story, you make an action scene at the beginning, something that happens to your character! Examples: if your character breaks their arm, if they adopt a pet, if they fall out of a window, if they get lost, etc. This will lead to the plot of your story.

3. Background check: this is also at the beginning of the story! It’s basically introducing the character: their name, their age, where they live, etc.

4. Sticks and stones: sticks are little problems that your character goes through, like if they get lost, hurt themself, etc., and stones are bigger problems.

5. Big monster problem: the big problem, the climax of the story! This is what your whole plot leads up to! Wether it’s your character battling a monster or completing a big exam, this is the big problem.

6. Resolution: ending your story. Maybe it’s your character finding their way home if they were lost, or finally getting their cast off after breaking their arm.

I learned from my peers that I kind of rushed through my story. I would explain everything really quickly and it was really confusing.

I’ve never actually finished a full story like this! Of course I’ve written stories in kindergarten and other grades, but I’ve started kindergarten  stories like this and haven’t finished.

Check out Frances Dowell’s website here! ⤵️

Home

Thank you for reading! Bye! <3

 

 

 

 

 

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✨Window or Mirror?✨


“when you reach me” by pqgw is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

When you’re reading a book, you can think about if it is a window or mirror for you. A window would be like a window into a different world that you can’t relate to, like Harry Potter, because I’m not a wizard living in London, and a mirror would be a book that you can relate to. I am reading When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. This book is a window because it takes place into he 70’s in New York City. Although I am in 6th grade and the main character is as well, we are really different. She has single mother. Her mom is a lawyer, and my dad is a lawyer, so I can relate to that, but overall it is a window.

When You Reach Me is about a girl named Miranda. She has a best friend named Sal, and they walk to and from school together everyday. One day Sal gets punched by a kid and shuts Miranda out of his life. Soon after, Miranda finds a piece of paper in her book that says “I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.” She receives more notes, each weirder than the last, and whoever is writing them seems to be able to tell the future. Miranda becomes scared that she must prevent a tragic death. But when she receives the final note she thinks it’s too late.

I love this book so much! If you like The Miscalculations of Lighting Girl then I think you will like this book.

That’s all from me! Bye! <3

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✨Compound Effect!✨

My class planked in school for 30 seconds at the beginning and three minutes at the end from November to December. This showed us that if we read and write everyday it makes a difference. At first, I was barely able to plank for 30 seconds but at the end I planked for 11 minutes 47 seconds!

My new daily habit is stretching. I was pretty flexible at the beginning of my challenge, but for six days I have done the same stretches for the same amount of time in hopes of being able to do a needle (a flexibility pose) and I have improved so much! (On the left of the picture above there is a picture of me when we started this challenge and on the right is me six days into it. You can see that my leg is a lot more bent on the left and is more straight on the right!) I will continue to stretch even after January is over.

Thank you for reading! Bye <3