Farah’s Blog

A wrinkle in Time - Themes :)

I think the most important theme in the book is family loyalty. Why? Because when someone is having a tough time they need someone to support them and need them there to lean on.  Many teenagers todays are going through problems like anorixia , drugs, smoking and tough stuff like that… well, they probebly do these stuff because they are sad, depressed or having an issue with themselves. They need at least a parent, sibling, anunts and uncles, or even grandparents who will be there for them and always provide unconditional love. Sometimes parents need their children there because the parents themselves need somone to lean on for support. People need to be honest and accepting to one another, so that it wont be hard for anyone to say something in times of need. They need to be comfortable and feel warm around there family. I think family loyalty is the most important theme of all.

A Wrinkle in Time. I think this book is cunfusing and hard to keep up with but once you get into it , its like your in a world of your own. There’s so much creativity and thought put into the book that its over whelming. I, actually, had to take notes and as I was taking notes I relalized that even though there is alot of fantasy, there is reality. It shows that how much conflict there is in the world today. It also shows that there are many misfits in the world. Not only at school or at work but anywhere! I think this book has so many morals and lessons and I believe that its a great book and I would recomend it to anyone!

Miaa Hamm :)

I love to many many things in my free time. But my all time favorite is to play soccer. I try to play soccer alot. When I’m at home home or at school or after school activites. I try out for may soccer teams. So as you can see I love soccer

I think soccer is one of the most popular sports ever. But usually you see men playing this sport. And I think that to be athletic isnt always a man thing. Many people and cutlurals believe this though. So I am always happy and proud to see a famous female soccer player step into the spot light every once in a while. My favorite female soccer player is Mia Hamm. I think Mia Hamm is a role model for many girls today. She has skill and speed and most important sportmanship.  I really look up to Mia Hamm and I hope that many women will follow into her footsteps so that soccer will be known for men ad women. Maybe in the future there will be men and women profesional teams.

Another one of my all time favorite soccer players is the Christiano Ronaldo. I think that he has amazing skill and speed. He is really young so I think that he has a good career in the future, maybe someday he will retire and become coach? I think that he is one of the best players on the Manchester United team. You can see some videos on Matt’s blog just click here

Caravan log (3)

Have you ever opened up up a magazine and started reading the latest celebrity gossip, or eaten yummy, sweet candy. Have you ever thought where the words candy ormagazine comes from? are they Greek? Latin? Nope! Arabic. Yes arabic. When a country borrows the alphabet or words, its called loanwords. Here are some words that you might recognize thats English but its also is Arabic. Some of them might be indirect, like when a word goes through arabic and another language (usually Spanish)   

Here are the words:

Cotton — قطن         “kutton”

Zero — صفر           “sifer”

Syrup sorbet  —  شرب   ” Shirb” ( means drink)

Sugar — سكر         ”Sukkar”

Monsoon—موسم    ” mawsim “( season)

Lemon —  ليمون     ” lemoon”

Jasmine — يسمين      “yasmeen”    (flower)

Jar —      جرة             “jireh”          (vase)

Almanac — المناخ      ” al-manakh”   ( the climate or the calender)

Algebra— الجابر         ” al- jaber”      a mathamician that discovered algebra!

{ Grey’s Anatomy }

One of my all time favorite shows is Grey’s Anatomy. I love it because theres always something going on. Its intresting how at the end of each episode there’s a moral or a lesson. I love the fact that each character has a diffrent personality. There is so much thought that has been built in the charater that it is so easy to get into the movie or realte your life to one of the characters.  For example Docter Baily is reffered to as ” The Nazi” in the because she is a harsh comunicator but if you  look deep down inside she is a real caring and loving person. So this movie is about a bunch of diffrent interns and doctors with diffrent backgrounds are put together under one roof . They form close bond of freidship and  all about their life and going through tough times.  If you would like to see more information or videos about Grey’s Anatomy check out this site  http://abc.go.com/primetime/greysanatomy/index?pn=index

Carvan Log (2)

Hey, you might remeber that I wrote a post about our Islam unit called CARAVAN LOG. You can visited it here http://farah.learnerblogs.org/2008/02/22/caravan-log/

Here is my second part for the Caravan Log but this time I actually did learn a few things! Here are some Facts.

1.More then 20%  of the former USSER were muslim.

2.Muslim arent aloud to eat pork, becuase muslims believe that it is a dirty animal.

3. Prophet Mohammad recieved revelations from God when he was 40 years old.

4. Sufism  is a branch of Islam.

5. Gin can be good or evil.

Caravan log

 We played a game.  We were divided into  groups and were asked questions. I knew almost everything so I didnt have many questions but here are some facts that you could learn about Islam. ( I even added some of my own facts)

1.  Not all arabs are muslims. There are 1.4 million christians, usually there are most christian arabs are from Lebenon and Egypt.

2. Arab means lacking moisture to skin

3. Arabs and muslims contributed  three things to the society of education; art, caligraphy and numbers!

Today in Class

This is a little entry that I will post every other day about what I learned in class. It’s kind of like a diary, so you will get to explore what is going on inside my head!

We learned-

Today in my Language Arts class  I learned why writing is so important. Writing is important because its a tool that we use to communicate, express our thoughts and feelings, reflection on events, and thinking. If we all have bad grammer it would be so hard for us to communicate and we would probebly wont get our thoughts and feelings expressed the way that we would like.

I also learned in my Choir class how to label music. Now if you give me a staff with notes and measures on them, I could probebly name almost every single one of the notes and tell you what type of note it was. For example, quarter note, half note or a whole note. I could even name the rests for you!

We talked about-

In my L.A class we talked discussed a few chapters in a book called Wrinkle in Time. You might have noticed that I have other posts about that book because that is our current unit in L.A.  We discussed how indivduality is important. Because in the book it mentions in one place every single person is the same! WOW! Imagine if the everyone on earth was the same. They’re would be no more wars and we wouldnt have to make any desicions. But that isnt always positive actually its quite negative. Isnt adulthood usually about making desicsions and taking responsibity for those discisions? Also when we are children we usually cant wait to grpw up and take our own desicions. For example how late we sleep and stuff like that!

I take Modern Standard Arabic at School because that is my first language and is my mother language! We learned many rules about verbs and nouns but it is much harder!! There are so many rules that you need to apply. You also need to take caution of what type of word you are using that is directed towards a male or female.

I day dreamed about-

In class when a teacher was about to say a long speech or anythig boring, really, I zoned out and zoned into my world! I would day dream about anything, very random things. For example, I was thinking about if I should or shouldnt go to my school social. Or about how to solve the conflict between my two friends ( which ended up being solved by moi at the end of the day =] )   

I wanted to say-

There was almost nothing that I wanted to say that I didnt. I spoke my mind today when ever it was appropraite. Sometimes I had questions that I didnt ask in L.A but soon got answered by the teacher.

Other comments–

I dont have any comments. SORRY!

Check in a few days for my next TODAY IN CLASS…

Responding to A Wrinkle in Time Chapter 1-4

In class we are reading a book called A Wrinkle in Time. This book has amazing creativity inserted into the text. There are also alot of morals in this book if you really try hard to read between the lines.

My thoughts about Meg’s personality is that she is very insecure abut herself. She doesn’t like her physical apearance and she’s not doing very well in school. She also doesnt have any friends which must be hard for her when she need someone to talk to. But I dont think that she relizes that she has a family that loves and care about her. She also doesnt appreciate that fact that not only does her family love her but they need her. For, she is the oldest and after her fathers’ disapearnce  her mother has been going through alot and she needs to be there to help support her mother and her brothers. Meg doesnt realise it but she is a V.I.P

I think that Meg is unhappy at school because she doesnt feel comfortable with her physical apearance. They described her her looks in the book as ” geekly” or  “dorky”. Actually, she not geeky at all. She’s practicly the opostite! She isnt successfull at school and her teachers make sure that she knows it. They keep givig her ” put downs”. Also, no one ever notices her. So, she doesnt have a friend. A friends is a very important ingrediant. Everyone needs a friend to lean on. Times when we are having troubles or times when they have troubles and they need us for support. Basically, Meg doesnt have anyone that she can blend withor hang out with. These reasons would make anyone unhappy at school

Calvin fits in perfecly with the Murry family because even though he is the popular jock,way deep down he is a, well, misfit. But, he kind of the opposite of Meg. Meg is a misfit at school but she is looved and cared for at home. As for Calvin, he is the popular jock that everyone wants to be around at school but no love or care is headed towards him at home. I think that he has tought Meg about friendship. She has never had a friend before and it must feel really good to give someone that special gift. He is also like a “big brother” for Charels Wallace. Calvin seems to understand Charels Wallace more than anyone. Calvin is sweet and caring and I believe that he is one of the best characters in this book. 

Calvin Meg and her brother, Charels Wallace go with to Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs.Who and Mrs. Which because they are on a quest to find Mr. Murry. Mr.Murry disapears to a whole other world. They soon find out that they are not only there to save Megs father but also to save earth from evil!

I think that meg trusts the mrs. W’s because Charels Wallace trusts them. Also Charels has known them for along time. Also there is something diffrent about them.

If I were a counceler and I had to write a note to Mrs Murry this is what it would be:

Dear Mrs. Murry,

I have noticed that Meg has been having some difficulty with school.  She is not a very social girl or/and is very shy therefor that might result in why she doesnt have many friends. That can be solved easily but we need Meg’s cooperation, perseverence and that she would take the time of day to come in and work with me personally. Also, if she needs help wih her school work I would happily hire a tutor for her. But if she is not giving any effort at her school work than she should come with me and I will help her with that personally.

Thank you very much,

Your daughters counceler

Smile by Barbara Hauck

Here is a poem that caught my attnetion in a book called Chicken Soup for the Teenage Souls.    Here is the poem and I hope that you will enjoy it the same why I did. And it really did put a smile on my face.

SMILE

She smiled at a sorrowful stranger

The smile seemed to make him feel better.

He remembered past kindnesses of a friend

And wrote him a thank -you letter.

And the friend was so pleased with the thank-you

That he left a large tip after lunch.

The waitress, surprised by the size of the tip,

Bet the whole thing on a hunch.

The nexted day she picked up her winnings,

And gave part to a man on the street.

The man on the street was grateful;

For two days he had nothing to eat.

After he finished his dinner,

he left for his small dingy room.

( He didnt know at the moment

that he might be facing his doom.)

On the way he picked up a shivering puppy

And took him home to get warm.

The puppy was grateful

To be in out of the storm

That night the house caught on fire

The puppy barked the alarm.

He barked ’till he woke the whole house hold

And saved everyone from harm.

One of the boys that he rescued

Grew up to be President

All this because a simple smile

That hasent cost a cent

Questions about Islam

In Social Studies class we are learning a brand new unit, Islam. I cant wait because I am a muslim myself and I would like to learn more than I already know about my culture and religion. There arent many questions that I have about Islam  but I am willing to answer many of questions that you have for me!!

    Some questions that I have about this unit are how vast would the islamic relgion spread across the globe.  Also, I know that this unit has alot of group activities. In the group activites we, our group, will  be facing many obsotcles to get to the finish. But I was wondering if all the activites had to be in groups, were there any individual activites. When I say activities I dont mean writing up an essay or anything like that. I was hoping that the individual activities would be physical activites that include building or running or stuff like that so that it would make it easier for us to understand things that we dont understand and it would also be fun at the sametime. These are some questions and suggestions that I have about the Islamic unit.