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Emily's exhibition diary

12/7/2015

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“Rise and shine” my mom said calmly, turning on the light “Emily!” I was already sitting in bed with a flashlight reading my favorite book, Harry Potter! “You silly silly girl” she chuckled, leaning against my bedside, hugging me saying good morning again. I hugged her back and started reading once more. “I’m never going to stop reading” I announced proudly. “Well you're going to have to if you want to get dressed” and with that she grabbed my book and took it out to the living room.

I got dressed and walked out to the kitchen to greet my mom who was getting the really old cereal out of the cupboard (I was hoping I would never have to eat it). I sat down at the dining room table scanning the room for my lost (or taken away) book. I felt cold air drifting up on my face, then faintly smelling granola I looked down. Sure enough there were three bowls of cereal placed on the table, each with a small amount of milk poured into it. I seized one of the the bowls, tried not to think about it, and gulped the crunchy stuff down. In a hurry I dashed off to brush my teeth.

Seconds later my two cousins, Elsa and Owen, came hurrying there way down to my house because they were getting a ride to school by my mom and her precious car. Me, my sister Skylar, and my brother ben, scurried around the house looking for things we might have forgotten to pack. Once we made sure we had everything we grabbed our backpacks and rushed out the door. We drove past a library, a church, and a lot of houses to get to school.

All five of us (Owen, Skylar, Elsa, Ben, and I) jumped out of the car and walked to school, each of us going to different places. I went into Explorer Elementary. Thankfully, I wasn’t late. I walked into class and everyone was typing, coloring, making costumes, or running around like bees in a beehive. I got started right away and made a name tag that said my name and what team I was on, I was on the PR team (Public Relations). Then I started to make a fireplace because we were going to have one at the exhibition. We were about to stuff the box. So we covered it in black paper with orange stuffing. Then my friend came up to me and asked me to make her a dolphin tale. Of course I said I would and I got to work.

After I made her a costume a few other people wanted to me to make them costumes. I had made three other costumes when Mrs.Chown told us it was time to go get set up at the exhibition sight. We all sat up at the sound of that because some of us still had a lot to do (not me though). I gathered all of my items and our class started to walk over to yellow book road, a bookstore (where we had our exhibition).

Right as we got there Mrs.Chown started giving orders and we set up. Then after a few minutes people started filing in and we sat around the fireplace. There were two rows of kids, twelve in the first and twelve in the back. The first row stood up and one by one they read out their story extracts. Once they sat down, my row stood up. I was second to last but at least it went fast. The person to my left shouted their extract, it was time . .  time to read mine. This is what I said: “They both CHARGED at the pipeline but it was TOO strong for them AND their flippers, they were sent flying up into shadowy darkness.” After the last few people finished reading there extracts the P.R. group started handing out exhibition guides. I was in that group so I walked around looking for people that didn’t have a guide.

Once I finished handing out paper, I spied my mom looking at a yellow book in the children's section. I walked up to her and told her to follow me. We walked over to a short, thin shelf where all of the pictures we drew for our story’s were in thick black picture frames. We searched the shelf until we found the picture I drew. My mom LOVED it. The picture I had drawn was about an adventuress and scary dragon stomping on a beautiful castle. (It was for the cover of our book)

After that I asked my mom if she would care to buy a book. Of course she said she would certainly buy one and she said she’d buy one right there and then, well, maybe not there but she would buy one right at that moment. So she went to the counter where you were supposed to buy the books and asked how much they were. They costed $8.00 and a donation if you wanted to help a charity called Words a!ive.

Before we wrote our book we had to decide which charity to raise money for, that's where Words a!ive come in! We all looked at all the different charities, but the one we voted on was . . . Words a!ive! Words a!ive is a charity that helps people to read. Go Words a!ive!

Anyway, my mom bought a book and started looking through it. “Wow Emily, I like your story!” “Thanks!” “Emily can you sign my book please?!” I heard someone from behind us say. “Oh, yeah, of course!” I would never miss an opportunity to become Famous!
Though I would never really become famous from that.

We started looking around for good books to read (We Were In a Book Store)
We got two books from the Skulduggery series, which I'm reading right now, and a few other books. Then my mom asked me, “Emily, do you want to leave, I had a wonderful time! Thankyou, can you go thank Ms. Chown and ask her if we can leave with happy thoughts?” “Okay” I shrugged. I went off, thanked Ms. Chown, and We left!
I cant wait to have yet another amazing exhibition!
                The End!


​
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Will and Rigel's advice for the new Director of Explorer Elementary

3/25/2015

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Ms. Chown called us for a class meeting last tuesday and said that she was going to be our new principal, so she couldn’t be our teacher anymore. Everybody was sad and a lot of people cried. We only have three more days with her and after spring break we get a new teacher named Ms.Gonzalez.

We have some advice for Ms. Chown as our new principal.

  1. Listen to people's ideas,

  2. Stay cool under pressure,

  3. Make friends with your colleagues,

  4. Be optimistic,

  5. Be open minded,

  6. And most of all have fun with your new job!

By Will and Rigel 




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Finding ¼  and ¾ during Math

3/25/2015

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PictureThis branching diagram shows one of the diagrams that our group uses to find ¼ .
In math, we worked on finding ¼ and ¾ of 60, 100 and 1,000. Here are two diagrams showing the strategy we used.





Picture
As you can see from the diagram, you know that ¼ of 60 is 15. To get 3/4, you need to add 3 of the 1/4 together. 15+15+15=45. 3/4 of 60 is 45!


By Ella and Charlotte



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The Play Observers present their learning

3/25/2015

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Picture
On Thursday, March 12th , in the grassy area Room 15 taught other classes in Explorer Elementary how to use an AP(Adventure Playground). At first I was an interviewer. Every 5 to 7 minutes I interviewed someone to get feedback and to see what they're doing. We switched jobs after teaching 2 classes. My second job was play observer.

The purpose of the Play observer is to observe all the things about the people we were teaching. They also could encourage and give messages to other people who weren't using the equipment correctly. I'm writing this about the time I was play observer.
We started out with the welcomers. They gave an opening speech about what the adventure playground is. Next came the rule readers. They read all our rules.

Then after they had read all the rules everybody started playing(the kids we we were teaching). I started out taking some notes about what they started out building. These were some of my header notes for Ms. Feitelberg’s class: “ Making a slip and slide out of cardboard. A lot of teepees. Making a horn out of pvc pipe. Colliding into each other on the slip and slide. Making houses and cubes.” We were taking notes for our research questions and to share with our class. Also if we saw anything that was against the rules we would go up to the person who broke them and give them a message. I learned that you had to look up a lot and really get a picture of all the things that were around you, to get the full share of notes. Also you had to write really fast because so many actions or things to write down  were around you. This job was really fun for me because I really like taking down notes and seeing interesting things. This job also gives me a lot of information for my research question. If we were to teach another class I would definitely want this job because it was so fun and interesting. 

By Seth and Ian 
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The Explorer Social Science Department - First Field Trip

3/8/2015

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“Turtles!” Someone exclaimed. We were eating lunch at the turtle ponds in San Diego State University (aka SDSU) on Friday, February the 27th, 2015. Our 4th grade class, Room 15, was here so we could interview social science professors with our questions about research. We had already done our first interview and we were about to do our second one,  Everyone was very excited because there was two ponds with mini waterfalls, lily pads, rocks, big and little coy fish, and lots and lots of turtles! They were everywhere! In the water paddling around, atop rocks in the midst of the pond, and even posing on the ridge of the pond so people could get a good look at them. I had finished my lunch and I was looking at the patterns on each turtle’s shell.

“Gather in!” Ms. Chown’s voice rang out. I collected my belongings, (lunch box, journal, pen), and I raced up the hill that led down to the ponds. Our class crowded around Ms. Chown. She had her schedule in hand and was reading out the groups. “Professor Ulloa, Psychology, Life Sciences Room 106. Margaret, Nick’s mom is the chaperone, and in that group is Will, Nick, Ella, Halle and Rigel.”  

Our group ran over to Ms. Margaret. We headed to professor Ulloa’s office. Rigel and Will were jumping around, dancing and singing to “Everything is Awesome” from the Lego movie. Ms. Margaret stopped us. “Guys,” she said in a serious tone. “We are not lego men. “We are scientists. Let’s take 3 deep breaths.” I took 3 deep breaths, feeling silly. Rigel and Will started swaggering toward the Life Sciences building where Professor Ulloa’s office was located. Ms. Margaret stopped in the doorway in front of the life sciences door. “This is what a lecture room looks like.” She whispered, even though nobody was in there. We crept up the stairs and I sat in a seat. I looked like an amphitheater, however it was inside. At the bottom there was a table and a podium with a computer on it. “Come on guys!” I said impatiently. I didn’t want to be late!

We went in the doorway that said Life Sciences and went down two flights of stairs. “Where do we go now?” 
We went through a doorway and saw some stairs and a steep ramp on the other side. “I think we should go down the stairs.”  The air smelled strongly of mildew. “I think we're underground.” I whispered. 
“No wonder it smells so weird.” Will replied. 
We came down the stairs and we found ourselves face to face with a locked door. “Back up the stairs!” Ms. Margaret chirped. Rigel and I ran up the ramp. We went out ANOTHER doorway and down ANOTHER flight of stairs. Our party came to some professors having a meeting. “Do you know where Dr. Ulloa’s office is?” Ms. Margaret inquired. “Room 106?” 
“Down the stairs, to the left and through a doorway.” The professor answered. “Thank you!” We chorused. The social science department of Explorer Elementary, (plus one parent) hurried down the stairs, turned a left (into a cactus garden) and through the doorway. 


We saw a sign announcing “Psychology Department. We saw long corridor with many doors on either side. It reminded me of a labyrinth. On top of each door there was a plaque indicating the room number. 131, 130, 129, 128, 127… It went on and on. “We’re on the right track!” Ms. Margaret said. We turned a corner and saw the room 106. Halle knocked. No one answered. I knocked. No one answered. “Would you like to knock Nick?” His mother asked. Nick knocked. Rigel knocked. Still, nobody answered. 


I tried the door. It was locked. I listened. I could hear voices. The next door was ajar. We went in. There was a desk with a woman sitting at it. “Do you know where Dr. Ulloa’s office is?” Ms. Margaret inquired again. 
“He is at a meeting, but he will be back soon. Would you like to go into a conference room to wait?” The lady asked. “Sure!” Ms. Margaret replied. “Look guys!” I exclaimed. “Carnivorous plants!” My friends and I ran over to the large tank, (after asking Ms. Margaret). There were Venus Fly Traps and lots of other plants that I did not know the names of. I was disappointed. There were no insects for the plants to eat! “Professor Ulloa is here!” Halle called. We fast-walked over to the room where Professor Ulloa was. We introduced ourselves, saying we were from the Explorer Elementary Department of Social Science. 

We went into the room. There was a huge polished wooden table and chairs on each side. On the wall at the end of the table there was a GIANT television. There was a white board on either side of the room. On the table there were compartments with wires in them. Professor Ulloa said that you could plug your computer in and your presentation would show up on the screen. Now it was time to begin our interview. Here are the questions that we asked him and their answers:


Question: What do you do?
Answer: I collect information that helps my students and I research about human behavior.

Question: How did you become a psychology professor?
Answer: I was always interested in feelings.

Question:What is the most interesting part of what you do?
Answer: I learn new things everyday.

Question: What makes a good research question?
Answer: You have a sense of what the answer might be, however you don’t know without testing it.

Question: What is action research?
Answer: You don’t understand the problem however you can do research to help it.

Question: What do we need to do to conduct action research ethically?
Answer: You want to make sure that you don’t harm anyone. You even have to be careful asking questions because some people can be really sensitive.

Question: How do academic researchers share their research?
Answer:The primary way is publishing your piece in a journal. You can also have a conference, you can share your work with students or you can do a presentation.   


That was our interview! My favorite thing that Professor Ulloa told us was experiences change the way people think and see things. For example, if you had a good experience, you might see a things in a good way. However, if you had a bad experience, you might see things in a bad way. I thought that was really interesting. One thing in life could change your future!

After our interview, we said goodbye to Dr. Ulloa and we walked back through the cactus garden, (I noticed a pond that I had not seen before, but there were no fish or turtles in it, there was only a plastic duck and a bunch of lily pads completely covering the surface and some reeds in the back corner,) back up the stairs and through the door of the Life sciences building and back to the sundial where we we meeting our class.

We were the first ones there, so we went down to the turtle pond and played, pretending we had pet turtles. (Well, Halle and I were). A few minutes passed and Ms. Margaret called us back up to the sundial. The rest of the class was there and we took a picture in front of the majestic building behind us. I said thank you to Ms. Margaret and to Stephen, Mikaila’s dad, who is a professor at SDSU and who organized this whole trip for us!  Ms. Chown called our car group to her. Addison’s mother was driving but she was at work. In my group was me, Addison, Anelisa and Leila. We walked back to the parking garage. We went down the elevator and walked back to the car. 

As we sped back to school, I thought, “What a great trip!”

By Ella  
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SDSU Field Trip

3/8/2015

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On 2-27-15 we, the Explorer department of social science, went to SDSU to interview ten professors to research about Adventure Play (AP) and what subject AP goes into. This was my second interview with a professor.

We were interviewing the Professor of Communication. His name was Professor Lindemann. As we knocked on the door, excitement built up in me. The last professor I interviewed was Professor Flanigan for the department of Public Affairs. I didn’t know that college professors were so nice and friendly. I thought they gave a bunch of tests, essays and papers to all their students and that was it. I was hoping this person would be as nice as the other one. I almost jumped when an invisible hand pulled the door open from the other side of the door.

Professor Lindemann led us to a big conference room to talk. When we found that a bunch of villagers were taking a test there, we went to another area that was a bit smaller. Then we started our interview. It turned out like the last professor that he got into communication with his dad. His dad got paralyzed in a motorcycle race when Lindemann was seven years old. Then he noticed that his dad started to communicate differently around other people. From these basics, Lindemann gained an interest for communication. These are some of the questions he answered also:

1.What do we need to do to make our research ethical?
2.What makes a good research question?
3.What is action research?
4.How do academics share their research?

And a few others. 


This was his answer for the first question “What do we need to do to make our research ethical?”: 
“I think that there are 3 steps for doing ethical tests. 1st you need to always tell the leader or principal or director what you're going to do and how you're going to do it. 2nd you need to explain what you did or what your going to do before or after you observe them. 3rd you need to share your results to the people you were observing." 
I learned that that you should share your results with the people you observed on. I had never thought of this before.

This was his answer for the second question “What makes a good research question?”: 

“A good research question has to be specific, simple, it helps you understand something, and it can’t be a yes or no question.” I learned from this answer that sometimes a good research question can be simple.

This was his answer for the 3rd question “What is action research?”: “ Action research is research where you're doing research while helping other people. This is basically  what the other professor talked about how action research is where you are in the group or person you're researching on.

This was his answer for the fourth question “ How do academics share their research?”: “ I share my research by presenting simple short presentations to people because only us academics read long, fact filled, books full of information” This answer was simple to me because I get bored of long books full of complicated words and hours of information.

A very interesting thing to me is that Lindemann did action research on people who were in a wheelchair and played basket ball. He talked to them while taking notes. Did he want to research about this because of his dad?

Another very interesting thing to me was how he researched how other kids reacted when a kid was getting bullied by another kid. This was very interesting to me because I've never thought about how other kids reacted to a kid getting bullied. I’ve always thought about how the person who was getting bullied would react.

This is what really stuck in my mind: The interesting parts like that he got into communication because of his dad communicating differently than he used to because he was in a wheel chair. Another thing is sometimes he lies to the people he was observing on then at the end tells them what he was actually doing (which is usually observing and writing notes). This is interesting to me because I didn’t know that college professors lied even temporarily. I think that next time I interview a professor I should fake that I am not shy because when you're more shy you're less professional and I did not want to look that I wasn't professional. I really hope we can do more field work for research this year.

By Seth


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Interviewing Dr Lindeman

3/8/2015

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"We're going to SDSU!" 
’’Yes!” I said 
"And we're going on Friday the 27th OK. That’s only in two weeks. We're going to SDSU so we can learn about what they research and so we can ask questions too. Like what is the most interesting part of what you do?" It was watching how people act. Like he will go to basketball game and on the sidelines take notes.

"Cruz, you are going in Mikaila’s Dad’s car."

"Do all of you guys have your seat belts on?" 
"Yes." 
OK, we're here. Wow, cool! 


45 minutes later... "Hi I am Dr. Lindemann."
"Hi, I am Addison."
"I am Andres."
"I am Cruz."
"I am Paloma."
"I am Seth."
"OK let's go over here. OK you guys can sit her at the table. OK let's start."
"OK, what makes a good research question? What do you do? How did you became a …. communicator?"

He became a communicator because his dad was paralyzed by riding a motorcycle and he would ask a question and his dad would not answer and that made him want to become a communicator. I had more questions to ask him but it was almost time to pack up. "Awww we have 5 more minutes." So we had to meet up with rest of the class and head back to school.     

By Cruz

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SDSU

3/8/2015

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On friday we went to SDSU to do some research. When we got to SDSU, we got a tour from professor Schellenberg. He first showed us the library then he showed us the sundial. I first met up with Professor Sha but I won't be explaining about the morning only the afternoon.

After our meeting with Professor Sha, we went to the turtle pond to eat lunch we saw lots of turtles and most of them were as still as a statue. I got bored of watching the turtles so I went with my friends rolling down the hills it was really fun. But sadly one of my friends was worried that he had got stung by a bee. And the second that happened we were given a message by Ms. Chown to stop rolling down the hills because maybe the same thing could happen to you.

We started to walk towards the Arts and Letters building to interview Professor Whitaker. Professor Whitaker's job is Religious Studies. As we entered the building, I could hear my friend saying, "I need to get a drink of water." When we got to the professor's room we went surprised that he wasn't inside the room. But then we saw him walking down the hallway.

When we were in the conference room, we started to ask him questions. One cool fact about this professor is that he connects hip hop to religious studies. He says that it connects because of famous rapper that do hip hop talk about god.  And after that it was time to go home.


By Ale
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Let's Learn with Professor Sha!

3/8/2015

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Let’s learn with professor Sha!!!

When we first walked in a conference no one was in there so we sat in there and a few minutes later a professor came in the room we didn’t know who she was she sat down and she said “hello i’m professor Sha.” Me and my classmates Annia, Leila, Ale, and me Kyle blurted with questions then we stopped. She said one at a time children so we made a discussion who goes first and who goes last. I chose to go last and Annia went first but I didn’t mind at all. The first question was what is a good research question is a question that can have a lot of answers.


Another question was how did you become a journalist we asked she said she studied in school and worked in the media.


Another question was why did you come to this university to work here she said BECAUSE IT’S AWESOME.


We all stared at each other.Then I said what is the most interesting thing that you do she said teaching.


Then we said what is action research she said action research is collecting data your self. Then when we were done we got up from seats and we walked to the door and mr. Sha said WAIT! We held for a little bit and mr. Sha said don't you want some chips and water we said YES and she gave us pens too!


But when we were out of the building we had to go to lunch at a turtle pond  we found so many turtles and they were so cute!!! ( we were at SDSU ) When we finished our lunches we had to go to another meeting. GOOD BYE YOUR FRIEND KYLE!!!
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Going to SDSU/ San Diego State University

3/8/2015

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It all started on Friday, February 27th, 2015. We were going to SDSU… I ran (fast walking) to the classroom and in my mind I was thinking, what should I ask the professors? But, right when I was in the class, it was QOTD/Question Of The Day and I was worried because then I’ll forget my questions but luckily the QOTD was about what you're going to ask the professors! I was so relieved so now I can fill my paper with it. 

On the other hand I think that you will say what do you mean by professor ? Well yesterday Ms. Chown put a list on the projector on the end of the day and you could pick a professor to interview in the morning and in the afternoon and you could pick two ones that you were most interested in. I only wanted one of each and I picked the communication department (Dr. Lindeman) and public affairs department (Dr. Flanigan) and after that I got the people who I wanted to interview.

Finally we were at SDSU and again the professor that I was going to was Flanigan. First we were looking for the building. We were looking for it and we could not find it! But at the same time I was having fun even though I was alone, it was fun. We found it went inside the building we looked but it said that we were on the second floor and in my head I said wait… we are in the second floor that means there is a story underground. Plus it said this...

Public Affairs

I was shy - not about the fact that we were going underground. It was because of the fact that I was going to talk to Dr. Flanigan and I don't know if Dr. Flanigan is a boy or a girl. Me and the chaperone kept talking about it and finally we saw Dr. Flanigan's office. We noticed that she was a girl. In addition, we learned what is a good research question and what public affairs is! Dr. Flanigan had a PHD from public affairs and a lot more and in other words bye…

By Andres ;)
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