Alyssa's Thoughts

We are reading the book Homeless Bird.  Koly is the main character in the book and she has been through some really tuff times. At the beginning of the book Koly has a forced marriage.   It turns out her husband is ill, and they used Koly for her dowry, so they could recover her husband. From there things get worse, Koly becomes a widow and so does her mother-in-law, sass. Then one day Sass gets a call from brother asking if she would live with them. So they hop on a train and head off. Sadly when they stop for a break Koly was ditched and left alone in the city. A man helps her and brings her to a shelter, there she gets a job.  From there things start to kick into a better gear. Like when the owner of the shelter comes to see the widows.  The owner really adored Koly’s embroidering, so much that she found Koly a new finer job.  At her job she makes a friend, Mala, little did she know Mala lives wildly. One day a golden sari went missing, nobody could figure out who took it. Until one day when Mala invited Koly to see how she lived. Koly had never been introduced to boys and girls living to together so that made her very uncomfortable .Another thing that made her uncomfortable was that she saw the golden sari that had been stolen. When Mala saw that Koly noticed it she threatened her so Koly kept her mouth shut. A few days later golden thread went missing. When they found it they found it in Mala’s purse. Mala was fired and sent to the street. Later, Koly finds love with a boy named Raji. They went out to the river side where it was nice and quiet.  When they went they would talk about life and personal things. One day when they were sitting together Raji i proposed. Koly could not say yes right away, because she was thinking of how much she would miss her life. So when Raji left for the farm they decided to write to each other. One day she sat down and thought about it and made her decision, it was a yes! Before she could leave she had to tell her idea to Mr. Das, the store owner. He said that he give her a sari to embroider so when she came back he would get to see the beautiful sari that she made. So when she was done saying good-bye she left to Raji. When she arrived at Raji’s there was a beautiful room waiting for her to embroider in.  I feel that Koly does have to adapt to her situation and that she does it well. I feel that way because has had money to have and hasn’t been broke or living with little to no money, and when she was living on the street she knew the best way to spend her money or to manage her money.

I think that this book teaches us that you have to keep your head up. I feel that way because, Koly has gone through some really down times. She has been ditched in Vrindavan, almost everyone she liked has died but still she keeps her head up. Another theme that is occurring is perseverance. More so towards the end then the beginning, because Koly is now living in a widow’s home and before that she was on the street. This is a big deal especially coming living in a home. She has persevered through some scary things like a man coming up to her and trying to take her. This might sound good, except these men are bad who look for young Indian girls like Koly.  Also this book shows courage, because Koly has been left alone on the street and she didn’t give up on herself and she kept trying because she knew something good was going to happen to her.

The author of this book is Gloria Whelan she is the one that makes this book come alive the one that makes you feel like you’re living Koly’s life. She uses sentences like “The thought had been waiting like a scorpion at the age of my mind” (pg.104) or sentences like “Was my marriage to be like buying of a sack of yams in the marketplace?” (pg. 11).  She also knows when to put those special moments in.  One example would be when, Koly and Raji ran off together right before that Koly was teaching Raji how to read and write. It seemed like the perfect moment to but a little love scene. Some comparisons she uses would be when Chandra was about to get married Koly compared her future husband mustache to a mouse tail (pg.76). Another one would be when Maa Kamala said “You wallow like pigs in mud she was comparing muds with Koly and her friend (pg. 121)

This book is a heart touching book about old Indian life with a touch of love added.

Over the winter break the Trinity fifth graders had to give a gift of time. Which means taking time out of your day to do something for somebody else. So the first thing I did was I clean the floors with the swiffer sweeper. I didn’t think that was enough so I also did the dishes. Then I thought to start helping people outside of my family, so I used my cake pop baker that I got for Christmas and baked the neighbors some cake pops. Then I was satisfied with all the things I did!

I am reading a book called The Watsons go to Birmingham. So far I have just finish chapter 8 going on to chapter 9. The book has never had a boring part, but I will say some of the times every thing isn’t the most exciting. Here the story line, it’s about a boy named Kenny who has a younger sister named Joey. He also has a older brother name Byron, who is always getting in trouble. He also has a  friend named Rufus. This book is great for anyone who likes comicicky, tragic and touching. If you like that stuff  you should read this book.

Crunch! Crunch, Crunch! Goes the sand as we walked down the white beach.We could smell the salty clear water. As we walked down the beach we could feel the sand sticking to our feet and the the sun shinning on our face.

Recently, my family spent an afternoon on the beach. We were all very eager to find a spot and relax. Then we found it. It was a little island with sea water surronding it. The first thing we did was have a sandcastle competition between Erica, my sister, and me. We made the castles out of sand and other thing we could find. On the island my dad and dog, Dante were chilling. Then my mom, Judy, took Dante into the cold ocean for a little while. Then they came running back. Next thing we know Dante was smashing our castles. This ruined the whole competition! Once my mom saw what he did, she took him back again and they walked in the water surrounding the island for a couple of minutes.

Later on we went into the tide pools to search for crabs. We only found one crab and it was white with a little dirty spots on it. My sister and I tried to pick it up but we got scared and so did Dante. Instead we looked for fish. We found tons of those. The fish were medium sized with silver scales.They swam in schools of six or seven.

That day was a day I will remember as fun,relaxing and enjoyable. Being with my family is one of my favorite things to do. Those are the days that just can not be planned they just happen.

Plump and

Unique orange plants that

Make up a jack-a-lantern for Halloween

Peeled on the inside with seeds like crumbs

Kids stick candles in me to light up the sky to show the way

Independent children begging candy walk by

Now getting candy and cheering

Your birthday party is the hardest thing to figure out. By that I mean what your theme is going to be or what your going to do with all those guests. For my 10th birthday party it was a surprise party. It was a super surprise at that. Here’s how it all went down. Madison’s mom took us to get some frozen yogurt. Once we finished eating they tricked me and said we were going to go to Stevie B ‘s and she said she didn’t know the way so she called my mom and we went to go get her to show us the way. Next thing I know I’m opening the door and hear a loud yell saying ” Surprise”. After that we partied the rest the night but stopped in the middle to see a movie. For my 9th birthday party you designed your dream bed-room. Other parties were skating and art and other stuff. Now it’s time to think about my 11th b-day party. Here comes the hard part.

Mesopotamia’s irrigation system was a big part of  community, and my question for this study is” How did the irrigation system affect the Mesopotamia people?”,and Ive got the answers. I chose this subject because I like inventions they really grab my attention. I think it’s so funny that something so simple can be so helpful. In case you do not know what the irrigation system is replacement for going outside everyday and watering all of your plants one by one. Instead the Mesopotamian people made a way for the water to reach the plants with out them having to water the plants.

The irrigation system affected them in some good ways and some bad. One bad thing is the water spreads thin and if you live in a hot area that water will evaporate, so sometimes your plants may not be water as well . Another not so good thing about the irrigation system is you must apply enough water to wash the salt or sand out of the system. So you mostly have to go dig the sand out every month, so the water flows.Now lets get to the good stuff. A good thing is good amount of water is inhabited without the touch of your fingers. Also, it makes the soil moist for the days that  their might be drought and there’s no water in the system.

In Mesopotamia there many good inventions but irrigation was a giant part of Mesopotamia’s farmers life, and that why I thought it was a good thing to research. It probably made the farmers life a whole lot easier. Although it took a long time to make I bet it was all worth it at the end.

resource

Ancient Irrigation

Chapter 17

http://mygeologypage.ucdavis.edu/cowen/~GEL115/115CH17oldirrigation.html

I when I read Bud not Buddy I sort of feel sad that he has to go through this as a child. I feel sad for him because he has to sleep under a tree when it’s cold outside, he doesn’t have a bed to go in  sleep like we do. Another thing is he sometimes has to go a whole 24 hours or more with out food or drinks. While we can’t go with out eating for like 4 hours. I think Christopher Paul Curtis is trying to make sure we don’t our stuff for grant it. Like I don’t know if I could my life without my mom and dad supporting me. But think at the same time he’s happy, he’s living a adventure. He can do what ever he wants. There are no rules he has t follow. What I just realized is he really is trying really hard and sometimes we just want to leave our parents. So were just sometimes aiming for the opposite thing. Not all the time, but almost non of the time. I think Christopher Paul Curtis is  trying to make an adventure. While trying to teach us about history or the Great Depression.

- Alyssa