My Fairy Name

Gossamer Cornshimmer
She is a creator of bounty and harvest.
She lives in spiderwebbed wonderlands and insect grottos.
She is only seen when the first flowers begin blossom.
She wears tiny black spiders on her dresses. She has butterfly wings the colour of yellow corn.

Bible Verse of the Month

Background from www.glittter-graphics.com.

My History Report On....

I S L A M

Have you ever wondered what the history of a religion is all about? Do you believe that the history is real? Well, here is the history of the Islamic religion.

Islam, which means “submission”, was founded by Muhammad around 610 AD. Muhammad was born around 570 AD in the city of Mecca. Their holy book is called Al-Quran which they believe to be God’s word, revealed to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. They also follow the Hadith, which are Muhammad’s sayings and actions.

The Islamic followers are called Muslims. Muslim in Arabic means a person who submits to the will of God. They believe that there is only one God, which is called “Allah”. They hope to go to heaven by doing good things and by following Allah’s commandments.

There are five main duties of the Muslims, which they call the five pillars of Islam:
1. Confession: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah.”

2. Salat. Muslims have to pray five times a day, facing toward Mecca.
3. Zakat. This means giving money to the poor, widow, or orphans.
4. Fasting. They cannot eat or drink starting from the sun rise until the sun set, during Ramadan, the holy month.
5. Pilgrimage to Mecca, or Haj. This is a trip that has to be taken at least once in a lifetime.
There is a sixth duty is called Jihad or Holy War, where they have to go to war to defend or spread Islam. If they get killed during Jihad, they can go straight to Paradise.

Muslims believe pork or alcohol drink are unclean and because of that they cannot eat pork or drink anything which contains alcohol.

The symbol of Islam is crescent moon and star. According to the Islamic popular tradition, whenever the Prophet Muhammad saw a new moon he would say, “O crescent moon of good and guidance, my faith is in Him who created you!”

There are three major sects of Islam which are the Wahhabis (the most strict followers), the Shiites (who believe only Muhammad’s descendants can be the spiritual leaders), and the Sunnis (who follow Muhammad’s tradition). Ninety percent of Muslims are Sunnis.

After Muhammad died in 632 AD, Islam expanded all the way to India, North Africa, Spain, and finally Babylon in 1038. After that Islam was spread to the rest of the world through trading and migration.

Bibliography:

Davis, Grady L., M.Div., Ph.D., Five Pillars of Islam, http://www.familybible.org/Teaching/Religions/Islam/FivePillars.htm. Accessed on Sept. 20, 2007.

Razwy, Sayed Ali Asgher, A Restatement of the History of Islam and Muslims, http://www.al-islam.org/restatement/. Accessed on Sept. 20, 2007.

Sawyer, Rickard L., The Rise of Islam, http://www.familybible.org/Teaching/Religions/Islam/RiseOfIslam.htm. Accessed on Sept. 20, 2007.

Wenner, Sarah, 2001, History of Islam, http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/religion/islam/history.html. Accessed on Sept. 20, 2007.

Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, Islam Introduction Part I, http://www.religioustolerance.org/isl_intr.htmioustolerance.org/isl_intr.htm. Accessed on Sept. 20, 2007.

Picture, http://farm1.static.flickr.com/132/368117849_51d76b399d.jpg. Accessed on Sept. 21, 2007.

Picture, http://blog.camera.org/archives/Islam%20map1.jpg. Accessed on Sept. 21, 2007.

Picture of crescent moon and star, http://www.mrdowling.com/images/605islam.gif. Accessed on Sept. 19, 2007.

The University of Rochester, Crescent, http://www.rochester.edu/College/REL/symbols/crescent.html. Accessed on Sept. 20, 2007.

Truthnet, What is Islam, http://www.truthnet.org/islam/whatisislam.html. Accessed on Sept. 20, 2007.

Introductory Paragraph about Beatrix Potter

Do you believe in your drawings are alive? Can you use your imagination? Well, Beatrix Potter could. She thought that all of her illustrations were real. Her imagination was wild. Everyone thought that she didn't have the right to write stories. But she was successful in publishing her book. One of her story characters was "Peter Rabbit." She would talk to her drawings a lot.

Whenever she felt lonely, she would talk to her characters. She loved her stories very much that she even wanted them printed in colour. Beatrix made her characters look alive! She was very satisfied with her work.

My God's Love Haiku

My Belief

When I was young, I used to believe that puppets would eat people. It all started when I was dreaming that there was a puppet show, and it was very funny. When it got to the end, the puppets bowed and then, they started eating the audience. After that dream, I was afraid of puppets. And then...........

When I was at the circus, there were so many clowns. Whenever I saw a clown I would run straight to my mom. The clowns reminded me of my puppet show dream. Then my dad said to go with my sister to the clown, and I did.

The clown was very nice to us and gave each of us stickers and a balloon. We had so much fun talking with that clown. I felt so much better after that, knowing that clowns were not so scary and that they were just normal people who liked to entertain children. That's why I am not afraid of puppets or clowns anymore.

What is God?

I think God is three things. His is the Holy Spirit, man, and our Father. He is my Lord,and my Savior. God is always by my side. He is also known as the Prince of Peace, and the Lord of Lords. To me, God is the greatest and most loving person. God communicates through prayers, by answering my prayers, and for me by reading the Bible. I feel closer and safer with God. I think He is our Father because He protects us and He loves us just like a Father would do.

My UOI Reflection

This Unit of Inquiry ( UOI ) was about " Body Works". The central idea was " The human body is designed for movement in work and play and can be affected by a variety of things". I think in this UOI, I was an inquirer because I asked a lot of questions. I also was principled because I cannot play around other wise I could get hurt. One of my favorite activities was looking at my BMI ( Body Mass Index ) activity, I think I was showing the learner profile of reflective and well-balanced. I think I showed the reflective profile because I had to reflect on why my BMI was like that. I think I showed well-balanced because it was a new and interesting thing and in the well-balanced profile it says that I like to learn a lot of different things. My second favorite activity was drawing myself. In that activity I showed I was a thinker and knowledgeable. I was a thinker because I had to think about how to make the picture look like me. I also showed I was a knowledgeable by knowing the right shapes for the body. Another of my favorites was dissecting the chicken wing. In that activity, I think I showed the characters of risk-taker and caring. I showed I was a risk-taker by taking a risk by cutting up the chicken wing which was a little bit gross. I showed caring because I had to help my partner
dissect the chicked wing. This UOI was fun and challenging. It was great.

How can we help Su Ah?

On Saturday, September 8, I went to Su Ah's house. I went there with my family and my friend, Zerlinda. We brought her some stuff for her to play with. I felt really sad for her. She had an accident while she was riding a bicycle. As a result, her leg was broken and she had to have an operation.

She hasn't been able to go to school because she can't walk at all. Hopefully she will be able to return to school in 2 more months. In the mean time she tries to catch up with her school work at home.

I wonder if she could come to school in the wheel chair. The problem is that our class room is on the 3rd floor and our school doesn't have an elevator. But, I am sure many people will help carry her up to our classroom. What do you think? Do you have any suggestion to help Su Ah? Please leave your comment.

Thank you and God bless you!

My Cheese Haiku

My Bone Haiku

The Digestive System

I am a piece of a sandwich. I am filled with double bacon, cheese, lettuce, and tomato from Subway. When I enter the mouth, my journey into the human’s body begins. This is what people called Human Digestive System. The Digestive process goes as follows:

1. Into the Mouth. First I get bit inch by inch - ouch!!! It hurts. Just after I catch my breath, I can see the salivary glands on the right side of me. Oooh, I need to make sure I can get enough drops of saliva on me. During the chewing process, I was shredded into smaller pieces. But, the salivary enzymes produced by salivary glands help to soften me and break down the starch in me.

2. Into the stomach. After being chewed, the tongue pushed me to the back of the throat, where then I was swallowed into the Esophagus. Esophagus is a muscular tube connected from the throat to the stomach. This muscle is so strong that even when the person who eats me is in an upside down position, I still would be forced to enter into the stomach. The stomach is kind of dark, but this is where I collect acid and pepsin. The acid is useful because it breaks me down. And the pepsin is helpful to break down the protein in me into amino acids.

3. Into the small but twisty intestine. From this then the stomach pumps me little by little into the small intestine. This intestine may be called small, but actually it is so twisty and twice as long as the large intestine! It is named small because the diameter is a lot smaller than the large intestine. It is very bumpy and crowded there – if you think you can’t breath and feel so crunched when you’re inside an elevator full of adults, you should come inside here! Here I meet bile and enzymes that separate the good chemicals from the waste materials in me. After that, the millions of fingers inside this small intestine called villi will absorb all of the good chemicals which are needed by the human body. At this point, I have to say goodbye to those good chemicals for good.

4. Into the large intestine. The rest of me, which is just the waste materials, is then moved into the large intestine. Now I have a new name, called feces, which contains of water, undigested food, and bacteria. There I collect the stuff that is similar with what you find in Yakult drink. I need them for clearing out all of the bad bacteria in me. The body then absorbs most of the water part in me that I become more solid. From here on, I just cruise along the colon in the large intestine. It is actually still a long way to go. Sometimes I have to travel 24 hours before I reach to the next process.

5. Into the rectum and out through the anus. After all that fun ride, at last I can enter into the rectum and then.... plop! Out I go through the anus. What a journey!

Information from:

1. Encyclopedia Britannica (2006), Encyclopedia Britannica.Inc, http://discoverer.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/article?urn=urn%3Asirs%3AUS%3BART%3Boooo221832. Accessed on Aug. 28, 2007.

2. Picture: The Human Large Intestine, 2007, http://discoverer.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/picture?picurn=urn:sirs:US;IMAGE;GIF;0000091395&urn=urn:sirs:US;ARTICLE;ART;0000221832. Accessed on Aug. 29, 2007.

3. The World Encyclopedia, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, World Book. Inc, page 175.

4. A Journey Through the Digestive System- submitted by Vorge, http://www.ugoplayer.com/games/digestivesystem.html. Accessed on Aug. 30, 2007.

5. Human Digestive System, http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/anatomy/digestive. Accessed on Sept. 2, 2007.

6. Digestive System, http://www.innerbody.com/image/digeov.html. Accessed on Sept. 2, 2007.

7. Traveling Food, http://library.thinkquest.org/5777/dig3.htm. Accessed on Sept. 2, 2007.