Naomi's Portfolio

Dystopian Fiction – The Giver

December 17, 2025 /

What did I do?

I learned about dystopian fiction by writing academic paragraphs and discussing topics collaboratively related to the book The Giver. We also wrote summaries about the parts of the book.

What did I learn?

In class, we built vocabulary, wrote academic paragraphs using transition words and had collaborative discussions. We used Magic School for practicing vocabulary and using CommonLit to write academic paragraphs.

What worked?

Something that worked was that I liked the book because it was really interesting and made me wonder what would happen next. I also liked that we did our CommonLit assignments as homework because I would be able to have more time to think about what to write. Another thing that worked was the Magic School Vocabulary builder, because we could learn how to use and what the vocabulary words meant.

What did not work?

Something that did not work was the discussion note, because I read off of my notebook and wasn’t discussing. Another thing that did not work was that I couldn’t remember a lot of transition words to include in my paragraphs, and I didn’t use a lot of different kinds transition words.

Personal Relevance:

I think that this learning will help me achieve my goals in life because I learnt more about writing academic paragraphs and using evidence to prove my claim. This will help me because I can prove my point using evidence.

Orchestra

December 16, 2025 /

We learned the pieces ‘Where Falcons Fly’, ‘Thundersnow’, ‘Sweet Petite Winter Suite’, and ‘Winter With You’ for the Winter Concert. Something we learned is the difference between Musical Elements and Playing Techniques. Some examples of Musical Elements are time and key signatures, and tempo. Some examples of Playing Techniques are articulation and accents.

Blue Light

December 15, 2025 /

A safety behavior that is important to me is not giving out personal information. I think that it is important because if your information might get to someone that might try to steal your money or do something bad. I think that to prevent it, we can not trust everything you see and think about what you do before you do it. Five trusted people I think that I can go to if something doesn’t feel right in person or online are my mom, my dad, my older brother, my friend and my teacher. I think social media and technology impacts teens in their sleep the most. I think that it is because you might spend all night up on your devices and not sleeping, which will make you tired when you have to do things at day. Another reason is because when we are on our devices before we sleep, the blue light coming out of the screen will make you not able to fall asleep which will also make you tired and not able to concentrate at day. Some strategies I can use to protect myself online and in real life is: Don’t trust everything online, don’t talk to strangers, and ignore strangers when they try to talk to me on the road if it doesn’t feel like they are asking for directions. The biggest takeaway from this unit is that social media and technology isn’t always safe and how we can stay safe online.

Roller Coaster L4 Lab and Model

December 12, 2025 /

My Movie 1.mp4

We started by completing an investigation to determine the relationships between potential energy and height. We also did a lab report on the roller coaster investigation and built the rollercoaster model. After we built the roller coaster model, we took data by using high, medium and low starting heights to start the marble . We used the data to calculate the success rate, and lastly we wrote a conclusion with CER.

Unit II – Ötzi Unit Reflection

December 1, 2025 /

What did I work on? 

We worked on a chart with Observations, Inferences, and Wonderings. We looked at a picture and observed something that was a fact. We then wrote what we thought about the picture, and then we wrote questions based on the picture. We also wrote CER paragraphs about whether we thought that Otzi was murdered. Lastly, we asked and answered open and closed-ended questions. 

What did I learn? 

I learned how to write a CER paragraph with a claim, three pieces of evidence, and three pieces of reasoning. I also learned about Otzi the Iceman’s life and some theories about how he died. For example, Otzi the Iceman had a lot of tattoos that were in places where he had experienced pain. Another thing I learned was the purposes for open and closed-ended questions. For example, open-ended questions are when you want more information and closed-ended questions are for when you want a simple answer. Lastly, I learned that we should care about our past because we can learn a lot of new things from our past. Another reason we should care about our past is that we can know the reason we have some things. For example, we can learn why we have metal, or why some animals are extinct. We can also learn from the mistakes we made in the past.  

What worked well? 

Something that worked well was my newspaper article about the Otzi Civil Court Case. I think it worked well because I included a description of the court case. I also included quotes from the expert witness and lawyers and how they think Otzi the Iceman died. 

What did not work? 

Something that did not work well was that when I interviewed the expert witnesses, most of my questions were closed-ended questions because my open-ended questions weren’t related to their topic. I didn’t get a lot of information from the expert witnesses to include in my newspaper article. I could also have improved on using a different variety sentence starters.

Personal Relevance 

The collaboration and communication skills that I practiced in this unit are important in my future because I will need to do projects with other people and I will need to collaborate with them. I think that collaborating and working together might make doing things faster and easier when we need to work with other people. Communication is also important when we work with other people in the future because if we didn’t communicate, we wouldn’t know what the other people are going to do and what we should do.

Bake Sale Portfolio Post

November 27, 2025 /

What did we do?

We made vanilla cupcakes for a bake sale in math. We chose a food we wanted to bake, and then we wrote down the recipe and converted it into grams. Then, we unit price for each ingredient, and multiplied the unit price of each ingredient by how much we needed for the recipe. Additionally, we calculated the batch cost which we added together all the unit price for each ingredient to get. We divided the batch cost by the amount one batch makes. Lastly, we markuped the price to have profit to determine our sell price. We then baked the cupcakes and sold them at the bake sale.

What did we learn?

We learned the definition of a batch price, batch cost, serving cost, and sell price, and how to calculate it. A batch price is the unit price (how many RMB per gram) multiplied by the amount we needed for the recipe. A batch cost is all the batch prices for each ingredient added together. Additionally, a serving cost is the batch cost divided by the amount the recipe makes. Lastly, a sell price is the price we would sell each baked food at.

What worked?

Something that worked was that the cupcakes turned out good, and we decorated our table to attract people to come. We also decorated the cupcake in bright colored icing and sprinkles which people like. My partner and me worked together to bake the cupcakes and decorate them so we finished faster than if there were only one person.

What did not work?

Something that did not work was we made not enough cupcakes and they were sold out after breather started. Another thing that did not work out was that at first, we sold it at a high price (¥20), so some people would think it is too expensive and not buy it.

Personal Relevance

This learning might help me achieve my goals in life because if I wanted to sell things when I am older, I would know how to determine a cost that would give me profit but is not too expensive. I also learned to work together with my partner really efficiently since we didn’t have a lot of time to bake the cupcakes.

Egg Car

November 11, 2025 /

What did I do?

We did the Egg Car challenge, where we needed to build a car made of 3 pieces of paper, 1 meter of tape, wheels and axels, straws and a fake egg. The car needed to safely carry a raw egg down a steep ramp and crash into a brick without the egg breaking or the car breaking.

What did I learn?

We learnt how Newton’s 1st and 3rd Laws are in the egg car challenge. Newton’s 1st Law states “An object in motion at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted open by and unbalanced force”. The egg is in motion when the car is driving, but when the car hits the brick, the egg will want to fly out unless there is an unbalanced force. Newton’s 3rd Law states “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. When the egg car hits the brick, the brick will hit back with an equal and opposite force.

What worked?

Something that worked well in our design is the crumple zone. We folded a piece of paper to act like a spring, and we put it in the front of the car to be the crumple zone.

What did not work?

Something that didn’t work is that we didn’t take the rubber off the wheels, and the rubber made the car flipped. The crumple zone wasn’t in the front of the car after it flipped, which made the egg crack.

Personal Relevance

Something I now know about the design and safety added to cars is that the part in the front of cars is a crumple zone. When car crashes into something, the crumple zone will help make the crash less severe. Another thing I now know about the design and safety added to cars is that the seat belt will keep us from hitting the seat in front of us when the car suddenly stops.

Balloon Car

November 5, 2025 /

What did I do?

The Balloon Car was built using wheels, straws, balloons, sticks, tape and a styrofoam plate. We used it to learn about Newton’s Laws by racing the cars and seeing which car gets to the line the fastest. We also used it to plan an investigation, and then we did the investigation to learn more about Newton’s 2nd Law and how if there were more weight on the car, it would go slower than if there were less weight.

What did I learn?

Newton’s 1st law says ‘An object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force’. We see this law in action with the Balloon Car because when the car is at rest, it is not moving, but when the air is released from the car, the force of the air in the balloon is greater than the frictional force, so the unbalanced force makes the car move forward.

Newton’s 2nd Law says that ‘The greater the mass of the object, the more force it would take to accelerate the object’. We see this law in action with the Balloon Car when we placed the weights on the car and measured the distance the car traveled. When the mass increased, the force was still same because the balloon was filled up to the same amount, so the distance decreased.

Newton’s 3rd Law says that ‘Every action has an equal and opposite reaction’. We see this law in action with the Balloon Car when the force of the air of the balloon pushes out, the same force pushes back with an equal and opposite force on the car, so the car will be moved by the opposite force that pushes it to move.

What worked?

Working with my partner worked well, because we worked together to build the car and we both helped to contribute ideas on how to build. We had to sometimes do different things at the same time to build the Balloon Car a little faster. We also listened to each other’s ideas on how to build the car.

What did not work?

It was a struggle when the air of the balloon didn’t come out of the straw fast enough to make the Balloon Car move. To solve this problem we took off the straw and stuck the balloon to the car without a straw. This worked better because the air would come out directly from the balloon, the air would not leak, and it would come out easier and go faster.

Personal Relevance

The Balloon Car was like a car in the real world, when the engine starts and the car starts moving. I see Newton’s 1st Law in real life when I am on a metro and the metro starts and stops, I have to hold onto somethings so that I won’t fall over. It is important to know these Laws because it helps me to better understand why some things happen, like why we lean forward when the car suddenly stops.

Creative writing reflection

October 29, 2025 /

What are we doing? 

Writing a fictional story based on a theme that matters to me.

What are we learning? 

Theme (my purpose for writing this story, my message to readers)

Character Development (creating believable characters with positive & negative traits)

Plot (the sequence of events in my story; Western and Eastern approaches to storytelling)

Setting (the world that I create for my story)

What’s Working:

Story elements that I enjoyed writing and planning is the part where the protagonist and antagonist are arguing. I enjoyed it because I liked making the antagonist be frustrated with the protagonist. An element of the story I am proud of is the part of the mom finding the protagonist when she runs away. I am proud of it because it is when the protagonist understands why the antagonist acts that way. I got the idea for my story from a book I read when I was smaller. The best line from my story is: “Haven?” Haven hears someone call her from behind. I like that line because it is when Haven realizes that her mom wouldn’t forget her.

Areas for Growth:

A story element that was challenging to plan and write was the part where the protagonist runs away, because I didn’t know how to make the protagonist angry enough that she has a reason to run away. I tried to make the part before it seem really upsetting to the protagonist. My least favorite part of the story is when the protagonist paces up and down the street, because it seems a little plain.

Personal Relevance:

Creative writing will help me in real life because I can understand how writers write their stories. I enjoy creative writing , and maybe I would continue to tell stories that matter to me in the future.

Critical Thinking In Science

October 10, 2025 /

What did I do?

I used my critical thinking skills to complete challenges with Indi Robot Cars and build rollercoasters with Gravitrax.

What did I learn?

I learned about how I would be graded for Critical Thinking. Critical thinking is my ability to solve problems and make the right decisions.

What worked?

I thought critically when I problem solved to place the colors in the right place to take Indi to the ending point, and when we placed the track for the Gravitrax.

What did not work?

I struggled when we tried to get the correct color card for the motion. We also struggled to place the cards in the exact position, and sometimes the Indi will not run onto the card.

Personal Relavance?

I think that critical thinking will help me in the future because then, I will be able to make the good choices and decisions, and be able to solve problems.

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