Between Two Ends Narrative - Odysseus

My Reflection:

I have been learning to write a narrative based on the book 'Between Two Ends.' I had to choose a character (Odysseus) and brainstorm his character traits and what he could have been thinking or doing that wasn't said in the real book. Then I did made a draft and edited it a few times. Then I had to design my own cover and put my story onto a google slide. I found this writing a bit boring but I had to use my imagination which made it fun at the same time. This activity would be better if it was about a different book that I knew a little better.

Term 4 Week 6

The last 4 weeks of Term 4 the seniors have been going swimming. Our class and Room 19 decided to combine the swimming times. Normally each class gets 3 days a week to go swimming but now our classes have 5 days a week. On Mondays and Wednesdays the group that is still learning how to swim and float (Squirtles) has their lessons. On Tuesdays and Thursdays the group that is a little better at swimming (Blastoise) has their lessons. On Fridays everyone has lots of fun while both groups play games! :)

On Fridays we play netball in the pool. It's really fun and it's all about teamwork, - and being able to through and catch. :) I'm in the Squirtles group because I don't know how to swim properly. I have learnt how to float on my front, on my back and how to kick. I have already started learning freestyle swimming and I think I am very close to being able to do it properly.

Out of all the Squirtles in my class, my friend and I are the only ones that went swimming every single swimming day for Squirtles. I have lots of fun swimming aswell as learning. When we get changed before and after we are in the pool the girls and boys have a competition between eachother to see who can get changed the fastest. Normally girls win but it's pretty close to even scores.

Ballad - Bob the Dinosaur

My Reflection:

I have been learning to write a ballad. A ballad is a poem that had 4 lines per stanza. I had to use the ABCB poem pattern. The ABCB poem pattern is a poem style. Each letter represents a line. If the letters are the same it means that those lines are the same. Example of the last words in a stanza:
A - hungry
B - home
C - line
B - dome

You might have also seen some AABB poem patterns.

I had to plan what will be the main topic in each stanza and what words rhyme and what words I could use. Then I put them together to make the poem. I had lots of fun writing this poem and I can't wait to do another.

Geometry Nets - Square Pyramid

My class has been learning about nets in maths. A net is an unfolded 3D shape. This is a square pyramid.

I made this out of paper I drew a square, 6cm x 6cm, and then the same sized triangles on each side. I also made little flaps on the triangles to stick them together.  I cut it out and stuck the flaps to the other triangle, making a square pyramid.

Youthtown Certificate

A Perfect Spring Day

A Perfect Spring Day

Walking outside and seeing lime green grass covering the Earth’s floor. Feeling the slightest breeze passing through my door. Looking in the sky seeing nothing at all. Seeing huge trees, straight and tall. Looking over in the garden, there’s blue flowers, red. What a great place to put a flower bed. Suddenly company comes out the door. They have a ball, they drop it to the floor. Kicking the ball around and around. You kick the ball up and it hits the ground. Looking at the trees, they start to sway. This really is A Perfect Spring Day.

My Reflection:

I have been learning to write a story about A Perfect Spring Day in my opinion. I had to think about the weather, what I would do and about my senses. It also had to be in the present tense. I decided to make t rhyme because I realized the first 2 sentences could rhyme so I did it for the the rest of the text.

Camp MERC Recount - Stack 'em High

Camp MERC Recount

Stack ‘em High

Filled with energy, I was quickly bobbing up and down in my seat, waiting for my turn for Stack ‘em High (The best activity at camp). While watching the others I was grinning widely. I had to put on my harness because it was almost my turn, which I could hardly wait for. Then it finally came.

Connecting me to the ropes was our instructor, Gus. I had seen so many pictures of other people doing Stack ‘em. It was the activity I so longed to do. I was jiggling a bit and smiling to myself.

After putting my helmet on, I finally stood on the first crate. That was easy. I stood on another and another and another. Eventually I reached.. 5? That’s when my legs started to wobble, and the crates did the same. I was passed the next crate by my parent helper and I stood on it. That was 6.

Aswell as all the other kids and our parent helper, my teacher was watching me. After making it to 7 my legs were moving so much. I had no idea how I made it to 7 crates. Other kids only got 5 or 6, and they weren’t as scared as I was.

With my legs still like jelly, the crates kept shaking. I didn’t know how long I could have kept this up. My teacher was still watching me. She said that I should just concentrate on the crates and trick my mind to stop thinking about how scared I was.

Trying to do what she said, I put my 8th crate on. I was so proud, but my heart was racing. Knowing that my parent helper, who was passing me the crates, couldn’t reach me anymore made me more scared. I don’t know why.

After standing on the 8th crate I was freaking out. Like, really freaking out. I was then passed the 9th crate. That was when my legs were really becoming uncontrollable. I stood on the 9th crate, swayed quickly and the crates were tumbling over like dominos.

After being lowered to the ground I was unclipped. I became alot calmer, and I was taking really deep breaths. I took my harness of and admired that I got to 9 crates! 1 crate away from the 2016 Camp record! It really was the best activity at camp.

My Reflection:

I have been learning to write a 'Show don't Tell' recount. Our class talked about everything your body does when your excited, relieved, angry, scary, nervous, brave and sad. We brainstormed how your body reacts to feelings. For this recount, we chose 1 activity from Camp MERC and wrote down what we did, how we felt, and how our body reacts to it. For example: Scared- Legs shacking. We then started drafting. After finishing we had to highlight all the parts of our recounts that make the reader work out how we are feeling - how we 'Show don't Tell'.

Camp MERC Certificate

Mathletics First in the Country Certificate

This is my Mathletics certificate for first class in the country for Mathletics. Everyone is Room 20 got a certificate for it.

What Makes me Odd

My class has been reading 'A Wrinkle in Time'. We were looking at the author's messages. We worked out that one of them was that 'being odd is a good thing'. So we did a follow up activity about what makes us odd. I have alot of things that are very odd about me so I found this easy. :) 

Information Report

I have been learning about the marine life issues and making a report. I was sick the days room 20 talked about it but I helped at the end. After finishing the reports all the groups shared their report. Then the other groups gave feedback and then they improved.

Mathletics Gold Certificate

This is my gold Mathletics Certificate for getting 20 bronze certificates :D

Auckland Landscape Painting

My Reflection:

Room 20 has been learning to make an artwork of Auckland city. First we had to paint yellow, orange and red onto a blank piece of paper. We had to blend the colors to make it look like a sunset. Then we hang them all up to dry. Next we made the buildings and the sky tower. When everyone was making theirs I was sick, so I had to make it on a spare afternoon but I was very fast. After that I got a sponge and did the water with blue paint. Then I glued the buildings on and left it to dry. I chose not to do the grass at the bottom because I liked the artworks without it. I found it fun and easy and I would like to do something like this again.

My Haiku Poem - Flowers

This is my Haiku Poem. I wrote it because we have Japanese students coming to our school on Thursday and this is a Japanese type of writing. :)

Making a Prediction

My Speech 2016 - Stopping Animal Cruelty

Speech 2016 - Stopping Animal Cruelty

Introduction	Would you rather be an 8 month old puppy, stolen from your owner then being burned, kicked, punched, forced to eat drugs and left to die, or be used as bull bait, have half your face torn off, get a broken jaw and then be left on the streets to die? Well, animals don’t get to choose. Infact, 7.6 million animals are taken into an animal shelters each year, so just imagine how many animals don’t make it, and imagine how many people get away with it! Because of cruel and heartless people, animals are abused through circus´, animal testing and people that think it’s okay. I don’t think it’s okay, and you will find that millions agree with me. Animal cruelty needs to stop right now!
Reason 1: Animal testing	A very big part of animal cruelty is animal testing. We don’t need another soap, food ingredient or eyeliner at the expense of an animal’s life. Animals have to suffer through bleeding, poisoning, burning, and more. 92% of drugs that are tested on animals and succeed, are then tested on humans and fail. It’s pointless. People test on animals instead of humans because less people would miss an animal, which may be true, but if we didn’t test at all, then no one would die in the first place. Animals don’t forget how badly they are treated. They do have feelings. Why do you think animals protect their young? We need to stop animal testing as soon as possible.
Reason 2: Pointless cruelty	Heaps of people, all over the world, think animal cruelty is funny. They don’t think about how they would feel if it happened to them. They don’t think about how tired, sad, hurt or scared the animals must be. Some people like to take their anger out on pets. Others just do it for fun, when it is pointless. Animals die because of cruel and unreasonable people. The 2 stories from my introduction were true! And there are many more other cruelty stories all over the web. Things like this happen way more then it should, actually, it should never happen at all!
Reason 3: Circus’ and Rodeos	Another very big part of animal cruelty are because of circus’. Circus’ are a popular form of entertainment. But no one thinks about the animals that spend 97% of their life behind bars, the lions that have to jump through fire, monkeys on bikes and elephants standing on their hind legs. The average circus travels about 48 out of 52 weeks every year. All the animals inside are shoved into tiny cages with only enough room to stand and turn around in. And to top that off, they get physically punished if they do not do what humans want them to do. Fortunately, investigators have been secretly recording how humans get animals to do their tricks. Tight collars, bull hooks, whips, electric prods and other painful tools are used to punish animals until they can do the job right. Investigators have witnessed bruising, bleeding and even broken bones as part of the torture.
Conclusion	Imagine having any of these things happen to you. All those animals who will go the extra mile for you when you wouldn’t even cross the street for them. So instead of treating our animals like a worthless chew toy, why not treat them with respect. :)

My Reflection:

I have been learning to write a speech. First I had to do a brainstorm and put all my ideas on the paper. Then I chose what I would put in my speech and starting to draft. After that I took it to the teacher to proof-read. I then did some editing and finished it. I starting writing it last term and it turned out great. I am very proud and I have also been helping to edit/write speeches. Next week is the speech finals and I hope I made it :D

Term 3 Week 1

Term 3 Week 1

This week is the first week back at school after the 2 week holidays. This is going to be the busiest term this year. Even though it's only the first week, we have already started art, cross country, netball, reading, a new novel, new SDL (check other Term _ Week _ to see what SDL is), bike skills and we are also preparing for Japanese buddies who are coming to our school in week 4. My highlight this week is art.

On Tuesday this week, we started a brand new art project called 'Dice Art' where you have a piece of paper and designs on it. When you roll the dice, whatever number you get, you will have to do a design on a blank piece of your paper.

On the first roll, you do the middle. On the second roll, you do petal kind of shapes. On the third roll, you do some sort of lines. Then on your last roll, you do some kind of different lines and weird shapes. After putting all the shapes together you get a flower. Luckily, you don't have to do only one of each, so you can use more than 1 petal on your flower and stuff like that. It would look really weird if you couldn't.

Some look way more realistic then others. Some look very strange, not like flowers at all. I kept getting the same patterns so sometimes I had to roll again. Some of mine looks like a normal picture of a flower. After doing all the rolling and drawing, I finished mine. I was one of the first to finish, or maybe I was the first. Not completely sure.

When I finished mine, I went over the drawings with a vivid. Now we are going to use pastel or dye to color it in. Most likely dye. Or both. We are still debating. :)

After I finish my art, it will most likely be posted on my blog. I am very exited and I think they are going to look really cool! :)

A Wrinkle in Time - SDL Task

The Green Book - Problems and Solutions

 

Over the past few weeks we have been reading a book called The Green Book. As part of a follow-up activity we had to name the problems in a type of map and the solutions.

My Reading Challenge 2016

This is my reading challenge for 2016. There are lots of different categories. Each category, I have to read a book. For example, one is 'A book with a one word title', so I had to read the book 'Thirst', well, I didn't have to. But you get the idea. At the end of the year I have to read a book from each category. I like reading and I am ahead of most people in the class at the moment. It's a really fun challenge but a bit hard.