Prizegiving 2016

WALT: Write a reflection on current events in our school. 

On Thursday the eighth of December, we had our 2016 Prize Givings. The senior Prize Giving was held in the evening. While the junior’s was in the afternoon the seniors (year five-eight’s) stayed in class waiting for their Prize Giving to come. Our annual school Prize Giving would announce the year eight leadership roles. Next I will be a year eight so I was so excited.   

Three days before Prize Giving, I got an envelope that said I was getting a prize. Butterflies flew around in my stomach. My brain was trying to figure out what it was for. The day of Prize Giving I was bouncing around like a loose spring. It came to my shower and I was singing like Beyonce. That evening when I arrived, I saw my friend and went to stand with her. We waited for a while before going inside the hall to sit. Kapa haka performed first, followed by the team four’s class awards. After that the year five’s academics and their performance. Next was the sport awards for the middle part of the school (year four to six). Then the year six’s academics and their performance.  Prizes for year sevens were coming up.

Team fives class prizes were awarded. Just before our year seven performance, the year seven academics were called. “In third place”, said our principal ”Seini!”. I cheered because Seini is a close friend. Cameo came in second place and I came in first. I have a trophy and one certificate. We then performed our dance. Every other award was given out and then it came to the top of the school. It was a first equal with my friend coming third place.

Prize Giving this year was my best Prize Giving. I was awarded first in academic with no equal. The last prizes went out and the leadership roles for 2017 were announced. All the house captains and Maori leaders were called before prefects. The first three female prefects and then my name was called. I stood up and gave a big hug to Heather(one of my good friends).

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I tried to use as many new vocabulary as I could. I am very exited for next year and hope to do well. Next year, I will try to post something about being a prefect.

If I were Prime Minister...

WALT: Update our self's in current events.

On Monday, John Key resigned from New Zealand Prime Minister. He felt it was time to go. He spent 10 years in parliament and 8 years as the leader of the National Party. He said, “a good leader knows when to step down”. The responsibilities of a Prime minister, is to… go to all the parliament meetings, run the country, making laws for the country, taking care of our big problems and loads more. We thank him for his efforts, but the TPPA I just don’t like. TPPA stands for Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

Even though I twelve, I still have a thought about money and what it means to the world. To me, money is nothing; to other people, money is everything. I would say education is much more important than money. There are probably people in New Zealand who are smart enough to have a career but don’t because of money. Yes there are scholarships, but some still require money. Money that people can’t pay because their jobs don’t pay. If I ever become Prime Minister.

If I were Prime Minister, I would care more about the rivers, homeless and work on what people are getting compared to what other people are getting. I don’t think I would do the right math to figure out comparing of job payments. Since I’m only twelve, I don’t think I’ll do well on getting all the knowledge in my head.

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The task for this week was to write about being prime minster. We wrote about problems we would change, laws we don't like and things like that. My main problem is in the second paragraph. I thought about because I wrote this at school. Some problems New Zealand face are hard but the views and landscape are amazing.

Thinkboard - Week 4

WALT: Use B.E.D.M.A.S more often.

 In Week 4, we learnt about B.E.D.M.A.S in maths. For my think-board, I used B.E.D.M.A.S to solve the question. I learnt what B.E.D.M.A.S is and what the letters stand for.

B- Brackets, solve whats in the brackets first.

E- Exponents, solve any exponents.

D- Division, if there is any division in the question, answer it.

M- Multiplication, solve any multiplication problems.

A- Addition, add any numbers that need to be added. 

S- Subtraction, Subtract any numbers that need to be subtracted. 

That is what I learnt in week 4.

Word Problem 2

WALT: Applying my number knowledge to word problems.

This week we learnt about word problems. The presentation that you see above is the second presentation of this week. In this, I show how I solved it and the answer. The strategy I used to solve most of these questions was...

1. Read

2. Underline important information

3. Select a strategy 

4. Solve

5. Check

I found these five steps really helpful during solving the questions. 

Edwards Tree

WALT: Use the following image to write a narrative.

Remember to use TOPS: 

Title, Orientation, Problem and Solution.

 

“Papa!” Anna searched, “Papa where are you”. Anna’s grandfather (Edward) poked his head around the corner. “Over here with your father” he answered. They had been figuring out costs for Anna’s education. Anna walked over to the kitchen and sat down next to her dad. “How was school?” asked Anna’s dad. She shrugged her shoulders as if she didn’t know. Edward changed the subject, “We haven’t had afternoon tea yet”. “I think we should have it under the tree” he suggested. Anna and James (her dad) agreed.

They all brought snacks out to the backdoor. All three of them sat down under the tree. That was usually where they sat for their talks. James, Edward and Anna talked for hours. Edward slowly stood up and clicked his back. “Wow Dad, you can still click your back” said James. Seconds later Edward fell to the ground. Anna and James tried to get him up but he was gone. James called the ambulance but it was to late. Edward had no pulse.

His funeral was over. Anna and James needed to think about where to bury him. They had a good idea where to bury him. During the burying, Anna looked up at the special tree. She fell to her knees and start pouring her eyes out. Anna turned to her dad, “can we call the tree Edward?”. He looked down to Anna and nodded his head. From then on out, that was known as the Edward tree.

A few weeks later, Anna went to the mail-box to collect the mail. James grabbed one of the letters and opened it. James told Anna to sit down; “sweetie, we’re broke”. She immediately ran outside to the Edward tree. He followed her to the tree. “What do you mean we’re broke?” she asked. “We have no money” he said. They both knew that meant no food, no house and no Edward tree. “Can we shape the tree into papa’s head so we can remember him?”. Of course, his answer was yes.

For the next three weeks they spent cutting the edges of the tree. At the end of the third week, they had finished. The house was still on sale. A few days Anna went to get the mail. She handed the letter with her father’s name on it. He slid his nail through the letter and opened it. It had a million dollars in it. The house was saved from selling!

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Our task was to write a narrative with the picture at the top.We had 5 min to brainstorm/plan and 35 min to write. In that time, I got to finish this. This piece of writing was a practise test. Since it was a practise test, we had to remember everything we had learnt through the year. Here is my planning:

T: Edward’s Tree

O 1st Paragraph : Anna and her dad James love this tree on their property. When they are together, they sit under the tree and talk.

P 2nd Paragraph: James is broke and can’t afford the house anymore. Both James and Anna cut the edges off the tree. The tree is then shaped into the head of James’ dad and Anna’s Grampa.

S 3rd Paragraph :  A stranger gave James a million dollars as an act of kindness.

I hope you enjoyed my writing.

Discussion of Matter

Walt: Synthesise information from multiple sources.

Task: Work on this Doc together with a partner.

What 3 ingredients are needed for rust to occur.

Metal

Oxygen from the air (O)

Water (H2O)

Write a brief paragraph explaining the rusting process (why rusting occurs)

When some metals are exposed with water and oxygen, it forms rust. Rust is a type of corrosion. Rusting occurs when H2O (water) and O (oxygen) is in contact with iron or steel. The rusting process becomes faster when salty water or acid rain is applied.

                                                                                                        

How could you prevent something from rusting?

By preventing metal from rusting you can paint it or put a layer of oil or grease over the metal. It is a good idea to use this as a solution so that the oxygen could bounce off the metal instead of rusting it, depending on what kind of environment  the metal is in.

Write 3 sentences explaining something new you’ve learned from this reading.

We learnt that the term corrosion is used to describe metal breaking down when it is exposed to the environment. We also learnt that rusting can be prevented when you either paint, grease/oil or a process called galvanizing. An example of galvanizing is when you put zinc and iron together, the zinc protects the iron but it sacrifices itself because zinc reacts more than the iron.

Word Problems 1

WALT: Applying my knowledge to word problems. 

This week in maths, we learnt about word problems. We learnt how to figure out if the word problem was to be solved with... addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. The five steps to solve a word problem...

1. Read

2. Underline important information

3. Select a strategy 

4. Solve

5. Check

I have learnt lots from this and hope to remember this for the future.

Visual Mihi

WALT: Create a Visual Mihi.



This is my visual Mihi from Term 1.
The top left image represents dancing. I love dancing and Ballet is just one of a kind. In the top on the right is a bible. This represents my religion and what I believe. Below the bible is the meaning of outdoors. I love exploring and finding things like twigs, mud and leaves to make weird things. The two flags at the left bottom represents my background and where I came from. The picture of me represents my life and how I love it.

Rust task

Walt: Synthesise information from multiple sources.

Task

Work on this Doc together with a partner. My partner was Seini.

What 3 ingredients are needed for rust to occur.

Metal

Oxygen from the air (O)

Water (H2O)

Write a brief paragraph explaining the rusting process (why rusting occurs)

When metal is near water and oxygen, it forms rust. Rusting occurs when H2O (water) and O (oxygen) is in contact with iron or steel. The rusting process becomes faster when salty water or acid rain is applied.

                                                                                                        

How could you prevent something from rusting?

By preventing metal from rusting you can paint it or put a layer of oil or grease over the metal. It is a good idea to use this as a solution so that the oxygen could bounce off the metal instead of rusting it, depending on what kind of environment  the metal is in.

Write 3 sentences explaining something new you’ve learned from this reading.

We learnt that the term corrosion is used to describe metal breaking down when it is exposed to the environment. We also learnt that rusting can be prevented when you either paint, grease/oil or a process called galvanizing. An example of galvanizing is when you put zinc and iron together, the zinc protects the iron but it sacrifices itself because zinc reacts more than the iron.

Beginning of the Holidays

Yesterday was the last day of term three 2016 for me. Today I was homesick and did not go to school. I am also missing the year 5 to 8 school disco. Tomorrow, my family and I are going to the South Island. This means that I am on holiday early. In some ways that is so cool... but in other ways, I really wanted to go to loud shirt and wheels day. Loud shirt and Wheels day is when you bring a colourful shirt and something that is on wheels. Something such as roller skates, scooters even bikes. Sadly I won't be there to see all cool things.



In the South Island, I will post daily. I will post things about what I am doing, the lovely people I have been wanting to meet and more. There are so many amazing places we are going and I can not wait to go! The problem is that we are leaving tomorrow and I need to pack. I better pack fast so I can have so sleep. Tomorrow I am going to do my best to be kind to my
siblings in the long car trip. We are probably going to be asleep most of the way but I still need to keep in mind about the school korero's. Wheoritia te atawhai is what I need to keep in mind especially. Make kindness go viral and Wheoritia te atawhai Is our theme for this year. My next holiday post will be about how the car trip went. Lets look forward to it.

Thinkboard - Week 9

WALT: Add decimals.

This week our think-board was based around adding decimals. I used the strategy of partitioning. Underneath this text is one example of this strategy being use. 

As you can see, I keep the first number the same and spilt the second number. I find this much more easy for subtracting and adding decimals.

Sentence Structures

WALT:I can use different sentence types in my paragraphs.

This term in writing, we are learning about a lot of things. One thing we are really focusing on, is our sentences. Our sentences types. We are learning and practising to use different types of sentences (in our writing). This task is helped us to understand and practise different sentence types. 

We are learning about simple sentences: Women are now eligible to be in the 

Olympics. 

Another sentence type we're learning about, are compound sentences: Every year athletes train for the Olympics.

Finally, we are learning about complex sentences: Rather than watching the Olympics, women now compete.  

Ratios 1

WALT: Identify ratios. 

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This week we focused our learning on ratios. This presentation is just one of the two presentation this week. In both presentation there are questions which we have to answer as ratios. There are different ways to write ratios.
You can write it with a slash (/) in the middle of the numbers: 2/8
You can write it with "to" in the middle of the numbers: 2 to 8

You can write it with a colon (:) in the middle of the numbers: 2:8
You can write it with what it is that you are count and then a to before the second number: 2 blues to 8 greens.

Sentence Types

WALT: I understand what different types of sentence I can use in my writing.

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We have been learning about different types of sentences. We learnt about simple, compound and complex sentences and how to make them. My favourite sentence type is the compound sentence. It is my favourite because  I love finding conjunctions that suites my sentence.

German Twin Hand holding

WALT: 

1. Justifying - I clarify and justify my own interpretation and understanding of complex ideas and issues.

2. Analysing - I analyse ideas and formation to reflect critically on the meaning.

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This week in reading, we read a article about twins hand holding while crossing the finish line for the marathon in the Rio Olympics 2016. The twins crossed the finish line and some people were crossed with them. They gave bad comments and some people tried to defend them. We were also given another article to read which was about Abby D'Agostino and NIkki Hamblin. Our task was to make a venn diagram comparing and contrasting the two articles (which is on slide 5). 

Thinkboard - Week 7

WALT: Add decimals.

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This week our think-board is about adding decimals. Every time I use partitioning for decimals, I am always reminded of my important rule. Never spilt up the first number when using partitioning. I find it much easier when I use that rule. It helps me a lot so I use a lot. I use that rule to solve the 10 other similar questions. 

Thinkboard - Week 6

WALT: Add and subtract decimals.

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This week we were given this think-board. The whole think-board is based around subtracting decimals. What I learnt is that when using partitioning for subtracting decimals, never spilt up the first number. I learnt never spilt up the first number but spilt up the second. For example: 2.534 - 1.112=?

2.534 - 1= 1.543

1.543 - 0.1=1.443

1.443 - 0.01=1.433

1.433 - 0.002=1.431

So the answer would be 1.431. Please comment to see what I did with the subtracting and partition. 

Ratios and Proportions

WALT: Identify proportions and ratios.

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This week we learnt about ratios. We learnt things like how ratios compares part to part. We did a few easy questions and the last two slides were a bit harder.

Word Problems - Fractions

WALT: Use prior knowledge of fractions to solve the following word problems.

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In this presentation I solved these questions which were about fraction word problems. I found that all the question were similar in a way but different in a way. It was a bit confusing at first but I found it easier in the end.

Addition/Subtraction

WALT: Use prior knowledge of fractions to solve the following word problems.

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In week 4, we learnt about addition and subtraction in our math stages. We did not learnt about easy questions like 2+2=4. Our class solved adding and subtracting questions based around fractions and decimals.

Decimals Intro

WALT: We are learning to multiply decimals and how to read out numbers with decimal.

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This is the maths presentation for the week that I filled out. I learnt a lot about decimals. One thing we focused on was the place value of a decimal. We also learnt where the decimal point goes.

Thinkboard - Week 5

WALT: Add and subtract decimals.

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This week, our think-board was all about adding decimals. Only decimals that only go up to the thousandths. I had help with my ten similar questions with my friend Htet htet. 

Ancient to Modern Gymnastics.

WALT: Learn more about the Olympics and find information through different sites.

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I have spent some time finding information on the web for this presentation. I did not use a lot of it. One site that I found interesting (which was about the ancient gymnastics) and how gymnastics was in the first Olympics. I also found it interesting that the ancient gymnastics had very different events then the modern gymnastics.

A gymnast down

WALT: Write a narrative based on a picture of the modern Olympics.

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Ella sat and looked upon her fellow competitors. She had a good stare at each gymnast station. In her head she knew that the beam was indeed the station she wanted to win in. Her coach came to her, “you’ve trained too hard to back out now”. She didn’t want to disappoint anyone, but the gymnast’s this year looked pretty high in the standards of gymnastics. “Miss Rasman”, the official called. “Miss Rasman, your up in twenty minutes”. Ella turned to the official and nodded. This was her year for three golds.

“No way I’m backing out now”, she told her coach. Ella faced her coach and he smiled. She then asked for some encouragement. A huddle was formed with Ella, her coach and her mother. Ella’s light brown hair bun, rested against her mother while her coach gave some encouraging words. “I hope that Ella Rasman will get a Gold and all her hard training will go to work”, her coach said.

It was time for the women's Olympic beam final. Ella had butterflies in her stomach caused by nervousness. She started the routine, before she knew it she was half way. With the splits in the air emotion came to her facials. Ella shook like crazy, fell and fainted. Without a blink of an eye the medical attention team came.

There she lay on a medical bed. Only her mother and coach could see that. But when she gained consciousness, she was not sure with where she was. Her mother nor coach were there. Ella made a high pitch scream. Heavy puffing came from Ella as she was surprised. Surrounded her was four walls with two windows. An alarm went off next to her, it was 8:00 in the morning. That moment she realized it was all a dream (and she was in a hotel room). This was the actual day that Ella Rasman would compete for the beam final.  

The whole dream was a bit confusing. I guess her dream works are pretty mean to her. A flock of butterflies rushed down through Ella as she was about to compete in the beam. She was ready alright. That day she won gold and was presented her medal. Ella Rasman had won her Olympic dream(to win three golds)!

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This week we wrote a narrative based on a picture. My picture was of Aly Raisman, a gymnast from the U.S.A. She has won three medals for Rio 2016. One gold and two silvers. When we edited our writing, some of us presented and read it to the class. One thing that my teacher said to check is the sentence types. Sentence types such as... simple sentences, compound sentences and complex sentences. Here is an example of a simple sentence. A splash appeared from behind the dolphin. Simple sentences only have one clause. Here is an example of a compound sentence.The man focused his eyes on the snow because the sun was to bright. Compound sentences have two clauses which is joined with a conjunction.  

Thinkboard - Week 4

WALT: Add and Subtract decimals.

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This week we focused our learning around subtracting decimals. Something I learnt this week is to never split up the first number of the equation, while partitioning. For example: 2.867 - 0.242 would equal to 2.625. This is how I solved it.

2.867-0.002=2.865

2.865-0.04=2.825

2.825-0.2=2.652

So the answer is 2.625. As you can see I split the second number and left the first number, the same.

Thinkboard - Week 3

WALT: Use prior knowledge of fractions to solve the following word problems.

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This week our learning was based around fractions. My 10 similar questions were answered and thought about with my friend Htet htet and I. One thing that I learnt, is that when you keep using a strategy that you have learnt, you will get better at it. This strategy that I have learnt in the diagram is fast and simple.

Olympic Medals

WALT: Learn more about the Olympics and find information through different sites.

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This week we are making presentations based around the Olympics. I choose to learn about the medals in the Olympics. One thing that I learnt really stood out. It was that the Gold medal has not been 100% made of Gold since the 1912 Olympics. Since then the Gold medal has been mostly Silver. I hope that you learnt something from this. 

Thinkboard- Week 2

WALT: Work with decimals.

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Last week we focused on decimals. We learnt about place value in decimals. Our teacher gave us a few questions before we started our think-board. For example: 11.34 x 0.6. The answer to this will be 6.804. One thing that I learnt is when you have the answer with no decimal, count how many numbers after the decimal point were there in the original question. Count from the right hand side the numbers after the decimal point and that decimal point will go.

Thinkboard - Week 10

WALT: Solve Fraction problems.

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Every think board that our teacher gives us, really gives us a boost in our presentation for the week. I have got a boost for my presentation and I think that it may still be a little hard.

Multiplication and Division- Week 2

WALT: Solve story problems using only multiplication and division strategies.

In week two we used a lot of algorithms and I was challenge. This post was very late but I still remember how I struggled with this presentation. I am fine with working with a algorithm but I did struggle. Here is an example for a problem and solution:

532

x 23

1596

10640

12236

I have learnt that if the bottom number has a number in the tens unit, it will always start with a zero. Just like the zero made bold. I think that the presentations after week 2 were much better with the solving.

The Woods

WALT: Write a narrative that has detail explaining the the basics things needed in a good narrative.

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For the first time in the twins life, they were late and this was dreadful. “What a bummer” said Mrs Thompson staring at Riley and Scarlett who were never late. Riley was quite tall for her age. Riley flicked her brown hair to one side and sighed. She turned her head to Theo who was sitting next to the twins who was also late. She shook her head and gave him an invitation to detention. Late comers always go to lunchtime detention in Room 3. Since the twins didn’t like Theo, they all had to sit next to each other during detention.

“We should probably get on with the show” their teacher told the class. Already on the chalkboard was written neatly what's happening that day and everyone’s name for individual class points. Their teacher wrote on the board the word ‘assignment’. Underneath she wrote that this assignment included a field trip. Nobody said anything but everyone was celebrating silently to themselves. Mrs Thompson turned from the chalkboard and the class stopped celebrating. “This assignment will be about biodiversity, it’s problems and how we can improve it” spoke Mrs Thompson. “We will be going with other classes”, she added.  

The classes were very loud and noisy but Scarlett sat in the long black back seat of the bus. She focused her attention on a piece of paper that was filled with her teachers handwriting. Scarlett took a step out of the bus and had a good stare at the bus. Riley was standing right next to her. “What are you looking at?”, Riley asked. Scarlett faced her sister and moved her eyebrows towards the bus. “Ok, but I mean why?” Riley stopped talking. In the corner of her eye there was a beam of light coming down from the sun towards one of the buses.

Theo was calling out for help because everything that was surrounding him was frozen. He heard an astonishing powerful voice which sounded like the smartie pants, Riley.  The boy walked slowly to where Riley and Scarlett stood. “What is this and why is it happening?”, Theo spoke with a demanding tone. “I don’t know” Riley spoke to his face, “but we have to save the city and whoever else that is having this weird issue”. The three kids walked home to grab their bikes and met at the park at ten o’clock sharp.   

As they headed into the woods again, they noticed track marks on the ground and broken twigs beside the marks. Then a high pitched scraping noise came from afar. Suddenly, right in front of their eyes, they saw what appeared to be a roof jutting about a foot out of the ground. They moved around the trees, down a handmade ladder and around to the front of a old wooden shack like hut. The three looked at each other and Scarlett stepped forward and knocked on the door. They could hear footsteps approaching and the door creaked open. To their surprise a grey haired old man stepped out of the hut. He invited them inside for a hot coco.

“I froze time to find my sweet, lovely granddaughter” he explain to them. “Who is she?” they all screamed. “Mrs Thompson”, he said with an uncertain tone. The three were very surprised. They told this old man that Mrs Thompson was their teacher. “I needed to see her!” he cried. Everyone put hands on him and Scarlett said, “you didn’t need to freeze time you just needed to get out of this hut and go to her”. The old man turned to the three and spoke, “you can call me Mr Johnson”. Everybody else told him their names. They brought him outside up the handmade ladder passed a few trees and out of the woods trail.

Everyone was frozen and Mr Johnson was having second thoughts of meeting his granddaughter again. He walked up to her and unfroze time. Then he hugged her, but she didn’t seem to like it. “Who are you?” she asked disgustedly. She stared into his eyes and she regretted asking that question. Mrs Thompson regretted asking because she knew exactly who it was. Mr Johnson nearly took a step back to his hut but before he could the biggest hug ever was made. “I’m sorry”, Mrs Thompson said. The grandfather and granddaughter are still in touch to this day and they couldn’t be more happier.

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