Phases of the Moon

WALT: Show in an animation the eight phases of the moon and show how the moon connects with the tides.

Even though this animation is a term late, I still have all the information I had in term three. I found it interesting that the tides are made from the moon. It's so fascinating. I just love the moon. Don't you?

Our Makey-Makey Project

WALT: Use the Makey Makey kit.

Makey-makey kit is a toy that allows users to connect everyday objects to computer programs. In class we got into groups and made different projects. Our task in our extension class were to get into groups of 4 or lower. Every group had to pick a project that includeed using the makey-makey kit. One choice was a game show. Their goal was to make a noise when a buzzer is pressed. Another choice was a band. Create instruments and play a song. The last choice was to make a game controller. This controller had to be suitable for one sort of disability.

 I was in a group with Moroni and Seini. We made controllers for a game that would be suitable for one disability. Our controllers were made to be suitable for people with amputated arms. This is our game looked like this.

 I was surprised to find out that I actually know quite a bit with the makey-makey kit. This game is a two player version of beat the goalie. It's supposed to be a rugby match between Australia and New Zealand. Even though all three of us worked on this, I think I really helped with the game. Moroni was good with the makey-makey and Seini with making the control. We all learnt something different from each other.

Everyone in our class really enjoyed our game. I enjoyed it to. From a scale of 1 to 10(1 being bad 10 being great) I rate this game a 8. The controls are easy to use but the game could use some more bling.

Catching Flounder

WALT: Write a recount about current events.

Flounder, yum yum! Today Pt England's flounder team are catching flounder. Not to eat but to farm. We're farming flounder in partnership with Kauri Flat School.

Everyone from Pt England walked down Riverside Avenue; all because those flounders. We sang three Himene (Hymn) to bless the flounder team. Also we said one Karakia (prayer) to bless the day. They are still catching flounder right now!

We're so excited for the flounder to be farmed. Our flounder farming tank is ready to go. Kauri Flat School have already caught four flounder. I'm hoping the team will get more than four. It's not a competition... but I'm still hoping for more than four. Can't wait to see our farm grow! Also the flounder to grow too!

The container just came back with the flounder in it. Our class went out to see the flounder. Their really really small. We couldn't count them. One of the fish was not a flounder. I think they'll release that fish back into the water.

Time Table Practise

WALT: Practise our time tables.

Most days we have a warm up activity. Today that activity is practising our time tables. We practise on a site called 'tablesmaster'. It's a cool site. I practised my 12 time tables. I not very fast but I think this is much that before. 

Pinetree

WALT: Analysing - I am able to distinguish between fact and opinion by identifying relevant language features the author has subtly used.

This post was supposed to be finish the week this legend died. But I guess I was a tiny bit late... or maybe a lot later then expected. I found out a lot of things about Sir Colin Meads. He was a great hero and I'm very sad about his death. 

Pt England School at AIMS

WALT: Reflecting - on writer and audience appeal in news articles and campaigning (advertising).

Yes, the Pt England seven's boys won the rugby seven AIMS tournament. WE'RE THE CHAMPIONS. Some people weren't as happy. All the locals were disappointed. But at least the Tauranga Indeterminate came second. 

The making of our class' Manaiakalani film festival movie

WALT: Write about our experience of movie making for Manaiakalani Film Festival.

Manaiakalani is the trust which allows 13 schools to learn with chrome books. Every year the Manaiakalani trust has a film festival. All 13 schools go to the movie theater throughout the week of the film festival. All the film festival movies, are made from classrooms over 13 schools. My class' movie has three parts.

I think the part of the movie I'm in is very funny. The biggest challenge of filming had to be keeping in character. Everyone couldn't stop laughing. Everything was just so hilarious. It took one whole hour to film the our little part. My highlight was laughing. Laughing was my highlight and low light. I can't wait to see it on the big screen at the film festival.

Next year, I'm going to high school. That means this is the last time I'll experience the making of the Manaiakalani film festival. Can't wait to go to the movie theater to see our amazing but funny movie.

Click on this link to go to past movies from past film festivals.

Multiplication Pyramid

WALT: Practice our multiplication.

Most weeks we use the Multiplication Pyramid to get our brains started for the week. How it works is...

when you first get there are only the bottom layer of number, multiply the numbers and put the answer in the top box. For example, in the bottom left corner of the pyramid the multiplication equation would be... 5 x 1. My answer is in the box above.

Transformations

WALT: Rotate, reflect and translate shapes.




This weeks learning in maths included a very fun activity. Our task was to partner up and figure out who was B and who was A. Our teacher would call things like, "partner A pose at 180 degrees clockwise. Now partner B copy what your partner is doing but do it reflection".

Rotating Shapes Questions

WALT: Learn about rotate, reflect and translate shapes.

This week we learnt about shapes and angles. Our class went onto a site called 'maths is fun'. We answered questions based around rotation, reflection and translation shapes. The first picture is a question I found easy. It is 'The square is rotated one complete turn about the point O. Which of the following shows the new position of the square?'. The other question is the question that I found hard. It is 'When this rectangle is rotated about the point (2.0) by 30% anticlockwise (counterclockwise), which one of these would it look like?'. I just didn't get it. This week my goal is to make the difficult questions easier for me to understand. 

Geometry 3D Model

WALT: Draw a 2D representation of a 3D model. Draw a plan for the side, front and top view of a 3D model.


You may have seen my post about a learning about geometry. This is the final results. My partner did really well and nearly had the perfect model.

Speech Competition

You may have seen my speech from a few weeks ago. Well everybody in Year 7 & 8 (at our school) made a speech as well. Three of the best speeches from each literacy classes were chosen and had a little speech off. The three from our classroom were... Yvonne, Seini and Atareita. I think they were awesome. You can read about it here. In every speech, I could feel that everyone was nervous. Sitting there I thought of some things I could include in my speech.
Fifteen speeches were given in front of all year 7 & 8's. My favourite speech had to be the first. Her speech was about a sad personal story.  I nearly cried.

Those speeches have been marked. Now we're waiting for the top five speeches to be announced. Can't wait to see who was the best!

Geometry Cube Rockets

Today we started our maths lesson for the week. We are learning about Geometry. We've got a task that comes along with it. In our maths book we designed our cube rockets. Our task was to try to figure out in our minds, what it would look like from the top, side and front. We partnered up with a person. Tomorrow our partners are going to try and build the rocket. Their gonna try to build it with only the drawing (in our math books) of the top, side and front.  Can't wait for tomorrow.

All this data is going to be recorded onto a presentation. It will be posted by the end of the week.

'I wonder' Question Animation

WALT: Animate our answers.

Every term, we have to make an animation. This term we made our animation animate our answers to a question. This question had to say 'I wonder' in the beginning of the question.

Number Knowledge

WALT: Add and subtract negative numbers.

Last week in maths we learnt about adding and subtracting. We learnt that negative numbers can be very useful in life. For example when you buy something and give money over the price, you should know the change you need back.

GEGNZ Student Summit

Last Friday the year 7 & 8 Pt England extension group went to the Google Educator Group New Zealand student summit. We entered early with plenty of time to spare. Ormiston Junior College hosted this event. There were three sessions of lots of many workshops. Two of them were presented from us. Every workshop were about something different. For example: one workshop was based around coding with robots. Ormiston Junior College MLE's were our space to learn in. There were about 400 hundred other students there. It was absolutely incredible! Before the workshop sessions started we had a big welcome in Auditorium. The people from young oceans explorer also talked to us. (visit their site it's really cool).

It was then time for the workshops! The extension group was split in half. One half was presenting their workshop during session 1. I was in the second half. We first went a workshop for a whole lot of robot coding. It was presented by Sunnyhill school. The next session we presented. It was about coding in scratch. You may know that the year 7&8 extension group have been making scratch games. We nearly taught them how to make beat the goalie. Our workshop didn't have enough time to finish. The last session we learnt about telegrami. It's a great app that allows you to record well a cartoon character's mouth moves to the words of the recording. Anyway, it's really cool. The goodbye in the auditorium was awesome! Prizes were given. Four students form Pt England won a prize. Once all the prizes were gone everyone took a really big selfie. It's that photo right there. Suan (the man in the right bottom corner) works for google. He talked about how we are inventors. Everyone looked at him confused. In our minds we were like, 'what? me an inventor!'.  He then told us, "you can change the world by changing ourselves". That's exactly what I'm gonna do.The GEGNZ student summit is very cool. I'm leaving Point England for high school so I won't be going next year. It's very sad but I'm glad I can look back on this experience with a smile.

Measurement Part 2

WALT: Make estimates of lengths and convert between metres and centimetres.

Measurements are awesome! Don't you think? That's why I'm so happy to be learning about them in class. I learnt that measurements are important in life. You can use it to help with shopping. Which is something I do most days. If I can use measurements so can you!

Night Light

WALT: Identify features of a non-fiction text.

Measurements

WALT: Make estimates of lengths. Convert between metres and centimetres

This is last week's maths. We are learning about measuring and all the different types of measurement. Those types are...

millimetres, centimetres, metres, tonne, milligram, centigram, grams, kilogram, millilitres, centilitres, litres just to name a few.

Speech Reflection

WALT:  Reflect on our given speech.

This is our reflection on our speeches. It's pretty much our thoughts on our speech. I really think I can improve next time.