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. 

Scratch Game Reflection

WALT: Create a game on Scratch.

This term we have made a game on scratch. Scratch is a website that allows you to create all kind of things with code. In extension we have gotten into groups of two or three and made a shooting/maze game set in space. The game has three levels and lots of challenges. My partners name is Mo. He drew most of the backgrounds, targets and sprites(characters).

The most challenging part of all of this had to be the coding. I learnt a few new tricks from last term. The coding in level three was pretty hard. Trying to get the alien to move. It just wouldn't work! But Finally it worked and heres the finished product.

All of the levels have the own stripes and we had their challenges. On level one the challenge was the background. It just wouldn't listen to our code. But with the magic of other coding blocks put together, we finally got to level two. Our second level is a shooting level. We found it difficult to get the gun to actually shoot. Lucky enough Mo and I watched different tutorials and found out what we needed to do. The last level had the hardest challenge which you know all ready. To get the alien to move!

You can play the game and find out what you think of it. Make sure you look at the instructions (on the right) before playing. Heres the link. Below is a little of what it looks like.

 Background 3

Background 2

Background 3

Fraction Word Problems

WALT: Finish the follow up activity.



Our task was to...

1. Make sure you read the questions in full before attempting to answer them.
2. Highlight the important parts of the question.
3. Make sure you show all working.

I did all of this. Some may be wrong but I really did try my best. I found the question on slide number four. How I solved it was by...

Taking the information and using it. Like this;

This would have been really helpful if we had a presentation this week. But I've already finished it and now I just needed to post this.

Why do we need to drink water?

WALT: Use the' Title-Introduction-Information-Conclusion (TIIC) structure to write an explanation.  

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Why do we need to drink water?  I ask myself that question all the time. Then I answer that question with… to keep hydrated.  But that isn’t the only answer.  I’m gonna tell you about how drinking water can help you.

Keeping hydrated is one of the number one things of drinking water. When you’re dehydrated you lose fluids.  You could lose those fluids from diarrhea, vomiting, sweating or exercise.  Headaches can bug you and can be painful.  With water, headaches can be prevented and cured with water.

Water is so helpful for everything; from washing cars to have a relaxing time in the pool.  We know that we use water to wash off dirt on the outside of our bodies. But did you know that is can also clean the inside of our bodies. Water cleanses the toxins and digestive systems. When you're choking and drink a glass, the choking stops. That is because it goes through your mouth and to where the choking is happening. It pushes the food down into your stomach.

Don’t take water for granted. There are places in the world where water is hard to get. If you have great supply of water, use it wisely.

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This writing was from many weeks ago but here it is now. It took a while for me to get it done but its here now. I learnt that when writing a explanation is that you need TIIC. That means Title, Introduction, Information and Conclusion.

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.

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.

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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Fiafia 2016 - (Post 1)

WALT: Write a quick text talking about Fiafia and how we are feeling about.

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I have a question for you. What two days start with T that are not Tuesday and Thursday?... Today and tomorrow! Those are the two days we are going to be performing in front of a crowd on stage. Today we are going to be having our rehearsal today and the actual Fiafia tomorrow. This is my last Fiafia as we have Fiafia every second year. To fill in an exciting thing for year in between Fiafia that extra year we have a production which is next year.

Fiafia has been going over 16 years. It is all about us (the students) performing in different groups with our amazing tutors. There culture groups and other groups like hip hop. All together we have 18 Fiafia groups. Some groups have two groups like for seniors and juniors. Other groups may have more one groups because they have one group for boys and one group for girls. An example of a group is the senior Samoan group. I am in that group and our tutor is Timmy. Our dance was not to  challenging to learn or to easy learn. The song to the dance is called Samoa e.

One thing I love about Fiafia is the food and performances. They are both so good, especially the food. There are lots of stalls where you can buy from. The stalls are only open a 

certain amount of time. Talking about time, there is also a certain time that we have to be there to get dressed. Before I get really excited, rehearsals come first before the actual event. We had a rehearsal with all the groups just after morning tea. This practise went until Lunch. It was a long rehearsal but I survived. I pretended that the rehearsals were the real event so I tried to do my best to sing, to smile and to dance. Just as I did in the rehearsal I will try to do my best.

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Fiafia is here!! In the intermediate block, we wrote about Fiafia and how I feel about it. I posted this two days later so might not make to much sense. I wrote this in two days so that is a another reason it might not make sense. This is my writing for before Fiafia and I will be writing another one about Fiafia the actual event.

Our School Production-Reflection

Reflection

On the twenty second to the twenty fourth of September, our school had a production. The Production was about Cindy who meets a boy named Josh. It was a production about Cinderella but Pt England style though. I was in the production, sadly nothing important but still in it. Even though I was nothing important, I still enjoy being a dancer.

Since I was a dancer, I was in three dances. I really hope I can be in the next production. Before the Production was seen by an audience, we had to practise hard every week. The first real audience we performed to two whole schools, a bit of another school and other people who do extra things for us in our school. We performed for them at twelve o’clock on the twenty first of September.

On the first night of the production, I was really scared to perform in front of my family. I just acted like my sister who was the main act (Cindy)  and pretended that I wasn’t scared. When I went onto the stage I was not that nervous. All I was thinking about was what I would do in the holidays and how I could make it fun for myself. I am pretty sure that I looked good from a view in the audience.

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Review

On the twenty first, twenty second, twenty third, twenty fourth and twenty fifth our school produced a production about Cindy. The whole title is Cindy In Da House, the production was about a story based on Cinderella but a bit different. On the twenty first, the matinee was shown to three other schools other than Pt England School and two preschools.

The three other days it was shown at night at seven o’clock. On the twenty fifth, the production was performed to the whole school who was there. It was not as good as the night productions and the matinee.

Because it was performed four times, that meant a lot of practice for the people in the production. Lots of people said it was great so the people in the production didn’t practise for nothing. Cindy In The House was awesome from my point of view, but I don’t know about the next production. If I were to give a rating a would give it a big 4/5.

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Little Egg Friend

WALT: Think about my purpose and reader by planning my recount.

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Our teacher has been getting us to do weird things. First noodles, then blindfold now egg friend race. How could our teacher get more silly.

Before the race, we had to get into pairs and our teacher would give us a friend, a egg friend. Once we got a egg friend, we had to give it a name and face. After the whole class had  done that, we were given the instructions to stand up and line up outside. Nobody had a clue what we were doing until…  we ended up at the park.

Every pair got a spoon and then our teacher told us we were going to do a race with our buddy. Everyone had to decide in their pairs, who was going to go first through the playground. Me and my partner decided that I would go first. Once I started, I was coming first until I took a risk. The reason why I took that risk (climbing up the climbing wall) was because I did not know what I could go the easy way.

When I took the risk, I dropped my egg friend, Pweggy. When I dropped Pweggy, she started to cry with yolk and it look like she got smashed in the nose, which looked painful. After I was finished and it was Presayus’ turn to race, she did not crack Pweggy. When the whole race finished, we all went back to class. Our Pweggy had to go into the bin.

Over all I thought it was a good race. Pweggy experienced the playground and a smashed nose. Even though she did not make it, I was happy for everyone else who’s egg buddy’s make it. But what you did not know is three of the eggs who survived, got eaten by our teacher and my friend (Htet Htet) is still angry at him for eating the three eggs.

My Recount Rubric

Recount Writing
	1	2	3	4
Write for my reader	I've tried to think about my reader	My writing shows some awareness of reader because my writing is quite clear and I have tried to interest my reader.	My writing is easy to understand and I have tried to tell the reader what it was like to be there by giving details and my thoughts.	My writing really considers audience as reader because I have kept their interest and made them feel like they know exactly what it was like for me.
Purpose	I tried to meet the purpose	My text goes some way towards meeting the purpose	The message is clear in some parts of the recount.	My text fully meets the purpose. The message is clear all through the recount.
Introduction	My introduction does not yet clearly orientate or hook in my reader.	My introduction gets some buy in from audience and they can understand what I am going to write about.	My introduction hooks in my reader and it is clear what I am writing about.	My introduction wows my reader!
Paragraph Topics	My paragraphs are confused and don't follow my plan.	I have tried to follow my plan. Most my paragraphs are about 1 big idea and I have added some detail.	My paragraphs have some complex as well as simple sentences. Post paragraphs give details about 1 big idea. I have followed the paragraph topic in my plan.	My paragraphs have complex and simple sentences. Paragraphs all give details about 1 big idea.

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In writing this week, we had a mock test. That means that we have having writing tests coming up so this is a warm up. We marked our own writing on this rubric above.