SLJ Week 1 Activity 4

3 Facts I found about dragon flies are that..

they have been around for over 300 million years.

dragon flies don't usually sting or bite.

it is considered good luck when one lands on your head.

L.I: To create a piece of insect art. 

Inspired by art creations Raku Inoue we went outside and collected leaves twigs and other plant debris to create our own insect images. I found it quite hard to let my imagination flow once I had all the items because my options were limited by the items. But I did enjoy using the plants because it was something different for me. Have you interacted with a dragon fly before? 

SLJ Week 1 Activity 2

 

L.I: To create your own comic strip of an imaginary conversation.

This comic strip shows a conversation I created between these two people after one of the men had sneezed and had his teeth fall out during a fishing trip.Because it was a short silent movie, I had to infer what was being said by the expressions and what was going on. I found this activity fun and I enjoyed using my imagination to make them have their own conversation. I think most other people might have the similar idea of what is being said. 

SLJ Week 1 Activity 1

 LI: To collect materials needed to successfully complete our weekly superpower building missions with Nano Girl. Today in LS2, we worked together with our Year 4's to help them complete their first Summer Learning Journey activity and blog post. PBS are still at school this week so finding some of the materials we needed for our treasure hunt was easy. Our challenge is going to be able to find all the materials we need at home now. I found this activity exciting because and now I'm really looking forward to the rest of the activities and what is to come. Were you able to scavenger all of the supplies on the treasure hunt list?

Our Christmas Decorations

A few weeks ago the class first started planning holiday sewing designs for our client, Mr. Johnston, to festively decorate our school Christmas tree displayed in the office. Using different equipment and materials, we were able to make our designs happen. The main requirements were: the size to be 10cm x 10cm, and be able to hang on the tree. And to make the design look aesthetically pleasing: patterns, colour scheme, shapes, essential features. I chose Christmas, and my first idea was mini Christmas tree and the end results were even better than what I had in mind. The first sample (original) turned great due to the days of practicing and experimenting before hand, and so I made a couple more copies. My design required colored felt, gold sequins, colored cotton thread, a needle, and the traced cardboard pieces for the shapes. 

The strengths of my product is that everything is I've used a logically color pattern between the sewing and felt making it look good, and that it's very easy to tell what it is. My product also meets my original criteria in the way it met the circumstances and came out better than expected. I did have to change some material and they way it was attached but nonetheless, it worked out in the end. So it wasn't really hard to make it all although I was almost completely new to doing anything like this, we did a lot of planning and practicing like mentioned d before. I definitely am please with the finished product because it looks like the Christmas tree I intended. Something I might do differently next time is to be prepared for not having all the essential accessories and be opened to try something new with my design.

Overall, this whole experience was an amazing learning opportunity and turned out to be so fun.

Pourquoi Story Animation (Why Flamingo's rest standing on one leg)

 L.I To create pourquoi story using our creativity. This week for writing we have been creating pourquoi stories. A pourquoi story is a narrative explaining why something is the way it is. We chose our own topic to write about and used the writing framework, when we finished writing in our framework we got started on our animation. For our animation we had to tell the story using drawings. Our story was about why flamingos rest standing on one leg, it was about how flamingo's used their popularity as a way to show off. I worked with Florence to get this pourquoi story completed. We enjoyed making thi sas it was fun to use our imagination

Probability Tree

 LI: To use probability trees to find the chances of an event. This week in Math, Sakina, Haylee and I worked together to solve probability questions. We were given three different math word story problems to justify the answer of the probability with our working out. We then created a DLO of one question and explained our thinking with the probability tree method. We enjoyed working these equations out as we tried used a different strategy and learnt a new strategy. 

International Current Events

L.I: To identify author's purpose.
Last week, we explored national current events meaning news about what is happening in New Zealand, right now. This week for Reading, we are now looking at the current events happening in the world around us. We created a map and pin pointed the events we found on kid friendly websites (Kiwikids News, NZ Herald, Radio NZ, Kea Kids News) and thought about what the authors intention writing them was, and how these articles make the viewers react. Something interesting I was able to see from observation is that a chunk of the plots on the map are in the United States region, meaning the country spikes an interest from people all around the world.

Exploring our national current events

 L.I: To identify authors purpose.
Authors write for a purpose and it could either be to persuade, inform, or entertain. This applies to the newspapers and articles we read everyday, to keep up with what is going on around us. Today for reading we explore the different types of current events that are happening nationally to understand why the story was made. Using 'google my maps' we found out about the news on kid friendly websites and plotted where each of these places were happening with a short explanation that also tells what it might be. I worked collaborative on this DLO with Florence, Vayan, and Ellenora.

Provocation: Should masks be compulsory on NZ public transport?

L.I: To identify and consider the two perspectives of this provocation to help me form an opinion.

A provocation is an action or speech that triggers strong feelings about a topic. Today in groups for reading, Name, Name, Name and I thought about both sides of the provocation, ‘Should masks be compulsory on NZ public transport?’. We used our smart searching skill and information to help us form an opinion that we could justify with evidence and provide strong evidence for each opinion. On November 19th, masks are going to be required to use on public transport (buses, trains) My opinion is undecided, but my stance on this is that I agree with the objective of the masks in the way that it is to provide safety and assure that the diseases cannot be transmitted, but also that we should consider the certain requirements for this new rule.

Charge of the Light Brigade (The Crimean War)

 L.I: To learn about the Charge of the Light Brigade.
This week for Reading we learnt about a narrative poem called ‘Charge of The Light Brigade’ written by Alfred Lord Tennyson of the Crimean war which takes place in the 1753 - 1856. We tried unpacking each stanza and thinking about the literary in them and then creating a collaborative DLO summarizing what we've learnt about the Crimean War and the poem itself. I worked with Florence.

The Gunpowder Plot

Today I worked with Densyn and Lisea from Room 5 to learn about the Gunpowder plot and summarise the event in order to think about the Safetys of Guy Fawkes day coming up tomorrow and the story behind the reason this day is celebrated. After listening to the story first, we thought about some words with our buddies and created a short summary using the 'Summarise' activity we do in our reading and writing that helps us think about the story more.

Te Reo Maori Challenge

 

For the past weeks we have been completing our colloborative and interactive Te Reo challenge. This te reo challenge is where you create an animation that explains the different body parts. I chose to use Powtoon as my platform to create my animations. I worked with Florence to get this animation completed. I enjoyed creating this animation as it gave me a chance to try a new site out and learn new words in a different language.

Finding the Highest Common Factor & Lowest Common Multiple

LI: To be able to find the LCM and HCF

This week for Maths our focus has been to find the lowest common multiple and highest common factor. Our challenge was to practice with different numbers and create a DLO explaining our learning. Haylee, Florence and I collaboratively worked on defining the highest common factor and lowest common multiple. In our DLO’s we’ve included what the highest common factor is, how to find the HCF, what the word factor means and an example of finding the HCF. We all enjoyed working together to create this DLO and liked how we could revise on this math area. We all feel a lot more comfortable working and finding the lowest common multiples and highest common factors.

Why is it important to make wise choices?

Why is it important to make wise choices?

How do we make wise choices? We are given opportunities and situations where it is most important for us to make a wise choice, but how could a simple ‘yes’ affect our future and what are the consequences? As an appropriate example, the illegal use of drugs has been a negatively impactful and controversial issue on society, especially towards vulnerable minors in this type of scenery. Therefore it is difficult to listen to our conscious and gut feeling, and give into the peer pressure.

Over half of college students' health are influenced by drug and alcohol consumptions, or have been associated with illicit drug abuse. Many young students are exposed and tolerant to drug use as well. But putting our life and future into someone/something else's hands is dangerous, and unfair. They destroy our body systems, and going down this pathway takes away from our lifelong opportunity and experience. What would you do if a relative offered you a drug? What would you say? How would you say it? Think again. Ask yourself why. Situations like this, is when we need to make a wise choice.

Making a wise choice is paying attention to the circumstances, the options you’re given, and thinking about facts/affects. It’s important we listen and put ourselves first in situations where we are the ones taking the bullet. By not letting stress or our emotions decide for us and giving ourselves time if possible.
This also means it’s so important of who we surround ourselves with. Being skilled at making good decisions for ourselves increases our chance and value in our future.



L.I: To write an explanation.
This week for Writing, we created an explanation in 40 minutes, about making wise choices and using an issue/topic where this applies and which I used, drug/alcohol consumption. This also helped us practice and remind ourselves about what an explanation is and stretch our brain and fingers to be able to write one again. This is almost a preparation for our real writing test sample for next term. We began with 5 minutes of planning, and not only 'DRAFT'ed afterwards but also talked with a buddy to help us expand our vocabulary and our text, to think about our writing more.

If I were Prime Minister..

1. 'Multicultural education resources/opportunities to create a culturally diverse setting in our learning, and will allow us to expand our bases with social structure and cultural concepts to be more connected, comfortable, and in touch with our environment.'

L.I: To think deeply about a change I would make.
On the topic of politics and the election coming up, this activity made us think out of the box. We were to say one thing we would change if we were prime minister, to better New Zealand and why. Something that I was able to come up with seeing as this is a very difficult question, is an adjustment that would improve New Zealand education. I'm very passionate about school, and since this would be an appropriate topic, I've used it in my activity.

Who will get my vote?

L.I: To decide which political party will get your vote by making an informed choice.
Coming up in October, we have New Zealand's general election and for this week our inquiry activity was to make an informed choice on which party/candidate we are voting for with our reasoning as to said party/candidate. To make a decision we did our own research and got help to think about the policies of each party that also resembles our values by looking at each parties policies and beliefs. Being stuck between two political parties, I've chosen to vote and create my DLO on the Green party. Though, the two main/major parties are Labour and National. The gripping factors that have helped me make this decision, are those resembling policies that support and back my outlooks to only better our country. In my DLO, I've written two important topics to me, and chose examples of those policies that Green party underlines with to showcase how their views resemble mine. Also three Green party achievements that are simple yet compelling and explain what they're party is all about. And I then speak about why I support their party in general. 

DARE: To make a choice

L.i: To create a poster reflecting our learning of drug awareness.
Today we started off this week with the D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) programme, and strived to become educated on drug consumption. What we were told at the beginning of the lesson and reminded is that we are the most important people in our lives. So we got into small groups and my role as the leader of my group was to encourage them to participate and share ideas so we can learn collaboratively in a comfortable setting to make stronger connections. Ong, Lukah, Sakshi, and I discussed all types of drugs among each other and thought about which ones were illegal - legal and how harmful they were. We also looked at different situations where bad drugs can really affect/change our lives and we are the ones to make sure we stay safe and make the right decisions. We re-capped and got into pairs to create a poster that answers four questions all to do with what we've learnt.

Food Tech

This week Friday the year 8's continued food technology at Tamaki College with Mrs. Heka. Today we made Corn fritters with salad and sweet chili sauce in small groups/pairs. The recipe for this dish consisted of flour, baking soda, canola oil, eggs, corn, milk, spinach mix salad, and sweet chili sauce. We started getting out our equipment for the day and putting on our apron. While I stirred our dry ingredients in a medium bowl with a 1/3 cup of flour, and 1/2 tablespoon of baking soda, my partner Haylee whisked well 2 eggs, and 1/4 of a cup of milk in the large bowl. After a good mix, we added them into the large bowl and created a quite liquid paste. We made sure all those clumps were broken down and well combined. We added a whole can of sweet corn and put 1 tablespoon of oil onto the cooking pan. Using a ladle spoon, we created mini pancake like shapes and let them fry until a nice brown. Before topping them, we added a spinach mix salad and drizzled sweet chili sauce over the top. We all really enjoyed today's simple recipe.

Maori Language Week (History & Whakatauki)

This week for Maori Language week name, name, name and I created a DLO about the history of New Zealand, some interesting facts, and we chose an example of a Whakatauki to share through a screencastify. In this DLO we have included all about the history of Maori Language Week and where it began. A Whakatauki is the Māori proverb or poetic and metaphorical expressions that reflects on thoughts, advice or values from past generations. We’ve enjoyed working collaboratively on this activity as we were all able to gain a better understanding of the Maori language and the history of their culture. 

Te Reo Maori - APP

 This week is Maori Language week, and Florence and I have created an interactive presentation in the format of an app to help others practice and learn Te Reo Maori. We've made it easy for others to use, with quick links and English translation. Our app is exciting and interactive with an a quiz at the end to test your knowledge. The subjects we've chosen to include in our 'app' is colours, numbers, days of the week, and more information about New Zealand. This collaborative group challenged encouraged us to take a look at the language and useful words we could also learn about.