2016 Graduation

Last night, the year 8 students at Glen Innes school had their graduation. During graduation, we took plenty of photos and had a lot of fun. We also got given a very powerful and inspiring speech by Sione Taufa, the only pacific islander in his department of his university. Near the end of Sione Taufa speech, he gave us some advise and that was to "Dream big and embrace the struggle." I enjoyed graduation last night, and hope to never forget what Sione said.

Joseph Parkers Win

Congratulations Joseph Parker for the amazing win Saturday night! You have truly proved us that you are a boxing champion. I wish you all the best for the future upcoming fights that you have ahead of you. You got this Joseph!

I can't imagine life without...

These are 16 things that I can't imagine my life without. I really enjoyed doing this for writing because I got to get creative with this. The only thing that I didn't like about this, was that the pictures wouldn't fit exactly how I wanted them to.

Figure me out

Milkshake Enlarging

Last week, I have been learning about enlargement. To show that I had an understanding of it, we had to enlarge a picture out on the courts.  Before I could go outside and draw my picture,  there were a couple of steps that I had to follow and complete. First, I had to select a picture that I wanted and paste it in a google drawing. I choose a milkshake. Then I had to find a grid to put on top of my milkshake so that I could enlargen it easier. After that, I had to work out what my scale factor would be. Mine was 1 cm represented 25 cm.

Once I had finished those steps, I had to get a measuring tape and use the cm side to precisely draw my grid outside, and start drawing my milkshake. To make sure that I drew my milkshake accurately, I counted the squares. I found this a bit challenging because I couldn’t draw the milkshake correctly, and my grids lines weren’t straight.

Enlargement in Geometry

WALT: Enlargen pictures

This morning, I had to enlargen a lion by 2 scale factors. To make it easier for me, I had to count the squares that the lion's body was on and then draw it onto the grid.  I found this activity fun but at the same time a bit challenging because I had to try and make sure that the lion was drawn exactly where it was supposed to be. Next time, I’d like to enlargen a more complex picture.

What's My Why?

These are my goals that I want to achieve.

Tessellation Pattern

This morning, my teacher had given us a challenge which was to create our own tessellation pattern. This is the pattern that I created. My tessellation pattern is called: 3.4.4.3.4. I really enjoyed creating my own tessellation pattern and hope to make another one next time.

Haiku Poem

HAIKU POEM:


Squawking Seagulls Soared
High through the bright blue sky as,
The soft wind whistled.

                                                   

Yesterday for writing, our class had to write our own Haiku poem. The purpose of writing our haiku poem was to show that we understood how to do it. Just above, is my group and I's poem. Before we could make our Haiku poem, we had to go through three rules. The syllables, the cutting point and the seasonal reference. The syllables had to have 5 in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the last line. The cutting point which was a ". or a , " had to be in the first or second line and the seasonal reference was the description of the seasons. I had so much fun writing this Haiku poem, and I hope to do it again sometime.

Narrative Structure- Note taking

Earlier Last week, I had to complete this reading follow up activity using the book I read. Man and sea. Basically, what I had to do was write down all the parts that you would put in the introduction, Events leading to the problem, the problem and etc. This helped me to revise note taking, which is way easier than writing down a whole paragraph for one thing.

Airlines Builder- Area and Perimeter

In this maths game, I had to place the 8 pieces of sticks into a shape that would fit the amount of aliens that It wanted. Like 3. This game was for me to revise and go over area and perimeter. I found this game a little bit challenging because I couldn't think of much shapes to make and I couldn't make the same one twice. This game helped me to understand area and perimeter abit better than before, but I still think I need to keep practising.

Angles

This maths game was really fun and easy because all I had to do was drag my mouse on the numbers for my character to do a flip. If I started dragging the mouse on the numbers and didn't have enough time to finish, then I would 50 points would be deducted from my score. Unfortunately, I lost on level 7 and ended up with a total score of 27550. Next time I aim to make it up to at least level 9 and to have a higher total score.

Basketball

This morning we had basketball with Yaran and Malik. Today we learnt some more new skills. A couple of them that were new to me was to form our hands into a diamond when we catch the ball instead of a "W", and to pocket pass. I enjoyed basketball this morning but I just wish we played outside instead of the hall.

Acrostic Alliteration Poem

Walt: Write an acrostic poem using alliteration

Acrostic Poem: Floods

Big bulging eyes bursting with tears

Lonely loved ones reunite again

Everyone evacuated early

Seven soaked people swam to safety

Surviving salty waves

Exhausted edward entered the room

Dozing down drenched

Natural Disasters: Tsunami

A couple of weeks ago it was get ready week and in class, we had to choose a natural disaster that could strike at any time. I choose Tsunami. Choosing a Tsunami as my natural disaster helped me to learn how to be prepared for when the day comes and I even learnt that they are always high on energy and can travel miles across the ocean.

Personification Paragraph

WALT: Write a paragraph using figurative language.

The beach

The blue sky played hide and seek, peeking through the grey clouds allowing the sun to shine through. Powerful Curling waves clashed amongst the sandcastles busting them down, swallowing them in for lunch. Shattered seashells piled and tumbled as the whistling wind thrusted through.

This is my paragraph that I wrote about the beach and added some personification.

Equivalent Fractions

This game is called equivalent fractions. In this game I had to match fractions that were equal to each other. I was abit disappointed that there was only three levels because I really enjoyed this game although I got a few wrong. Next time, I'd like to match mixed numbers with improper fractions.

Personification Poem

The beach: Seaweed

The tides retreated like soldiers,

Pulling in the dancing seaweed.

Flat they lay on the crumbling sand,

All dried up like a sun dried raisin.

This is my personified paragraph on seaweed. We have been learning about personification this week and all it means is to give life to non-living things or animals with human like qualities.

Magic Number

In this game, I was given 9 numbers to make my magic square. First I had to find out what my magic number was so that I could figure out where to put all the numbers. I found this a little bit hard and needed some help from my friend Shanelle. Next time, I am going to attempt level 6.

Maths Easttle Overall Score

This is my latest maths e asttle results. As you can see I attempted level 4-5 in maths and got an overall score of 4B. I am kind of happy with my score because it is higher than a 3A. Next time I hope to get a 4P or 4A.

Reading e-asttle results

This is my latest reading e asttle results. As you can see, I have a 4A. I am really happy with my score because before I got a 4A and I haven't moved down a level. Next time I hope to get at least a 5B.

Free Rice

This morning I played a game called freerice. This game is a really good one because with every correct answer, you donate 10 grains of rice to the world food program to help end hunger. I recommend this game to everyone who is bored or finished their work in class or at home you could help other families and people who are starving. I have already donated about 100 grains of rice and hope to make it up to 1000 grains of rice.

Apple and Pastry Creation

This is my apple and Pastry rose creation that I made last week Friday. When it came out of the oven, it       didn't look anything like it did in the picture above, but it was still really nice.

Mathletics

This was my overall mathletics score/points. Unfortunately I wasn't able to achieve my goal of reaching 10000, but at least I scored more than 5000 points. I wish that mathletics was a one month competition because now I'll have to wait for next year.

College day- Mathmatics

Terminology

Expression-No equal sign to a sum
Variable-Mathematical terms for letters
Coefficient-A number just before the letter in an algebra sum
Constant-A number that is alone

Today at Tamaki College, I learned about all of the above words. Our teacher was Ms. Dunn and she made algebra look so easy.

Sports has made me a better person

WALT: write an explanation

To be a better person in sports, I have to use the three right values and all of them have helped me. These values have helped me not only in sport, but in the real world as well. The values that I have developed are Respect, Excellence and Friendship. When I use these values, I learn determination and I make sure to persevere.

Respect

To become a better person, I have learnt how to respect others during and after a game. To show respect to my opponents, team players and coach, I make sure I watch what I say to them. If my team or partner lost a game then we would show respect to them by congratulating and complimenting them on how well they played. Even if we lost we would still congratulate them. Sometimes, It’s hard for me to accept the fact that I’ve lost because some people can be real show offs and brag about it, but I’ve learnt to ignore those people. And now, I am grateful that I have otherwise I could of turned out to be an obnoxious and rude person. From this day onwards, I am very fortunate that I respect others in sports because I have become a gracious winner, I have great communication and I have good cooperation skills.

Excellence

I have also become a better person by excelling in sport. To show that I have, I make sure that I support my teammates and that I help them out weather we are in or out of a game. Sport has also made me excelle more with my cooperation skills because I can know work together with my team a lot better than before. I also now have great communication skills and because of this, I am able to give a helping hand with everyone and cheer them up about an unfortunate loss.

Friendship

Friendship has also helped me in sports, especially when I have to work in a team, because together we have to be kind to one another. I have also become a better person by using the value friendship in sports by being kind and cheering up everyone. Weather they are in my team or not, I still make sure that I use kind words towards them, make them feel alright about how good or bad they played and that I am not too pushy when I talk to them. Although sometimes It can be difficult for me to do these things, I have to try to persevere and believe in myself.

I still think I need to work on excelling, but besides that I think that I have become the kind of person that my family would want to be and what I would rather be. Also, because the three values have helped me so much, I hope that other people will apply them to sports and in the real world like how I have and am.

Michael Phelps Character Timeline

On Thursday for our reading activity, I had to draw a character timeline on Michael Phelps to show his highs and lows. I had a lot of fun doing this and I think that this is way better than just drawing a normal timeline. Hopefully we get to do another character timeline, but on someone else.

Thank you Fullers and Kidscan

Thankyou so much Fullers and Kidscan! We all had a blast!
https://www.flipsnack.com/page-flip-software/edit-links?flip=fdzkfvrrl#add

Making an Oragami Crane

This afternoon, Our Japanese teacher Mr Yamasaki came into our class and taught us how to make an origami Crane.

Olympics Chalk Art

This afternoon, rooms 7 & 8 went outside to do our chalk art. We had been working on it for about two weeks and we finally got to do it. The weather was perfect for it, so we did it today. Our art was based on the 2016 olympics, so we had to draw any olympic sport. Before we got started, we had to draw a line on the chosen position that we would be in then, we had to draw the sport that we were doing around it. When we were finished, our teacher came around and took an aerial picture of us pretending to do our sport. I found it a bit difficult to draw but overall it was really fun, especially because it was an outdoor kind of art.

The Guinea Pig's Swimming Olympics 2016

Matching Metaphors

WALT: Match metaphors with their meaning in sport and nonsport activities.

Previously, I have been learning about metaphors. To help me to have an even better understanding of them, I played a game and I had to match sport and nonsport meanings with the correct metaphor. Because I had already played this game with the writing target group, I had to teach the other students how to play it. I found this game very useful and fun because I got to use them in my narrative. My favourite metaphor is "A big hit". This game helped me alot, especially in writing.

Bonnie Blair

Measuring Angles

In this game, I had to measure 10 angles accurately to get my answer right. I found this game really easy because I knew how to use a protractor and because I could identify what kind of angles they were giving me. The only thing that I didn't like about this game was that your overall score wouldn't show at the end. Next time, I'd like to revisit prime numbers and prime factors.

Car patterns

This game was called car patterns. In this game, I was given 8 chances to try a figure out what the correct pattern was. To help me, I used the shaded boxes on the side which told me what car that I chose was in the right place. I found this game a little bit confusing at first, but once I played it twice, I got the hang of it and ended up guessing the correct pattern on my 7th try. Next time, I'd like to play a calculating time game.

Decorating muffins with patterns

WALT: Study patterns in algebra

Yesterday, my class and I had a decorating muffins competition, but the thing was that it had to be a repetitive pattern. We had to use at least 2 fruits and something else and I used kiwifruit, mandarins, raisins, sunflower seeds and fruit loops. Our decoration had to be a repetitive pattern because for the last 3 weeks we were learning about patterns and rules, and we had to apply our knowledge from that onto a banana muffin. I found this easy and challenging  for me because I already had a pattern in mind and because we only got 10 minutes to decorate. I also found this really interesting and fun because I have never decorated a muffin with fruit before and because we got to decorate our muffin how ever we wanted it to be. The winner of our competition was Ketura. Next time, I’d like to learn how to make calculations with time.

Speech Reflection Comic strip

                                       This is the comic strip I made on my speech reflections.

Netball with Anne

Today was our last day playing netball with our coach Anne. We finally got to play a real game of netball and we all really enjoyed it. I was in the purple team and we won our second game because we had a really good goal shooter and we all worked as a team very well. Netball for me was really fun but exhausting at the same time because I always kept my eyes on the ball and ran to wherever it was.

Netball with Anne

Today was our last day playing netball with our coach Anne. We finally got to play a real game of netball and we all really enjoyed it. I was in the purple team and we won our second game because we had a really good goal shooter and we all worked as a team very well. Netball for me was really fun but exhausting at the same time because I always had my eyes on the ball and I ran to wherever the ball was.

The Lucky Samoan - Abner Waterhouse

                                   Outstanding Competitor!

The Inspiring Walkers

WALT: Discuss goal settings with Dreydon and kate 

On Tuesday, Dreydon and Kate came back to our school to talk to the senior classes more about their 80km walk. Last time they came, they presented us with a $4,600 cheque for St Pius school, Adult literacy and our school. When they came to our class on Tuesday, Dreydon talked to us about the walk that he and his workmates experienced and about all the gear they needed, how to keep warm, their goal and much more.

The first thing that Dreydon talked to us about was his experience that he had walking. He told us that it was very hard because he knew that he had a long way to go and that the weather was harsh. In his presentation, he showed us pictures of the keen walkers starting the walk and some beautiful pictures of the view that they got to see as the walked along the pathways.

Next, Dreydon talked to us about how they had to prepare themselves for the walk ahead of them. He told us that his boss told them about the walk they were doing and that they were all like “ Well, what will we need??” That made some of us laugh because of his facial expressions. Then he said that to prepare themselves, they had to plan a goal to so Kate the author helped them to do that. Their goal was Specific.Measurable.Achievable.Relevant.Time bound. So it was smart. To prepare themselves, Dreydon also said that while they planned, they had to think about what gear they would need.

To show our appreciation to Dreydon and everyone else who walked and raised us money, we also did a walk just around GI. After Dreydon presented his slideshow and his goals, it has inspired me to want to achieve more and to work harder on my goals. A couple of days later, our class received a bag filled with pineapple lumps and a lovely card.

Patterns and rules

This is the pattern and rule that I made. My first pattern didn't turn out well so I started again and it looks better now. I found this a bit challenging because I needed some help with finding my rule. Next time, I'd like to make another pattern and rule without a friend helping me so that I could maybe teach somebody else on making their own pattern and rule. 

What Jack Went Through

WALT: Write a narrative

It was extremely hot, hot enough to fry a complete bacon breakfast. Laughter and Joy quickly spread throughout the neighbourhood when Jack decided to go camping out in the desert. He thought  that it would be a unique experience to go through and because of his love of adventure and imagination. He had a short prickly stubble, loved muted colours and he had the shade of light green eyes.

Soon after Jack had made his decision, he raced up stairs as if he was in a race and pulled his special backpack out of his wardrobe. He then carefully lifted it and placed it onto his bed and started filling it with clothes with excitement. Then Jack was done so he grabbed his suitcase and walked down the stairs with it and placed it down by the door. After a while Jack left and his adventure began.

Jack was super excited! He was as pumped as ever sitting as he was in his car. Then, suddenly  out of nowhere, his car broke down as he was about to take a right turn to his destination. “ Ohh noo!!” He yelled with anger as he whacked his steering wheel like it was a drum. He tried to dial 111 but there was no reception so he grabbed all of his gear out of the boot and took off.

The day felt long. Jack's stomach was rumbling wildly and his legs were aching with anguishing never ending pain. The sun was still shining bright as it beamed on his head. Jack was so tired  that he started to drag his backpack on the soft red sand. “ Help anyone!!” He yelled desperately but no one was in the desert. Jack was just a lone man tramping in the desert. Jack wanted to give up. He wanted to lay on the sand and just die but he thought about all his loved ones. So he motivated himself, thought about positive things and kept moving.

After hours of sweat and tears, the sun started to slowly set. And  jack was still on the move until he spotted a wide yellow thing shining like a light a few miles away. He thought to himself “ What is that?” so he started running towards and as he got close he saw a sign that said “Gas” and he raced to it. “YAY!!!!” he screamed continuously knowing that he was still alive and safe and so he calmly walked towards the worker smelling like the rubbish bin and kindly asked: “ May I have some water please?”

Nga Tatarakihi o Parihaka

Nga Tatarakihi o Parihaka (Summary)

The government's men were here talking to Te Whiti while Rarawa was in the kitchen kneading bread dough and aunty Maata was blabbing about how the pakeha are always coming and going saying the same things. As Api placed the bag of flour onto the bench, they read out some sort of proclamation stating: “ You have two weeks before the soldiers come.” Te Whiti and Tohu called a meeting so more bread needed to be made. Aunty Maata shooed api outside to check on the loaves. Aunty Maata smiled at Rawara and told her to go and have a swim. It’ll wake you up. So she left and plunged into the still cold october water. Her friend joined her and said “ Did you hear that?” It was the soldiers marching towards the village. When the pakeha government came, they destroyed fences and crops and the people of pakeha did not fight back with violence as they government expected.The tried to talk to them. Then the soldiers came and marched through the village while Rarawa was swinging her poi’s through the men.

Jump rope for heart

Last Friday, Glen Innes school went to GI centre to skip and raise money for the heart foundation. Not only were we raising money for the heart foundation, we were also showing off our skipping skills. I really enjoyed skipping in GI with my class.

Maths E-asttle result

This is my maths e asttle result. This morning I sat a level 3-4 strand test and I got an overall score of 3A. I’m not that happy with my score because I felt like I could of done better. I found this test a bit difficult because some of the questions were tricky. Next time when I sit an e asttle maths test, I am going to try and aim for a 4b or 4p.

Basic Facts Timed

WALT: do a timed basic facts.

This is my basic facts test result. I got an overall score of 80% on a stage 7. I really struggled with this test because it was timed and the questions would change every 10-20 seconds and I didn’t get enough time to list all the factors of numbers that I got given. That is why I got 80% when I normally get 90%-95% but I thought it was good practise for when I have to do something like this in the future. To improve and get a better score, I will keep practising my conversion of fractions to decimals.

Symmetry Sorting

This morning, I played this game called ‘Symmetry Sorting’. To start the game I had to choose what I wanted to sort and it was out of pictures, shapes or letters and I choose shapes. It was very easy for me to identify the symmetrical and non symmetrical shapes because I had learnt how to do this before. Next time, I would like to play a harder version of this game if there is one and I'd like to sort other harder objects.

Explanation Comic

Being A Good Egg

This week, I was a meaningful student, as I sold all of my raffle tickets to help pay towards the hangi that our school is providing us. I was also a meaningful child to my family because I did extra chores at home and I  helped my parents to do sort out the clothes.