Summer Learning Journey Week 1 Day 1 Activity 2: North And South

The country of New Zealand is made up of two main islands – the North Island and the South Island. Approximately 77% of the New Zealand population live in the North Island. Many of these people (including our Summer Learning Journey design team) live in Auckland city. Auckland is a great place to live with lots of amazing parks, beautiful waterways and stunning scenery to enjoy. It is also a busy, vibrant city with many cafes, museums, galleries and theatres to visit. I feel lucky to call Auckland my ‘hometown.’

Now it is time to think about your hometown. What is special about where you live? On your blog, describe your hometown. Be sure to include lots of describing words (adjectives) in your post.

In my hometown (Panmure) we have an awesome public library where you can use the free internet, partake in after-school activities and they're currently doing a holiday activity programme. We also have a big public pool, a community centre and an old stone cottage.

If images of places that I've mentioned aren't there then they weren't free to use.

(The stone cottage)

Owner: GPS 56 CC by 2.0

(The public pools)

Owner: Wikimedia Commons CC by SA 3.0

Summer Learning Journey Week 1 Day 1 Activity 1: Top 3 Fun Facts

According to Māori mythology, much of Aotearoa New Zealand was formed when Māui, a powerful demigod, fished it out of the sea. Legend has it that Māui created a magical fish hook from the jawbone of his grandmother and that one day he took his hook, boarded a boat, and rode out into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Once at sea, he threw his magical hook into the water and caught a fish. This ‘fish’ was actually the North Island of New Zealand! In honour of this legend, the North Island of New Zealand is sometimes referred to as Te Ika a Māui or ‘Māui’s fish’ and the South Island of New Zealand is sometimes referred to as Te Waka a Māui or ‘Māui’s canoe’.

To learn more cool facts about New Zealand, check out the Tourism NZ website. Read the fun facts posted on the website and choose your ‘Top 3.’ On your blog, post your ‘Top 3 Fun Facts’ about NZ in your own words.

1. New Zealand was once a part of the territory of New South Wales and Australia.

I think this is an interesting fact for me because I didn't  know this before and I was wondering how different it would be if we were still governed by Australia and NSW.

2. Dairy farmers make 100 kilograms of butter and 65 kilograms of cheese every year for people living in New Zealand.

I chose this fact because that's a lot of butter and cheese since there are millions of people in New Zealand.

3. The Auckland City Sky Tower is the tallest freestanding structure in the Southern Hemisphere because it's 328 meters high.

This is an interesting fact because having such a big structure really puts our country on the map and makes it a tourist attraction.

Who Am I? Challenge

For the past previous week LS2 have been working on a challenge called Who Am I? This challenge is like Where Am I from but instead it is based on famous people around the world such as Tenzing Norgay, Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana etc. There were 10 people and for the task given we were to write down who they are, where there from, why are they famous, quote (if they have one), 5 facts about them, their country on google maps, their flag, and a picture of them. This was a lot of work which is why I was working with Miki and Ofa. 

Where Am I Challenge

Today Aung Naing and I were working together on a collaborative challenge, for it we needed to find out where the image was and then answer 5 questions: What is it, where is it, who uses it, when was it built and why is it there. We also needed to find 5 facts for each building/monument, take a screen-shot of it on google maps and find and attribute an image of it. We learnt many new things like how the Eiffel Tower wasn't meant to stay, the Sydney Opera house cost 102 million AUD and that the Mona Lisa is priceless meaning that it can't be insured.

Sir Ernest Rutherford

Today LS2 were put into groups of four and in those groups we were to research and then create a comic strip on a New Zealander that invented something, my group (Jeremiah, Fraidoon, Miki and I) chose to research Sir Ernest Rutherford. Sir Ernest Rutherford was the first person to split an atom, although he himself didn't split an atom he developed the theory that lead to the first atom being split. Sir Ernest Rutherford was born in New Zealand but later moved to England.

Leadership Speech

Today was the day that the year 7s presented their leadership speeches for the roles that they wanted for 2019, the role that I wanted to take was Head Boy but I also put my name forward for Maniakalani Leader. I think I said my speech well even though my voice was shaky.

Leader Speech

Talofa o lo’u ingoa o Alex. Hi, my name is Alex. I would like to be considered for both head boy and manaiakalani leader for 2019, both are positions that mean you need to be actively involved in school life. I have a history of this. Firstly I confidently share all my work on my blog, and currently have 908 posts. I have been a presenter at the Manaiakalani film festival and am often asked by others to help them with the digital side of their learning. I have joined most of the inter-school sports since I was in Year 4. I have represented our school at the Lego Into Orbit competition, I have taught students from Tamaki College how to digitally draw images, and I have placed in the top 3 in the Summer and Winter Learning Journeys for the past 2 years. By taking part in the holiday learning journeys I was already prepared for school when the holidays came to an end.

I have completed my confidence and respect silver CARE awards which mean that I have confidence in my learning and show respect to others. By the end of next year I will have all of my silver and gold CARE awards because as a student leader I know I will need to lead by example, and at Panmure Bridge School that means following our CARE values.

It would be an honour to be a leader in this school and I know that I have the ability to do so. Faafetai lava le afifio mai, thank you for listening.

Paper Plane Analysis

This week is leadership week for the year 7s. Leadership week is when the current year 7s gather together and complete activities to grow their leadership skills. This week the year 7s have been completing team challenges to help us develop our leadership skills. For this challenge we were to find new groups. In my group I had Angela, Aung Naing, Mele, and myself. Together we communicated, collaborated, and discussed about this challenge. For this we were to find a helpful website that taught us how to create a paper plane. Together my group and I found a website that taught us how to create a fast paper plane. After creating these paper planes we were to go outside and start throwing our paper planes as a group. As a class the year 7's gathered together and threw their planes group by group in the hall. As a result for the team challenge Julian's group won with a score of 14.1. The furthest throw was Chavda with a result of 14.5. Above shows the DLO that we created together. The graph above shows the distances of each person.

Leadership Challenges

Because this week is leadership all of the year 7 students have been working together to build or strengthen their leadership skills. The first task after getting into our groups was to answer questions and find solutions for problems like how to get students to only drink water. After that we all headed to the hall where in our groups of four we were told to create cubes out of diamonds, to do that we needed to cut out diamonds from different coloured sugar paper and then place them together to make the cubes. My group Aung Naing, Marieta, Te Pounamu and my self won the first round. In the second round the four groups were put joined into two and were given the same task, my team didn't win that time but it was still fun to do. The last things that we did were teamwork exercises where we needed to go from one side of the hall to the other by going under our teammates.

CARE Award: Silver Confidence | How To Stand Up To Bullies

This is a DLO on how to stand up to bullies that I made for my confidence CARE award, in it I mention how people can help those who're being bullied, what makes someone a bully, and a non-physical way to deal with them. Bullying might seem like a joke in the playground but it's a real thing, victims of bullying can remain scared of the bully for the rest of their lives.

CARE Award: Silver Confidence | Sleep Survey Responses

This was a task for my confidence CARE award, for it I needed to create a survey on a topical issue so I chose sleep. In my survey I asked questions like how long (On average) people sleep for, if technology (Phones, computers etc) stopped them from sleeping properly, if they liked sleeping and when they usually went to sleep. I used a pie chart for this because although I could've used a bar graph I wanted to see exactly how much of the class chose this or that. Another thing in this DLO is my opinion on the options and reasons why, I answered the survey as well.

Athletics Day

Because last week on Friday was the annual athletics day for Panmure Bridge School, all of the students from year 1 to 8 were put into their year groups and given a colour. The colour that they had represented their team, and because there were only 9 activities each group had to rotate every 10-15 minutes. The colour teams were split into two groups, one of them being A and the other B so for example; in the yellow group there'd be a yellow A and B. There were activities like Rob The Nest, Frisbee Throwing, Egg & Spoon Race, a Sponge Race and Shot Put. After all of the activities we had the sprints, where the year groups were split into their genders and needed to race 60 metres. I'm not that good at sprinting but I still managed to achieve fourth.

My Progress In Readtheory

Today in reading our task was to find and make a graph about our Readtheory progress over all of the year, I think that throughout the year I've gotten better and better at answering the comprehension and other questions that the site gives you after you read a text. Depending on what grade/level you're up to the stories or explanations and the questions will get harder and harder, the only way to raise your level is by answering all of the questions correctly.

CARE Award: Confidence - Teaching Students How To Draw

Yesterday Jack, Sanujan and I went to Tamaki College to teach some of their students how to draw and trace images, we showed them the slideshow that we'd made and some examples of images that'd been drawn and traced by us or other students from Learning Space 2. While we were there we helped them trace an image of their liking and also taught them about the different tools that they could use for tracing on a google drawing, it seemed like they really enjoyed it because all of them were focused on their drawings and only occasionally asked for help. I enjoyed teaching the other students because I found how fast they improved interesting.

CARE Award: Confidence - Teaching The Class Animating

On Friday two weeks ago and last week Jack, Miki and I worked with a group of the class to help them improve their animating skills, the first thing that they needed to do was choose an image that they liked off of the internet and then use either the poly line or curve tool to trace the outline of their chosen image. Depending on whether the image had straight lines or curved one they'd need to use a different tool. Since many people are at different stages of drawing the class was split into two groups, one for people who were new to google drawings and the other for experts. Jack, Miki and I worked with the class really well and everyone's skills were definitely improving by the end of the session. Everyone likes doing animating so I hope the we can keep doing it.

Facts About Meerkats

Yesterday Mrs Anderson read us one of her favourite books, one called Meerkat Mail. The author of the book is Emily Gravett who has written a lot of children's books that even older children can enjoy. One thing that I liked about the book was how it showed all kinds of different animals that Meerkats are related to, like the Mongoose. I worked with Ofa and Carl to find interesting facts about where Meerkats live, what they like to eat and what they look like.

Comparing Myths And Facts About Wolves

 

This week has been book week. We have had quite a few challenges based on the stories we read as young children. Our teacher Mrs Anderson has also set us a few challenges based on a few books that she read as a child. This one being Wolves. It is written by Emily Gravett, and illustrated by her too. This book explains and gives a few facts about wolves, and includes lovely images to paint a picture into your head. Our challenge, was to come up with around 5 myths about wolves, and then research them and see if they are true or false. This task could be done alone, or with a partner, so I chose to work with Fraidoon.

Armistice Day: Drawing A Picture

Since this week is the 100th anniversary for the armistice another one of LS2's follow up tasks was to create or trace an image of what the end of World War 1 would've been like back then, I worked with Jack, Fraidoon and Ofa to create this image. I really like how it looks because it has poppies and other aspects of war.

Armistice Day Commemoration Assembly

This Sunday marks the 100 year anniversary for the World War One armistice day, but since we don't go to school on Sunday, we had our own armistice commemoration to pay our respects to those who fell for us. The assembly was held outside next to the blue fence, people like a member from the New Zealand Defence Force, board of trustees members and the head students came and gave speeches too. Two pieces of music called The Last Post and Reveille were played as the flag was being lowered and risen. Afterwards the member from the New Zealand Defence Force came to our class and talked to us about what he did and answered any questions we had like; How many years he'd been in the army, what rank he was, why he wanted to be in the Defence Force and some other things that we asked about.

Armistice Day Commemoration DLO

To commemorate those who fell in the first world war LS2's task was to create a photo collage of people and soldiers celebrating the end of the first world war, I worked with Julian. Another task that we were set was researching World War 1, over 18,000 New Zealander soldiers died in World War 1, and around 37 million people died all together. World War 1 caused so many young men and women to lose their lives, whether from bombing, trenches or disease, their sacrifice should not and will not be forgotten.

Collaborative Comprehension

This week one of our tasks for reading was to partner up with someone from the opposite group (In my case someone from Ms Kirkpatrick's group). I partnered up with Aung Naing and together we needed to first, read the text and then answer the questions. Another thing that we needed to do was provide evidence from the text. The only thing I found hard about answering the questions was needing to provide the evidence from the text. I learnt a lot of new things from reading this text, and one of them was the amount of soldiers (On both sides) who died.

Simile And Metaphor

 

This week for reading one of our tasks was to create a DLO explaining the differences between a simile and a metaphor. I worked with Jeremiah and together we wrote our own definitions for what a simile and metaphor are, the definition of a simile (In simple terms) is a comparison of two things using the words like and as. The (Simple) definition of a metaphor is a comparison of two objects with out using like or as. We also needed to use a simile and a metaphor from the poem The Highwayman as examples.

The Highwayman Summary

This week we have been reading the poem called the Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. It was written in 1913 but is set a long time before. The Highwayman was a British outlaw who would steal gold from people who were in carriages. His lover Bess would later in the poem take her life to warn her loved one about the soldiers who camped in her bedroom. When he found out about Bess taking her life he charged towards her residence where he was shot by the King's soldiers. Legend has it that when the moon is a ghostly galleon upon the cloudy seas he rides towards Bess's residence (an old inn) where he talks to her while she plaits a love knot in her hair.

-Blurb by Jeremiah

Tech Reflection

This week at tech the year 7 group were finishing their 3D phone stand designs, I finished mine which are a mouse and a piece of cheese. We used a website called Tinkercad. For my mouse I used a hole shape to create a space in the front of it where someone could put their phone, and for my piece of cheese I used another hole shape to create another space in front of it. Since most people have finished their designs I'm hoping that next week we'll be able to start 3D printing.

Kiwi Can

This week in Kiwi Can we were learning more about values and how we can use them in our everyday lives, we also talked about rules, why we have them and what they do. We had new teachers this week and their names are Mr Latu and Miss Paige. The theme for this term is respect. We also played two games, for one of them we were split into two groups and then needed to have a debate. And for the other one we needed to do an action for every number said so in pairs if one of us said one they'd need to clap at the same time, and for two it was a bow and three was a small kick.

Tech Reflection: 3D Models

This week for tech we were planning and then designing our phone stands, I chose my phone stand to be a mouse with a gap in the front of its face so that you could just place your phone there and it'd stay there until someone or something knocks it off. The design isn't finished yet but by next week it should be. 

New Zealand Shakeout Day

Today at around 9:30, an alarm went off. The reason it went off is because today is New Zealand
Shakeout day. A Shakeout day happens once every year, this year it was on the 18th of
November at 9:30. This event is a reminder for people who forgot or don’t know what to do
during an earthquake. What we learnt from this is, during an earthquake we have to drop,
cover, and hold. Which means, drop down, crawl under something that will protect you
(Eg: A table), and hold on to it. After the drill finished, we were asked to created a DLO
(Digital Learning Object) about what you’re supposed to do during an earthquake. If you'd
like to learn more about earthquake drills go to this site.

Bridge Building

For the past two weeks Ms Kirkpatrick's inquiry groups have been building bridges out of spaghetti, it sounds simple but it really wasn't because we needed to: Draw up a plan, tie spaghetti together with rubber bands, add tape to everything and also tie everything together with string. Other problems didn't help the production much either, like the sudden shortage of rubber bands and spaghetti. My group had four people in it, Fraidoon, Carl, Joseph and myself. Near the end of the week my group only had three walls so instead of having a rectangle we just connected two to make the sides, so we then had a triangle which is a stronger shape. When it was weighing time the block that could distribute the weight of the bricks wouldn't fit so instead we needed to use the hook, which wouldn't distribute the weight at all, therefore one piece of the bridge would be under lots of strain and the pieces next to it wouldn't be able to help much. After six around about one kg bricks our bridge broke. I had lots of fun whilst building my bridge because since I'd kept some rubber bands from the first day, whenever we were low on spaghetti we could just go and trade for more.

Book Review

Today for reading we needed to get in to our groups and present our slideshows on the books that we'd read. We needed to explain the theme, the setting, our overall review and other parts related to the book. After we'd explained the work that we'd done our next task was to explain why we did/didn't like the book and who the main characters are as well as where the story is set.

Bridges Explanation

Our task this week and last week for writing was to write an explanation on why people build/built bridges, we also needed to add colons and write at least three paragraphs as well as the introduction and conclusion. Since our topic for inquiry this term is structures I already knew a lot about bridges so this was easier to write.

Why Do We Build Bridges?

Bridges, they’re those long structures that we always cross to get from one side of
something to another. Ever since the medieval ages, bridges have been used for
transportation and settlement.

Since most people couldn’t swim through a fast river whilst holding their horse and
belongings, some smart person thought up a way to get across the water. Other
reasons as to why going through a river was bad are: They might be swept away
by the rapids, and if they didn’t dry themselves off in time they might catch the flu or
pneumonia.

Bridges can help with many things, people always used them. Due to continuous use
bridges sometimes broke. So instead of increasing the quantity of bridges people
decided to increase the quality. They began to use materials like: Iron, Brick, Stone,
Concrete and Steel.

There are many different types of bridges, some of them allow boats to go under
them, whilst others swing open for them. Some of the first bridges were built in 850
BC and since then thousands, if not hundreds of thousands more have been built.

So, the main reason as to why we build bridges is pretty simple, for transport. Some
might argue that they’re mainly used for settlement but they need to transport their
items to settle somewhere else.

Billionaire Boy - Novel Study

For the previous three weeks Ofa and I have been reading and studying the book Billionaire Boy, which was written by David Walliams. Ofa and I have learnt different skills whilst reading this book like identifying the theme. This book was written to entertain us because it doesn't have real life facts or try to change our thoughts about the characters. I really liked this book because it's a tale of friendship and lots and lots of money.

Kiwi Can

This week for Kiwi Can we were learning about perseverance, when you persevere you don't give up on what you're doing, no matter how hard or frustrating it is. One example of persevering is when you play a sport, your team might be losing the game but no matter what you keep going, We also played two games, for one of them one person needed to try and tag other people, when they tagged the other person they both needed to link arms and then keep tagging others until everyone was tagged and there was a big line. The aim of the other game was to get an invisible ball from one side of a court to another without being touched by the other team.

Mixed Numerals And Improper Fractions Conversion

Today as an extra task from the teacher Jeremiah, Miki and I were tasked with creating a DLO that explained how to convert mixed numerals into improper fractions. We also needed to add in a picture of the game that we were playing because for the game you need to convert mixed numerals into improper fractions. If you'd like to test your own skill with converting the two then play this game But remember to simplify.

Three Exponents Questions - Maths

 

Our maths session today was used to revise our knowledge of exponents and to introduce it to some students who were previously in Learning Space One. Exponents or powers is a shortened version of writing a whole equation. For example, 4 x 4 x 4 = 64 but to simplify it you can write 4 with a little three in the top right corner. I found this activity easy as it was really easy to get used to and I did it last year. I completed the question sheet relatively fast and I really enjoyed doing this work. For this activity we put a DLO together to explain how we answered three of the exponent questions. I worked with Jeremiah and Miki

Inter-School Rugby

Last week the yr 7/8 rugby team participated in the inter-school, along with yr 5/6 rippa and barbarian teams. In our first match we sadly lost but after that we went on to win every single match after that, once, we even won 11-2 against Saint Pius X. We all had fun whilst playing and we managed to come second. At the end of the day everyone was tired and wanted to sleep.

Virtual Reality Learning

Last week a group of researchers from the Augmented Human Lab in the University of Auckland came to use LS2 for their research with VR (Virtual Reality). The first test that we needed to do was read some small letters on one of the boards, the next test was for balance, we needed to walk in a straight line as fast as we could. After that another test was for eyesight, for it we needed to wear some special glasses and then look at a special book, if you didn't have the glasses on then you wouldn't see anything, but if you did, rough shape outlines showed up. The examiner would then point to a spot on the book and we would be told to say what we saw. Another part of the research was when they showed us a video and we then needed to answer a sheet related to it. They showed us two videos, on of them showed the very first Panmure bridge's construction and the other showed the way of transportation before the bridge. After that our task was to then re-do the sheet to see if we did any better.

Orchestra Trip

Today most of LS2 went on a trip to the Auckland Town Hall to watch an orchestra as well as a dance, the whole trip was funded by Kiwi Kapers. Whilst there we listened to three different music pieces, for the last one a group of dancers from Saint Kentigern's. I liked how the music went high and low and was also pretty loud so we could hear it well. Some of the instruments that were used are the: Flute, clarinet, harp, violin, viola, cello, double bass, drums, cymbals and the triangle.

Sensory Verbs

Today for writing our first task was to create go onto a site and then answer some questions on sensory verbs, I answered all of the questions correctly because all I needed to do was select the correct sense for the situation. If you'd like to try the test yourself here's the link. The test uses all of the senses which are; taste, sight, smell, hearing and touch. Our other task was to go through a list of sentences and place a colon in the spot that we thought it should be, I managed to put the colons in all of the right places. After that, the second part of the task was to illustrate one of the sentences.