Values Explanation

For writing this week LS2 needed to write an explanation on why respect, empathy and tolerance are necessary in anything.

Showing Values In Sport

To be a good sportsman, you have to show values like respect, tolerance and empathy on the field, court, pitch or whatever you’re playing on. If players didn’t show those values, games wouldn’t very fun to play, would they?

In order to respect someone, you need to treat them how they’d want to be- no matter how different the two of you are. To show empathy and tolerance you need to think about how someone is feeling or how they’d feel if you did something, and tolerate anything that’s happening no matter how far they go.

Think about how the referees in sports feel, they get yelled at, argued with and sometimes hit, but they have to tolerate it. If players on the same or different teams might not like each other much, they need to tolerate and respect one another during matches.

Players also need to show empathy, they need to think about what they’re doing and if it isn’t a smart thing to do, they should decide not to do it. When someone gets injured badly, empathy is something that players and fans alike could do to encourage that person to get better soon.

It’s not just players that need to respect each other either, fans from both teams need to accept that the other person’s opinion isn’t the same as theirs, and make their peace with one another. After all, there’s no point in playing sport if you can’t enjoy it.

Explanation: Should NZ Ban Plastic Straws?

Banning plastic straws in New Zealand is a ridiculous idea, we’ve used them for years, why should we get rid of them now? Plastic straws are far better than their more expensive but less effective competition. Would you rather have a feel good item, (something that people say could save the lives of sea creatures because they’re biodegradable) or a plastic straw that doesn’t literally fall apart in your mouth?

If the government does ban plastic straws in New Zealand we’ll have to bring our own straws to fast food restaurants like Burger King and McDonald's. Also, every replacement for the plastic straw has a flaw; Paper straws break apart in your drink, metal straws can rust and bamboo straws need to be cleaned and dried. Not only that but all of the other options to a plastic straw cost more. Another thing is, if the government did ban plastic straws, what would they do with all the leftover ones?

Even though some environmentalists may say that getting rid of the straws could be beneficial to the health of sea creatures, the truth is that the majority of the plastic pollution in the ocean is from other larger plastic items. The main reason why plastic is so common is because it’s easy to make, and getting rid of the straws would use up different materials. Those different materials would come from things like trees and bamboo forests, and if they use the trees and bamboo, where would the birds go? What would pandas eat?

Although sea creatures might get injured or killed by the straws, pollution isn’t limited to just plastic, far worse pollutants like oil, sprays and chemical waste kill far more fish. So leave the poor straws alone, if you don’t like plastic straws, don’t use them. Don’t get rid of everyone else’s convenience just because a few people are throwing theirs into the water.

Self/Buddy Writing Evaluation

Last week’s task for writing was to get our writing sample and edit it with a partner, I worked with Jack and we both marked ours and each other’s writing samples. I liked marking my work because I showed me what I needed to work on and what I was doing well with. I think I do well with organising my paragraphs, structuring my sentences, finding interesting ideas and experimenting with different punctuation. Since the topic for the writing test was Caring For Planet Earth and everyone else chose to write their samples on plastic or plastic bags I chose to write mine on Greenhouse Gases. The different grades we could get are R1 to R6 or R7 for different writing features.

	Punctuation	Vocab	Organisation	Sentence Structure	Structure and Language	Ideas
Self	R5 - R6	R5	R6	R5	R5	R5-R6
Buddy	R5 - R6	R5	R6	R5	R5	R6

I think I did well with organisation, sentence structure, ideas and punctuation because I don’t usually use much punctuation aside from full stops, commas, question marks and exclamation marks. I think I did well with the sentence structure because I made sure to use simple, compound and complex sentences. I used an original idea because while everyone else wrote their explanations on plastic or plastic bags, I wrote mine on greenhouse gases since the topic was pollution. I think I need to improve on vocab and structure and language because I’m not that good at painting a clear picture nor linking my paragraphs well.

Punctuation: Alex is capable of strengthening his punctuation types used. Although he can use different punctuation types in his writing

Caring For Planet Earth

What is a greenhouse gas? Greenhouse gases are gases that are and can slowly
destroy our ozone layer, when it’s worn away we’ll be defenceless from the sun.
Two major greenhouse gases are methane and carbon dioxide.

Things that make greenhouse gases aren’t only buildings, cows do too! Imagine
that, one day the earth becomes completely uninhabitable- because of cow poop!
Even then, the main contributors to greenhouse gases aren’t cows or animals, the
species that makes the most is... us. You might think it’s because we make so
many factories but no, when we breathe in oxygen and breathe out again we
release carbon dioxide which is 81% of the world’s greenhouse gas.

One way to stop making as much greenhouse gas is to lower the amount of
factories (It’s not like we could ask everyone in the world to stop breathing).
Another is to lower the amount of livestock in the world, because one day, due
to overpopulation, they might be even bigger contributors than us!

The ozone layer being destroyed might not sound like much, since it’s not a
huge problem yet. But the ozone layer shields us from the sun, and if the ozone
layer is destroyed the ice in Antarctica will melt so the sea levels will rise due
to there being a huge influx of water. If sea levels rise the land will sink, since
we need land to survive we’ll suddenly be slowly pushed together and fights
between neighboring and foreign countries will break out.

Although the ozone layer is healing, who’s to say that it won’t be permanently
damaged in ten years? Pollution will always be around, so try to make it as small
as possible.

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.

How To Tell Analogue Time

This week for writing our task was to create an explanation on how to read analogue time from a clock, surprisingly lots of children and teenagers don't know how to tell the time from analogue clocks and watches. I tried to make this as easy as I could to understand so if you don't I'd suggest asking someone else.

Analogue  Time

Analogue clocks and watches aren’t hard to use, once you know how, they’re as easy
as reading digital ones.

The long and short hands both represent something, the long hand is used to show
the minutes and the short one for the hours. The long hand goes around faster than the
shorter one because minutes are shorter than hours. An example of telling the time
with an analogue clock is this; if the long hand is on the 9 and the short hand is near
the 4 then the time is 3:45.

One way to help people tell the time is by using past and to, from the beginning of the
hour to 30 minutes afterwards the usual way to tell the time is by saying ten-past,
quarter-past or half-past and the way for 31 minutes to the 60th is to; ten-to, twenty-to,
etc.

Although time might seem hard to tell using an analogue clock, as long as you know
what the hands are used for clocks shouldn’t be hard to read.

Chinese New Year Explanation

This week's writing task was to create an explanation for the Chinese New Year, I worked with Aung Naing. We could write about one of three things, how the Chinese New Year came to be, what people do to celebrate it or how the zodiac animals came to be. Aung Naing and I decided to do one paragraph on each topic instead of just three on one, for the explanation we used T.I.I.C (Title, Introduction, Information and Conclusion).

Kung hei fat choi! (Happy Chinese New Year), this year symbolizes the year of the dog. The Chinese New Year
is well known today but, how did it start off?

In the beginning it is said that Chinese New Year wasn’t celebrated, the reason being because of a monster
named Nian who terrorised Chinese people on the first moon of every year. The monster did that for a long time
until a wise old man told the people about Nian’s three fears; Fire, the colour red and loud noises. The next time
that the Chinese New Year came they were prepared, and so as soon as Nian arrived the people were covered
in red coloured clothes, lit fireworks, made loud noises from hitting their drums. Nian then ran away and to
celebrate, every year people wear red clothes, light fireworks and make loud noises by hitting drums.

One day the Jade Emperor decided to make animals take part in a race, the race was to decide what twelve
animals would be on the Chinese New Year zodiac. The animal that came first was the Rat, followed by an Ox
and a Tiger. After them came a Rabbit, a Dragon, a Snake, A Horse, a Goat, a Monkey, a Rooster, a Dog and
a Pig.

People also celebrate CNY by giving Hong Bao to unmarried adults and children, inside of the Hong Bao there
is supposed to be money. They also eat food like egg rolls, noodles and shrimp. The foods represent (in order)
wealth, healthiness and happiness.

This is what has happened or is happening to create the Chinese New Year that we know today.