Reading Presentation

Today for reading Jack, Aung Naing and I needed to present our DLO on the history topic that we'd chosen. We picked the medieval times. After creating the google drawing on our topic, we also made a kahoot. This part was a bit harder because we wanted to make pictures to go with the questions, so we spent a lot of our time on those.

Teaching Younger Students About Firework Safety

Today Learning Space 2 got into groups and each created a presentation that gave 5 rules about safety when it came to fireworks as it is Guy Fawkes day (or fireworks night). To do this Jack, Aung Naing and I needed to make the 5 safety rules short but entertaining. When we'd finished, we presented our slideshow to Room 1. I liked doing this because we were able to create pictures.

Research Tme

This week for inquiry, we were given a small challenge to complete. In this challenge we learnt the definitions of a need and want, the difference between them, how have they been met through a product or service, and how do we know when someone needs or wants something. With this knowledge we needed to get into small groups and create a DLO that fully explained everything we learnt. For this activity I worked with Jack, Te Pounamu, Joseph and Jonathan.

Current Events Map

This week for reading Aung Naing, Joseph, Jack, Julian and I worked together to fill out a google map with international events. We needed to search through different news websites to find stories that fit the current event criteria. Our story for oddity is twin pandas being born in Belgium and for impact, bush fires.

Should New Zealand Ban Plastic Straws?

 

This week for writing we needed to create a point of view poster with a partner on whether or not we should get rid of plastic straws. Jack and I needed to show both sides of the argument as well as write down our own opinion on the issue. We both had the same opinion which was that we shouldn't get rid of plastic straws because they are more efficient and cost less than paper, bamboo and metal straws.

Drawing Session

On Friday last week after tech Jack, Nyjah and I went over to Summerville Special School to teach teachers there how to do google drawings and animations. We showed them the DLO that we'd created to help teach them how to draw and animate as well as some examples of drawings and animations that we'd done.

Inquiry: Science Session

Today Mrs Wells came in again to help us with our science project, the fertiliser that I'm using changed from baked beans to peanut butter because there were no baked beans. In order to do this right we needed to follow a method; Put gloves on, get an ice cream container, get a scale, put an empty container on top, 0 the scale (Reset the counter so the container's weight doesn't add on), retrieve soil from junior garden, measure 40g of Peanut Butter into the ice cream container, measure 400ml of soil into the ice cream container using a beaker, label container with name and ingredient, use hands to stir and mix for one minute, measure 200 ml into one pot and the other 200ml in the other pot, mark 3 cm from tip of finger, push finger into middle of soil, drop in 1 bean seed (Phaseolus Vulgaris), cover seed with soil, water plant with 20 ml every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for two weeks. Thank you to Mrs Wells for coming in again to help us out.

Emperor Penguin Information Report

CC by SA 3.0 Owner: Wikimedia Commons

This week for writing in groups our task was to find out information on penguins or a specific type of penguin using a template and then write an information report on them. I worked with Julian and Jack and together we found out interesting things like; the Emperor Penguin can hold its breath for 20 minutes or more and, the Emperor Penguin is the biggest penguin of them all.

Emperor Penguins are one of 17 Penguin species that live all across the southern hemisphere. The scientific name for Emperor Penguins is Aptenodytes Forsteri and the family name for Penguins is Spheniscidae. Did you know that the Emperor Penguin’s body colour also helps to camouflage them from predators in the ocean?

Adult Emperor Penguin’s necks are mainly white with a yellow tint at the top and their heads are dark black. Their backs are mainly black but fade to grey on their flippers, whilst their torso is completely white. Emperor Penguin chicks are mostly light grey but have a white and black mask.

An Emperor Penguin’s main diet consists of fish, krill, squid and other small aquatic species. In order to catch fish, Penguins work together as packs to herd schools of fish towards each other- to make it easier to catch them. Once all the fish are together, the Penguins just swim into the horde and swallow as many fish they can. In order to feed their young, Penguins regurgitate into their chicks’ mouths.

Emperor Penguins live on the coasts of Antarctica, the icy continent is home to 7 different species of Penguin. Emperor Penguin colonies live on the coasts of Antarctica because all of their food comes from the ocean. In order to move from one place to another on land, Penguins either waddle or toboggan (Slide on their stomach). Some of the predators that Emperor Penguins face are Orca (killer whales)

Emperor Penguin colonies can average from hundreds to tens of thousands, not only are they the giants of the Penguin species, they can also hold their breath for more than 20 minutes!

Mrs Wells Inquiry Session

Today a woman named Mrs Wells came over from Tamaki College and taught Nyjah, Fui, Victoria, Mele, Julian, Giovanni, Jack and I about independent, dependent variables and different other terms. Over the next few sessions with her we'll be planting beans and fertilising them with an item of our choice; Nyjah chose tea leaves, jack chose soap, Giovanni picked crushed lollipops, Victoria chose salt, Julian's using potatoes, Mele's doing pear skin, Fui chose pencil shavings and I picked baked beans. Our task is to see how much the beans can grow by using our chosen fertiliser.

Siri Group Challenge

Today, we have been given a challenge for writing by our teacher Mrs Anderson. Our challenge was to write in exactly 50 words, a response that Siri (An automated program on Apple devices) would give us if we asked it "Why Kokako Lodge is the greatest place to take year 7 and 8's on camp?" Although Mrs Anderson wanted to make this more of a challenge. So what we could do is gain points by using different Language features that would give us 5 points each. If every feature was used, then you could gain a total of 40 points. Although for another 5 points, you needed to make sure that everyone in your group was working together, and that a learning conversation was taking place. If you had exactly 50 words, and you used different references, you could even have 100 points total! Once you finished writing, you needed to digitally create a Siri conversation showing Siri's answer. The final step was to create a Screencastify that had us voicing over the whole conversation. For this activity, I worked with Julian, Jack, and Viliami. We had a lot of fun, and enjoyed recording the most.

Oakley Creek

Today in reading our task was to first read a story about a girl who lies to her mum and sneaks off to a creek with her friends, in the end she gets caught and her teacher (who helped her mum find her) tells her that she's lucky to have a mum that'd go looking for her. Before she leaves the house and goes with her friends she's faced with a dilemma, which is a difficult choice between two or more options that you don't really want to happen. Faith (the main character) also feels guilty after she lies to her mum and when she gets caught. After that we were asked to draw guilt and a dilemma on whiteboards because they are two things that the main character felt/had. (The top photo represents a dilemma and the bottom shows guilt)

Fair Trade Chocolate

                   

Last week's task for reading for my group (Rakino) was to first read a story called Fair Chocolate. In this story, we learnt about what a fair trade company is, how the fair trade chocolate company gets their cacao beans, and how the chocolate companies can help the cacao farmers live better. After we'd read the story we then needed to have a learning conversation with each other on different questions regarding the story and things in it. The next thing we needed to do was create a DLO about what fair trade companies are.

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.

Panmure Bridge School Leaders 2019

Today at assembly the other student leaders of 2019 and I received our leadership badges. The badges have our names and roles written on them. This year I am one of Panmure Bridge School's Maniakalani leaders, my partner for this year is Nyjah, Mele and Jack are the head students and Julian and Fui are this year's sports leaders.

(From left to right Jack, Julian, Mele, Me, Nyjah, Fui)

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.

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.