Romeo And Juliet

This week, we have been learning about William Shakespeare, and his stories. Our main focus being Romeo and Juliet. We learnt about the story of Romeo and Juliet by watching a few videos that told the story. We then re-wrote a part of the story in our own words, and translated them with a Shakespeare translator. This was a lot of fun to then tell the rest of the class. After we finished our stories, we were given another challenge. In groups we would create a DLO that retold the story. My group created an animation. Although I was not here for creating the DLO, so thank you to Jonathan, Te Pounamu and Giovanni for creating the animation.

Writing: Personification

Today for writing, our we revisited personification. Personification is giving human attributes to non human things. For our challenge we needed to get into pairs, and together write a story full of personification. Although there was a catch. Our story had to be about the life of a shoe, and include the 5 senses. Although it doesn't end there. With our partner we needed to sit back to back and not say a word to each other. We would each take turns writing a sentence. For this activity I worked with Julian and we enjoyed writing our story, and are happy with the outcome.

As my owner grabbed me, he stuck his stinky feet inside my mouth. It was just a normal day, so I was used to it. But then I overheard my owner saying he wants better looking shoes! When I heard that it felt like my soul was ripped out, oh wait he just shifted it around as it was uncomfortable. This was bad, I knew what had happened to unwanted shoes, I felt devastated. The next day we went to Footlocker the place he got me, and I feared for my life. He forcefully opened the door, I was scared, what would he do with me? He walked out with these fresh, never touched, elegant Nike's, I was being replaced by a model! Then he took me and my brother off of his feet and put on his new shoes, and tied us together. We felt betrayed. He swung us around and around and, BLAST!!! Stuck on a power line. As we dangled from the power line, tears fell from our laces as we stayed there waiting for our owner. The tears landed on his shoulder and he looked up at us, could it be? He thought about it and said, “Looks like it’s gonna rain” and ran off.

Reading: Horrible Histories

For the last 2 weeks in reading, our focus has been history. Specifically the Horrible Histories book series. For this activity I worked with Alex, Aung Naing and Julian, and we read the Horrible Histories Dark Knights and Dingy Castles. Our challenge was to use the information gathered by the books to create a DLO that talked about the things in our books, and an interactive DLO that others can join in on. We created a DLO that explained what a knight is along with some famous knights from history, and a Kahoot quiz that our class mates could participate in. When we presented, a lot of people enjoyed playing the Kahoot, and most people did quite well. This was a fun activity, and I enjoyed learning a whole lot about medieval times, and knights.

Inquiry: Talk With Michal

Yesterday, we were visited by a lady named Michal. She is the owner of a small business by the name of Foodprint. Foodprint is a business that allows people to purchase food that would've been thrown away at a much cheaper price. You simply download the app, look through the foods, and pick it up. Michal visited us to talk about her business, and how businesses start as this is our Inquiry topic for term 4, Economics and Enterprise. Foodprint has been a business for 6 months, although it has been an idea for 2 years. Michal has for a long time thought about how much food is wasted, and this problem gave her the idea. Did you know that 20 million loaves of bread is wasted in NZ a year! I would recommend that you consider Foodprint as it is literally free money for the same fresh food you can get in a shop! Around 250 cafes supply Foodprint with the food they sell, so you can get a large variety of the foods you like to eat.

Helping Room 6 And 7 | Manaiakalani Film Festival

Yesterday room 6 and 7 came up to Learning Space 2. We got into the pairs we were in yesterday for the Manaiakalani Film Festival. Although today Nevaeh was not at school so I filled in for him and joined with his partner. With Junior we created a Google Drawing that showed a picture of him, along with a sentence they wrote, a title and our names. I let Junior pick the colours of both the background

Manaiakalani Film Festival

Yesterday, Panmure Bridge School along with other schools in Manaiakalani went to Sylvia Park HOYTS Cinema to attend the 12th Manaiakalani Film Festival. Learning Space 2 would each take up the role of taking care of another student from room 6 or 7, although there weren't enough students for everyone so I helped take care of Khit with Aung Naing. We went to Sylvia Park by bus and walked in a line from the car park to the cinema. From there we waited for our cue to go into the theatre. We then sat our room 6 or 7 partners down on their seats and walked up to the top row in the theatre. The Manaiakalani Film festival was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed watching the movies. (Especially in the Lazy Boy recliners) My favourite movie throughout the whole film festival was Learning Space 1's 3 part How To films. My favourite out of the 3 was the How To Hold A Netbook film. If you would like to watch the film then click Here.

KiwiSport: Tennis | Session 2

Today we had the next session of tennis for Kiwi Sport. In today's lesson we focused completely on learning how to volley. A volley in tennis is where you hit the ball before it hits the ground. We learnt how to volley by throwing the ball to our partner and doing rally's where we would count how many volleys we could do with our partner. Unfortunately no photos were taken of me or my partner so instead I have grabbed a photo of professional tennis player Roger Federer doing a volley.

Maths: Market Game

Today we were given a maths challenge. It involved a game about Market Day that we would play with a friend and see who ended up with more money at the end. The gist of the game is roll a numbered dice and move that many steps. If you land on a sale, you roll a dice with 2 J's (Juggling ball), 2 H's (Hacky sacks), and 2 B's (Bungy balls). Which ever letter you land on will be what you sell. Although if you end up landing on Market Option, it will give you a deal that you can give the customer that you could do or turn down. For this game I worked with Aung Naing, and we had a lot of fun playing the game, and tallying up how much money we made and lost. We hope we can play another game like this again.

Provocation: Should We Ban Fireworks

Today we were given another Guy Fawkes related challenge. For this challenge we got into groups and would create a DLO that would show 3 sides to the banning fireworks provocation. We should ban them, we shouldn't ban them, and our personal opinion. For this activity I worked with Julian and Jonathan, and we had a lot of fun. It was an interesting topic, but one we enjoyed.

Guy Fawkes | Safety Rules Presentation

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. For this activity I worked with Alex and Aung Naing and we had a lot of fun creating this presentation. Once we had completed our presentations we would go to another class and present our rules to them. We chose to present our slideshow to room 1.

Maths: Family Shopping

Last week for maths, we were given a challenge. In groups, we were given a digital budget of $200 to spend on food and shopping for a week. This included breakfast, lunch, dinner and other necessities. For this activity, I worked with Aung Naing, Matthew, Nidhi, Angelene and Karlos. This was an interesting challenge as it sounds so simple, but ended up a lot harder. Although we still ended up having a lot of fun, and if you would like to see what we bought then I have put screenshots below.

Inquiry: Research Time

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 Alex, Te Pounamu, Joseph and Jonathan.

Maths: Real Cost Of Owning A Dog

This week for maths, we were given a challenge. Once we got into pairs, we would then find a dog breed and telly up how much it would cost raising the dog we would like to have. For this task I worked with Julian, and we had a lot of fun. From looking at prices, to just talking about our dog, we had a blast. The dog Julian and I decided on was a Tibetan Mastiff. We both chose this breed as it is large and fluffy, low energy, and extremely affectionate! Some things almost everybody wants in a pet. If you would like to read more about our choice of pet, I have linked our class presentation about the dogs we would like.

Tech: Woodwork | Term 4

Today we had the next session of tech at Tamaki College. This term the year 8's have been doing Woodwork with Mr Grundy, and it is about now when people have almost finished their projects. Today at tech, I have finally started to glue all of my pieces of wood together to form the shape of my truck that I will be creating. Although as most of this session was me waiting for the glue to dry, I decided to help my peers to help the time pass. Next week I will be working on attaching my wheels to my truck, and doing the finishing touches.

Current Events: Summarising The Main Ideas

This week for Current Events, our challenge was to search the internet, and find an article that we found interesting. With this information we then found keywords, 20 important words, 6 of those words that are most important, and then make a 5 sentence summary about the text. Once we had written our summaries the final challenge was to turn those 5 sentences into 5 10 syllables sentences. I worked with Alex, Joseph, and Karlos for this activity. This was an interesting challenge, and I enjoyed learning about this new found organism. If you would like to read the article I have linked it below.

Link To Article Here:

The ‘Blob’

Keywords from the title	Keywords from  sub- headings	New words I need to look up
Blob, Organism and Solve.	There are no sub-headings.	We didn’t find any words we didn’t know.

Write down 20 important words from the text	Blob, Organism, Solve, Yellowish, Scientists, Paris, Zoological, Park, Animal, Fungus, Memory, Maze, Form, Searched, Regenerate, Slime, Merge, Behaviour, Consumes and Researchers.
Chose the 6 most important words.	Blob, Researchers, Memory, Regenerate, Animal and Fungus.
Use your words to write a 5 sentence summary.	Researchers in Paris have discovered a blob. They aren’t sure if it’s an animal or a fungus. They don’t even know if it’s in between. It has a memory and can regenerate from being cut in half in two minutes. The Blob has such an interesting behaviour.

Now using the words you wrote down summarise the text in 5 sentences. Once you have done this turn each of your sentences into sentences with exactly 10 syllables.

People in Paris discovered a blob. - 10 syllables

Is the blob an animal or fungus. - 10 syllables

They don’t even know if it’s in between. - 10 syllables

With memory it can regenerate. - 10 syllables

The Blob has got such a weird behaviour. - 10 syllables

Writing: Explanation | Why I Would Be An Asset To Edgewater College

Today for writing, the year 8's wrote an explanation that would give multiple reasons as to why we think we would be an asses to the college we will be going to. The year 7's instead wrote about why they would be a good leader for Panmure Bridge School next year. I will be going to Edgewater College next year, so I wrote about that. I am really excited to be making a big step in my life and going to college next year.

Why I Would Be An Asset To Edgewater College

Next year, I will be joining Edgewater College as my next school. I have been a part of Panmure Bridge School for the past 8 years, and it will be a big step in my life to be going to college. So without further ado, here’s why I think I will be an asset to my new school.

All throughout the past 8 years, I have been striving to be the best I could. I have been helpful to my peers, and they have returned the favour. I have always tried to do the right thing, and listen to teachers and staff. I try to challenge myself everyday, and each new day brings new learning and opportunities. I am the type of person who likes to try new things and ideas. I am the type of person who is not afraid of being wrong. And finally, I will try to accomplish my goals no matter what. 

At the end of last year, I found out that I reached my goal of becoming head boy. Being one of my greatest achievements, it meant a lot to me. Being given this new set of responsibilities has really taught me a lot, and I am thankful for the opportunity I have been given. Being Head Boy means I am presenting each week at assembly, need a loud speaking voice, and need to be confident. All the things a leader needs to be a good one.

I am really excited to go to Edgewater College. And I am ready to follow my brothers footsteps. I too will most likely join the Jazz Band with my brother. I too will be joining a sport just like him. And I too want to enjoy my time there.

Writing: Explanation Challenge

This Monday for writing, we were given a 55 minute explanation writing challenge where we had to write about why Respect, Empathy and Tolerance are important qualities to have. We then needed to give an example of where to show those qualities. I chose to write about why showing those qualities to your parents are important. This was an interesting challenge as it was the first day of term 4, so most of us were in holiday mode still. Although it was still fun.

Why Respect, Empathy & Tolerance Are Important Qualities To Have With Your Parents

I would like you to think about the amazing things your parents have done for you. When you break the rules or get mad at them, how do you think they feel? Once you’ve thought of this, what do you think you could do?

The answer is simple. Be respectful, show empathy, and understand their tolerance towards you. Each of these words have a different definition, but in this case they are all linked. Respect - Showing that you care about others and their qualities. Empathy - Putting yourself in someone else's shoes, and imagining how they feel. Tolerance - The ability to know your limits when it comes to other people, and knowing when they’ve gone too far. Think about the BIG things your parents have done for you. Your parents raised you, and care for you as much as themselves. So it would help them out if you showed respect towards them, showed empathy, and know how much they tolerate you, and your boundaries.

“But what about the big things I’ve done for my parents?” You may ask. A fair point. Without you, they would have never been given the experience of being a parent. Being a parent teaches them life skills, making them learn just as much as you throughout the experience. Without you, they wouldn’t have their own family who they can love and care for. You have done just as much giving as they have for you, so showing respect, empathy and knowing your boundaries is the final step.

Now that you’re on the right track, do something nice for them to show them you care. Maybe make breakfast for them, buy them something they will cherish, or even just spend quality time with them. All these little things help to build a stronger bond with your family.

So what do you think you could do for you parents? How do you think they feel when you do something wrong? And what amazing things have you done for them? After reading this text, I want you to be as respectful as you can to your parents, show empathy, and think about if you’ve ever gone too far.

Inquiry: Water Filtering

At the end of term 3, Learning Space 2 got into groups and created water filters. We did this after we learnt about some of the third world countries that don't have access to clean water. With this knowledge, we spent a week researching, designing and creating water filters. My group and I have created a DLO for you to see.

Inquiry: Early Maori Enrerprise

This week for inquiry, we have started our term focus about Economics and Enterprise. For today's and yesterdays challenge, we learnt about early Maori enterprise throughout New Zealand, and transferred that information over to our devices in only 5 sentences. Once we had our five sentences, our challenge was to convert the sentences to have only 10 syllables per sentence. It was quite the challenge, although I along with my peers Alex, Aung Naing, Te Pounamu and Nevaeh managed to get the job done.

Original 5 Sentences
Early Maori Enterprise started with tribes trading items all over New Zealand. Trades included a variety of foods, baskets and jewellery. Later on British travellers came to New Zealand asking for food, and other items. This turned into trades where the Maori people sold their valuable land and foods for unfair returns. This resulted in the Maori people selling too much of their land and belongings, leaving them with little to nothing.

10 Syllable Per Sentence 5 Sentences
Maori enterprise started with trading. They traded items like food and clothing. Soon British travellers came wanting food. The British also wanted to buy land. Then Maori sold too much, they lost their land.

Maths: Rugby World Cup Pitch Sizes Challenge

This week for maths another challenge was to answer questions on rugby pitch sizes. Some of the other questions were: What is the perimeter of a maximum size of rugby pitch? And, what is the area of a maximum size rugby pitch? After finishing all of the other questions, my group needed to create a DLO on how we found our answer.

Maths: Rugby World Cup Maths Challenge

This week LS2 has been learning about the rugby world cup. We needed to answer maths questions like; What is the difference in seating capacity between the largest and smallest stadiums and, what the the total combined capacity of all the Japanese rugby world cup stadiums is. The question that my group made the DLO on is if all the stadia are sold out each time then what will be the total number of spectators for all the pool matches combined.

Writing: 5 - 7 - 10 | My Favourite Cultural Celebration

Today for writing, our challenge was to write a 5 - 7 - 10 story based on our favourite cultural celebration. 5 - 7 - 10 is a writing challenge were you write as much as can for 5 minutes, talk to a friend for 7 minutes, and finish off in 10 minutes. For my story, I chose to write about Christmas. You can read the text I wrote below to see the points I go over, and a few extra details.

5 - 7 - 10 | My Favourite Cultural Celebration (Christmas)

Let me tell you about my favourite cultural celebration, Christmas. Christmas is a well respected holiday between my brother Latham and I. This is because on Christmas Eve, we can barely sleep!

My average Christmas starts off by waking up, and running to my brother’s room. I would ask for the time, and if it was at least 6:00 AM we could get ready. Then we would go to our parent’s room, ask if we could open presents, rush to the table, grab our Christmas sacks, run back to our parent’s room, and let the fun begin. In our family, presents were not wrapped. Instead we could grab anything from our Christmas sacks, and put it in a pile. We would then usually hear, “Aww yes!” or “Oh uh, thank you!” Then we would hug our parents, and thank them for the presents they got us.

Although that’s only the beginning. The next step for Christmas consists of us getting dressed, and getting ready overall. This is because later in the day we will be going to my grandma and grandpa’s house in Pakuranga, Auckland, along with everyone else in the family. Once we say hello to everyone, we would usually tell our cousins what we got. We would all hang out for a little while, until my grandma would bring out the food. This is usually buns, with chicken or ham and a plate of vegetables. Along with a few snacks, and hot cross buns.

After my dad eats all of the food like a garbage disposal, my cousins, my brother and I usually get a soccer ball, and play for a while. This then brings our day to an end. Christmas is my favourite cultural celebration, as I love spending time with my family, but most importantly I like it for the presents. This year, the date for Christmas is the 25 of December, 2019, and I cannot wait!

Reading: International Current Events

This week for reading Aung Naing, Joseph, Alex, 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.

Maths: Krispy Kreme Maths Challenge

This week for maths, the Heptagons, and Octagons were given a maths challenge. This challenge included 1 ginormous Krispy Kreme's donut box. Our challenge was to make an estimation of how many donuts were in the box. What we were given was a link to an email screenshot which showed a few of the hints we needed to be able to figure it out.  This included the diameter of each donut, the length and height of the box, and a good luck to schools trying to figure the answer out. For this activity I worked with Julian, and we had just as much fun creating the DLO as we did with finding the answer. You can see in our DLO our first estimations just by looking at the box, and the working out for the real answer.

Reading: Exploring Our National Current Events

New's editors make decisions every day about which current event stories they will run. We explored a bunch of different types of current events that are happening in New Zealand, thought about why the story made the news and plotted the location onto a Google Map. You can click on each pin to see what type of current event it is, and the name of the headline. For some locations, there are multiple pins, just zoom in by scrolling to see more, or click the + and - on the bottom left of the map.

Writing: Provocation and Opinion

What is a provocation? A provocation is an action or speech that triggers strong feelings about a topic. Not too long ago, a large supermarket chain announced that it would no longer sell energy drinks to people under the age of 16. You can see in the DLO that I created showing both perspectives, and my own below. I had a lot of fun creating this DLO, and learning about the topic. Although now I would like to hear your opinion. If you would like to, comment your's below.

Writing: Explanation: Should New Zealand Ban Plastic Straws?

Plastic straws, tubes of simplicity and convenience. An easier way to consume your favourite drink, and the supposed killer of this world. Think about a time you were at the beach, playing in the water and fighting off seagulls for your hot chips. You whip out a can of Coke, and you are one of two people. You either drink it cold out of the can, or you grab a nearby plastic straw of heaven and use that instead. If you are the latter then you need to make a choice. Do the right thing and put it in the bin, or drop it by the shore because the bin looks like it is a million miles away?

This is a problem we all face one day in our lives. Although the question still goes, should we just get rid of plastic straws. I’m just gonna let you know… we shouldn’t. Plastic straws are convenient, and are much better than their paper straw counterpart. Paper straws get soggy in matter of 0.01 milliseconds, they cost more money and time to manufacture, and half the time when you’re using one it breaks down and bits of paper make it to your mouth along with your drink! It ruins the experience, and that just defeats the purpose of having a drink. Although you might ask “Well if paper fails, why not use bamboo, as the shape is already a cylinder and it can break down?” Well might I add that bamboo straws would need to be thoroughly cleaned, and that bamboo can still have small twigs on its side.

Would you like to buy a bag of bamboo straws, and see bumps on the side due to there being twigs that were just snapped off? It is time consuming to make, unappealing, and if you are not using plastic straws as they “Harm the environment”, then why would you use paper straws which if you don’t know come from trees! Or bamboo straws which has bamboo literally in the name? At this point the argument of banning plastic straws is just going in circles with one upside plummeting into a fault. If plastic straws were banned, then nothing will change as they are the least of our worries when it comes to “Pollution” and “Saving the environment.” Plastic straws are a lifesaver! They don’t require us to tilt our heads back as if we snapped them just to take a sip of a drink, if you are sensitive to cold temperatures you don’t need to hold the can, and finally if you do want to use plastic straws, they are one of the cheapest things you can buy.

So this is why plastic straws shouldn’t be banned from New Zealand. They do wonders if you want a cold drink. If you think it’s bad that straws are getting stuck in the noses of turtles, then don’t drop them by the beach. So think about it… Do you really want to ban plastic straws?

Tech: Final Session For Cooking

Today we had our final session of food tech. Before I talk about what we cooked, I would like thank Miss Heka for each session she has provided for us. She has been a great cooking teacher, and I have enjoyed each second of our sessions. Today we cooked Fish Cakes. It was a lot of fun, and with the spice included packed quite a punch. Unfortunately I am not the greatest fan of spice, although I loved the flavour of this dish. I am sad to leave food tech so soon, although I am quite excited to move on to the next rotation.

Writing: 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. Alex 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.

Persuasive Speech

Last week we presented our speeches and I was lucky enough to make it into the whole school competition. My speech topic was about plagiarism. I really enjoyed both writing my speech, and presenting it. I have linked my speech below if you would like to read it.

Plagiarism… What is it? According to Google, plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own. My name is Jack, and today I want to warn you about the dangers of plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a form of copying. Many people from a range of ages plagiarise on a day to day basis, although most people don’t ever think twice about the risks they may be taking. A common misconception of taking work or ideas can be misinterpreted with taking inspiration. Two of the most close, yet differing practices. Think about a time you plagiarised. The quick look over your shoulder to get the answer. Writing a text about a topic and finding the perfect article relating to the text. A simple copy and paste? Almost everyone has plagiarised one way or another, nobody’s perfect.

No matter the reason, nor the outcome, plagiarism can be dangerous. Plagiarism is a lie that can continue for as long as you make it. Although plagiarism isn’t just your simple copy and paste. It can go from stealing a small answer, to even identity theft! Some things no one should ever endorse. It is a slippery slope that one day may end up with a worse consequence than being sent to the principal’s office. It can cause your work in school to deteriorate, and for your credits in college to dreadfully be damaged. Copying something word for word? Plagiarism… Taking all the credit for a group project? Plagiarism… Taking and image without attributions!? Plagiarism… There are many many forms of plagiarism. So many that you may plagiarise without even knowing it!

So don’t plagiarise… Plagiarism is so incredibly simple to pull off that most of the time you get away with it. And there’s no better guilt trip than getting away with the lie that you mischievously pulled off. Although don’t let the rush of theft get over your head.

So don’t plagiarise, there are many dangers that are involved with the process. Although that doesn’t mean you can’t take inspiration. If you find a good article, feel free to modify ideas (So long as you give proper attributions), if you’re a little lost in a project, ask your peers for help, and most importantly if you are in a situation where you can plagiarise? Think twice, make a choice, make the right choice. Thank you for listening.

Tech: Cooking | Week 4

Today we had the next session of tech, although again unfortunately Miss Heka was absent. So this meant that we were doing another worksheet. The worksheet we did today included a wordfind, a blank page where we could draw a pizza, a page with actions that we needed to label, and a page that showed an image and we needed to circle each hazard in the image. Unfortunately it was not as fun as it would've been to cook something, but it was still a fun session.

Reading: The Story Of The Dawn Raids and The Polynesian Panthers

For the past week in reading, Rakino group has been reading a text that all revolves around the story of the dawn raids and the Polynesian Panthers. If you did not know the Dawn Raids were evacuation protocols which involved the police going to Polynesian homes and forcing them to show their passports that stated whether they were allowed to live in the country. If demands were not met, they were locked up and later kicked out of the country. Our challenge was to read the text and answer questions. With this new found knowledge we needed to create a DLO that showed both perspectives of the issue.

Tech: Returning To Tech For Term 3

Today we had our first session of tech for term 3 this year. Unfortunately Miss Heka was not here today so instead Miss Elice was here to give us worksheets to fill out. The worksheet was about Greece and the history of food there. We started by reading a few pages that gave us a bunch of information about the topic. Then we got our first few questions. After that there were a few pages which all contained a wordfind. That was as far as we got into the worksheets, there were still a few pages remaining, but I managed to complete 1 wordfind in the time we were given. Although we couldn't do cooking I still had fun.

HIIT: A Final Session To End The Term

Today as the second to last day of term 2, we had 1 final session of HIIT to finish off the term. In today's session we all focused on our upper body strength, and did a rotation of pull ups, press ups, and mountain climbers. In each rotation, we would have a partner. With our partner we would take turns every 30 seconds to do each exercise. Although before we got to the main exercises, we started with a warm up. With a buddy, we would try to tap their shoulders, while not getting taped ourselves. If your shoulder was tapped, you would then do a burpee. Then we switched the punishment to planking, and hitting your partners hands 10 times. At the very end we would do one final exercise. We would all do squats to the song Flower which many times includes the words Up and Down. Every time the word up was said, we would stand. Every time the word down was said, we would squat. I had a lot of fun today, and I am hoping we continue next term.

Maths: Presenting Our Maths Games

This morning, Learning Space 2 showcased the maths games that we have all been working on for the last 2 weeks. My maths game allowed players to practice adding and subtracting decimal numbers. My game included a total of 10 questions, 5 subtraction, 5 addition. A few features that my game included was a scoreboard, an animated calculator as a character, and a certificate at the end that would certify your score. This whole activity started last week where we first needed to plan out the layout of our game. We would do this for the first two maths lessons, and when it was complete we would start getting to work. The program we all needed to use was simple Google Presentation, and to make it into an actual game we would use the linking feature, and link different boxes to other slides in the presentation. I along with the rest of the class had such an awesome time the last two weeks, and we were happy to be given such a fun activity to complete. If you would like to play my game, I have linked it below.

Reading: Waltzing Matilda

Last week for reading, we started an activity. The activity was to read the poem Waltzing Matilda by Banjo Paterson. After reading the poem, we needed to get into pairs, and analyse and unpack the  the poem. With this information we then needed to go through a couple of questions. This included which version of the poem did you prefer, the original or new version? What do you think the poem was about? And what Literary Devices could the poet use to paint a vivid image in our heads? Once those questions were answered, the final step was to create a DLO that would explain what the poem was about in a summary. To help keep our ideas in order, a template DLO was given to us which we could use to store our ideas. For this activity I worked Giovanni, and we had a lot of fun.

Teaching Teachers How To Draw Using Google Drawing

On Friday after tech, Alex Nyjah and I taught a group of teachers how to use Google Drawing to create pictures, and how to use Google Slides to create animations. I along with my peers had so much fun teaching teachers, and we were very thankful for the opportunity that we were given. During the lesson, we showed everyone a presentation that we had all prepared the day before that would act as a tutorial for simple drawings. My favourite parts of the experience was meeting the teachers, and preparing the presentation as I enjoyed drawing images for examples.

Maths: Strengthening Connections To Maths Language

Today, we were given a challenge that would strengthen our maths vocabulary. In the challenge, we were given a presentation with 6 boxes. These boxes were the addition subtraction multiplication division equality inequality variables and find an answer boxes. In each box we needed to drag a whole bunch of smaller boxes with a maths vocabulary word on it into the corresponding box based on what the word meant. We would like to say thank you to Whaea Donna from Manaiakalani sharing this activity with us.

Tech: Food Tech

Today we had our second session of food tech, although today Miss Heck couldn't make it to Tamaki College, so instead we filled out a worksheet based on cooking. In the worksheet, we had two crosswords, a fill in the blank page, name the equipment, name the action, and a picture where we needed to circle each hazard. Although I would've enjoyed a regular tech session, I still had fun.

KiwiSport: Gymnastics

Yesterday we had our next session of KiwiSport this term which is gymnastics. In yesterday's lesson we did our usual floor rotations, although to mix it up we learnt a few poses, and we learnt how to properly mount the beam. We had 3 different floor rotations, upper body strength, balancing, and then a mix of different techniques. I had a lot of fun yesterday at gymnastics, and personally my favourite activities were doing dive rolls after bouncing on the trampoline, and then handstand rolls.

Reading: Literary Devices

This week, we have started to look into poetry. For a start, it was important that we knew what these literary devices are, and what they mean. Our challenge was to learn what these devices are, and to create a DLO that shows others what they are. Although there was a catch... Our teacher challenged us to use only Google Docs to create our DLO. This means we can't go to another tab to find images, or use a Google Drawing to create our own pictures. We had to stay on the one tab. In our DLO, we must show the literary device, add a picture to help describe, and a definition of the literary device. Although I had an idea that would help me create my pictures. On Google Document you can use a feature that allows you to use Google Drawing without leaving the document. With this advantage, I decided to instead of finding images and attributing them, I could draw my own to go with my examples. I had a lot of fun doing this activity, and I am excited to continue on our topic of poetry.

Here is the link to my DLO: Link

Inquiry: Bus Stop Activity

This week for inquiry, we have started a new rotation. To start off we have had a bus stop activity to complete. The point of this activity was to activate our prior knowledge, and to build it. Prior knowledge is what you already know, and to build it is to expand your knowledge. Because our topic is space, our questions were What do we know about science, What do we know about space, How does space affect us on earth, What do you know about the planets in our solar system, What do you know about the moon, What do you know about the sun, and finally What words do you know that are associated with space. For this task, Learning Space 2 collaborated with Learning Space 1, and we have all enjoyed it.

Inquiry: Growth Science Experiment

Today, we had our second session of science with Mrs Wells from Tamaki College. In today's lesson, we continued on our experiment with beans. In our experiment, we have used different items to mix with soil to see how it would affect the growth of the bean plant. The fertilizers we are using are Mandarins - Mrs Wells, Tea Leaves - Nyjah, Foam Soap - Me, Crushed chocolate - Giovanni, Salt - Victoria, Mashed Potatoes - Julian, Pear skin - Mele, Peanut Butter - Alex, and Pencil shavings - Fui. The method we are following is, Get an ice cream container, Put on gloves, Get a scale, Place empty container on scale, Get soil from junior garden, Measure 40g of foam soap, and place into ice cream container, Measure 400mls of soil that goes into the ice cream container into the beaker, Use hands to stir and mix fertilizer and soil for 1 minute, Label your containers, Measure 200mls of soil and place into 1 pot, and another 200mls into another pot, Mark 3 cm from the tip of your finger, Push your finger into the middle of the soil, Place 1 bean seed (Phaseolus vulgaris) into the hole, Cover the seed with soil, Water with 20 mls of water every Monday Wednesday, and Friday for two whole weeks.

What we have done today, is mix the fertilizer and soil together, we have added the beans, and for the next 2 weeks, we will be watering the plants, and seeing the result of the soil and fertilizer. We would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Wells for coming in to do this experiment with us, and we are looking forward to seeing the end results.

Tech: Final Session Of Metal Work

Today, we had our final session of tech for our first rotation. In this rotation, we could create either a pizza cutter, or a cake server, I chose to create a pizza cutter, and I am very happy with the end result. I had a lot of fun over the last term, and I would like to say a big thank you to Mr Naicker for teaching us, and to Mr Tom and Mr Dunn for taking over for the last 2 weeks. In today's session, we finished the final details for our project, along with filling out our planning paper. The final step was a little test. In the test, we received two small pizza's, and a cake that we would test the pizza cutters and cake servers ability. I would like to say one more thank you to our teachers before we move into the next class.

A Visit To Stardome

Yesterday night, Learning Space 2 were given the opportunity to visit Stardome where we could learn about stars, planets, and constellations. We went in a bus, and when we arrived we got to look around the building. First we entered the dome where we met our show presenter Tobias. While in the dome, we got a proper look at how constellations work, and we got to learn about the different opinions on what the constellations make up. We got to see close up what Jupiter and Saturn really look like, and we found out that sometimes the rings of Saturn seem to have disappeared, although it is only the angle of which the rings are facing us. Some facts that we learnt were that Jupiter has 67 known moons, that the rings of Saturn are actually tiny ice moons and dust, and that the stripes on Jupiter are actually storms that are spinning at a rate of 100km per hour. I along with my class had a lot of fun at Stardome, and we are very thankful for the opportunity.

Writing: Emperor Penguins Information Text

This week, we have been learning about informational texts and how to write them. For this exercise, we learnt about a penguin type of our choice, and took notes to eventually use to write an informational text of our own. The penguin type that I chose were emperor penguins. I had a lot of fun doing this activity, and I hope that we continue to learn about and write informational texts.

Emperor Penguins

The Aptenodytes forsteri. Or more commonly known as the Emperor Penguin, is the largest species of penguin, and our topic for today.

Appearance

Emperor Penguins are a beautiful species of penguin. Adult penguins are very large in size, and have white bodies. They have dark black backs, yellow and white necks, and a dark black face. Emperor Penguin chicks on the other hand seem like a completely different type of penguin. Chicks have all grey bodies, along with a white face. The back of their heads are completely black, and they are adorable.

Diet

Emperor penguins are carnivores. The typical Emperor Penguin diet links to aquatic life in the arctic oceans. They eat a variety of fish, krill, and squid. Adult penguins will then regurgitate food to their chicks as they are unable to eat and hunt food alone. This being because chicks are too small to eat something as big as a whole fish. Although on the other hand, Emperor penguins are a feast to some of their predators. This includes leopard seals, and orca’s (Killer whales) for adults and chicks. Although on the other end of the spectrum, Skua birds hunt for eggs and newborns.

Habitat

Emperor penguins can be located around the coasts of Antarctica. This allows them to hunt for sea life, and swim without having to travel the extremely large continent of Antarctica. Because of the tremendously cold temperature of the Arctic, their large bodies act as a big coat for penguins in general. Penguins cover their feathers with a special oil that keeps them dry. So swimming through the water is no problem for these guys.

Facts

In the water, Emperor penguins black and white bodies serve as a form of camouflage. While swimming, they can dive as deep as 565 meters while holding their breath for a whopping 20 minutes! Out of water, they are the only species who still inhabit open ice in the winter, and if they need to move around, but are out of range to swim, they slide on their stomachs (Tobogganing) on the ice rather than walking or waddling. Like other penguins, Emperor penguins have colonies, and the population in a single colony can vary from a few hundred, to over 20,000 penguins!

Emperor penguins are interesting creatures. Large in size, and at a cute factor of 100, they are one of the best types of penguins and waddle on.

Reading: Reading Response

This term for reading we have been reading a range of different texts that all link to space. Our challenge was to use the information that we read in our texts, and to go through a range of challenges and responses to the text. This would involve giving feedback, and giving facts. Although there was a catch, in order to do a task, you must write a comment on someone's response who did the same activity. Within our comment, we should add feedback, and a question. This means if they replied to the comment, and answered our question, we could start a dialogic conversation where we could talk to each other giving feedback, and receiving feedback. For this DLO that I have created, I made an info graphic that spoke about Mars, and if we don't clean up our act, we may pollute our Earth so much to the point where we have to more to and live on Mars. On the DLO, I have a few facts, a paragraph about Mars, and an image in the background. I really enjoyed this task, and my favourite part about creating was learning about Mars, and drawing the image.

Reading: Reading Response

This term for reading we have been reading a range of different texts that all link to space. Our challenge was to use the information that we read in our texts, and to go through a range of challenges and responses to the text. This would involve giving feedback, and giving facts. Although there was a catch, in order to do a task, you must write a comment on someone's response who did the same activity. Within our comment, we should add feedback, and a question. This means if they replied to the comment, and answered our question, we could start a dialogic conversation where we could talk to each other giving feedback, and receiving feedback. For this DLO, I created a quiz using Kahoot based on the text 'The Problem With Pluto'. In my quiz, I included questions such as who named Pluto, what it is now called, and how long it takes to orbit the sun. I enjoyed creating my Kahoot, and my favourite bit about the task was having other people play it.

Reading: Reading Response

This term for reading we have been reading a range of different texts that all link to space. Our challenge was to use the information that we read in our texts, and to go through a range of challenges and responses to the text. This would involve giving feedback, and giving facts. Although there was a catch, in order to do a task, you must write a comment on someone's response who did the same activity. Within our comment, we should add feedback, and a question. This means if they replied to the comment, and answered our question, we could start a dialogic conversation where we could talk to each other giving feedback, and receiving feedback. So far, my favourite part of the different types of challenges has to be the creating section. This being as I enjoy using my own ideas to create and share with my peers and other people all around the world on my blog. Each week, we have been reading a new story, and completing 6 overall activities. 1 Remembering task, 1 Understanding task, 1 Applying task, 1 Analysing task, 1 Evaluating task, and 1 Creating task. My favourite activity that I did was creating an animation, because it is something that I already enjoy doing, and I liked the challenge of creating a whole animation in the time frame I had. I have linked the animation if you would like to watch it. My animation shows the difference between cartoon rockets, (And how they launch) and real rockets (And how they launch). Overall I have really enjoyed the last few weeks of reading, and I am happy to revisit the challenge again.

Inquiry: Growth Science Experiment

Today Alex, Nyjah, Julian, Victoria, Mele, Giovanni, Fui and I took part in a science lesson from Mrs Wells from Tamaki College. In the lesson, we have started a science experiment that we will work on for the next few weeks. In the experiment, all of us will be using a different type of fertilizer to see the affect in growth on a bean plant. The fertilizers we will be using are Coffee grounds - Mrs Wells, Tea Leaves - Nyjah, Foam Soap - Me, Crushed candy - Giovanni, Salt - Victoria, Mashed Potatoes - Julian, Pear skin - Mele, Baked beans - Alex, and Pencil shavings - Fui. We would like to give a very large thank you to Mrs Wells for visiting us today, and we are very excited to continue on the experiment.

A Visit To Tamaki College

Today, the year 8's spent a few hours at Tamaki College after our tech, so that we could further understand how a day at college works. This includes switching periods, going around the school, and learning in a different environment. During the day, we had our usual session of tech, although once we were done the year 7's left the school, leaving us with the teachers in Tamaki College. First we headed to the library to eat, following walking to a classroom. In that class, we had a teacher that gave us a maths lesson. In the lesson, we were given a challenge involving co-ordinates. What we needed to do was (With a gridded piece of paper) follow directions that gave us co-ordinations, where we would dot the answer. When we were done, we would rule lines from dot to dot to reveal an image. The image we ended up with was an alien that we could now cut out, and design. I along with the rest of the year 8's really enjoyed the lesson that was given. Once we were done with our first period, we switched to another classroom where we were given a science lesson. In our lesson, we conducted multiple science experiments that all involved dry ice. Dry ice is solid carbon dioxide that does not melt, but rather defrosts into a gas, further returning to a solid. The first experiment we did was to fill and tie off a rubber glove with dry ice. The result turned out to inflate the glove, to the point where it would pop, although that took time. The second experiment was to receive a paper cup with a hole at the bottom, and plastic wrap on the top, and fill it with dry ice, the next step was to fill the cup slightly with water, and slightly tip the cup. Now if you flicked the plastic wrap, it would launch a ring of carbon dioxide. The final step was to put out a flame using the carbon dioxide ring. The next experiment we conducted was to fill a small plastic container with dry ice, fill it with water, put the lid on, tip it over, place it into a plastic bowl standing upright, and the container would launch into the air. The final experiment consisted of filling a bowl with a lot of dry ice, then add a significant amount of water, grab a paper towel soaked in detergent, and slowly slide the paper towel over the rim of the bowl. This would then form a bubble which would expand, and due to the pressure of the carbon dioxide, the bubble would eventually pop. I along with my peers had a lot of fun today, learning, and experiencing. We would like to thank the teachers that taught us, along with Mr Dunn (The deputy principal) for showing us around the school.