Summer Learning Journey Week 1 Day 1 Bonus Activity

For the bonus activity this time it was to write a letter to a family member telling them about how we're going to visit the country we have chosen and maybe even invite them. This is my letter:

Dear Grandmother,
I am writing to let you know that I am travelling to Germany, and from what I have found out so far it sounds like a very interesting place. It has had quite a lot of famous people born there, such as Beethoven, Bach and Einstein, all three famous people, Einstein for his genius and Beethoven and Bach for their music.
I hope that you can come and visit,
Thomas

Summer Learning Journey Week 1 Day 1 Activity 2

For this activity we have to research the country that we have chosen and listed some interesting facts about it. One fact was that Albert Einstein, who discovered the general theory of relativity, was born in Ulm in Germany. Another fact is that Ludwig van Beethoven the musical composer was also born in Germany, and also Germany is surrounded by nine other European countries.

Summer Learning Journey Week 1 Day 1 Activity 1

Day 1 Activity 1 - Choosing a country
I have chosen Germany in Europe because it is a country that has very little similarities between New Zealand and it, as well as the language not being to different, since it is part of Europe and German uses the same alphabet.

Graduation 2016

This is my collage of Graduation this year. We started off by having dinner, which was Lasagna and Salad, and then dessert, which was Pavlova and Ice cream. After waiting a bit for our stomachs to settle, we moved on to the dancing. We started with a Cha Cha and then moved on to the Rock and Roll dance, which is the most complicated with the thread the needle, where you and your partner have to keep turning this way and that and then spin the girl out before she comes back and you continue. Another dance we did was a partner dance where we danced with everyone by moving counter-clockwise in a circle. It was a very fun night and I will remember it for a long time.

2016 LS2 Collage

This is a collage I created about my year in LS2 so far using Google Drawings. I included a picture of Rhythm Interactive, the tip left picture, where we played on some traditional African drums, a picture of our buddy writing, the top middle picture, in which Latham and I took turns writing sentences to make a story about half an hour in the life of a Search and Rescue helicopter paramedic, as well as a picture of hockey, a picture of a fun maths activity we did by measuring the distance if paper planes, and an image of our Cyber safety activity we did when Mrs Ogilvy came to Panmure Bridge. These are only a few photos of a very fun year.

Labyrinth Movie Study

This is my DLO about the movie that we studied yesterday, called Labyrinth. We started off by talking about Epics, which are stories where the Hero/Heroine sets off on a journey to get something and come back, normally slowed down by a Villain and his/her evil Sidekicks. The main reason we studied Labyrinth is that David Bowie, who plays Jareth, the Villain, died earlier this year.

Tamaki College Rockets Collage

This is a Collage that Shannon and I made using photos that Mrs Anderson took during the day we stayed at Tamaki College. The top left photo is of us working on our DLO, and the the top right one is where Mr Dunn displayed what the straw rockets could do by having Mrs Ferguson fire one and try to hit the red circle.

Multi-Modal Reading

Link to Multi-Modal Site

Today we continued on our Multi-Modal task on Godwits. We had started off our research on migration yesterday by writing down some questions using the 5 W's and the H, and words like will, could, are, etc. The next activity we did today was about travel, (since migration is basically animal travel) and we used our prior knowledge (what we already know) to write down some ways we travel today, some ways humans travelled thirty years ago and some ways human travelled one hundred years ago, as well as some problems that would have come with the transport, such as for planes today, a delay for them taking off. Another activity we started was a reciprocal reading task about Godwits. We only got up to the prediction stage and will continue with it after.

Straw Rocket Fair testing DLO

This is Shannon's and my Straw Rocket DLO. We did this on Friday where we stayed at Tamaki College all day to do activities about rockets, such as revising how they fly and how we can make small paper ones that fly just as good as the ones that NASA makes and cost billions of dollars. A funny moment was when we were being shown what our rockets would be able to do once we finished Mr Dunn fired his rocket, and it deployed its separation charge too early and it fell.

5 minutes of...

Down with the fish

I could see the bubbles, floating up towards the shiny surface above, but I couldn’t follow them. As the shore swept by, I felt a sudden push. My board, that used to be stuck, was ripped out by the surf, and the rip shoved me further out. It was pitch black, I couldn’t untie the string around my hand. I slammed into something, wondered what it was, then the pain hit. My head began to turn, I felt as if I was going to puke in the water. I screamed in pain and fear. As I tried to hurl up, I was pushed downwards. I heard some cries, and someone shouted out, “Just hold on, son! Help’s on th...” CRASH! The words were swept away by the roaring of the ocean. I could hear a machine coming in from the distance. A steady beat of whoomph, whoomph, whoomph. I could see a red wagon in the air, down came a rope. I heard a calming voice, “It’s okay, kid, I’ve got you.” I thought I was on death's row, my heart felt as if it had stopped. Then everything faded into blackness and murmurs, except for the steady beat of the chopper's blades, seeming to tell me everything will be alright.

This is Lathams and my "5 minutes of.." narrative recount writing sample that we wrote based on a picture of a rescue helicopter. We took turns writing a line each until we had finished it. It was all about what we thought had happened in 5 minutes for the picture.

Godwit Popplet

This is an image of Latham's, Reon's, and my Godwit Popplet on its appearance, diet, habitat, and predators. This is the second part of our Flight topic for inquiry. We are learning about the Godwit because it is a native New Zealand bird, and also is one of a group of birds that fly long distances to migrate. We also learnt that Godwits stop for rest in China/Korea when they start migrating, but on the return journey they don't rest at all, flying straight from Alaska straight to New Zealand. There are 5 other activities after this one where we will find out more about the Godwit, since we've only found out the basics so far.

Blog comment

This is a comment I made on Pt England Rm 6's  movie based on "The hunt for the wilder people" called the hunt for the manaiakalani people. It was a very good movie, although it's a pity that we can only view it on our chrome books since it wasn't shown when we went to Hoyts cinema.

Hyperbole DLO

This is my DLO on Hyperboles, which are exaggerated sayings.

Recount Quiz

Today we had a quiz about recounts, focusing on the tenses of a recount, the different types of views and making sure we knew it had too be in chronological time order.

Measurement Activity

Yesterday we started on our silent measurement activity. For this activity, we had to make groups then prototype paper plane designs individually, either getting the designs that we use from our memory or online (YouTube, Paper plane websites, etc), then test how far they can fly by throwing them from different areas such as the senior playground, the LS2 balcony, or the field, then get the good ideas from each prototype and eventually make a super plane as a group that will fly further than the other groups super planes. We have already made and tested our prototypes, and today we are moving on to the combining part of our designs, and also making our groups super plane. The hardest part for this activity is that all of our instructions were given silently, with us looking at a presentation.

Wright brothers Main idea

This is my DLO on a Wright brothers text which is about how they were the first to achieve controlled flight. We found out the main idea of the text and then read the bullet points to find out three facts that supported the main idea. I chose three facts that were related to how they improved their plane and how they became interested in flight.

Spirits movie plan

Facts about spirits

How might spirits find a host?

Spirits don’t really have a method for finding hosts, they just choose somebody who looks like they did before they died, as it makes them feel alive again. Other spirits could be conjured up but that is not a very safe choice to make!

Why might spirits haunt places?

Sometimes when people who pass on and their family has owned it for generations they tend to return to the homes. Most people can contact spirits or contact people who can see spirits or they feel a presence which could be good, but it can also be bad!

How could you get rid of a spirit once it has found a host?

You can kindly ask it to leave. Some spirits don’t think they're dead so explain to them that they died. Use your imagination to see people you love. If it is a bad spirit then you need to seek help from a priest or a demon expert. Is it possible to see spirits?

Psychics can read and see spirits, and they can also talk to them. Other people are gifted and have the ability to see spirits.

We are putting our information in a moving DLO (Movie)

Our movie is about a book with a curse placed upon it and the boy, (Thomas) who finds it opens it up and weird things start to happen! The movie we are making is called Monster Book 2: The Curse Begins.

Movie plan:

Latham will do voice overs by reading the questions for each chapter.

Intro:

Latham does an intro about halloween of the past

Characters:

Thomas

Sylis

Time: October 30th 1999

Event: Hallow’s Eve/ Halloween

Beginning:	Middle:	End:
Game at the beginning Sylis is reading the diary Thomas comes along and sees Sylis reading it, Sylis turns, hides it, and runs away	Weird things start happening to Thomas, (Hauntings) Thomas locks himself in rooms to keep away. Thomas sees the dolls moving and grabs the phone, and then somebody on the other side starts whispering.	Thomas manages to knock Sylis out and gets the book, the spirit goes back into the book, Thomas glues it together to trap the spirit   and they rip it up.

This is Lathams, Sylis's, and my plan for a movie about spirits, our topic of choice.

How to narrow a search

This is my DLO on how to narrow a search. Mrs Ogilvye taught us about using keywords instead of questions as Google is a computer, not a person, so it understands key words better.

Dehydration DLO

This is the DLO Latham and I created about dehydration. It shows what happens when you don't drink enough water and also how no drink is as good as water at keeping you hydrated because even though juice is made from fruit, it still has sugar and sugar makes you more thirsty than you were before.

Newtons laws Lucid chart

This is my Lucid chart on Newtons 3 laws of motion. It includes what the three laws are. This is part of our main focus this term, flight and what gets things off the ground as well as what holds them down.

Rythm interactive

Today we had Rhythm Interactive. It was run by Lucy and Johnny, two experienced musicians. It was a very interesting activity, since Johnny or Lucy would play something and we would repeat it. The words that were used the most were "we can make a change", which is what it was all about, making a change.

Owl Narrative

The drop

I stared down into the deep, dark nothingness, and then I began to fear what was to come.

“Hey son! Can you walk with me?” My mother said in a near sing-song voice, or at least as much of a sing-song voice you can use as an owl. It’s pretty hard, since all we do is hoot for communication. She was always cheerful, but this time I could see it was a bit forced. I remembered all of the new rules. Don’t play for longer than an hour, no more sneaky snacks, the list went on. The rules seemed harsh, but my siblings and I all loved our mum so we followed all of them without complaint, well, except for Derek, but he didn’t complain in front of her.

“Hey mum, why are we at the food storage?” This place had been the first thing to become out of bounds, and when I peeked in, I saw exactly why. “Oh no! Is it that serious mum? I mean, surely, maybe, you can still find some more food right? Right?” She had a sad smile on her face as she said the dooming words. “No son, I’m sorry. Right now, you and Derek either find some food, or we’re going to run out.” The blood drained out of my face.

Derek and I stood with mum, staring into the great abyss before us. “You go first, geek!” Derek sneered, but I could see in his eyes that he was frightened out of his skin. We had all been told about Uncle Terry and what happened to him when he forgot to spread his wings. It wasn’t pretty, I can tell you that much. Maybe for all his size, Derek wasn’t much the “Macho guy” he pretended to be. I smiled back at him. “If you say so!” and hopped off the edge, laughing at Derek's scream.

I had practiced for years to get to this point. Mum didn’t know it, but the time I broke my wing when I was young was when I was practicing to fly, jumping off a little tree’s branch and gliding down to the ground. The tree was about 3 feet before, and nows it's nearly twelve. I had always wished I could be tall like that, until I found out that you need to hunt for food. If you were the size of a tree, how much would you need to eat? A lot, that’s all I know. And a lot of food means a lot of hunting. Anyway, back to the present. I spread my wings as I heard mum shouting encouragement, her words garbled by the rush of air through my wings and feathers. I began to glide, and felt something peculiar. The air was pushing me upwards, and instead of gliding, I was flying! “Muuum! I’m doing it!”

“Great job son!” I surged upwards towards her voice and “Watch out for that tree George!” and the world flashed red. “Ow! Owie Owie Ow!” I bounced off branches until I freefell, regained my balance and flew up again. “I did it mum! We’re saved!” I saw that Derek was still perched tentatively on the edge of the nest, sticking his claw out and then whipping it back in. “Cmon Derek! You’ve got this!” he didn’t budge. Then I thought of attacking his pride instead of being friendly. “Look at yourself you big wimp! A tiny, little geek like me can fly better than you! Although, you’re probably used to coming last on things that require brains, aren’t you?” He roared at me and dived head first towards the ground far, far below. Mum went pale “What is it mum? He’s going to fly!” She turned her head to me and her voice shook. “Son, that’s how your Uncle Terry dived when he tried to fly.”

“Derek!” As much as I disliked him, we were brothers. “I’m coming, don’t you worry!” I dived, and all my mother could do was watch the two of us go down, down, down, into the darkness.

This is my narrative about an owl flying for the first time, and the prompt for this story is based on Panmure Bridge School's topic this term, flight. It was very fun to right and even though Mrs Anderson's writing group all made plans my writing deviated off of it, only the characters and their characteristics staying the same.

Cyber smart with Mrs Ogilvye

Today half of LS2 went to the library to learn how to be Cyber smart with Mrs Ogilvye. To start off she reminded us about smart searching and how you can put in keywords to help Google know what you want to search for. After that we talked about how some websites can have fake information and you need a variety of sources to make sure the information you get is correct. We then were showed a website called Kids Info bits Britannica which is a website where all the information is correct on a variety of subjects such as famous people animals and countries. 

Flight

This is my DLO on Flight. The Year 8's are studying flight as part of inquiry, and today we learnt more about one way someone can fly, which is a plane. We learnt that drag and gravity will try and stop you from flying, and lift an thrust will help you to fly. We also found some synonyms for drag, gravity and thrust.

Dance

Today the Year 8's had a dance session with Sonja. We started off with the Rock and Roll dance and finished with the Cha Cha. The Rock and Roll dance was the easiest for the boys because we only had four steps which were back step, rock our foot forward, put our left foot to the left and raise our right foot, then rock over to our right foot. We repeated these easy steps while the girls had to spin out then back in.

A cool story about Antarctic fish

Today in Miss K's reading group the Takahe read a short story about the Antarctic Cod, a fish that can survive in the extreme cold. We learnt about antifreeze's, proteins that stop water molecules from attaching into each other, which causes ice crystals to form. We learnt that the Antarctic Cod lowers its freezing point, which makes it harder for the water in it to freeze.

Tree frog Adventures

Today I played a maths game called Tree Frog Adventures. It had all sorts of math, from basic addition to decimal and fraction conversion. It is a very good game for practising your maths.

Quizizz

Today the whole class had a game of Quizizz. We use this website to help us recall our basic facts quickly and also have fun while we are doing it. Today though, we had another person competing, Mrs Anderson! I tied with her on basic facts which is a very good result. 

6 Sentence Stories

This is my DLO on 6 sentence stories. We use these to practice fitting a lot of detail into one sentence and also to help us with using pictures to write stories. We started off with writing about Mrs Anderson, but then moved on to using photos to write short stories describing objects and people in them. All of these photos were taken by Harris Burdick.

Duffy Assembly

Today Henry Tuipe'a from the Duffy theatre came to PBS to talk about reading. He told us a story about how when he first found out about books he thought they were DVD cases that the DVD's had been stolen out of, how reading had given him confidence and about how when he was rejected by a girl in the library he cried for 7 days, 14 hours, 21 minutes and 10 seconds and read books to comfort himself and take him somewhere else, but when he rejected her she cried for 7 days, 14 hours, 21 minutes and 10 seconds. He also talked about how when he found out he was coming to our school he thought to be like a hero, he would have to wear his undies on the outside, but his flatmate told him it was a very bad idea and thankfully he didn't choose to wear them like that. It was a very funny story and we all had a great time listening to him.

Cross Country

Today there was inter-school cross country. Thirty four Panmure Bridge Students went to Bailey Road school, which is where the inter-school is held. It started off with the Year 3's and went all the way up to the Year 8's. When the Year 8's started off I was at the back, but during the race I slowly worked my way up to come 4th, Gozan coming behind me at 5th, and Zahn getting the best result of coming 1st. We all had fun during it and cheering each other on. When we had finished our run we all ate and then lined up and came back to school, muddy and tired but happy.

Tongan language week Pourquoi story

Long ago, before it had been discovered by European settlers, Tonga was a far, unknown and distant land.

In a kingdom on the edge of the ocean, in a forest just behind the beach, lived a Tongan king named Lepote. But he was no normal king, for he was obsessed with perfection and cleanliness. Every tapa had to be straight to the nanometre, and if even one speck of dirt was found, the servant responsible for cleaning was whipped mercilessly by Lepote himself until screams of pain could be heard from miles away (This had happened numerous times, and almost half of his servants had been whipped).

The servants had begun to resent him, but with his mighty army of two thousand guards he soon put an end to any rebellion that might spring up. The servants began to lose spirit and the will to persevere. Many soon abandoned Lepote in search of a more kind and fair king and soon only Lepotes Head servant and five other servants remained, mainly because of the servant that had returned the night before bleeding heavily, saying there were bandits and they had killed the servants before him, dying twelve minutes later. With no other choice, the servants were forced to stay and attend to their wild tempered and perfection-seeking king.

The day soon came where Lepote had become bored, and he decided to hold an event. He announced, to his remaining six servants: “I have decided to make a challenge, where you may tell me to do anything. The person who gives me the hardest challenge which I cannot complete will become the new king.”

Except for the head servant, all of the servants thought this would be easy, but it was not, for Lepote was a fierce and formidable warrior. One by one, they challenged him to slay magical beasts plaguing Tonga, but one by one, he slew them. By slaying them though, he gained magical trophies like an unbreakable sword, a shield that always reflects light, even in darkness, a bow that could not miss, and many more artefacts. These even helped him to slay the beasts, making the battles easier every time instead of harder.

The servants were all confident when they swaggered up to Lepote with their challenge, only to see him return confidently and very much alive, and slink slowly away. But the head servant was more confident, and he chose more cautiously. He pondered on the challenge for three days and two nights, and finally, he knew the answer and what would make him king. When the sun rose and the sky turned the colour of candy floss, signifying a new day, he approached Lepote and said. “Mighty king, I have pondered on your challenge and have carefully thought about my challenge in turn, finally coming up with an answer. King, I ask you, can you swim in the ocean?” Lepote laughed at the head servants request. “Hahaha! Easy! I will show you, servant, and I will remain as king!” The head servant smiled, knowing the outcome already.

As the Lepote waded in the ocean, getting ready to swim, he saw how murky the water was. “What is this? Aagh! So dirty!” Lepote then proceeded to collect the dirt and put it in his endless bag, a artifact from his adventures, only to find that more dirt came in with every wave. He continued cleaning then, slowly, almost sloth-like, gaining nanometer by nanometer on the dirt, only to have the head servant point out some dirt in the water, which would make him turn around and grab at that patch, trying to get rid of it. He continued on at this for days, and for some reason, maybe Tonga wanted him to continue at this task and make it cleaner, allowed him to become immortal, making him Tongas immortal water janitor.

The servant returned to the kingdom, happy that his plan had succeeded, and the king learnt that cleanliness is a want, not a need, and the joy and comfort of your people should come first before the cleanliness of your home and the work amount of your subjects. This is how the sea around Tonga remains clean.

This is my story that I wrote for Tongan language week. It is about a Tongan king named Pote who is very cruel to his subjects and loves cleanliness. The moral of it is that you should be kind to people who work for you.

School Cross Country

Today we had the PBS school cross country. We started off with Year 1's and went all the way up to Year 7 and 8's. It started pouring down at the end of the junior block races, and most people got soaked. Luckily, it stopped raining just before the Year 7/8 boys race. During the Year 7/8 boys race, Zahn started off really well and kept the lead for the whole race, coming first at least a whole lap before me. Gozan and I were next to each other for nearly the whole race, with occasionally one of us pulling front of the other. I pulled in front of Gozan on the last stretch of the last lap though, which made him come 3rd and me come 2nd. At the end, Gozan and Zahn just lay down on the floor to rest, but I still had energy so I cheered Latham on when he came 4th. It was, overall, a very fun day.

Using Decimals to sove word problems

Today during maths my maths group and I solving decimal word problems. To start off we answered 30 basic facts questions to make sure we knew them and I got all of them right, which is a good thing because knowing your basic facts is critical. We also practised on a quick recall website called Hit the Button, which can help you greatly with basic facts. The only bad thing about Hit the Button is that you have to click on the answers, so even if you know the answer you still have to move your mouse over and click on it, meaning that even if you know the answer you can still get it wrong by clicking on something else accidentally. The questions all had something to do with money, and were mostly addition, though some where about how much change people would get (Subtraction).

Scratch Game

This is another Game I created in Scratch. It is a FNAF (Five Nights At Freddy's) based game that I have been working on. The main aim of the game is to survive until 6:00 in the morning. You can check the security camera to check where the bad guys are and also close the door when they get too close for comfort. However, there is a catch. You only have 100 power, and if you use it all up, then you cannot check the security cameras or close the doors, and have to sit there hoping that they don't come any closer. I hope it is fun to play.

Scratch Game

This is my simple Platformer game that I created during Tech. It was fairly easy for me, because I have spent a bit of time on scratch and have a bit of knowledge on how to use the code. The controls are the simple ones, left key, right key, up key, down key. I have added in a stickman that actually looks like he is moving, instead of one just gliding across as some people do. Everything I used was drawn/created using the scratch drawing tool.

Sketch note

This week LS2 have been learning about Sketch notes. What we have learnt about them is that they use more pictures than words to symbolise things and are a more creative way of making notes. They also help you stay focused to what you are listening to because why write a lot of words and be real bored and not listen when you can draw lots of pictures and not fall asleep because they're so fun to make. We started off with a topic we knew about, which was Questions and how they help us, then moved on to a topic we are learning about as our Kiwi sport with Andi, which is Run Jump Throw and then moved on to a topic we needed to research, which is Rio and the Olympics. We learnt that you can use a variety of objects to make a Sketch note, such as Stick Figures, Bullet points that can be stars circles, even bullets! To make titles we learnt to make the letters into block letters, or circle the title, and make it the biggest thing on the page. We know that our sketch not doesn't have to make sense to anyone apart from us, because, if you can't use you're own notes, then what are you going to do? We will probably use this form of notes from now on but it's fine by me because I know I'd rather draw a few pictures than write 10 pages of words for notes!

Cross Country training

Yesterday we had Cross country training. For this we run around the school numerous times that increases everyday we do it, and this time we ran 5 laps. We are doing this to build up endurance and hopefully be able to run 7 laps without stopping which is going to be the length we will run at the inter-school cross country at Bailey Road in a weeks time. For this I mostly stick with John the head boy, because our speed and level of endurance are about the same. Mr Ogilvy also times us to help us see if we can go faster or if we are doing good, and John and I did 5 laps in 8 minutes. 

Olympic Comparison

This is my Olympic Comparison. I used photos of athletes to compare my long jump and running techniques we learnt from Run, Jump, Throw. I used yellow lines to highlight what I did that was the same as the athletes. I think I need to work on long jump the most, focusing on making sure I lift my legs and arms up earlier to get more momentum.

My Magic Box poem

I will put into the box …

The vibrant plumage of a Peacock,

The helm of a valorous Knight,

And a costume from Halloween long past.

I will put into the box …

The deafening cry of a Phoenix,

The ringing of steel from war,

And the hiss of an enraged Cobra.

I will put into the box…

The natural sweetness of Honey,
The intriguing scent of Cherry blossoms,

And the tangy scent of Lemon.

I will put into the box …

The wise whispers of the Wind,

The glittering allure of Citrine,

And the comforting smile of a friend.

My box is fashioned from time, space and darkness, with Galaxies on the lid and Black holes in the corners.

Its hinges are enormous Asteroid belts.

I shall explore in my box,

For it’s size is infinite,

I will wander space for eternity,

Maybe I will stumble upon Earth and my friends sometime,

But the chances are slim, if they exist at all.

This is my own magic box poem. I modelled it off The Magic Box, a poem made by Kit Wright. We were told to use the 5 senses to make our sentences become more interesting. First off we included four groups of three interesting things or sounds, for example the vibrant plumage of a Peacock. After that we included what our box was made of, what was on the lid and what was in the corners. We also included what we would do with our box, and in my case I said I would explore it.

Warriors Visit

Today Alice, the sponsorship manager from DTR brought Ryan Hoffman and John Palavi from the Warriors to talk to us about well being. They had a presentation that was about Hydration, Sleep and Belonging with a Warriors trivia as well. First we did the trivia and it had questions like who scored the most tries out of the warriors in 2015? Whoever got the questions right was given a spot prize. Hydration was about how water is the healthiest drink to have and you should have it all day to keep you healthy and also how when you don't drink water you become dehydrated and dehydration gives you headaches.  There was also a game involved with hydration, called heads or tails. Heads was if you thought the fact was true, and tails was if you thought the fact was false. Sleep was about how a child needs 11 hours of constant sleep to stay in best shape, which means that I will have to go to bed at 8:00 everyday to stay healthy! Belonging was about which groups we belong to, for example, everyone belongs to their family, and also you might belong to a church or a sports team. We also had to think about some people we would go to if we were feeling sad.

Run Jump throw

Yesterday LS2 had another session of our Kiwisport Run Jump Throw with Andi. This week we were learning about the Jump part of it and instead of running training we learnt about the techniques of long jump. We first learnt the best ways to do long jump which are too have a running start, to swing your arms as you jump and to land in a motorbike position. Then we learnt about one foot launch, two foot landing. This means that we push off with one foot and land on two, because using one leg gives you more thrust and landing on two gives you more stability

Olympic Art

Today we finished our Olympic Art that we have been working on since yesterday. Since half the class had gone to netball Mrs Anderson had decided we should do it to work on our sportsmanship and teamwork. I would normally not associate art with teamwork but we were all told to help each other, for example, if you finished drawing your shapes, then you should help somebody who is taking longer. Today we have done just that, since everybody has now finished.

Current Events

This is my DLO on a current event. The current event this time is about how American track runner Abbey D'Agostino was tripped and twisted her ankle and how the New Zealand track runner Nikki Hamblin helped her up and put her arm around her shoulder until they crossed the finish line. This a great example of the Olympic spirit of sportsmanship by helping others and will teach everybody who sees that picture what you are supposed to do when you see something like that happen.

Olympic Comparison

We have been learning to consider both sides of a provocation so that we can make an informed opinion. Mrs Anderson asked us to think about the two different sides of this, wether it be an Olympics enthusiast or someone who worries about the hygiene of their country. To make our informed opinion we had to think about how else the 1.2 billion USD could be spent such as some research on the Zika virus, a virus spread by mosquitos that causes birth defects and so far there is no known cure and also think about how the Olympics would benefit the people of Rio by increasing the economy. My DLO shows some ways the citizens of Rio can make the most of it and a picture of the 2004 Athens Softball Stadium, which in ten years became overgrown with weeds and started to rot, being just one example of some Olympic venues that have been abandoned.

Run Jump Throw

Today we had our kiwi sport, Run Jump Throw. We started off by revising our basic running skills, which were looking straight a head since if you look to the side you slow down, running in a straight line since it is faster, having bent arms, going from cheek to cheek (Moving your arms up to the side of your face and then down to beside your leg), being light on your feet and standing straight and tall. After that we played a game of Octopus to warm up, but then we moved on to starting positions for long distance and sprints. The difference between the two is that for long distance you just step up to the line, while for sprints you have a certain procedure to get into position. To start off you step one metre back, and when the starter says On Your Mark, you move one leg forward and "squish the bug" which means you wriggle your foot until it is just in front of the starting line and move the opposite arm of the leg you put forward in front with the other backwards (For example, if your left leg is forward you out your right arm forward, and vice versa). When they say Set you bend your knees and lift the back legs heel up, ready to start running.

Inquiry DLO

This my DLO for my groups Inquiry, which is Ancient and Modern Olympics. We listed our prior knowledge of various parts of the Ancient and Modern olympics.

Olympic NZ Logo

This is my olympic logo for if NZ hosted it some year. I used our national bird and also what we are called, the kiwi and also the silver fern, a national symbol.

Hoverbike Advertisement

This is my ad about a hover bike that we saw in an animation. I tried to make it look as much like the picture of it, so like a real advertisement, if you pay for something and it doesn't look like the picture, you don't want it. We used persuasive language features like saying its hard to resist, the price is really low and only a few words to make it eye catching.

Warriors Game

On Saturday DTR sponsored us to go to the Warriors vs Panthers game. At first it was fine but then it started raining very heavily, and we got soaked. The best part of the game for me was whenn I won a signed Warriors jersey. The Warriors eventually won after 10 minutes of overtime, and we went back to school tired and wet but happy.

Winter Learning Journey

This is a picture if all the people froom PBS who participated in the Winter Learning Journey this year. More people from PBS participated than in any other school. Out of 26 students, AJ took first place with all of the activities done and 99 comments, Daniel took 2nd place and Nesi took 3rd place. My favourite task was the Milo of Kroton one, where we learnt about him and how strong he was. We mostly focused on our comprehension skills for these challenges.

Book week special assembly

Today we had a special duffy assembly. It was special because this week is book week so we dressed up as characters from various books. We had a woman speak to us about the book Gansta Granny instead of Duffy. As the image shows she dressed up as well. We did this to bring the magic of reading to the Juniors.

Attibuting Images

This is my attributing images DLO, where we searched up things involved with the Olympics this year. We had to make sure the images were free to use, then we put a link to the site they were from and put the lisence for the photos as well.

Advertising

Today we read a text on advertising and learnt some new things about it, then creaate this paragraph using 25 words exactly to explain our knowledge of it.

Winter Learning Journey Day 2 Activity 1

For this activity we had to watch a video about the two mascots of the Rio Olympics, Tom and Vinicius. I watched the first of three episodes and I think it was about two people brought together by two balls which symbolised sport.

Winter Learning Journey Day 3 Activity 1

For this activity we have to choose an Olympic sport and list the name of that sport, the aim of the sport, and two rules for that sport. I chose Trampoline Gymnastics since it is a sport that I don't know anything about. I found out that the aim is to get the most points. You can get more by doing diffucult things, like somersaults, by executing them properly (not failing anything), and staying in the air long.

Winter Learning Journey Day 2 Bonus

For this activity we had to create a new logo for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This is the logo I created:

Winter Learning Journey Day 2 Activity 2

For thia activity we have to list three famous New Zealand Landmarks and why they are famous. I chose the Beehive as one because it's the parliment building. It is shaped like a beehive which is why it has that name, and it was built in 1977. Another building I chose was the Moeraki Boulders because they are special to the Maori people, and the last landmark I chose was the Lemon and Paeroa bottle in Paeroa because it is a massive image of  a drink created by New Zealanders.

Winter Learning Journey Day 1 Bonus

For this activity we had to choose wether it was fair that women were not allowed to compete and also not allowed to watch the olympic games in ancient Greece. I think it is unfair because one of the best NZ athletes is a woman (Valerie Adams).

Winter Learning Journey Day 1 Activity 2

For this activity we researched Milo of Kroton to find out some interesting facts about him. I found out that he was a general as well as a wrestler, he was killed y a hungry pack of wolves when he tried to rip a tree to pieces and also he could lift a bull over his head.

Winter Learning Journey Day 1 Activity 1

For this activity we had to choose and old olympic sport that we would like to participate in and why we chose that sport. I would like to do a pentathlon, which is an event where the competetors have to fence, shoot, swim, ride and run cross country. I chose this because it has more than one sport that you compete in.

Leadership

Yesterday Lynne from spark came to talk to us about leadership. She told us about a a man named Sir Peter Blake who was the captain of the New Zealand team that competed in the Americas Cup. We then filled in some cards about what our dreams are and what our dream for New Zealand is. We then got some things with Spark Foundation written on them.

These are three blog comments that I did on three students from Raupotaka Schools blogs. I commented on Quro, Pallas and Meana from Room 12.

Orienteering

Today was the last time the Year 8's are going to do Orienteering since we aren't doing it again this year and next year we will all be in colleges. Yesterday I won the interschool Orienteering which was held at Point England School. This time we had to find twenty-two controls all around the school except there were two maps with eleven controls showing on both.

Get Wise

Yesterday the Year 8's went into the auditorium and Jeremy from ASB visited us and told us about Get Wise. This is about learning how to get money and how to save money. We all brainstormed how to make some money doing chores, neighborhood jobs, etc. We also learnt about interest, which is when you give money to the bank and the bank gives you extra money for trusting them with your money. We also learnt that most CEO's of big businesses started off in supermarkets either as trolley boys or shelf fillers. He said to work hard as well, because people are always watching you when you work, like your supervisors and he also told us about his friend Tui, who started off as a trolley boy and now owns two supermarkets.