A Start to a New Term

                                                                                       

As is the case every term, the whole school gathers in the hall for an amazing start to a brand new term. To introduce our focus for the term we had a lovely performance from the Senior Management Team (Mr Burt, Mr Jacobson, Mrs Nua, & the musical expert Mr Wiseman). They performed a song called ‘Musical Madness Saves the Day’ which gave away the topic of the term (Musical Madness.)

                                                                                  

Next it was time for the teams to introduce their learning intentions for the term. First up was team 1( our year one’s) their team of teachers performed a play showing them playing card games and listening to music. There were many different types of music played and it made them feel different emotions for each song. Their performance notified that they were going to be learning about how music can impact on emotions.

Team 2’s (our year two’s) learning intention is similar to team 1’s but they sang a capturing song with them playing instruments with the amazing singer Mrs Gaston. They sang to us ‘In the Jungle the Mighty Jungle’.

Then it came to my favourite performance; team 3 (year 3&4). I reckon that this team was the most entertaining because they made a film about songs in real life. Instead of them talking to one another they took bits of lyrics from songs and put it into their video. Their learning focus this term is based on how music impacts on our daily lives.  

After that team 4 (our year 5 & 6’s) presented a movie that they had created throughout the holidays. It was about how music can make things fun such as car rides and so on. Their focus was basically the same as team 3 which is learning about how music impact in our daily lives.

Last but not least was team 5 (Intermediate). Our team of teachers performed an informative play, they pretended to be a family who were watching a film. They watched this film repetitively but every time they watched it there was different music playing in the background. The different music that was played made them feel different emotions. So our focus this term in team 5 is learning about music and how it can change a film.

Remembering ANZAC

Last week on Friday our school had a special assembly about ANZAC. Mr. Burt told us some information about ANZAC then we went outside to our field of remembrance. We had one minute of silence. ANZAC stands for Australia, New Zealand army corps. People wear poppies to remember those soldiers who fort for us in world war one. At the place they had the war there were loads of wild poppies that grew after the battle was over. To some people the poppies show how much blood was on that ground where the terrible battle was held. World war one is the first world war also known as the great war.

A few days ago I have been finding some information about world war 1. I have found out that Private William Ham was the first New zealander to die in the war. He died on the 3rd of February 1915. When he had died the rest of the New zealanders helped defeat Suez Canal from an attack by Ottoman troops. Private William Ham died because of extreme injuries.

World war 1 was caused by Gavrilo Princip because he assassinated a man called Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie then eventually the war began. On the 5th of August 1914 1 p.m New zealand received the outbreak of the war. All of the New zealanders were very excited when they went to war but they didn’t know they were going though. When they had the battle they refused to kill each other.

They used trenches to hide from the enemy’s because if they didn’t have trench's they’d be seen and get shot. The soldier’s have dogs to help them in the war.They use dogs because they can run a lot faster than human and they also use dogs to carry messages around for help. Sometimes when soldiers are hurt in a shell hole where shells were exploded it would be hard for the other soldiers to come find them if there were lots of shell holes.

This nasty war happened 100 years ago before I was ever born. The New Zealand soldiers fort for us in the war so we would live. After this war happened most of the soldier’s went back home without some body parts, some didn’t even go home because they were dead and some went home after many years. Now we all wear poppies to remember the soldiers who died for us in this terrible event.

The first thing I did well at was sentence beginnings. I am really proud about my writing because most of the sentences had different beginnings. I am happy that I don’t have any ones in my writing rubric. In my writing the easiest part was the introduction. What I had trouble in was explaining why they had dogs in the war. In my next piece of writing I hope that I’ll be better at explaining things.

I have realised that I need to do better putting vocabulary in my writing. I didn’t remember to ask a few questions in my writing so next time I’ll be sure to add that into it. The next time I write I will add all the things I’ve forgotten to put in to my writing. My writing next time will hopefully be better at writing than it is now. 

My goal for writing is to add questions and lots of vocabulary. I have chosen this because I want it to be interesting. I also hope that I will add lots of punctuation too.

 

Maritime Museum

     

Yesterday on Wednesday the 18th of March the year five, six, seven and eight extension group and a few other people went on an amazing experience to the Maritime Museum. We learnt about the the Malama Honua group and what they did. We got split into three groups with  an adult.

There were three main activities that we did. The adult that was in my group was Mrs Lagitupu. First we explored the vaka and we got split again but our helpers were the men from the Malama Honua group.

He showed us the map to where they have been and where they are going to go. Next we went into the bedrooms they had a very special sheet that they use to keep them from falling when it is a very unbalanced ride. We also saw the toilets and kitchen.

The star compass was our next activity and we learnt actions and names about the sun and many other things. Kalepa Baybayan chose two people to come up and do the actions with him.