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.

Speech Reflection

WALT: Reflect our given speech.

This week our task as part our small topic; oral language we had to reflect on our given speech. We had to give a speech in front of our home class to take part in the speech competition later on. Here's how I felt before & after I had given my speech.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Can you imagine starting off the day of the term with an alien invasion? It was pitch black in the hall, a UFO (drone) flew onto the stage and two hideous aliens appeared out of the UFO. Luckily it was just an act for part of our school topic this term which is ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’

Team 1’s focus for this term's topic is on the moon, sun and where they at night and day. For their performance they showed a movie of their teachers flying off to space in their cars. The second team was quite similar to team 1’s focus about the two elements and the earth. Their movie was quite different though, they were dancing in space and it showed that they were in different planets enjoying themselves and life in space.

Team 3’s movies talked about time and what they did during school times. During the film they showed their favourite part of the day at school and their most favourite was 3pm when they went running home happily and screaming. Their main focus is on time and why scientists time.

Our team, team five had the most entertaining performance of all, I reckon. Mrs Judd sang a lovely cover of “How far I’ll I go” written over by Mr Wiseman. The lyrics said what our focus was which was about the moon and the impacts it has on the earth.

But I think that team 4 had the most informative item. They thought about life on the other planets in the galaxy and put that all into one movie. Unfortunately, every time they approached a planet they’re ships exploded. So their main topic was to take care of our own planet and being guardians of our own galaxy.

Introducing Our Learning

Immersion Assembly, have you ever heard of that before? Every first day of a new term our school has an assembly where the teachers introduce our learning for each team. They were to perform a skit or make a movie all about our learning this term. The overall topic for this term that the whole school is focusing on is called “Now that’s Thinking”.

First up was team one, their learning is based on matariki and they will be making kites with different designs of their own creation so that they could fly them during the term. Team two and three are also doing the same and team four is looking at how the technology has changed now, since the olden days.   

I’m in team five, our teachers were the only team who did something besides from a movie. They performed a skit. Their skit was about fixing things around the school to make our learning better. It was really entertaining, so was all the other teams movies.

I am very looking forward to learning new things this term. Some of my learning goals for this new term is to improve more in my writing and to be more confident in presenting presentations in front of an audience.

A CATatrophe

Joel rapidly unlocked the front door and saw the blood covered rat lying still on the cold hard ground in front of him. As he got further inside his house, a terrible stench slowly began to creep up his nose. He immediately covered his hand over his nose but after a while the smell disappeared.

When Joel reached the study area of his house he noticed that a window had been left open. He had been to Uni classes, but on his return he noticed mysterious scratches covering the window sill.

A straight A student at Auckland University, Joel had just returned home from a study break. When he saw the dead rat he felt sick. Then Joel realized that the living room was a total mess. The book shelf had fallen, couches and curtains had been ripped and glass scattered on the floor from a window that had been broken. He ran his fingers over his short black hair. “How did this happen?” he groaned.

 As he walked over to shut the window he heard loud ripping sounds coming from the direction of the living room. “What was that?” he whispered. Joel walked towards the direction of the noise but before he could take a step a vicious wild cat jumped at his face and scratched one of his bright blue eyes. “Youch!!” Joel cried.

He quickly stood and ran to the telephone where he rang the nearest pest control company. “Hi, how may I help you?” said a low deep voice. “Can I please have your finest pest controller now please it’s urgent” Joel said in a desperate voice. A few minutes later the pest controller turned up with all his traps and tools to capture the mischievous cat.

After the catastrophe was over, Joel sat calmly on one of the  wrecked couches in the living room. He gazed at all the books on the bookshelves that had fallen over and he remembered his study books and uni class, but he was already too late. Instead he stayed home to clean up the disaster in his living room. He definitely wouldn’t forget that experience in a while.

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WALT: Write a narrative that has detail explaining the basics things needed in a good narrative. For this task we are learning to write a descriptive narrative and create an artwork that relates to our narrative. As you can see above my narrative I have created an image based on Collin Thompson's art work; Grandma's Treasure. 

Duck Trouble - 'Show Not Tell'

As I took out the piece of bread that I had been saving to devour later on, hungry ducklings rapidly scurried over to me. I bent over to give them a piece of bread not noticing that as I stood back up my other hand was empty. Looking back at all the ducks, a variety of ravenous ducks were now eagerly fighting over my meal.  

I reached into my bag remembering my leftover delicious butter chicken pie. As I opened up the paper packet an appetizing smell filled the atmosphere. Now a swarm of vicious ducks were heading my way. “Shoo shoo!” I shouted. The terrified ducks hurried away as fast as they could. Now that I had my peace, I devoured the tasty pie all alone as if a bear had just eaten right after hibernation.

Immersion Assembly

The title for our topic this term is called ‘as i see it’. Titles usually begin with a capital letter but since we are learning about different kinds of art, Mr Jacobsen created his own piece of art where you don’t have to follow the actual rules but make your own just like the title.

First we were accompanied by a movie from team 1, it was based on what their favourite things were and as part of what we are learning this term they’d use all their favourite things and make it into of art.

Team 2’s movie was about all four of the different seasons, spring, summer, winter and autumn. Ms Nalder - Spring, Ms Tumahai - Autumn, Ms Eadie - Winter and Ms  They spotted out all of the colours of the seasons and how they can make it into art using hot colours and light colours.

Team 3 teachers created a movie about building their dream house. There were five people that met each other on facebook and they lived in the dream house. Mr Blakey talked about the relationship between the house and the people.

The ‘Teacher Avengers’ in team 4 are reading comics and creating their own as well. There were three superhero’s in the ‘Teacher Avengers’; Team Leader America, Wondering Woman and Bat Guy. Two amateur hero’s tried to defeat the evil Bear Baxendine but failed until the Teacher Avengers rescued them and defeated Bear Baxendine.

This term my team, team 5 are going to be learning about the four wakas and their meanings. Hikianalia represents the stars, Hokule’a represents our ancestors, Hine Moana is the ocean and Te Aurere represents blood, sweat and tears.

I am looking forward to learning about the wakas and things don’t already know about it.

Experiencing The Google Cardboard

Have you experienced the new google cardboard? Well I have but if you haven’t I’ll tell you a bit about it. It’s a really cool device that you could use to view places and it feels like you are actually there.

At school in our maths classes we were lucky enough to have experienced this device. What it is, is a cardboard with magnifying glass on it and a smart phone in the inside. On the screen of the smartphone there is a line between it and it’s like two screens but in one phone.

We got to explore many different places but mostly underwater looking at different sea creatures. One of the other places we got to see was Cambodia. Buildings in Cambodia are made of a kind of stone called sandstone.

Now you know what google cardboard is and what it does. It’s a really cool device used for exploring places but in just one place. Try it out!

Holiday Highlight

Friday of the holidays I had a great time with all the kids from my church at ‘Paradise Ice Skating’ in Pakuranga. At first I tripped a few times but then I was getting the hang of it. It was the first time I've ever been ice skating but I was already a pro at ice skating.

Everyday you normally wear your normal shoes but for some occasions we wear different kinds such as ice skates. Ice skates are similar to roller skates but instead of wheels it's a thin knife-like blade that you use only for skating on ice. Using ice skates were new for me especially when I was skating on the ice with it.

Learning to skate is easier than you think it is. To start off you put your feet shaped as a V then you push with whichever foot you feel comfortable with then you do the other leg and after that all over again and there you go you’ve learnt to skate. When you are about to fall don’t hold on to anyone because it just makes it worse, try your best to be steady and calm.

During the holidays there were many other fun things that I did but I wrote about my favourite part witch was ice skating. Next holidays I’m hoping to go somewhere I’ve never been to like rainbow’s end.