A.I.M Talk

This morning; team 5 were given an inspirational speech from a former Pt England student; Raenan who came in with Mr Andrew Patterson. As Raenan was talking to us he was also being interviewed by Andrew Patterson. Most of the questions that Mr Patterson asked him was about school and how he felt when he started college.

One of the most inspirational quotes that Raenan had given was; "Take advantage of the opportunities in front of you". This was something that he learnt from Mr Patterson during the last four years that they've bonded or known each other.

Raenan shared with us his biggest goal that he kept with him since his first year in college. Which was to become the head boy in year thirteen at Tamaki College. In their school prize giving he got the job of being deputy head boy for 2018.

Today's speech has inspired me to do my best in school and to hold on to my life goals. After the speech that we were given today I will make sure to grasp any opportunities that come my way and make the most of them.

Time Word Problems

Walt: use our known strategies to work out time lapse problems



It's week eight and there's only this week and next week left of school! For this weeks task our teacher only gave us four equations and they were about time.

 Here is an example of the questions that we was given to us; Julius walked to Elijah's house at 10 a.m to spend the day with him. It is a 15-minute walk from his house to Elijah's house. As Julius was making his way out he stopped to help a little girl to get her cat out of a tree which took 10-mins. What time did Julius reach Elijah's house?

If you can solve this problem please leave a comment and share your thoughts on what you think the answer might be.

Perspectives and Opinions

Walt: I am able to identify the ideas opinions of author and share my own in comparison 

For the past few weeks in literacy our class have been focusing on the perspectives of authors and writing our own opinions to compare with the authors. If you go through this presentation you will find that I have agreed with all the articles that I read.

Orchestra... music to my ears

As part of our amazing topic for this term; room three have been learning about an Orchestra and all the different instruments in an Orchestra. First we had to get into groups of two or three. In these groups we had to create our own digital learning object using a presentation showing our learning and research about an Orchestra. If you would like to visit partners blogs than click on either of the hyperlinks on the presentation and it will take you there.

Word Problems

Walt: find an appropriate strategy to solve a word problem



It's week one of term four which means gloss tests are on! Because of this we had to fill out this presentation and find several appropriate strategies to solve word problems. This task was really helped me to think about the strategies I use to solve a word problem. I have learnt a very valuable lesson from this google presentation and I will try to put my new brain skills into action next time I have to answer a word problem.

Problem Solving

Walt: solve math problems



This week in numeracy we have been learning how to solve math problems. During the process of this task it came to some equations where we had to solve the math problem in the order of BEDMAS. BEDMAS stands for brackets, exponents, division, multiplication, addition and subtraction. Please feel free to leave feedback for me if you learnt something from this post, and keep checking in for any updates on this presentation.

What is Guy Fawkes?

Walt: -connecting and comparing. I relate information and ideas from texts to my own experience to form an opinion



Guy Fawkes, what or who is it? You may be thinking that Guy Fawkes is all about fireworks and all that, well your right! But that isn't all; explore this 6 slides presentation to find out what I have learnt all about Guy Fawkes.

Can apes really understand sign language?

Walt: Find evidence in a text
Use the process of elimination to find the 'best fit' answer

This week our task was to read a text called Koko and collect as much information as we can to complete this google presentation. This text was about an ape that was taught American sign language. While reading this text I found out that people argue with the teacher of this ape of whether Koko actually understands sign language. What I found interesting was the fact that apes have so many similarities to human.

Beat the Goalie

Last term as part of our focus on coding we had to choose from three tasks to work on in term 3. All of these tasks included the makey-makey kit and scratch. We had the option of making a game show with buzzers, a band or a game and controllers for a disability. My partners Talita, Moroni and myself chose to make a game & controllers for disabled people.

For the scratch part we took a game that we had already created awhile ago but we twisted it up a bit just so it would be sort of different. We did this so that we could focus more on the hard part; which is finding a disability & creating controllers for the people who have that disability. In creating our game we found it really easy because all we had to do was make different backgrounds and change the characters.

Next we had to research a disability and pick one of them to make suitable game controls for that disability. The disability that we chose to do this for was for people with amputated arms. Because they have no arms; we thought that their controls would have to be on the ground. They would have to step on the keys to control character.

So then we went on to making the controllers. To make them we used cardboard, aluminium tape and wires. The wires were just extensions for the makey-makey chords. The only problem that we had with creating the controls was figuring out how to make the keys work without the players having to hold a certain chord throughout the whole game; which was the earth chord. To solve this problem we had to connect the earth to one end of the wire & the left/right/space chord to the other end of the wire.

Last terms task was actually kind of fun for me. The easiest part overall was connecting the controls with the makey-makey kit. My partners and I had heaps of fun playing against each other at the end of all our hard work. We thought that we did a great job on our game because one of our changes was adding a second player. Here is a link to our game,find someone to play with and enjoy. You can even create your own controls for this if you want to.

Fare welling Ms Vani

During assembly this morning there was a lot of things going on but one of the most important things was giving a fare well to our social worker Ms Vani. Although she has only been here for a short while she has really helped to make a difference in our school.

Ms Vani was a really important person in our school and we are supporting her in her journey to a new job. She has helped a lot of students during her short time in our school and we all appreciate her and her caring nature. I'm sure that everyone who worked with her will treasure their memories that they had with Ms Vani.

Mr Jacobsen's Amazing Talents

As part of this terms topic "Musical Madness" Mr Jacobsen our assistant principal showed us one of his amazing talents in assembly this morning. He taught us about the different wind instruments from the different areas of the world and when they were invented.

First was the Conch shell from the tropical part of the world such as the islands. When these shells were found, people drilled a hole in it to blow through it light a trumpet. Next was the Shofar which is made from a ram's horn. Then it came to the two most recent wind instruments which was the Bugle & the Trumpet.

Celebrating Niue Language

“Koe Vagahau Niue koe atefua he tagata Niue”. This was the message for Niue Language Week for 2017. The purpose of celebrating all these different languages is to acknowledge all the different cultures who live in New Zealand.

As part of this special week, a group of Niue children from our school performed an item for the school in assembly. There were a few people who had said a short speech and represented their culture really well. I was really amazed at how similar the Niue language is to the Tongan language. I thought that the performance we had from the group this morning showed how awesome it is to be able to speak more than one language.

Vagahau Niue

As you may have already known; this week is Niue language week. This week we are learning about the perspective of an author writing about the language week this week. While reading through some of the articles, I even got to learn a quote in Niue. 'Ko koe, ko au, ko tautolu, ko e tau Niue'. I was really amazed at how much the Niue language is very similar to the Tongan language.

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.

Night Light

This google presentation is all about a night light. The night light that this presentation talks about is the moon. The purpose of this night light presentation was to read an article about the moon and how it's gravity affects the tides and then answer the questions in this google presentation.

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.

Race 2 Space

The space race, what is it? Do you know what the space race is. Check this presentation out and you'll learn all about what the space race is all about.

Pt England vs Tauranga Intermediate

Last week our Rugby 7's boys went over to Tauranga to play against other teams in 7's tournament. Fortunately our boys reached the final and they had to play against Tauranga Intermediate. Our task for this Google Presentation was to read an article then reflect on what was written on it. For the last slide we had to list some features that the writer might have missed out in the article.

Maniakalani Filming Experiences

It's nearly time for our Film Festival and we've been having lots of fun planning & filming our movie for this once a year event. For this special occasion schools from the Manaiakalani Cluster have to prepare class for class movies about anything at all like, comedy, MTV, game show & etc.

During our filming some of us had to just memorize our script on the spot and it was really hard to get our lines right. In our film we have two hosts & I find it really facsinating because both there are two different hosts and they have the same name.

This year in Rm 3 it has been such a struggle trying to film our movie with our school production rehearsals in the way so then we had to film during our learning times. Luckily we were able to complete our movie before the cut off day today.

Phases of the Moon

Hello blog viewers, welcome to my blog. This is a continuation of my learning about our solar system. I have just begun learning about the moon phases and about the Waning & Waxing.

“Phases of the Moon & how they appear the way they appear”

When less than half of the moon is lit by the sun it is called ‘crescent.’ When more than half of the moon is lit by the sun it is called ‘gibbous.’ ‘Waxing Gibbous’ indicates the part of the moon that is lit and growing. Whereas the ‘Waning Gibbous’ is the part of the moon that is lit and shrinking.

There are eight phases of the moon in all. The lunar cycle begins with the ‘New Moon Phase’ this is when the moon is not visible from the earth because the half of the moon that faces away from the earth is lit and we can only see the dark side.

To be continued...

Our Solar System

This is our Solar System. This image is an image of poster that a friend and I created. I'm sure that you've seen a diagram like this. This display was just to show our understanding of the Solar System. You can check out more of my learning about the solar system later on in my learning journey. Thank you.

Fun With Shapes

Walt: Draw a 2D representation of a 3D model. Draw a plan for the side, front and top view of a 3D model.



These slide are just a continuation of our learning from Monday the 28th of august. This presentation will show all of our images and if our buddies had gotten the 3D model correct.

Oral Language

WALT: write a speech to present to take part in our speech competition

Task: In team 5 we had a speech competition. For this activity; every student had to write a speech of any topic. All of us students had to present our speech to our literacy class and we were given a mark by our teacher. We were marked out of 25. To get high scores we had to memorize our speech & look up at the audience. We also had to project our voices so that the teacher heard us from the back of the classroom. 

Speech Finalists: After the teacher had marked us, there were 3 top students selecte to take part in the competition against the other speech finalists from the other classes. Fortunately I was chosen to be one of these finalists along with Yvonne and Atareita.

Which speech appealed mos to me?: When it came to when we had to present our speeches;  most of us were quite nervous. But when we presented it wasn't really obvious. I really enjoyed Mubashir's speech. He spoke about wanting to be a president for one day. He stated some really good points on how to be a cool president. I reckon if Mubashir we to be a president he would be a great one.

There were two judges Mrs Judd and Ms Tapuke. They are the one's who are deciding which person wins the part as being the speaker who gets topeak at our school assembly one Friday. I can't wait to find out who that lucky person is. 

Geometry

Walt - 1): draw a 2D representation of a 3D model 

2) draw a plan for the side, front and top view of a 3D model

Our task was to buddy up with someone and draw a 2D representation of a 3D model.  We had to use our maths books to line out the blocks to make a rocket ship from three views; top, side & front. After we drew our designs we had to show it to our buddy so that they could use actual blocks to make our design. This task was obviously based on geometry. I think that the purpose of this activity was to test our selves to see how much we knew about geometry.

Number Knowledge

Number knowledge, how much do you know about numbers? Well this week I have been learning how to add & subtract negative numbers. While I was completing this google presentation I learnt that when you add a positive to a negative it makes more of a positive. And when you takeaway a big number from a smaller number than it goes into negatives. For example; 12 - 34 = -22 Now you have a go!

GEGNZ Student Summit

Have you ever heard of GEGNZ? Well our Yr 7 & 8 extension group got the opportunity to attend this Google Education Group New Zealand Student Summit. This took place at Ormiston Junior College and Primary on Friday the 11th of August and we were accompanied by many other schools around New Zealand. There about four hundred other students there for this event.



At the beginning of the Summit we all met in the college hall/theatre. The opening speech was from the Young Ocean Explorers. They spoke to us about their underwater adventures and what they had experienced. The explorers were a farther and a daughter. They shared with us their scariest experience and their best experience and it influenced me to be brave around the ocean.

The schools that attended this event got to either explore workshops or host a workshop showing what they had created using technology or coding. There were a lot of fun and creative entertaining workshops we got to choose from on that day. We had three sessions, in our first selection of workshops we were taught how to use all these different entertaining technology, they were, makey makey, Ozmo, Mbot, and many more. In our second session it was our turn to host a workshop, we had at least three people acting as game guiders and the rest of us presented at our stand.