The Witches

The Witches is a novel written by Roald Dahl. It is about Witches, who plan on wiping out all kids.

Luke had stolen the formula. He then makes his way to the kitchen so that he can put the mouse transforming formula into the witches food. Unfortunatley he is spotten and gets part of his tail cut off. 

Luke makes a quick escape and heads to his grandmothers purse. Bruno, Grandma, and Luke watch all the witches of england turn into mice. After there big operation Luke and Grandma live a peacful life together. Grandma creates all kind of inventions for Luke.

The Witches is a novel that should be interesting for all ages.

LI: To study a novel.

Maori weapons

 This week I watched a kapa haka group perform. 

First, the kapa haka group performed their entrance ceremony by using various tools. They also informed me about the weapons, tools, and their purposes. The first training item was the Poi which works on the flexibility and dexterity of the wrists and arms. The second training item was the ti rakau which was also for the dexterity in the arms. The last item, which was an actual weapon, was called a taiaha. The taiaha is meant to represent the human body, and it can be used for offense and defense

Next, I watched the second part of their performance. At the end of their performance they performed a haka. The haka is traditionally used to scare opponents before certain events. Our school's kapa haka group also responded with a haka.

Lastly, I played Matau & Maui. Matau & Maui worked on my reaction and listening skills. Our objective was to not drop the rakau on the floor. 

I found their performance fun and educational because I gained a deeper understanding of Maori culture. 

LI: To learn and experience kapa haka performance

Driving forward

This weeks touch rugby session was about driving forward. Driving forward is running straight forward. 

First we practised two and three man settles to get ready for a game of touch. Coach Mark told us to aim for one person when we drive the ball down the field.

Next we played a game of touch. The game was for learning how to play and how to use a two and three man settle in a running game of touch rugby. 

I was able to help with the two man settles with my partener, Spelman. I need to work on communication so that I can tell my partener where to go or what I'm going to do.

Division Crash Course

Division is splitting a group of something into equal pieces

Division is similar to fractions and is basically the opposite of multiplication. For example 3 x 4 =12. Its optional to reverse that in to division to make it 12 ÷ 3 = 4.  

Remainders are the remaining numbers. For example 149 ÷ 4. It is possible to divide 100 and 40 by 4, but we can't divide 9 by 4. The closest answer we could get is 2 but there'd be one leftover. The basic answer is 37 remainder 1. It is possible to make that answer more precise.

To make the answer more precise then divide the remainder by 4. The answer to that is 0.25, so add this to the 37. This gives a more precise answer, which is 37.25

Divison is a good strategy to understand because it helps you in multiplcation and fractions.

 LI: To gain a better understanding about division.

Requisition Request

Emergency shelters are protection against natural disasters such as a storm or an earthquake. 

The Protectors requested aluminum foil, hard plastic, metal poles, clay,  chicken wire, and plaster of paris. 

The aluminum foil is for the inside of the shelter, the foil is used because it is a good insulator and heat reflector. 

The hard plastic is for the windows, the hard plastic is used because it’s easier to shape than glass.

The metal poles are for stabilization, it was used because it is a heat reflector insulator.

The clay is used to form most of the shelter, it was used because it is tough, so if the shelter topples over then the poles will not easily break off.

The plaster of Paris and the chicken wire is used for a similar purpose as the aluminium foil, they were used because they were used to hold the clay.

The tin can is used for the door, the front and the back of the shelter. The purpose of this shelter was to protect against bushfires. 

Emergency shelters are used worldwide and are very important. There are a lot of steps you need to do to build an emergency shelter.

Credit Oscar

Touch Rugby

For touch we focused on two main skills. Which were the two man and three man settle.

The first skill we practised was three man settle. When practising a three man settle first you run up, get touched and then plant the ball on the ground for the dummy half to pick up and then pass to the next person.

The second skill we practised was two man settle. If practising a two man settle first you run up, get touched and then plant the ball for the dummy half to pick up and pass it to the same person who got touch. We kept on practising these skills to get used to it. 

I enjoyed this weeks session for touch rugby.

LI: To practise the basics of touch rugby.

Athletics day results | Maths

I calculated the average score for the Athletics day teams.

To find the average, I added the class scores for each team then divided the total by the number of data points.  

I rounded the numbers up when I divided them. When rounding, if the number is four or less, I round down. If the number is 5 or higher then you round upwards. 

Knowing how to calculate the average is important because it can help to find out the scores of things without a calculator.

LI: To use statistical investigation.

The Witches | Reading

The Witches is a novel written by Roald Dahl. It is about Witches, who plan on wiping out all of the kids on planet earth.

Boy is transformed in to a mouse, along with a kid named Bruno Jenkins. After the Witches leave, Bruno and Boy escape and make their way to grandmamma. They then have a plan to steal a formula from the Grand High Witch. 

Boy has a plan to put some of the formula in the Witches drink. When Bruno Jenkins met his parents in mouse form. Mr and Mrs Jenkins told grandmamma to get lost, but she kept trying to explain to them that their son is a mouse. 

LI: To study a novel.

SSR Selfie

This week I completed SSR Selfie. The purpose of the SSR Selfie is to learn how to summarise or retell a text. The book I read was called the Kitchen Science Cookbook. The book was interesting. 

There were several questions, like who the author and illustrator is, some facts about the main topic, some new words that were learned and what the most interesting fact that we learned was.  

LI: To summarise and retell a text. 

Narrative | Writing

Screenplays are scripts of the actors lines. They are divided into scenes. 

The actor's line goes under their name. The actor's line does not need speech marks. 

People sometimes add a little pointer on how the line should be said. The pointer about the line is just under the actor's name, and to the right a little bit. 

A screenplay has the scene headline in all capitals. The actor's name is centre aligned and is also in all capitals. 

Understanding how to write a screenplay is important because actors would know what their lines are. 

LI: To convert a story into a screenplay (script) or storyboard.

Film Festival | Manaiakalani

This week Manaiakalani schools attended the 13th Manaiakalani film festival that was in Sylvia Park's Hoyts. Most of the films that we watched were about Covid 19.

The Manaiakalani film festival is held for schools in the Manaiakalani cluster. 

Our film talked about the importance it is to sanitise. Most of the other films were about the pandemic, and paying tribute to essential workers. 

The film I enjoyed the most was Maori language week by Tamaki college because it was pretty funny and interesting.

LI: To react to different films made by the Manaikalani cluster.

Maori Names

For Maori, our activity was translating Maori names into English. 

Some Maori names sounded very similar to english names. Some of the names that were new to us were: Hera which means Sarah, and Pati which means Patricia. The rest of the names were also new to us.

The Maori alphabet doesn't have all the letters that the english alphabet does. For example, J and S are turned into H.

The activities were educational because I learned about some things about the Maori alphabet and that they don't have all the same letters as the english alphabet.

Novel Study | Reading

The Witches is a novel about witches in disguise who want to do horrid things to children. If there is a kid by themselves they'll most likely be taken away by a witch. 

Grandma gets pneumonia so her and Boy aren't able to go to the lake in Norway, but the doctor allows them to go to a nice hotel in England.

After they arrived at the hotel, Boy seeks out to find an area to do his pet qmice training. He accidently stumbles into a room where he gets caged in with Witches, including the Grand High Witch herself. Boy overhears the Witches evil plans...

The Witches have sniffed out the scent of dogs droppings. To Witches children smell like dog droppings. They sniff out Boy so they had no choice but to turn him into a mouse along with Bruno Jenkins. Luckily Bruno and Boy find a place to hide from the witches.

Witches is a book, that should be interesting for little kids and older kids. I've heard that the movie is scary and quite interesting.

LI: To study a novel. 

Basic Facts Boxes

 Today I did basic facts boxes. I did the speed demon challenge. The speed demon challenge times how quickly you can do your basic facts. Once all the questions have been answered you stop your timer. I got all the questions correct, I think I could've done better because of how long i've been doing multiplication.

Geometry & Time | Maths

This week, I was taught about geometry. Geometry is shapes and measurements. I was also informed about time.

Ariana first told me about the different kinds of shapes, like 2d shapes and 3d shapes. 2d stands for 2 dimensional, and 3d stands for 3 dimensional. 2d is a flat shape that can be measured using width and height. 3d shapes can be measured using width, height, and depth. 

Ariana also informed me that vertices are where two or more lines meet up on a shape. Edges are the corners on the shapes.

Paul explained to me that the base of time is 60. Some examples are: 60 seconds = 1 minute, 60 minutes = 1 hour. There are 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year, and 10 years in a decade. 

Paul also informed me that there are 3 main ways to tell time, analog, digital, and 24 hour time. Analog time uses hands and is shown on a clock. Digital time uses a lightup display. 24 hour time begins at 0000 and ends at 2359.

I think I was a good teacher because I went through the lesson quickly, and both students seemed to understand what I was explaining. I also enjoyed being taught because my classmates informed me about things that I needed a better understanding on.

Inquiry | Emergency shelters

In this week's inquiry session, we learned how to design an emergency shelter. 

First, we designed a quick sketch of an emergency shelter on a piece of paper. We had to draw our design from a front angle and a side angle. We also had to think about what shape would be suitable for natural disasters such as strong winds. We used an octagon because if the wind toppled it over then it would still maintain its shape. 

 

Next, we designed a 3d version of our emergency shelter. To help us make the 3d shapes we used an app called sketchup. We had to replicate our paper design. 

Lastly, some changes we think we could make is, getting rid of some of our pillars, because the storm is capable of blowing down the pillars which will make the octagon roll repeatedly, and we could take away one of the windows so that there's a less likely chance of things flying through it.

This activity taught me about 3d shapes, and what kind of designs are good for certain natural disasters.

LI: To digitally model an emergency shelter.

Kiwi sport | Touch Rugby

This weeks touch rugby session, we learned the two man settle and the three man settle. 

The two man settle is the process of one person running forward, initiating the touch, planting the ball, then the last person picking up the ball passes it back to me and repeats the process. The three man settle is similar to the two man settle, but the second person passes the ball to the third person who then repeats the process. The two and three man settles are used for driving up the field.

To practice the two and three man settle we played a game of walking touch rugby. Everytime someone was touched we had to remember to step five metres back, or in line with coach Mark.

This activity taught me more of the basics to touch rugby.

LI: To learn the basics of touch rugby.

Duffy Theatre | Bex meets a Coggen

 We watched a performance by Duffy theatre group about the Coggen. A Coggen is a mythical creature that is a mixture of a cat, dog, and chicken.

Before the show, the actors introduced themselves. Then we sang the Duffy song.

Then the actors performed for us.

Lastly the Duffy group held a question and answer session.

I thought the show was very interesting, they must have spent a long time thinking about it.

Maths | Money

Money is notes from a country used to pay or buy things.  New Zealand money uses place value.

The New Zealand money has 5 coins and 5 notes. There is 10c, 20c, 50c, $1, and $2 coins. There is also $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 dollar notes.

Here is an example on how the place value system works. Imagine a person used up a $1.50 and a $1.70. How much does the person have left? This can by solved using place value. First add $1.50c and $1.70c up. 70c+50c=$1.20c. Then add $1+$1=$2.00. After that add $2.00+$1.20c=$3.20c. Then take away $10.00-$3.20=6.80.

Its important to understand money and change, because you could be scammed of your money.

Maori | Maori Names

 In our Maori session, we translated Maori names into English. Our activity was searching up Maori names by using the Maori dictionary. We also made a DLO showing the directions in Maor.

Some Maori names sounded very similar to english names. Some of the Names we learned about were: Hamuera which means Samuel, and Huhana which means Susan. The rest of our list of words were new to us.  

Next we made a slideshow that shows directions in Maori. We also added pictures to show the directions. Mua means in front, Muri means behind, Maui means to the left, and Matau means to the right.

The activities were educational because this week's session was about Maori names.