The Amazing Action World

On Tuesday Te Ngahere and Te Maunga went to Action World. Once we got to Action World an instructor there told us a few rules whilst we had morning tea before we went onto the activities. Because I had never been to Action World before, another instructor came and took a group of people to explain the rules some more and test if we do them properly at some mini activities. After the test we were allowed to go on what we wanted to. I chose to go to the Tarzan Swing which is the mini trapeze. After I completed the Tarzan Jump I made it to the end and was allowed to go on the big trapeze. After trying out the big trapeze, I went on the water slide which was really fun. Overall the whole trip was really fun and I enjoyed all the activities that I did.

Weta Worksop

In Wellington we went to Weta Workshop. At Weta Workshop we saw and held some props made for movies. When we first walked in, we saw some props from Lord Of The Rings, Warcraft and The Hobbit. Once everyone was ready we watched a video and started the tour of the things Weta Workshop made. The first things we saw were weapons and armour from The Lord Of The Rings. The tour guide took us to an alien weapon they had made for a movie called Project 12. The tour guide let us hold the alien weapon and feel how heavy it was. When I held the gun I thought it was quite heavy and large. After that we continued and watched a video about how the props were made and what props they have made before. Then we went to the final part of the tour and saw some heads that they made which were quite impressive.

The Incredible Te Papa

Whilst in Wellington we went to Te Papa. In Te Papa there were lots of different interesting subjects like Gallipoli, art, things about Earth and more. My favourite subject was Gallipoli because I am quite interested in WW1. In the Gallipoli section I learnt the gruesome conditions that the Anzac soldiers went through. I also saw some amazing artwork in the art section. I enjoyed going to Te Papa and learning about cool stuff inside the different sections. We also saw some replicas of soldiers which were made by Weta Workshop.

An Amazing Camp

In Te Ngahere the year 7&8 students went on camp last week in Wellington. We stayed at a Marae whilst in Wellington and had food made for us. We went to Te Papa, Wellington Zoo, Weta Workshop, Capital E, Cable Car Museum,  The Wellington library, Westpac Stadium and Parliament. I learnt the conditions that the Anzacs had to deal with from the Gallipoli section at Te Papa, I learnt that Weta Workshop made most of the armor, weapons and props in The Lord Of The Rings and I learnt how to do some basic technological things for making a show. My favourite places were Capital E and Te Papa. I found it a bit hard to do the behind the scenes tech at Capital E. What do you think is the best place that we went to?

A Challenging Tournament

last week on the  30th of October some students were chosen to play at a Ki O Rahi tournament. Luckily I was chosen to go to the tournament. When we started practising I learnt how to offload by surprise. Offloading by surprise is when you run, hit the pau then run straight towards one person in your team then when your close to them you pass and they bank the points. The teams we versed were Taipa and we lost 6-3, then we versed  Motatau Kura and we won 8 nil, the 3rd team was Moerewa and we won 9-3, then we versed Taumarere in the semifinals and we lost 13-6. I enjoyed learning the new trick and using it in a game. I think we did very well because we made it to the semifinals and only had two practices.

Extreme Facts About Water Safety

In Te Ngahere Tracy came in and talk to us about how to swim safely. We learnt the five safety checks for when you go on the boat. The first check is make sure you have a life jacket, 2 check the weather, 3 make sure you have a signal device aboard your boat or attached to your life jacket, 4 let the coast guard or an adult know where you're going how many are on board and when your coming back and 5 ,make sure you have a radio and know the Coast Guard Channel which is 16. The 5 steps for when you are swimming is 1 bring an adult with you, 2 if you are a bit scared to swim where you are don’t do it, 3 check if there is a rip by throwing a stick in the water, 4 check the weather, 5 never swim alone. I found this lesson very useful and I learnt a lot from it like the coast guard channel and that you never swim alone. Here is me and my buddy’s Swim Safe DLO.\

Jumping Into An Unknown Genre

In Te Ngahere we started a new focus in writing. The focus in writing was to use passive voice and timeless present tense to write an explain. Explanation is a writing genre that is assessed against E-ASTTLE. Passive voice is just saying something without your opinion or ‘me, I, etc’ and timeless present tense is talking about now, not the future and not the past. We were writing about special places and we all had to write an explanation about why the pump track is special. I learnt how to use passive voice in my writing. I enjoyed this because I like writing and trying new things. Have you ever heard of the genre explanation? Here is my writing. Please give feedback.

My Writing: Is the Paihia Pump Track special to you? Is it somewhere you enjoy or somewhere you just hang around with your friends? Well for many families and people the pump track is somewhere they can relax, have fun, get fit and it can help less confident people practise and become more confident in biking.

The pump track is a special place because people can relax and have fun biking on the pump track with their friends or family. When people go to the pump track it leads them away from just hanging around and talking and it gets them to engage into a healthier choice. A lot of people find bike rides, relaxing making the pump track perfect. Also riding on the pump track is a good and active family activity for any family that just wants to get outside and do something together.

The pump track is very good for Paihia citizens who want to get fit and healthy because it is free access, you’re exercising and having fun all at the same time. Staying fit is very important because keeping fit also leads to good health and the pump track is somewhere where anyone can go to get fit (as long as the person has a bike). Also it doesn’t just get someone fit but that person has so much fun so it's a win win.

The pump track is the best for young children or hesitant bikers because when they go on the pump track it is easy enough for them to bike on and they build more courage and skills. The reason it is good for people who aren't very confident is because they aren’t yet ready to ride on the mountain bike park.

Everyone in the Paihia community loves the pump track because it is safe, fun and really good for your body. The pump track is one of the number one places people go to have fun and enjoy themselves.

A Tower Of News

Yesterday in Te Ngahere we did a steam challenge. The steam challenge was to make the tallest tower we can out of 2 sheets of newspaper and 30 cm of tape. Me Izaiah and Muscles were in a group together and we worked well together but we took too long for planning. In the end we only just finished but the base was too flimsy and we knew it would not hold. Once we were called to measure our tower I went up and kept trying to stand our tower up but in the end it didn’t work. We learnt that for the base we used newspaper is way too flimsy for it to work. I think we did well at working as a group and not giving up even though it may have gotten hard at times. I think next time we could be a bit faster so we get the tower 100% done.

A Fabulous Comedy

In Te Ngahere we have been learning to make our own short movies. Me and my buddies (Izaiah F & Kingi) chose to make our movie about problems only New Zealanders will understand which are, top and tail, when your nana says “back in my day…”, when your friend 1-ups you in everything, the overprotective mum, when you don’t have shoes, hori socks, asking parents to go to the bro’s house, when all the good parts of the boil up are gone and  when your at the marae and your in the back of the food line . I enjoy learning about how to cause more effect with different camera shots and learning how to make a really good and easy to understand script. Because me and my buddies were making a comedy we had to make each problem funny so I had to try and make the problems that I did funny. I learnt a couple new camera shots like an upward shot which is from the ground looking up and a side view shot which is from the left or right side of the character. I really enjoyed making the script but I think we need to speed up the process a bit. We haven’t made our movie yet but when it’s made I will put it on my blog. Would you like to watch this movie? If you have some tips write them down below in the comments. Thank you.

Steps To A Magnificent Blog Post

In Te Ngahere we have been learning about how to make a quality blog post. We learnt about the 6 steps of a quality blog post which are: a catchy title, an introduction, the DLO, your reflection on what you learnt, the sources of where your photos are from if needed and the question. The reason these steps are important is because it makes your audience want to read and comment on your posts. I learnt that the title actually is important because before I just thought it was the learning that was important and nothing else. A challenge I had to overcome was finding catchy titles for my posts but I think I did well so far since I learnt this. I enjoyed learning about this because I enjoy making blog posts and DLOs. Did these steps help you at all? Thank you.

The Amazing Subtraction Strategy

In Te Ngahere we have been learning about word problems . except for Me and my friend Ben, we learnt a new maths strategy called borrowing and paying back which is helpful because it’s good for some equations but also for some equations it doesn’t work at all for example 387 - 264 because there is no borrowing required in this equation. The reason Mr Lindsay taught us this is because me and Ben are really into maths and are both good at it. This strategy helps me a lot in subtraction because it is a really straightforward strategy. This is also quite an easy strategy to learn. I think my next step for maths would be percentages and fractions of certain numbers.Here is my DLO to explain the strategy. What do you think about this strategy?

Thank you blog you later.

Kapa Haka Dress Rehearsal

yesterday 17/9/19 The Kapa Haka Roopu went to the memorial hall in Kaikohe for our dress rehearsal for the upcoming Kaikohe Cultural Festival. The reason we had a dress rehearsal for the cultural festival was to find out what the stage is like and how much space there was so we knew we could line up how we usually do. Unfortunately we weren't able to because the amount of space there was coming on to the stage was a lot smaller. Also we were not staying for all the performances because the hall would be filled up with whanau so there wasn't going to be enough room for us to stay. I think we did quite well but we still have a few things to work on. I really enjoyed watching the other groups performances my favourite group was the older group from Kaikohe East because they did an amazing hip hop dance. I really can’t wait for our real performance on Thursday.

Character Dimensions

In Te Ngahere we made character dimension DLOs. I really enjoyed doing this because I like describing dimensions of characters. If you don’t know what character dimensions are they are how you describe a character in a story or movie. The 1st dimension is describing how the characters look like if one is a female or a male and what the character is wearing. The 2nd dimension is describing their phobias/fears, their weaknesses ,their dreams and their backstory. Then finally the 3rd dimension describes their wants and desires, who they really are and the choices they have made. Here is my character DLO to give further information about character dimensions.

Word Problems

In Te Ngahere we have been practising our word problems in maths. We were trying to find out how to change word problems into number problems. I personally really enjoyed doing this because maths is my favourite subject and doing this I get better and better at word problems. I think next time I could write in my book a bit neater and explain my working a bit better. Here is one of the questions we did.

Writing

In Te Ngahere for writing we had a new writing prompt. our writing prompt was a photo of a shadow in front of a green door reaching for a padlock. I really enjoyed writing about this photo because it had a bit of a scary vibe and I like scary things. Maybe  I could make my writing even better if I focused even more on it. I think I did well on reaching my goals for this piece of writing. Whilst Writing this I also learnt a few new words that I can use to improve my writing. My focus in this piece was to be an R6 in vocab by deliberately and consistently using precise vocab for effect and for ideas I chose R4 by having a lot of ideas and one has a lot of supporting information. The way I have shown this is by having a lot of ideas with a lot of supporting info and I have consistently used really good words for effect. For example I used the phrase cold and mysterious was the night. Here is my writing. Please give me feedback on my writing.

Cold and mysterious was the night where creatures lurked and people slept. One curious little shadow in the shape of a person wearing robes set out on a quest to get through the haunting green doors of a small shed. The full moon shines on the shadow, the streets are dead silent the only living thing out there was the mischievous young shadow. Rumour has it that if this shadow lurks around your fields your valuable items are sure to go missing. Nobody knows what this little shadow is or who it is, they just know it brings no good. Quietly the shadow opens the lock emitting a small click. surprisingly the shed wasn’t what meets the eye it held jewels and magical items. Haunting eyes target the wonderful jewels of green, red, blue and purple but only one was it wanting, the cursed gem. Creeping towards the jewels the shadow picks up the cursed gem with elation. Swiftly back through the dead streets as quiet as a ghost town the shadow creeps back to it’s cave full of stolen treasure …

Swiftly the shadow jumps from light to light although it knows it’s completely invisible in the dark. Fear soars through the terrifying shadow’s body. Curiously the shadow does not like to go in the dark as if it wanted people to know the shadow is near. Wanted signs hang from walls and lamp posts about every 2 metres apart. Various amounts of people think it’s darn right useless trying to catch something you can’t even touch nor hear, so they think. Nervously  the ghastly being advances closer and closer to its home. No one really knows where it lives or what it lives in.

Shadow thief is what they call the mysterious being for  you can only see its shadow and it steals all valuables insight. Gem in hand the shadow thief almost reaches its cave. As it proceeds to its cave it sees the sun start to rise.

Legend has it that the holder of the gem can remove or give any curse, but a twist, oh yes a twist, the holder must lose something close to him or her. Which is the reason most people keep well away from it. People don’t know how it erases something you like but a common theory is it reads your mind and then with its power it kills the one you love or destroys the thing you love. Some delusional man gave up his innocent daughter’s life to remove his curse of a golden touch. 

As the moon went down the scorching sun started to come up, the town woke up, the sky was bright, the birds were about and people filled the streets but the shadow thief was nowhere to be seen. Mysterious as always the shadow thief was figuring out how to use the gem in it’s dark bat infested cave. He tried saying what he wants, rubbing it like a magical lamp and even throwing it but nothing seemed to work. Agitated the shadow thief shouted “I want my curse gone!!!” then suddenly out of nowhere a deep voice said “are you sure”. Surprised, the shadow thief said, “who was that?”. “Me” said the gem “who”, “me” the gem repeated. Finally the shadow thief realised it was the gem. In awe he uplifts his voice and says “can you remove this curse!!!? “are you sure?” repeated the gem “ah-ah-ah” muttered the shadow thief nervously . The gem repeats itself “do you or do you not?” “ye-ye-ye-ye-yes” he said. Then boom clash bang!!! suddenly it was all gone, the shadow thief was a man again, big and tall ,muscular, handsome and most of all face lit with a smile delighted of his curse finally gone. 

Forgetting the price shadow thief had paid he runs to his parents house to find them dead on the ground, pale, as if their life got sucked straight out of them. Shadow thief falls on his knees salty tears running from his face, he looks up and gives a great shout “noooooooooo!!!”. The price he whispers to himself the stupid price. His innocent parents lay there, life drained. The shadow thief mourns and cries a river “noooooooooo!!!” he shouts once more. The shadow thief talks to himself, “You shouldn’t have done it David”.

Dreadfully time came to pass as he himself David had realised his consequences. He then sat down in his plain coloured living room on the mossy green couch weeping and weeping and weeping as the hours passed by …

The End

Te Reo Maori

In Te Ngahere we have been doing Te reo Maori. In Te reo Maori we were learning about the Maori names of items in our class. So we started making animations about some names of items in the class. Me and Harlem were in a group together. I really enjoy this because I like learning more words in Maori. I think next time we could lay it out better like instead of putting the items right beside Harlem, I could put the items were he’s pointing instead or instead of just making me ask the questions. I could answer some of the questions as well and we could try putting the items in order from easiest to hardest. The types of words we used were pene for pen, karaka for clock, tepu for table, turu for chair and the question was He aha tenei?

Which means what is this? The answer to the question is he ___ tena.

Panui

In Te Ngahere for panui/reading we have been focusing on learning what a round character is and a flat character by learning about their dimensions. The 1st dimension was what you can see on the surface. Dimension 2 is about their fears, weaknesses, dreams and backstory. Dimension 3 is about who they really are, their decisions wants, and desires. We were given 4 characters (Bilbo Baggins, The Fire Raiser, Benny and Mr Twit). We had to find all their dimensions then say which character had the most dimensions. I really enjoyed finding dimensions for The Fire Raiser but next time I should work with my buddies a bit more so we all understand the text.

Measurement

 

 In Te Ngahere we have been doing measurements we are using standard and non standard measurements. Standard measurements are centimetres, litres, grams and all those measurements that never ever change. A non standard measurement is measuring in footsteps or hands and things like that because not everyone has the same foot size or foot steps making it different for every different person who measures with non standard measurements. I enjoy doing this because I like measuring things and I like maths. I think next time we do this I should try and eliminate every variable so I get exact measurements.

Kapa Haka Practice

In the Kapa Haka Roopu we have been practising for the Kaikohe Cultural Festival. We have mainly been going through our routine a lot so we can make it perfect. I really enjoy kapa haka and recently we all got individual feedback which has really helped me in improving my performance. I think I need to make my actions on time for the waiata and the haka.

Maths

In Te Ngahere we have been learning how to multiply, subtract, divide and add large numbers in maths using the standard written form, which is how people worked  out maths in the old days. I enjoy doing this because I find multiplying and dividing numbers really fun. I learnt a few new strategies from Mr Lindsay, e.g if you have a number with 1 or 0 put it at the bottom to make it easier to figure out because everyone knows their 1 times tables. I already knew how to use standard written form and multiply large numbers so the only thing I needed to learn was dividing large numbers. Here is an example of on of the questions we had to do. Here is a link to some questions we had: Multiplication.