Windy Wellington!!

In week 5 the Yr 7&8’s went down to Wellington for camp. We left school at 9:30 and made our way down to Auckland. Our flight was at 3:00, first we checked in and went through security. I thought the plane ride was going to be scary but it wasn’t so bad. We arrived in Wellington at around 3:30 then hopped off the plane and went down to the baggage claim and grabbed our baggage. Next we waited for Aunty Prue and Mrs Lindsay to bring the vans around. Once they brought the vans around we hopped in, we then started to make our way to the marae which wasn’t far from the city. We arrived at the entrance and jumped out of the vans then lined up to walk onto the marae and be welcomed with a Powhiri. Once we were welcomed onto the marae when got to talk more with the staff that were there and got to know them better since we were staying there for a week. We then grabbed our gears out of the vans and settled in inside the marae. Throughout the week we went to cool places such as the Te papa, The University, Mt Victoria, Cable car museum, The Library, Westpac stadium, the park and Parliament. My favorite thing about this trip was going to the Zoo because I got to see lots of interesting animals and got to go behind the scenes to see how and what the zookeeper's fed all there animals. My favorite animal was the giraffes because I found I found them satisfying because they were so tall and big. I don’t know if I might go to the university in Wellington, but I hope so.

Athletics training

For the past three weeks the senior classes at Paihia School have been prepare themselves for athletics day. Every Wednesday and Friday we rotate in our groups and take turns at each obstacle. We have five groups and five obstacles. The obstacles are discus, shot put, sprint/relays, high jump and long jump. So far my group has done shot put and discus, discus is probably my favourite at the moment, my arm technique is good but now I need to focus on learning how to bend my knees to get a perfect launch from my legs. In discus I learnt that if I want more force to make the discus go further I need to push off a bit stronger with my legs and in shot put I have learnt that the harder you push the ball and aim it in the right height level the further it will go.  I am really looking forward to sprints with Matua Pep because it looks really fun. I can’t wait till athletics day because I know it is going to be awesome.

Ki o rahi

Yesterday the yr 5,6,7 and 8’s went to Moerewa for the Ngati Hine Ki o rahi tournament. There were 16 teams that participated in this amazing event. I played in the yr 7&8’s team. We had 4 games in total,we won two and lost two. We won against Moerewa and another school I can’t remember and we lost against Taumarere and Taipo. We made it to the semi finals and we went up against Taumarere, they beat us 13-6. The two teams that made it to the finals were Taumarere and Taipo. We watched the final round and Taumarere won that as well. Every team played really well and everyone was positive throughout the games. We were all proud of ourselves for playing well and were proud that we at least won two games and made it to the semi finals. I really enjoyed having a day out of school and playing a sport that I really love.

Athletics training

For the past three weeks the senior classes at Paihia School have been prepare themselves for athletics day. Every Wednesday and Friday we rotate in our groups and take turns at each obstacle. We have five groups and five obstacles. The obstacles are discus, shot put, sprint/relays, high jump and long jump. So far my group has done shot put and discus, discus is probably my favourite at the moment, my arm technique is good but now I need to focus on learning how to bend my knees to get a perfect launch from my legs. In discus I learnt that if I want more force to make the discus go further I need to push off a bit stronger with my legs and in shot put I have learnt that the harder you push the ball and aim it in the right height level the further it will go.  I am really looking forward to sprints with Matua Pep because it looks really fun. I can’t wait till athletics day because I know it is going to be awesome.

Pump track writing

Last week I started a piece of writing justifying why the pump track at Paihia School was one of the best facilities to be used in Paihia. I had to verify three reasons why the pump track was a good facility in Paihia. My first reason was that, the pump track is useful for those who are learning to ride a bike or learning to skate. My second reason was that, is makes Paihia School popular because of the uses it has.  Finally my third reason was that, it is a facility where families can kick back and all have a great fun at. Once my writing is complete I will post it and ask for your opinion on it.

Swim safe

Recently Te Ngahere has had a swim safe lesson on dry land. Our teacher was Tracy. She taught us five ways how to keep safe in the ocean. The first safety rule was to wear a life jacket. The second rule was to make sure when that when you are out on the boat to have a device or a flare to signal the coast guard if you ever find yourself in a bad situation. The third rule was that you have to know the lifeguard channel. The fourth rule was to always tell someone where you are going and when you are expecting to be heading back into shore. The fifth rule is to check the weather before you head out just so you know what to expect out there. It is important to know all of these things because you never know when something bad is going to occur. I learnt that not only are these rules important to my life but it could also be useful to help someone else out if they don’t know the five ways of how to keep safe on the water. I enjoyed this lesson because it taught me a lot and now I can feel safe whenever I go out on the boat.

STEAM (Newspaper structure)

On Monday the whole class participated in a STEAM project. STEAM stands for Science Technology Engineering Art and Mathematics. We got into groups of three or two. Each group had to create a structure using only 30 cm of tape and 2 sheets of newspaper. My group’s structure didn’t work as we expected. It was time for measuring and one of my mates took our tower up for measuring. He kept trying to balance it but it just kept falling, we didn't end up getting any results for our tower because it couldn't balance that good. After all of that we had to write our reflection of how we did and answer a couple of questions. Each question was to be filled in with a proper sentence giving a reasonable answer. I enjoyed this particular project and enjoyed collaborating well with my group to create a structure that we were proud of. I learnt that newspaper is too flimsy to use as a base for a newspaper tower and I now know that I need to make something stronger than newspaper to hold up a paper tower.

Word problems

Last week we learnt multiple strategies to help solve the questions that we were given. My focus was to learn and use new strategies to help improve my learning. To show my learning and what I have done to help my learning I have made a DLO using a google slide with the strategies that I used and the questions I had to work out. All I did was add all the numbers together then I minused that by what needed to be taken away. I think I worked really hard to learn new strategies and I was also very careful with how I answered the problem. I really enjoyed this maths lesson because it really gave my brain a workout and I also learnt new strategies which can now help me in the future. What strategy would you use to solve these problems?

Converting fractions

Last week I learnt about converting fractions into decimals with Mr Lindsay. We went to his workshop with no knowledge of how to convert fractions into decimals. He showed us a couple of examples on the activeboard. It looked hard at first but once he started explaining it a bit more to us it became easier to understand. Then he sent us off to complete the worksheets we were given. I managed to get through all the questions and get them right. That’s when I felt more comfortable working with these sort of questions and this particular strategy. After we completed our worksheets we had to create a DLO to show our learning. I made a Google drawing, giving an example of the questions we had and explaining what I did to get the quotient. Here is my DLO.

Beach Clean Up

Last Friday, my class and I went down to Paihia beach to do a beach clean up. It’s apart of keeping NZ beautiful. We walked down there after hui and spilt up into groups of five. In my group was myself, Fonz, Izaiah F, Isaiah S and Kingi. We walked along the beach looking for rubbish. It took us a while to find our first piece of rubbish and took us about half an hour to fill our bag up. Many groups tried to take the rubbish out of the rubbish bins to fill their bags because the teachers said ‘Whichever group can find the most rubbish will get  a prize’. Of course everyone tried to cheat but we were caught. My group and I searched along the beach and found lots of rubbish. We found different types of rubbish such as cardboard, cigarette butts, medication subscriptions and of course plastic. The most common one being beer bottles and cans. The problem with the types of rubbish we found were that they were a danger to sea life and birds.  My solution that I came up with is that anyone that is found littering should be fined or to help encourage smokers to put their smoke out once there finished and put it in the bin. I really enjoyed the beach clean up and hope that kiwi’s are helping to keep NZ beautiful. Bye

Duffy Role Model (Rebecca Brothers)

Last week Paihia School was lucky enough to have a very special guest come to our school for the second time. Her name is Rebecca Brothers. She is a very talented athlete and is a very good swimmer. She has competed in the Olympics before and has earned many medals. She is proud that she was able represent New Zealand at the olympics and to see the flag rise. She is now a retired athlete and a full time mum, she is a mother to three. She showed us her everyday routine and explained what she had to do every morning and how she would end her day. She also had to do lots of studying and reading. Her message to us was to read, read, read because it can help you become successful and can help you achieve anything. I really enjoyed Rebecca brothers coming to visit us and teach us why reading is important and how it is really helpful throughout life.

Character dimensions

Last week we created a DLO about character dimensions. We learnt about character dimensions during our panui tasks. There was three dimensions. Dimension one includes ideas about the character and all the things you can see, their physical description. . Dimension two is about the characters backstory. For example a backstory is explaining someone's past, what happened in there life for them to act like that. Lastly dimension three is what the character needs. Things they desire and want. Our reason for learning about character dimensions is to help us improve our writing. I really enjoyed learning about the three dimensions and enjoyed putting lots of effort into my work. I have created a DLO to share my learning with you.

Cross country

Last week Paihia School had there cross country event at Bledisloe Domain. The event started at around 11am. The age groups went in order going boys than girls. First to run were the five year old boys than the five year old girls, and it continued to go up. My race was last, I ran in with the twelve year old girls. Once the boys finished, our race began. 3,2,1 go. I jogged around the big field my breath was already running out. The runners behind me started to walk but I kept going. I jumped the fence and made my way up the steep hill. Every step that I took felt mushy that was because there was horse poop squishing between my toes. I jogged a long way then made it to Whaea Becks. She was playing her sounds while guiding us through the course. I carefully walked down the hill to Mr Ngata jumped the gate and ran the field to finish my race. Once I seen the finish line I started sprinting towards Whaea Roni. Yay, I had passed the line and I was so proud of myself. I can’t remember what I placed but it was worth it.

Tuhituhi

This week for tuhituhi Te Ngahere was given a new writing prompt. We were learning about the three dimensions based on a character that we read about. The first dimension is what you can see. The second dimension is there backstory and fears. The third dimension is based on who they really are, what you learnt about them. Our prompt included a mysterious shadow. When it was shown to us lots of ideas just went through my head. Using that image we had to write a story or even a few paragraphs to give a spitting image of what might be happening in the photo. I couldn't wait to start writing. I started typing away and every time I looked at the picture more ideas kept coming to my mind. I really enjoyed writing about this topic and hope that we get more of these in the future.

When night shadows creep
                           
                                                         
  It all began the instant it hit midnight. The old clock bells ring slamming together like a drum. Suddenly all there was, was the sounds of tree’s swaying in the darkness. Leaving trails of crusty leaves behind. As strokes of wind passes through the air, time moves fast. Not one person in sight.

 Suddenly a white beam shone from the backyard light. Capturing a steady figure. The shadow of male. Under his breath he quietly moans. His toes ache from having to creep along the prickly grass. He manages to keep his silence.

Quietly the figure attempts to break into a light green garden shed. Hopeful for some place cozy and safe to rest his head over the hours. 

With no patience, he carefully he takes a bobby pin out of his front pocket silently starting the process. His fingers slipping throughout the operation not making it too far. Sweat drips from his face as he tries to pick the lock .. He sensed there was something amiss about his actions.

 The rusty padlock screech’s making a hell of a noise. Nearly awakening the other humans that surround him. His head pounds as a headache kicks in. Night slowly moves into day. He’s been at it for a while. 

Will he manage to pick the lock in time?

Pangarau

This week Te Ngahere have been doing lots of fun things for maths. We were learning about Standard written form. It was very complicated at first but once I understood it a bit better it became easy. I mostly enjoyed doing division problems and enjoyed solving them because it really gives my brain a workout. For example if my equation was 5)264. I would need to work out how many fives can go into the first number. If that doesn't work then I combine the first and second number to make a two digit number and see how many fives can go into that. I know that 5x5=25, so that means that five groups of five can go into twenty six with a reimender 1. A reminder is a number that are left over. The next thing I do is put a 5 above the equation and put a 1 above the 4 below and that makes 14. Again I see how many fives can go into 14. The answer is 2r4 because 2x5=10 and there is 4 remaining. Once you’ve done all of that your answer should be 52r4.

Training

For the past 3 weeks the whole of Te Ngahere have been practicing for our upcoming cross country. Everyday we practice cross country training to help us get a hang of running for so long. We all have to run 5 laps of our course. First we start off by the bike shed and make our way towards the pump track. We then run around the pump track once then carry on through the gate starting to make our way up between the whare. We slightly move around the corner and then we run a lap of the court, make our way back through the whare then sprint toward the finish line right next to the playground. After doing 5 laps of that I was exhausted but I know that it is really helping me to prepare for the day.

Orientation Day

This Thursday, the year 8’s from Paihia School will be travelling on the Bay of Islands College bus to visit their College for orientation day. Orientation day is when year 8 students from around the Bay go and spend a day at the College to see what it is like. I think it is a great opportunity for me to get a view of what it would be like as a student and get to know a couple of people around there. I can’t wait to find out how much fun it is going to be at the college.

Science fair project

For the past 3 weeks Te Ngahere have been working on making a science project for the upcoming science fair. We had the choice to work in groups or by ourselves. I was lucky enough to be put into a group were I was able to focus and work really well. We chose to work around slingshots and which materials we had could make the farthest shot. The best material that worked for us was the chain of rubber bands. I can’t remember how far it went but it was around the 50m line. Once we finished our experiments we wrote our results and all our information on a slide and presented it all out on a board. Today we will be presenting our boards in the whare for everyone to see. Here is my groups and I’s presentation.

Scientific method info graphic

Today Te Ngahere has started a new T shaped Literacy activity. The topics for our reading activities were about science. We were learning about the scientific method and understanding how it works and why it is so efficient. Next we had to create an infographic about the scientific method. We had to use images and words so that others can get a better understanding of the method by reading the words and analyzing the images. These are the six steps for the scientific method. Here is my infographic that I made today and the six methods.

1. Ask a question
2. Gather information and observe (research)
3. Make a hypothesis (guess the answer)
4. Experiment and test your hypothesis
5. Analyze your test results
6. Present a conclusion

Northland Wars animation

For the past few weeks in  Te Ngahere we have been creating animations and writing scripts about what we learnt from all the stories we have recently been reading. We were learning to make an animation about a part of a story of our choice.  We were given many differents articles to read which were about refugees, immigrants and the New Zealand wars. Using all of our knowledge from the stories we read our next task was to re-create a part of a story that we liked and make it into an animation , my buddy and I decided to do an animation about the Northland wars. We had to have 4-5 parts that included ,why they came to New Zealand,  what happened when they came to New Zealand and what the two sides thought about each other. Creating our animation and writing our script took us about a week to complete and about two days to screencastify it. I enjoyed learning about the Northland wars because now I have a better understanding about what the wars were about back then. Next time I think I will be able to create my animation and script faster and will definitely be able to screencastify it a lot quicker.

Maths DLO

For the past term Te Ngahere have been learning about different kinds of strategies such as equal additions,  rounding and compensating as well as jumping the number line. Using these three strategies we had to find out which one was easier to use to subtract and add decimals. At first it was a bit hard because I’m use to using place value to solve these problems, but after working with the other strategies it became easier. We then had to create a DLO about the three strategies that we had learnt and how to use them with a decimal equation. In the end I found out that for me equal additions was a better way to solve decimal problems and I enjoyed learning new strategies and hope to learn a lot more in the future.

Writing

For the past few weeks in Te Ngahere we have been writing a diary entry. I chose to write about Hone Heke and his  point of view as well as the British's point of view because back then the wars were between the Māori and the British. My writing took me about 2 weeks to complete and make sure that it is  done to the best of my ability. For my writing I think I did well with making each paragraph make sense and have strong detail in them. Next time I could explain things in my writing to make it even better, other than that I think I did a pretty good job with my writing.

Taku Whanau

For the past term in Te Ngahere we have been learning how to include and say our whanau in our pepeha. I already knew how to say my pepeha and my whanau in te reo maori but all I needed to learn was how to say them all together. It took me about a week to fully learn  and now I know it all off by heart. Once we knew how to say our pepeha and whanau together we had to make an animation about it and screencastify it. I really enjoyed learning how to say my pepeha and whanau altogether and I am happy that I was able to complete my animation in a short period of time. What I didn’t like was when I screencastified my animation because I don’t like to hear my voice in a recording.  Here is my animation

Tech

On Wednesday the ⅞’s went to technology in Moerewa. The year 7’s were doing cooking with Whaea Dot and the year 8’s were doing woodwork with Mr E. When we sat down Mr E explained to us and showed us all the forms that we needed to have in our book so he can mark them for our reports. Next he told us that we could carry on or start our projects, I already made one project so now I had to make another one. I asked Mr E If I could make a house and he kindly gave me all the materials I needed to make the house with. Before I could start putting everything together I had to measure my timber to make sure it was the perfect size. After that I cut the sides of the house out with a saw and then glued and nailed them onto the base. Lastly I had to make the roof , I had to cut two small pieces of copper out and drill two holes in two thin separate pieces of timber. To finish it I quickly put the copper through the holes and twisted them tightly and made sure they were stable. Then I glued half of the wood on one side of the house and glued and nailed it down but left the other side open so I could open it and close it. My project was complete and I was so happy with myself. Next time I think I could make something more challenging.

Basic facts

Since term one the whole of Te Ngahere have been trying their hardest to complete all of their basic facts and know them all off by heart. For the first few weeks it was pretty hard to learn them but eventually they got easier. My first time getting tested was scary and I was a little bit nervous. I got a lot wrong but I learned from my mistakes and keep trying harder. By the end of term one I only had around 20 left to learn. I practice them everyday at school and at home until they were stuck in my brain. Finally when it came to week 5 I knew I was gonna nail my basic facts and I did. I was so happy with myself and glad that I had achieved my basic facts and now I finally move on to division.

Tech

On Wednesday the ⅞’s went to technology in Moerewa. The year 7’s were doing cooking with Whaea Dot and the year 8’s were doing woodwork with Mr E. First Mr E explained all the safety rules around the tools, what they were used for and how we are expected to behave in class. Next we had to fill out a test with questions about our safety and tools. Soon he said that we could just have a little tutu with the tools and scrap wood and then later we would be able to make anything of our choice. My friend Fonz wanted to make a fortnite pickaxe which turned out cool in the end.  I decided to make a special necklace for my mum since mother's day was coming up, it looks pretty cool but I didn't get to take it home until the next lesson. I think I did pretty well with following instructions carefully and working good with my peers and next time I think I could make something more challenging.

Ki o rahi

Last week on Friday the year 7&8’s went to Kaikohe for a tournament of Ki-o-rahi. My team got to play three games, we won two games and lost one game by one point. I learned a lot from other teams and I did well on working as a team.. I enjoyed every game that I played, and the thing I could work on next time is passing to someone near me so they can score a point.  I hope I can play more games and tournaments further in the future.

Duffy Assembly

On Monday, Paihia School had a New Zealand actor named Hayden Weal come  to talk to us about his acting life and childhood. He told us a story about when he was in school. He said that he was always getting in trouble so one day he got sent to the principal's office. When he got there he sat down and she asked him what do you want to be when you grow up?. He said I want to be an actor because he loved to watch movies and the principal said that’s never going to happen. One day Hayden was being naughty and his teacher asked him what do you want to be when you grow up?. Remembering what his principal said he didn’t want to tell her, but then he did. He simply said “I want to be an actor.” Then the teacher said “That’s great.” He then told her what the principal said. She then said “Follow me.” She took him to the library and picked out three books on how to become an actor; he read them everyday. Years later the dream that he was hoping to become came true. It turns out he acted in The Hobbit, Lord Of The Rings and was in a film with Daniel Radcliffe. I really enjoyed him talking to us because he’s shown that you don’t need to listen to negative people and keep on living up to your dreams.

Maths DLO Trebling and Thriding

In Te Ngahere we have been learning doubling and halving and trebling and thirding. After we learnt it we had to create a DLO to show what we have been doing and learning. We also made DLO’s so we can show how we did that strategy. Using these two strategies will help to simplify difficult maths equations and make it easier to work out. I think I did well on making a DLO that my audience will understand and explaining how that strategy works. Next time I think I could finish my DLO in less than 3 days and finish it to the best of my ability.

Robett

On Monday, a guy named Robett came to Paihia School to talk to Te Ngahere about “Saying yes to success”.  He was traveling all around New Zealand to talk to high schools about his life and how he became a successful man. He explained to us how hard his life was growing up and how he didn't have much. My favourite saying from him was that “You don’t have be smart in school or have the best grades to be successful”.   His message to us was if you hang out with people that make bad choices or are negative people you could have a tough life. But if you choose to hang out with people that make good choices and are positive people there is a big chance that you will have a great life and be successful. I really enjoyed Robett visiting and inspiring us to work hard and keep pushing to what we want to achieve.

Tech

Last week on Wednesday the Year 7/8’s went to technology in Morewa. For the year 7’s it was there first time. The year 7’s did woodwork with Mr E and the year 8’s did cooking with Whaea Dot.  She told us that we were going to make lasagne. We had to choose 5 vegetables to put in our lasagne. We either had to been in a group of 3 or work in peers, my partner was Kingi. Then we choose a workstation to sit at, once we got all our ingredients we chopped them up. After that we put the mince into the pan and cooked it with the veggies and bacon. While the pasta was cooking in the pot I started making the white sauce, I had to be very careful because if I left it on the element for too long it might burn. To make the white sauce we added in garlic salt, butter, milk and cheese we stirred the white sauce together until it became thick, then took it off the element. When everything was cooked we put it into a dish and put it in the oven. Once it was done we got to taste our lasagne, our lasagne was yummy but we had to save some to take home. I think my partner and I did well at working together we were able to follow instructions very well to create a delicious lasagne.

Marshmallow catapult

Last week in Te Ngahere we made Catapults.  Our challenge was to work as a team and see who’s could launch the furthest. For equipment we could only use skewers, rubber bands, marshmallows , masking tape and a spoon. Once we had finished building our catapult we tested it out. Our catapult launched the marshmallow over to the other side of the class. When we went outside to have a competition to see who’s could launch the farthest our catapult started breaking. When it was our turn it didn't launch that far as when we were in the class. We tried to fix it and when we went for another go it went further than our first attempt. I enjoyed making the catapults and enjoyed competing against other groups.