School holidays - My birthday

During the school holidays on the 7th of October, it was my birthday. After midnight, I decided to open all of my gifts. I got some presents from my Uncle like a Stadium Tour merch shirt that was as red as a fire truck, it had BIEBER written in white on the front of the shirt and on the back, there was a photo of Justin leaning against a motorcycle. I also got some clothing, accessories, decorations for my room and a few more gifts from my Uncle.

My parents also got me a few presents like one Stadium Tour Merch hoodie, it was fully black besides the writing in the front in red that said TEAM and on the back it had a list of countries that Justin took his world tour to all written all in white. It also had STADIUM written between the list in a red but bigger and wacky font. My parents also gifted me three pillows with my idols’ on them, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez.

I spent most of my birthday with my Aunt and my two younger cousins, Paul and Ruthie. Paul is 12 years old and Ruthie was 9. My Aunt took us all for a trip to Sylvia Park to watch The Emoji Movie, I really enjoyed watching that movie, the puns they used were hilarious. I couldn’t stop my laughter, so I slid down in my seat and continued to laugh to myself.

After the movie, we went to have lunch at a cafe called The Coffee Club. When we sat down inside, we met with one of my other Aunties that worked there. We were sitting on a small table with hard chairs, so she was very kind and moved us to a bigger table with soft couches, she also gave us a discount. For lunch, I ordered a chicken, avocado and salad sandwich with hot chips and tomato sauce on the side. For my drink, I ordered a caramel milkshake. I wasn’t feeling all that hungry, so I put my leftover food in a bag and my Aunt put it in her purse for later. While Ruthie and I were still eating, Paul had already gone to line up in front of this blue box Break Free challenge that was placed outside of H&M.

My Aunt, Ruthie and I came up to him and started taking photos of him purposefully to embarrass him as a joke. My Aunt was calling out “Pauly smile!”, and he turned the other way, so we all laughed knowing our plan worked. We walked up to where he was, he was next in line. We had small talk with the worker outside, she was nice and encouraged us to give it a try with him, so we did. My Aunt took a few selfies with us before we entered. Inside the small room, there was a small mirror, toilet (that hasn’t been used), a bunk bed, a desk with newspaper on the wall above it, a bookshelf with a few books on it, a big metal box with chains and three locks around it. There was also a timer.

The worker inside the box told us that we had ten minutes to find clues all around the room to open the metal box. She gave us the first clue which lead us to the tiny silver toilet, inside the toilet there was a clue that then lead us to the mirror cabinet. There were a few things inside there like soap, a toothbrush and a tiny safe, so that meant we had to find the pin. We tried our hardest to beat the highscore which was about 3 minutes, but we couldn’t even make it under the ten minutes.

My Aunt asked if Ruthie and I wanted to go anywhere like H&M or any other clothing shops, but we didn’t. My cousin wanted to go to Typo to buy herself a pencil case for school. I just bought a beanie for $18, and Ruthie bought a book, a pen and her pencil case. After we payed for it, the two of us met my Aunt and Paul at Scoops, the ice cream stand at the food court. Paul devoured the rest of his ice cream in a cup, then asked Ruthie and I if we wanted to play Mini Golf with him. I didn’t at first, but then I agreed to go because I’ve never played Mini Golf before, but I wanted to give it a try.

I’ve always walked past the Mini Golf place, but I’ve never been inside. We payed for our golf club and grabbed a golf ball each, then walked in. When I walked in, I was in awe. There were moving life sized animals, trees, plants, and other decorations like, pyramids, rocks, a small version of the wall of China and much more. It’s like every Mini Golf course we went to, we were in a different country each time. There were even sound effects of the countries and animals, which I thought was incredible . It turned out Mini Golf is super fun and I wasn’t terrible at it.

Next, we went to Whitcoulls so my cousin could buy ‘the diary of a wimpy kid’ book, but she couldn’t find the one she was looking for, and she already had the rest of them, so she just bought a stuffed animal instead. She took forever, but I patiently waited.

We didn’t want to do anything else, so I decided that I wanted to go home. Before we left Sylvia Park, Ruthie and I bought some cupcakes that were pretty good. Ruthie ate one of the chocolate Maltese cupcakes and left the rest of them for my parents and I. Then we finally left, I really enjoyed my birthday with my Aunt and cousins. It was such a memorable day.   

I arrived home, then ate my leftover sandwich. I also gobbled down one of those chocolate Maltese cupcakes, savouring the taste. I had a small dinner with my family, and of course had my birthday cake! My birthday cake was very appetising, it’s like I couldn’t get enough of it. My birthday was enjoyable and I absolutely love the gifts received, I can’t wait to wear my merchandise to more public occasions.  

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Duffy Assembly with Niva Retimanu

Today, Monday 18 September, 2017,  a woman named Niva Retimanu came to our school, Glenbrae, as our Duffy role model to talk to us about her job and how important reading is. Niva works in the radio industry at NewstalkZB and has been since she was 18 years old, she has been in the radio industry for about 30 years now. She is from a Samoan heritage but was raised in Invercargill.

Niva talked to us about her job in the radio industry and how reading was very important to have her kind of job. She said so herself that she wasn’t the best at reading, but she spent quite some time in the library, so her reading skills progressed.

During the Duffy assembly, Niva read us a book called “Kiss, kiss, yuck, yuck”. It was about an Aunt who always kissed her nephew on the cheek every time she visited him, and he would try to hide from her in different places such as under the bed, etc..

Whilst she read the book out loud, Niva told us to yell out “yuck! yuck!” every time the Aunt kissed her nephew on the cheek. After that, we sang the Duffy song and Niva joined in as well.

Thank you Niva, you are an inspiration to many people.

Niva Retimanu

Grease Performance by AGGS

Yesterday the students from room 8, 7 and half of room 10 were very lucky to be able to have witnessed such an amazing remake of the play named Grease, performed by Auckland Girls Grammar School and students from St Paul’s College. Miss Elia’s niece had kindly invited us to watch their remake of Grease.

We travelled by bus to AGGS, on our way there, we practised singing the songs we were going to sing on camp. A few other school’s were there like Pt England School and more. After we walked in, we were seated on the mat and waited for other schools to enter the auditorium.

My favourite part was when they all came out and when the youngest actor was performing. They all came out in groups and froze in their poses, and when they finally all came out, it looked really neat. I also thought the youngest boy was really good at singing and dancing in the beginning. I really liked and enjoyed the show, they were all such good actors, singers and dancers. Such talented people!

We really appreciate all the time they took to learn this whole play!.

Science Intensive with Mr Nath

Today in Room 10 with Mr Nath, we learned about fire. I worked with my friend, Whitney, together we shared a presentation. On the first slide of the presentation we had to list words that describe fire, fire hazards and what can save you during a fire.

On the second slide we had to read a website about fire, then answer the questions that were on the presentation. From the website, I learned that fire is a chemical reaction and what the 5 stages of a fire are.

After morning tea, Whitney and I had to work together on the third slide to make a rap. We watched a video of a rap on YouTube called 'Fire Safety Rap!' for some ideas. We just had to write our own lyrics for it.

Finally, on our last slide, we had to make posters of a fire safety routine. To make our posters, we used Google Drawings.


Here's a screenshot of my half finished poster:

Science intensive with Miss Stone

Today my class and I were in Room 8 with Miss Stone for science intensive. In room 8 we learnt about the 3 states of matter. The 3 states of matter are solid, gas and liquid. We also did an experiment with melted chocolate to see how it turned from liquid to solid. We used a piping bag to make any shape we wanted with the chocolate, on a baking paper. We waited a few minutes until it cooled down, then we shared it and ate it.

We decided to make a hashtag (#).

We added more layers to make it thicker
after this photo was taken.

My Maze Game relating to Sustainability

In the context of Sustainability I have designed and produced a Maze Game for 10-12 year olds to be used to a problem that relates to families in the Tamaki Community is family violence, because it makes people feel hurt and scared.

My game works because the sprite (character) is able to navigate through the maze to the love heart at the end.

Glenbrae Kids Visit

Yesterday my class and I walked to Glenbrae Kids, which is a kindergarten named after our School. It was only like a 2-3 minute walk. When we got there, we sat down somewhere and sang a Maori greeting song called "Toro Mai to Ranga" to them. Then we had to choose a little buddy to play with, look after and get to know each other.

I chose a little girl named Madison. She had blonde hair and such beautiful eyes. She was so cute and she liked talking to me about the Elsa and Anna dolls. We played with them for a bit, then we took a little trip outside to play on their playground. I also took Madison for a ride on a bike.

I had so much fun playing with Madison and the other kids there. I hope we go back real soon.

Kiwi Sport - Tennis

This morning was our last day of tennis with our coach, Campbell. I didn't play, but it was still pretty fun to watch them play. It was really funny too. 

One of our students had a 10 shot relay, so that was pretty impressive to us and Campbell. Hopefully Campbell comes to teach us again in the future this year, because I like how passionate he is about tennis, he loves to teach us new skills and he also loves to tell us stories about tennis, especially about Serena Williams ha-ha. 

Again I had fun throughout the whole tennis sessions this term, and grateful we got Campbell to teach us. 

New Math Strategy

This is a new strategy I learnt during Math.

144 ÷ 2 = 72 (half)

72 ÷ 6 = 12

72 ÷ 6 = 12

12 + 12 = 24

The problem was "144 ÷ 2 =" so you have to half 144 and that makes 72, then you divide 72 by 6, twice. 72 ÷ 6 = 12 and since you divide it twice, you get 12 twice too. So add 12 + 12 and the answer is 24.

That is a new strategy I learnt. I hope you understood the strategy and how I explained it. 

Context Brainstorm - Maze Game about Sustainability

This is a context brainstorm about a maze game that I am going to create about sustainability.

The brainstorm tells me what sustainability means. The brainstorm also tells me what I should include in my maze game.

My Maze Game!!

Today I created a maze game. I learnt how to use direction commands. create backdrops, and resize sprites.

Air Pollution with Miss Sigamoney

As part of Science Intensive on air pollution we went outside, wiped objects and surfaces with a paper towel. This is what I found.

I wiped the border of the playground.

Pollution

Problems pollution can cause:

• The icebergs in Antarctica are melting
• Animals are getting caught in rubbish.
• Animals are dying
• The rubbish that goes into the drains leads to the sea
• The decrease in the air quality can cause Asthma or lung cancer
• The rubbish in the streams / rivers makes not wanna swim in them
• Water is rising above Islands

↑ Those are some of the problems pollution is causing ↑

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A little inspiration to help stop pollution:

It is essential that we do not litter, that we pick up as many rubbish as possible and throw it in the bin, because a piece of rubbish actually affects the Earth a lot more than you think. It’s not too late to stop pollution. By helping, simply all you have to do is pick up a piece of rubbish when you see one and throw it in the right bin. That is not a hard action to do.

Think of all the animals that have died or got trapped in rubbish, all the people it has affected - with lung cancer and asthma. It really does have a huge affect on Earth and people / animals. We only have one Earth, and it’s up to us to keep it clean.. for ourselves, our families, friends and for the next generation.

Te Taiao o Tamaki

What I understand so far - People / families in places like Latin America, Ghana, India and many more other countries, don’t have fresh water to drink. They have to walk 3 hours just to get some water, and the water isn’t even fresh. The water that they collect is full of bacteria that can cause them to have diarrhea, illness, diseases and can also lead to death. I also learnt that every 19 seconds, a mother loses their baby because of the bacteria in the water that they drink.

Our class, room 7 first walked around the senior block to check the drains, because the rubbish that go into the drain, lead into the sea. We took pictures first, and then we picked them up and put it into the bin we carried around. We also checked the junior block and collected the rubbish. After that, we made a circle under a tree and shared what we noticed while walking.

What we noticed:

• There were mostly crinkly packets, especially chip packets.
• There were a lot of rubbish.
• There are more rubbish outside, than in our bins.
• There are so many leaves and rubbish in our drains that it's now completely dry.

Moana Presentation

I have been learning how to code using Hour of code. The skills that I have learnt include using the Move Forward block, Repeat and the Fish block in the code game Moana.

I have shared my Moana presentation in my ePortfolio, to visually showcase my work.

I have also shared my Moana presentation in the Year 8 Class Community, as a rewindable learning resource for others.

Technology ePortfolio

In Technology we will be trialling the use of ePortfolios. The ePortfolios will be used to visually showcase the work that we do in Technology. We will use our ePortfolios in each Technology subject. We will use our blogs to reflect on our learning. We will also use the Year 8 digitech blog to collaborate on different learning activities.These are the different ways in which we will share what we learn.

ePortfolios

Artwork

Today in room 9 while the class of mine, room 7 and others were away at a tournament  representing Glenbrae School in the Tamaki Cluster for softball. Linda and I were left in room 9 for the day and in room 9 we worked and cooperated together to finish our work off. We finished our work before lunch time so we decided to do some artwork.

For our artwork we sketched different types of things, we sketched eyebrows, eyes and portraits that were sharp looking and for some we added a few tears in as it would look a lot better not in reality but sketching, it looked good. It also added a dramatic look to it. Anyways we drew this art and it turned out amazing. We both loved it.

At first it was boring until Linda really got me motivated, I really appreciate her a lot for helping me through boredom. Thank You Linda!

Before the day ended we finished a lot of artwork as in finished drawing eyebrows, eyes and portraits, today was alright but my favourite part of today was getting to know a bit more about Linda and what she loves to draw. I really learnt off her today.

Not just that but we both had great fun and awesome enthusiastic energy throughout the entire day.  

P.S Artwork picture on her blog. Linda's Blog

Why the treaty of Waitangi was needed..

Why the treaty of Waitangi was needed (from both perspectives)

Maori POV

Maori needed the treaty because the British wanted to take the Maori land and create peace between both Maori and British. (But more importantly the British wanted to claim New Zealand before America, France etc.. did because they were greedy and wanted more land for their people and have as many countries as they can in the commonwealth.)

British POV

The British needed the treaty so they were eligible to build on and claim the land owned by the Maori without a war starting, so it would be a “peaceful” process.