Who am I?

This week in tech we moved to a new rotation. We were in graphics with Ms. Ferguson. Ms. Ferguson first introduced herself to us. After we were introduced by Ms. Ferguson, we created a poster about ourselves. The poster included images of things we like, like our favorite food or game and more. One of my favorite games are pubg mobile. The images we used were transparent. Ms. Ferguson taught us how to make the images transparent. On of the ways to make a image transparent is to search a image, press on tools, click on color and choose transparent. I enjoyed my first session with Ms. Ferguson.

Yuri Gagarin Animation

This week for reading we used our create skills to create an animation or an explainer movie about Yuri Gagarin, in groups. My group and I decided to create an animation. Before we created the animation, we planned it as a group. On a piece of paper we drew a S to include the information we wanted about Yuri Gagarin from the start to the finish of the animation. A fact about Yuri Gagarin is that he was the first cosmonaut to orbit Earth in Vostok 1. After planning the animation, we started to create our animation. We chose a leader to tell us our job of the animation. We all decided that Chavda was the right leader of our group. My group and I worked together as a team and helped each other to complete our animation. I think that everyone in my group had great create skills and are really talented in drawing digitally. 

Space Tuarangi|Prior Knowledge

This week we moved to a new teacher for our Space inquiry. This time we were with Ms. Anderson. We were using our prior knowledge about spce. Prior knowledge is when you use your information you already know about. In groups of LS1 and LS2 we wrote our prior knowledge about space. I was with Farzana and Xavier. After we recorded our prior knowledge, we watched a video about space. The video helped us build on our prior knowledge.

Ramadan Presentation

For my fourth activity of earning my Excellence & Innovation, I decided to make a DLO about my Ramadan presentation I presented to my class two weeks ago. I was proud of myself for presenting to my class. Something that I achieved was that presenting my presentation helped me boost up my confidence in front of the class.

Stardome Trip

Yesterday on Thursday night from 5:30 to 7:45, we went to the Stardome to learn about Space. When we went inside Stardome, a guider named Tobias led us into a big room. We sat on seats which we could lye back on. Tobias introduced himself to us. When we looked up, we could see the sky. It was beautiful and looked real. When we looked to the left we could see the sun. It was really small compared to the sky and clouds. It was really cool, because the sky from daytime turned into night time, where all the stars were seen.

 Tobias taught us about the constellations that different countries from around the world saw. One of the constellations we saw was the scorpion. If we found a bright orange star and we connected it to other stars that Tobais showed us, we could see the scorpion. Tobias added a image of the scorpion to show it to the other people who couldn't see the scorpion. We also looked at the hook and Sagittarius constellations. The special hook was from Maui.

After we learnt about the constellations, we learnt about Jupiter and Saturn. Tobais zoomed into Jupiter and Saturn. The planets were so big, the light flashed on my face. I learnt that Jupiter has a total of 96 or 98 moons. I also learnt that Saturn's ring was actually made out of tiny bits of ice and dust.

After we learnt about the constellations and the planets, we went outside of the room and looked at different information about space. Something I saw was Yuri Gagarin and Sputnik 1 Lego figures. My group in reading were reading about Yuri Gagarin and Sputnik 1. Yuri Gagarin was the first cosmonaut to orbit Earth in vostok 1. Sputnik 1 was the first satellite to launch into space. There was really cool entertainments, like Angry birds, pulling the lever to connecting parts of a rocket together and weighing yourself to see your weight on different planets. I enjoyed experiencing my trip to Stardome.

Information Report|Emperor Penguins

This week in writing, we learnt how to write an information report. The purpose of an information report is to inform others about a topic/subject. The structure is tips, which stands for title, introduction, paragraphs of information and summary. Some of the language features we need in a information report are formal language, technical words, scientific name of animal, subheadings and present tense. This week we wrote a information report about any type of penguins. We made notes about penguins with a partner. My partner and I decided to write notes about Emperor penguins. After that we individually wrote our information report using the notes we wrote.

Photo by Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Emperor Penguins

Emperor penguins, also known as Aptenodytes forsteri are known as the tallest penguins out of 17 penguin species. These penguins mostly live in the coldest country in the world, so that means that they live in Antarctica which is in the Southern Hemisphere. Did you know that there are about 220, 00 pairs of Emperor penguins. Emperor penguins can dive into the sea to about 550 metres below!. Would you be able to swim 550 metres deep?. No other penguin species can dive that deep. While in the sea these Emperor penguins can hold their breath underwater for 20 minutes!. There are fascinating things most of us don’t know about these Emperor penguins.

Emperor penguins are the height of about 1.3 metres tall and weight 25 kgl!. Penguins have a special type of oil on their feathers, which they preen. Penguins have blubbers that keeps them warm from the cold. When there's really bad weathers like hurricanes, penguins huddle together in a circle to keep each other protected. Penguins have a black head, white belly, a beak, flippers and small feat which makes it hard for penguins to walk. Their white bellies can actually be camouflaged when in the sea. You can’t see their ears, because it’s actually covered with feathers.

Emperor penguins are carnivores who feeds on fish, krill (which are crustaceans), squid (which are cephalopods) and other small sea animals. Penguins can’t taste the food they catch, so they swallow it full. Penguins catch their food one at a time. When there is a egg, the mother searches for food while the father looks after the penguin egg. The mother comes back after 2 months with lots of food enough for her egg. Penguins need to be on the lookout of any predators, like seals( which are mammals), orcas ( which are killer whales) , sharks ( which are fish), sea lions ( which are mammals from the group pinnipeds), leopard seals ( which are seals that are the second largest from the species of seals) and many more.

Emperor penguins live mainly in the Southern Hemisphere in Antarctica, where the sea, snowy mountains and ice is. Some other species also live in Antarctica, but they also live in Australia and Africa. Would you be able to survive in Antarctica?

Did you know that penguins can’t cry. There are about 17 species of penguins!.  Penguins mostly spend their time underwater rather than on land. Emperor penguins are wonderful penguins. They are the only penguins who breed in the winter season.

Technology-Wood

This week in tech, with Mr. Grundy, we finished working on our woodwork design. I created the chest of drawers. I am nearly finished on creating my chest of draws. All I need done is to add on the mirror and the handles of the drawers. If we were waiting for Mr. Grundy to help us, we could write the steps on how to create a design using wood, so we could get good marks. In a few more weeks we will be moving on doing pewter casting. Today at Tamaki Collage I enjoyed finalizing my chest of drawers.

Long Multiplication

This week in maths we learnt how to solve problems using long multiplication. First we solved 20 multiplication equations using long multiplication, so we can learn and practice. After that we chose a problem and created a DLO about it using the long multiplication we learnt. Then we created screencastify explaining how to use long multiplication.

Yuri Gagarin's Biography

This week in reading, created a DLO about Yuri Gagarin's biography in groups. I was with Rhys & Matthew for this DLO. My group and I found a lot of information about Yuri Gagarin, like his birth, death, when he died, how he died and more. Something I found interesting by read the book "First Up", was that Yuri Gagarin was the first cosmonaut to orbit Earth.

First Up Summary

This week for reading we read a new story called "First up". While reading the book, we did reciprocal reading with our groups. In partners or groups we created a summary of "First Up". For the summary I was with Rhys and Matthew. We wrote 20 important words and chose 6 of the most important words. After that we used the 6 words to make it into a sentence.

New Zealand Sign Language Week

This week Fiona came to our class and taught us New Zealand sign language. She taught us how to say words in sign language and facts. I learnt a lot information about sign language. Something I found interesting was that over 24,000 people use sign language when communicating to others. Our session with Fiona was great. After our awesome session with Fiona, we created a DLO about sign language. We included information about sign language and images of saying a word in sign language.

Space Race|Sputnik 1,2, & 3

This week for reading in our groups, we created a DLO about Sputnik 1, 2 and 3 of the story "Space Race". In our google presentation we needed to include a timeline of the sputniks, what each sputnik is, a explanation, a glossary and the 5 w's and h. Avalon and I worked on the timeline. Everyone presented their slides they had done individually or with their partner. I enjoyed presenting the timeline to my group and listening to others say their presentation.

Kiwi Can

This term for a great session of kiwi can our new theme was integrity. Integrity means making the right choice when no one is looking. One example of showing integrity is picking up rubbish, when no one is looking. Something I learnt from Kiwi Can was the definition of honesty and why we show it. The activity we played was role play. The role plays were about showing honesty. My group's role play was about cheating in a test, but then owned up to it and told the truth. The image below shows the role play activity.

Main Ideas|The Space Race

This week for a fresh start of reading, we wrote the main ideas of the "Space Race". We created a DLO of all the important ideas, 4 very important ideas and 3 of the vital ideas. We started by writing all the important ideas. Then we picked 4 of the very important ideas from all the important ideas. After that we picked 3 of the vital ideas from 4 of the very important ideas. Joel, Avalon, Chavda, Miiana and I were working together to complete the main ideas. One of the main ideas we thought of was how in 1957 Russia created the very first satellite to launch into space.

Agent Of Change

This week we set up goals to becoming an 'Agent Of Change'. We created a google draw that included what is an agent of change, goals of becoming an agent of change and how to achieve the goal. An Agent Of Change is someone who takes their time to focus on their learning. They practice to improve in subjects and more. I think that I will probably achieve my goal by the end of the year, if I try really hard in school.

Technology-Wood

This week for tech we were doing woodwork with Mr Grundy. We finished off creating our designs. I decided to make the chest of drawers to hide things. Right now I'm working on creating the drawers that can open. Mr. Grundy had glued my joint together. If we were waiting for Mr. Grundy to come to help us, we could write the steps on "how to make a design with wood" on a piece of paper. At the end of tech we quickly played a match game, which was really fun. Today at tech I enjoyed my time doing woodwork. In 3 more weeks we will do pewter casting, which I am really excited about.

Solving A Multiplication Problem

This week for another great day of maths, we learnt four new strategies which were rounding, reversibility, doubling and place value. We solved multiplication equation using the strategies we learnt. After that we created a DLO of a multiplication problem. I decided to do the airplane problem. The strategy I used to solve the problem was place value, because it works with bigger problems, like 1254 x 5. Once we created the DLO, we made a screen castify and explained how to solve the problem. I enjoyed solving the problems and learning new strategies.