Christmas Traditions

Today since christmas is coming up we were asked to research about how different countries celebrate christmas or another holiday in december. I decided to make one of my countries about Mexico. We were also told to make a DLO on how we celebrate it. This is what I have done so far.

Passion Projects

On Thursday it was our final day of passion projects. Everything was a little everywhere because we had to move to the learning commons and then the the student careers area. After finding where we were we set up our stalls for everyone to see and then it was morning tea. My group started rotating to see what other people did for passion projects. After two hours we had to pack up and then we were able to go to lunch. After lunch we were able to watch the musical Bugsy Malone until school ended. It was a cool experience to see what other people had done in just a few weeks but sadly the day was over. working with my group was fun, I was with Tyra, Wajihah and Kortney.

Here are some questions that we were asked to answer,

Q1: The Passion project I chose was....
A1: The Passion project I chose was Maths Crafts. I chose it because it seemed like fun to try out things I didn't know before.

Q2: I learned...
A2: I learned that there are more complex ways to making origami and different maths arts.

Q3: The part I enjoyed most was...
A3: The part I enjoyed most was making the Christmas type origami, they were fun but challenging to make.

Q4: Something I disliked was...
A4: Something I disliked was when we didn't know what to make so we just started making random things and not communicating as much as we should've.

Q5: Next time I would...
A5: Next time I would try to communicate more than I did last time so we can get our work done faster.

Q6: Overall I thought...
A6: Overall I thought it was fun trying out new things that I had never done and also challenging myself to do things I didn't think I was able to do.

EOTC Week.

Last week all of year 8 was out for EOTC week. On Monday the first activity was delayed and changed for another day because it was raining and it was also too cold which was unfortunate. On Tuesday we arrived at Rehua marae and the museum, it was fun to climb the gigantic tree that was in the botanical gardens. On Wednesday it was our first day at Omaka Scout Camp. we were put into eight different groups and were competing to win a challenge as a team. On Thursday we went to Spencer park and Adrenalin forest for the whole day. At lunch we had fish and chips which was really good and we also started to try and finish the entire obstacle course, we didn't which was sad but we still had fun. On Tuesday this week we did the last Omaka Scout Camp activity.

Today we were asked some questions about EOTC week and how we felt about it.

Q1:One word to describe how you felt before going on camp. Why?
A1: Excited. I felt excited because I had never been to omaka scout camp, or Rehua Marae. I thought it would be cool to do this at the end of the year with my friends.

Q2: One word to describe how you felt after going on camp. Why?
A2: Accomplished. I feet Accomplished because if I had a choice I would never choose these activities on my own to make me feel challenged. I feel accomplished because I had actually did better that what I thought I would do.

Q3: What activity did you enjoy the most?
A3: I enjoyed Omaka Scout Camp the most because it was so fun being able to go into the water on a hot day and to be able to go paddleboarding for the first time.

Q4: What activity did you dislike the most?
A4: I disliked the second level of adrenalin forest because it was so much more tough than the levels higher than it and you had to keep going up just to finish the level.

Q5: Overall, what was your best memory?
A5: My best memory was probably Omaka Scout Camp because there were so many different things that you could do like Archery, Orientering, Fire Building but you could do them all in two days which is a big accomplishment.

Here is a photo of me in Adrenalin forest.

My Favourite Memory of 2018

Today for writing Miss Birtch asked us what we thought was the best memory we had so far of 2018, it was a little hard because I have had so many chances to do amazing things that I couldn't decide. I decided to choose the 8Bh Bake sale that we did in term two. This was my favourite because it was fun to see what everyone wanted to make and how a lot of people had the same ideas. Everyone had fun choosing what role they wanted to do and sometimes telling us why they wanted to do that. I remember that we raised over $100 which is insane, I never realized that people loved lolly cake so much since we ran out of them. I liked how everyone had put in ideas on where we should do it, when it should happen and what we would sell and when we would bring the food in. It was fun seeing everyone buying and tasting what some of the year 8's could do. It was fun seeing everyone having a taste test of some of the food and seeing how different everyone cooked what they made. I liked how everyone worked together to make that event happen without asking for anything back. It felt nice to know that we had helped out a family that was having problems in their life by giving them the money so that they could get food. It made me feel happy that we helped people in need without getting anything back. I like how people made time in their days to make cakes, brownies and more sweet items without asking for anything. That's why the 8Bh Bake sale was my favourite memory of 2018

Passion Projects

This week for passion projects we were choosing what we wanted to do for the rest of the term. I chose to work on origami for my final project. so far i've made a origami heart box, a fox face, a box, a shuriken and a bookmark. I think I am doing well so far because I am getting used to the fact of making art without glue or tape, it's kind of easy at times. Since I am still learning it might get hard for me to make more intricate patterns and origami. 

Narrative writing

So far for our narrative writing this is what I have done. I'm still on my problem area since we haven't been doing much writing since we have been busy with tests. Stay tuned for more of the story.

Ashleigh’s lungs had started filling up with water, she couldn’t breath at all. She quickly swam up when she realised that she didn’t knowhow to swim. She looked at gary for help and he gave her some sea kelp. Sea kelp can help you breath underwater for just a few hours. She thanked Gary and started learning how to swim again. Aries, who was outside the door came in to see a humanised ashleigh swimming around. “Ashleigh! What did you do? I need to tell your father about this, he won’t be happy” ,Aries had said. Ashleigh quickly grabbed Aries and told her not to say anything. “I’m just gonna go out for ten minutes, i’ll even bring you something if you just say quiet” ,Ashleigh had pleaded. Aries slowly nodded and made a dash for the door. Ashleigh thought that she was going home to sleep since it was getting dark.

Ashleigh had quickly started swimming above the water and onto the coast where no one was. She quickly started walking, to Ashleigh walking was like taking your first swim as a little merchild. She slowly learnt how to walk and went into the town, as she arrived into the town she saw a boy who looked no older than fifteen come towards her. “Hello miss, I haven’t seen you around here before. You new arounds these parts?” The stranger had asked. She nodded and he started to speak again “Well it’s always good to see new people around here, not many people come here because they think merfolk live here and that we are all merfolk. I’m Freddie Meriez, the mayor of Klenzville”. Ashleigh smiled “ And I’m Ashleigh merl- err Mealand.”

Cybersmart

Today for cybersmart 8Bh and 8Ts signed up for the Summer Learning Journey. To be prepared when we start the summer learning journey we have been doing a Summer Learning preparation. We had to choose a country we would go to and answer questions about the country. The country I chose was Mexico. We then were asked to go to the capital city of that country. I then started to answer the questions that we were given

Country: Mexico

Q1: The name of the Capital city is what?

A1: The capital of Mexico is Mexico City

Q2: The population of the capital city is?

A2: The total population of people in mexico city is 21.2 million people.

Q3: In January, the weather in the Capital city is usually what?

A3: In mexico the normal temperature is 22c°

Q4: The capital city is located in the __ part of the country?

A4: Middle

Q5: The language most commonly spoken in mexico are?

A5: The most commonly spoken language in mexico is spanish.

There are 14 different national holidays a year in mexico.

Mexico is about 200 years old so far. 

I would go to Mexico because of how beautiful the place is, The celebrations seem like a lot of fun and I really want to see a Day Of The Dead celebration.

Marae Questions - EOTC Tasks

Today for my EOTC week tasks I decided to make my final task about Ngati Moki Marae. The task was to read an article about a lady named Cath Brown and answered questions about her and the marae. Here are the questions and answers I have answered..

1) Where did Cath Brown grow up? What roles did she hold?

A: Cath Brown grew up in Taumutu. Her roles were a member of the Marae Committee and Chair of Te Taumutu Rūnanga and Upoko.

2) What type of art did Cath make? How do you know she was successful at it? 

A: Cath made weaved art with teams of people. She was successful because she was awarded the Sir Kingi Ihaka award in 2000 because of her leadership and contribution to Maori Art

3) Where is the marae located? What does the land around it look like? 

A: Ngāti Moki Marae is located in Taumutu, on the quiet shores of Te Waihora at the southern end of kaitorete spit.

4) What does mahinga kai mean? What do you think they ate?

A: Mahinga kai means food source. I think that they ate eels, ducks and fish.

5) What is Ngāti Moki Marae built on?

A: I think that the marae is built on the coastlines of the beach, where it is able to hunt for food.

6) What is the Awhitu House? 

A: It used to be the family house of Hori Kerei Taiaroa. It housed the many successive Chiefs. It was also used as a marae for taiaroa family gatherings. It later burned down tragically, leaving family treasures burned as well.

Challenges I've Faced

This week for my task about EOTC tasks I decided to choose the Write It task. The task was for us to write about a time when we felt challenged and to write how we felt about it. I decided to write about my first time Ice Skating. Here is a slideshow I made about my writing.

I hope you enjoyed reading about a challenge I've faced.

Blogging Helps Improve Your Learning

Many students around New Zealand have an online blog that shows what they have been learning at the school they go to. Many people around the world look at this information and they use this information to teach their own students. Most students write these posts themselves with a little help from the teacher and their peers. Believe it or not blogging can actually help you improve your learning when you blog each time. Here are a few reasons why.




Firstly, peers and teachers can give you feedback on your work. Giving feedback can help you by giving ideas on what you could do to make it better and if you have a few mistakes you can fix up. Taking feedback into mind is a good thing because if you ever make that mistake in future posts you can see what you have done wrong, fix it and make an amazing blog post that your peers can see. It also means that people have actually seen your work and want to say something about it which is polite. Peer commenting can also make you see someone else's point of view and why they could’ve said that to help you.




Secondly it helps you see what other schools have been doing and how they have been doing it. All schools have different ways of teaching their students and what they teach. Blogging helps students improve their learning because when they see what other students have done it makes the students motivated to do better than what they normally do. It also helps teacher because they can get more ideas on how and what they can teach their students and how they can make it fun. When students see that their work is fun it motivates them and they will want to blog about it.




Lastly blogging can help you by checking your grammar and your spelling to see if you have written it right. When you write a blogpost most times you will spell something wrong. You can always ask someone if you have written it right and if no one is there you can check if you have spelt it right by clicking an option on the tools area. When getting feedback, peers can write about some misspelled words or punctuation that is needed.




There are lots of different reasons why blogging helps improve your learning. These are what I think are the most important reasons that you or anyone should take into mind. Remember, anyone can see what you have written so make sure that you think before you write and post a blogpost

Cybersmart

This week for Cybersmart 8Bh and 8Ts were in the learning commons. We were learning about Narrowing search results with the tools option. We are learning about this because it could help us in the future when we are doing projects. It could also help us by choosing non copyrighted photos so we won't get in trouble. I learned about the different uses of the tools, how we can use them responsibly, and why we should use them. This could help me with my blogging because it will narrow what I might be looking for and the photos can be shared throughout the world in different uses. The things we had to search up were the Stonehenge landmark in England and New Zealand rugby history. 

Google A Week

This week for Google A Week we are answering another weird question. This week our question is if you stacked $20 bills until you reached $1 million, would the stack be higher than the rim of a basketball hoop?

Google Searches

Average basketball hoop - 10ft

Height of a $20 - .0043 inches

How many $20 in 1 million: 50,000

Calculator:

50,000 x .0043=215ft  

215 x 12= 2580 ft 

Final:2580 ft

Shorter or taller: taller

Answer: It would be a lot higher than the basketball hoop. 

Pocket Money

Today for maths we were given a task about pocket money. The question was about a girl named Shelley. She was given a choice from her parents. The question was at the start of the year, Shelley's parents offer her two options for her weekly pocket money for the next twelve months.

Option A: $5 every week for a year

Option B - Roll a die to see what you will get.

We were asked to work in partners so I chose Faith. These are our results.

Why Cats Are Better Than Dogs

Animals, a living, breathing being. There are many different types of animals, most wild, some domestic. Many people own domestic animals like cats and dogs, most people have fights on what animal is better. It's obvious that cats are the more superior, here's why.

First cats are better than dogs because they don't cost as much as dogs. A average cat only needs food, water, some toys and a grooming brush. You don't need to wash a cat because they already groom themselves so all you need to do is brush them once or twice a week. A dog however needs to get washed every week because of how much dirt they gather on their bodies. Most times a dog will run outside and go into a muddy puddle and get mud into your house, cats however will stay inside away from the world and keep itself and your house clean. Cats won't shed as much as much as dogs because they always groom themselves. Dogs will just run everywhere and get dog hair all over your clothing.

Secondly cats won't bother you to go outside. If you are a introvert you can just stay inside to keep your cat alive. Your cat won't need to go outside because it has a litter box. Cats can also clean up after themselves so all you have to go is get rid of the dirty litter. Dogs always need to go outside to go potty, if you don't let it out then it will most likely go potty on your furniture which means more cleaning in the morning instead of doing your daily routine.

Lastly cats can be left alone for some hours of the day. Cats don't require as much love as dogs do. You could leave a cat with food, water and a toy and when you come back it will still cuddle up to you. Dogs however can't, if you leave a dog they will most likely trash your place while you are gone and act all innocent. A dog needs you to love them or they will be moody, cats just lay around until you come home and wait for you to come home.

There are many reasons why cats are better than dogs but these are the most important. Though some dogs are cuter than your average cat they are the most fierce animal that is related to many different types of feline species.

Water Safety

This week for my EOTC week bingo I have done the Water Safety task. The task was for us to read a story about water safety and then make a poster on piktochart on water hazards and some tips. This is my finished product. I hope you like it because it did take me a little while to find the photos and the tips.

Omaka Scout Camp Timeline

Since Camp has been changed to EOTC week, the year 8s have been learning about the places we will be going in on week 7. We were given a bingo that had the four places we are going to. I decided to make my first bingo about Omaka Scout Camp. The task was to make a timeline about the important things that have happened to Omaka Scout Camp. This is my finished product, I hope you like it

Writing - Narrative Writing

This is more of my story so far. This is my problem at the moment but I am going to add more to make it more problematic. I hope you like my story so far

Ashleigh had just arrived at gary’s house. Gary was just making a soul into a potion of death. Ashleigh had knocked on the door and gone inside. “Gary? Are you here?”,Ashleigh had said. Gary had quickly hidden the potion and looked like he was doing something “ Hello, Princess Ashleigh, how are you? What do you need from an old octosquid like me.” ,He had asked her. “I’m well Gary. I actually want a potion so I can become a human, I want to experience how humans live.” Ashleigh had muttered. Gary had a double take, Ashleigh the future queen of the ocean, wanted to become a human. “ I can do that, BUT you have to make me a important role in the castle. I want to over-” Gary had stopped himself before he could say his master plan. He wanted to overtake the castle but he had to be able to go inside the castle first. He thought he deserved the crown.  He was wrong, he would lead everyone to despair.

Matter

This week for science 8bh has been learning about matter. Matter is what the world is made out of, there are many different categories of matter like living and dead organisms. We learnt about the three states of matter, solid, liquid and gas. We did two experiments about the three states.





The first experiment we did was about boiling water. The apparatus we used was a Bunsen burner, a tripod, a lighter, a beaker, ice, and a thermometer. The first thing we did was set the Bunsen burner underneath the tripod. We then took ice, put it into the beaker and checked the temperature, which was 0°c We then lit the Bunsen burner with the lighter and placed the beaker on top of the tripod, every minute we then checked what the temperature until the ice melted into water and started boiling. The last temperature we recorded which turned the water into steam, or water vapour was 110°c





The next experiment we did was a little bit boring because we had to wait and watch a potassium permanganate crystal diffuse into water and see what would happen. The apparatus we used was a beaker, water, tweezers, a straw and the crystal itself. We first filled water into the beaker and placed the straw not to close to the edge of the beaker. Using crystals we put the crystal into the straw and watch it fall into the water. When the water and the crystal meet each other the crystal lets out air bubbles which hold the crystals magenta like pigment. The air bubbles pop when the reach the surface and the pigment colours the water, slowly floating back down where all the pigment was. We didn’t move the beaker at all which made the darkest shade of purple land at the bottom while the rest of the water was stained magenta. After a while the crystal had diffused into the dye and we washed it out, watching the colour go down the drain. After that the experiment was complete.





It was really fun learning about matter and how our whole entire world is made out of little particles and molecules. If I could I would do this whole unit again because of how cool all the experiments were and how everything is just particles and molecules.

Narrative Writing

This week for writing we are making alternative fairy tales of classic ones. I made mine about the little mermaid. This is what I have written so far.

Hello fellow humans, welcome to the wonderful way of the sea. Once upon a hundred years a mermaid will come up to the surface to see the wonderful way of how humans live. Sometimes they stay up with the humans or they come back with more knowledge on the land.

This story is about a young mermaid named Ashleigh, or Ash for short. Like all mermaids she has an aquatic friend named Aries. Don’t mind her name, her parents had thought she was her twin brother Acules at first after naming her. Today was the day that ashleigh had turned sixteen and thought her father, Adonis wouldn’t notice if she had left for just a hour just to see the deep side of the water, the bad side of the sea. Aries had told Ashleigh many times that It was where Gary, An octosquid who had anger issues was living. Gary was banished to that part of the sea because he had almost killed the king. “It’ll be fine Aries, No one will notice i’m here” ,she had said. You see Ashleigh was going to be the next queen of the ocean as her uncle, the king had no children. Ashleigh was the only one who could be the queen. Many people had thought it was her destiny but she thought otherwise.

What she didn’t know was that she would make the deal of a lifetime, it would change her destiny forever.  

Narrative - My Unusual "Pets"

Last term 8bh has been working on narrative writing. Narrative writing can be fictional or non fictional writing, we were asked to write first-person personal narratives about something that happened in our lives. I wrote about one of my unexpected pets that I had owned.

A few years back when I was the age of five I really, REALLY wanted wanted a

pet, I was a little afraid of dogs so I wanted a turtle or a pet goldfish, I never

expected to actually get a pet. I had never expected this type of pet, and to be

able to get three little monsters that I had to learn to take care of in a few

weeks. It was a really ‘Baad’ experience

It was a hot sunny day in february when my parents had come home with a

trailer, I was five at the time so I thought it was a peacock or a ostrich, after all

I was scared of birds as a kid. My parents had said that since I didn’t get a

birthday present and my sister wanted a pet animal they put it towards

themselves to buy us a pet. I didn’t know much about animals so I thought it

was a dog. My parents said we could see the animals so I was really excited,

before I could look my parents drove our car to the backyard and closed our

gate so the animal wouldn’t escape. They opened the gate to the trailer and I

wished it was a bird or dog. Turns out they had gotten us Sheep. My parents

said that each of these sheep were ours, I had a little girl, my brother and sister

both had boys. One of the sheep that was my sisters was really friendly and

thought I wanted to pet it. “Get this sheep off me!” ,I had screamed. After a

while that one sheep had followed me started to leave me alone. As soon as

that happened I ran inside after closing the gate and asked my parents why we

had three little monsters living with us now. “You and your sister wanted a pet

so we got you three” ,they had said.  It was becoming night so I changed my

clothes, washed my hands and went to sleep. The next morning I had woken up

to see a german shepherd chasing our now terrified sheep out of their cage and

chasing them around our house. I had screamed and told my parents what I

had just seen. My dad quickly ran outside and threw something at the german

shepherd so it would go away, after a while it finally left and we put the sheep

back into their cage, we then fed them and got on with our day.

After a while I had asked my parents why we had bought the sheep, “We got

these sheep to keep them as your temporary pet and also to fatten them up to

sell them later on” ,My dad had said. I was really annoyed that we had animals

at the moment even though we wanted a pet. This wasn’t the pet I wanted, this

was the last thing I wanted. A few weeks later I was still angry at the sheep and

for a while I had thought they were goats and that they would eat everything

with no remorse so I stayed away from them for a while.

Every morning we would have to feed them milk and they would follow us all

the time just so then they could get extra food. I would try to run away from

them, every day they would start stinking up because of the poop they made so

we had to wash them every day. The bad thing was that they hated water so

they always tried to run away from us. It was a hassle but they finally co

operated with us other than running away. When they started getting older they

would start eating more, which made them fatter. I always tried to stay away

from them because they wouldn’t leave me alone and always cuddled up to me.

A few months later the sheep had disappeared from our backyard, I started

panicking, trying to see where they could have gone. My parents saw me

panicking and told me that they sold the sheep so then they didn’t have to

shear it and also so then when they were older then they would kill it. I felt a

little bit of happiness but mostly sadness from the sheep going to die when they

were older. After all I had just named one Bob. I knew this was going to happen

but I didn’t want to believe it was true. It sadly was, I knew this was going to

happen so I didn’t want to be attached to the little monsters while they stayed

with us. The next day I went on like nothing happened until I realised, I never

said goodbye!

Cybersmart Research Questions

Question: Explorers from Kushiro Pevek and Namsos arrive at the North Pole and check their watches. If they arrived at 11:42 a.m, 12:17 p.m and 3 a.m., respectively, which team was first?

Google Searches:

North Pole time zone - 3:02 PM
Kushiro time zone - 8:02 AM
Pevek time zone - 11:02 AM
Namsos time zone - 1:02 AM

Time Differences

Namsos - Pevek - 10 Hour Difference

Namsos - Kushiro - 7 hour difference

Namsos - North Pole - 14 hour difference

Kushiro - North Pole - 7 hour difference

Kushiro - Pevek - 3 hour difference

Pevek - North Pole - 4 hour difference

Times Arrived:

Kushiro - 11:42 AM -  6:42 PM

Pevek - 12:17PM - 4:17 AM

Namsos - 3 AM - 5 PM

Who arrived first - Pevek, They came at 12:17 AM while the others the others came in the afternoon.

Writing - The Can

At First I Felt:

 Happy, I felt like I was needed in life. I was enjoying my life the best that it could without anything stopping me. I felt welcomed into what they said was life, it was extraordinary. I felt full and thought nothing could stop me now

I Slowly Felt Myself: 

Becoming empty, cold towards others. This all started when they started bullying me, it started with name calling, then rumors and then went to lies, and people believed everything they said. They started hurting me, threatening to kill me if I said anything to anyone, It hurt knowing no one would listen to me, be my friend, or even notice me. It was shattering me even though on the outside Looked happy, inside were my true feelings. though no one would no about them since they all probably hated me and thought I would be rude as the rumors had said.

Now I Feel: 

Empty, no one can save me now. my mask I put on shattered and now everyone knows how I feel, they try to act nice but it's too late. New people come and go, one of them stayed, they understood me. They introduced me to other people who have been treated like me, we all helped each other. First it was talking in person, opening up, becoming friends, sharing contact and then we all became the best of friends. If I never met them I might of left what I now call home and not have my opportunities that I have now.

My Experience:

Today for writing Miss Birtch asked us that we are now doing narrative writing. Our task was to feel a can and explain how it feels like before we sprayed it all out. We then were asked for the difference or similarities of how the can looks like now. 

I learnt that if someone is sad or is being bullied you should show empathy and put yourself in their shoes to understand what you think they have gone through.

Paperboy

For the past two weeks group 4 has been working on answering questions about the story paperboy. We were asked to make a paragraph on what we thought has happened by answering the question. These are my answers that I have done, it was hard to make a paragraph when you wrote everything in the first sentence.

What is the conflict between Ara T and Little Man? How will it be resolved?

Ara T doesn’t want to give Little man’s yellow handle knife back unless he says he wants it without stuttering, which he can’t do very well. I think that Ara T is trying to make Little man speak normally without stuttering because he thinks that it will never happen and little man will give up. Even though Little man paid him Ara T seems to dislike little man and I think that is because of Mam. It seems Mam has a problem with Ara T because of how he survives in the neighbourhood. Little Man gave the knife to Ara T so then he could sharpen it and also paid him two dollars, there is no proper explanation on why he would take the yellow handled knife. Ara T could have lost the knife later on in the day and doesn’t want to tell Little man that he lost the knife

Why do you think Little Man likes Mr Spiro so much?

I think Mr Spiro thinks of him of a son that may of left him when he was younger. Mr Spiro could also be Little man’s actual father because in chapter 7 on his birth certificate it says “Unknown” as the father and that means little man’s father is unknown to us yet. I think Little Man likes Mr Spiro because he is the only one who can help little man, other than mam to make his speech better.I feel like Mr Spiro is the only one little man thinks he can talk to because I think that Mr Spiro had a speech impediment as a kid.Mr Spiro and Little man seem to have a father and son bond because he acts like a father figure to Little man.

Research what a speech pathologist does. Explain what their job is and how they help people.

A speech pathologist is someone who is highly trained to help people with speech impediments. They have to of studied anatomy and physiology and have a degree in health care related studies. They are sometimes referred as a speech therapist. They help kids and adults of any ages with speech problems that they can’t solve themselves. Speech Pathologists work in different types of environments, Hospitals, doctors, in a private office and sometimes in homes.

Who is Mam? What is her role in the family?

Mam is the caretaker of little man and his parents house. His parents don’t really come home early so she takes care of the house. she also acts as a second mother to Little Man. Her real name is Nellie Avent but Little man calls her Mam because Little Man couldn’t pronounce ‘Miss Nellie’ and called her ‘Mam’. Mam is kind of like Little man because she can’t write very well and Little Man writes really neatly.

What do you notice about the way that dialogue is written within Paperboy? Why do you think the author chose to write this way?

* Dialogue is when characters are speaking to each other 

I noticed that there are no speech marks when they are talking to each other.

The speech is also in another paragraph than the one that little man was explaining everything in. I think that the author wrote like this because to make people understand that this actually happened in his life since this is a biography about him. I feel like the author wants us to know this happened in the past and that these things actually happen in life. I think the author writes like this to make it easier to read and so that some kids with disabilities can read it too.

Pick one character from your organizer that you have been working on. Explain them in full, giving as much detail as we know about them from Chapters 1-6.

Character: Nellie Avent

Nellie Avent, better known as ‘Mam’ is a young lady that came from Mississippi when Little man was five to take care of his house and little man himself as he wasn’t able to take care of himself. She and Little Man get on well because she can’t write well and he has the best handwriting she has ever seen, she also understands little man and how his lisp makes him self conscious. She gave little man his name. She lives in the garage in the back of little mans house because she has no other place to live. Nellie’s older brother died from drowning, it was predicted by someone and they all thought it was a fake warning but it actually happened.

Cybersmart

For the past few weeks 8Bh and 8Ts have been working together about things on a blog post that bugs us. The first thing we did was write a bug list on things that bugged us when someone is on our blog, we then were asked to get into partners with the other class. I teamed up with Kayla and we chose a problem to work on. Our problem was when someone comments and then deletes their comments afterwards. we were working out possible solutions and we made a presentation on how to solve it. This is the presentation we made together, I hope you like it and check out Kayla's blog. I also hope you take this to mind and think about what you write. 

This is Kayla's blog

How long does it take you to write a decent comment?

Reading Plus

This term for reading we have been learning about a new reading site called Reading Plus. Reading Plus is a site that looks at your reading and comprehension and helps you get better with reading, able to read quicker and understand more in the story. When we started we had to take a test to see how well we read, understood and knew about our reading abilities. after that we then started on the actual site. The site has three main activities, Reading, Vocabulary and Visual Skills. Each activity has its own tasks that we complete every week, as we go it records our scores and sees how well we have done in the past few weeks, so far I think I am doing well and hope to get better at my comprehension.

Flight

For the past few weeks 8bh has been learning about flight and forces. We were given the task to make a presentation on something that flies . I decided to make my presentation about planes because when i was in primary I had already learnt about planes and how they work in the air. I made my presentation on Google Slideshow and then grabbed my facts, information, photos and made my presentation as quick as detailed as I could so then I could have some facts afterwards. I finished mine in two days and just needed to add some photos. This is my finished presentation, I hope you like it and that it teaches you something new.




Have you ever learnt about Flight and forces?

Respect Is Key!

Today for writing Miss Birtch asked us to write why it is important to show the respect value everywhere. We did this because this term we are showing respect for ourselves, teachers, and the new building. This is because we need to respect a new learning space that is for the whole school. This is what I wrote in a few minutes.

Respect is important because it shows kindness, if you say hi to someone they will probably say hi back to you out of respect. Being kind is a big part of respect because it shows you care for someone. If someone is hurt you would normally ask if they are ok because you care about them and you are showing respect. You are showing respect asking if they are ok and helping them if they are hurt badly, you are being kind by helping them while they are struggling and in need of help. Respect is also apart of our CARR values, respect is important in schools because if you don't show respect you won't make friends, have help, learn properly, and be respected as a person. Respect is important because if no one shows respect than no one is happy, loved and cared for. They also seem alone and could be targeted for bullying in schools. You can show respect by opening a door for someone, saying hi to a friend, classmate or teacher, smiling, giving compliments to someone, or simply having a conversation with someone about their weekend.

Business and Enterprise Revision

This term we are doing business and enterprise. This week we had a revision on what business and enterprise is. Miss Birtch gave us the scenario of if we had a class pet, what would we get and how much would it cost to own. We were asked to work in partners so I partnered up with Alyscia and we chose to have a class fish. Miss Birtch gave us a budget of $150 to spend on the animal. This is our final product, I hope you enjoyed.

If you could get a pet what would it be?

Persuasive Writing

For the past four weeks 8bh has been revisiting on persuasive writing for Business and Enterprise coming up. Our topic was about morning fitness, we were able to decide if we wanted to be against fitness or with fitness happening in the mornings. I chose to go against fitness because I had many more reasons why we shouldn't and everyone else wanted to be with fitness happening. In the first week we revised what it was, then we planned what who we were writing to and some ideas. We then started writing a introduction and then our ideas, I found this part quite easy because I already had an idea on what I was going to say so I had finished quite quickly. This is my final draft before we send the letters to our receivers

Trisha N

Year 8 Student

Hornby High School

Mr. T Mitchell

Year 7 Teacher & Dean

Hornby High School

Dear Mr Mitchell,

I am Trisha N from 8Bh, a class I think you know quite well. I am writing this letter to you to give my opinion about fitness, this is not to offend you in any way but I do not support fitness happening almost everyday. I am against fitness for a few reasons and concerns but today I am only going to talk about a few reasons that I think matter for everyone.

My first concern is when we come back we start to sweat. As you know when kids start growing they will start to sweat more and our classrooms will start to get stinky, when other students come in it will be more like a stinky kids room instead of a learning environment for kids all ages. Some kids don’t even change into their P.E gear which means kids will be in sweaty, smelly clothes all day. When we all come into class we sometimes come with our shoes on, some of us don’t so that means that people’s socks are dirty and they smell bad as well.

My second concern is everyone's commitment and how they feel afterwards. When we do fitness some students don’t really commit and let everyone else in their team down when they don’t do anything, this results in students having to take punishments for someone who didn’t even do anything to win. When this happens everyone starts to feel tired and start getting angry at one person even if they aren’t doing anything either. After fitness everyone feels lazier and look really flushed, when this happens everyone feels tired and really hot when they come into the classroom, this means that everyone won’t get their work done and just sit there waiting for the bell to ring and to stop doing work. This means that everyone is behind on work or can’t finish their work on time. I know I’ve had to do work at home because in the mornings we haven’t had a lot time to do it and because I feel tired afterwards.

My last concerns are how people could feel sick and take forever to change to the point where they miss fitness and get away with it. A lot of people start to feel sick after fitness for many reasons but don’t tell because they think they might get told off. I feel like this happens because they push their bodies over their limit and end up getting dizzy or want to throw up, this has happened to one of my classmates this year.  When I have been late and have gone to change I always see people changing or waiting for someone to finish changing. When I go to fitness they still don’t come until fitness is about to end, I feel like they are trying to skip doing fitness and no one notices.

I hope that after reading my concerns and reason why I don’t think we should do fitness you understand why I am disagreeing with some people about doing fitness, it’s a great way to exercise in the morning but sometimes it’s not the best. I hope you understand why I have written to you about this and hope that you don’t take these concerns lightly.

If you have any questions or other concerns than you can email me about this

Sincerely,

Trisha N

Class 8Bh

Parachutes

This week for science we have been doing experiments that have been based on Flight. Yesterday we made parachutes out of plastic, string and paper clips. The first thing we did was get into groups of two or three. I was working with faith and Alysica so we did it really quickly each of us took turns doing something, I cut the string, Faith cut the plastic and Alyscia taped everything together and .we then got our equipment out, we had also had to get scissors, tape and a plate to trace and cut the plastic to a reasonable size, we also taped the string to the plastic. We then made a prediction on what would happen and how it would look like. After all of that we finally got to test out our parachute to see how well our parachute glided down and if it went down evenly in the right manner. Ours worked quite well until it started to get tangled, it still worked but it was getting worse each time we threw it.

Paperboy - Vince Vawter

I think Vince Vawter wrote Paperboy because of a past experience he’s been through, I don’t think this has all happened to him but I think that when he was younger he was a paperboy just because of his friend and had a speech Impediment. I think his ideas came from his childhood and home thriller books he had read as a child because it seems like little boy is in the 1900’s which means he could be reminiscing about the past. I think he wanted to share this story because he wants everyone to know that everyone isn’t perfect, everyone has problems of their own they don’t think they can tell anyone. The story seems really detailed about some problems that little boy has to go through, like when people think you’re saying something else than the real meaning they are trying to intend.

If I could ask Vince Vawter two questions I would ask him this,

How did you come up with the plot of how little man became a paperboy, if it was a past experience how close was it to how you became a paperboy?

For someone who hasn’t had a speech impediment, how did it feel when you found out you had a stuttering problem, how did you get past it?

Act of Kindness

Today for cybersmart we were asked to watch a video and read a article that was chosen for us. I read mine about a valedictorian or Dux who was posting kind comments about everyone in his school from his 2015 - 2017 classmates anonymously. He posted this on instagram with a photo of them with the paragraph he had written. he had done this for about 43 weeks and had a total of 650 photos with paragraphs about the student he had thought to write about. He had done this because he wanted to spread happiness to everyone at the school and to make everyone feel noticed. A few students had suspected him of being the culprit until he finally revealed himself to his classmates and teachers about what he had done. There used to be some accounts that had bullied others but now thanks to the kid everyone was united with everyone and no one really wanted to bully each other. while he was the anonymous account he was nicknamed "benevolence" Which means " Expressing kindness" or "being Kind" to others. I think this story is really cool, the fact that someone wanted to do this by their own will and actually was being kind without asking for any kindness back is really inspiring. This has made me think how kids these days wouldn't really do this on their own and would need teachers or other people to ask them to do this instead of them doing it on their own. 

Here is the Article we read ->Link

Free writing

She saw it coming from around a corner, that is if she knew it was going to happen in real life. It was a thursday afternoon and Layka, a quiet friendly girl had to go to a job interview out of town. She had always dreamt of becoming a pet store employee but she never had the chance to actually make time for a job interview. She had reached the Pet shop at around nine twenty seven in the morning and had grabbed her silver coloured husky Lillares to come with her at the interview. Lillares always had a calming aura for stressful moments and was chosen to become a service dog.

When Layka was younger she had anxiety and her parents though she had somehow had trouble paying attention, even though no one in her family had a disability or any problems with anxiety. They had got her Lillares when it had gotten considerably worse as a 12th birthday present, Lillares was just four months old at the time and somehow passed as a service dog. Layka and Lillares had gotten along really well and became the best of friends, Layka still has Anxiety but has gotten better than before Lillares had joined the family.

Paperboy - Chapter 1 Overview

This term for reading we are reading novels. the novel group four is reading is called Paperboy by Vince Vawter. It is an award winning book has has won the Newbery Honor Award. I have never read the book before but I have heard of it by my friends who have. We we asked to make a prediction, watch the book trailer, make another prediction based on the video and then read the book. My prediction was that the story was about a kid who was part of a murder and had to keep it a secret otherwise someone he loved would get hurt.

I really like novels like The Hunger Games and I honestly didn’t expect to read Paperboy but by chapter one I was hooked onto it and wanted to read more. Reading the story so far I don’t know if my prediction is correct but I have a feeling it will be correct. I recommend this book for anyone who likes mystery.

How I've Shown Respect!

Today for writing we were asked to write about something respectful we have done so far today. I think I have done a lot today to make people like my friends smile, greeting Miss Birtch, and opening the door for people at the new cafe. Even though they don't show appreciation I know deep down they actually would say thank you. Today when I came into school I said hi to my friends, hugged them and then started talking to them while my other friends hung out with their friends. I had done this because all my friends are my best friends and they all could have bad days and saying hi could make them feel better.In class I had helped my friend Aiden with his reading because he didn't really understand it and it is my goal to help people more when they need it. After a while he did get it and thanked me for helping him. I did this because he was really stuck and after I helped him he understood what he had to do and almost finished his task. He thanked me afterwards which made me feel happy that i could help someone understand their work. This morning while waiting for my dad I had made my dad his breakfast which was muesli and yogurt. I did this because he doesn't really make his breakfast which makes him tired and really cranky in the day. He thanked me which made me feel really happy because I rarely make him breakfast and because he was on a diet and had to eat muesli for breakfast, it made his job easier today.

Reading - The Fight - Alternate Ending

This week for reading we read a story named 'The Fight'. The story was about a kid who was named Heath, he was friends with a guy named Calvin. Calvin had a reputation of almost being suspended was provoked by a kid named robbie and that's where the story escalates. Our task was to make an alternate ending where we could create anything to our imagination. This is what I made.


The next day I walked to school to see what happened to Robbie and Calvin, to my surprise they were both still at school. I looked at them both and saw them both glaring at each other. I heard hushed whispers about a drunk mother, I realized they were talking about Calvin’s mother and I see him clenching his hands together from all the rumors. I want to go to him but then the bell had rung. I had saw Robbie walking towards the Principal's office so i assumed the principal was telling him about something that happened. I walked into class to see Calvin sitting down at the back, he always sat in the middle of the room. I sat next to him and saw him still clenching his hands from all the rumors about his mother. “Class, Today we are going to work in partners to solve maths questions. Please refrain from talking about some rumors you have heard about someone as they are Rumors, they could be made up.” Mrs Gibson had said. I paired up with Calvin because be was lonely and everyone excluded him. We started working on our questions and I started talking to him about his passion, league. He started to lighten up so I carried on talking about his next game, when suddenly he muttered some words out that i never knew he would say, “I’m leaving today, I’m going to a different school because of everything that's happened this year.” I looked at him and started speaking “ I get that this happened, did your mom agree?” he nodded and carried on answering the questions. Soon the day passed on and it was the end of the day, I gave him a bro-hug and went back knowing i wouldn’t probably see him ever again. I went back home and hugged mom, She seems to have gotten some sleep because there are no bags under her eyes. I'm happy that she finally got over dad leaving us and is starting to move on with life.

The New Building Reflection

This week our new building has been complete and is open to all the students, we still have some things to wait for to be complete but we can finally go in. We were given a tour so we knew where everything was and inside it was amazing, there were so many cool things we could do inside and the new cafe was really neat.it is really busy and gets really crowded at times but it is really cool. All the S block classes have moved into their new classes and japanese has too. I really like the new block because we have more space to sit inside of and there are really cool areas we can sit in. one of the spaces are the little cubby learning areas which are three different colours and have different furniture inside for people to relax and do their work in. Me and my friends always try to sit there but it's always taken by the older kids. at one point i did think it was a little small but they were still building the outdoors area. I hope they get it done quickly so people have more room to sit down because it does get a little crowded when the whole school sits in there. I don't really like how long the lines

Kids Can

For our writing assessment coming up we were told to research about a community agency that can help kids and families around New Zealand, I chose to do mine about Kids Can. I don't really know much about it other than the fact that it is a organization that helps kids who live through poverty.

I learned that kids can has been helping kids for 13 years by raising money for them and giving them the support that all kids need. Kids can was created by Julie Chapman who wanted to stop child poverty. Kids can helps kids who are in need of a proper home, Food, Warmth, clothes and health treatment so they can learn properly. They are a trust fund that raises money for the kids because they want to make children able to learn and have a proper education. They help thousands of kids every day and they always feel good doing it. Kids Can doesn't care about the child's background. As long as the child has a proper live that they deserve they are happy. You can donate twenty dollars to the organisation so they can help more kids in need of a happy life Here. Doing this can help a child which you can be proud of. They have a lot of sponsors like meridian energy and the ministry of social development.   

8Bh's Grand Bake Sale

For the past two weeks 8Bh was getting ready for a bake sale as a fundraiser for the 24/7 youth workers to help a family in need. The first thing we did was brainstorm what we were going to do to raise the money for. After a while we decided to do a bake sale and had to get everything done before Tuesday the next week. We were given a slip asking us if we were able to make anything and what it was if we were making anything. I thought about making Oreo cheese cake but wasn't able to since I needed my sister to help me and she was busy at the time. A bunch of other students had made lolly cake, Cupcakes, Cookies, Cake and Fudge. Over the week we were given jobs to do, I was given the job to make the poster to tell everyone what we were doing. After that week everyone started making food to give on Tuesday, some people made lolly cake with Miss Birtch. At last the day rolled around and we had everything ready to sell. We had only opened at interval but we had already made at least $50 in a few minutes, after interval we checked to see how much we had made and we were surprised at how much we made. The total amount we made was $140.70, it was amazing that we had made that much just at interval.

Sharks

Sharks, one of the deadliest sea creatures alive have a particular

way to hunt their prey. Most people would assume a shark is a

Mammal or a Reptile but they are actually a fish. That’s right a

shark is actually specified as a fish, pretty weird right? The way

sharks hunt is actually a very interesting and smart process which

has three steps to complete before they can attack.

When a shark is hungry they will first use their nose to find a scent

of blood or a piece of flesh that they can target the prey with. A

shark can sense a drop of blood in the ocean with no problem,

that’s why it’s easy for sharks to hunt animals and other species.

Sharks also have something called a lateral line, the lateral lines

detect movement for many animals so they can hunt for prey

easier. Sharks are extremely lucky to have lateral lines because it

easier to find things with a lateral line, if you think about it a

lateral line seems like how animals can use echolocation to locate

other animals. Sensing prey is extremely easy for sharks because

of their heightened senses and their lateral lines.

When the shark locates its prey it starts to follow it to strategise

when to attack. q shark does this because if it fails it will have to

keep trying until it finally eats, by then it could almost be dead. A

shark keeps its distance from its prey because if it goes for the kill

the prey will know what’s happening and run away, if the shark

does try to go after the same prey it will be more cautious and be

more aware of its surroundings. A shark only attacks in the early

morning and late night. The reason why is because they are very

smart and understand the best way to hunt is in the shadows, in

other world they like to blend in with their surroundings.

After finally strategizing and waiting for the right moment the shark

goes for the kill. For a shark to catch the prey easier they use

something called a detachable jaw that lets their whole jaw move

away from their mouth and into the water, it makes it easier to

catch prey because when it detaches the jaw moves further so it is

able to catch it with ease. It looks pretty cool and funny if you

search it up. When a shark attacks it goes for the kill It will open

its mouth and take a bite or eat the prey to see if it tastes good

and it it’s good, it’ll eat the whole thing or look for more to satisfy

it hunger. There have been many shark attacks in the past few

years on the news and on the internet that have made humans

think sharks will eat anything that is in the ocean. Sharks actually

don’t like eating humans, they eat humans because they think that

humans are their prey. Even though they have amazing noses they

don’t have the brains to tell them what type of blood they have

found. When sharks take a bite out of humans they instantly don’t

like the taste, they have never tasted it before so they finish eating

it and then leave. That’s why sharks attack humans, they think that

we are other fish when sharks sense our blood or flesh.

Even though sharks are quite deadly they are really interesting and

have a lot of great abilities. Sharks have different ways of hunting,

The great white just eats and kills quickly and with less pain,

whereas a hammerhead shark will strike to weaken the prey then

it will eat the prey. Sharks are pretty interesting even though you

might be scared of them, some sharks don’t even kill anything. As

some people say don’t judge a book by its cover. In this case not

don’t judge a shark from other sharks.

Success Criteria: Does your writing…

- Have at least 3 paragraphs

- I have used scientific words

- My facts are correct and I have made 2-3 references to where I got my information

- ALL my punctuation is correct

- read your explanation outloud to a partner, does it make sense?

Reflection Questions

Something I did well: I wrote paragraphs that made sense and had at least more than 8

sentences

Something I need to improve: I could improve my writing by adding some more facts about

sharks that are interesting and could hook the reader in.

What I learned from this assignment: When I talk about things I really like, sharks for example I

like to write a lot.

Comment from my partner:

Your Writing is very Descriptive and it is filled with scientific facts. I love the way that you

formatted it. - Aiden