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.