My Argument

For writing we have been learning to write an argument using the writing process. The topic was “Are Devices Taking Over Our Lives”.

Something I did really well in my writing was connecting my ideas to the next paragraph.

Here is a section of my writing that shows this.

In addition traveling with horses mustn't be good for your own health and safety, think about how easy it could be to tip in your carriage or if the horse has fleas you could easily get them.

WALT - Apply Striking and Fielding activities in a range of sports and activities.

WALT - Apply Striking and Fielding activities in a range of sports and activities.

Link to modelling book on online zone.  

My Strengths

The striking strategies I was able to effectively demonstrate during the games we played were following through even if I was in a rush to run to the next base.

The throwing and catching strategies I was able to effectively demonstrate during the games we played were standing side on because I took my time to get set up before I threw the ball.

My Next Steps

To improve my striking of a ball I need to use two hands because I'll get more power by doing this.

To Improve my catching and fielding I need to aim more carefully at where I'm going to throw the ball because it will waste less time as we won't have to run around trying to get the ball back to the bowler if I throw it accurately the first time.

The game that I enjoyed the most was rounders because I got to put all of my skills that I learnt into practice.

Kauri Run, Bike, Run!

Kauri Run, Bike, Run - On Monday the Kauri team (year 4-8's) went to Halswell Domain for run, bike, run. Xanthe & I had to take the year 6s for a game of French cricket! We had 3 groups, one group played tricky tag & the other 2 groups played French cricket. After this the year 7/8s played a game of dodge ball. They split the teams up fairly, and my team win the first round. We were half way through the second round when we had to go for our event! The year 7/8s all raced together. The individuals went first & then the teams went. I was coming second out of the girls after the first run and then got ahead in the bike. In the run I ended up beating all the individuals and one team beat me!  I was super proud of myself! We walked back to school with our bikes & our medals on. 

Technology

On the bus to technology - On Tuesday the year 7/8 students went to technology. On the way there I sat next to Samara and Natasha on the bus. On the way there the noise level was alright, because everyone was just talking to the person beside them, but some people were speaking too loudly to the person next to them. I think that I spoke quietly to the person next to me, but since we had three people sitting together we probably were a bit louder than the other people on the bus. On the way back I sat next to Samara near the back. It took a while for the textiles and design group to get to the bus but once they got there we left straight away. On the way back I think that our noise level was louder than on the way there, I think that this was because everyone had just finished their last rotation. Next week I think that I need to work on speaking quietly to the person next to me even if I am in a three.

Kapa haka

Kapa haka - Today at Kapa haka we practised Harirua and Taitapu. We started practising Harirua because this is a new song for us, we went through this a couple of times before the teachers in Kapa haka told us how we were going to perform this song. The girls start off singing the start of the song then the boys join in and we all sing through it again. The teachers asked the year 7/8 girls to try and sing a part in this song but we couldn't do it very well so the year 5/6 girls got to sing it instead. After we had been through this song Matua got us to go through Taitapu (our school song). Since we have actions to this song some people are still learning them, this means that sometimes some people are banging into each other. After we had been through this song a few times and gone over some actions, some other people from the senior area came up to me and told me that I had to go to the new Te Hapua center so I had to leave kapa haka early. 

WALT - Know the equivalent decimals and percentage forms of everyday fractions.

WALT - Know the equivalent decimals and percentage forms of everyday fractions.

For this activity first I had to watch three videos on line so that I could understand how to convert fractions, percentages and decimals. After this I had to do some bookwork in my maths book to start to understand how to do this properly. Once I had finished the bookwork Mr Ladbrook had assigned everyone in the group two IXL tasks that everyone had to get to 100 in before they could pass the maths group. I think that I achieved extended abstract because I got 100 in both of my IXL activity. My next step is to get a teacher conference.

Here is my evidence that I completed the two activities:

This is my evidence to prove that I completed my first IXL activity.

This is my evidence to prove that I completed my secoND IXL activity.

WALT - I can evaluate writers’ purposes and consider how they have used structure and language to suit these purposes. (Eg: I can make decisions about why the writer has written a piece of writing and how they have used particular structures and words to meet the purpose.)

WALT - I can evaluate writers’ purposes and consider how they have used structure and language to suit these purposes. (Eg: I can make decisions about why the writer has written a piece of writing and how they have used particular structures and words to meet the purpose.)

Our task was to read three school journals and do our follow up sheet which I linked below. I think we achieved extended abstract because we completed our follow up to a high standard. My next step is to get a teacher conference with the teacher.
This is my reading follow up I did with Samara

WALT - I can evaluate the overall arguments and make an informed decision

WALT - I can evaluate the overall arguments and make an informed decision.

While we were doing this task I think I did well because I contributed ideas to our group discussion, and I tried to think outside the box whilst we were reading our texts.

I can gather, evaluate, and synthesis information across a small range of texts

Names: Jakob and Sam L

NZ Should Change Its Flag?

Reason/Evidence For Changing	Evidence Category (highlight)		Reason/Evidence For Keeping the Flag the Same	Evidence Category (Highlight)
Because the current flag lacks identity.	Common Knowledge Personal Opinion Statistics Expert Opinion		Because it is memorable for our elderly.	Common Knowledge Personal Opinion Statistics Expert Opinion
Because we have got the union jack.	Common Knowledge Personal Opinion Statistics Expert Opinion		Because it got flown at Gallipoli on Anzac day.	Common Knowledge Personal Opinion Statistics Expert Opinion
Because our flags almost identical to Australia's one.	Common Knowledge Personal Opinion Statistics Expert Opinion		The flag represents Kiwi history that makes us unique.	Common Knowledge Personal Opinion Statistics Expert Opinion
All New Zealanders have a say in the vote for the new flag.	Common Knowledge Personal Opinion Statistics Expert Opinion		The flag hasn’t changed since 1902.	Common Knowledge Personal Opinion Statistics Expert Opinion
We’ll still get to remain part of the commonwealth.	Common Knowledge Personal Opinion Statistics Expert Opinion		It represents the country that our soldiers fought for.	Common Knowledge Personal Opinion Statistics Expert Opinion
We are no longer a British colony, so we shouldn’t have another country's flag on our flag.	Common Knowledge Personal Opinion Statistics Expert Opinion		It reminds us of events and achievements that happened in the past.	Common Knowledge Personal Opinion Statistics Expert Opinion
Overall the evidence for this side is strong because we got all our evidence from sites online and triangulated our answers, to make sure they were right.			Overall the evidence for this side is uncertain because all of the information hasn’t got enough evidence to prove that the flag should stay.

Leadership meeting

Leadership meeting - On Monday Mr Ladbrook held a leadership meeting for the 2016 leaders. Miss O'connor came as well. Mr Ladbrook split everyone up into two groups - The house captains were with Miss O'connor and the rest of the leaders (such as the heads, cultural ambassador's, house point coordinator's and sport's coordinator's) were with Mr Ladbrook. I was with Miss O'connor as I'm one of the house captains. She wanted to ask us if we could create a google slide of how to show the care values at Oakland's. Xanthe and I got to do the cloak bay presentation, this means that one week each class in the school will look at our google slide and, use it to their advantage by showing these care values in their cloak bay. Each pair of house captains got a area of values each and also created a google slide for each class in the school to use. After this Mr Ladbrook came back in and told us that we had decide on a game that we were going to play on Monday as this is run, bike, run. Xanthe and I decided on French cricket, I don't know how to play this but Xanthe showed me a google doc so I could understand how to play.

Kapa haka

Kapa haka - At Kapa haka on Friday Mr Brown and Mrs Baker were in the hall foyer whilst we were doing Kapa haka, this meant that Matua Rhihari took us. We practised, Whakataka Te Hau and He Honore before he asked us what songs we would like to sing. Someone said that they would like to sing Pa mai, we went through this once and then Matua decided that we needed some people to show us the actions. A few of the seniors went up onstage and we're doing the actions to pa mai the next two times we went through it. After we had practised this someone said that they wanted to sing our school song, Tai Tapu. We went through this (with the senior up onstage) a couple of times and then moved onto Tahurihuri. We're meant to do poi to this song but we didn't have any poi with us so we had to shadow poi, this is where you pretend that you've got a poi and still do the poi actions to it. I could barely remember the poi to Tahurihuri but I tried my best to anyway, I got used to the actions by the end of the song. Once we had finished I had to race out to put my shoes on as I had to get to Te Hapua strait away!

Technology

On the bus to Technology - On the bus to Technology on Tuesday I sat near the back next to Samara. I sat next to the window and she sat next to the aisle. On the way there we were just talking about netball, as we had just found out our new team for club netball. On the way there I would've said that the noise level was good but there were some people playing with the windows. The bus I was on (bus 1) arrived shortly before the other bus (bus 2). We were at technology untill lunch time and then got back on our buses again. The bus I was on (bus 1) left after the other bus (bus 2). I sat near the back again with Samara. On the way back I thought that the noise level was louder than on the way there but was still alright. Also on the way back people weren't playing with the windows this time. Next time if there was something I could improve on it would be talking quietly to the person next to me as I was probably talking to loudly to Samara. 

Leadership meeting

Leadership meeting - On Monday the 2016 leaders had a meeting with Mr Ladbrook at morning tea. We talked about how we thought we have been going so far this year. I said that I enjoyed swimming sports and can't wait for our next event. Mr Ladbrook has had everyone arranging an event that each house captain or heads etc had been in charge of. Since I'm the Miro house captain I have been arranging a charity with Xanthe, the other Miro house captain. We have decided that we will do a charity where everyone brings in clothes to donate towards the cyclone that had hit Fiji, we will then go through the clothes and select the blue ones that we could use to make banners for Miro. After we had talked about this at our meeting Mr Ladbrook said that we could go and enjoy the rest of our morning tea. 

Skipping with the year 1's

Skipping with the year 1's
4.3.16

Today we did games with the year 1's. In the first block we planned our game. In my group was me and Samara and we decided that we would do skipping. We had a planning sheet and we had to go through and fill this sheet out. We were looking online for ages deciding whether we would pick one of those games or come up with our own. We decided that we would pick one of their games and that was skipping. We needed cones for this because we were going to have races between the little kids.

Here is a picture of the year 1's playing a game with the seniors:

Leadership in the Food Forest

Leadership in the Food Forest
Yesterday some of the year 8 students went out to help with the Food Forest. The year 8's were asked to help the year 4 students collect seeds.

This is us collecting the seeds:

First we had to make envelopes to put the seeds in, this was difficult because there were heaps of us making four envelopes each and only four staplers.

After this we had to get into pairs and go into the garden and collect the seeds. This was difficult as I couldn't remember what some of the plants were called. Next it was time for morning tea.

Once we came in from morning tea we split into our 4 groups. Our group was assigned the chicken tractor. To do this we had to carry the 4 fences from outside the caretakers shed to the Food Forest. This was easier than I thought it would be as we had to have two to a fence. Once we had set the fences up in a square we went back to get the orange netting and the wire. Once we had collected this we had to put the netting inside the fence and connect the wire to the fence and netting, so that the chickens couldn't possibly escape.

After we had finished in the Food Forest we went and spent the afternoon with the juniors.

This is a photo of our chicken tractor: