Tamaki College Recount

On a Tuesday the 20th September  the year 8’s had the opportunity to go down to Tamaki College for a whole day to experience what college was like. We attended classes such as Social Studies, English, Maths and P.E (Physical Education).

We would usually walk down for Technology at Tamaki College on Tuesdays after morning tea but we were walking in the morning so it felt a little weird. I chatted to my Partner Taunese the whole way.

We made our way into there school hall known as the Auditorium. There we were greeted by a lady named Mrs Moore. The day before we had been given a brief summary of who she was. She was a kind and generous lady who organized this day for us. She organized things such as the classes we were in and the morning tea and lunch. We had former ex Pt England students who now attend Tamaki College show us around.  First was Social studies.

I had never before heard of a subject called Social studies so I didn’t know what to expect. Mrs Apelu was our social studies teacher. She introduced us to Social studies. We got to learn about the current issues. We saw pictures of how children got to school. Most were shocking. Some had climbed on cliffs without any safety equipment, some would have to go through rough rivers and more dangerous things... We then were given an assignment to create a pair of shoes that would help these children get to school better or if we were the Prime minister with all the money in the world what would we do to help the children get to school. What I did was I would build closer schools in remote villages.

We then had maths to follow up. We had Mr Sharma. He had visited our school before with Gabriel and Saia. So he was familiar to the Year 8’s. We had play kahoot which was a quiz site. We took a quiz about shapes.  We then went outside and we played Shapeshifter. This game requires the teacher to say a shape and the students have to get into that shape.

Interval had come quickly and we soon then were in the Auditorium for morning tea. We had a water bottle, an apple and many more snacks provided for us.

We then did have other subjects to attend such as English and P.E (Physical Education) .  In English there were ten words on the screen that we had to remember. Then we had to write them down in a document and get pictures of what first came to our head when we read the word. Then there was a poem that we were given to add pictures to. For PE we played games and had a lot of fun.

It was an awesome college experience. I look forward to college in 2017!

Maths Work

In Maths we are learning to split numbers into ones and tens to solve subtraction
problems. We were given an example to follow and guide us at to how to do it.
I have been given problems to solve. Take a look as to how I solved them!

The Black Death

This week in Reading the Louis Sachars (my group) have been looking at
the plague known as the Black Death. This is one of the scariest and darkest
plague that has ever happened. Take a look to see what I have found out!

Escape from Afghanistan

In Reading we have been looking at a nonfiction story about a mother
and her daughter escaping from Afghanistan. They have gone through
rough things to try and get to another country for a better life. As we
know Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous places. Take a look to
see what I have found out!!

Maths Problem Solving

This week we are learning to do multiplication in parts to solve problems.
In other words learning to use the partitioning strategy. This is when we get
the big number and we split them into parts. When then take a part at a time and
multiply it by the number given to us. We do this for all the parts. By the end we
will at least have 3 eqautions and 3 answers as we had 3 parts. We then add all the answers
together and then that is our overall answer!
Enjoy!

Narrative Writing

This week we have been learning about descriptive vocabulary to make our
narratives more interesting. We were given a picture and had to write about it.
We first planned the narrative with the narrative writing structer you will see on
the first slide. Then I wrote the story on each slide. Take a look!!

Sleep?

When people hear they word sleep the would probably think that it's a time of rest and quiet but actually there's a lot more to it.

Sleep is what we do to regenerate our energy. We have followed the ancient way of sleeping while the moon is out and being active while the sky is blue. Sleep would be in the top 10 for the most important thing in our life as without it we are more likely to lose memory easily and exclude ourselves from our normal daily activities and also become less aware of things which is very dangerous.

For everyone we all have a certain amount of sleep we need to gain.Babies need at least 10 - 12 hours of sleep with a nap for 3 - 5 hours. Why you may ask. Well as a newborn sleep actually helps them grow. It is also known to make us grow as well. For kids aged to 6 - 13 we need 9 to 11 hours of sleep as we are more active and need more energy. For Adults they need a shorter amount of time which is 7 to 9 hours.

We can sleep in different ways. For example we can have a light sleep also known as a nap and also a deep sleep which is what we do at night. The differences between a light sleep and a deep sleep is very easy to find out. In a light sleep we sometimes are still able to hear things while sleeping and also wake up faster than a deep sleep. A deep sleep is a longer sleep and a bit more important than the light sleep. A deep sleep is when we can’t feel or hear anything and has to be pushed a few times to be awaken.

Remember to get your sleep!

Training for Success

This week in reading we are learning about a girl named Phoebe Edwards.
She is a very athletic girl who has won loads of competitions. In the book
training for success it tells us about how she trains to win the big events.
Take a look!

How the Olympics came to be

The Olympics is known to be the one of the best sporting event that has ever happened. They bring the best athletes from 206 countries together every four years to compete in competitions to win medals for their countries. This explanation will tell you how the Olympics came to be and the changes it’s been through over time.

It started as a religious way to honor the Olympian God Zeus. He was a 13 meter tall statue that lived in the temple of Zeus in Olympia Greece. The first ever Olympic games started in 776 BC (before Christ). Only one event happened in the first 13 Olympics. It was the 200 meter run. Only men participated as women were prohibited for religious reasons. It took them a long 60 years to finally add 2 more events to the Olympics. It consisted of the pentathlon and a longer race. The pentathlon consisted of the long jump, the discus throw, the javelin throw, and a wrestling match between the two athletes who won the previous four events. Soon after the Roman emperor Theodosius strictly banned the Olympics to be in the honor of Zeus as he was a christian. This rule occurred after the death of Christ in the year 393.

So that was the end of the Olympics. Until 2 thousand years later it was brought back to life by Baron Pierre De Coubertin. In 1892 he attended a sporting conference and suggested to revive the Olympic games and that it may still happen every four years. They declined his request. They met up again in 1896 and he then tried to pursue his request and 79 delegates from 9 countries approved his request. This is Olympics are now called the Modern Olympics because it relates to the past Olympics.

On the 15th of April 1896 the first ever modern Olympics were held. Some of the ancient sports were no longer in the Olympics such as nude running, chariot races and more. They added new sports such as basketball, swimming and many more modern games. Today Olympians train hard for four years. Today the Olympics is held in honor of their countries and the themselves. It is a fun event that everyone looks forward to. It has had over 8,200,000 spectators and will still have the title of the best sporting event in the world.

Activity 1 - Winter Learning Journey

I would compete in the sport called horse racing. Why horse racing? Its because horse racing is something I have never done and I would personally think would be fun and challenging. So not only do I look for a sport that is fun but also gives me a bit of a challenge. This sport requires a person to sit on a chariot led by 2 or 4 horses and its a race to the end. This would probably take me a year and a half to actually be good at it. So I would choose horse racing if I was in the Olympics 2792 years back.

Let’s imagine that you were alive 2792 years ago and invited to compete in the first ever ancient Olympic Games. Which of these events: running, wrestling, boxing, pankration, horse racing and pentathlon which one would you compete in?

My Waka

This term in Team 5 we are learning about our very own house waka. My waka is Hokulea which has the special mission of promoting care for our Earth. Hokulea is waka that was made way... back in 1975. It is a replica of the old ancient long gone waka wa'a kaulua. Hokulea hopes to keep the traditions of our ancestors alive and they do that by travelling around the world promoting ways on how we can care for our earth!                                                             I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing what my whanau, my school and friends think about my new understanding that I have shared here on my blog.  I’m sure they’ll have tips for me too for my learning journey.

Place Value Partitioning

Today is maths we are learning to split numbers to help us get to
our answer or what you call Place Value. My Numeracy teacher
Ms Muliaumsaealii gave us this presentation to fill out with our
Place Value knowledge. Take a look !

Mata I Pusi

This week in Literacy we are reading a book called Mata I Pusi.
In English Mata I Pusi means the eyes of the cat. I have answered
the following questions to help you understand more about Mata I pusi.
Take a look!

Wool & Nail Art

Today in Mr Wiseman's class we were experimenting making Wool and Nail Art.

How to make it : First you would need a square thick piece of wood and 11 nails. We then hammer the nails into a star shape using a star shaped paper stencil. Here is a photo of what it should look like.

When it looks like that you continue on with wool. Tie a knot around one of the outside nails. You then use your wool to create a star shape with the nails.Let your imagination go wild. When me and my partner Lucy let out imagination go wild it ended up looking like this!

ENJOY!!!

iLuminate Dance Crew

A normal tuesday it was until Mrs Tele’a informed us that this afternoon the whole school would be making their way into the hall for something special. As room 2 quietly entered the hall the school was already seated. I looked to the corner of my eye and see a tall sign with bold letters spelling out iLuminate. I knew that this had something to do with lights as iLuminate meant to light up. The school settled down and Mrs Nua started to speak. She introduced to us one of her friends that had seen us before in an assembly and thought that we were amazing kids and wanted to bring some friends along to our school. She told us that her friends were called iLuminate and that they were a dance company based on fusion of technology and dance. iLuminate is a very large group but only three came to New Zealand.

Not long after the school hall lights went off. The school screamed with excitement. Flash went the lights. The first thing we saw a body figure of lights. It started to dance. Then along came 2 other light body figures. The screams became even louder than before. Every single move they made was exciting as the screams got louder and louder.

Music jammed loudly and the school was singing along as iLuminate was dancing. It was just like a chris brown concert. iLuminate was something that Point England had never seen or even heard off. I didn’t know what time it was until the music stopped and the lights were turned on again. Sighs filled the hall as we knew that the dancing and excitement was over.

I turned around to find the kapa haka group making their way up to the stage. They performed to thank iLuminate and also to show our appreciation as they came all they way from America!

Mr Jacobsen went up on stage and stood next to the Kapa haka group as they finished their last move. He invited iLuminate back on stage to attempt the kamate haka. The school laughed as they made their way onto the stage. Whaea Saf (our Maori tutor) taught them the moves and words to the Kamate Haka. To my surprise they were actually pretty good at it. All of a sudden the bell rang to confirm that it was 3:00 clock. All of the school from Year 1 - 6 made their way back to the classroom. The year 7 & 8 stayed behind to ask questions.

We asked questions such as what inspired you to become a dancer? and also questions like can you dab? They were very funny and also very talented. We left back to class eagerly wanting to go hive five them but we just couldn’t. It was a fun and amazing performance. In one word the performance was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Camp Reflection

The memories replayed over and over in my head. I still have the excitement in me when I think about it. Just before the first school holidays the Year 8 students at Pt England School had the opportunity to go all the way to Marsden bay camp site which is located south to Whangarei.

I was put into Ruakaka B with Taiaha, Night and Zane. My Leaders were May and Te Mauri. Our group was sent last to the hop onto the buses but we didn't mind. We were put onto a small and quite bus which would only fit our group and a few teachers. On our way we went. I was shocked by the small whispers that I could hear. I thought that it would've been very loud with the voices of exciting children exclaiming how excited they were but I was proven wrong. I looked at the clock which showed a bold blue sign that had 10:33 am on it . By that time we had already past a couple of signs showing how many kilometers to Whangarei there were. I tried to keep awake to see the unique views so I could write about them but I failed and drifted off to sleep.

I woke up at 11:00 am and  found ourselves surrounded by the view of cows eating grass and that we were off the motorway. I whisper a question to May who was sitting next to me and asked her were we were. But she shrugged her shoulders with confusion. I look around as it is still quiet and see half of the bus asleep and but I wasn't shocked to find the boys giggling quietly at the sleeping people's faces. I didn't mind to giggle myself.

A few more minutes had gone and it started to get dark and cloudy. It started to rain. It didn't seem to bother anyone but me. That means when we get to camp we wouldn't be able to play outside. Soon after the rain stopped and the sun was hiding behind the clouds we were close to Whangarei. The bus made a sudden turn into Marsden bay camp site. We had finally arrive. Now at this time the sun is slowly making its way out of the clouds. Out comes the Year 8's and all that is being done at that moment was stretches. It was a long bus ride.

We were given instructions to take all the luggage on top of the deck. The owner and founder came to talk to us with his wife. His name was Michael and his wife was Venetia. They was very welcoming. He took us onto a tour around the camp and all of a sudden I felt something drop on my head. I looked up to the sky in fear and to my surprise its started to rain again. I sigh and in a sudden movement rain falls like a bucket of water was tipped on my head. Splashes were made as we all ran back to the deck to put our luggage into the kitchen hall. I ran back with laughter and grabbed anyone's bag and placed it gently in the kitchen hall hopping it would mess up someone nice and folded clothes. The day started off not well due to the weather but somehow we still tried to make it one of the best days of our lives.

The sun went to make its way around the world and out came the moon. We sat down on the chairs by the tables provided for our groups. We were all excited about our first dinner. Entertainment was also provided by the other groups and it all had to do with being a confident and being a leader.

This camp was on of the most amazing camp I have ever been on. It teaches you valuable lessons but they teach you with fun activities. We learnt that we don't have to depend on people with authority such as prefects and house captains and that even though they do have a bigger role than us we are still a leader. There are different ways to lead and we need to show how we do it to help others. I hope that I can pass this on to help others and I would also like to give a massive thank you to the teachers who came and also the parent helpers who went off work for us to make it possible. Can you just put your hand on the screen you are reading this on and pretend I am giving you a big high five! Thank You!!

Giving the Ocean a Voice

This week in Literacy we are learning about a book called Giving
the Ocean a Voice. It is based on our main focus this term for team
5 which is the four main wakas Hikianalia, Hokulea, Hine moana and
Te Aurere. Take a look to find out more!

Place Value learning

We are learning to: Use strategies to show the steps I used to solve maths problems using place value. I did today in maths to help me learn more about my digits. I found this very easy to complete due to me already knowing my digits. Take a look to find out more !

Immersion Assembly

I walked into the breeze doors with the buzzing sound of excited voices. Its the start of the second term at school. We open the term with an Immersion Assembly as normal which explains the topic we are learning about. Our main focus this term is "as i see it". This is all going to be based on how we see things.

At 9:00 am classes started making their way into the hall and sat into their usual places just like last term. Their teachers were dressed according to the occasion. Mr Jacobsen was dressed as a palette with a paint brush hat on his head. A few more minutes flew by and the whole school was seated. Mrs Nua (our associate principal) was taking over our actual principal Mr Burt until he comes back from a trip on a waka around the world which would be around term 3! So the beginning of the Immersion assembly started off with a blast.

Team 1 was up first and what they were going to look further into was their favourite things. There teachers Mrs George, Mrs Wild, Miss Peck and Mrs Belt put together a short clip showing what there favourite things were. Mrs George loves Whittakers chocolate especially hokey pokey flavour!  

Team 2 was looking into seasons. In team 2 there a 4 classes so it was perfect the looked at seasons because each class had a specific one to look at. The team 2 teachers were all dressed in there season colours. Mrs Nalder was wearing colours the associated with Autumn, and the other 3 teachers wore the colours of the other 3 seasons such as winter, summer and spring.

Team 3 was my favourite out of all. They had a hilarious clip made which was their version of a TV Program called Grand Design. It was meaning that Team 3 were looking at buildings of all sort.

Team 4 this term is looking at comics. There teachers were dressed as superheros such as Wonder Woman, Captain America and more... They are looking at different types of comics and might even have the chance to create their own.

Team 5 are looking at the 4 main waka's. Hokulea, Hikianalia, Te Aurere and Hinemoana. We are looking at there meanings and much more... This is going to be such an exciting term!! 

My Visual Mihi

This term Team 5 have been looking at their Identity and who they are in the world. We have created what we call a Visual Mihi. I have drawn the 4 main points that makes me who I am. In the top corner on the right is a music note which has a bold sign on top of it which says music. I love to listen to music especially Flo Rida's. Then next to it is a flag of Samoa and their iconic flower the hibiscus flower. I am full Samoan and very proud. Underneath that picture is a beach. Recently I have been to Samoa and love to visit the local beaches everyday. I love the feeling of clear water surrounding your body. Across on the left is a drawing of girl playing netball. I started playing netball in Year 4 and haven't stopped yet. Last but not least is a picture of me. The four drawings with it makes up the person in the middle. Hope you enjoyed learning about me !!