Character Profile | Erza Scarlet

 LI: To create a character profile.

Our challenge was to choose our favourite anime/manga character. Our next challenge was to draw the character on our chromebooks or on paper. I chose to draw my character digitally because I am not very skilled with drawing on paper. It took me a while to trace my character as there was many details for me to add. Our final challenge was to write a paragraph that describes our character and explains why this character is your favourite. My character, Erza Scarlet. The reason to why Erza is one of my favorite anime characters is due to her overwhelming leadership abilities. She is a very straight-forward person and sticks to her morals. I also admire her as she is the strongest female mage in the Fairy Tail guild. 

History of Manga

LI: To read for meaning and understanding

Our challenge last week was to complete a reading comprehension about the history of Manga to show that we are reading for meaning and understanding. Our final challenge in this activity was to create a DLO to share the information we found out. 'Manga' is the term originally made in Japan that defines 'comics'. They are used to tell stories or explain an event. There are no limits to what manga can be about, the genres can range from fantasy worlds, to horror gore stories. 

Manga Artist

LI: To read for meaning and understanding

Last week, our challenge was to use our smart searching skills to create a DLO in our own words that tells us about the life of our favourite manga artist or a well known manga artist. The manga artist I chose was Io Sakisaka. She is one of my favourite manga artists as her 3 popular shoujo romances are some of my favourite romance manga's. I enjoy reading shoujo romance and Io Sakisaka has given the best impression on me. She started her manga career in 1999 when she made her first anthology story. 

Tuesday Maths Challenge | Distance Learning

 LI: to use the most sufficient strategy to solve your problem. 

Today I completed the second maths challenge of the week, today's question was 'There are 54 students in LS2. If everyone shook hands with each other how many handshakes would there be altogether?' . For this question I would use multiplication. So, 53 x 27. 53 times a student is handshaking every other students hand then multiply that by half the number of students (27). The answer I got was 1431. I used the place value method to check if my answer was correct. 

List Poem | Distance Learning

LI: To write a list poem that describes a topic by painting a picture with your words.

My culture is the red and white flag that hangs proudly in the Kingdom of Tonga

It is the fresh mango picked off a tree to make an otai

The ta'ovala worn to show respect 

It is the oil that drips down her skin as one performs a  tau'olunga

The lea faka tonga spoken by my ancestors 

It is the hymns sung on sunday mornings,

The 15 minute prayers that seem to be 9 hours along with it. 

My culture is, Tongan

List poems are a simple way to get into poetry writing that can be based on ideas that are familiar to you. Lists can be an inventory of items, people, places, or ideas. List poems don’t require rhyme and often involve repetition. My list poem was based on "My culture is...". In this poem I expressed what it means to be apart of the tongan culture. 

I enjoyed writing this poem because I could truly express what my culture is. 

Letter Q | Distance Learning

LI: To evaluate. 

This week we read about the origin of the Letter Q, and where it came from. Our task was to create a DLO (Digital Learning Object) to identify words that begin with the Letter Q. Once we had done that we identified the words we didin’t know and defined these. If you would like to see my DLO explaining 3 words starting with the letter Q click the text box that says "Link to canva". 

I found out the word 'qibla' is a direction which muslims pray towards.

I enjoyed this activity because I learnt so many words that I never even used or knew before. 

Monday Maths Challenge | Distance Learning

LI: use the most efficient strategy to solve your problem. 

For these maths challenges I used addition and subtraction with written algorithm. For the challenge and super challenge I used written algorithm in addition and for the extra challenge I used written algorithm in subtraction. These questions were based off of past news of ‘Dutch couple move into world’s first 3D printed home’. In the news there was an elderly couple that retired from being shop keepers that moved into the worlds first 3D printed home . Their comment on the house was - “It is beautiful,” “It has the feel of a bunker – it feels safe,”.  

Hauora

 

During the Olympics many athletes should bring a positive mindset while competing.  It is vital to balance your mental and physical well-being as this builds up on your 4 walls (hauora). As an olympian athlete it’s important to enjoy and celebrate the success you earn but it is equally as important to embrace the less successful times. The more you fail the more motivation and humbleness you receive, failure gives you the opportunity to strive ahead and think of the positive things.  It is having a belief in yourself and the support of your whanau that keeps you motivated. 

Swimming | Week 1 & 2

 LI: to learn safety in water. 

Last week and this week the Y8 group went to the YMCA pools in Panmure to learn safety skills in the water. We were split into 2 groups depending on how confident we are in water. To get into the pool safely we put both hands on one side and entered. 

The different skills we learnt were;

Back Sculling - lay on our back, keep our heads above the water and move our hands thumb up thumb down in and out. (slightly kick underwater).

Forward Sculling - lay on our chest, keep our heads above the water and move our hands thumb up thumb down in and out. (slightly kick underwater).

Floating (facing up) - make a star fish facing up. 

Floating (facing down) - make a star fish facing up. 

Dolphin Diving - dive down, touch the floor of the pool with both hands and jump up. 

Streamline - put our arms behind our ears and kick (with and without swimming board). 

PB4L

LI: To identify the different concepts we need to be prepared in school.

This week’s PB4L (positive behaviour 4 learning) activity was to create and understand the things we need to be prepared for school. Heavenly, Micah, and I have created a DLO listing all the things we need to be prepared for school. Some of the main things we need are a charged device (chromebook), proper school uniform, tidy hair, and remembering to bring PE gear to school for any fitness activities or sports training. 

Coding with Python

 LI : To use and understand the connection between the writen code, the block code and the flow chart. 

This is the comparison between the python coding, the blocks and the flowchart for making the microbit act like a dice. 

Mindfulness Reflection

LI: to understand the definition of mindfulness. 

Mindfulness is relaxing your body, and having a calm mindset. Mindfulness discriminates against all the negative emotions going throughout your mind. This makes us more engaged in our learning and the things we are doing.  

Today we had a session in LS2 about mindfulness. To relax our minds and bodies we took a few minutes to breathe in and out. This helped us clear our heads and clear our thoughts. It is treated as a taonga ( with a level of respect ). 

 

Olympic Maths Challenge 3

 LI: to use the most efficient strategies to find answers. 

Olympic Maths Challenge

 LI: to use the most efficient strategies to find answers. 

Here is my second Olympic Maths Challenge. For this activity I created a DLO explaining my strategy and answers to the solution. I also created a screencastify video for a more depth explanation about my strategy. This question was based off an olympian star swimmer Michael Phelps. There were 2 questions: 

How many metres did Michael swim for his gold medals?

If Michael swam 2m each stroke, how many strokes did Michael take in total?

The most efficient strategy for me for this question was addition and simple division. 

 

Superfingers Challenge

 LI: to recall our time tables quickly.

Our focus for this activity was based around recalling our time tables fast. The objective of the game was to remember our time tables and say them quick. To play this game, we pick a word and roll two dice that go up to 12. After doing so, we look at the dice and multiply the numbers. If one of the dice roll on 6 and the other on 3, we go 6x3 and say the answer (18) as fast as we can. The person who gets the answer correct fastest, erases one letter from the word. In the end, if you answer the equations and have no letters left, you are announced the winner.

First, we chose a partner to challenge. Whoever won out of the pair gets to challenge another person who won from their pair. The person who won that goes onto the quarter finals, then the semi-finals and then the finals. The person who won the finals is the winner and fastest person to recall their time tables. Afatia won the finals against Chris. I enjoyed this activity a lot because it was fun and also got us to recall our time tables faster. 

Violet Walrond Y Chart (Inference)

L.I to make inferences about the events in the text using clues provided by the author.

 

Our focus this week in Reading was about Violet Walrond. 

Violet Walrond was the first female new zealand representatives in the swimming industry. She played in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics at the age of 15 years of age and was the youngest competitor. She was also one of the firsts in New Zealand to ever use the crawl technique, which had grew a lot of attention around NZ. Violet started winning competitions at a the age of 12 years old, and her father was also her coach; as he did get gifted the Royal Humane Society award, for saving 11 people from drowning. 

In this activity we were required to complete this Y chart, that concluded me looking at a image and inferring from a question. The question that was asked was “What will happen when time unfreezes”. Sulia and I worked collaboratively together to complete this task. For us to get a better understanding of the context, we were acquired to read a passage about Violet Walronds life.

We really enjoyed this activity because we learnt apart of NZ history. 

Flow charts and Radio chats

LI: to understand how flowcharts relate to coding blocks

LI: to understand how to get the microbit to talk to another microbit using radio signals 

Here is my flowchart practise document. 

Flowchart Practise

The next activity today was coding the microbit to send a radio signal to another microbit. We had to make sure that both microbits were on the same group number so we didn't accidentally get a message from another group.

Medal Tally

 LI: to use the most efficient strategies to find answers. 

This week Vayan, Lukah, Bella and I have created a DLO explaining our strategy and answers for a certain maths problem. The maths problem that we have chosen was based off of the olympic medal totals for each country. Using information from 2 different charts of Medal statistics we found out the current top 10. I have made a screencastify video explaining my strategy. 

Should host countries have to spend so much money on building the Olympic venues?

LI: To use provocation to understand both sides of a story.

 

 Our focus this week for reading was based on the Olympics & provocation. We used provocation to understand both side of the question asked. The question was should host countries spend so much money on building the Olympic venues? Our opinion was that host countries should not spend a massive amount of money on the olympics, since the former buildings used to host the olympics. We think that the billions of dollars used to other countries are facing difficult times. I found this task interesting because seeing both side of the story meant different people see the story with different opinion.

3 Matariki Birds

LI: Name, draw and describe 3 birds that are part of the Matariki harvest. 

Matariki was celebrated at the end of the harvest season.  It was a time when the pātaka kai (storage house) was full of food. There was kūmara, kererū and fish such as moki and korokoro. During the celebration, there were big Hākari (feasts). 

In the DLO above, Lukah, Chris, Taua and I made a presentation about 3 birds that are eaten as apart of the harvesting during the matariki season. The three birds we found information about was the Tui, Kaka, and Kereru. Using our smart re-searching skills we found different pieces of information about each of the birds, fun fact; Early European colonists called tui the parson bird or mockingbird; however, these names are no longer used. We each digitally drew our 3 different birds. We also talked about how the 3 birds were caught to eat during the matariki season.