Math

This week my goal was to be able to add and subtract negative numbers. One thing I found out was adding a negative is the same as subtracting a positive and subtracting a negative is the same as adding a positive. I learnt how to add and subtract negative numbers because I watched a video posted my Math Antics that taught you how to, I practiced and I think I’ve got the hang of I, just sometimes I have to think about a lot more than others.

Personal Best Learning Star

This week I have used the Personal Best learning star by persisting in the production because getting a scene right is really hard. So we keep trying and trying, we still haven’t got it 100% but I keep persisting to get my part right so I don’t have to worry about that scene and focus one another scene.

I have also been using an ‘I can’ attitude to get everything done before the end of the year. I have to write a speech for the end of the year, do production and go to camp! (Yay!) I have also used an ‘I can’ attitude when we need to sing in the production, we have to keep repeating it until we got it 100%. But I guess practise makes perfect.

Reading

My goal is to predict using info that I have previously read. It is called Spook in the Stacks (on Epic). It is about these three girls (the G.H.O.S.T squad) that find out there are are weird things happening at the library. Like books ‘cartwheeling’ down the aisles and the computer screens say ‘I am the dark, tell them’. They had found a newspaper dated three weeks ago (that’s when the weird things had started). The newspaper is about a scientist who died three weeks ago so they reckon that the ghost is the scientist because the meeting that the scientist was going to go to is tomorrow. They also think the scientist is trying to get message to the meeting. But unfortunately he’s dead.

My prediction is that the scientist ghost does get caught by the G.H.O.S.T squad because from what what I have read the girls know a lot about these weird happenings so they will be pretty on the scientist. I also think that the librarians will run away from their job until the ghost stuff has stopped because when they last experienced the ghost stuff they were pretty scared and were panicking.

Writing

This week my goals are to make a story plot and stick to it, also to detail my ideas. To stick to story plot I had to keep checking on what’s my ideas were to fit them all in my story, so I did a beginning, middle, end structure to fit in all of my ideas into one story. Then what I did was detail my ideas to make them even more interesting. My detailed ideas are in pink and blue means that I followed my story plot ideas.

Audience - years three to five

Purpose - to entertainment kids on a story that is filled with fairy tales

Beginning	Middle	End
A girl runs away from  home. Because her parents are always  stuck on their devices. Finds herself facing some fairy tale characters that have started fading Askes wrongs finds out that they are fading because nobody is reading fairytale stories. Nobody wants to come but in the end the three pigs and red riding hood come	She meets more characters along the way, beauty and the beast, jack and his beanstalk and rapunzel in her tower. Stop for picnic. Red riding hood takes everything out of her basket. Comes across a dark castle and goes in she has to figure out 3 riddles. Riddles: 1. What one word starts with e and ends with e and only has one letter in it,what is the word ??? An envelope. 2. What is it, the more you take away the bigger it becomes??? A hole. 3. What loses its head in the morning but gets it back at night??? A pillow.	The girl gets everyone to read fairytale stories again. Takes her own fairytale books and gives them to people to read. Then comes home to find her parents on the phone talking to the police saying the girls missing.

 

Fading Fairy Tales

“Hey mum…. Mum!” I yelled… Nothing. “Mum, DAD!” I tried again, nothing. Man I was getting annoyed, they haven’t been off their phones all day! That night I stuffed a few things in my backpack and ran into the darkness.

The wolves howled and and the owls hooted as I stumbled over roots and twigs, then I heard whispers, thinking I imagined it I kept running “Hello there!” a voice said cheerily I skidded to a halt and stood there gaping at the voice, it was a short boy with millions of rats surrounding him. Protecting him. Their sharp teeth glowing in the moonlight, their red eyes bearing holes into me. “Who are you?” I asked cautiously “why I’m the Pied Piper” he replied with a huge grin on his face “and we’re the big bad wolf; the three pigs; and the three bears……” the big bad wolf said still listing names as he stepped out from behind a tree followed by the rest of them. “Wow!” I whisper then pinched myself. It hurt. “This isn’t a dream!” I exclaimed “yes but you must not tell anyone else” Said one of the pigs.

Seeing these fairytale creatures made me feel like I was 3 again, that’s when I realized that the Mad Hatter had no legs “hey what’s wrong with you?!” I ask “sorry I mean what’s happening to you?” The Mad Hatter looked down at where his legs should have been “it’s because no one is reading the fairy tale stories anymore” “well I could help if I could just go home and get everyone reading fairytale stories again” I reply “it’s not that easy once you see just one of us, you have to the witches castle to ask to return” answered Gretel. “Ok, fine, who’s coming with me?” I asked nobody spoke up with then finally after what seemed like ages little red riding hood stepped forward and said “come on guys someone’s gotta do it otherwise we’ll all disappear and nobody would hear from us again” “I guess if you put it that way we’ll do it” says one of the pigs stepping forward pulling his brothers with him.

So off we went through the woods as the sun began to rise, the warm glow of the golden sun filtered through the leaves making paths of sunlight. The sunlight radiated of the pigs faces making them look red. “Can we stop now!” Red riding hood whined “ve are going to turn into pork chops if we don’t stop” moaned one of the pigs “Ve know what you mean” said one of his brothers “if we don’t stop now and take a drink ve vill die” “I guess but not for long” I answered tired of their whining. “I bought some cookies; some drinks; some bread and cheese and some fruit” replies little red riding hood in a rush taking all the food out of her basket she carried.

By the time we had finished the sun was high in the sky we were back on track (I had to persuade red riding hood and the pigs not to eat all the food and save some). “So tell me how did this start happening?” I asked “huh, what are you talking about?” Red riding hood asked looking confused “you know the fairytale creatures fading” “oh” red riding hood looking down at her boots “that happened just a few years before you came along, it was so sad you see lots of us lost our family’s and best buds” she paused, a sad look came over her face “I lost my granny and mum, my besties Cinderella and Prince Charming and my pet, Mickey Mouse and his wife Minnie.” As red riding hood sobbed we kept walking. Passing Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast’s castle, Jack and his beanstalk……we kept walking.

A while later ……

“Wow what is this place?” I ask stopping to stare at a dark castle looming over us.”We’re here, the witches castle” red riding hood answered. Shaking I walked to the humongous door and knocked. The door was flung open wide to reveal a long hall and at the end of the the hall was a throne made of thorns with a crow perched on the top. And sitting on that throne was the ugliest looking witch I had ever seen. (She also held a big wooden staff with a glowing sphere on top). “Hellooo” cackled the witch “Don’t just stand there come in.” Cautiously we walked down the hall trying hard not to look at the creepy things lining the hall like headless knights, skulls lining the shelves and a cauldron sitting to the side with a green fog rising from it.

“What brings you here?” She asked “um to get home again” I replied “you came from the land outside this forest?” “Yes, I ran away from home and saw one of you guys, I saw the Mad Hatter fading away and I asked fairy tales again” I answered in a rush “the only way to get home is answering 3 riddles” “okay” “riddle one, What one word starts with e and ends with e and only has one letter in it,what is the word ???”  “Um” I thought, I looked at the others for help but they were in their own world. “Letters, umm not an envelope” “yess!” Cried the witch “you put letters in an envelope!” “Oh okay” “riddle number two, what is it the more you take away the bigger it becomes?” “Oh I know this one it’s a hole!” “great job now the hardest is always the last one…” the witch thought for awhile. A while later… “what loses its head in the morning but gets it back at night?” “Um” I said stumped “a headless knight, no that doesn’t make sense” I looked at the others. They weren’t in their own world anymore, they were trying to signal me, pillow, red riding hood mouthed “pillow” I said hoping it was the correct answer. “You are…”  she paused “CORRECT!” With a wave of her staff a vortex of bats surrounded me. Next thing I knew I was back at home on my bed reading a story called Cinderella.

 

Then it all came flooding back to me. Mad Hatter disappearing, the witch… I jumped up remembering what my quest was. Grabbing a whole lot of fairytale stories off my bookshelf I sprinted out the front door and to the library (my parents didn’t notice). “Read fairytale stories!” I yelled “fairytale creatures are disappearing!” A few people stopped by and looked but kept walking and some actually took one my books to read! Yes it’s working! “Please spread the word, if we don’t read these a lot then our fairytale creatures we know so well will disappear.” I told a kid that had grabbed a book “Okay, sure.” That day I got at least 10 people to spread the word and all my books were gone.

 

“Ah excuse me do you have the time?” I asked a person walking past “um half past 7” yikes I missed dinner! I didn’t even want to go home my parents won’t even know I’m gone. I walked through the front door to her mum on the phone talking to the police. Hold on the police? “Mum!” I shouted “oh! Never mind she back” mum put down the phone and gave me a big hug “Frank she’s back!” Mum called, dad came running in “oh my gosh she’s here!” “Mum what’s going on?” I ask “you went missing!” Dad exclaimed “I thought you wouldn’t even notice me, you were so glued to your phones!” I said angrily “sorry, we’ll try” mum replied “thank you. Now this is the best happy ever after in the world!”

 

 

Writing This Week

Xanthe, Courtney, Mackenzie C and I are sure that plastic will take other the world. 
So we wrote a persuasive letter to anyone and everyone to persuade them not to use plastic 
bags and to inform them about what plastic bags could do to animals and people. My 
specific goals for writing are organization and detailing my ideas. I have used my personal best to 
always think of my goals when I am writing and to use the goals. The personal best star means 
to have an I can attitude, persistence, high expectations and managing ourselves and our 
belongings, I am aiming to have an I can attitude and persistence.

Say NO to Plastic Bags  

Hey everyone! As Year 7 and 8 students from Toko School we say NO to plastic 
bags as it puts animal species in DANGER and it could put our lives in DANGER as well.

Do you know how many plastic bags the world uses a year? Do you actually know the 
number? Well would you have guessed five trillion? That's right the world uses five trillion 
plastic bags a year. That is 10 million bags per minute! Then where do all these bags end up? 
They end up in landfills, oceans and lots of plastic bags end up on the side of the roads. In 
New Zealand over 40,000 plastic bags are dumped in landfills every hour. On average we can 
only recycle one in every 200 bags we use. So most people just throw their bags away or 
reuse their plastic bags over and over again till they gets holes in them then they throw 
them away too. The average American throws away 185 pounds (83 KG) of plastic bags 
per year.

Do You have a pet?  Would you hate to lose that pet? Do you love animals? Would you 
hate for animals to go extinct? Then STOP using plastic bags as it KILLS animals. There
are many different ways for animals to get killed from plastic bags. Some reasons are, the 
animals eat the plastic bags and it can get stuck in the throat or stomach and could KILL 
them. They could also get stuck in the bags and die then an another could try and eat that 
animal and at the same time eat the plastic bag. An example it a fish swims inside the plastic 
bag and gets stuck and dies then a seagull or another bird tries to eat the fish and it will eat 
the plastic bag  and the bird itself will die.

Our lives, the one life that we hope to be great may change completely all because 
of these plastic bags someone decided to invent! By making plastic bags in factories the 
gas from them can tear open the ozone layer as we are experiencing now. The ozone layer is 
our protective shield from the sun and without it it will get really hot and some people may 
even SUFFOCATE! With these plastic bags our Earth is in DANGER so by not using plastic 
bags our lives can be great again. I’m sure that kids in the future would not like to live in a 
world taken over by plastic bags.  

If you’re a mum or a dad and you want the best for your kids think about how plastic bags 
can ruin futures. Believe it or not it can KILL!! Here’s one reason why, if kid has found a 
plastic bag and you lose sight of them for a few seconds your kid could put it over their head 
and will struggle to breathe. If you want to help and have a healthy future for your kids STOP 
using plastic bags and make your own fabric bags, or buy them.

So help and save our earth, make the earth clean so that the kids in the future would want 
to live on not a animal missing, people suffocating world. YouTube holds many step by step 
how to make fabric bags out of t-shirts and singlet videos, so that could help you make the 
bags that don’t KILL.

If the earth dies we die.

Written by Xanthe Maketoni, Courtney O’Leary, Mackenzie Caskey and
Isabel Hooker.

Organization means to be able to grab the audience and make the topic or purpose clear 
in the introduction.

Detailing ideas means to be able to backup my ideas with detail,
research, etc.

Detailed ideas are written in blue

Organization is written in pink

Reading This Week

For the past week I have started reading a book called The House of Spies a nonfiction
story by Griselda Gifford. So far in the book there is a girl called Pipkin that lived in the 
time when Hitler and the war was around, a bomb was deployed right next to their house but 
did not explode. So they got moved to the local pub to live until their house is safe. Her 
cat (Thomasina) was missing so she had started looking for her back at the house, she meets 
her friend Harry and he can’t find his goat they find both animals back at Pipkins house then 
the bomb explodes while they were there but the survive. Then they go stay at Harry place.

My goal is to predict what will happen next or at the end of the book, in chapter three I 
predicted that the bomb would explode and I was right! From what I have read I predict that 
the builders will say the house is unsafe to stay in so they would have to find a different house 
to stay because the last thing I read was that the soldier guarding the blown up blown said the
builds will have to check out the house before they can start living there again.

Math This Week

Over the week I have been learning how to interpret graphs better because in the last 
test, I didn’t do well on it. I have used a book called Figure It Out - Statistics in the Media. 
The questions include reading and making dot plots, dot plots are a graph shown by dots, 
for me they are one of the easiest graphs to read. My next step for interpreting graphs is to 
interpret harder graphs such as scatter plots and line charts. I understand how to interpret 
graphs just now I will be able to do harder ones.

Term 3 Evaluation

Term 3 Evaluation

This term I have enjoyed tech and science fair. For tech I been have learning how to program Edison robots. This was the first year we used Edison robots. In tech I have learned how to program the robots to do dances, play music and just go in a straight line. Science fair was my favourite part of the term because I went with Xanthe and we worked really hard on a great topic the Xanthe had thought of. The topic was what water grows plants best. The water we used was rain water, chlorinated tap water and sea/saltwater. In the end we got two awards (merit and special award.)

I least enjoyed speech board because I don’t really like talking in front of people. I also didn’t like preparing for it because every time we practised it got closer to the day so I was pretty nervous. When I did my speech in front of the examiner I was shaking and I mucked up on the book. For the   book we had to tell the examiner the title and the author of the book then describe the book and then read a passage. I mucked up because I forgot to describe the book.

I have learnt this term how to program an Edison robot to do dances and to play music, also I learned how to say my Pepeha and what it means. A Pepeha is a way to introduce yourself in the Maori language. A Pepeha tells people how you came to New Zealand and who you are.

Next term I am looking forward to camp and production. This year for camp we are going to Wellington and while we are there we will be visiting the parliament and watching what they do there. I have only been to Wellington once and I am looking forward to exploring more of it. For production we are doing Shrek and since I don’t like talking in front of a whole lot of people I didn’t go for a main part. I either want to be a small fairytale character or a guard.

My two nexts steps for next term is to be able understand more about decimals and how to add them, subtract them and everything to do with them. I want to be able to understand decimals because I am going to highschool next year. Also just to have a great last term of the year as we have a lot to look forward to.

Speech Board

This year for speech board I am am doing Disneyland but we have to include some research, it has to be around 3 minutes long. We do speech board to communicate and confidence. We also have to know what our target audience is and mine is tourists.

Calendar Art

For calendar art this year we got to choose whatever we wanted as long as its not pale or something tiny in the middle of the page. This was the first time I had used the galaxy affect for the bird and I think it turned out pretty well.

Matariki

This is a presentation I did with Courtney, Heidi and Pascoe, it is about the stars of Matariki.

Pepeha

A pepeha is a way to introduce yourself in Maori, when we did our pepeha we had to include who we are, our parents, where we were born, where we live, mountain, our last name, river, our school, teacher and our parents parents. Well thats what I included. We got to choose how we presented it. Before we presented we had to know what a pepeha is, my understanding is that it’s a way to introduce yourself in Maori and its like a mihi but more complicated.

Sofia Minson Art

Over the last few weeks we had to do a maori artist study. We had to find a artist (mine is Sofia Minson) and research on what type of art they do and a little bit about them. Then we had to copy one of their pieces of art and here is mine.

Camp Persausive

This is a letter to the school board of trustees to let us fundraise for camp because we don't have enough for activities.

To the Board of Trustees

How would you like it if you went on a camp in Wellington with enough money for accommodation and food, and not having enough for activities? That just throws all the purposes of going to camp out the window. The whole point in camp is to develop social skills; leadership; teamwork; etc. And of course to have fun! If I went on camp that didn’t include activities I would be disgusted and never go on camp again! That’s why I strongly believe that us Year 7 and 8’s should be able to fundraise for our camp this year. Did you know that one of purposes for camp is to assist children to develop an attitude of responsibility for their own safety and that of others. At the moment we have only about 3000 dollars to spend on activities but since we have 30 kids in our class we only have about 90 to spend on each child. That's a very little amount of money for each child isn't it?

Our idea is minivans and trailers, since a bus will cost a lot because we also have to pay for the bus driver's accommodation and food, where in minivans the parents who where coming can drive them. Since we have a lot of kids in our class then we have to take 3 minivans and about two trailers.

Over the years costs have gone up quite a bit, a few years ago the Year 7 and 8’s have done lots of activities, but now even if we go to the same place (SilverStream) that the Year 7 and 8’s have been going to every time they go to Wellington it would cost a lot more.

Fundraising. Just a little bit could make us go far, even if it’s just a raffle; a bake sale; etc; we could save enough for us to do more activities to meet the Ministry of Education’s purposes for camp. There are several reasons why we need to fundraise; number one is the diesel for the minivans otherwise they won’t go very far; number two food, if we want a barbecue we would have to buy the sausages and bread; number three, any other expenses we come across.

In conclusion I think we should be able to fundraise for our camp to meet the purposes of going to camp, otherwise what is the point of even going. We are not pulling a thousand dollars out of your pocket, we will do all the hard work. All you have to do is say a yes to fundraising so we can have fun and learn at the same time while on camp.

Sincerely Isabel

Tech Evaluation

Tech Evaluation

Over the past two weeks we have participated in tech. There were two options, they were Robotics, this group programs and prepares Edison Robots for a competition. The other one was hard materials, this group uses metal and other hard materials to create things like pendants, brooches, etc. I was in the hard materials group with Miss Laing* our tech teacher.

Most of the time we were creating things on our own, and planning everything before we actually did it. The first thing we designed was a bag or a shoe using some details Mrs Laing gave us, such as a cow, giraffe, a boat and a castle. This design work was just to free our minds there was another game to free our minds, all we had to do was go around the school looking for anything such as leaves, sticks, flowers, pieces of plastic, etc. Then we had to make 3 pieces of jewelery out of it without using tape or glue. Also before making the pendant we had to make a design that’s not to hard so we could use the saw to cut out the design.

There was a lot of problem solving involved especially because Miss Laing did not have the proper tools she uses when she makes her jewelry, so we had to make do with what we had. When we used the saw we also had to problem solve (for the pendant) because if you made a mistake then you would have to change your design a little. The problem I had with the saw that I had to solve was when I was cutting out the design (the design was a Mickey Mouse) I accidentally made the ears quite pointy so it ended up being a cat/bear looking thing.

The last three days (out of six) were my favourite because on the second and third to last day we did enameling. Enameling is when glass is a powdered form and you paint/dab it onto the copper and you put it a kiln** at 1000 degrees. The piece of copper comes out red hot and after that it has to cool down to be able to handle it. The last day was when we finished enameling and made key ring sort of thing out of fimo, fimo is a modelling clay which you have to soften with your hands and then you can shape it into anything, then you have to cook it in the oven to harden it.

Every day I tried to get as much stuff done as I could so I could move on to the next thing. Time management was a big thing in the hard materials because Miss Laing wanted us to finish the first thing such as the key ring so we could get the pendant started with some time left over to do something else.

The first thing we made (the key ring) is the one I’m most proud of, we had to sand; file and make a texture, (using a hammer with two sides, one round and one flat. I used the round end of the hammer to get a scaly look.) I learned the if you hammer the aluminium key ring using the round end of the hammer on an anvil you would get a different texture to when you hammer on a wooden board. Then what we had to use a punch to make your design on the key ring. Then we had to polish them will a type of car polish.

Overall all I had a awesome time learning and having fun by making jewellery out of metal and enamel. If I ever did it again what I would do is choose simpler designs for the jewelery. Next term we have to try something different so I will end up doing Robotics which sounds quite exciting.

*Miss Laing is a well known jeweler

**a kiln is a jeweler's oven

15 Fact Art

Two weeks ago we did some research on a leader of a countries, the options were Bashar Al - Assad  from Syria, Adolf Hitler from Germany and Fidel Castro from Cuba. We only had those choices because we are reading this book called Refugee which is a book about three kids in different countries (Syria, Germany and Cuba) trying to escape with their families.

What we had to do was find fifteen facts and one portrait of the person, then we had to cut out the person in the picture, outline the picture in the middle of an A3 piece of paper. Once that is finished draw 15 diagonal lines leading from the picture to the edge of the page, use a fine tipped black pen and go over the pencil. Then write the fifteen facts and go over them with the black pen, instead of dye to colour the background we used water colour.

Metaphorical Poem

Last year we did  pa metaphorical poem and Mrs Hancock decided to do it again this year, we had to write a poem about ourselves using metaphors. The first little verse was what we would be as a car, then it was a tree, next it was something in the community, a sandwich and a piece of clothing. When we had finished writing the poem we had to change a fonts that suit the word and decorate with tiny pictures.

Mean, Median and Mode

Mean, Median and Mode

This week learnt how to solve mean, median and mode problems, The we had to get into groups of three (I was with Aylah and Mackenzie W) and make a short video using an app called Explain Everything to show our understanding of mean, median and mode.

The Story Of Waitangi Day

At the start of the term we did some research on Waitangi Day and we had to put together a movie of Waitangi from when the Maori’s first discovered New Zealand to now. It took about five weeks to do the movie. In my group was Pascoe, Arnika, Brock, Gus, Xanthe and I.

Modigliani Art

At the start of the years when I have Mrs Hancock, she would get us to do a self 
portrait to get put up on the wall. This year she found pictures from an artist called 
Amedeo Modigliani. Before we started the art we did a bit of research on Modigliani 
and I found out that most of his portraits are of lady’s and they have very poor detail.
Also he did them in dark and dull colors that don’t stand out.  Our portraits are a 
little different because we are using bright colors black outlines.

The features of his art are long necks maybe about twice as long then they normally
are, eyes higher than normal practically on their forehead, longer noses and very 
dull and 
dark colours. In Modigliani’s art some of portraits eyes have no pupils so they look 
pretty creepy to me.

Mrs Hancock found some step by step Modigliani portraits of how to draw yourself, first 
of all we had to divide an A3 piece of paper into eight boxes and then draw the body, the long neck and the head. Then we drew the high eyes, long nose, mouth and hair. Instead 
of dark and dull colours we had to do bright pastel colours. Since my hair is the dirty 
blonde colours I mixed yellow, brown, silver and gold, for the background we had to do pastel so I did pink with blue, yellow, purple and green dots.

The things I found frustrating about my art was the long necks because when I draw I have to get the neck looking normal otherwise it looks odd (to me). Also the pastel when it smudges.

Draw It

Draw It

 

On 1st of February we did a drawing activity called Draw It where we had a picture and we had to describe the picture to a person who had to draw it. And you are not allowed to ask questions or talk if you are the drawer.

The challenges I faced when I was the ‘describer’ was finding it difficult to describe how to draw the shape and what type of line it was (some examples: horizontal, vertical, diagonal). As the drawer we couldn't ask any questions or talk, it was really difficult! It was also hard when you didn’t understand what they meant.

I learned that you have ask questions when you need help. And you have to use gestures and when you’re the ‘describer’ you have to be precise otherwise the drawer won’t get it.

Toko School Learning Stars

At Toko School we have learning stars. They represent a set of values and beliefs that we think are important.

One of the learning stars is Personal Best. This star is about pushing yourself to do your best even when you’re struggling.

When I am doing my personal best you will see me taking the challenging path, always trying to do my best, asking for help when I need it. Always trying to have an I can attitude, taking care of each other and my belongings and to think and figure out different ways to complete the problem even if it was difficult. Also communicating well in a group even if I don’t work with some of the people very often.

Another one of the learning stars is Connected. This star is about taking ownership and participating.

When I am being connected you will see me making sure my words or actions don’t affect anyone, being involved in things happening around me such as paying attention when I’m in a group or helping out with an event. I will also, be taking ownership of my learning an example is making the right decisions, seeking responsibilities and taking on roles and working as a team. Also making sure everyone feels like that they are part of the team or group.