For the past few weeks we have been doing a thing called passion projects. You can choose from a series of classes and pick the one you are passionate about. I chose visual arts and did heaps of different things like painting drawing and making things with different materials. For a end project I made a drawing with funny faces and a back made out of various different things. Here is a photo of my funny faces drawing :)
Kia Ora! This week for Wananga with Mrs. Alpers we had to write a blog about our awesome holidays. But, we had to do it on the S.P.I.L.E scale. S.P.I.L.E stands for Social Activities, Physical Activities, Intellectual Activities, My Likes and My Emotions. Here is most of the things I did during my holidays. Whakangahau (Enjoy) :)
Socials Activities - Photography with my Gran, Cooking with my Gran, Seeing old family friends, Hanging out with my friends, Went swimming with my brother, Talked to my friends heaps.
Physical Activities - Went for walks around the farm in Ashburton, Did tailing for the lambs ,Went to Washpen Falls and did walks with my Project K group (didn't do much physical stuff hahaha)
Intellectual Activities - Did puzzles in magazines, Read the magazines, Played heaps of card games with my Gran, Did a very miniscule amount of school work, Played heaps of videos games with my online friends.
My Likes - Being on the farm, Being with my Gran and Grandad, Being away from home, Not having to go to school, Doing actually fun stuff and not being at home all the time but mostly talking to my friends.
My Emotions - Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, HAPPPYYY!!!
Today in English we wrote a 100 word challenge. We had to write it about a girl named Stracey and how she found out why no one went into the class room number 12. I put a bit of a horror twist on it so it was very fun to read. Enjoy :)
Today in English we had to write a poem. We had to make it that you didn't know what it was until you were told. I am actually very proud of my poem. It is about a Lemon and It's Tree. Enjoy :)
This year for science we are learning about heaps of different topics. The first topic we learnt was Atomic Science, which was around the periodic table and chemicals. For this blog I'll be explaining my learning. Enjoy :)
What does the periodic table show us ?
1. Mass Number
3. Atomic Numbers
4. Different Alumns
5. Different Rows
6. Features Of The Elements.
( Alkali Metals, Transition Metals, Gases )
I had a lot of fun with this topic because it was fun learning about all the elements and the atoms, neutrons, electrons and protons. Our next topic is going to be about acids and bases. I'm really looking forward to this one too :)
For the past few weeks we have been working on our second class for social studies. This one is about Parihaka, Again we used My Maps to show our work. For those of you that don't know, Parihaka is a place in taranaki which was a place for tragedy in the 1800's. I will link my map underneath :)
Another part of this assessment was to look at a song that was written for Parihaka, we know this because it's called Parihaka! This song was written and preformed by Tim Finn & The Herbs. We have to look at the lyrics and see which ones are important. Here is my thinking :)
My friend, My friend, I hate to see you suffer
Events conspire to bring us to our knees
My friend, my friend, you've taken this the wrong way
Rise up, defend yourself, never give in
Look to the sky, the spirit of Te Whiti
The endless tide is murmuring his name
I know Te Whiti will never be defeated
And even at the darkest hour
His presence will remain
I'll sing to you the song of Parihaka
Te Whiti he used the language of the spirit
Then stood accused, the madman and his dream
He saw the train go roaring through the tunnel
He heard the voice travel on the magic wire
But he loved the silence of the river
He watched the dog piss on the cannon's wheel
I know Te Whiti will never be defeated
And even at the darkest hour
His presence will remain
I'll sing to you the song of Parihaka
One day you'll know the truth
They can't pull out the roots
Come and take me home
To weep for my lost brother
They gather still, the clouds of Taranaki
His children's children wearing the white plume
So take me for the sins of these sad islands
The wave still breaks on the rock of Rouhotu
And when you taste the salt that's on your pudding
And when you taste the sugar in your soup
Think of Te Whiti, he'll never be defeated
Even at the darkest hour
His presence will remain
I'll sing for you the song of Parihaka
Come to Parihaka
Weep for my lost brother
The spirit of nonviolence
Has come to fill the silence
Come to Parihaka
Today in Home economics we were looking at the colours, flavours and textures in the practicals we have done. I chose to talk about the Colours, flavours and textures in the Chicken Chow Mein we made. We also had to answer the question why are the Colours, flavours and textures in our dishes? My answer to that is because we eat with our eyes by looking at the dish we order / make, Because if the dish didn't look appetising why should we want to eat it? Here is my Google Drawing.
For the past week in Social Studies we have been learning about the slave trades. We have been using My Maps to complete this task, My Maps is a basically a map but you can add pins and lines and lots of other things. We had to watch heaps of reenactment videos which were very sad but we were focusing on the music mostly because they used it to communicate and they used spirituals in their bush meeting because they couldn't go to normal churches for obvious reasons but there were some hidden meanings in the spirituals giving them ways to escape. Here is the My Map link for my work. The questions I have to answer will be underneath.
Explain the Spirituals and what they were.
The spirituals were a way of getting through to the slaves so they could send message to help them escape. They also gave them hope so they could believe that they could make it.
Explain who Harriet Tubman and what the Underground Railroad was.
Harriet Tubman was a very wanted lady because she helped the slaves escape using the Underground Railroads. The Underground Railroads are tunnels underneath the places where the slaves found a way to get to them out of that horrible situation.
Choose a Spiritual and explain the lyrics that stand out and the hidden meaning.
I chose ' Wade in the water ' which is the one we listened to which is basically what it sounds like. Because if you tried to escape the masters would send out vicious dogs but dogs can't track a smell in the water.
How are these events still significant today?
They are significant today because people still think they can use people based on the colour of their skin. Think of the Black Lives Matter protest, The people of that colour were trying to save themselves from the white police and lots of other racist people.
Today in English we are starting a Novel Study. The novel we are going to read is called Unwind. I have never heard of this book before but apparently they are making it into a movie too. All we know about this book it that it is a dystopian world, and we know what the cover looks like. So, based off of the cover we have to answer some questions about the book. Here is a photo reference so you can get an understanding of what i'm seeing.
I think this story will be written in first person because most books are and they are easy to read.
Why do you think the story is entitled as it is ?
I think its titled at this because it could be like a back to the future type of thing or I could be completely wrong.
Where do you think the story will take place ?
I think it will probably be in america somewhere but in my head I picture somewhere really snowy.
What time period do you think the story is set in ?
I think it could be set in anywhere from the 1950's to the late 2000's.
This year I am doing Home Economics. This blog post will include all of my practicals for the semester. You will have to check back every week and see what we have made. The first thing we made was Chicken Chow Mein which is the first thing on the slide show. Enjoy!
