Year: 2022

Venn Diagram

LI: To list the similarities and differences as you can between the two texts. 

 

Our task here was to compare the similarities and differences between the same story told from two different perspectives. We read The 3 Pigs and The True story of the 3 pigs. The first text was told from the pig’s perspective and the second story was written from the perspective of the wolf.

Something I found interesting was how the wolf and the pigs had different sides of the story, which made it hard to see what was the truth, and if they exaggerated a bit on their side. 

Who is at Fault?

LI: To make an informed opinion.

This week we have been learning about bias. Bias can be objective which means you don’t let your past experiences affect your opinion or subjective which means you let your past experiences affect your opinion. We looked at the same story from different perspectives. A perspective is viewpoint on how you look at the story. After reading and summarising both texts we thought about and talked about the facts to help us make an informed opinion.

Our group found this interesting because everyone had different ideas on who is at fault the pigs or the wolf. 

Something I found was that even though the wolf had said his side of the story, that didn’t influence me to think that he was the victim instead of the pigs.

Reading for Enjoyment Holiday Challenge

LI: To keep our reading going during the school holidays.

The focus on the RFE holiday challenge was to keep students in LS2 to continue with their reading in the time off school.

This holiday programme consisted of reading different books and completing challenges we (Chisa, Farzana, Bella, Te Raumati, Santana, & David) have created for them to complete. The challenge is based on three different activities they could do (e.g. they can do the simple, neutral, or a level a bit higher) and gain a certain amount of points for each activity completed. For example, if I had completed the neutral activity and the hardest activity for day 1, I would gain 3 points + 5 points which would total to 8 points. 

The reward for keeping their reading going for their holidays was, if the readers had completed ⅔ activities for 3 days, they were able to have a special lunchtime at school. We (Chisa and Farzana) had run the programme throughout the holidays, gave feedback, collected data and added the points.

Farzana and I looked at the finished work sheet and gave a lot of feedback to the people who participated. We made sure to look at their work properly, give constructive criticism, asked questions and made connections with the activities they had completed. Each day, we were very impressed with the amount of work done and seeing the consistency of the work. 

When the holidays had passed and we were back at school, we totalled the points of people who contributed to the reading challenges and found out who had won the top three places. The readers who had the highest points would win special prizes. 

During this time, I found it interesting, and hard to give students feedback without repeating the same feedback. One thing I noticed about this RFE holiday challenge was how we should’ve made the instructions more clearer, as students didn’t read a variety of books but only had 2-3 books type of texts, to complete all the activities. 

Creative Sports Challenges / Kings Court

LI: To create a new sports challenge/game for the class to play using our prior knowledge of sports.


Over the past week, LS2 has been working collaboratively in groups to create a unique and competitive sport challenge. We did multiple challenges that lead up to the making of our official game, which includes making the mascot, a chant and a costume.

Some things we had to include in our game was safety rules, a scoring system, a list of the equipment we need, a map out of the playing area and we had to make sure to bulletpoint information so it is easy to read.

Our group’s game is called King’s Court and it is a tournament-style dodgeball game. To play, there are 5 groups of 7. Team 1 and Team 2 will verse first. Then Team 3 and 4 will verse while Team 5 rests. Next, teams 3 and 4 will rest while the winner between Team 1 and 2 will verse Team 5. This will continue until the end of the game. At the end, the losing teams will merge and the winning teams will merge. These teams will finally verse.

This activity and task helps us to become familair with using our prior knowledge and apply our thinking to our learning, as well as working collaboratively with a large group of people.

Matariki Cinquain Poem

LI: To write a cinquain poem to describe Matariki

Our challenge today was to write a cinquain poem to help us strengthen our connections to description that describes Matariki. A cinquain poem has 5 lines. Each line has a different purpose. Line 1 is a noun which is a name. Line 2 has 2 adjectives that describe the noun. Line 3 has 3 verbs that end in ‘ing’ and describe the actions. Line 4 is a noun phrase which is a group of words (not a sentence) that go together to describe the noun. Line 5 is a synonym which is a word with a similar meaning to the noun. 

I enjoyed doing this activity it let us use creativity when writing our cinquain poems.

Matariki Challenges

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iv_D3dVuXsUDqrXvmMTJwrdVgqWx-o1_/view?usp=sharing

LI: to explain in a creative way what Matariki, food preservation and harvest time is using prior knowledge and originality.

This week, our tasks are being focused around the Matariki new year, and it is about getting together with friends, family, and loved ones. Today we have been writing about interesting facts, what the each names of the 9 stars are and what they mean, how people celebrate Matariki, etc. 

Something I learnt during this task was about how it is about reflecting on the past, celebrating the present, and planning future. 

I  found this interesting because it was about showing our understanding of Matariki and how it could be celebrated to show respect. 

Ratios to Percentages

LI: To solve word problems that involve moving between fractions, ratios, decimals and percentages.

For this task, we have been learning to solve equations where we convert ratios to decimals, fractions then percentages. We completed multiple tasks that help us understand the process of conversion starting from ratios. Our finishing challenge was to create a DLO that explains the process of converting these areas of maths and how to find the percentage of an amount using ratios.

To complete this process, first identify the ratio in the equation. Then, add both numbers of the ratio to find the denominator of the fraction. Next, mutliply or simplify the numbers of the fraction until you get the denominator to a common multiple of 100 or 10. Then, the numerator divided by 10 or 100 becomes the decimal. Multiply the decimal by 100 to get the percentage. An example is shown on the slide so that it is clearer for the audiece to understand and be able to solve similar equations in the future.

Exploring Mood and Atmosphere in WW1

We have been exploring the ways writers use words to create mood and atmosphere in a text. Our group used a text we read in class called ‘The Soldier Who Never Returned.’ You can see the ways the author used different langauge features to create mood and atmosphere in this text by looking at the examples we have highlighted and explained in our DLO.

My favourite example in the text we read was ‘As it waits for the soldier who never came hom’ because the author had used personification, which is giving an object a human like reference to the bottle, which still waits for its owner till this very day.  

I found this activity enjoying, because it helped me to learn new language features, which also helped me to identify them in the texts that my group read. 

Kapa Haka Performance | Library

Today, the senior Kapa Haka group performed at the Panmure Library, to celebrate Matariki (Maori New Year). The audiences that we presented it to where different kindergartens, parents, librarians, and other public pupils as they also came to celebrate Matariki.

The first song we performed was E te Ariki. This is a traditional Maori hymn, and we performed as a waiata.

The second dance we presented was Tamaki E. This action song is a traditional welcoming song for the people. It reminds the audience to come onto our school grounds bringing the memories of their tipuna (ancestors).

The third dance we carried out was Rona. This dance is a poi and a taiaha item. It is an item about the moon, and how Rona is lonely up in the night sky.

The fourth item we performed was Tuia. Tuia is our second action dance. This is about the birds flying above the high sky. 

The last item we presented was the Haka. The haka we performed was our school haka and was the first time we have presented it in public

I enjoyed doing this performance because this allowed all of our performers to build up their confidence to perform, and also work as a team. 

Provocation

LI: To make an informed opinion.

A provocation is an action or speech that triggers strong feelings about a topic. Over the last few weeks we have been learning about the experiences of the men of Te Hokowhitu – a – tu, the first Maori Battalion in WW1. These men had very different experiences to the men who sign up today. Our challenge throughout this unit has been to answer the question: Should the men of the native contingent have had the right to prove their mettle at the front? After completing the tasks and reading a wide variety of texts our group’s response to the provocation was our overall opinions on the activities that were set for us.