My Christmas Narrative!

 Hello! For last week's writing we were writing about a Christmas Narrative.

We all based our stories off a short video we watched about a banana named Aldi. He was portrayed as a character who hated Christmas, and one night the spirit of Christmas came to visit him, trying to get Aldi to see Christmas in his eyes. 

So for our task we wrote our plan in our books as usual, then wrote down our stories, used our plan and made sure to include describing the setting for the introduction and describing the character. After that we published our stories into a Christmas-themed slide, heres mine!

Have You Made A Rangoli Design Before?

Hello! For reading, we have been learning about Diwali. Diwali is a festival of lights and is celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, and some Buddhists. This event lasts for about 5 days.

For our learning task we read some books on Epic and watched a short video explaining what Diwali is. For our create task, using paper, chalk or drawing online, we created our own Rangoli pattern.

To give you more context on what Rangoli patterns are, a rangoli pattern is an art form from India, there are different kinds of patterns, this type of art is usually made on the floor or on a table. To make the design you use materials like powdered limestone, red ochre, dry rice flower, coloured sand, quartz powder, flower petals, and coloured rocks. But instead of those, we used chalk, although some drew on paper/online.

I thought this activity was lovely! Learning about other cultures was a great experience for me. Have you done a Rangoli pattern before?

My 2021 Achievements!

For Cybersmart, we were learning how to create a video on Canva about 3 things we achieved this year using the video tool!

To make the video. Firstly, I recorded a video of myself for the introduction, then added it to my video. Next I decorated the video with images, and different backgrounds and fonts, but I made sure I only had a minimum amount of fonts I used in the video so everything wouldn't seem complicated or hard to read.

This activity was very fun! It was very easy to make the video with Canva and I didn't struggle with anything at all!

What do you think about my video? Have you used canva before? Let me know in the comments!

Have you made a Self Portrait before?

For art, we have been learning how to blend colours to make skin tones or hair colours, we applied this skill on our portrait art! This art was created in laminating paper. 

So, first off to make the portrait, each of us were taken a photo to use for the tracing of the face and clothing, next I traced the picture using a Sharpie or a vivid. After that, using the colours red, yellow, black, and white I mixed the colours altogether and made a colour altleast similar to my skin colour. 

I really love this activity, mixing colours and learning new ways to create different shades of colours was really fun! 

My Service Poster!

For our R.E Term Value, our focus is on Service and how we can serve others. Our class watched a video about service and its meanings, after we wrote down our ideas together in groups of three in a shared class Google Jamboard about what service sounds like, feels like, and looks like. 

After we made our own posters on Canva about what Service is. I am very proud of my poster, surprisingly this is my first time using Canva! If you don't know what Canva is, it is a design platform to make presentations, documents, other contents, and posters like this one. Here's my poster!

Have you made a Rongoa sign before?

Hello! For reading we have created our own design of our Rongoa signs, the term "Rongoa" refers to the traditional Maori medicinal practices here in New Zealand, using herbal ingredients for massage or healing. These methods were passed down from generation to generation orally. 

We had our choice of which Maori medicinal plant that was planted in our school that we were going to make a sign for. First off we created our design on our chromebooks on Google Slides or on paper which will be under this paragraph, after we have shown the teacher out design and it has been approved, each of the students that have finished their plan get a blank label where they will paint it with the colour they have chosen for the design, then write/sketch the design they made on the sign. To create a successful sign you must have the name of the rongoa plant, and its properties/explanation on how to use it. For my plan I decided I would have a simple sketch with some manuka flowers, I did try my best to recreate the appearance of the flower on Google Slides which I struggled a bit with. Here's my design! 

I enjoyed designing my label, experimenting with which colours or drawings would look best for my sign and how I would layout the titles and words on the actual label. Overall in my opinion this activity was very fun! I can't wait to see the finished product! 

My Royal Spoonbill Art!

A few weeks ago we started our calendar art. For our class' calendar art we did NZ native birds! If you don't know what calendar art is, it is when students make artwork that can be ordered into products such as a postcard, calendar, mouse pads, diaries, or sketchbooks! I chose a Royal Spoonbill for my art! 

To make the art, each of the students in our class printed a picture of the bird that we were going to use for our art, using a pencil, I lightly sketched the bird with the picture taped behind the paper I was going to use for our drawing. After that, I drew small geometric shapes inside the bird. Next I dyed the background, using two colours making a gradient with it. I drew a circle around the bird's head for the highlights. Next up, I added crepe paper around the outside of the circle! Here's my art: 

I enjoyed sketching and shading in the bird and colouring the background for my art! I used some colours in the original picture I used for the sketch in my bird, as you can see, I added blue, light blue, and yellow. 

What do you think about my art? Have you done something similar to this art before? Comment your answers!

Is Mr. Wolf Guilty?

Hello! 2 weeks ago for Reading we have been learning about how to talk about perspectives! We have been learning about this for our speeches which we did last week and our writing piece that we made from the other week!

So for our writing/reading activity we read a couple of Little Red Riding Hood books on Epic! We then wrote three reasons as to why Mr. Wolf, who is one of the characters in the story, guilty or not. Here's my slides! 

This activity was very fun! I loved designing my background and customizing my slides to make it nice!

How To Draw 3D Shapes!

Hello! For Maths we have been learning about the names of the geometry shapes and what they look like!

For our task we drew different shapes on paper, I learnt how to draw most of the shapes from a youtube tutorial provided in our class learning hub. To make it 3D I made sure to properly shade the colours to make it look 3-Dimensional! Here's a photo of my art.

This activity was very fun! I did have trouble shading my shapes since I pressed too hard, though I finally figured out how to make my shading look even better!

Have you heard of The Beatitudes?

Hello, this week is Social Justice Week! So for R.E, we are learning about Social Justice Week and to explain the beatitudes and what each of it means.

So, for our task we watched a couple of videos to learn more about what beatitudes are, we had different choices of beatitudes to explore and learn about, then after creating a simple poster explaining what that beatitude means using photos and shapes. Here's my poster! 

What do you know about the beatitudes? Let me know in the comments! 

Why Games Aren't Bad For You!

Every year, in term 3 we have speeches where we write our topic we have to discuss, for today my topic was about 'Why games aren't bad for you at all!'

We presented our speeches in class last week, and yesterday students from the senior syndicate were selected to compete in the semi-finals. Unfortunately I wasn't one of them, although I was very impressed by the other students! Here's my speech. 

Why games aren't bad for you

I know that most of you have most definitely played video games before! Have you ever heard from other people of how video games or other types of games promote violence, and how it can increase aggression in thoughts, behavior, and feelings? If you are me, then you would agree with the questions above. Today, in my speech, I will explain why I strongly believe that games aren't bad for you. Firstly, video games can actually help you! Some games can actually improve hand-eye coordination, problem-solving skills, and the ability to process information. Another example of the kinds of games that can help you are arcade games, it improves reflexes and muscle memory, playing arcade games reduces stress and depression. How is this possible? Studies have found that people who play games that suffer from mental health issues actually have shown improvement in their condition after venting their frustrations through gaming! Some games actually improve people's moods and promote relaxation! Secondly, some games can actually benefit educational learning! An example is Scratch, it is a platform that can help with programming your own interactive stories, coding games, and more. You can also share your creations online for others to see! Some types of online games that are also helpful with learning are Prodigy. Prodigy is a game which teaches you mathematics, and helps you solve or answer different maths questions. This combines maths from grades 1-8 into a fantasy style game! This game is a gamification type, which adds game mechanics to something which is non-game!

Lastly, games don't affect a child's performance in school or a child's intelligence! The pure fact that people say how games rot your brain is outrageous! A study by McDermott et al proved that people who play video games are excellent at maintaining many memories and higher accuracy in visual spatial working memory, this is a kind of a visual representation. This allows people to visualize something and keep it in their "mind's eye". Another study says children who play games tend to do better at science, maths, and reading tests. 

For these reasons, parents need to reconsider thinking that games aren't bad at all. Thank you for listening to my speech.

Saint Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church

Hello! For R.E, we were finding facts and information about our House saint. In our school, students are put in a house, the houses are St. Joseph Red House, St. Francis Green House, St. Mary Mackillop Blue House, and St. Vincent Yellow House, my house color is Red house.

For our task we drew our house saint using Google Drawings, added facts and information from our research about the saint. Here's my Google Drawing!

I found this activity very fun! I did find using shapes and lines very difficult though. What do you know about Saint Joseph? Let me know in the comments!

Cats VS Dogs!

Hello! For yesterday's Reading we were learning how to apply prior knowledge and opinions! Our topic was about debating which pet is better, cats or dogs!

We researched and read a few videos and a text, next adding our knowledge to a chart, with our opinions and thoughts on which pet is better, some chose dogs and some chose cats. I decided to choose cats! I put a lot of research on my chart to hopefully convince people that cats are a better pet!

It was a very tough decision on which side to pick! Which pet would you pick? Comment your answers! I would love to see them!

Saint Lorenzo of Manila

Hello! On Monday for R.E we were researching the life of a saint. The saint I decided to research was Saint Lorenzo Ruiz.

For what I had to do for this task I created a set of slides and wrote my answers to different questions asking about the life of the saint I picked to research about. Here's my slides:

This activity was amazing! It taught me a lot about things I didn't know! Do you know how people like these saints become one? Let me know in the comments!

Facts You Probably Didn't Know About the Paralympics!

Hello! Today for Inquiry, we were learning about the Paralympics! Since the Paralympic Games are currently held! We were given a video to watch, then we had to write 5 facts about the Paralympics, rather in the template we were given or any other way we came up with to present our facts. Here's mine!

I learnt tons from this activity! I love researching and learning more about this special event!

What do you know about cicadas?

Hello! Yesterday for Reading we were learning how to apply knowledge! We learnt about this so we can apply the knowledge we learnt to other challenges outside of school.

For what we are doing for this task, we were given different choices of which animal/insect to research about. There were different reading levels for this task. Level 2B, Level 2, and Level 3. For level 2B, the topic was about birds, for level 2, the topic was orcas, and for level 3, which is the very last one, the topic was cicadas. I challenged myself to do the highest level which was level 3. Here's my slides!

I loved researching information about cicadas! I learnt tons about these insects throughout researching facts I could add into my slides. I'm looking forward to activities similar to this task in the future! What other information do you know about cicadas? Let me know in the comments!

What is Compost?

What is it?

Have you used compost for anything before? Compost is used as fertilizer for plants, like fruit trees, flowers, trees, shrubs, and other plants. It replaces used/removed nutrients used during the growing season, and improves soil structure.

How is compost made?
The fertilizer is made out of decomposing plants and food waste, cow dung, and other animal waste, grass clippings, twigs, branches, and dead leaves. All of these are collected and put into a pile in your compost bin. Accumulate and add kitchen waste and yard waste. It will take a few months for the compost to decompose and be ready to use, it can take from 3 months to 2 years to fully rot.

The benefits of composting
The benefits of using compost is that it reduces the need for chemical fertilizers which may damage the plants it is used on. It prevents plant diseases and pests that can harm your plants. It recycles yard and kitchen waste, and reduces landfill waste. It provides other key nutrients for your plants like calcium and magnesium, and it improves the ability of soils to hold key nutrients.

Conclusion
In conclusion, compost is a better choice of fertilizer for plants instead of using chemical fertilizers, and it helps the environment. In my opinion more gardeners/people should start using more compost instead of chemical fertilizers to keep your plants/vegetation even more healthier and to help the environment!

Have you tried blowing up a balloon with yeast?

Hello! For yesterday's first lesson/task which was science, we were learning how to make a fizz inflator with vinegar and baking soda! Though we had different choices of what science experiments we wanted to do, there was a yeast experiment, making your own volcano, or exploding a lunch bag! I will put these experiments below the slides.

For the experiment I chose/did, I chose the yeast experiment. This yeast experiment consisted of different ingredients and adding it in with the yeast to blow up a balloon! If you would like to do this experiment, the rest of the instructions will be in the link as I mentioned earlier!

I took some pictures of my experiment, I was going to add a time-lapse video though it wouldn't upload so instead I got some photos, and created a slide!


This experiment was very fun! I was so excited when my experiment worked! Would you want to try this experiment? How did it go for you? Let me know in the comments! Links: Build a Fizz Inflator Blow Up a Balloon With Yeast The Exploding Lunch Bag Make Your Own Volcano

My R.E Word Art!

For our second lesson we are learning about R.E, which is about faith! Which is our value for this term! The meaning of "faith" is to believe in someone or have hope in them, for our lesson we learnt about a gospel about Jesus and how his 12 disciples had faith in him.
So for our task we made our own WordArt listing synonyms about faith and trust. This task is similar to the task we were given the other week with the Assumption of Mary WordArt, I loved making my WordArt! Here's mine!

I found it really fun to customise and design how I would like my WordArt to look like!

What Do You Know About Great White Sharks?

Hello! Yesterday for Reading we were learning how to apply knowledge, we are learning this so we can apply the knowledge we learnt to other challenges outside of school.

For our task we had an option of which animal to gather information and to write facts about, these had different reading levels, Level 2B, 2, 3, and 4 which is the highest level! I chose Level 4 that had the topic about "Great White Sharks". The slides had texts to read, and a video! There were 3 choices for creating part of our task! Write 5 or more facts about our topic, create a food chain animation that includes the animal in the topic we chose, or a poster on Google Drawings showing the different parts of a great white's body. I chose to do the facts on Google Slides! Here's my creation!