Explanation Writing

This is an example blog post for Tui Whanau.

W.A.L.T write an explanation piece of writing.

This term for Writing we have been focusing on Explanation Writing. Below is my 'How do bees make honey?' explanation writing.

How do bees make honey?
Honey is a popular, but very expensive commodity in New Zealand and across the world. Taking it off the shelf and putting it in your trolley is easy, but have you ever thought about how hard bees work to produce our honey for us? Did you know that bees have to visit two million flowers in order to produce only one pound of honey?
Bees prefer to collect nectar from flowers in Spring, when they are in bloom. They use their proboscis (straw like tongue) to suck as much nectar out of the flowers as they can. Bees have two stomachs; a food stomach and a honey stomach. Their honey stomach is where they store all of their nectar. Once a bee has collected enough nectar, they return to their hive.
Once at the hive, the enzymes and proteins in a bees honey stomach mix with the stored netcar and turn it into honey. Then the workers bees pass the honey through different worker bee mouths as this makes the honey sticky. Once the honey is sticky, they store the honey in the honeycomb.
Next bees flap their wings as fast as they can to dry the wet, sticky honey out. Once it is dry enough, the honeycomb is seal with a wax lid to protect the honey and keep it fresh.
Finally the bees work is done and it is time for the beekeepers to collect their honey from the hive. Humans then go through many more processes to prepare the honey for sale, so it can fill our supermarket shelves.

I am very proud of all the detail I have included in my writing. I spent a lot time researching and planning so that my ideas are complex and elaborated on. Something I would like to work on time is adding visual images to my writing to support my ideas and make it more eye catching for the reader.


Did you learn a lot about bees and how they make money? Have you written an explanation piece of writing before?

Goal Setting

Tui Whanau has been working on setting one strength goal and one stretch goal.
A stretch goal is something that the children need to improve on and work hard to get there. A strength goal is something the children are already good at and would like to get even better at.

Take a look at our goals below. Do any of them relate to you? Have you set any goals this year?

Kiwi Can

Kiwi Can

WALT:
- Build positive relationships with those we interact with
- Be a fair team player
- Work together as a team to share and celebrate successes and challenges

We attend a weekly Kiwi Can session on a Wednesday. We have been learning our new motto and it's actions "If you argue, sort it out, don't shout, work it out." We have been playing and participating in lots of discussions and games that help us learn our learning intention.

Below are a few photos from a 'grab a cone' challenge and a 'fill a bucket' challenge.

 

Have you played either of these games before?

Team Building

In the first week of school Tui whanau participated in a few different team building activities. The purpose of this was to work together and to get to know each other better. We had to get together in a group of 4 - 6 students and this was our group for all of the challenges.

The challenges we participated in was:
- Spaghetti and marshmellow towers
- Water balloon throw
- building a cup tower without our hands

Here are some screenshots of what the challenge was in more detail:

Here are some pictures of our towers that we were very proud of and had fun making!!

What team building challenges have you done before?

Welcome!

Welcome to Tui whanau's blog for 2020

We are a bunch of fun, diligent and kind year 5, 6 and 7 students. For the past three weeks we have been getting to know each other, learning to work together as a team, and use classroom rotation systems. We've had a great time and can't wait to be posting more about our year to come!

What has your class been doing so far this term?

Class Art

Tui Whanau used a variety of art techniques for these pictures which we are going to turn into calendars.

Camera Shots and Angles

                                                           This is a panning shot.

                                                 This is a birds eye view shot.

                                                       This is a worms eye view.

We have been practicing taking camera shots and angles. Because we are going to be making movies
for the Te Hiku film festival. Some of our movies will be shown at the Te Ahu Centre in Kaitaia.