Vocabulary Task

WALT create a quality blog post that explains our learning.



My reading task for today was to choose 6 unfamiliar or interesting words found in my text 'Rising Seas'. I've created a poster that has the definition of 6 words and then them written in a setence.

Completing this reading task helped me understand the text better because if I did not know what these words meant, I could not understand what the sentence or paragraph was telling me. I believe it is very important to know what words mean, and if you do not know, take the time to figure it out. Some ways I figure out words I don't know is by reading on and seeing if the text will tell me, looking at the pictures in the text, using a dictionary or googling it. Sometimes I may ask my teacher, friend or family.

What do you think of my task? Did you know what these words meant? Can you put these words in your own sentence?

Country Research - Australia

WALT: create a quality blog post that explains our learning.




My reading task for today was to read 'Rising Seas' and to research and make a poster about Australia and their weather patterns.

During my research I learnt that weather in different parts of Australia are very different to one another. They often experience very different weather patterns in each state. I assume this is because Australia is such a large country.

What did I like about Australia? I really liked how Australia is a very warm country. Apparently their lowest temperature is around 10.6 degrees celsius. Crazy, considering New Zealand can often go below 0 degrees celsius in winter time. I've thought about asking my family if we can go to Australia when it gets too cold in New Zealand. I hate being cold.

To be honest, I did not find anything I dislike about Australia. It is a country I haven't been to yet, but would love to go there in the future. Have you been to Australia? Where have you traveled to? I would love to hear all about it!

Researching about a country

This is an example blog post to model to students of Tui Whanau what is expected

Bali - Indonesia 

I  choose to research about Bali because I travelled there in 2015 and had an absolute blast. I really enjoyed the culture, the people and the places to visit. I was there for 15 days and did not want to come back. In my time there, I learnt how sad it can be to live in a third world country. Many people, including the eldery and kids, lived on the streets. This was upsetting. I cannot wait to go back. 

All about Bali

Ubud Monkey Forest 

Population: 4.22 million as of 2012

Capital: Denpasar

Famous landmarks:

Uluwatu Temple - this is a Ancient Hindu Temple surrounded by the ocean

Ubud Monkey Sanctuary - Temple complex with many monkeys

Semiyak - Beaches & lots of shopping!

Mount Butar - An active volcano popular for climbing  

Currency: Rupiah ($1 NZD is roughly 9062 rupiah).

This is Bali's flag. Half of it is red and half of it is white.

Uluwatu Temple 

New Math Strategy

This is an example blog post for Tui Whanau.

W.A.L.T use place value partitioning to solve addition and subtraction problems.

For the last week my math group, the triangles, have been working on a math strategy called place value partitioning. When using this strategy you have to split each number into their hundreds, tens and ones, and add them together separately.

I enjoy using this strategy as I find it helps me solve problems a lot quicker and I understand the reasoning behind it. Here is an image of how to use place value partitioning.





Have you used place value partitioning before?

Challenge yourself! Have a go at using this strategy for the following problems.

1. Amy had $134 and she was given another $87 for her birthday. How much money does Amy have now?

2. James had 132 sheep in a paddock on Monday. On Tuesday, 45 had gone missing. How many sheep did he have left?

Let me know how you go!

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?