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Zespri Challenge

 My class has been doing the Zespri challenge for a few days and most of been enjoying it so far. We go on walks around the block nearly every day and enter our data into the website to unlock new videos. Me and Jess have been doing tennis for a few weeks and that gets us heaps of steps.

It is important for the whole class to enter their steps as data for all of our benefit. We will unlock new videos and soon enough we'll reach the end of our journey. If everyone participates then we can get there faster than if only a few people did it.

You also get bonus points for how much fruit & veg you eat, how little your screen time is, how much water you drink, etc. Even if you only eat one fruit you get bonus points. Some people might like to cheat and say they ate more fruit and vegetables than sugar an snacks. Or maybe they'd say they spent half an hour on their devices when they really spent six hourrs. 

Language Examples

 This a slideshow I made showing a few language examples for probability.

Kaylis Peneha Awarded Steve Adams Basketball Scholarship

Kaylis Peneha has been awarded the Steven Adams basketball scholarship for 5 years. I don't know what that means but I assume it's something good. He had to go through a strict and careful test to get into Scots College. The basketball coach at the college supports Kaylis acknowledging his talent. It was a big surprise when he was given the chance at a scholarship which recognizes one student and assists them through their college years.

Paxmin Raukawa, one of Kaylis's basketball coaches, was very supportive of Kaylis. Kaylis has already been to two Steven Adams traaining camps, particularly New Zealands highest profile professional basketball to ever play in American basketball league. 

Steven Adams, who currently plays in the United States for the Memphis Grizzlies, was enrolled in Scot College and his training camps and scholarships are kind ways of uplifting and helping dreaming youthful basketball players wanting to pursue professional careers in basktetball.

"All of us here at Raukawa basketball are excited for Kaylis and the oppurtunities this scholarship will provide him." Paxmin states. "On top of being really talented, Kaylis is just a really good kid and him and his whanau deserve this." He has said all the club members are pleased for Kaylis.

Lion Dance

 Today our class learned about the Lion dance. We waited for Mrs Nelson-Latu's class to finish with their learning then walked in and met Winsome. He told us to find a partner and I went with Jess.

Jess went to grab a belt from a pile. Later we had to hold onto the belt. to know where to go. Winsome showed us a gong, drum, and symbols. Me, Jess, and some other kids got to go in the suits first.

The first few minutes were fine but then something happened. My back began to cramp up as a result of bendng over for so long. I nearly cried in the suit because of it. I tried to endure it but I couldn't then went to see Whaea. I sat out for the final few minutes.

Winsome told me to lay on my stomach to help my back. It did. By the time I was better the dance was done. The other group began and the real cat Ed came in. He wandered around for a bit then Lilley put him outside. When we were done we thanked Winsome and left. 

Labour Weekend

 I didn't do much on labour weekend if I'm being honest. But on Sunday my mum took me to the public tennis courts to practice. We were both pretty bad. She had bought a racket prior so she could play with me.

Apparently my dad couldn't come because he's 'too good'. Me and mum missed alot but she mised more thn me so that felt good. Once I accidentally hit mum!

At one point I hit is so hard and high that it flew over the fence and onto the road. I convinced mum to get it because I was to scared. She came back and we continued playing. I hit it on the road 2 more times.

Once we were done I realized how much time had past. What I thought had been ten minutes had really been 40! After that we went to the supermarket. I got bored in the car so I learned to juggle. 

The next day we went to the fruit & veg place in Manakau and to see and feed some our horses (Pauanui and Clover). Nui saw us first. She's pregnant with a baby that comes in 2 months or so. Nui called to Clover who came running and nearly ran us over despite her old age. We put down their feed and pat them before leaving. 

My Holiday

 In the holidays I took up a new sport with my friend Jess. We started playing tennis. On the first Tuesday of the holidays we got to tennis at 10:30AM. Me and Jess walked inside the courts and waited for it to start. When it began we got split into groups of -7 and 8-12. Jess is thirteen but she got let in. We started learning how to hold a racket. We also learned how to server, what the names of the lines were, and just a few excersises. My legs hurt really bad the next day. 

The next lesson was in the next week because of the weather. The next lesson we learned a little bit about backhands, but mostly the same material as last lesson. There was a competition to win a free racket but me and Jess lost.

The day after that we had another lesson. This time we had to play in the rain. It was bearable, but soon enough the rain got so bad we had to go inside the club house. Me, Jess and another older girl had to set up a new net inside. The older girl did most of the work but me and Jess helped with the net part. For the rest of the day we just did rallys.

On the final holiday lesson we did a lot of games and rallys. At the end he asked who would be coming for the free term 4 program, Me and Jess and a few others raised there hands (but they weren't there on Tuesday).

The next day I went out with my mum to buy tennis gear. First we went to Rebel Sport to buy some shorts and a racket. We came out with three tennis balls, a racket, and no shorts. Then we went to the warehouse to look a little further. I wandered off to look for a new book in a series I'm collecting (I'm only missing 2 books in the series). 

But there was a problem. The only book they had was a book I already owned. I was standing in an aisle of childrens books and was starting to get embarrased. But then I had idea. I began to check behid the book I had. But to no avail. It was the same book. I was beginning to lose hope. But I perservered. I checked behind the book again. As soon as I did that, my face lit up with joy. It was a book I wasn't aware even existed from the same series. I snatched the book and ran to my mum who was browsing clothes and present my newfound book to her. I said I wanted to spend some of my birthday money. "Are you sure?" She said I nodded. I was ecstatic. After that we went home and finished our holiday.

Mandatory Vaccinations

 It has been announced that in order for teachers to work with students in NZ, all teachers need to be fully vaccinated by January 1st 2022. I agree with this for a few reasons. The first being that in general if more people are vaccinated the less lockdowns there will be. The less covid that will spread. Yes, there is still a chance you can catch it but better safe then sorry. 

Another reason is that it is safer for the children the teachers work with. Being in a cramped room is practically begging for a highly infectious illness to spread. Especially if the children they work with can't get vaccinated. The risk of a full school covid is very high if the teachers aren't vaccinated.

My final reason I can think of is that it may encourage parents who aren't already vaccinated. It could make them think that they're endangering their children by not getting vaccinated and exposing them to covid. Therefore getting a small step closer to everyone getting vaccinated.

Fractions

 Here is some more fraction work I've done this term. 

Some of my fraction work

 I made this small slideshow to show an example of using fractions in the real world :D.

My pets

 I have lots of pets such as two dogs, more horses than I can count, but the one I love most is my cat Murray. He used to be a stray cat but one day when he was just four weeks old he came crying at our door in 2018. My mum opened the door and let him in the house. We fed him for a few days and then my dad said he would get adopted by someone else. I cried a lot. So much that my dad let us keep him. We assumed he was a domestic short-hair because that is a common type of stray cat.

He got to name him though. One time I went into the bathroom he was staying in and he was peeing ontop of Emma's potty. He loves eating meat and always jumps up on our bench and eats our food. He likes sleeping in my room and a box. He always scratches on my door really late at night asking to be let in and it wakes me up. He likes hunting birds and rabbits during the day. Something he doesn't like is being picked up when he's in a playful mood. Usually he's fine with it and calm but when he's playing he'll scratch your arms off.

Jean Batten Activities

 On Friday, August 6th, we dedicated a day to Jean Batten Activities to beat the record of other classes. My group consisted of Me, Jess, and Lilley. We were called GER pronounced j-er. The first activity we got was to find a picture of Louis Blériot. I think it was the easiest one of them all as we were the first ones done with a time of 2-3 minutes. The longest group took 20. We didn't really need any skills other than being able to follow instructions and clues.

When we did the morse code we got the answer right the first time but ordered the letters wrong. The words were 'Arrives Mangere' which is a place in Auckland, New Zealand. Then there was a code with numbers to solve what the time was when she landed. Eg. 123654 are not in the number, 789 three numbers are right but in the wrong place and so on. We had to use problem solving skills to figure out that she landed at 5:00PM. We got it after a while and then a group stole our answers. 

Making buzz planes was pretty easy because all we had to do was connect a few wires but the whole class needed help from next door to make them vibrate.Our group and Jorgias group collaborated because theirs broken. We decided to both our batteries on one car. I think that made a big difference. Our plane was the fastest by far. We needed a little bit of techinical skills and problem solving for this. 

Overall we came fourth with 2 first places in the activities.

Goals for Term 3

My math goal for Term 3 is to expand my times table knowledge so I can do my 15x 16x 17x 18x and 19x. I already know everything below that so I just want to be abe to do all my times tables up to 20x. I'm decent at remembering numbers so it shouldn't be painfully hard. I need to be able to do that because I'm already pretty good at the other ones so I need to move on.

My writing goal is to have longer sentences as mine are always to short. My sentences need to be longer because otherwise my story will get boring. My reading goal is to pay more attention and to not skip lines because I tend to accidentally do that then the whole sentence doesn't make sense. I need to do that so I can understand what I'm reading better and faster.

My group work goal is to be more cooperative and involve other people and not just do the whole thing by myself because I do that and it gets stressful. I need to do that so the other people learn to. Finally, my personal goal is to be more social with my family. I need to do that so I don't become ultra-antisocial. Also I go to bed from 9:30PM-10:00PM. I think that it a reasonable time because I wake up at 6:30AM which is 8 hours I think.

Jingle Bells Piano

I got the link to the video for Kiwi Jinge bells so it will probably work.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aoSFgpKPRQSGElE643NKSPJi3KtXQhX0/view?usp=sharing It is very quiet so you might need to turn your sound up.

My Kiwi Jingle Bells (SLJ)

This is a re-writing of Kiwi Jingle Bells by The Polkadots. I hope you like it! I put heaps of ffort into learning the chorus of Jingle Bells by ear on the piano. 

Custom Santa Outfit (SLJ)

 This is a Australian Santa outfit I made for the Summer Learning Journey.

How I Write

This is a document I made on how I write my stories. 

 My name is AIlie and I really enjoy writing. It is my favourite subject at school and I even won a trophy for it. One day I want to be a world famous thriller author of many scary books that take you on an emotional journey. My favourite books are the twilight saga, hunger games, and harry potter. I have a style of writing like nobody else's in class because of the experiences I have had with books I have read. I also really enjoy Stacy Gregg books. I don't like writing recounts because it is harder to write in first person or in third person. I know lots of people write off of experiences they have had but not quite a recount. Now, this is how I write my stories. 

 First, I have to have an idea. Not just an idea though, one that really clicks in my head. I don’t like to use cliches in my writing because that makes my stories like others. I like to write unique stories so my audience doesn’t get bored a minute in. I have a story planning document I use when I am writing new stories so I don’t lose my idea. I also use it to build up my ideas.

 Almost every time I write a story, I have inspiration. I follow a tik tok account of a teenager writing a book. They give out writing tips to other young writers like the do’s and don'ts. I usually get my story ideas from books I read but it's never word for word. It’s more I use words and aspects from the story and implement them into my own. I am writing a story called Soulful and like how the vampires in twilight sometimes have gifts, instead of sometimes, everyone has gifts. But they aren’t vampires. And like hunger games, scientists send kids to an arena. Not for the same reason though. They have to discover their power by facing fearsome creatures. 

 Synonyms. Sometimes I will think of a boring word that would fit right into my story but also think it was to cliche. So every time I look up ‘(Insert word) synonym’. It always comes up with exceptional words for me to use in my stories. I also find my words from reading other good books and finding out the meaning. Once I have found the meaning, I’ll be able to use the word whenever in my story. That sort of goes along with inspiration, but it is also a very good reason for why my stories are slightly engrossing. 

 I like to sort my writing into paragraphs to make my stories easier to read. If your writing is bunched up the whole time, it will be harder for the reader to read. They will get confused with the lines and overall give up reading the book/story. Lots of stories do 

This with their paragraphs which is nice, but sometimes it gets harder to tell if you’re starting a new paragraph or changing the line. 

 When writing a story, I find it’s easier to write a short story then to drag on your story to the point where it is more boring than watching paint dry. If you are writing a story about maybe a teenage girl, you shouldn’t write it like: 

And then she woke up, got dressed, and went to school. At school, she learned about english. It was fun. That doesn’t hook the reader in. It should be more along the lines of: 

When she finally woke up, she sighed. Another day. (Name) slipped on her golden uniform and ate her mushy breakfast soon after. The walk to school was almost painful, but the subject english was more. 

There are better words used like adjectives to describe what she is doing. And when you are writing and trying to drag along to the climax, don't make it boring. Make it a journey for the reader and the character to get there. 

 So overall, try to read longer and better books. It will really help the way you write stories and develop your taste in stories. Look for tips and tricks for writing sites if you really want to know more. If you drag on your stories, the reader will get bored, so make it more interesting. And remember, stay organized!

Perth Travel Brochure (SLJ)

 This is both sides of a travel brochure I made about Perth, Australia for the summer learning journey.

Summer Learning Journey Slide

 This is a slideshow I made about my experience participating in the Summer Learning Journey last year.

Camp Photos

 The school camp and it was a very good experience. My photos weren't as good as camp was though..