NZ Identity Treaty of Waitangi

NZ Identity WW1 Battle of Gallipoli

This is Xanthe and I's slideshow about WW1 and the battle of Gallipoli.

I can take action to improve the water cycle in Canterbury

I can take action to improve the water cycle in Canterbury

In this project I was working with Mollyanne and we decided to create an online children's book.

In this project we decided that our success criteria was:

Eye catching covers

An interesting title

Colourful illustrations  

Jokes spread around the book

Rhyme if possible

Overall our project met this criteria because our book had all of these traits and was successful.

This is our final product

Read this free book made on StoryJumper

Apply the techniques of improvisation to a range of different scenarios.

WALT apply the techniques of improvisation to a range of different scenarios.

Improvisation TECHNIQUES that I have used successfully are: The yes and technique where you accept what you partner is saying and add more, keep eye contact and listen to what you partner is saying so you can think of what to add.

Some Improvisation TECHNIQUES that I would like to have more practice at are: keep a straight face and casual body language because I sometimes start laughing in the middle of a sentence

The thing that I enjoyed most about this unit of learning was being able to say anything and everyone else would just go with it because we can have a lot of fun but still learn things.

The thing that I found most challenging during this unit of learning was getting involved at the beginning because I think we were all quite shy and awkward and had no idea what to do.

My favourite improvisation game was yes and because we could say really random and stupid things but some how still keep going.

My next step in improvisation is getting involved more and faster because it took me quite a while to get comfortable and involved.

Term 1 Integrated Learning - Leadership

We have been learning all about What makes a good leader.

Here is a link to the Leadership modelling book.

We identified that good leaders show six main character traits. These are ; show integrity,resilience, be motivational,goal focused,trustworthy and be an active thinker.

The leadership trait that I think I show the most is resilience because I try my hardest and try to never give up.

The leadership trait I would most like to develop is trustworthiness because I am usually late and always losing my things.

Something NEW I have learned about leadership is; what it takes to be a leader.

The SOLO level that I reached during this unit of learning is relational because I can compare and contrast the traits of different leaders.

My next step in learning about leadership is to apply everything that I have learned about leadership to my own leadership roles.

peer mediation-merit- post 3

This week on wednsday,my group (Sasha and I) had peer mediation. 
We had no problems so we kind of just wandered around the junior and senior area. We mostly stayed in the junior area.

I showed resilience by keeping goping on my duty instead of just giving up because we had no problems. I showed active thinking by going into the major trouble spots in the school. My next duty is next week and I hope that we are able to solve a few more problems.

librarians-merit-post 3

This week on tueday, I hade librarians with Jessica, Lauren and Xanthe. We read to a lot of juinors that day. Mrs ward suggested that we take the lego and the barbie books down with us this time. We did just that and we were swarmed by juinors. I read about thirty barbie books and twenty lego books.

I used communicate and resilience by reading the books loudly and not giving up with having to read so many of them. I can't wait for next week because no matter what others say I find librarians quite enjoyble.

Assembly-merit- must do 2

This week we had a kauri assembly. The assembly was about 45 mins -1hr long. We sat near the back of the hall with the year sixes. My favourite part of kauri assembly is game time.

 I showed resilience making it through the assembly without talking to my friends next to me. I showed excellence by being a good example for the younger students. I am slightly looking forward to our next assembly even if they are really boring the game time is always pretty fun.

flag research

Here is an example of my learning that we have done about the changing of the flag.
My opinion with the flag changing is that we keep our current flag for many reasons. Some of those reasons are in the doc on that link so check it out for more.

junior games

          playing games with the juniors

Today all of the year 8's played games with the juniors. first they asked us to get into pairs so i went with Mollyanne. we had to pick a game to play with the juniors on that was simple and had minimal equipment.

we decided that we would play octopus.

with our first group we introduced ourselves and went into playing. we spent about twenty minutes playing octopus before going into playing birthdays. i enjoyed playing with the juniors.

with our second group we played this weird game which was a 

leadership in the food forest and the junior classrooms

Yesterday and today all of us year eights helped out in the food forest. All of the year sevens are away at camp so all of the year eights are helping out in the junior classes and the food forest. I am going to tell you about the food forest. You see the first group helped the year fours harvest some seeds. I was not in that group.

The second group,which was my group did all the weeding. We spent all afternoon weeding and getting rid of dead plants. That was yesterday today we spent the middle section of the day harvesting sweet corn. We harvested a lot of corn before going on to more weeding but this time in a different section. 

We had to be very careful when harvesting the corn because mixed in with the corn shoots were Deadly Nightshade berries. Nightshade is very poisonous and we could have died if we had eaten some berries or they had come in contact with an open wound.

 

          The year eights weeding in the food forest 

We also helped out in some junior classes. We helped out in room 14,17,18 and 19. I am in group G and we helped out in room nineteen yesterday and room eighteen today. We helped them with writing and maths as well as action stations.

I made friends with a little girl called Chloe she was in room 19. My group and I had lots of fun working with the juniors and we learned some new skills. I think working with the juniors helped my leadership.

I believe working with the junior classes and in the food forest helped me to become a better leader.

Peer mediation-merit- post 2

Today I had peer mediation. My partner is year seven and they are at camp so I got my friend alyssa to fill in for her. we had one problem and one problem only. Our single issue that we sorted out was a simple on just a simple disagreement over the rules of a game.

The dissagreement was between four girls playing tag. We fixed the problem easy enough we simply let them share their sides of the story and let them come up with a solution. Their solution was simple they restarted the game after explaining the rules with us.

They did come to us again but not because of a problem just to assure us that everything was going great. We did how ever have no more problems so we just kept doing circuits of the field ,courts and juinor area.

I think our peermediation is making a difference in our school helping others fix problems and I am kind of looking forward to next weeks peer mediation duty.

Librarians-merit- post 2

Yesterday I had librarians. My partner has yet to turn up to librarians so I have to get my friends to do it with me. This week we had alot of little kids come up to us. We lugged our books and beanbags to the music room deck. Almost strait away we were swarmed by juinors.

I read to about ten kids but my friends were the ones who got the hard job. They were reading to about five at a time and read about ten books were as I read to one or two kids and read about five books. We accidently took a beanbag that had a hole in it and we thought we had popped it. 

We were having trouble taking everything back at the end because we lost a person near the end so some of the kids helped us out. We got two kids to carry a beanbag while we carried the other two while the other kids looked after the books. When we came back we got some kids to help us carry all the books.

I really enbjoyed this weeks librarian and I can't wait for next week but I'll have to remind my partner.

Technology

This week at tech I was back at workshop with my group. We went strait back into sanding and I finished sanding my handles going all the way from p80-p1500. My friend Emily and I are now finaly up to the same point and are both back onto sanding the sides of the tray.

Our teacher, Mr.Bowers decided to make our sanding more intrusting by starting a little competition. The competition is who evers is sanded the smothest and softest by the end will win some lollies and chocolate and now all of a sudden everyone cares how theirs looks and feels.

We only have about five more weeks until our projects need to be finished but I feel like I will be fine and will finish in time. My teacher said that if ours is good then we can finish our projects with beeswax I hope that I can because I think that would look really cool.

I hope that I finish my tray in time and I can't wait for next week.

Technology-merit- must do 1

This week on tuesday we had technology. Every week on tuesday in the morning we go to lincoln primary to do technology. Technology is 5 rotations that last about 7 weeks each rotation. The 5 different courses are; hard materials/workshop, foods, science,design and textiles. Right now I am in workshop.

Last week we choose weither we were making a clock, a tray or a small table. I chose a tray as did my friend/partner. That week we did a lot of planning figuring out what our creations would look like and how we would make them.

This week we cut out most of our wood. we sanded so much that they were extremely smooth. We swapped using deifferent sand paper, I got from p60 to p220 and my wood is extremely smooth.

Next week we will probably continue sanding. Once we are finished sanding, what happens next I don't know but I'm sure it will be fun and I can't wait for next tuesday.

Librarians-merit-post 1

This week on tuesday I did librarians. My group and I are on the juinors rotation. Every week on a tuesday we go down to the juinors with a wide selection of books. Little juinors come up to us and choose a book and we read to them. This week was really busy I had to get one of my friends a fellow librarian to help us out.

Even though I have only just started librarians this week I enjoyed librarians and I know my group and friends enjoy it too. I hope that the younger kids keep coming to hear the stories that we read to them because reading is a greatway for them to get involved at lunch.

I used communicate by reading clearly to the juinors. I used excelence for showing up. I hope that next librarians duty will be just as busy and entertaining as this one.

Peer mediation- merit-post 1

On wednesday I had my first peer mediation duty. I would have had anotherd duty last wdnesday but I was not available so I got my friend to cover for me. My group isn't really a group it is a pair, it's just sasha and I. We didn't get many problems only two infact but I suppose thats a good thing because that means people are sorting out there own problems or there are a lot of teachers on duty.

The two problems we had were both really minor and both were in the juinor area. Our first problem was a girl whos little brother kept following her around so they came up with a compromisation and the problem hasn't come up again since.

The second problem that was brought to us was extremely minor just some people who were argueing over the rules of the game. The six boys involved in the game agreed to start over after agreeing on a new set of rules with us present.

I showed reilience by keeping walking even though we barely had any problems. I showed community by helping the teachers,walking around solving problems.

I beleive we are doing a very good job being peer mediators. I also think with the smaller amount of problems that others are starting to figure out how to solve their own problems.                                                                                                                                                            

Describe the traits of an affective leader.

This term we have been learning about leadership. Mainly the traits and of a good leader. The traits that we learned were;  integrity ,resilient, active thinker ,goal focused ,motivstional trustworthy .

We did some reading activites on different famous people to see what leadership traits they possess. I acheived multi-structural  Some of my favourite leaders that we worked with were both women in the second wkrld war.

Nancy wake was a spy for the french and Katherine hall was a nurse for the chinease. Nancy showed amazing resilience when she had to hide out from some enemy soldiers and starved for eight days.

 Katherine showed she was goal focused when she was discovered by the japanese (their enemy) and was made to go back to hef home country (new zealand).  But instead of giving up she stayed focused on her goal and jumped ship to another one heading back to china.

We learned some amazing leadership skills and some teaits of an effective leader.

student led conference

This is my student led conference slide show, enjoy.