Sacraments are signs that people can see!

Learning Intention: We are learning about the seven Sacraments.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I complete all the learning activities for the Sacrament strand in a presentation.

Synthesizing is like putting puzzle pieces together!

Learning intention: We are learning to understand the reading skill of synthesizing.
Success criteria: I know I can do this when I describe how we can put pictures together like puzzle pieces.

There are so many saints in the world!

Learning Intention: We are learning about the Communion of Saints.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I complete all the learning activities in the Communion of Saints strand for the year 5 and year 6 students  in one presentation.

When it is Advent, we are waiting for the Christ to come to us!

Learning intention: We are learning about Advent.
Success criteria: I know I can do this when I write down five facts about Advent.

This lizard has a special way of drinking water!

Learning Intention: We are learning to understand the text that I read.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I answer comprehension questions correctly using information from the article about Australia's thorny devil lizards.

Oh no, my glider has crashed landed!

On a rainy 25th of November, Room 7 had an awesome time making our own gliders out of cardboard!

First, I asked Salome if I could get a sheet of cardboard to use for my glider. I grabbed my pencil, ruler and an eraser. I used both the ruler and the pencil to draw the lines for the shape of the wings, tailplane, fuselage and the stabilizer. Kevin kept telling me that I was taking a very long and that I should just take it to Miss Chao, but I ignored him because I wanted to see if I could do it by myself. I used the eraser because some of my lines weren't the right length. However, I ran out of time when I was cutting the wing because the bell rang for morning tea.

Later, when we came back from our fun morning tea, I quickly went to my cardboard and continued to cut my cardboard pieces out. 10 minutes later, I had cutting out all the pieces for my glider so I started taping my fuselage and the wings together. It took me a long time because I tried to angle my wings in an anhedral position. I cut a straight line inside my tailplane and slid the back part of the fuselage through it. I used a lot of tape and stuck it to the symmetrical parts where it was unstable. After five minutes of getting my glider ready, I went to the cloak bay to try out my glider.

When I was in the cloak bay, people kept coming to the cloak bay and interrupting me during my investigation. I asked them to come to where I was quickly so we can each have time to fly our gliders. I threw my glider in the air, but it was hit the walls and crash landed dramatically on the ground. It reached a length of 4.4 on the measuring tape. After that  I went back to the class and added blu-tack to the front of my glider for weight. I went back to the cloak bay and flew it again. This time it stalled in the air and it landed without hitting the walls and it reached 5.4 on the measuring tape.When I came back in, Miss Chao said that we had to make a glider using only tape and a small amount of straws. When I was making the glider, we had to pack up because it was time for lunch so we said bye to Salome and Siliga (the artists from Art Space who has been helping us with our topic this term).

Making our own gliders was splendid! I wish we had time to make another glider. My favourite part of the day was when we had the opportunity to fly our gliders!

Learning Intention: We are learning to use descriptive language in our recount.

Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I use appropriate adjectives to describe the art lesson that we had on Thursday.

'Wakarere' means plane in Te Reo Maori!

Learning intention: We are learning the topic words for flight in Te Reo Maori.
Success criteria: I know I can do this when I record eight of the vocabulary that are related to flight in Te Reo Maori using Blabberize.

Topic vocabulary for flight in Te Reo Maori

Flight (to fly, to sail)	Rere
hypothesis	whakapae
investigation	ketuketutanga
fuselage	takere
Wings of a plane	Parirau o te wakarere
Lift	ara
thrust	puru
Drag	toanga
weight	toimaha
aerodynamics	Koutata
Tail of a plane	Hiku o te wakarere
Fin of a plane	Urutira o te wakarere
forces	ihi
symmetrical	hangarite
glider	Waka tauihi
plane	wakarere

Sanding wood is hard!

On Thursday 11th of November, Room 7 had a great time taking the pieces out for our glider and sanding it to make it smooth!

First we scored our pieces of the wood. It was very hard because the craft knife kept going out of the sharpie marker line. Scoring the back wings of the wood was very hard because the 1.5 millimetre wood was very fragile and it was very hard to keep the cutting line straight. After I completed scoring my pieces of wood, I put the blade through the lines so the piece that I had split would fall out. It took me a very long time because I was being very careful so that my pieces of wood would not split. 10 minutes later, I heard a crack and my piece of wood started splitted along the side.

Next, I  to Salome and asked her for what to do next. That was when I noticed my classmates were smoothing out their pieces of balsa wood. So I asked Salome and she gave me sandpaper too. Salome gave a sheet of sandpaper to use for sanding my pieces. It was rough and black, but rubbery on the other side. I quickly took the sandpaper and started sanding the pieces. It was a bit hard because the wood was very rough around the edges and the and the sandpaper kept slipping off the fuselage's side. However I had to wait for Tristan because I needed the craft knife to cut a part of the fuselage that wasn't split yet.

After I smoothed out all the pieces out all the pieces the pieces of wood, I swiftly smoothed the fin, but it snapped in two like a cracker so I had to start again. When I finished carefully smoothing out the fin, it was time to pack up because it was the beginning of morning tea. Soon we had to say goodbye to Salome and we had to clean up as fast as the wind, then went out to play outside.

Getting our pieces ready for glueing was awesome! I wish we had more time so we could have started piecing them together. My favourite part of the day was sanding and getting our pieces ready for piecing together.

Learning Intention: We are learning to use descriptive language in our recount.

Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I use appropriate adjectives to describe the art lesson that we had on Thursday.

Let's sing the Waiata 'He Honore!'

Learning Intention: We are learning Te Reo Maori.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I record the waiata 'He Honore' using Blabberize.

The tigress routine can be used as self-defence!

Learning Intention: We are learning Kung Fu.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I record the Tigress duo routine using Wevideo.

Personifications are used to describe many non-living things!

Learning Intention: We are learning to develop our understanding in the English grammar.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I explain that personifications are used to give non- human objects human traits.

These moves are agile as a tiger!

 Learning intention: We are developing our fitness levels through Physical Education.
Success criteria: I know I can do this when I use WeVideo to record all the steps of the Tigress routine that I have learnt from our second Kung Fu lesson.

Oh no, that man is going to shoot the bird with a musket!

Learning Intention: We are learning to identify the main ideas in a story.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I illustrate the main ideas of the story 'Horeta and the waka'.

You can use colons to introduce a list of different things that you may need!

Learning Intention: We are learning to develop our understanding in the English grammar.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I explain that colons are used to show or introduce a list of items, rules or steps.

You can convert percentages to decimals by using fractions!

Learning Intention: We are learning to develop our number knowledge.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I explain the steps of how to convert percentages to decimals.

If someone's trying to hurt me, I can use these moves as self defence!

Learning intention: We are developing our fitness levels through Physical Education.
Success criteria: I know I can do this when I use WeVideo to record all the steps of the Kung Fu panda routine that I have learnt from our first Kung Fu lesson.

Oh no, the shark is going to eat Tripod Fish and Cod!

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Learning Intention: We are learning to write a narrative.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I follow the structure of a narrative to write a picture book called 'The Shark and the Pufferfish' using Flipsnack.

We offer ourselves to God every morning!

Learning Intention: We are learning a traditional prayer.
Success Criteria:  I know I can do this when I record a morning prayer using blabberize.


God, our Father, I offer you today
all that I think and do and say.
I offer it with what was done
on earth by Jesus Christ, your Son.
Amen.

God is our guardian angel!

Learning Intention: We are learning a traditional prayer.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I record the Guardian Angel Prayer using Blabberize.

This party will be awesome!

Learning Intention: We are learning to write a narrative.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I follow the structure of a narrative to write a picture book called 'The Fruitland Party' using Flipsnack.

God will keep us safe in the night!

Learning Intention: We are learning a traditional prayer.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I record the Evening prayer using Blabberize.

God, our Father, this day is done. We ask you and Jesus Christ, your Son, that with the Spirit, our welcome guest, you guard our sleep and bless our rest. Amen.

Wow, lettuce can be grown in Egypt!

Learning Intention: We are learning to understand that people and groups make choices to fulfill their needs.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I use Google my maps to label where the ingredients from a meal that I have eaten comes from.

God will keep us close to him!

Learning Intention: We are learning a traditional prayer.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I record the Adsumus prayer using Blabberize.

We are here before you o Holy Spirit

We feel the burden of our weaknesses

But come together in your name

Come to us, assist us what we must do,

Show us the path to follow,

May you yourself accomplish what you ask of us,

May you be the one to inspire and guide our decisions

Because only you, together with God the Father and his son

Who have a holy and glorious name,

You who love order and peace,

Do not let righteousness be harmed by us,

May ignorance not cause us to stray from the right path,

Any affection for others not give rise to favouritism on our part

May neither titles nor people influence us,

Keep us close to you through the gift of your grace,

So that we may be one in you and that we may not draw away from the truth in any matter.

Grant that, gathered together in your holy name,

We may be able to combine goodness with firmness as to do all things in harmony with you.

In the hope that we shall earn, through the faithful fulfillment of our duties, eternal happiness in the future.

Amen.

God, I give you everything I have!

Learning Intention: We are learning a traditional prayer.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I record the Suscipe prayer using Blabberize.

Thank you God for brother Sun!

Learning Intention: We are learning a traditional prayer.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I record the Canticle of the Sun prayer using Blabberize.

God will always help you!

Learning Intention: We are learning to write a personal prayer for this term.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I follow the structure of a personal prayer: Title for God, what I'm grateful for and praying for people around the world.

I hope the satellites don't hit each other!

Learning Intention: We are learning to understand the interactive systems in outer space.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I write down 10 facts about satellites.

Don't take revenge on someone because two wrongs don't make a right!

Learning Intention: We are learning to develop our understanding of the English grammar.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I explain that adages are short traditional sayings that explains the truth.

Before I went outside for a walk, I was putting on some sunscreen!

Learning Intention: We are learning to develop our understanding of the English grammar.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I explain that progressive verb tenses are used in the present, past and future tense.

Oh my goodness, it is John Pahulu from Fresh!

Learning Intention: We are learning to write a description.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I organise the key words and use them to write down information about John Pahulu.

If you explain negative numbers, the numbers will always have a 'th' at the end!

Learning intention: We are learning to develop our number knowledge.
Success criteria: I know I can do this when I explain that 50 in 100.50 is a tenth or 'deci' in prefixes.

Tahiin means 'to sew' in Filipino!

Learning Intention: We are learning to understand and appreciate the Filipino language.
Success Criteria: I know this when I record seven new words in Filipino and it's translation in English using Blabberize.

Letting the cat out of the bag was a piece of cake!

Learning intention: We are learning to develop our understanding of the English grammar.
Success criteria: I know I can do this when I explain that idioms are used to express or describe something that doesn't use words that are related to the topic.

Look at that dainty mascot!

Learning Intention: We are learning to develop our understanding of history, continuity and change.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I write down five facts about mascots.

Look at that cute, little puppy!

Learning intention: We are learning to develop our understanding of the English grammar.
Success criteria: I know I can do this when I explain that opinion adjectives judges the look of objects.

Stop, you're going to slip because your friction force is low!

How Friction Works

What is friction and how does it work?

Friction is a type of force that holds back an object that’s sliding. It is a force that acts in the opposite direction of movement. The force of friction is the other side of the object so if the object is sliding left, the friction force is on the right.

Friction is always here. It works when we step on the ground and stop. The friction is caused by the shoe touching the ground. Even if there’s a liquid, the friction force is not stopped. It’s just weakened so when you try to stop on wet grounds, it’ll be harder to stop yourself and can cause you to slip and fall on the ground since the friction is weak. If a car was to use the brake, the friction will cause the car to stop caused by the brakes, but if the car was to brake on ice, the friction is weak and the brakes of the car will result it to spinout.

Friction has different ways for it to be helpful or dangerous. If a jet was going at a very high speed near a docking bay and trying to land, when the ship lands in a straight path, the rubber material can cause  to burn it - breaking it and making the jet’s friction power futile. This will cause the jet to slide and hit many things along the way, making it dangerous for people and the surroundings. Friction (in a good way) can help fast-moving objects to stop and protect things from getting destroyed.

Friction force can be dangerous yet helpful, in many ways. Make sure when running fast or moving fast, you try to keep your friction force steady or you could hit something or you could end up injuring yourself and others.

Learning Intention: We are learning to understand and follow the structure of an explanation.

Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I explain how frictions works starting with an introduction, followed by the explanation, then the effects and end with a concluding sentence.

Eww! I don't like the taste of the dried pickles!

Learning Intention: We are learning to develop our understanding of the English grammar.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I explain that interjections are words that are used to express a feeling.

What phrases do you know in Te Reo Maori that supports our New Zealand athletes?

Learning Intention: We are learning to speak Te Reo Maori.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I use blabberize to record the phrase 'haukerekereha' and the translation of it in English.

Oh no, it's raining acid!

How Does Acid Rain Form?

Acid rain is a type of rain caused by pollution that burns through all living and non-living things. It is caused by the pollution emitted from factories through  burning fossil fuels (which are fuels we use in cars) and the acid particles rise up into the clouds and mix it, causing a burning rain.

When acid gases are blown to the sky then into the clouds, the sulfur oxide (which is the acid gases) mixes with nitrogen oxide creates a chemical reaction in the clouds to make it become more acidic. When it starts to become cloudy, the acidic rain causes it to fall like normal rain. Sometimes the percentage of the acid is low, which makes the acidity content less likely to burn objects or any living creatures.

Acid rain badly affects the growth of  plants and trees as it poisons them. If acid rain reaches the water, it makes the water toxic and marine life could suffer.  It can also cause diseases in humans like asthma or cancer including heart disease.

The acid rain can cause limestones to melt and crumble and these can be used to make bricks in buildings. Limestones are also used for creating statues.

Acid rain can cause great human disasters. But this can be stopped or minimized if we are conscious of the way we look after the environment. We need to take care of the earth to prevent other disasters caused by human errors or careless attitudes so that the world will still be habitable for our generation and the generations to come.

Learning Intention: We are learning to follow the structure of an explanation.

Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I explain why acid rain forms starting with an introduction, followed by the explanation, then the effects and then end with a concluding sentence.

Do you know any Maori phrases for supporting our New Zealand athletes that are participating in the Olympics?

Learning Intention: We are learning to speak Te Reo Maori.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I use blabberize to record the phrase 'wetiweti ana' and the translation of it in English.

Look at those nine, shiny, small apples!

Learning Intention: We are learning to understand and use descriptive language.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I explain that order adjectives are adjectives that are sequenced.

Oh no, my bow broke!

On Thursday 6th of August, Room 7 had a great time gathering the materials for our sport sculpture.

First, we had to make a presentation that included these questions:

• What sport are you presenting?
• Why did you choose this sport?
• What are the rules?
• Which New Zealand team is doing this sport?
• And what is one technique for your sport?

It took me a long time to write the rules since some of the sites I searched from, gave different informations about the sport I was researching for (which was archery). My group and I worked together to share the data we collected from different sites. While we were looking for more data for archery, I looked up different techniques for archery. I just found out that there were different types of draws so I wrote down the techniques which I thought would be useful for our presentation.

After I finished my presentation, Salome, our art teacher, let me start on my bow sculpture. I followed the diagram which our group drew.  I needed to change some parts and pieces from the plan like the riser which on the plan was made of straw. I had to change it into a twirly piece of cardboard. I asked Miss Chao to help me glue the stick of cardboard onto the milk bottle (which was used as a grip). There was a problem when the glue connected the piece of cardboard to the milk bottle, it started to bend a bit so I had to rip it off and glue it again using the hot glue gun and  with the help of Salome. This time, I used a popsicle stick but it broke apart because it wasn’t sturdy enough. Unfortunately, it was nearly home time so I had to leave my unfinished project behind, helped  tidy up the classroom before we  said our ‘karakia’.

Getting to work on our sculptures was amazing yet challenging. But I am determined not to give up until I have produced my sculpture. I wish though that  our bow didn’t break apart while we were working on it because this means that we will have to re-do it, yet again.

Learning Intention: We are learning to use the appropriate language features in our recount.

Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I use past tense verbs to describe our Thursday art lesson.

Did you know that Pierre de coubertin started the Olympics?

In oral language, we have been learning about the Olympic rings. We learnt that the rings represent the connection of the five continents. The founder of the Olympics was Pierre de coubertin.

Do you know what the sign is for 'travelling' in basketball?

Learning Intention: We are learning the game of basketball.
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I use Wevideo to record the four signs that are used in basketball: travelling, double bounce, time out and swap a player.

Look out, there's an angry volcano!

Why do volcanoes erupt?

An eruption is caused by the plates rubbing together. The magma is forced to rise in the air, then hot lava runs down.

The volcano is caused to rise by the pressure of the plates rubbing so the magma is forced from the magma chamber and blow the top of a mountain. Other parts of magma burns through other parts of the mountain to create a ‘vent’. The crater is blown, causing flying ashes and rocks. The heat emits a very hot cloud of smoke which is toxic from the sulphur which turns the water to acid.

When a volcano erupts, the lava travels and burns everything in its path. It could also be useful because the fragments of the rocks are absorbed by the soil, making it to become fertile for plants.

Volcanoes can be very dangerous (and should be aware of). If you see smoke coming out from a mountain, there’s a chance it could be a volcano!

Learning Intention: We are learning to follow the structure of an explanation.

Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I explain why volcanoes erupt by starting with an introduction, followed by the explanation, then the effects and then a concluding sentence.