Fair Chocolate By Renata Hopkins Week 7 Term 4

This is my reading activity that I have been completing these past few weeks. I have read this article before and completed another presentation but this time, the questions are very different.

Kauri Island

Last week in Literacy, we had the task of reading the story "Kauri Island" and completing this presentation. Our main focus was making inferences which is saying what we think about the text. I found this activity a little bit challenging but over-all it was alright.

Fair Chocolate by Renata Hopkins

Last week in Literacy, we had the activity of reading the article Fair Chocolate by Renata Hopkins and completing this presentation. The article is about fair trade businesses. Fair trade is when all the people in the line of production are payed the full amount that they deserve. Many businesses try to get as much money for themselves so they don't pay their traders the right amount. Fair trade businesses are trying to change that all over the world. 

Up the Pipe

Last week my literacy group, Aoraki were given the task to read the text "Up the Pipe" We then had to complete this presentation which was created by our Literacy teacher Mrs Tele'a. I found this activity a little bit tricky because a lot of the questions required me to  look between the lines to get the answer. Even though it was challenging, I did enjoy it, I think that it helped me because it made me think a lot. I look forward to more activities like this next term. 

Future - Thinkers

This presentation is my activity that I completed for Literacy. For this task, we had to read the text Future-Thinkers by Pat Quinn and answer the questions that were given by our Literacy teacher. We were given two weeks to complete this so I also wrote about the Mobile Phone and how it started and how much it has changed since then. I enjoyed this task because we were writing what we thought the text was saying and giving our perspective on the text. I would like to do another presentation like this again.

The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels

Last week, in Literacy, we had the task of reading the poem, The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. We then needed to complete a presentation about the poem. I won't give away too much about them, you will have to read it yourself! I really enjoyed this task, I liked the reading the poem and writing my own inferences. I would like to do more of these activities in the near future.

First World War Mascots: Animals at War

In my Literacy group, we are learning to make inferences from pieces of text. The questions in this presentation are based on the information from the article, First World War - Mascots at War. Even though the text was written for people much younger than me, the questions that we had to answer were more detailed. After finishing this presentation, I think that I have become better at finding out what the text is actually saying and finding things in the text that have to do with my life.

Letter to Gustav Guttenbiel

This week during Literacy, we were given a task to write a letter back to one of 4 recipients that we watched on Tagata Pasifika. I chose Gustav Guttenbiel who was a Tongan-German who wanted to fight for the British Empire in WW2 but they wouldn't let him because he was German. He left his wife and children in Tonga when he was sent to be interned at Somes Island, a small island in the Wellington Harbour. Here is the video from Tagata Pasifika about his letter:

Here is my letter that I wrote to send to him if he was still alive.

Ana Crosser

103 Pt England Rd

1072

13/5/15

Malo E Lelei Gustav,

I am writing this letter  to you, to share my thoughts and feelings  about the letter that you wrote to the NZ Government…

I have heard your story and I too agree that sending you to be interned was a great mistake. I think that it was unfair that you had to work hard and train till the day before the boat arrived, they should have let you go at the beginning of the training if they were going to send you to be interned anyway. I am so sorry that they have taken you away from your family and home when all you wanted to do was help defend the British Empire.

I want to thank you for volunteering to fight in the war even though you can’t, thank you for volunteering. If it weren’t for people like you, your home and my home wouldn’t be as it is now. I hope your letter is accepted so you can go home.

Yours Sincerely

Ana Crosser

Letter to George Bollinger

This is a letter that I wrote during Literacy to send to a NZ soldier who fought in WW1 if he was still alive. If you look further down on my blog, you will see my presentation about George Bollinger. People from New Zealand treated him differently from everyone else during the time when he was alive.

Dear George,

I believe that you are now in France fighting against the Germans. I  heard about all the things that  people from New Zealand have done to you, they doubted you and didn’t believe you. I am very sorry that this has happened. I believe you when you say that you will fight for the British even though you are of German descent. I want to thank you being brave and volunteering to go back to war.Without the soldiers that fought, New Zealand wouldn’t be like it is now. Many people would agree that you are a very loyal to New Zealand no matter what culture you are.

Kind Regards

Ana, Class 3

War Story - George Bollinger Presentation

This past week, Aoraki (My Reading Group) was assigned a reading task to watch a short video about NZ soldier George Bollinger. This presentation shows my answers to the questions made by my teacher, Mrs Tele'a. George Bollinger fought in WW1 from 1915-1917. To find out more, check out my presentation :-)

Memorial Service Recount

ANZAC day was on Saturday and on Friday, our school had a memorial service after our normal assembly. A memorial was especially made this term for our service and will be there for at least 2-3 months. It was made to commemorate the NZ soldiers who fought for our country in WW1.

As you can see from the image above, there is a small field with 30 crosses with names of soldiers who fought in WW1. On the wall behind the field, there is a picture of two men and a  poppy. Mr Jacobsen drew the image onto the wall himself and you can see him there in the progress of painting. The memorial makes me remember the ANZAC soldiers and how much they did for New Zealand and Australia. It makes me think about what our lives would be like if they didn’t go and fight for us.

After our weekly assembly, Pt England school walked outside to observe the memorial. The last post played before two of the prefects said the ANZAC ode in English and in Maori. A prayer was then prayed before the reveille played. To finish off the short service, the whole school had a moment of silence to remember the ANZAC soldiers who fought for us.

Diary Entries for Explores of the Sun

Day one: Imagine you are a crew member, leaving your shore for the first day of the voyage.  what you would have done that day and what you were looking forward to.

Day 1

Our last items of food and water are packed onto the waka and I am just about to start packing my supplies. I have already got the essentials, clothes for warm and cold conditions, first aid kit plus some food and water to add on to our community supplies.  I have a list of other things that I need but first things first, I need to find a bag. Ah there it is, ok flare, check! Fishing rods, check! Bible, check! Plates, check! Cutlery, check! Ok, looks like I will be out of here, sooner than I thought!

We just left Aotearoa and there were a lot of tears as we were saying goodbye and especially when we were sailing away. Well, we don’t really know when we will be coming back, because it may take us years to find Rapanui or it might take us days, who knows? But what we do know is that it is not going to be easy and being away from our family is going to make it even harder.

Even though I am quite nervous about the voyage, I am also very excited. Our whole plan is to follow the path of our Polynesian ancestors from long ago to travel on a waka using traditional navigating tools to get to Rapanui (Easter Island) It will be great to experience what my extraordinary ancestors accomplished long ago to find our beloved countries which we now call home. It will be a time to test our skills and knowledge of the ocean world.  

Day thirty:

You have been on the waka for 30 days now...what may you be feeling now?  

What are you now looking forward to?

Wow! This is 12th time I’ve been sick, the constant rocking and swaying of the waka is like riding on a endless roller coaster. The waves of the ocean have also been quite large the past few days which is making the waka slam against the waves. My stomach seems to be twisting and turning as much as the ocean is.

Other than the seasickness, our travels have been alright. Our head navigator has been tracking the islands well, mainly using the stars and the sea swells, although there was a really bad storm that occurred a few days ago.  The storm made it quite hard to navigate so we pulled the sails down to stop the waka from breaking. Until the storm finished, we all just tried to stay warm and dry, but it wasn’t that easy. The storm lasted a few hours before we could put the sails back up and continue our voyage.

Once the rain stopped, I did notice that the days were getting warmer and the sea spray wasn’t as cold. So we were able to dry all our wet clothes and materials that were wet and damp after the storm. We do expect to stop at an island called Tubuai in about 10 days to have some rest on land before we carry on with our journey to Rapanui.

Stop, Think and Do Movie

This is our Stop, Think and Do Movie. A while ago, a group of people from P.E.S wrote and recorded a song about Stop, Think and Do. Some of us from Rm 16 decided to make a movie to match the words. So here it is..... Enjoy!

My Mum's Birthday

On Friday it was my Mum's Birthday. We celebrated by making her a Breakfast in Bed Special. We all woke up at about 6.30am and started cooking eggs, bacon, french toast and we were also trying to put together a tray that looked awesome! My little sister's jobs were to keep our Mum in bed and out of the kitchen!

Once all the cooking was done and the tray was ready, we took it into our Mum's room and hid behind her bed because she was in the bathroom at the time. When she walked in we all jumped up and shouted, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!!!" She had a big smile on her face as she climbed back into bed to enjoy her yummy breakfast. After her breakfast had been eaten we all set off for school and our Mum went back to sleep!

After school, we ate the cheesecake that she wanted before setting out for dinner. She wanted to go to a Mexican Restaurant in Mission Bay so that's where we went. She had invited a family friend over for dinner and to stay the night. After dinner, My Mum and Grace (Our Friend) went to a concert together. They got home late but happy, apparently the concert was AMAZING so we were all happy. 

I was happy for my Mum to have a great birthday and I hope she felt great. She is a awesome Mum, the best in the entire world! So......

Writing Test

This is my test piece of writing. I think that my practise ones were actually better than this one because today was one of my off days when I didn't feel in the zone for writing. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. :-)

The night had started off well, the fire was going, the tv was on, the friends were over and the yummiest food was coming out of the kitchen. Jessie had decided that she wanted her friend Amy to come over because she came up with the funnest things to do and the funniest. Of course Jonathan wanted Ben over, they were best friends and had been since kindergarden.

It was Friday night so there wasn’t really any good movies on tv so the girls decided to go back to Jessie’s room and get out their stash… of lollies. They had hidden their lollies in a box in a bag under all the clothes in Jessie’s washing basket. “It’s a great hiding place Jess!” Amy said cheerfully, “Thanks!” Jessie replied back, they were both so happy and the rest of the house was too. "Hey, why don't we draw on the boys' faces during the night?!" Amy asked excitedly. "YES!! That's a great idea but we need to keep it as a secret, hide the markers in our lolly bag so they don't think it's us!"

That's exactly what they did in the middle of the night but what they didn't know is the boys were awake, they overheard the girls and decided to stay awake for the night. They didn't want to show that they knew straight away, they had something planned...

The girls were having a great time eating lollies, popcorn and watching tv, meanwhile, the boys were planning something, something that would scare the girls so much they would start running everywhere screaming…. At least that is what they thought.

Amy had suggested that in the morning, they would go out into the farm and look at everything, the animals, the barn and to just sit outside for a bit.

“Lets go before it gets too cold!” Amy had woken up so early because she had never been on such a big farm before and was so eager to find out what was out there. “Amy! It is cold right now, if we wait a hour then it will be the right temperature to go outside!” Jessie was very unhappy she had lost her Saturday sleep in, she got up, put some clothes on and went to go and have breakfast. “Where are the boys?” Amy asked curiously. “I don’t know maybe sleeping?!” Jessie answered sarcastically.

Once they had finished breakfast, they went outside to start their “walk”. Amy really wanted to go out to where the cows were so they took a picnic basket so they could have lunch. “So, these are our chickens.” Jessie started as she walked into a small shed were some of the chickens were laying eggs. “And this is where we get out eggs.” She finished. “Wow!” Amy was so fascinated by it all, “Do you have any horses or ponies?” That was the thing Amy really wanted to see. “Sure, I’ll show you.” Jessie had got over her early start and was excited to show her friend her home.

After they had seen the horses, ridden on them and seen the green house, they started out on their way to cows. “Oh my gosh, they was so hard!” Amy nearly shouted as she flopped down onto the grass. “Yeah, well at least they weren’t out there.” Jessie said softly as she pointed out to where another paddock was, about 500 metres away.

“Amy, Jessie!” They heard a whisper but saw nothing. “Who’s there!?” The two friends asked at the same time. “Amy, Jessie!” There it was again. They were scared now, “Who is there!” Jessie was starting to sound angry now, she hated not knowing what was happening. “Amy, Jessie!” The girls now started to run, they ran and ran and ran until they got back to the house. Jessie woke her parents up and told them all about what had happened. Her parents were as surprised as they were. “Go and see the boys!” Kenny said tiredly and he sat up. Kenny was Jessie’s dad and he always hated being woken up just like her.

The two went into the boys room and saw them on Jonathan’s bed with some sort of walkie talkie thing. “What is that!” Amy shouted. “Nothing, we’re just freaking out the girls, their out with the cows screaming like little babies.” Ben laughed thinking that Amy was Liz, Jonathan and Jessie Mum. “How could you, why do you always have to ruin everything!?” Jessie shouted while she whacked both of them with a pillow.

After the friends had gone home, Jonathan had to say sorry and do double chores for being mean and ruining the sleepover for the girls. Jessie was happy that he got his consequence but wished that he never did it, because she really thought that this was going to be the sleepover that everything were the way she planned. She guessed wrong.

The End

An Organic Orchard Re-tell

 Marjorie Clark runs an Organic Orchard in Kerikeri and by Organic, she means not using poisonous chemicals and spraying her plants. She told School Journal that nature was like a see-saw and taking those sprayers off made nature swing a bit.

When she first started her new "way" things went completely wrong. The insect pests like red  mite and thrips that had usually been killed by the sprayers where coming and ruining the fruit and plants. Then, the green beetle came, the green beetle was a beetle that was giving a lot of people in the North trouble. They still didn't spray, even though it was really hard. In a year or two, the green beetle had almost disappeared. They knew that some time before, the DSIR2 released a parasite that attacks the eggs of the green beetle. Marjorie and her husband thought that because they didn't spray, the parasite had multiplied and controlled the green beetle for them.

Slowly, other predators such as the Australian paper wasp, the praying mantis and the predatory mites moved in, things were back in balance and the red mite and thrips had disappeared! Their fruit was still marked from insects but things were getting better.

Things were getting much better and all the insects were moving in and helping out. Marjorie was very happy. By the end of that year, the orchard was much better than with the sprayers!

Matching Farming Photos

This morning, Keas (My Reading Group) did an activity about matching farming photos. It was pretty hard but we got there in the end. It was a team activity so we were all sitting around a table looking at photos and just thinking HEAPS!! The job took us about half an hour and the hardest part for me was
 probably trying to find the photos when we actually need them!

The thing that I don't really know about farming is the different virus's that animals can get and the different things that they can eat. So I really hope that I can find out all those things some time this term.  Here are some pictures of the activity when it was finished.

Immersion Assembly

This Immersion Assembly, we found out that the topic for this term is What in the WORLD in going on? There were a lot of movies and actually, Team 3 was the only team that didn't have one! Our team, team 4, is studying Farming so I look forward to finding out more and more facts about Farms not only in New Zealand but all around the world!

This Term, I hope to be able to learn loads of facts about farms and then go and tell someone what I have learnt. Also I want to show you what Team 4's movie was like so here it is...... ENJOY!!
                       
I'm A Farmer and I Grow It! from Team 4 Pes on Vimeo.

Holidays

This Holidays were okay...... During the first week, I went to Riverside Camp which is run by Mr Burt. The camp was at Willow Park in Eastern Beach and this camp was my seconded since I went last year. Camp was 5 days long (Started Monday morning, ended Friday around about midday) and went well because it didn't seem to go fast and it didn't seem to go slow. On the first day we got into our teams, thought of a team name and chant and settled into our cabins.

Sadly, on the first day, while I was playing soccer, my foot was misplaced by the ball twice! My sore foot did excuse me from some of the games which I hated. On Tuesday night, I went home feeling soooo yuck! On Wednesday, my Mum took me to the doctor which sent me to Hospital just to check my foot as well. Luckily I was out of Hospital on Wednesday night and was able to go back and stay at camp.

On Thursday night, we had our concert where each team performed. It was a great concert and everyone had a GREAT time. On Friday we announced our winners from the points that had been given out throughout the week and guess what? MY TEAM WON!!! It felt pretty cool to go back home with a win!

That was the first week, in the second my cousins from Tauranga came up and spent Saturday to Friday with us. It was great to see them because we are pretty close since our Mums and twin sisters. Also during the week, we were actually renovating our bathroom. It looks great now but needs just a few more finishing touched to look FANTASTIC!!! 

So these Holidays weren't the best, but weren't near the worst either. It was a great camp and my highlight was the concert on the last night and the quad bikes that they had. My low-light was of course hurting my foot but still was a awesome camp.

The Bird Nest Questions and Answers

The Bird Nest

Tom woke up and turned on the lamp. He pushed the sheet and Woollen rugs off himself and staggered to the Window, which was partly open. He looked up to see a full moon and there, in the moonlight, sitting on a nest in a massive gum tree, was a mother bird and her noisy baby chicks. The nest, made from twigs, straw, wool and dead grass, was swaying wildly from side to side. As it did so, the mother bird tried to calm her frightened young ones by chirping softly to them.

1. Write the Words which tell us that it was cold.

He looked up to see a full moon and there, in the moonlight.

2. Write the word which tells us that the birds lived in a large tree.

Sitting on a nest in a massive gum tree.

3. The nest was made from wool, twigs, wood and dead grass True OR False?

False                   twigs, straw, wool and dead grass.

4. Write the word from the story which tells us the noise that birds make.

The word from the story which tells us the noise that the birds were making was chirping.

5. Write the word from the story which tells us that Tom was not fully awake when he went to the window.

The word that tells us that Tom was not fully awak is staggered.

6. Why were the baby chicks noisy?

The chicks were noisy because they were frightened.

7. Was it Windy outside Tom's house?

It was windy outside Tom’s house.

8. How do you know?

I know because it says that the nest was swaying side to side.

9. It was very dark when Tom looked out the window True OR False?

False

10. What were Tom‘s rugs made from?

Tom’s rug was made from woollen.

11. Tom had to get out of bed to turn on his lamp True OR False?

Falsle.