Tag: Year 8

Music Presentation

Kia Ora

For the last couple of weeks we have been working on making a presentation about a band/singer of our choice and then present it in front of the class. I chose The Beatles and did research on all four band members, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and George Harrison, and put the research into four slides that are about them. After I had put all the research into the four slides, I created some more slides with just some random facts, for example when the band formed, how Paul and John met, and knighting.

I had been working on this for ages in class, but when it was time to present them I wasn’t finished, I was very close to being finished but I wasn’t. But luckily my name didn’t get pulled out of the hat that day and I had the chance to finish it at home. When the next day came I got picked and presented it to the class with my friend Bea.

Here is the presentation about The Beatles I did

Thank you for reading my blog and looking at my presentation 🙂

Chinese Gold Miners and Gold Rush

Kia Ora

For the past couple of weeks in T-shaped literacy we have been reading about the New Zealand Gold rush and we have been given a task board with many articles and videos for us to learn about the Chinese immigrants and the history of the gold rush in 1862.

Most of the Chinese Immigrants came from a town called Guangzhou in the southern east of China, Many of which miners smoked Opium on the way to New Zealand to suppress their hunger. 10% of the opium smokers became addicted. Only 70% of the Chinese miners that came to New Zealand smoked Opium. Some Chinese decided to send their Husbands, and sons to do the gold mining because most of the people in Guangzhou lived in poverty from the over population and lack of food source.

In 1861 a man named Gabriel Read found a good amount of gold in what we call today “Gabriel Gully.” When Gabriel found that gold, started the first ever gold rush in Aotearoa (New Zealand) Although Gabriel started the gold rush he wasn’t the first person to find gold in New Zealand. A man named Charles Ring found the first recorded discovery of gold in Driving Creek just out of the small town of Coromadel, New Zealand. There were a couple of gold rushes in the west coast around 1865 as a result of this miners had to cut down a lot of native bushes and trees to get to the gold fields

Thank you for reading about the Chinese gold miners and what they had to go threw as well as the gold rushes in the west coast 🙂 – Sadie

Nga Tangata Blog post

Kia Ora

This week is the first week of term 4, term 4 is our last term and supposably my last term in this class. They’ve made it so all the new year 9s will be a different wananga class from the year 7s and 8s. so this my last term of being a year 8 so I’m very happy

This term our reading hurumanu (Nga Tangata) is about all the cultures, etc. so yesterday since our wifi was down, our teacher asked us all what ethnicities we are, and there was a total of 17 ethnicities out of around 25 kids in our class which is crazy. So we have all learnt where each other are from and surprisingly how many people didn’t know where we were from. our task today was to go onto the hornby high school our identitys website and have a look at 2 storys that have been posted on there. We had to read one published by a teacher and a student. all of these people have imigrated/migrated to Aotearoa, New Zealand. To either move to better land conditions or to either just move to another country for a better life.

The first one I had read was from a teacher who imigrated from the USA for better living conditions I have actually leant alot of things from this story, how she lives, and how horrible the united states can be for some people. The second story I read was writin by a student named Nitisha who moved from India when she was almsot four years old, I have learnt alot about Nitisha and about how she started to play tennis.

I think I will have alot of fun in this hurumanu, I like to learn about how people came to new zealand and how much of a culture shock everything was so I am excited to learn more about people migrating to other countries to get a better life and why they had to. It is important to learn about how other people see New Zealand as a country and how much they like or dislike it, and if they imigrated here how much of a culture shock everything was and why they had to move here.

Here is a link to the Our identities site so you may read some of the storys on there.

T-shaped literacy

Kia Ora

This term we have been able to participate in a study with Auckland University. Only a few amounts of schools have been able to participate in this study and fortunately, Hornby High school have been able to have 2 classes participate in this, and I am in one of the classes that have been able to participate.

What we have been doing is working on our writing. So we have swapped our writing for T-Shaped literacy. We have been working on verbs, adverbs, metaphors etc, so we have been able to draw a character using our imagination. So I have made a pebble called Rock… I’ve been told that it’s actually a pretty interesting story so I hope you’ll think that as well if you would wish to read it. It is a pretty long story as it’s 5/6 paragraphs long but its actually pretty funny, so here it is.

It’s a little strange, isn’t it, that rock is a pebble? This pebble was raised at the Hakatere marae, so he only speaks Maori, although he can say things like “I eat apples,” which isn’t very much. Rock was supposedly born nearby in a river, but who knows since I don’t speak Maori well. Rock, who is 2 years and 6 months old, was born on a date that doesn’t exist: September 32… He appears like he might throw himself up and hit me in the eye, so let’s not question him about it. A young girl named Kaiarotaki found Rock and took him home because of his gorgeous orange hair. He was born with strangely coloured orange hair, Rocks can speak Maori, right? Usually no, but this pebble can. Little Miss Kaiarotaki has painted a rock, giving it eyes, a sun-yellow taped-on mouth, a white button nose, and drawn-on grey cow prints. To top it all off, the Rock has serious eyebags, which Kaiarotaki doesn’t remember painting on. We still don’t know if she tells the truth because she’s a small child, and what do kids their age do? A lot of them lie.

Rock thought hard about how he would ever leave this frightening household as he peeked out the window he thought will little Kaiarotaki ever be able to escape, he wondered to himself. She’s only five years old, so I wonder whether her parents also use her as a door stop. I don’t know why they do it to me. Personally, I believe that I may be the only pebble that serves as a door stop, which makes me wonder if I actually am a pebble. Am I a rock then? Or am I a big pebble or a small rock? It’s kind of strange, if you ask me, that I’m a pebble that can think in English but only speaks Maori. How will I get out of this house, Rock wondered to himself. Then he had an idea similar to how you see them in movies I can escape here by getting into a shoe! Rock did indeed say that he would attempt to flee by throwing himself into a shoe. He has no legs, so how is that possible? Rock is a stone, and pebbles don’t have brains. Right, I have to aim this perfectly with my nonexistent brain to fit inside this shoe, Rock thought to himself once more. Rock therefore correctly aimed himself and lifted himself off the shelf before landing on the floor. Well, Rock replied depressingly, “I completely missed it. 

Kaia suddenly entered. How did Rock get down there? Without a doubt, she put him on her shelf. Kaia put him back on the shelf as a result, undoing everything Rock had accomplished. I guess it’s time to start over, thought Rock. Since Kaia was still in the room and was unaware that Rock is a talking, throwing organism, he tried to stop talking out loud while she was still in the room. After Kaia exited the room so Rock had the brilliant idea to attempt to fling himself off of the shelf again although he failed the first time he still failed the second time. What Rock didn’t know was that when he said “Ugh again” Kaia was standing right above him. As a normal 5-year-old would do when their pet Rock talked, She screamed and screamed, and screamed until her mother came into the room to see why she was screaming her lungs out. WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING? Kaia’s mum shouted over her. ROCK JUST TALKED. Shouted Kaia, again. Like the average reply, a mum would say, I think you’re just imagining things. MUM, I’M SURE I’M NOT IMAGINING THINGS I JUST SAW HIM MOVE AND SPEAK! Shouted Kaia louder than she had ever shouted OI STOP SHOUTING AT ME screamed Kaia’s mum Of course as a normal 5-year-old reaction, she broke out screaming and crying, then continued to run to her bed. On her way, she fell over and hit her head on the corner of the backboard. She then continues to look up at her mum then realize that her head was gushing out with blood she started wailing and crying again. Oh here we go, now we have to go to the hospital complained Kaia’s poor mum

On the way to the hospital, Kaia’s mum looked at how deep the cut was, it was shockingly deep 

‘OW MUM THAT HURTS” cried, Kaia. I’m sorry my daughter, I have to keep the pressure on it to stop you from getting blood on my newly cleaned seats. Shakily said Kaia’s mum. While Rock was left at home he rolled onto the top of Kaia’s Sandal, like a typical sandal you can definitely see that there’s a pebble that you’re about to stand on. So Rock when inside her sneaker, which was definitely a better idea. So Rock waited, and waited, and waited. All up he only waited for approximately 20 minutes but that’s a long time for a Pebble. When Kaia and her mum finally Arrived at the hospital they actually weren’t very busy as they usually are, I guess not many people need to go to the hospital at 1 pm on a Thursday uttered Kaia’s mum. They got Kaia stitched up fast considering all the reasoning people were there were for absurd reasons Kaia complained that her head sounded like it was thumping like an elephant. Once they got home Kaia’s mum told her to get her shoes on so they can go to the pharmacy and get Ibuprofen for her thumping head. So Kaia proceeded to get her sneakers on. Rock thought in his head Oh my gosh this is really happening I’m getting out of here! Mum, I’ve got a pebble in my shoe Groaned Kaia. Take it out when you get outside Replyed Kaia’s mum. Once they exited, Kaia got the pebble from her shoe and chucked it into her garden she didn’t even bother to look at the pebble which was a miracle for Rock because if she saw him he wouldn’t have been able to escape from that horrid household.

Rock looked around, finally, I haven’t seen the outside world, for years, it’s so refreshing to finally be outside and back to my beloved home, the dirt. As Rock admired the fact he successfully escaped he rolled around in the dirt until he looked like a flat, fat, worm. As Rock looked up into the blue sky he saw a big bird – which wasn’t big at all it was a sparrow bird – that sparrow bird swooped down and ate Rock. As he was in the bird’s throat he could feel that the bird hadn’t eaten in days and probably didn’t realize he had just eaten a pebble. Later that day the bird died and Rock never managed to escape the bird as he had nothing to fling himself off of.

Thank you for reading my long story, and I hope you like it 🙂

-Sadie

Te Kura Tuatahi Aotearoa

Kia Ora

The past term for reading we have been working on this slide show with over 100 slides on it, the slides include a link to books that we have to read and complete activities about them after we have finished answering the questions and doing the activities we get to take a piece from a puzzle and add it to the puzzle at the front of the slide.

For our objective of this blog post today we have to talk about our favourite story from the slides, my favourite story is called, Te Kura Tuatahi which is translated to “The first school.” I like this story because I actually enjoy learning about how the pakeha (Europeans) invaded New Zealand and taught the Maori about Christianity and how to do basic things we can do today such as, read, write, and the ability to be able to understand and do maths.

I have finished these slides about this book and have read the book thoroughly enough to understand it and to be able to retell the story, so I get to show you my slides and the questions I have answered and summarise the story for you. As well as retell the story I will also leave the link to the story so you can read it if you would like.

Aotearoa’s (New Zealand’s) first school opened on the 12th of August in 1816 this school was opened by a man called Thomas Kendall. Thomas was born and raised in England and he only came to New Zealand to open a school and become a student himself. Thomas had to become a student himself because he didn’t have the ability to speak Maori. Back then Maori didn’t have an alphabet, they would only speak Te reo (Maori language) so Thomas would have to learn Te Reo Maori, then he would have to figure out what sounds matched up with the Latin alphabet, later on, he figured out their vowels and he had figured out an alphabet for Te reo – This was using the same letters from the Latin alphabet but was missing some letters and put some letters together –

later on, he actually built the school, Thomas had built the school out of kahikatea boards pit-sawn by mission workers. After he had built the school he opened it and around 24 students attended. Later on the roll grew to over 70. At this school they would stay and sleep there all week so they could get up in the morning and start learning straight away. They would take long breaks in the middle of the day to spend time outside and gather kai (food) for them to cook and eat.

On fine days Thomas would find it hard to actully keep the Kura (school/students) inside, because they didnt like to be inside a small classroom everyday. So Thomas had an idea to reward them with trinkets such as beads, marbles and else so. This would work very well as children would work harder to get these trinkets as a rewards.

Before the first school, Maori actully had learning classes that they did. Maori would call these Whare wananga (House of learning) These Whare wananga were all different some where for sons of cheifves, some where for learning essenctials, learn how to hunt and cook, and the last one was how to carve, tattoo, weave, and how to play Maori games. Maori would pass these learning skills down so their tamariki (children) knew basic life skills for back in the 1800s. Maori would also teach their boys how to fight and hunt with a spear which they would teach with play because children would learn more while watching their elders do it first.

If you would like to read the real story for yourself here is a link to it, as there will be more information because I have only included the important bits and some small things while summarizing it. Thank you for reading this and looking at my blog 🙂

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15MADxZBF41mwVg8ocTd_xQXTk7d2xEid/view

 

Vortex cannon

Aim:

I want to find out how to build a vortex cannon

Research:

Method:

Equipment:

  • Plastic cup
  • Tape (Sellotape or Duct tape)
  • Balloon
  • Scissors

Instructions:

  1. Get your Equipment ready.
  2. After that get your cup, you trace a quarter on the bottom of the cup.
  3. Cut off the hole where you traced the hole at.
  4. You get your balloon and cut off the neck of the balloon. ( But a little more. )
  5. Then after you’re done cutting your balloon, stretch the balloon into the cup like this.
  6. Put the tape around the balloon, to secure it from the balloon popping out.
  7. Get your Matches and light them up.
  8. After that blow off the match and put the smoke in the cup inside.
  9. Fire the cannon and watch the vortex of smoke.

Discussion:

What is a Vortex Cannon?

The air molecules inside the cup are instantaneously compressed by the air-vortex cannon. The air molecules within the cup were pushed and accelerated towards the opening at the end of the cup as the balloon surface snaps forwards into contact with them.

Light energy

Aim:

I’m curious to learn how light functions.:)

Research:

Spectrum, Reflection, Refraction

Refraction

Light Energy

Light Energy

Method:

Equipment:

  • Light Box
  • Power Pack

Instruction:

  • Prepare your equipment.
  • Set up your tools.

Discussion

ROYGBIV colours make up the White Light.

Results:

A rainbow was formed when I passed a single white light beam through a prism.

Disscussion:

When a diamond sparkles, why?

Only a small portion of the light that strikes a diamond is reflected; the majority of it goes through the diamond. As light travels through a diamond, it is fractured and scattered, giving the stone its legendary brilliance. Refraction is as depicted. A real diamond should reflect a spectrum of colours onto other surfaces and dazzle against grey and white. This is how diamonds reflect light in a unique way. On the other hand, counterfeit diamonds will also have visible rainbow colours inside of them.

Maori Performing arts

Kia Ora

This week is Te wiki o te reo Māori also known as Māori language week, So in drama, we have been looking at Māori performing arts.

Poi- Poi is a Māori dance involving a tennis ball size and some rope. Māori would use poi in Kapa Haka Frequently. Poi is made out of Raup ō swamp plant to make the ball and was attached to a flax rope. Nowadays they use old grocery bags and some string when making them at home. Poi is a form of dance in which each performer twirls one or two poi (ball on a string) in time with the others. Sudden direction changes are achieved by hitting the ball on a hand or other part of the body, and the noise creates a nice sound that can be heard as a song or a rhythm. The people that do the poi are normally women. Typically when they’re doing it in kapa haka they are singing a waiata along with using the poi.

waiata-ā-ringa- also known as a waiata (action songs), the lyrics have hand movements also known as Waiata actions. The performers flutter their hands quickly, a movement called wiri, which can symbolise shining waters, heat waves or even a breeze moving the leaves of a tree. Waiata-ā-ringa is usually accompanied by a guitar and can be slow, fast, serious, and fun, depending on the context.

Haka- The haka is a Māori war dance, challenge or even just to greet people in a marae. The haka is usually performed in a group and represent a tribe’s, strength and unity. The actions include stomping your foot, the sound of the tongue and body slapping to go with a loud chant. The words of a haka often describe ancestors and stuff that have happened in the tribe’s history. Performers may include traditional weapons, such as Taiaha (spear-like weapons) and Patu (clubs), into the haka.Pūkana- (facial expression(s) is an important thing of Kapa haka. A pūkana helps to prove a point in a song or haka and show the performer’s anger or passion. For women, pūkana involves opening their eyes wide and jutting out their chin. For men, it means widening their eyes and stretching out their tongues or baring their teeth. although these expressions may be extremely intimidating, they are not always a sign of aggression but may show strong and deep emotions.

Kapa Haka- Kapa Haka is which Maori would perform a various amount of things such as Singing a waiata, Peforming a haka, Performing wiht poi and a various amount of other things. Kapa haka is now involoved in schools, such as secourndary schools, Primary schools, and High schools, sometimes university. Now there are Kapa Haka groups scattered around New Zealand, Personally I havent heard of any overseas so I dont know but there are many kapa haka groups in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and Taranaki most of the clubs elsewhere are apart of a school or marae.

Thank you for reading my blog and i hope you have learnt more about Maori and Maori performences 🙂

-Sadie

Solar cooker

Aim:

I want to find out how to make a solar cooker

Research

Method

Equipment

  • Pizza Box
  • Skewer x2
  • Aluminium foil
  • Sellotape
  • Ruler
  • Glad wrap
  • Black paper
  • Box cutter
  • Hot weather ( Must be a hot day for it to work)
  • Marker

Instruction:

  1. Get your equipment ready.
  2. Using a ruler, mark a 3cm margin on the lid of the pizza box.
  3. Use a craft knife to cut the three margins.
  4. Glue the inside lid and wrap aluminium foil as smooth as you can.
  5. Using food wrap, cover the hole that you cut out from the lid – outside and inside and seal it with Sellotape.
  6. Glue more foil to the base of the box.
  7. Put the black paper on top of the foil on the base.
  8. Use your skewer or pencil to prop open the lid.
  9. Put the food you want to heat up in the oven.
  10. Change the angle of the lid to reflect sunlight onto the food.

Results:

 

Discussion:

How and why does a solar cooker cook food?

What energy is used when cooking with it

How hot would a Solar cooker get?

 

Catapults

Aim:

I want to find out how to build a catapult

Research:

Method:

Equipment:

  • 8x popsicle sticks
  • 4x Rubber bands
  • 1 bottle cap
  • Hot glue
  • Small aluminium balls

Instructions:

  1. Get your equipment ready
  2. Take your 8 popsicle sticks
  3. Get 2 two of your popsicle sticks and put them together so they line up and grab 2 rubberbands and use the rubber bands on the ends of the popsicle

Results:

Discussion: