Published Literacy Writing

My writing goals:
1. Use a variety of sentence structures, beginnings and lengths to give effect.
2. Write in structured, well developed paragraphs that flow well from one to the next within the text.

Original:
I let the dog loose off the lead. He runs eagerly away from me and soon disappears into the forest. I let him run, I let him disappear because I know he is going to come back. I grip the tree, letting my body lean against it. A stick returns minutes later with an owner of it panting and jumping around waiting for me to throw it. I don’t throw it, I don’t want to. The dog tries to climb onto my jacket and I laugh. Of course only Benji does that, he’s the only dog I know who will sit on my shoulder and lick my face. His soft coat against my skin is so warm. I take him home and wrap him in a warm blanket. He looks happy. I leave him for some time. I come back an hour later and he is looking from me to his red lead and collar on the shelf. I give in and take him back to the forest. I open my eyes and think to my self. Was this really just a dream? I guess it was because I am in my room and Benji is sitting on his dog bed.

Published:
I unclip the leash and he races away. He is eager to get away from me and soon disappears into the forest. I let him run, I let him disappear because I know he is going to come back.

The tree catches my body against it. Minutes later, a stick is dropped at my foot with an owner of it panting and jumping around waiting for me to throw it. I don’t throw it, I don’t want to. The dog tries to climb onto my jacket and I shriek.

Of course only Benji does that, he’s the only dog I know who will sit on my shoulder and lick my face. His soft coat against my skin is so warm, just like a thermal. I return him home and wrap him in a toasty blanket. He looks happy.

I leave him for some time. I come back an hour later and he is looking from me to his red lead and collar on the shelf. I let him win and take him back to the forest. I open my weary eyes and think to my self. Was this really just a dream? I guess it was. I find myself back in my room and Benji is sitting on his dog bed.

Solving Measurement Problems

Today I had to complete a sheet about measurement. Firstly I had to draw a shape for a sandpit. The area had to be 16m2 and the perimeter had to be 20m. I drew a shape with two sides of 2m and two sides with 8m. The next question was to find the cost for sand, then the labour costs. I figured this out, then took off the 5% discount. I found this a little bit tricky only because I had to do so many different problems to get the answer. Here is the problem.

Planting on Friday

On Friday, I was part of a group that went to Rawhiti Domain to do some tree planting. We planted native trees that are hopefully going to attract some native birds to our community. This was really fun and only took about half an hour to plant the trees. But the rest of the time we were on the playground. It was really cool, we played a few tag games and there were also heaps of people on the seesaws.Hopefully in ten years time I will be able to come back and look at the trees I helped plant.

Area of a Triangle

The formula I used to solve this equation is 1/2 base x height.

Area of a Circle

We have been learning about finding the area of a circle. The formula for this is
π = 3.142
π x r x r
= π x 5 x 5 (radius)
= 78.5m3

You could also write π x r x r

That is how you find the area of a circle. We use pi and this formula to make it easier for ourselves instead of counting each individual square in the circle.

How I found Area

Lately we have been learning about area. I have found area kind of easy only because I have previously learnt that. What I think I have struggled with the most is finding the area with decimals because I think it is a bit more harder than whole numbers. To find the area of a square you multiply the length by the width of the shape to get the answer. Area is the surface area of the shape. Formula's are a guide line to follow and write the equation out and to put everything into the correct sequence.

This is the formula used to find area. A = l x w

Tech Term Three

Today at tech we started our term three groups.

This term I am doing sewing and foods/cooking. In sewing we are going to make beanies and fingerless gloves. My beanie is going to be black and have two white pompoms on the top of it. It is also going to have a letter 'C' on it. I haven't started my fingerless gloves yet.

In cooking we made Quesidillas. Mine had beans, spinach, ham, cheese, onion and corn in it. I also learnt about the different food groups. It was really fun!

Maths (Wednesday)

In maths today I completed a sheet about finding the area of different shapes and the circumference (perimeter) of a circle. We had to learn about the different formulas to get to the answer. Here are the formulas:
A = LxW
V = LxWxH
C = π x D
Area of a circle = π x r x r/ π x r2
π = 3.142

When I first learnt these formulas I found it quite hard to learn and kept getting confused which was which. Now that I have learnt them though, I can remember what one is which and know what each one is.

I could use these formulas if I was in a job that needed to work out different areas or what I could do with a particular area. These would be helpful in a sort of construction job.

I feel very happy with myself that I now know all of these formulas because I can use them if I have to. I am very proud of my maths progress at the moment.

Food Chains

Today for biology Poppy and I had to make a food chain starting with a native or endemic animal to New Zealand. We picked a Chatham Islands black robin.
The producer is a live plant which is eaten by a worm (primary consumer). A worm is then eaten by the robin (secondary consumer) who gets eaten by a hawk (tertiary consumer). A hawk is eaten by an owl (apex consumer), then an owl dies, then the mushrooms (decomposers) eat the little pieces from the owl. Then the food chain starts all over again. This was my worl for science today and I hope you like it.

Finding the Circumference of a Circle

Today in maths I had to find out the circumference of a circle. I first had to find how many of my steps could fit into the diameter of the circle then convert that back into metres. 4 footlengths fit into one metre so my 12.5 steps got converted back to 3.5 metres. The next step was to multiply 3.5 by 3.14 (pi). The answer to that was 10.99m.

Flamingo Diagram

Here is my literacy diagram. The audience I think should be for 8-10 year olds just because it is quite basic but not too basic to be for little kids. I found this kinda easy but difficult to find a topic to do my diagram on.

Adrenalin Forest

Yesterday I went to Adrenalin Forest. Adrenalin Forest was a really fun trip where I had to walk along obstacles in the trees. It was a bit scary and I was really nervous to do it because it was so high. There are 6 levels but I only went to level 2 because I didn't have time to do any more levels. I found this trip fun and I thought I really challenged myself. The scariest part was a challenge where I had to walk along this bridge thing that had gaps. I was scared because I felt I was going to fall but I knew I wasn't because I was attached to a harness.

Maths Today-Volume

Today in maths we were working out the volume of a shape. If the length was 10 metres, the width was 5 metres and the height was 4 metres, this is how I worked it out.
V = L x W x H
    = 10 x 5 x 4
    = 200m3
The total volume of the box was 200 cubic metres.

Netball Practise

This morning I did netball training with my team. We did a warm up and different exercises like doing high knees and sidesteps and other stuff. We split into two groups and practised the different types of passes. The passes are chest pass, bounce pass, shoulder pass and lob pass. After that we did another drill where we had to do little fast feet, side steps to the right, a forward sprint, side step left, then some sort of skill Melissa told us to do. After that we played a game of half court. I was first in GD, then I was moved to GS. My favourite positions to play are GS and WD. Melissa stopped us a bit into the game, and we practised passing the ball to the space the players were running to. I found this practise fun but I think I could work on finding space so I can get a pass.

Kiwi Ecosystems

 Today in science we learnt about ecosystems. We had to choose a native or endemic animal to New Zealand and research about their ecosystem. I chose a kiwi and here is my ecosystem. I hope you enjoy it and learn something new.

End of Term Technology

End of Term Tech

Today was my last day doing my term two tech classes. For term two I was doing mechatronics and then sewing. I finished my bag in sewing last week so this week I could do the t-shirt design competition. My t-shirt had a fern and two dolphins on it, I didn't win though. But it was still fun. 

In mechatronics we did a dot challenge where you had to code the robot to go over the coloured dots. My buddy Lila and I didn't complete the challenge but we still tried. Tech was fun and next week I have sewing again and cooking. 

Dancing at the Preschool

Today Isla and I went over to the preschool to do more dancing. We made our own dance up for a Taylor Swift song Shake it Off. From our perspective the little kids liked it but I think we need to work on getting more actons and more moves for them to do. Maybe we will make up another dance for next week for the kids to do because they looked a bit bored when we kept repeating some of the moves. Overall I think the dance class is a great idea and we should keep continuing with this. This is for my William Pike Challenge, Community Service because we are doing stuff for our community.

Botanic Gardens

Yesterday we went to the Botanic Gardens. We got to learn about the different animals and plants and what their life status is. There were three different life status's we learnt about: thriving/doing well, extinct and endangered/threatened. There were also three different origin groups: introduced, native and endemic. The animals are in these groups because this is how they got here to New Zealand. We played a game too. The game was like the game head bands. We were in pairs and had to guess the animal stuck on our back, its origin group and its life status. I was a rat, introduced and thriving/doing well. We also played a game where we had to get from one side of the rope to the other on carpet squares. There were twists though. We weren't allowed to throw the carpet squares really far and we couldn't touch the ground. When you touched the ground you had to restart because you were birds and the grass was the city with all the noises. My group and I found a good way to get across the grass and it was really fun. The second round we played with the same rules but the teachers could take away squares we had lost contact with. It was really hard but it was fun. We also learnt about a timeline and we had to put our poster thing with our animal onto the timeline. At the end we had to find a plant and draw it and write facts about it. I learnt so much on this trip.