Zaeeda SLJ

Zaeeda has been continuing her learning throughout the summer holidays - ka pai! Check out her blog to see more of her posts.

Activity 1: Rise Up

For this task we were asked to compose the chorus of the song. If possible we were also asked to record it. I enjoyed writing this song very much however, I wasn't able to record it due to complications.

Activity 2: Te Reo Maori

This was a bit easy, and I didn't really find it much of a challenge. However it was still fun to do and practicing Te Reo is always important

That concludes day 4 of the summer learning journey. I'm enjoying the Holidays a lot. Keep safe and have a Merry Christmas!

Farewell Year Eights

 What a whirlwind of a year it has been! Despite two lockdowns and some new teaching/learning experiences, our year eights have done us proud. It has been such a privilege to get to know these students over the last couple of years.

These students excelled throughout the lockdowns due to their dedication to their learning and fantastic work ethic. They brought great energy and enthusiasm to room four every day and I know they will continue to succeed at college in 2021.

          

 Farewell year eights, we wish you all the best at college!

Amazing day at Tamaki College

 Today the year eights had the absolute pleasure of attending Tamaki College for a college experience day. 

This was an amazing opportunity to learn what it is like to attend TC, from following a timetable to moving to different areas of the school. They were also lucky enough to receive a pizza lunch and a delicious morning tea!

See what Sonnia had to say when we returned:

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to welcome us to your school and for providing food and water for us. We appreciate all the time and effort you have put into all these amazing subjects and topics. We all came back to school excited and happy wishing to go back. We did not want to leave as we were having so much fun in our classes and with your amazing students. Thank you for also taking the time to plan all these amazing things especially the last minute van ride back to school. We appreciate the DELICIOUS PIZZA that we were able to have for lunch. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Lads who lunch

 Today the boys enjoyed a shared lunch - pizza, chips and juice. We celebrated their stellar turn out at swimming as well as their awesome attitude towards learning this year.

Then at lunch room four came together to play a game of volleyball. It has been a real privilege for Mrs Stone to watch the class grow and bond - everyone has a great attitude towards teamwork.

Tea Party Time!

 To celebrate our success in swimming (we had the largest number of students organised to swim), we won a lunchtime prize. After some discussion, we had some different ideas about how to spend our lunchtime, so we split into two groups. The first group had their celebration today; cupcake decorating.

We experimented with different nozzles, piping bags and decorations. It was great fun, if a little messy!

We have all certainly learnt a little about decorating - sometimes less is more! But it was lovely to have the opportunity to spend a lunchtime together having a giggle, before we farewell our year eights at the end of the term.

Ruby Finds A Worry

Have you ever felt worried? You might feel stressed about a test, anxious about going to a new school or worried about speaking in front of an audience. But everyone feels worried sometimes, from your little sister to your grandpa, everyone get's worried about something.

After a particularly worrying year, Room 4 wanted to create a film festival movie to show you what to do when you are feeling anxious. We found the book Ruby Finds a Worry by Tom Percival and thought it was fantastic! We have used most of this story (although we changed a few parts) for our movie.

I n the story, we meet Ruby who is loving life. Then one day she finds a worry. In our movie we showed these worries as creatures, but they represent worried or anxious thoughts. Ruby's worry started off small, but it got bigger over time... Watch the film below to find out what Ruby did next!

We hope you enjoyed our movie and that you'll remember it the next time you feel worried. Remember to leave us a positive comment!

Athletics Day

 On Friday we held our annual Pt England School athletics day. It was a wonderful event - the rain held off for us and we all participated in each of the ten events. We have a real mixture of activities, from the traditional events like sprints, shot put, discus and high jump, to volleyball and ski's.

                         

Room four showed our class values of respect and positivity throughout the day. We had a great sense of sportsmanship and most importantly a great day. Thank you to Ms Vaafusuaga and all of the staff that enabled this event to take place!

Writing a Quality Blog Comment

Can you believe its almost time for the Film Festival!? This year marks the 13th Manaiakalani Film Festival, where our 12 schools head out to Sylvia Park to watch our movies at the Hoyts Cinema.

To help everyone to prepare, we decided to film a movie about quality blog commenting.  Let's all remember to leave quality blog comments after we watch the amazing movies! To learn how, check out the video below:

Why not practice using these steps by leaving us a positive comment?

Last Swimming Lesson

 Today we had our final swimming lesson. It has been an amazing four weeks and we have really enjoyed improving our swimming skills thanks to our amazing instructors at the YMCA Glen Innes Pool.

Tag in the pool

We are currently waiting to find out if we won the swimming contest! Each week team 5 competes to have the most swimmers from each class. We have had all but one or two students swim each week and our whole class have participated in the lessons.

Spending time together during our Room 4 lunchtime

Despite swimming at our lunchtime, we have all had a positive attitude and we've enjoyed spending this time as a class. 

Origami

Tj

                

Task Description: So today while the year 8s went to tech my rotation group make origami's. Above here you can see I made an origami heart. We made origami to fill in for Te Reo, because our te reo teachers were away. Overall I thought this was a super fun task to finish, and hope to make another some time. 

Maybe you can try make a heart Origami by using this video.

Link to the video.

 

Niue Language Week!

Fakaalofa lahi atu and welcome to Niue Language Week! This week we are learning facts about Niue. Check out Janes facts below:

  

Vincent Van Gogh by Tha Zin

This term our theme is 'Art Alive'. So we are learning about different artists and their techniques. The first artist we learnt about is Vincent Van Gogh. He is a post-impressionist artist, who is famous for his use of colour and texture in his paintings. 

 

Welcome back to Term 4!

 Can you believe it is term 4 already? We are excited to be back at school after a restful break. This term our theme is Art Alive, so we will be getting creative and looking at lots of different artists; we can't wait to get started!

Another subject that we are excited about this term is swimming. We have four swimming lessons at the start of the term which we are really grateful for. During our first swimming lesson on Wednesday, 100 percent of our class had their togs and were ready to swim. Ka pai Room 4!

Our Te Reo Maori Moment - Zamera

  Today is the first day of Maori language week. We are celebrating it by taking a moment to sing a waiata as a school. At 12:00 our intercom rang and Whaea Maryanne started the whole school off singing a waiata over the intercom. People around NZ are doing the same things at the same time. 

The reason we are doing this is because at 12:00 pm on September 14th 1972, 30,000 signed a petition and gave it to Parliament. It was about the use of Maori language. Back in the day you were not allowed to speak your native language, if you spoke your native language in school you would be hit with a cane, so when people spoke their native language to their friends it was like swearing! We must treasure our language.

Why is Culture Important to Me? Toby

 I’m proud to represent my culture, Maori. I enjoy it because my immediate family always represent our culture other than our cousins who don’t usually celebrate it. I would like to show them what it means to believe in your culture and show them how important our culture is. My culture means nearly everything to me.

I love the feeling when the entire group is banded together and performing as one.

Last Saturday me and my family visited a funeral for Maua Pagaialii-Taulu when they were bringing the coffin outside the church my brothers, their friends, my father & me, brought our voices together and performed a haka as loud as a siren.

I wonder where I'd be if I hadn’t known my heritage. I’m proud to be Maori.

This place is very special to me because this is the home of my Maori Heritage, Rukumoana Marae. It’s also where my koro is buried, Ike Samuels.

Tongan Tapa Maths - Nadia

 Today we completed a problem solving task that related to Tongan Language Week. This task is about working out dimensions and area of a tapa cloth.

Elisaia is measuring his tapa cloth.

Each small section is about 20cm by 15cm. 

20 x 6 = 120 cm

15 x 7 = 105 cm

120 x 105 = 12600 cm²

Area = 126m ²

Perimeter = 45 cm

Tongan Language Week by Sauma

Malo e lelei, ko Sauma au. Today my class is learning about the Kingdom of Tonga because this week is TTONGAN LANGUAGE WEEK!! The whole of Team 5 is going to be focusing on learning facts about Tonga which is amazing. It will be really great to see how my class and I are learning NEW CULTURE!

the theme of this years Tongan Language Week is Fakakoloa 'o Aotearoa 'aki 'a e Lotu Mo'oni" which means in Tongan is Enriching Aotearoa New Zealand through Prayer and Faith. Each year has a different theme of how we present Tongan Language Week!

The capital of Tonga is Nuku'alofa which is the city in Tonga where my Mum was raised, where the Queen of Tonga is, and where there is great sightseeing and great people. Tonga has great amazing events and they celebrate eveyrthing reall well, like the Helal flower festival.

Tongan Vocabulary:

Thank you very much - Malo 'aupito

No, thank you - 'Ikai, malo pe

Hi. (Informal) - Malo e lelei

Hello (Formal) - Malo 'etau lava

Measurement Madness!

 This week we have started a new focus in Maths: Measurement! One of our tasks was to select the correct device and unit to measure a range of household items. If we couldn't use a device then we used a non-standard unit of measure (for example, using paperclips to measure the height of a kettle).

                     

Check out these awesome videos of us measuring items around our homes!

Random Acts of Kindness

 Today, the 1st September is Random Acts of Kindness day in New Zealand. Kindness and gratitude are really important values in Room 4. Last term we practiced being kind to each other through the compliments project, so it felt important to celebrate this day.

We did a few random acts, but kindness does not need to be announced, so we shall leave them secret. However,  this day gave us the perfect opportunity to express our gratitude for a fantastic teacher in our block.  He himself is very kind and compassionate and we love having him in Team 5. He teaches us for PE and he spends all of Friday in Room 4!

Back to School for Level 2.5

It is fantastic to see most of Room 4 back at school today! We are following the rules for level 2.5 really well, hand sanitising when entering and leaving the room, wiping all surfaces frequently and sitting 1m apart from each other.

We can't wait to see our last few students return in the next couple of days to get back into their learning!

 

End of Lockdown!

 Today we celebrated our last school day in lockdown 2.  We went into lockdown really abruptly and halfway through the week, but we still managed to get straight back into our daily Google Meets and blog posts.

Today we had a virtual end of lockdown celebration, and brought whānau to join us. It was fantastic to see Faith, Gene, Maung Maung, Zaria, Noah and some pets alongside our classmates.

School will be back on Monday, we will all be there as we can't wait get back together in person!

Getting Creative with Myths & Legends

 This week we have had a challenge in Room 4 to get creative with myths and legends. We got to pick from lots of different create activities, from making a recipe, to re-enacting a story to building a diorama. 

Check out Toby's creation: he created his own story using Minecraft!

                 

Themed Friday: Toys!

 This week we have all been working really hard with our online learning. Mrs Stone was really proud of us for making the most of a tricky time, especially as 90% of us managed to do some school work or attend a meeting at least once this week.

Just a few of the toys who attended our meeting

As most of us had already finished our learning tasks for the week, we decided to have a themed Friday. After some discussion, we agreed that a soft toy theme would be a great one to start with. This meant that everyone brought a soft toy (or several) with them to our meeting. After we discussed our last create activity for the week, we also had a themed Kahoot (Toy Story) to celebrate.

It is so important to keep our spirits up over the lockdown! What could you do to improve your mood today? 

Room 4 Chefs!

 Are you in lockdown this week? This week Auckland remains in level 3, just like many other parts of the world! We have been finding lots of great ways to make the most out of this lockdown. One great way is to cook for your family. 

Why not try out Marika's delicious Anzac biscuit recipe?

Is it too early for cookies? Well then try Sauma's breakfast suggestions!

Lockdown Again?

This week Auckland moved from level 1 to level 3, meaning that we are back into online learning and staying home in our bubbles. As frustrating as this is for us all, we know that we can get through it and we are using all of our learning from the last lockdown to help us get through.

Alongside tuning in to our Google Meets and completing short bursts of school work,  Room 4 have been getting really creative and finding great ways to make the most of this time.

Check out this video of Austin teaching his little sister how to make a volcano:

One Team!

 After spending time apart with the year 8 camp and year 7 step up programme, it is important for us to get back together and enjoy being a class.

To support this, on Monday we had sharing time where we each had the opportunity to get up and discuss our experiences over the past week. It was great for the year sevens in particular, who now have a better idea of what to expect at camp.

We then completed some team building activities as a class, where we put our learning from camp and the step up programme into action. It was so good to see that everyone was happy to work with each other and we had a great laugh!

Maths Week

 This week is Maths Week in New Zealand, which means one thing for Room 4 Maths: Mathletics. For us, mathletics is less about speed and more about team work. We get points for collaboration as well as correct answers.

This year we completed a series of challenges, which involved learning about famous mathematicians, completing algebra equations, geometry, measurement and more! 

What did you learn?

 Last week we had the year 8 leadership camp and the year 7 step up programme. This was an awesome opportunity for everyone to step out of their comfort zone and develop as leaders. 

Comment what your highlight was below, if someone has already said it, respond to their comment!

Year 8 Camp Day 1

Today was the first day of year 8 camp 2020. It is an absolute blessing that we have made it here to Thames, as we were originally booked to go in May (in the lockdown!). It is our fourth year coming to Kauaeranga Christian Camp and we always have a fantastic time.

On day one we played Cross Games (team building activities in the gym) and had our first rotation of activities. On day 2 we have 6 more rotations, so tomorrow will be a very action packed day! Check out this short movie to see what we have got up to on our first day, the very start of our amazing camp experience.

Argumentation Board: Is it ever okay to steal?

This morning in Literacy, Room 4 got to use their first argumentation board for the term. Today's topic was 'Is it ever okay to steal?'

                 

We first discussed our initial thoughts on this matter as a class, where most people were on the opposing side, believing that it is never okay to steal.

Next we investigated, got some factual information and wrote one reason for or against the argument. Interestingly over the course of the lesson, a few people changed their opinion on the subject.

The groups then got together and chose three arguments to use in a more formal debate. Three speakers were selected from each side and the rest of the class were given the opportunity to rebut the arguments that were made.

Multi-Sport with Mr Hughes

On Thursday and Friday, Room 4 are lucky enough to be taught by Mr Hughes. Part of our Friday programme is that we FIOP (finish it off properly), where we complete all of our learning tasks from the week and make sure that our blog is up to date.

After this we like to celebrate with fun fitness activities, this week we played multi-sport. This was great as we all worked as a team, communicated, displayed respectful relationships and most of all had fun!

We will be using these skills more as we head off to camp this week!

Team 5 Garage Sale 2020

Next week is our Year 8 camp so to fundraise, we held a garage sale in the weekend. We had a variety of things to sell from our very popular bake sale, Mrs Flavelle's bric a brac table as well as our usual cheese toasties, hot dogs and hot and cold drinks sale. 

We were also joined by many other vendors who packed out our hall with many different things to buy. Sands and Talitha groups had a lolly stall as well as chop suey and potato salad, Whaea Saff had deliciously hot mussel chowder and fried bread and even Team 4 teachers had a stall! They were selling yummy pulled pork buns and waffles. 

Mrs Ilaoa's sister had beautiful succulent plants and Tamaki College had clocks that students made out of vinyl CD's. 

Overall a very successful day for our Team 5 campers and a great day connecting with our community. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our bake sale and who came along to buy lots of goodies. 

The Leaning Tower of Spaghetti

This morning we returned to our literacy class for the first time since March! It was great (if a little strange) to be back and to read together once again.

Before we got into our reading, we had a quick challenge to remind us of some core skills of literacy; to be effective communicators, most notably. We got into our four reading groups and were given spaghetti, tape, string and a marshmallow.  The challenge was to create the tallest tower.

Each group had a different tactic, with some making spaghetti triangles, others simply sticking all the strands together vertically and others using the string to support the spaghetti to balance. In the end, Ihimaera took out the competition with an impressive 96cm tower they aptly named 'the learning tower of spaghetti. They were followed by Dahl with an 87cm tower. 

After the activity we discussed the keys to their success: communication, collaboration, active listening, sharing ideas, having fun. These are all skills that we will need to be successful in literacy over the next 6 months. 

Tha Zin - The Myth of Hermes

Today in inquiry we learnt about myths from Ancient Greece. We learnt about the different gods (Ancient Greece was polytheistic) and their story of creation. We then looked at some of the crazy things newborn Hermes was able to do in this story:

Welcome to Term 3!

Today was the first day of term three, which at Pt England means an immersion assembly!

Check out Jahzara's recount of the assembly:

The assembly started with an introduction from Mr Burt, who explained this terms theme ' A World Of Difference '. Then each team presented what their focus was. First up was Team 1.

Team one mostly focused on how other people from other countries get to school, what they eat for lunch and what they do after school. Their main focus is to learn more about different countries. What they do before school, after and during. Schools in other countries are different to us and so I think it'll be cool that they're looking at how they work :)

Team Two had a set of the cartoon Dora. It was a cool way to present their movie. They had a look at other places around New Zealand. They had a look at the many famous places like, Rotorua and the mud pools, Queens town and the snow, ETC. They also made the choice to not only explore New Zealand but to also explore the world :)

Team 3 made a movie based off of 'The Amazing race.' Due to covid-19, some people haven't been able to travel the world. So they found a way to travel without getting on a plane. The amazing race had a whole bunch of challenges to complete. Visiting the many well known places around the world. Traveling to Egypt, New York, Rio and more.

Team 4! Team 4 looked at the different foods in other counties. They ate and discussed about where it comes from. They explored Google Earth and explored their food. I reckon this would be an amazing way to learn about different countries as many people do love food.

Team 5 based their movie off Sina and the Eel. We'll be looking at different Myths and Legends that link to different traditions and countries. We'll be showing our learning through, movies and animations. Although I know a few Myths around the polynesian area, it'll be cool learning more about different legends all around.

I'm very excited to learn lots this year. A fresh start to the term! Lets make the most of it :) 

Getting Creative!

At the end of last term we spent a little time getting creative with art. This added a sense of 'us' and our personalities to our new class. 

In our first project, we learnt about colour and contrast as we created silhouette art. This was a really fun design which proved to be really effective. We each chose our own design for our art work and we experimented with different backgrounds - check them out below!

Next we made our inspirational quote artwork. This is a room 4 right of passage, as it is an activity that we do at the start of the year, every year. As we changed home class in term 2, we decided it was important to do to set up our space.

Zaeeda - Week 2, Day 4

Week 2 Day 4: Taking Action
Today we are going to be learning about people who did some amazing things all to make prove a point. This was because they had a dream and believed that they could achieve their dream, and change things for the better!

Activity 1: A Long Walk To Freedom
Nelson Mandela is an civil rights leader and an activist. He was born and raised in south-Africa. South Africa had a political system called Apartheid, for over 40 years from 1948-1991. This meant that they had different rules and customs, South-Africa had different rules for people with lighter skin.

Nelson Mandela didn't feel to well about this, and thinks that everybody should be treated equally. Fortunately, Nelson Mandela became president and put an end to Apartheid. He changed the political system for the better, but this wasn't before he went through some hard times. Mandela spent 27 years in jail before this.


Mandela 18 years in Robben Island Prison. As you'd expect life was tough, but he got through it. Mandela spent his days breaking rocks into gravel, he was forced to work in the quarry all day long. At night he would study hard, learning to become a lawyer. He was allowed to have 1 visitor and a letter every 6 months. Life was hard!

expect life was tough, but he got through it. Mandela spent his days breaking rocks into gravel, he was forced to work in the quarry all day long. At night he would study hard, learning to become a lawyer. He was allowed to have 1 visitor and a letter every 6 months. Life was hard!

This is my letter,  I did have some trouble as I have no idea what jail is like. I have never even seen a jail in real life. So this did take some time and a really good imagination.

That brings us to an end of another day. Only a couple more days left in these holidays. I can't wait for school to start up again. There were so many things we haven't gotten around to doing so I bet that this term is going to be one rollercoaster of a ride. And I'm looking forward to it!

Jahzara WLJ W2D1

Activity 1: TAKING THE LEAD. Playing favourites

Barack Obama was the President of the United States of America (USA) from 2009 - 2017. He made history as the first African American person to be elected President of the USA.

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. His father was from Kenya, Africa and his mother was American. His parents divorced when he was young and his father died in a car crash when Barack was 21 years old. As a young man Barack studied law at university which is where he met his wife, Michelle.

Together, Barack and Michelle have spent much of their adult lives helping others and giving back to their community. When they are not at work, they can be found doing their favourite things, including spending time with their family, playing with their dog, or going to the gym.

What do you like to do for fun? Do you also enjoy spending time with family? Do you have a special

pet?

________________________________________________________________________________________

For this activity, create a list of your ‘Top 5’ favourite things to do and take a photo of yourself doing each of these things.

On your blog post both your list and your photos of your favourite things.

Zaeeda WLJ Day 5

Day 5
Today is the last day of the Winter Learning Journey. I've enjoyed this week and have had a lot of fun. Today's tasks were quite fun today!

Activity 1
For this activity we had to share 3 quotes that our family have said from about getting back to school in level 2. 


This first quote if about being back at school. Just because it's not lockdown anymore we should still continue to learn and grow and keep going. I don't really know about you guys, but for me especially lockdown was a really important time in which I reflected upon myself. After lockdown I had a fresh start and I got to restart things that I hadn't done very well in. I kept going and kept growing. Also remember It's important to do your best!

It's important to take care of yourself.  When your feeling down find one good thing to smile about it. It's the number one solution to any bad day. It can be for any reason. But I promise that it will make both you and the person next to you live a happier day.



This one relates to a quote my family said during lockdown which was "Sunshine is yet to shine on this cloudy day" we said that because, we were all waiting for the good news of, NO MORE LOCKDOWN to be announced which was going to be our sunshine. But now we speak of it as pass tense. This quote also relate to the fact that lockdown wasn't all that bad. New friendships were made but overall we became better as a community.


Bonus Activities

We had to come up with a message that we'd send to everyone in Aotearoa. It has to be 10 words at the most.

We also had to choose 3 emojis to show how we found this week.
👌😎😐

I chose the ok hand as, my holidays and the winter learning journey has been okay. There wasn't anything that has made this holiday the best ever. But we still have one more whole week.

I also chose the emoji with the sun glasses. Because these activities were decently easy and I cruised through them, which gave me enough time to relax and just chill these holidays.

The last emoji just means that, I'm waiting for something else, something to make this holiday just a little bit more entertaining.  As you can see I'm a little bit underwhelmed right now. I hope you enjoyed this weeks WLJ activites!

Room 4 Whanau

Today we celebrated our success over term 2 with a shared lunch. We also said farewell to Miss Donaldson, who has joined us one day a week for the term. She has been absolutely amazing and we have loved hearing about her travels.

This has been a very long term and a wacky experience for us all, so it has been quite special being able to share kai and 'break bread' together. We can't wait for all of the fun things to come in term 3.


                                     

Matariki Day 2020 - Zaeeda

Today we had a Matariki Day at School.
Matariki is the Maori name for the cluster of stars called the pleiades. The celebration Matariki is the first rising of these cluster of stars. It’s a harvest festival that takes place nearing the end of Winter. While everything is getting ready for the time ahead of them. Ergo, Matariki is the marking point for the New Year and the New Growth.

The Pleiades are the cluster of seven stars. Many people debate on whether or not there are 7 or 9 stars. The Maori constellations states that there are 7 stars Tupu-ā-nuku, Tupu-ā-rangi, Waitī, Waitā, Waipunā-ā-rangi and Ururangi.The Greek constellation includes 9 stars. Including Hiwa-i-te-rangi and Pōhutukawa.

At school we have celebrated Matariki in many different and fun ways. One of them being our Matariki fun days. After a special assembly, the whole school splits up into different classes a mix of yr 1-8 student. Then you spend the whole day doing either, Sport, Cooking, Crafts, Movie Making.



On Friday our school did our Annual Matariki Fun Day. I was put into Arts and Craft, despite the fact that it wasn't my first choice so I was a little skeptical about being in Art and Crafts, mostly because my arts and craft skill haven't improved much.

When arriving at room 7 which would be my class for the day. The rest of the group was there too; Me, Tha-Zin, Leilani, Te Rangimarie, Taliyah, Kauri, Josh and Paschal were all from the senior block so a good chunk of the group would be made up of seniors.

Mr Goodwin let us into the class and explained what we were going to be doing. We were to make a galaxy art in which we had to add a matariki quote onto afterwards. I quite enjoyed doing this it was fun and didn't take to long. We had all finished nearing the end of the middle block. Me and Tha-Zin also got to talk a lot about High-School and our time in Mr Goodwin's Class.

The day went by very quickly and reflecting on it now. It wasn't too bad. I this would have to be my favourite Matariki Group. And I just realized that this was my last Matariki Day, it's a bittersweet feeling. But for everyone who's going to be doing these in the future good luck and make the most of it. ;)