Blog of the Week: CINQUAIN - Room 2 Literacy Class

This week in Writing we have been learning how to write cinquain, a type of poetry invented in the United States over a hundred years ago. It is similar to the Japanese haiku but has a style all of its own.

A cinquain (pronounced sin-cane) is poem that tells a short story in 5 lines. It has a special syllable pattern of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 2. It can rhyme but it doesn't have to!

Check out all of the cinquains from our class of Year 7 & 8 students - see if the syllable pattern is correct in each poem!

Pisirina - Year 7

Ash - Year 8

Hopa - Year 8

PINATA
Candy
Eyes blindfolded
Attacked by little kids
Feeling happy when I bash it
toothache

A.J. M- Year 7

Piñata Day - A Traditional way to celebrate!

For the last two weeks, the JACKSON reading group have been learning about piñata, highly decorated containers made from papier mache, pottery or even cloth and filled up with lollies. Piñata have links in history to different parts of Europe as well as Latin American countries. In Mexico, piñata are traditionally made for birthday celebrations for children.

This week, Nahea, Rozaidah, Skye, AJ M, Ash, Filipe and William worked together to create two Easter Egg piñata.

STEP 1:  Cut or tear up strips of newspaper and use PVA glue to cover a balloon with a couple of layers to make the outside shell.

STEP 2: Listen/watch Skye and Nahea show you how they fill the piñata.

STEP 3: The last layer of the piñata is decorating it with crepe paper to make it bright and colourful!

Check out Rozaidah's blog to get her instructions on how to make your own piñata.

Finally, we got to have some real fun. Ms. Tapuke tied one end of the piñata to a piece of string and hung it up on a pole outside Room 2. 

Everyone had the chance to try their piñata skills!

    a)  First they had to wear a blindfold, next

    b) they were given a stick and then they were

    c) turned around a few times and afterwards had try to hit the piñata. 

The best job was holding the string tied to the piñata - by pulling the string up and down, you could have fun making sure the person with the stick kept missing! 

Well there was lots of yelling and excitement as we watch everyone trying really hard to break the piñata  - it's not as easy as it looks!  Some of the boys gave it a good crack and at one point, the stick went flying over the carpark at one point!

In the end, we took turns smashing up the piñata after each one fell on ground and when they were opened up, we shared out the chocolates.

What traditions do you and your family follow to mark special occasions like a birthday?

Blog of the Week: KING, CALEB - DATA DETECTIVES:Which graph is best?

Room 2's Maths class were practising being DATA DETECTIVES by helping Mr Vogt to figure out when would be the best time to plant shrubs by checking the weather forecast for the next week. 

Check out King and Caleb's explanation and their decisions about which graph to use to support their answers. Which graph do YOU think best shows the temperature data?

This our graph bar and line graph that we used to answer a question about Mr Vogt and his precious little Shrubs. Over the week, we had to pick the best days to plant his delicate shrubs, it needed to be above 20 degrees celsius in the day, and it needed to be not hotter than 11 degrees celsius overnight. He is not available on the weekends. Here is our bar chart, If it goes over 20 it good and if it’s 11 degrees or lower it is good. And if it goes lower than 20 or higher than 11, it’s not good.

The next graph we did was the line graph. Another person in our class did a line graph, and it ended up pretty good. So we decided to try it out ourselves, and, as you can see, it worked out amazing. It shows the same information as the bar graph, but it shows the numbers more clearly. Here is our Line Graph.

Garage Sale - Fundraiser!

Zaeeda and Tha Zin are members from AL87 (Aspiring Leaders from Year 8 & 7). What do you think.  They did a great job creating an eye-catching poster to promote the upcoming Garage Sale being held in our school hall this coming weekend. The aim is to raise $$$ to help pay for fees for the Year  8 camp.

Come down to Pt England School this Saturday morning to support our Senior Students!

Blog of the Week: PISIRINA - Revew - SOMETHING ALIVE by Jem Yoshioka

The Waititi reading group read the story, Something Alive this week. It lead to a lively discussion around the issues of being bi-racial and the importance of knowing your culture and doing your best to keep it alive. Read Pisirina's thoughtful review of the text.

Title: Something Alive      

Author: Jem Yoshioka     Genre: Fiction - Based on real story

Summary of book: It is about this girl and her unknown heritage. When I say ‘unknown heritage’, I mean she doesn’t know much about her Japanese side. She gets comments and question that questions her identity and she can’t answer any of them because she doesn’t know enough about her japanese culture. She doesn’t fit in the crowd with her controversial appearance. She then is encouraged by her Grandmother to learn more about her heritage because there is something alive in her that is starting growing.

My thoughts: I liked this book because it shows the point of view of a person who struggles from everyone’s comments on she really is and how she looks. I can somehow relate to this, because at first impression most people think I’m tongan from the way I look. I might look tongan but just because I look tongan it doesn’t mean I’m tongan. I think that’s how I can connect with this character with some experience.

Recommendations :  I personally would recommend this to those in the age group from 9 years to 13 years of age because I think it would be good to read this at the age of 9 so that if this ever happens to you then you can have an idea on what to do and you can just carry on as normal. It is also good to help you develop a good skill which is being empathetic and it is easy to read because it is a comic book.

I’ve learnt … : I learnt that we should be respectful of each other not just by actions but verbally. We never know if just a small question like ‘Where are you from’ can be harsh for the person you are asking. I think if we just think before we talk then there will be less hate comments on others and it will bring peace to the world!

Blog of the Week: HOPE - Favourite Anime Characters

Check out Hope's mathematical thinking this week as she and her group read a bar graph and together try to figure out the answers to questions like "Which is the most popular anime character".

Self-Portraits using Micrography - Ko Wai Au? Who Am I?

Kia ora koutou!

Room 2's movie today for PENN, our school's TV news, was inspired by our inquiry learning topic. In Team 5 this term, the theme is Ko Wai Au? Who Am I? 

We each created self-portraits using a special style of graphic art called micrography. The word can be broken down into two parts: micro = small and graphy = letters.

Our teacher took our photo and printed them out onto  A3 sheets of paper. First, we traced the outline of our head, hair and face in pencil and then we replaced all of the lines with words and sentences about ourselves.

Take a look at our art work in this movie and see if you can spot:

a) which student walks to school?

b) which student loves reading and maths?

c) which student likes telling funny jokes all the time?

d) which student's favourite colour is yellow?
e) which student loves to dance?