Nature Is Speaking Video

Here is the video I made. Hope you like/don't hate it:

Weeks 1 & 2 of Term 3

Writing - We completed our persuasive writing task, and our next task is either another persuasive argument or a discussion argument. We learnt about the structures of each argument type. In a persuasive argument, you persuade people to see your point of view, stating only facts about your opinion, but in a discussion argument, you state both sides of the argument, therefore discussing the problem.

Reading - We are doing another short story analysis, and a visual image comparison to the story. We will also do some stuff with a static image. I read a story called 'Lamb To The Slaughter' by Roald Dahl and a story called 'Tell Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe. I am going to do the task with the second story.

Maths - We have started doing measurement work. During this, I have learnt how to convert m² into hectares (divide by 10 000), and how to find the area of a circle (1/2 of the circumference times the radius squared).

Tech arts - I made sushi and a muesli bar, and some brownies. The brownies are for our themed cafe. The theme is beach. I am making brownies and I'm using writing icing to draw waves and fish on it. They taste really yum.

Extension art - I have nearly finish my painting of Brendon Urie. It doesn't look very good. When the photo was expanded, his face turned neon pink and purple. It doesn't help that I'm really bad at painting faces.

My birthday - It was my birthday, and I turned 13.

Robotics workshop - I am part of the robotics workshop group this year. I'm still not sure what to expect, but I'm excited. It sounds fun.

WAI maths - Next week six students, including me, will go to a maths problem solving competition. I'll let you know how that goes in my next blog post.

Cross country - We have started cross country training. We are going to leave the school next week and run on the roads.

Inter-house jump-jam - We had inter-house jump-jam on Friday. Puniu (my house) and Mangapiko came first equal, but next week we will find out who got the bonus point.

Weeks 9 and 10

Hi. Sorry I didn't write last week. I got busy. This will probably be short because I can barely remember what happened. I only went to school for the first two days of week ten because I've been really sick. Here is what happened:

Reading and Writing - I completed everything on Tuesday. It was the last day I was at school, so that was lucky.

Maths - I finally got my new book.

Belmont - The students from Belmont Intermediate came down for the 23rd annual Belmont and Te Awamutu Intermediate Sports Exchange. We had a disco for it, and I went to Megan's house the night of it so I could go with her. My school won the exchange with the overall score 6-5, with two draws.

Grace's House - I went to Grace's House for a sleepover on Friday night. It was the first time I rode an intermediate school bus, and I felt so uncomfortable. It was fun at her house.

Tech Arts - We have started food tech arts. It is probably my favourite. So far I have made: Corny-cheesy roll-ups and dipsticks; Paraoa bread (which translates into: Bread bread); Butterfly cakes. I would've made Nachos on Friday, but I was sick.

Extension Art - I started painting on my canvas in week nine, but I didn't do anything in week ten.

Extension food - There was a lesson in week ten, but I couldn't go to it. I'm pretty sure that Sticky Date Pudding was made.

Marae Visits - For Te Wiki O Maori (Maori week), the school visited a marae over three days. The trips went from Tuesday to Thursday. My trip was on Wednesday, so I didn't end up going. A good five dollars wasted. I was also supposed to go bowling that night, and that cost five dollars, so ten dollars was wasted on me being sick.

I can't think of anything else, so I'll post this and sign out. Bye.

Week Eight

Maths - I did Mathletics all week because I am ahead in maths, and I had one page left in my book. I really need to get a new book, but I keep forgetting to ask Mum. I won a Bronze Certificate, and got rid of some of my blue bars.

Writing - I started writing my argument. My topic is: 'School / tourist busses should not have seat belts.' At first I was for them, but then I found a website that gives some really good reasons why there shouldn't be seat belts. I have written most of it, for I just need to write two paragraphs.

Reading - I have nearly finished my book review. I need to write one and a bit more paragraphs, and add in some quotes. After that, I'll be done.

Maori - We didn't have it because Whae Rangi was away.

French - We revised what we learnt last week about the weather.

Science Fair - I did my tests and finished everything a day before it was due. We did peer assessments on the information, and apparently I did quite well. I helped Patrick do his tests, along with some other students.

Tech Arts - We made up a dance to the song 'Timmy Trumpet.' My group ended up doing alright. We watched some videos of dance sequences by Royal Family, and we watched the stage challenge from last year at the college.

Friday Sport - In Theatre Sport, we played lost of different games. I got to play the Emotional Game. It's when you act out a scene once neutral, then you do it three more times using different emotions.

Extension Art - I spent the whole time attempting to make a skin colour. I didn't manage to.

R.I - We listened to Chris talk about respecting your friends. I only like R.I. when he is doing it because he is American, so his voice is entertaining.

Music Workshop Concert - We went to the A.L.C. to watch a short concert that the music teachers and students put together. They played some songs, and the choir sang some. The band played the Harry Potter and Star Wars theme songs which was interesting to hear.

Mufti Day - The theme for this terms mufti day was First Response, so I wore my St John Cadet uniform. I didn't get an award, but that's alright because the prizes weren't very good. Last year I got a bag of Fruit Bursts for second place. This year, first place got a medium-sized chocolate bar.

Week Seven

Maths - I finished all of the ratio work and am doing percentages work. I have made a few dumb mistakes. I am going to get Mum to buy me a new book in the weekend because I only have one fully blank page left.

Writing - We did a draft argument about school uniforms. We had to handwrite them, but it was actually easier than on a computer. No typing, backspacing, typing some more, backspacing some more. If you wanted to get rid of something, you just cross it out. Next week we will write another argument.

Reading - We have started our book reviews. I finished reading The Siren and I have started my book review about it. Mrs. Crowe said that our summary of the plot should be about as long as the short story analysis (150 - 200 words), but mine is 316.

Maori - I was doing dishes (one of the people wasn't there, so I was filling in), and when I came back to class, my group was just finishing our presentation. I was a little annoyed that I missed, but it was okay. We learnt about a battle between the Maori and the English.

French - We made wheels to show what the weather is like. They are the kind of wheels that are on the shows and games that you spin to see what you win, except smaller and no money involved.

Extension Art - I painted on my draft picture, and again I got Mrs. Dixon to make the skin colour.

Tech Arts - We learnt how to play 'Smoke On The Water' on the guitar, and we were assessed on our keyboard, drum and guitar playing. We got to play on the ukuleles which was so fun because they are so cute and small. We mucked around a bit on Friday because there wasn't much to do.

Student Assembly - It was alright. One of the videos of the week was Kid President telling us that everyone can change the world if they want to. One of the games was Chubby Bunny, and if you don't know what that is I'm not explaining because it's a stupid game that people have choked to death playing.

Jump Jam - Room three (my class) won the golden rock with three votes. We did six routines (I counted), which I'm pretty sure is more than usual. I think we usually do five or something.

40 Hour Famine - I did the 40 Hour Famine with Megan in the weekend. It was kind of hard to cut food and get changed etc., but we had lots of fun. We managed it through the weekend. We went from 7pm on Friday to 11am on Sunday.

Science Fair - The Science Fair Boards arrived this week. I am going to do my tests in the weekend.

Week 6 of Term 2

Math - I have nearly finished the ratio work. I just need to do one more learning reflection to compete it all. Then, I can go on Mathletics instead of doing book work. I got really confused when I was doing the learning intention 'To use scale and ratio with problems', but then I realized I was converting measurements wrong. After that, I was completely fine. I somehow thought that there are 1000 centimetres in a metre instead of 100. I really need to buy a new maths book because I only have five fully blank pages left, and I'll use them up pretty soon. I think that I'll be able to do two-three more learning intentions in my book, and then that's it.

Writing - We have been told that our next piece of writing will be persuasive/argument. We were asked to come up with some topics to write about, but no-one really came up with anything. We'll probably end up doing one of the topics Mrs. Crowe came up with. We went over the structure and features of persuasive writing, and I came up with lots of features because I remembered them from last year.

Reading - Our next reading task writing a book review, and we went over the structure of one. Some people have already started, but I don't know what book to do. I'll probably do the book I'm reading at the moment, called 'The Siren' by Kiera Cass. I'm only halfway through it, but I think I'll finish it soon. It's a really good book. It isn't the type of siren that goes wee-woo-wee-woo like a police car.

Maori - We finished making our children's books, and some groups presented theirs. My group hasn't presented ours yet, so we'll present it next week.

Tech Arts - On Tuesday, the usual teacher wasn't there, so we had Mrs. Germann. I liked having her there because she let us do our own thing and practice things we were stuck on. We played on the keyboard, drums and guitar. We had to make up our own jigs, so I did mine as simple as possible.

Extension Art - I spent the whole lesson doing the wash on my canvas for my portrait. It was so boring. I had to get his palest skin colour. I made Mrs. Dixon do it for me.

40 Hour Famine - I am going to do the 40 Hour Famine this weekend with my friend Megan. I will be at her house all weekend, and we will be giving up our our right hands.

Indoor Bowls - We had our indoor bowls lesson on Wednesday with a few experienced men. Three people from my group were chosen, and some other people were chosen too. I don't really like indoors bowls.

Dishes - I was on dishes with Arden, not my usual partner, Grace. We were on together because nobody had done it all Monday, so Mrs. Crowe picked us to do it.

Jump Jam - Same old same old. I was doing dishes so I didn't find out what class won.

French - We revised some of the stuff we had already learnt, and we learnt how to say different kinds of weather.

Religious Instruction Assembly (R.I) - Some kids went on stage and pretended to be part of our solar system. I can't remember what the moral of doing this was, but there was one.

Science Fair - I am going to buy my Science Fair board next week. I have sorted out my information so I can print it out. I think I will check it before I do actually print it though.

Winter Games - I played Corner Ball with my friends Jess and Emelia. It was fun, but we didn't do much.

Week Five - Term Two

Maths - I have completed my fractions work, and now I'm working on ratio. I haven't actually started yet, but I will next week. The fraction work that I did was addition, subtraction, multiplying and dividing. Multiplying is the easiest, then comes division, addition and then subtraction, though they're all quite simple. I enjoyed doing ratio last year, and I really want to start doing it. I also want to do it partly to catch up to Arden.

Writing - On Tuesday afternoon, I had a have writing spree. I finished writing my report during that time, and I edited it on Wednesday. I made a lot of changes to my writing. Most of the changes were to do with sentence starters. Nearly every sentence started with 'Meerkats', or 'The.' (including their, there, they, etc.) I am quite satisfied with my work. Even though I don't really like writing reports, I'm glad that I didn't have to put in my opinion until the conclusion. I liked getting the information for my writing because it helped me find more out about meerkats, and I really like meerkats. I handed it in on time (YAY).

Reading - I also finished my reading task during the mad writing spree on Tuesday. My summary of the plot was 199 words, and it had to be between 150 and 200 words, so I had a good amount in my opinion. I think I explained the characters well, though the weren't explained too well in the story itself. I also think I did an alright job on explaining the setting. I explained what it looked like, when I think it was set, and what the temperature was probably like. I used a couple of quotes, though I think I should've used more. I also handed this in on time (YAY).

Teachers Only Day and Queen's Birthday- Friday is Teachers Only Day, so that means no school for me. I also have Monday off next week because of the queen's birthday weekend. I get a four day holiday! Four days of doing nothing.

Maori and French- We didn't have either because they are both on Friday, and we had Friday off of school.

Winter - Wednesday was the first of June, so that means winter has started. Time for chills. I love winter because it is the month of my birthday. Time to start my wishlist. I don't care if my birthday is in August, I'm doing it! It is already really cold and wet, and it is annoying. I don't really mind the cold, I just mind the wet.

Tech Arts - We only had one lesson of tech arts this week. During that lesson, we composed our blues songs on Garageband (iPad app) and played the guitars for a little bit. My group ( Grace and I) had an amazing song that sounded terrible. I had to sing it, so I used the 'Chipmunk' filter to distort my voice. I also attempted to play 'Smoke On The Water' on the guitar, and failed. I know how to, I just usually play it on the ukulele.

Jump Jam - I found out who won last week, and it was my class. I carried the golden rock to the A.L.C. and placed it carefully on the stairs. It was the first time I held it, and I was really scared that I was going to drop it. We did the song 'Freaks' again, and I failed, but not as bad as last time. Room Fifteen won with two points, and the other classes either got one point or no point at all. I was in the front row because Arden wanted to be next to me, but I didn't want to be. I don't like being in the front row, but I did it any way.

S.H.I.N.E. - Five people got their Silver Badges at the Monday morning assembly, and they were all in my class. Four girls and one boy. I think I need two more 'We are Honest' signatures and eight more 'We Include others' signatures to get mine. The I's are the hardest to get, so I'm going to need to be very inclusive. In my class, we can get them by students telling the teacher that we have been inclusive, so I'll try to hang out with people looking lonely and who I don't usually hang out with. I really want my badge this term, but I'll probably get it in term three or four.

40 Hour Famine - I am going to do the 40 Hour Famine this year. I was supposed to hand the permission slip in on Thursday, but I forgot. Mrs. Tyson, the teacher in charge, told me bring it on Tuesday. I am going to be at my friends house that weekend, so we're going to do it together. She is going to do the 'No Food' famine, while I am trying something all new. I am going to go a weekend without using my right-hand, and I am right handed. I will bandage my hand into a fist so I can't use it. I am slightly dreading getting dressed, but I'll hopefully manage. I am doing this for my famine because I know that some people aren't coordinated, don't know how to control their limbs, or have had their body parts amputated, so I thought that I might see what that's like. I don't know if anyone has done it before, but I'm going to try it. I hope I get some sponsors other than my parents.

Science Fair - In the weekend, I did a lot for Science Fair. I wrote down everything for my board other than my data (I'll take pictures), results and my conclusion because I haven't done the tests yet. I am going to by board next week (week six), and then I'll probably print out my stuff to go on it. I am planning on doing the experiments in week seven.

Volleyball - On Monday we were supposed to go to the A.L.C. and play volleyball, but we had an hour long talk about fish and greed instead. During that speech, my friend was pointed to and told that she had four weetbix for breakfast, when she could've had three and given one away. I blurted out 'But she can't have weetbix' (she's a celiac),  and everyone laughed.

Extension Art - I bought a canvas and gessoed it for next week. I finished drawing my picture, and I will probably paint it next week. I will also put a wash on my canvas. I got kind of bored, and Sophie had lots of paint, so I finger painted on one of my black and white copies of my picture. I made him look so pretty!

Extension Food - We made savoury pinwheels this week. Mine didn't have any ham because someone came to my kitchen and took it, saying that he didn't have any. I told him that I didn't have any either, and that I was about to use it, but he didn't care. Mine still tasted great. I had to add about three extra cups of flour, and it was still really sticky. I think I might have added too much milk. Oh well.