My favourite part of the year

My favourite thing about this school year is probably getting actually pretty good at football. Because for the last 2 years I've been playing but I haven't really been getting better that much. A couple guys in my class have been playing football with me and I don't know if they noticed till near the end of the year when I noticed, but I got way better. I started noticing I was actually pretty good in term 3, and it was kind of weird because I didn't realise that before. I think after the massive injury I had this year, I started to improve way quicker than before.

What I do for Christmas

I had to make a DLO about wither different countries traditions at Christmas or what I do for Christmas. I chose what I do for Christmas and I made a DLO about it.

Here's my DLO:

Summer Learning Journey teaser week: big friendly giants

Today in class we had to pick a activity to do for the teaser week on the Summer Learning Journey site just to try out the Summer Learning Journey. Also maybe we could choose if we want to do it.

There are 3 activity's you could choose from to do and I chose write a description about the BFG ( or the big friendly giant) There has to be 10 descriptive words about the BFG, and I'm guessing it has to be in a paragraph.

The BFG is very, very tall and he looks like the other mean giants but he isn't like them. When he's talking to Sophie he looks like he's just gotten ready for the day and Sophie is just about ready. The BFG loves listening to music and reading or humming to the song. He's also crazy but in a fun and exciting way. He loves having fun and with Sophie because she is also fun and handles his in a good way playfulness.

Acrostic poem of my name

Today I'm going to do a acrostic poem of my name. My real name is Danielle but my friends call me Dani and I do like Dani better. I had to think of stuff about me that start with letters of my name. Here is my ideas.

Dark in general

Annoying sometimes

Noisy when I have a lot of energy

I like to do sports

Energetic at random times

Loyal to my friends

Lonely when I'm without my friends

Eager for school to finish for the year

Our own Freak the Mighty task

At the end of last week I had to think of a task to do for Freak the Mighty after I finished the book and the review. I chose to draw the cover of the book, I'm not the best at drawing but it's pretty good for my drawing skills.

Here's my drawing:

The yellow doesn't look finished in some places but I was running out of yellow and I had to do the whole thing. If I didn't run out of yellow it would look better but that's the best I could do.

Freak the Mighty book review

In reading my group has been reading a book called Freak the Mighty for most of the term and I've just finished the book. We were told to do a book review on the book.

Here's mine:

Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick is basically about a son of Killer Kane called Max and his best friend called Kevin but his friends call him Freak. Also their whole adventure of before and after they became freak the mighty. People called Freak a midget or midget man, and they called Max stupid, but when they got older they didn't really care anymore.

Freak and Max went on a few adventures before but the most interesting part of the book was what happened when Max's dad got out of jail. He made the police believe he didn't kill anyone, so he got out and when Max saw his dad he was pretty scared.  He knew that Freak was there so he wasn't as nervous anymore. Max was with his dad and saw something really bad then remembered what his dad did to get him in jail. Freak came and tricked Max's dad and saved the day. Something happened to Freak at the end of the book what was pretty sad.

I think this book was really good and a lot of people will like it. Personally I think people year 6 and up but I know there are people younger than that who read books like these. The story was kind of sad but it was also good. I think people might be able to relate to some of the story because it talks a little bit about bullying and some people get bullied a lot. Overall I think the book was really good and the book got made into a movie and I might watch the movie.

Summer Learning Journey

Hi my name is Dani and I go to Hornby High School and I'm also a year 8. I learned about the Summer Learning Journey when I was year 5 or 6 and now I'm year 8. I really like to do PE and sport at school, I just love doing sports and being competitive. I'm not the best at reading and writing but I'm pretty good for my age I think, but I like sports way better. 

The activity that sound the most fun to me is the week 1 activity all about sports and physical stuff. Honestly I think the other ones don't sound as fun but I guess their fine. I think the Summer Learning Journey sound cool because you can still do blogging but it's not about one specific thing. Just to me but I think the week 4 activity is the least interesting to me because I'm, not really into art and stuff like that.

For me I don't know if I'll have time because I normally do a lot of stuff with my siblings and cousins but if I do I'll try and do a activity if I have time. I think if I do have time to do it, that it would be really cool because you can do the activity however you want.

Cookies

IN food tech we made cookies in a group of around 4. We had a recipe we had to follow but some of the cookies didn't turn out perfect. The ingredients we used were butter, vanilla essence, condensed milk, white sugar, flour, baking powder, chocolate chips.

We put the sugar and butter first then beat it together. Then sift the baking powder and sugar together, then put it in the sugar, butte mixture. Then we put the chocolate chips and condensed milk then we pushed it together. After we were done all that we put it on a tray then in the oven. It took 15 minutes to bake.

When we finished making then we did a taste test. Personally I think they were really good but my group was meant to switch the oven over so ours looked different than everyone else's. I think that's the only thing my group didn't do right but it's fine.

That's how we made the cookies in food tech today.

Freak the Mighty Summary

We had to write a summary and explain what has happened from chapter 4 to chapter 15 in a paragraph. A lot has happened in these chapters so here is my summary.

The big things that has happened to Freak and Max were that they were chased by guys that didn't like them, into the mud and they turned into Freak the Mighty together because they did get rescued but they were halfway out I think on their own. Also Max's dad is Killer Kane and he has been in prison for years but he is getting let out soon and everyone is nervous about it. Max is trying to calm down because he is scared of his dad quite a lot and he doesn't really want to see him. Freak is making him feel better and he is staying pretty calm.

CIP

In CIP this week we were just carrying on with our kindness posters from last week. Before my group was ready to paint we just needed to sketch a little bit more on the poster and outline the letters that we wrote. Since we had a bit to do it took us like 30 minutes and we had to get all the stuff ready to paint and that took like 5 minutes. We didn't have that long to paint if we tidied up before the bell went, but we were allowed to paint during morning tea so that's what my group did.

If you wanted to choose a passion to do on Wednesdays during CIP time I can't remember all the passions right now but I do gym sports. So I really wasn't here for a hour when I think my group finished but it looked so cool, my group did amazing.

I think doing the posters with a group we don't normally work in was pretty cool and the poster was really awesome at the end.

CIP

In CIP this week we were making a kindness poster to hang up around our school. We were put into teams at the start of the day and we were working in those teams for this week and next week. The girl in my team were Chloe, Rieya, and Lhysette. We were thinking of ideas we could do on the poster, when we thought of the ideas we drew a draft on a piece of paper. I went to gym sports for a hour so I don't know what my group did while I was gone but all I know is when I came back, we got the big piece of paper and we were halfway done. Since I'm not the best at art I just listened to what my group said.

I think so far my groups going pretty good so far. Here's our draft of our little piece of paper.

Reading

In reading we had to choose 10 words from freaks dictionary or the back of the book that we are reading. Also put one work in a sentence.

1. Some people get a bionic body parts after having a surgery.
2. I think that my friend is really fealty.
3. A knight wears some armour when they battle
4. When you don't know a word you look it up in a dictionary.
5. People should stop smoking cigarettes
6. I have little critter brothers
7. I feel like some food right now
8. You look like your a goon right now
9. I just had a really good idea
10. I just liftoff - ed a book

All the works are in the back of the book, Freak the Mighty.

Digital tech

In digital tech we were researching about a issue and we had to make a app or game about our issue. I can't remember exactly the name of the issue I had but I knew it was about sport refs and treating girl and boys differently. I know a bit about this issue because I play a sport at school that boys mostly play but girls play it as well. I wanted to know more about it.

I think doing a game went well for me but I wasn't able to do work on it that much because when I first started working on it I got really sick and I missed most of the time we got to work on the game I was doing. But before I got sick I think I did pretty good planning and doing the background and stuff on my game.

I would try not to get sick right before I do the most fun part and not just do the boring part but it's fine. The most fun thing I did do was probably when I first went on the app and didn't just have to plan my game.

Reading

My group started a new book Freak the Mighty, the author is Rodman Philbrick. I had to read the first 3 chapters of the book and do a summary of those few chapters, here is my summary

I think the first 3 chapters weren't really exciting because it's just the start of the book and we were just learning about the characters and the story. But in the first couple chapters it was basically reflecting on when the author or main character called Max was a child. In the second chapter he saw the cool guy Freak when he was younger with his crutches. Freak used to be so cool when he was younger because everyone wanted to see his crutches. The author saw the Freak from his old school when he was moving boxes for him but he didn't realise who it was till now. He went up to talk to him and for a little bit Freak didn't remember him for a few minutes.

I think the book is going good so far and I think I might like it.

Maths

In maths we were working out who would get the most money working over the holidays from a question we were doing. 

The first person was Ariana, on the question she got $10 her first day then $2 more every other day she worked. There are 2 weeks in the normal school holidays so the first day she got $10 dollars then all the other 13 days she got $2. So you could either skip count in 2s 13 times or just do 13x2. My group did both and we worked our the answer was 26, then we added the 10. So for 2 weeks we worked out she got $36.

The other person was Matiu and he got $1 every day but it was doubling over 2 weeks. So the second day he got $2, the the next day he got $4, then $8, $16, $32, 64, 128, 256, 462, 924, 1228, 2456, 5312. He will get $5312 all the holidays. 

We also had to say who we would rather be, I would rather be Matiu because he got more money.

PE

In PE the whole class was put into groups and we all had to plan a sport we wanted to teach and how we wanted to teach it. My team was called French Fries and we taught bench ball. Since I'm a pretty shy person it was pretty hard for me to get in front of the whole class. Since our team taught the class first I think we did pretty good but I was panicking at the start. I didn't have a important role but a few people in my group helped me run the warm up. After 10-20 minutes I kind of got a little more comfortable teaching but I still don't know how my teachers do it.

Maybe next time I might try not to be scared and use a louder voice and tell the class the instruction if I'm brave enough. When my team was playing bench ball at the end of the lesson, I was injured to I couldn't play but I saw how much teamwork you need to play bench ball and also how to sit out when you love to be active.

I also think since we were the first team to teach I think we did a pretty good job but we weren't the best. Next time we will probably do better because we have watched everyone teach now.

Reading

In reading this week were starting a new book called Freak the Mighty. Here are a few questions that my teacher gave my group.

1. Based on the front cover and title what do you predict the book is about? Maybe it's a freak that is mightier than other people their age.

2.  If something is described as mighty, what do you think that means? I think it means a really strong or brave person or thing.

3. Describe a time where you have been called a name or picked on. How did you feel? What made you feel better? I was just being teased about my height compared to other older people in my year. But my friends told me that it's fine and ignore it.

4. Describe the difference between a bystander and a outstander? I think a bystander is just some that might just stand there and watch I think, and a outstander is someone who is different I guess.

5. Read the back of the book, what do you predict the story's about. Maybe it's about a boy who didn't have a perfect family and had arguments a lot, maybe it will be about something else but I don't know.

Digital Tech

Today I am going to do a reflection on two apps were trying out in digital tech. The two apps are Scratch or Sphero and we had to do both on Tuesday, the first half of the 2 hours we had digital tech my class did scratch and the other class did Sphero then we swapped. 

Scratch is where you can design characters, make animations and when you design characters you can also record sounds. I haven't learnt how to make the animations yet but I know how to do the sounds, backgrounds and characters.

Sphero is a app that connects to robots and you can program the robots to do anything or you can just control it by yourself. It is fun but I think you can do more on scratch, and you have to have a ipad for the Sphero app. I think scratch is easier for me.

PE

In the last week in PE we were doing maths and my team taught the class how to play bench ball. We did the maths before my team taught our groups game. 

For maths there are 6 big teams so our teacher decided to do 3 practising our PE stuff and some of the maths. The maths work we had to work out was, how much money it takes to paint all the lines on a football field. For the maths we got into groups of 3 from our big group we were going to teach the class in. The girls in my team were Nykaychia and Meleana. Our teacher made the maths PE based since we were in PE still. 

For bench ball my team was teaching the class bench ball, and I'm more of a shy person so at the start I was freaked out and I had to tell my teacher about it. Anyways the warm ups my group planned were 40 star jumps, 20 high knees and 10 jogging up and down the court, we had to do the warm up for 5 minutes so we repeated everything again. After that we did the 2 drills we planned, one of our drills didn't workout so we just did the first one for a longer amount of time. When we got into teams, since theres 2 year 7 and 8 classes we got the year 7s together and the year 8s. Then we did year 8 and 7 class vs class. Our team had to ref the 2 games so some of us went to one game and some of us went to the other. 

Also I couldn't but our team joined in if they were yr 7 or 8 in there class, then we had a big year 7 vs 8 game. I wanted to join in with the year 8s so bad since I am a year 8 but I wasn't allowed to.

Here are some pictures the teachers took during bench ball:

CIP

In CIP we had to make a DLO for a company were doing recycling for, called TerraCycle. TerraCycle recycles stationery that doesn't work anymore and makes it into something new. For every kg we send in we get $2, but to send the stationery to them there has to be 2 kgs. To tell the other people in our community about this well probably put it on the school site or Facebook page.

Here's our DLO we made last week:

Ella West Visit

Today Ella west came to our school and talked to the year 7+8s about being a author and her life. Some people in my class were reading one of Ella's books Night Vision but I wasn't one of them. Another class did some work on Night Vision before the people in my class and Ella saw there work. She lives in Dunedin so she had to come all the way up to Christchurch to visit our school. I think that it was cool that she came, and she told us about the start of Night Vision and it sounded cool. 

She also told us about another one of her books called Rain Falls. They both sound like pretty cool books to me. She told us about a little girl in Night Vision and what she saw that scared her. Also a little bit about Rain Falls to. She also told us about how she writes her books and how long it takes. She said it normally takes her like 2 months to write one. 

I think the visit was pretty cool and it was cool that she came and talked to us. Maybe the author my group worked on might or might not come to our school.

These are the covers of Night Vision and Rain Falls:

Digital tech

In digital tech we have been looking at different issues in the world and how we can fix them. We have been doing digital tech for a few weeks now and I know what my issue I'm going to search about is. The class could choose either a social issue, environmental issue or ethical. The reason my post is a bit late is because I've been away while the class has been blogging.

My research template that we were researching more about our question:

What category does your issue fall under?  Social                     Environmental   Ethical		What specifically is your issue (e.g. Global Warming, Pollution of NZ waterways, etc) Do sport refs treat boys and girls differently?
Why is this issue important to you?  Because I like to play a sport that some girls play and I want to see if refs treat guys and girls differently. I have had mainly female refs at high school but at primary school I had a male ref, so I would like to find our more about this.
Your Focusing Questions	Resource 1 (first website, video, or source of info) (Copy the website or video you use to get your information)	Resource 2 (second website, video, or source of info) (Copy the website or video you use to get your information)	Resource 3 (third website, video, or source of info) (Copy the website or video you use to get your information)
Question One Who/what does your issue affect?	What did your first source say? Most of the people said it’s unfair that guys play on a girls sport team because girls can’t play on a guys sport team. But some people liked it. Website Info	What did your second source say? I don’t know what the site was but it was basically saying that girls can do sports but it was also saying how unfair it was that girl sports are not as popular as guy sports. Website Info:	What did your third source say? Website Info:
Question Two Do refs treat boys and girls differently?	What did your first source say? Website Info:	What did your second source say? Website Info:	What did your third source say? Website Info:
Question Three Which sports have males and females playing together?	What did your first source say? Website Info:	What did your second source say? Website Info:	What did your third source say? Website Info: