EP Perfection

This term we made a DLO about Maori. We used a program called education perfect  (A.K.A EP).   EP has a lot of subjects but the teachers were only aiming at one subject and that was Te Reo Maori.  Te Reo Maori is a language that New Zealanders and Maori people use. For the first three we had to repeat the Maori words.

We had to repeat the Maori Alphabet and then record ourselves saying the Maori alphabet.  The only letter I got wrong is the letter “h” but I still passed.  Next we record ourselves saying New Zealand (NZ) place names.  A few places in Maori are Aotearoa (NZ) and Otipoti (Dunedin).  The final one we had to do was us saying greetings in Maori.

This was the category that had the shortest amount of words so it was quite easy.  All I had say was simple greetings in Maori like: Kia Ora (hello), Tena Korua (hi to two) and Tena Koutou (hi to three or more).

It was quite annoying because when I recorded people annoyed me so I had to restart every time they annoyed me but nothing stopped me from finishing.  For me it was stressful because we had to finish this fast.

Do you know your Te Reo Maori?

Smart Surfing The Web Waves

 This week we learnt how to search the internet using keyword searches.  Basically a keyword search is when you use the keywords of your question.  Keywords are main words in a sentence so if you use a keyword search it will be easier to find.  Using keyword searches makes finding exactly what you need easier.

In the web there is something called a spider and the spider roams around the “web” to find what you need.  The spider studies what your searching for and then The spider checks for websites that include the words of your search.  If you type the entire question the spiders will look for websites that have the word “the” or “a” and ANY website can have those words so it is worthless trying that.  That's why keyword searches exist.

If you type in “What is the largest spider” the spiders  will search the web for websites that include one  of those words.  Instead use keyword searches and type “largest spider” because the spiders will only search for largest and spider and that makes the spiders job easier.

This makes things easier and I liked that but the teacher regrets teaching us how to smart surf this late in the term.

Have you ever keyword searched before

Coastal Seas Remake

This week we have been learning about The seas. We watched a video about the sea and this was documented by Sir David Attenborough. The episode we watched was called Coastal sea and it was on Netflix, you should check it out. David documented some of the parts in sections so I will be explaining about what happened. First David documented about seagrass. Seagrass helps with global warming because it consumes as much carbon dioxide as a rainforest. Next David documented about the coral reefs and it was quite fascinating. Sea coral cover only 1% of the ocean but all the coral can hold a quarter of the fish population. While david documented over the coral sharks appeared meaning he started documenting about sharks and how Reef Sharks hunt. Since Reef Sharks can’t fit in most hiding spots another type of shark called the White Tip Reef Shark slides through the hiding places and the fish get eaten. After the shark attack David starts documenting about dolphins and how dolphins hunt. Dolphins use mud to scare the fish and then the fish panic and jump trying to escape the mud. Some fail but most of the herings succeed. Next david documents about California's sea and inside the California ocean there is something special because they have kelp forests. In conclusion I liked the episode and the full series is on Youtube so anyone can check it out. Have you seen a documentary before?

Butter Chicken Birthday Bash

This week it was my friends birthday but since his parents owned a restaurant we got to go to Greens for his birthday.  He took the entire class to the restaurant to have lunch.  While we were at school we figured out what we were having and we had Butter Chicken.  The chicken was delicious but I nearly didn't have any because I said I was vegaterien.  I was vegaterein before and I survived 2 months being vegetarian last year.

At the end there was a big surprise even the teachers did not expect it.  There was a entire furniture trolly full of easter eggs.  Most of the eggs were Pineapple Lumps and the other eggs were Freddos.  I got a Freddo egg but people tried to trade their Pineapple Lumps but I denied.

We acknowledged our friend Shivam by writing a card and we did it secretly because we did the card a morning tea.  At the same time there was a speech.  We said thank you by doing 3 waiata (Maori Song).  The songs were called Ka Pioioi,   Rerenga Wairua

and Utaina.

It was very fun walking their and in my opinion walking was the best.

Have you been vegaterein before?

What Does A Tidy Drive Look Like?

This week we have been learning how to clean our Google Drive.  We first watched a video of a person doing a activity.  After the we watched the  video we had to do the same activity as the person on the video.  First we ignored the 2nd slide and moved on to the 3rd slide which was the slide the person did.  

I actually figured out that the 2nd slide was a activity two..   On the 3rd slide we had to sort files for John.  We put a red circle around the docs that aren't named and if the docs were not named right we would have to put a blue circle around the file.  When we sorted the correct files we had to drag the docs into the correct folders.  There was multiple folders we had to drag the docs into like a writing folder and a reading folder.

I liked sorting out files and it inspired me to make a few other folders.

Do you know how to tidy drives?

Team Building Busters

 This week in Te Ngahere  we have been doing team building.  We did something called Taskmaster.  The name was based on a show that has comedians that do tasks.  Today fo Taskmaster we had to copy a drawing that was hanging outside but the challenge was that only the walkers can go outside and the walkers can’t touch the paper.

For the first attempt it was quite challenging because we did not know what the teacher was talking about.  I expected it to be one big drawing but it was a complex system of random drawings and that made it complicated.  Everything was going smooth until the teachers said “5 more minutes!” That's the reason that we did not complete the picture.  The only thing that was good was the drawer being a good boy and actually listening to us.

The second drawing went better than the first attempt.   We were better mostly because the teacher wouldn't yell how much time is left.  What worked well is that we were not stressed because we were having to much fun.  It all went smooth but one thing happened and it was still hard because we had the same rules as last time.  It was not challenging because we already knew some of the drawing which helped us.  We mostly got better because we had more knowledge because it was the same picture and that’s how we changed our picture.

It was very fun but we had Taskmaster before and our name was 3 Little Fishes.

Have you done team building before?

Original 

1st attempt

2nd attempt

The Food Web Catastrophe

This week in Te Ngahere we have been learning about Food webs and food chains. Food webs are more complex than food chains because they have more arrows than a food chain. Here are 3 reasons why my food web is different to the other one: There are different colored arrows to represent what type of consumer it is, the arrows are WAY more complex than mine and the arrows phase through the pictures making it easy to understand and see. The reason why the arrows are like this is because it is the way energy transfers. If the arrows were pointing the wrong way (Eg: bird pointing to plant) that means the plant is eating the bird. If it was the opposite (Eg: plant pointing to bird) that means the bird is eating the plant. So if you get it wrong it can change everything!! Even though I didn't have a proper food web it was close enough and the teacher liked it. We are making food webs because we are going for a walk in the Ngahere so we can learn enough to make a report. I feel like next time we do this I should make my food web more complex. Have you made a food web before?