Reading Week4 T4

This week I completed a Reading PAT test. I found the reading test not as difficult as I found the maths test. The reading test was a bit easy though there were a few questions that challenged my knowledge in reading. I loved how the stories were interesting and not too long which encouraged me to complete the questions and not just guessing it. In my recent tests I was convinced to just guess because the stories were long and boring and I lost interest quickly. I learnt important lessons in the test and I observed carefully at the questions they asked. Recently in class we've been working on questions and what kinds of question. I struggled a bit coming up with some of my own, but after observing the types of questions that were asked by the test I definitely have a better understanding about questions.

Maths Wk 4

This week, I completed a maths PAT test. This test was different. It was Level 5 and apparently knowledge that I should know in yr 9. I reckon the test wasn't TOO difficult but also not TOO easy. It was right at my level. It involved a lot of thinking and working out on paper. I really enjoyed doing the test (unusually) and my strengths really stood out. However, I was able to identify my weaknesses in maths. I found that I struggle with fractions and decimals. I really enjoyed it.

Maths week 2 ~ Equivalent Fractions (magahigh)

This week, my classroom teacher, Mr. Edwards, set a task for me based on Equivalent Fractions.
In this task I learnt to use diagrams to identify Equivalent Fractions, (e.g 7/10 = 10/100) interpret mixed numbers and position them on a number line, (3 1/2) and finally simplify fractions by cancelling common factors. I found this task easy at first but as soon as I creeped towards the end it became a bit more difficult. This task was at my level and challenged me at times. I also recommend Managhigh as a really good website that for children who are struggling in school with maths.
As a matter a fact, in the 6 weeks holidays, (2016/2017) a student at my school moved up three sub levels and when he was questioned about it, he said he said he only used mangahigh.

Reading Week 2 ~ SRA Card

This week, I completed a SRA card. There are different SRA cards with different colours, which represents different reading levels. A SRA card is a short story about a specific topic. Then at the end of the card is a few questions testing different areas in reading. Finally you find the answer card (found in the box containing ALL the different SRA cards) and check if your answers were correct. For example, this (below) is an image of my SRA card answers. As you can tell I got a few right and a few wrong. I found this task right at my level and according to my results I will continue to do the same coloured SRA card until I improve. I would recommend this definitely a task to use to keep track of your reading improvements.

Reading Week 1

In week 1, the WALT (we are learning to), was to learn how to ask question about a given journal. I found this activity pretty easy since in general I would ask such questions about the journal. We read about a boy who washed cars for cash. He was saving up for his own car in the future but he would sometimes use a bit of the money for magazines about cars. If he was lucky he would keep loose change found underneath the car seats (he also cleans the inside of the cars he washes.) One day he decides to take one of the customers car for a quick drive but had an accident. In the end he decides that he will clean that car for free, for two years just pay up for what he did. We had to ask questions before, during and after reading such as, Why is he washing cars? Why does he love cars so much? or What car did he end up buying with the money he raised?
 

Maths Week 1

In week 1 I learnt about patterns in maths and practised how to identify what the patterns were. To challenge myself, I came with my own patterns using a consistent rule. There are examples below of the types of patterns I had to figure the pattern out for. For the first image, I would have had to write a table. For example. (T = Amount of Triangles, S = Amount of sticks)
T = S, 1 = 3, 2 = 5, 3 = 7, 4 = 9, 5 = 11, 6 = 13, 7 = 15, 8 = 17, 9 = 19, 10 = 21

The rule for this triangle pattern is basically 1 triangle = 3 sticks and then counting upwards in odd numbers.
Otherwise it's just + 1 to the number starting from number three.

 

Staying Copyright Safe

Swapping Passwords

Password Swapping

Shoe Tower

Today we had Karena and Tracey in class while Mr. Edwards (formal teacher) was out of the classroom. We have sooo much fun when Karena is here because we always do physical activities that don't involve our chromebooks, which is a good thing since we're ALWAYS on it.
Todays challenge was to make a tower using out shoes.  My group didn't win but it was a really funny and heart stopping activity. What my group found challenging was balancing the shoes on top of each other and figuring out how we could use EVERY part of the shoe to help our shoe tower( including the shoe laces etc). What we did extremely well in was deciding which shoes should be at the bottom, and which would work best at the top. I was honestly really impressed with the creativity of my group and also the respect when bringing up their ideas to contribute in making the tower. We had so much fun.
 

Mangahigh

This Week, we did Mangahigh.
I was learning to calculate the missing angles using angles already provided by Mangahigh.
What I really enjoyed about it was trying to get a gold medal as a result. I also really enjoyed getting all the questions correct. What I learnt from today was what and acute angle was.

Figurative Writing

Writing was so fun this week!
We were learning how to use figurative language in our writing. I learnt four words:
- Hyperbole: Over exaggeration
- Simile: Comparing two things
- Metaphor: A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else
- Personification: Giving objects human characteristics
We are learning to use this type of language in our 'pick-a-path' stories that we are writing.
My story is about a mystery baby. YOU control it's life, and everything that happens is unexpected.
I couldn't decide if I wanted my story to be horror or happy so I decided to mix it. It depends on what YOU want to happen. The ideas about what happens in my story has been inspired by a few videos that I watched on The Literacy Shed. I have so much fun writing my story. I feel like a GOD deciding what happens to someones life!!

ASB School Trip - Escape Room

On Wednesday 16th of August, 6 students from Wesley Intermediate were selected to take part in a group to participate in the Escape room challenge. The cool thing was there was a prize for the first, second and third place. The activity was based on how to get out of debt, and what kind of occasion are worth borrowing money, leaving you with debt to pay back. I had so much fun and can't stop wishing I could go back and try out one of the other rooms. Our challenge was to help 'grandma' escape from debt. We decide to use her talent (baking the best cookies in the world) to earn money We managed to 'escape' from debt by helping 'grandma' start up a cookie store. That way she is able to have money for herself and also enough to pay back the money she used to start the cookie shop in the first place. We made it out in 74 minutes and 30 seconds. My favourite part of the escape room was walking through the closet. It reminded me of a Narnia. We had to work out how many cookies grandma had to make to pay back the debt and how much profit she would make by selling one of her famous, delicious cookies. Thanks to Mrs Brink for driving us there and back (and allowing us to eat by her classroom when we got back) and for looking after us the whole time. It was lots of fun.

Positive, Thoughtful and Helpful

Today, James came in to our class and taught us about what makes a good blog comment.
It had to be Positive, Thoughtful and Helpful. I chose to comment on Room 4 from Wesley Primary's blog. They were learning how to say the Samoan alphabet.

History

From this investigation, I can see that I spend MOST of my time on my school mail, and because I'm at school most of hours of most days, and most of my school work is done on google docs, google docs comes up a lot. I was VERY surprised to see pinterest in small letters as I KNOW for a fact, that I spend most of my time on pinterest either laughing or crying at the interesting posts. I'm on it A LOT of times.... even when I'm supposed to be doing my school work. This lesson with James was very interesting.

Homework Center

This is my inquiry groups project presentation. We noticed that not many students in our class do not complete their homework on time so we decided that we should do something to help increase the number of people that do their homework. So we did a bit of investigation and found that there are causes for majority of the class such as, they need help, they don't have internet at home or even the fact that they are too lazy and having people doing it together with them would help a lot. I am very proud of my group for coming with such an idea and we organised almost everything.

The Fire Dance

'The fire dance' is a writing piece that I wrote, near the beginning of this year.
I am proud of this writing because I used my best vocabulary and tried my best to make it interesting and descriptive. This task was called 'a moment in time'. My teacher, Mr. Edwards, sent our class a presentation, with a different photo on different slides and we had to choose a photo to write a story to go with it.
I chose this photo because it's a Samoan boy dancing and I'm Samoan and I can relate, but I also chose this photo because when I saw this photo I saw a lot of excitement and knew instantly that it was something I could write about and make sound fun. I struggled with finding the right words for the right sentences and also with structuring it using my five senses. In the end I was incredibly proud of my writing.