Friday, September 4, 2020

The Amazing Race

 For Totara's interchange, one option was our Social Sciences unit where we made a virtual Amazing Race. Check out Millah's incredible presentation that she created. Ka Pai Millah! You are amazing!


Friday, August 21, 2020

T2: The Believing Rap

During Whanau Time last week, Mrs O set us the challenge of coming up with a rap about believing in yourself. Olivia, Zoe and Abbie took up the challenge and came up with this rap. I think it is pretty good! What do you think?

Well done girls, you are great role models!



Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Descriptive Writing

This week we have started working on writing a narrative. The goal was to use descriptive language to describe what was happening in the short video that they were shown. 

Here is Shruthi's piece of writing that she has planned and written, using some impressive descriptive language. 

Feel free to leave a comment for Shruthi, she would love some feedback! Well done Shruthi, you have certainly met the learning intention!

Words Worth Believing


The sun cascaded it’s heatwave over the windy road leading upwards. Oswald was sweating so bad, the sweat on his forehead dripped from his nose and some even got into his eyes making hot tears form. As he was nearing another bend he saw blood red fabric blowing in the humid wind, he was glad to see someone, maybe he could ask for some money, but his hopes dropped when he saw how strange the figure truly was, he looked like alive stick of licorice,drawn perfectly with a pencil and ruler, he had these peculiar sort of goggles that sat at the very beginning of his nose and it seemed as if the goggles were embed into his clay skin,high cheekbones and quite symmetrical,and of course there was that offbeat red scarf that sat on his neck and held onto the bridge of his nose like a snake around a master,  he almost looked as if he was malnutritioned. Nonetheless Oswald needed money and if this stick person was going to give it to him, so be it. He walked up to the man and stared into his goggles, although Oswald could not see his eyes, he could feel them on him, dark and cold. 


Zalik looked at this unusual child,how idiotic could it be to come up to someone who looks like himself. He just ignored and continued to hold out his thumb. ”Hello, Mister, can you see me,you are rather tall,but not as tall as  a giant I once read about. I could not help but realise how lonely you were, so I decided to keep you some company, while we wait, may I ask you some questions?”. Zalik was already annoyed with this imbecile, but still acted as if it weren’t there. “Well first of you are rude, and second of I’ll stop talking and walk away if you give me some pennies, you see my teddy bear is really hungry and…”, Oswald started to let his fake tears take over and play the trick he knew always worked, unfortunately. Zalike was not buying it, he was not amused nor was he entertained, he was in fact so agitated that he ripped off his scarf, in hope the boy would run away. “OH MY GREAT GODDESS, PICKLES ME TUESDAY, How horrific to see that in the mirror everyday!”. Zalik was taken aback, if only they had not sliced his mouth off and pulled his teeth out he would have torn this child to shreds and devoured him right there. 

Friday, August 14, 2020

Being Proud

 This week during Whanau Time, Mrs O spoke about the apportance of being proud of our achievements. We discussed what we were proud of in T2 and each one of us came up with a Google Drawing to illustrate what we were proud of. 



Explanation Writing

This week we have been working on explanations. The class were able to choose what they wrote their explanations on, as long as it was a 'how' or 'why' topic and Shruthi chose to write about how the brain works. She has written a fantastic explanation and I have added it below. Ka Pai Shruthi, you have reached extended abstract in our Solo Rubric!

How the Brain Works.


Our brains are one of the most vital organs in our body, although it does look like pieces of clay molded together, with alot of wrinkles. The brain controls every aspect of our physical body as well as not so touchable things like our emotions and mental health. There are about 100 billion neurons in your brain linked to one another by synapse, these synapses are like a road taking information from cell to the next.


The Brain's cells are arranged in a specific pattern that interrelate, thought, emotion, behaviour, and movement.For your brain to function you need your nerve cells to determine what information is coming from the world outside your body, the nerves then transmit information to each other about what is going and the brain will then decide the action to take or how to react to the situation. The brain is able to communicate to the body, by something called the nervous system, the nervous system sends information to the brain in split seconds, alerting it about the problem. (The nervous system in real life.)



The brain, also properly known as the cerebrum, has many parts, the main ones being the Frontal lobe, Parietal lobe, Temporal lobe, Occipital lobe and the Cerebellum. The Frontal lobe controls motor movement, problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, initiation, judgement, impulse control, and social behavior, overall the frontal lobe is considered our emotional center and is known to hold our personality. A surprising fact about the frontal lobe is that in fact you can live without it, although it honestly would not be the best idea, you would lose cognitive abilities and motor control, you would not be able to reason or form simple thoughts, you would also be physically paralysed,so making sure it’s in the best state is essential.



The Parietal lobe is situated behind the frontal lobe, it is in the upper area of the skull, and in front of the occipital; lobe although it’s known as one part is split into two functional hemispheres, one part governs sensory information regarding the location of parts on the body, for example the skin playing a large part in scenery. The other is concerned more with retaining visual information, it also processes language and mathematics. The left hemisphere is associated more with those who are right handed people, this part is known to handle more analytical thinking. The right lobe is more active with people who are left-handed, the left hemisphere is more creative and visionary. As for people who are ambidextrous use both hemispheres equally.



The Temporal lobe is surrounded by the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe and the occipital lobe as well as right underneath supporting it is the cerebellum. The temporal lobe is primarily responsible for auditory skills(hearing sensory), which makes sense, because it’s situated right next to our ear, it’s centered around helping us make sense of speech, words, vocabulary or thing around sound. This also means this part of the brain affects someone who is deaf. It is accountable for creating and preserving long term memories, this makes sense for the hippocampus is located in the center of the temporal lobe that is why long term memory is one of the functions that fall under this specific part of the brain.


The Occipital lobe is the smallest of the four. Similar to the Parietal lobe it functions around visuals although it is more in depth. It visualizes depth and distance, colour determination, recognition of objects and faces, and the formation of a memory. If the occipital lobe were to be damaged there is a high possibility of loss of sight, and depending on how bad or where the injury has taken place, it could result in visual hallucinations and illusions.


The Cerebellum is that part that looks like it did not know where to fit in so it just stuck to the bottom of the four lobes, it is also latin for little brain which just concludes how odd it honestly is. It has a common misconception that it has a link toward motor movement, but this is incorrect, it is still linked to movement, but in a different way. The cerebellum contributes to coordination, precision, and accurate timing, it’s commonly associated with reflexes, for example if a ball were to be thrown towards you your cerebellum would take control and indicate to the frontal lobe to move in order to avoid an injury.


To summarize how, the brain works, it would take quite some time, it is very intricate and detailed organ, what makes it so odd is the fact we are using our brains to basically learn about our brains which seems like an endless cycle, but all in all the brain is a quite complex and interesting the way it works has baffled many, including myself. I personally like that every part of the brain works hand in hand with each part of itself as well as the body.It’s definitely something that will forever be questioned which in a way is fascinating.




Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Perseverance


This week during Whanau Time, we talked about perseverance. We discussed what perseverance means to us and then T2 were given the task to create a poster on Canva showing what perseverance means to them. Neisha, Saamiya and Bella created these posters which we think look really cool. We have decided to share them on our blogs and print them out as it is a good reminder to never give up when we are trying new things. 



Thursday, June 4, 2020

Week 8 Key Coms

This week has been a short but busy week. We have continued to learn the ukulele and have been working hard to finish off our 3D pyramids. Congratulations to Hunter and Niah who have received this weeks Key Coms.