Centennial explanation

Have you ever wondered if the current school office building was the first building on our Waimairi School site?

I had access to old photos of the first Waimairi School building, built in 1914. It was an old black and white photo that had been collected in an old school photo album that was put together by Daph, our old school bursar.

Then I decided to make cards of the old school building, good enough to sell. I photocopied and enlarged a photo of the school building, traced the outline using the light from the window, the next step was the hardest - adding the detail and getting the angles right. I water-coloured the final result then I wrote my name onto the sketches of the building.  Next I printed them onto cardboard cards ready to sell.  In the future I wonder what the school will look like when it is rebuilt?

At the start when our teachers mentioned backstories my understanding was at pre structural and I had no idea what they meant. My understanding has changed a lot since the start: now I know exactly what a backstory is but I haven't been able to uncover any. A backstory is an historical event or a personal story. I learnt a heap of knowlege about drawing and sketching . If I didn't learn all of that then my card drawings wouldn't be as good a quality as my cards were. My turning point was when I had a first attempt at the drawing and printed them off on coloured paper but it was suggested that I could improve on the drawing. I was starting again for my second attempt, then I was feeling pretty confident about our project. I feel very proud of my project, it has reached a high standard and I feel there is nothing left to do, but next time I will try to be more organised and uncover a backstory. I also discovered that first attempts are not always the best and it is worth having a go at a second.

This is the whole of waimairi in 1914.

This is my uncover, connect, showcase rubric.

Finally the graph of learning of how I went from start to finish.

Speeches

This week I have been doing speeches with mrs Pageot for the trial of the Waimairi School speech competition.  I have been learning to use the power of three, language features, strong vocabulary and much more.

I am going well because I am at multi-relational, I have got to this stage by using many language features and I have connected some of them. I am finding the ideas easy because I knew what I had to write about but I also made up some things in the speech. I am finding the structuring hard because I have to do certain things in each structure: beginning, middle and end. I have overcome this challenge by getting help from Mrs Pageot and my friends. The fact that I got a good quality speech surprised me because I managed to get lots of short sentences all with the power of three and language features including idioms, metaphors etc.   Next time I would connect all of the language features together to get to relational.

The key competency I have been working on is self managing by avoiding distractions, I have achieved this by sitting in a place where my friends weren't.

By scott.

Speech: bird injurys

Have you ever heard about the umpteen number of bird injuries all over the world?

You know the thing I mean- the seabirds and penguins that get covered with oil on the beaches by ships breaking on rocks and leaking oil out of their tanks. Not to mention the birds that get hurt by storms or winds.

It starts to get tiring after a while, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, birds get injured by some natural cause.

Of course once you get to this stage the occasional bird lands in your area with something like a broken wing or the odd plastic around its neck, but one thing I've learnt, birds can be soooo unpredictable.

Which brings me back into time, a nice sunny day in Atheltown which is in the middle of the country. My grandfather was the teacher and headmaster at the school there. He and my grandma lived in the old school house and their two sons that went to the school.

One day while teaching the students, my father I'll call him Chris spotted a bird that had crash landed on the grounds. Everyone pushed and shoved to get a look at this bird which turned out it was a mutton bird that had been blowen off the coast and it had a broken wing, grandad dave called managed to heal it well enough so it could fly. When it was well enough everyone climbed up a high hill and went to a bluff then shoved the bird off the 100 meter high cliff and watched as it tumbled towards the ground. 

Every one thought the bird would go SPLAT!!!! But instead, two or three meters off the ground, in swift movement ,it swooped up and away from the school.

What happened you ask? Well it flew away towards the sea and it was never seen again, but on the other hand grandad Dave found it quite funny and burst out laughing while the rest of the school looked shocked, but that's another story.

The next day everybody who witnessed this strange sight new one thing for sure, birds are unpredictable.

How am I going?

What am I learning?

What are my next steps?

I am learning to use idioms and more bright sparks and also to use onomatopoeia and personification.

I am going well because I have used many language features which help to build an image or evoke emotion but I didn't know how to use them.

My next steps are to use more language features to evoke emotion in a connected way.

I think my reflection is multistructual.

Inquiry explanation

There are many elements of music that can be connected, in our song on the ukulele we used the elements to perfect the song row row row your boat.

The two elements rhythm & beat can be connected because both elements can be used at the same time to steady the how fast the rhythm is going, to be time with the beat.

The elements beat & time can connect because both elements can be used at the same time to (like beat and rhythm) steady the balance of keeping in time to the beat.

Balance & music are two elements that can be connected because there needs to be a balance between loud and soft and beat and rhythm.

In summery we used all the elements of music that can be combined together so we could perfect our ukulele song, for example if we didn't have beat everyone would be out of time and it would sound horrible.  I feel happy that we have done a great job of making a great song, In the future I think we could use a little bit more volume so the audience can hear us a bit more.

Character description: basketball

“Wheeeeeeee”went the whistle. The thumping sound of shoes slowly faded away and with it voices rose out of thin air. The ref indicated a number on his fingers,“12,my number.” I muttered. A boy from the other team that had a number 5 on his back,threw the ball in to another player. He had straight jet Black hair that went down to his eyes. His nose was pale with a lot of freckles that looked like tiny basketballs. He also had sapphire blue eyes with emerald green. His ears usually looked pale white but now were a bright ruby red. there were beads of sweat dripping down his face and hair. The neck was long and skinny as well as arms that looked like they had been stretched like a rubber band, perfect for slam dunks. His shoulders were sloping like a steep hill. The thumping sound of shoes suddenly lifted off again,then a huge WHUMP!!!Then a whistle,he had scored!!!

What A Sporty World

In the oval,

I defend the wickets.

The ball comes rushing,

In the game of cricket.

And I think to myself,

What a sporty world.

In the mountains

I watch the skiing.

When it's their turn,

They start by fleeing

And I think to myself,

What a sporty world.

So many sports,

So easy to do.

Rushing through white water,

In a fast canoe.

So many sports,

So easy to do.

So many to choose from,

Mountain climbing and rugby too.

And I think to myself,

What a sporty world,

Yes I think to myself,

What a sporty world.

A Tree's Eye View

The tree looked silent, still but sinister,

Which reminded me of a cloudless blue sky that looms over me,

Making me feel like I was in a haunted house.

I thought the tree felt proud at such a great height,

While managing to overlook many things that we cannot.

Efficient way to travel explanation

It takes me about ten minutes to get to school by scooter.  Some days the bolt in my scooter comes out and I have to walk it to school in case the wheel comes off.  It made me think, that I'd like a safer and more efficient way of getting to school.  I thought about an electric scooter, but did you know it takes about 25 volts to charge an electric scooter?  That takes a lot of electricity. So I have designed a solar scooter.  My solar scooter has 5 simple parts;

The 1st thing on my design is a solar panel because if it didn't have one it would be a normal electric scooter with a battery which needs electricity to charge it, so the solar panel is there to charge the battery. 

The 2nd thing I have on my efficient scooter design is wheels and everyone knows that wheels make a scooter go and these particular wheels need to be connected to a motor to make them move, so the wheels are there to help the scooter move.

The 3rd part of my design is the key and the key is the key to starting the engine. If the key wasn't there how would you start it? I know that there are many different ways to start things but I don't know any other way to start an electric scooter or a car, so the key is there to help start the engine.

The 4th part is the battery and if the battery wasn't there,there might be nothing to store all the solar energy or convert the solar into electric energy,so the battery is there to store or convert energy.

My 5th and final one is the brakes and if it didn't have brakes you have to use your shoes which the pavement might scrape the rubber  off them so the brakes are there to stop the scooter safely.

I have designed an energy efficient way to travel to school, because it has a solar panel, wheels, a keyhole, a battery, and brakes. It's a solar scooter! If everyone in the world did this there would be much less pollution.

That Was Spring

Have you ever smelled spring? 

Sure you have;

Remember that smell of the flowers with the gentle wind blowing

As you walked in the warm air?

That was spring.

Remember that sound of the spring rain on the roof rattling 

And pouring?

Remember that time when you saw the blossom and flowers growing?

That was spring.

Remember that time you were running around and then you felt tired and you flopped down 

On the ground and felt the soft grass under your feet?

That was spring.

The Mussel Farm

The mussel farm was usual enough; 

it had buoys tied together with seaweed-covered ropes 

and fishing boats in the distance.

My brother, Uncle, Mum and I did what fishermen do - 

flung our lines in and waited for a kahawai or a snapper, 

winding up and getting the occasional

phantom, pulling up a shark and a starfish that 

clung onto my hook.

Doing nothing important.