Final Softball Session

Today we had our final softball session for the term. We are supposed to be having another session next week but we are unable to due to our school camp. Thank you David and Craig, we appreciate yous.
Here are some photos from our final session today.

Glen Taylor School X Factor

Talofa Lava, my name is Christian.  My group's film is Glen Taylor School X Factor. In our group was Honey, Dadak - su, Amy and myself. Our film is about never giving up and always trying your best. In our film there is a boy that auditions for Glen Taylor School X Factor and his singing is TERRIBLE. But that didn't stop him from trying his best. So he never gave up and came back the next year. Here is our film.

Softball

Today we had our first session of softball. It was really fun. Softball will be our new kiwi sport and we will continue to do softball lessons weekly, this term. We learnt a variety of new passes and catches.

Getting To Know Some Of My Classmates

Today we had to come up with 5 questions to use in an interview for 3 classmates of our choice. The 3 classmates that I chose were Seth, Leetia and Rikki-Jo. We also had to high light our favourite answer of their's. Here are the questions and answers.

Explanation Plan - Technology in schools

Today we had to make an explanation plan on how technology helps students learn better. For our planning we had to come up with 7 reasons why technology helps students to learn better. Here is my planning:

Film Festival Comments

Today, we had to put together comments about other school's films. We had to watch them, then hyperlink the film that we wanted to comment on. Then, we had to draft our comment. Here are 3 of my comments.

Smart Surfer

Today Mrs Grant came into our class and taught us about using keywords in questions to find the answers. First, she gave us 3 questions and we had to highlight the keywords. Here are the questions

Orienteering

This term we had 2 orienteering instructors come into our school and teach us more about orienteering. Here are some photos of us during one of our sessions. 

Components of a blog post

Pearls Performance - St Heliers

Today, Glen Taylor School's Pasifika Pearls walked down to St Heliers School to perform. We went with a bigger group than usual. I think it was one of the best performances we've ever done and I really hope that St Heliers enjoyed it too. Take a look at some photos from the performance.

Duffy Assembly

Yesterday we also had a duffy assembly where we had a visit from the kiwi ferns' very own Georgia Hale. It was a very fun and interesting assembly. She also brought along a kiwi ferns' jersey for us to look at.

Cross Country 2017

Yesterday, we had our annual CROSS COUNTRY. It was very fun aside from the fact that I came 3RD. It was a successful event and we managed to do some house chants at the end of the races.
Here are some photos from the big day.

Kawa of care - Room 11 & 12

We had to buddy up with a Room 12 student and create a slideshow/drawing about Kawa of Care.
Here is my slideshow that I made with my buddy Alfonzo.

Changing Landscapes Thinker's Key - The Reverse Listing Key

My thinker's key was: Name 10 things you won’t find in an earthquake.

・You won’t find people feeling happy and delighted about the situation that they’re in.

・You won’t find people staying calm and taking their time to evacuate the area.

・You won’t find buildings standing strong as they usually do everyday.

・You won’t find people chilling and relaxing inside their houses.

・You won’t find people having some good family time or people playing around.

・You won’t find smooth ground anywhere.

・You won’t find roads and pathways that aren't cracked because as we all know when an earthquake occurs the ground shakes and it creates cracks in pathways and roads.

・You won’t find open roads with no people or no cars. All roads will be crowded and filled with people running for their lives.

・You won’t find people walking around because everyone would be running and driving in their cars.

・You won’t find people doing what they usually do everyday because, you can’t have an earthquake everyday.

Holes - Character Profile

Last term, we read a novel called Holes written by Louis Sachar. It was a really cool book so we decided to watch the movie on the last day of school. This term, as a reading activity we had to create a character profile for one of the characters in the novel/movie. Here is my character profile on Stanley Yelnats.

Student Led Conference

On the 27th of July 2017 we had student led conference at school. We had to create a slide deck similar to the Kawa of Care one we had to make. It didn't take really long to do. Here is a photo of me and my family during the conference. My parents were very proud of my learning.

My goals for term 3

Today I set goals for myself. I expect to achieve all of these goals by the end of the term. Here they are.
My goals for term 3:

Inspirational Leaders

As part of our class work on the first day of school we had to choose an inspirational leader to find information about and create a google slides or a google drawing all based on that leader. I chose Winston Churchill, but once I finished with him I decided to do another leader as well. So I did Martin Luther King Jr. Take a look at it.

Holidays

In the holidays I went to a lot of fun places. It was really cool, but I hated the fact that my Uncle had to go back to Australia. It was fun to have him back for a couple of weeks. One of the things I mostly enjoyed about the holidays was sleeping in, but other than all of that, it's good to be back at school.

Coin Trail

A couple of weeks ago, we started a coin trail competition. For the competition, each class has a jar and they have to fill up the jar with coins. There will be prizes for, weight, length and amount. For length, all the coins in the classes jar will be put in a line on the ground. Which ever class has the longest will get the prize for length. Here is what our jar looks like so far.

Quickwrite #2

Here is another one of my quickwrites.

Isolation

I live in a house that sits alone on a big patch of grass. It’s a really old house and I regretted my decision to move into my own house. I should’ve stayed in my mum’s house. She’s got a cool house. It’s got food too. At my mum’s house we have a massive feed. Yummmm.

Volleyball

We have been very lucky to have Toni come in on Thursdays to teach us some amazing volleyball skills. We are very thankful that she is willing to take up her time to come to our school weekly to teach us new volleyball skills.

A PHOTO OF TJ. WAIRUA

A PHOTO OF AMY PRACTISING HER VOLLEYBALL SKILLS.

Quickwrite

Every morning Miss Tupou puts a photo up on the TV and we have about 10-15 minutes to write about the photo. Here is one of my quick writes.

The Tunnel

As I calmly walk through the forest I come across a weird tunnel of vines. I can’t do anything but stare and wonder how this got here and who made it. I walk on the tip of my toes through the tunnel so I could see what’s on the other side of this weird and mysterious tunnel. As I finally arrive to the end, I’m amazed at what I see, it’s a whole new world…..

The girl and the fox

Earlier this term we watched a video called the girl and the fox. From the video we identified the 8 main events as a class. After that we had to choose one main event to write about. Here are the 8 main events.

8 main events

・Opening scene- Girl finds a dead bird.

・Girl goes in search of a creature killing the birds.

・Sees fox for the first time, it jumps over her and runs off.

・She catches the fox, pins it down, knife to throat, couldn’t kill it.

・It starts to snow. She gets lost in the woods.

・She collapses.

・The fox comes and snuggles the girl for warmth.

・In the morning, family finds her and takes her home.

The highlighted event is the one that I chose to write about.

Here is my writing.

Feeling lost, the girl suddenly fell to the ground. As she unconsciously laid there on the cold ground, the same white furred fox that she attempted to kill, quickly wrapped itself around the poor little girl to keep her nice and warm. The girl slowly opens her eyes in confusion as to why the fox wants to keep her warm after she almost put this fox to death. Then, she calmly closes her eyes and falls into a nice and relaxing sleep.

Revolting Recipes - Slimy Soup

At the beginning of the term we had to come up with the most disgusting recipe we could think of. Here's my 'Revolting Recipe'.

SLIMY SOUP

THIS HARD AND FAST RECIPE FEEDS 6

FURIOUS TEACHERS

You will need the following ingredients:

• 8 litres of 1 year expired milk •  A glass of human blood •

           • 5 dead rats •  11 slimy octopus tentacles •  1 hairy spider •

                           • 706 pounds of snots •  50 grams of salt •

                                   • 7 dirty toenails ・

You will need the following equipments :

A wooden spoon . A big pot .

A medium sized bowl . A small spoon

Whisk . Chopping board. Knife

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 200˙C and chop up your dead rats and octopus tentacle then put it into your pot.

2. Secondly, take the rest of your ingredients except for your expired milk and gently put them into your pot as well.

3. Thirdly,put your pot onto the stove and stir with your whisk until you have a thick consistency.

4. After that, grab your milk and litre by litre slowly pour in your milk.

5. Next, prepare your serving bowl and spoon and enjoy your nice fresh meal.

Role Model Writing - Explanation

Last term we wrote an explanation about our role models. We had to explain why they're our role model/s. My role models are my Mum and Dad. Here's my explanation on why.

This explanation will tell you why my Mum and Dad are my role models and how they raised me to be a good child. They are parents that love to look after their children and give them the best of everything.

My Dad is a hardworking man that wants the best for all his children. Although he could be a bit growly sometimes he looks after us and feeds us when my mum is not there. My dad is the best dad ever. My dad is a dad that knows what the family needs, then works hard to get it. If we need help with homework my dad would always be there to help.

My mum is also hardworking and just like my dad she also earns money to pay for the things the family needs. My mum used to be a stay at home mum but now she works and she works hard. My mum is always there to look after us. When we’re sick she looks after us and takes care of us. My mum doesn’t only take care of us she takes care of her parents too. If her parents are hungry she cooks food for them. My mum is very kind to everyone.

My mum and dad are both believers of God and along with our grandparents they teach us a lot about the bible. My mum and dad are lions going to catch their prey for their cubs to eat. They are both there to protect us. They are very loving towards others and they discipline well when we step out of line, they always have a good reasons.

My parents are the best parents ever and they love their children just as much as their children love them. My parents are my role models and will always be my inspiration.

Kawa of Care - Looking after your chromebook

Last term, I created a google drawing called Kawa of care. The drawing represents ways to look after your chromebook. Here it is.

Taking Chromebooks home - Slides presentation

Last week, I posted about taking our chromebooks home. This post will be about the same thing but it will show the slides presentation we created and presented to our parents on the night we took our chromebooks home. Here's the slides.

Jack London - Author Study

Around the beginning of the term we studied the author of the book we are reading for our novel study. My group's novel is 'White Fang' by Jack London. Each member of our reading group had to create an author study about Jack London. Here's mine.

Rivers and Streams Presentation

As part of our Inquiry work in Term 1, each student had to create a presentation based on the inquiry questions they came up with. We each came up with a big question and sub questions. Our presentation contained our questions and our answers based on research. My big question was, 'Why should we not litter?'. Here is my presentation.

Pasifika Pearls

In 2015 Mrs Faalili (A teacher at GTS), started a group called Pasifika Pearls. Pearls were made to represent the Pacific Islands. I myself am apart of the Pasifika Pearls, it is really fun to be apart of and I'm happy that I'm in the Pearls. Since 2015 we have had a variety of different performances. We performed at the APPA Music Festival, we performed at the lantern festival and many more special events. We perform dances from a variety of pacific islands. These Islands include, Samoa, Tokelau, Hawaii and more. Here is a presentation I made showing some photos of the 2017 Pasifika Pearls.

I am poem

As part of Kiwican we wrote I am poems. Everything we wrote in our poem represents who we are and what type of person we are. Here's my poem.

Toku Pepeha

Last term we created a pepeha to introduce ourselves to our new classmates. Our pepehas had to be all about ourselves. They represented us and they also represented where we are from. Pepehas are written in the Maori language.

Top Tip

Here is my top tip. I like this keyboard shortcut because it is easy to use and it's a cool way to open a new window.

Elstree Creek Trip

In term 1, we took a trip down to Elstree Creek. Every one of us learnt something new about rivers and streams. We also learnt about dirty water. There were some performances there as well. One of my favourite performances was a musical performance by Tongans. It was a really nice performance. Overall I think everyone enjoyed the trip.

Culture Festival

Last term, we had our 2017 GTS Culture Festival! We enjoyed the experience and overall it was a fun and awesome day. For our culture festival, every student chose which cultural group they wanted to participate in. We had a Samoan group, Tongan group, Hawaiian group, Maori group and many more. Our festival even featured a special performance from the Tamaki College Polyfest Samoan group.

NZ Police Dog Visit

A couple of weeks ago we had two policemen come into our school to show us what they use police dog's for. They brought in one of their dogs to demonstrate. I never thought it would be as interesting as it was seeing as I'm not a fan of dogs. It was an amazing experience. We learnt a lot about police dogs and the talents that they have. We even got to pet a dog and we had a lot of fun. Here are some photos that were taken of the dogs on that day.

School Disco

On the same day we made our hedgehogs, we had a school disco. The disco was of course held after school. It was so much fun and we all can't wait till the next disco.

Hedgehogs

About 2 weeks ago my class and I made hedgehogs. We had to get into groups of 4 to make them. It was really fun and the hedgehogs were very yummy. A hedgehog slice is a dessert made with chocolate, biscuits, condensed milk and other things. I hope to make them again another day.

Kawa of Care

Yesterday, we were finally able to take our Chromebooks home. We all came with our parents last night and some parents came during school. We had to take our parents through the slides that we made. The slides teaches our parents how to take care of our Chromebooks and how we can take care of our Chromebooks. I like the idea of taking our Chromebooks home because it makes it easier to do homework.

About me

Talofa Lava, my name is Christian. I am 12 years old and I am a year 8 student in Room 11 at Glen Taylor School. I am full Samoan. I have 4 brothers, 1 mum and 1 dad. I enjoy coming to school to learn new things and become a better learner and a smarter person. My favourite subject is maths, not only is it my best subject but in my opinion it is really fun. I also enjoy playing outdoor games and playing sports. I strive to be a good leader and teach others how to be good leaders as well. I’m inspired by my mum and dad to be a hard worker and to be kind and positive towards other people. This year I hope to help make Glen Taylor School a better learning environment for students and teachers.