Week 10 Term 4

Yay! There is only two and a half days left of school counting today. I can't wait till the holidays and Christmas, but it will be sad to see the year eights leave. Today I finished my visual language task and I handed it in which is lucky because it needs to be finished and handed in at the end of the day. Anyway not much has happened this week, but on the last day of school there is going to be a huge end of year assembly, and tonight there is the year eight ball. I know that most of the year eights are looking forward to it. Once again I am really looking forward to the holidays. Merry Christmas Everyone. 

Week 9 Term 4

This week has been great. I have now earned my bronze badge which is good because I have been working really hard to earn it. Yesterday and today is orientation for the new year six's. They pretty much come to school go into the hall for a talk then they come into our class we show them around the school then they return back to the hall for another talk then it's done, and the whole process is repeated again today. I remember coming to orientation I was really excited and nervous at the same time, so this time I could guess what they were feeling. Today I was allowed to show two of the new year six's around they were twin boys, and they seemed really cool. In class we are doing discussions, and today's discussion was about what is violence and what isn't violence. Today we had a assembly and they gave out the athletics certificates. I got first in the high jump and third in the 1500 meters. I am looking forward to another great week next week.      

Week 8 Term 4

This week has been great. Today we tested out this video thing called clip champ. Anyway we had to talk to our chrome books and the webcam records you I was a bit awkward talking to a chrome book and at the same time watching yourself speak. On Tuesday I represented my school at the WIMS (Waikato Intermediate Middle Schools) athletics I went for high jump and the relays. I didn't place in the high jump, but my relay team came 2nd overall which I am happy about. In class we have been doing this discussion thing where our teacher gives a topic and we have debates over it. Some of the kids in our class love it, and are always debating, but the other kids in the class are not that confidant in arguing their opinion on the matter. After school today we have touch. My team is really good, and have never lost a game before. Last season I was in the same team as I am in now and we actually won the whole competition.

Short recap of my school year

My Edited Video

Week 7 Term 3

This week has been great I have finished my moving image, and today we had social dance. In social dance we went over a new song that we learnt last week. We also danced to the Gay Gordon and the Maxine or the Maxicena I don't actually know what the songs called. Anyway my favorite dance is the Gay Gordon I like it because it is a easy dance to remember and to do. I am really excited because I am only one include others signature away from getting my bronze badge, and my include others band. Tomorrow we have the school disco and the theme is Pray for Paris. I am looking forward to the last disco of the year because our school has a new lighting system. We don't know what it dose yet our principal said we would just have to come to the disco to see. I am also excited because I am going to a friends house to get ready for the disco, and my mum bought me a brand new dress. I love it. It has black and white stripes and it ends just before my knees. So the disco should be fantastic. In tech arts we have started the pizza unite, so today we didn't actually do any cooking we just made pizza boxes. We also learnt about how many ingredients are in the supermarket bought pizza. Did you know that there was 57 ingredients in the pizza, and that you are only meant to eat things that have 10 or less ingredients in them? The WIMS (Waikato Intermediate Middle Schools) athletics team was announced and I made the team. I am going for high jump and the relay. I was really excited about this because I love relays and I am alright at high jump. Next week is going to be week 8, and I can't wait because it means that there is only a week and a half to we finish school for the year, and then Christmas is only one week after that (I think). I will write again soon to describe what the new lighting system at the disco is like hopefully it is awesome or I won't have much to write about.

Wall.e

Wall.e

The movie Wall.e was written and directed by Andrew Stanton who also wrote and directed the movie Finding Nemo. The film Wall.e. was created by Disney- Pixar Animation Studio, and was produced by Jim Morris on 23rd of June 2008.

I think that the setting of the movie was very effective. In the movie the setting changed a little bit as it started of on earth, then it changed moving onto a ship and at the end of the movie the setting was once again changed returning back to earth. If the setting was changed I don’t think that it would be quite as effective as how it is now. Although, if they were to change the parts that were set on Earth to a different planet I think that it could still work, but it would change other important parts of the movie like the message, so I think that the settings are best left how the are

There were many different characters that featured in the movie, but I think that the robot Wall.e was the main character. Although I think that the main character was Wall.e the girl robot Eve played a big part in the movie. Eve is a round character I think this because during the movie she shows lots of different emotions. Even though she is a robot I was still able to tell how she was feeling by her different expressions. I think that the main character Wall.e was also a round character because during the movie he showed lots of different emotions through his facial expressions, and I was also able to work out his personality from the way he acted for example in the movie when he accidentally squashed his pet cockroach he waited with it to make sure that it was ok, and when there was a storm coming he didn’t just shut the door and leave the cockroach outside he waited till it was safely inside before he shut the door, so during the movie I gathered that Wall.e had a sweet and kind personality. I think that it was really cool that you tell how the robots were feeling even though they are only robots, and shouldn’t have feelings at all.

     

I think that there was two messages in the movie. The first message was to reduce, reuse, recycle. I think this because in the start of the movie Earth was a dump site, so I think that the director was try to pass through to us the message look after your planet or it will end up looking like this, and a way to keep Earth clean and healthy is to reduce, reuse, recycle. I think that the other message in the story is to stay positive and believe. I think this because during the story both the Captain and Wall.e believed, and in the end Wall.e ended up with Eve and the Captain ended up going back to Earth and returning it to a much more sustainable state.

Overall I think that I would rate the movie a eight and a half out of ten, and I would recommend the movie to any age group as I think that it would make a fantastic family movie. I really enjoyed the movie, and I think that there is a valuable message to be learnt from it.        

Week 6 Term 4

This week has been fantastic. Today we had our school athletics, and in the high jump I broke a school record. The record was 1.30 meters then my friend broke that record today by 1cm making the new record 1.31 meters, and then today I broke her record making the new record for the year 7 girls 1.34  meters. The only sad thing is today was tech arts and we were meant to be making chocolate brownie, but we will be making it on Friday so it's ok. Yesterday I finished my Wall.e film review (you can read above) which is good because it is due soon I think. I am looking forward to next week because it will be week seven that means only three more weeks left of the term!      

My poem moving image

Week 5 Term 4

This week we have had a lot of new activities such as social dance, running and watching a movie.
For social dance we did most of the same songs as last week, but this week we got taught a new dance I forgot the name of the song, but the dance was fairly simple. I sort of like social dance, but if the girls had to ask the boys I think I would die of shame. Next week on Tuesday is our school athletics day, but there is one event that they can't fit in on the day that event is the 1500 meter run. It was meant to be on Friday, but they changed the day to tomorrow!! We also watched the movie Wall.e. it was really funny. We watched it for a film review although I don't actually know what a film review is I was just glad to get to watch a movie. I can't wait for next week especially because we have athletics.  

Week 3 Term 4

This week has been very good. I have gotten ahead in all of my work which is good for me. I have also gotten my test results back, and in two of my tests I got all of the questions right. Once again my teacher told me to be a jump jam leader I was sort of nervous at first but like last week it turned out to be really fun. We also started a new tech art as have move on from science, and are now at food our teachers is really cool. We have already made a banana smoothie, but me and my partner decided to make a vanilla one instead. I am quite excited for next week because we finally get to go to life ed. I really can't wait till next week, and I hope it will be just as good as this week.

Week 2 Term 4

This week has been great. There has been a few new events this week on Friday it was grandparents day our school held a concert for the grandparents. In the concert the jump jam team preformed, and so did the choir, all of the bands and the final act in the production also was preformed. I think that the grandparents really enjoyed it. The other thing that our school has started up is every Friday afternoon we do athletics practice to get ready for the school athletics day which is coming up soon I think. We have also had jump jam, and my teacher told me to go up the front and be a leader it was really nerve racking, but it ended up being very fun.

Week 1 Term 4

The first week back at Term! On Tuesday and maybe Thursday we have social dance. Most of the year eight girls were so excited, but all of the year seven girls are not! It is nerve racking because they line all the girls up on one side of the hall, and all the boys line up on the other side of the hall. We have to take turns at asking each other to dance. One of the dances is sort of old it's called the Gay Gorden. My mum used to dance to that song when she was little, and she said that my nanny and poppa probably did too. There has been a few other activities this week as well. This Wednesday and Thursday students from our school went sailing at Lake Ngaroto for the day it sounded like they had a lot of fun. Next week is going to be super busy because we have testing all week, and on Tuesday I have a tennis tournament.        

Speech

Are Smartphones Making us Dumber?

How many people are there in China again? Oh don’t worry I’ll just google it.  Have you ever considered that using a smartphone is actually making you dumber? Imagine that after a routine medical exam, your doctor delivers some terrible news.  Since your last checkup your intellectual abilities have significantly decreased.  Your social ability to communicate with others has worsened, and your memory for everyday events is no longer operating as it once did, but there is some good news.  There is a solution that won’t cost you a cent.  The solution, put away your smartphone.

There is research that suggests that the memory capabilities of smartphone users is actually decreasing.  Researchers believe that a possible reason for this is because of the huge amount of information accessible on a smartphone, users are no longer required to remember and retain information as they once did.  For example where somebody would have had to rely on their memory to reach a certain street in a city now they could easily put that name into a smartphone, and simply follow the directions given.

Another area of concern for smartphone users is how it is affecting their socialising skills.  Have you ever noticed a group of teenages sitting around having lunch and every single one is on their smartphones.  They tend to be looking down at their phones instead of making eye contact while chatting with their friends.  This can lead them to miss important facial expressions that are crucial in effective communication.  

The next area that researchers looked at was the productivity of smartphone users compared to those without because of the constant distractions for smartphone users from email alerts, texts, facebook, twitter and all the other types of social media.  Once the alert goes off it makes your brain wonder who is trying to contact me, should I answer it now or should I answer it later.  These constant distractions although small add up over the course of a day, a week, a year to be substantial. An experiment was conducted by a school in England where they imposed a mobile phone band on students.  After a short time students test scores had risen by 6%.

In conclusion the benefits of smartphones are huge, the amount of information that can be accessed instantly has huge benefits if used correctly. However smartphone uses need to be aware of some of the downsides to excessive smartphone usage. Such as affecting your intellectual abilities.  Smartphones also affect your ability to socialise correctly, and there are possible detrimental effects to your memory recall. Don’t you think that it is ironic that a device designed to improve efficiency, and communication is in a way achieving the exact opposite. We have designed a device to help control our lives but really that device ends up controlling us.

Week 4 Term 3

This has been fun because I finally finished making my pillow in tech arts!! To make the pillow we had to design what we wanted the front of our pillow to look like we did this on paper. Next we drew the design onto fabric. My design had a purple sewing machine on the front and blue, and pink a pattern as the border. Next we used vivid, and out lined the pencil markings, and then painted our cushions. When the paint had dried we ironed, and pinned our cushions before sewing them. Finally we stuffed them, and they were ready to take home. Another event that took place this week was our class speeches I was really nervous especially because they were filming us. Mrs Crowe liked my speech, and a few of my friends speeches, so we have to do them again on Monday. A few speech topics were T.V. adds should be banned, animal abuse should stop, could we last without technology, no more bulling and my speech topic was are smart phones making us dumber? This week for reading our teacher has set us the task of reading a new book that is out of our comfort zone then writing a novel analysis about it. I am very proud of myself because I have earned my never give up band. I am really look forward to next week because it is going to be a very busy very exciting week!

Week 3 Term 3

This week has been exciting because of the five new gusts that arrived at our school this Tuesday. There are two boys, tow girls and one teacher I have only met the two girls, and they seem really nice, but they don't usually speak in English if they can help it. The two girls are staying at my friends house for the two weeks that they are in New Zealand, and because my friend is in my class the two girls spend a bit of time with us. They have come over from China to New Zealand for a little while, so they can learn English. This week in tech arts we have been creating pillows I finished painting my one on Tuesday. For the pictures on the pillow I have a really big purple sewing machine in the middle of my pillow case. In the bottom two corners I have little jars that I want to sew buttons into I am also planning on sewing little stitch marks across the bottom to represent sewing. In writing we finished our last argument writing on cats and dogs, and have now moved onto a new piece of argumentative writing my new topic is plastic supermarket bags should be abolished. Yesterday at lunch time I had my student lead conference (SLC) that's when you, your parents and teacher have a conference, and you read out stuff that you wrote about school and work it was kind of embarrassing. Next your teacher will read out something she wrote about you, and your work habits, and then your parents ask questions if they have any.    

Week 2 Term 3

This week has been very busy. Every day we train for cross country which is being held in week five. Last night I finally finished my speech it has taken me ages to write, and it is lucky that I have finished because the cut off date is tomorrow. This term I made it into the Inter Intermediate gymnastic team which means that me, and a few others will go to a gymnastic competition, and compete against other Intermediates. Coming up is our inter house haka competition that is when the four houses/groups in our school do a haka, and the best house will win. Today at two pm we have the college expo I don't actually know what it is, but all the year eights are excited so I guess it must be interesting. There is another really big that is happening this term, and that is the Japan trip, and a girl in our class is going. During class time we have been doing this thing called readers theater where we sort of have to act using our voice. It is not my most favorite thing in the world, but that is because I don't like stuff like that in general.      

Week 1 Term 3

So far the first week back at school has been good. In tech arts we have moved onto fabric. We have only had one lesson, but in that time I hand sewed a soft green and black ball about the size of a tennis ball. To make it we had to cut out our pattern on the two colours we had chosen then place them togeather to make a T shape. Next we had to had sew them togeather starting at the top, and going black to green, black to green until it looked like a half circle thats when cut the the string so we could replace it with more string. We carried on sewing until there was three finger before the end. After we had done all that we turned our fabric in side out, stuffed it. Finally using invisable stitches we sewed up the last bit, and we were done. Yesterday we had french, and we had to do maths in french! The questions were easy it was more the spelling of the french numbers that made it hard. This term in week five is our school cross country we have been training every day at school, and today we are training with a few other classes. I think that this term will be exciting because we have lots of upcomming events. I am going on the one week ski trip with about 40 other students from our school, and I am also going to aims with my netball team. Aims is this competition that our school is part of it is held at Tauranga, and lots of other schools travel there to compete against one another. Another event that this term brings is speeches. I already have my speech topic and I have started writing it. Over all I think that I have a pretty good year ahead of me. 

   

Week 9 Term 2

This week I have learnt a lot of things such as... how to use commas and FANBOYS properly. At the start of the year I thought that you only put a comma if you wanted to join two sentences together, but it turns out that you only put a comma in your work if you are adding extra information than you would put a comma before and after the extra information. You would also use a comma if you are listing things, or before you use a FANBOY. In writing we have been doing a novel analysis I have just finished mine, and have now moved onto writing my student conference that is coming up. In maths I can now find the area of composite shapes which is really very easy now that I know how to do it. How to find the area of a composite shapes e.g. to work out how to find the area of a composite shape you first find the area of the shape if it was whole shape. Next turn the smaller thing in a shape of some kind. Then find the area of the smaller shape. Now take the area of the two shapes away from each other, and you will have your answer. I have also learnt how to convert metric measurement, and to find the volume of some 3D shapes. This week our school has been preforming a production I haven't seen it, but I'm going to watch it tomorrow!! I am really excited because it sounds really cool, and lots of my friends are in it. Overall this week has been a very busy week, and I have learnt a lot of new things.      

Week 7 Term 2

This week is going to be very busy as we had a maths test a few days ago, and we had our ICAS science test yesterday. Every Wednesday we have jump jam, but this Wednesday when we were doing jump jam our teacher filmed us, and put the video on YouTube it was so embarrassing!! This weekend I have my second netball rep torment I am really nervous, and excited. It was going to be in Auckland, but they changed it to some other place. Every year our school has a production this year the production is called The Battle of the Bands. I don't really know what its about, but I'm guessing something to do with bands battling. A lot of people are involved in the production, and next week everybody in the production gets a week off school to practice!! I really want to watch the production because the way that they set up the hall looks awesome. Coming up in week 10 is Belmont and I am in the traveling Belmont team. That means that my whole team has to travel to Belmont and verse other teams up there. When we go up to Belmont each person in the team has to be billeted by a random family. Normally it is one person to a house, but luckily I am allowed to stay with someone else!               

Week 6 Term 2

Last week in teach arts we finished  doing art and moved on to design that includes wood work and plastic. Our teacher is Mr Monk he is really funny. We got to make spinning tops my one was a bit big, but it still works. On Friday we can cut our names out of wood. In maths we were doing fractions, decimals and percentages now we are moving on to area and perimeter we have just done the test and I think we are going to have to do a lot of work on it. We have been doing report writing and note taking. Our first piece of writing was about penguins, and for our next piece of writing we had to draw out a slip of paper that had our topic on it. I got Tuatara. I have nearly finished my note taking. Recently I have handed in my Belmont letter that will be posted to my host family so they sort of know a little bit about me before I get there.          

Week 5 Term 2

I have been sick most of this week, but hopefully I will be going back to school tomorrow I hate being stuck at home with nothing to do. I missed my last art lesson and I am no ware near finishing luckily we have a awesome art teacher and she said we can come in at lunchtime and finish off our art work. On Sunday it was my birthday and we went to inflatable world it's really fun there and I loved it. Everything is blown up there is a huge sumo ring where you put on these really big sumo suits and try and bowl each other over. There was lots of other great activities, but this was my favorite. My cousion, Summer, gave me my favorite present she had painted me this awesome picture of an extinct laughing owl I love it!! I had a fantastic time and I am totally going back.

Week 4 Term2

Yesterday I had a photo with Barbara Kuriger the MP for King Country/Taranaki and the Minister of Education Hekia Parata, while they were visiting the retirement village that my Dad and his brothers own. She did a speech and the residents had time to ask questions I think she was really nice and bubble.

This week has been really exciting because I made the Belmont netball team, the Aims netball team and the rep netball team. Belmont is a place in Auckland and our school dose a sporting exchange with another school up there that means that I will be going to Auckland and staying a few nights with a random family!! Aims Games is also another sporting event, but you don't stay with a family you just stay with your team in a cabin. Rep netball is a Te awamutu representative team and we have our first torment next weekend. I am really nervous, but I am also really excited I really love netball and I can't wait to verse  teams from other places!   

We video

I have learnt how to use a app called we-video it's really cool and I have created a practise called adorable kittens!

To use we-video all you have to do is...

• Download we-video 
• Find some pictures or video clips
• Press the upload button and then upload your photos and/or videos 
• Arrange your photos or videos in the order that you like 
• If you wanted to you could add sub titles 
• When you are finished press the publish button and your video will be complete 

This is my guide to using we video I hope this will help you in the future if you decide to use we video 

Week 2 term 2

This week our school is having a band camp for all the students in band or choir I don't really know what happens but it sounds cool! Yesterday we did PC (pubertal change) for nearly a whole day it was pretty gross and I DO NOT want to do it again!! For passion hour we have finally started to learn how to actually use youtube editor I have only learnt a few steps of the whole process but it's an improvement. In Tech arts we have started a new piece of art work because we are waiting for our jandals to come back from the kiln. For our new piece of art you draw a a shape that is related to you or New Zealand then you full it with kiwi icons or things you love then eventually we will paint it with lots of bright colors.      

The first week back at school

The first week back at school has been great I have learnt lots. We are currently doing this thing called passion hour where you have time to learn more about what you are passionate about. Me and my friend are learning how to create a video using you tube editor so far I have no idea how to actually make a video! We have also been studying Gallipoli did you know that it has been 100 years since the war fought in Gallipoli? It is sad that so many lives were lost.

We have been doing art for tech arts we are currently making clay jandal
s I painted my jandals purple. Our awesome art teacher is taking them to a kiln in Hamilton to get fired then all we have to do is make a strap for them. One of our walls have been painted with our school motto SHINE it stands for
we Show respect
we are Honest
we  Include others
we Never give up
we seek Excellence
                                               

Te Awamutu Intermediate presents "ONCE UPON A CRIME", March 24 2015

Wellington Camp

We went to Wellington as our class camp I loved it. My favorite activity was snorkeling at Island Bay Marine Reserve I saw huge Blue Moki and massive Paua along with some other smaller fish I also saw some good size Rock Cod and Kina. We also visited Te Papa Mya showed us the airplane area where there was the front of a real airplane we sat in the seats and put on weird goggles the lady made the goggles play a 3D film it showed us a film of the beach and it made you feel like you were at the beach relaxing and watching the sunset. I really liked the ONTV studio I was a interviewer, and I interviewed Kylie and Mya they were pretending to be Hansel and Gretel. Arden and Casy interviewed the Big Bad Wolf (Lucas), Beauty and the Beast (Kylie and Mya). Cheng-yu and Justice made good camera men they filmed Oksana, Grace and Charlie who were the news reporters and the weather man. There was also a media studio where we made android apps we did visual coding to create the apps I made three apps called Hello Purr, Draw and Magic 8 Ball my favorite was the Magic 8 Ball you ask a question and shake the phone your answer will appear at the bottom of the phone and a ladies voice will read the answer to you. We went to Parliament and while we were waiting outside Andrew Little came over to us and asked us some questions before these ladies that were doing Tai Chi came over and started explaining about Tai Chi (like he really cared), when our tour guide finally turned up he took us inside we had to go through metal detectors. After that he lead us to the Parliament house it was question time when we came in one man was asleep some people were playing on their phones!! Two people kept on standing up and arguing about houses (I think) how they run our country I don’t know. We did a lot of exciting things but those were some of my favorite activities I really enjoyed camp and I can’t wait till next years camp!  

Camp on Sunday

On Sunday the 22nd we are going to Wellington for a week as our class camp. We will be doing lots of fun things such as going to Te Papa museum, riding on the cable car, snorkeling, going to the zoo, visiting ONTV & Media and lots more. In my day group is Mya, Grace and myself my mum Sharleen is going to look after us, and the people in my room are Megan, Grace and myself. It is a very long bus ride from Te Awamutu to Wellington we leave school at nine thirty and arrive at the camp site around six we have two toilet stops and one lunch stop on the way. I can't wait to go on camp it's going to be awesome!!            

Week 6 Term 1

This week I have learnt how to work out questions using bedmas. Bedmas stands for brackets, exponents, division, multiplication, addition and subtraction. I also learnt how to write a factor tree. We are currently writing a report about Gallipoli. Did you know that it has been 100 years since the war was fort in Gallipoli. On Wednesday we had mufti day and wheels day they played some jump jam songs while the people on the court used their wheels. I am currently reading the series called Heroes of Olympus I am now up to the last book called The blood of Olympus it is really interesting and full of action.

Week 6 term 1

I am Caitlin

Sister of Hayden

Who needs love and needs to play lots of sports

Who loves her family, friends, outdoors, water and sports

Who sees potential in everyone, netballs and rugby balls everywhere

Who hates ignorance, doing nothing on a beautiful, failing  

Who fears losing a friend or family member

Who dreams of being a famous netball player for the Silver Ferns

Who has found poems of sports

Resident of Te Awamutu

Fladgate

Term 1 week 4

This week we have had a lot of testing in our P.A.T maths test I got stanine 7 and in our P.A.T reading test I got stanine 9. Our class is doing fantastic in inter class softball we have played  three games so far and we have won all three of them. In class we are starting portrait poems it sounds exciting. In jump jam we came 1st and won the golden rock.

Week 3 term 1

This week I have learnt a lot in maths I learnt a lot about rounding, significant figures (s.f.), leading digits (l.d.) ,decimal places (d.p.) and terminology (examples) s.f. and l.d. are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. Rounding (1 d.p.) 568.962 = 569.0. We also did argumentative writing the argument was is the referee always right or the referee is not always right I did my writing on the referee is not always right. We also played inter class soft ball at lunch, we versed room 12 and won 20 to 0.    

Week 2 term1

This week I've learnt how to set up a new blog the children of room 3 were really helpful they taught me how to make my blog better by teaching me to add awesome back rounds and gadgets. I also learnt how to play Hash Cricket. In maths I learnt about face value, place value and total value. (If the number is 1357 the total value of the 3 would be 300). (If the number is 2584 the place value of the 8 would be the tens). (If the number is 2978 the face value of the 9 would be 9). I have also learnt how to set up a business letter about me so that Mrs Crowe could learn a bit more about me. The year 7's in room 3 have started learning French with Madam Shaw I really enjoyed it and I can't wait  to learn more.      

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog for 2015. I am a year 7 student at Te Awamutu Intermediate.