Over the next few weeks, we are diving into a novel study! Each week, we will read assigned chapters, complete reading activities, and work on creative tasks.

 This week, I started reading The last Tuatara by Des Hunt. The story begins by introducing Jason and Jessy, who are at their farm. In the opening chapters, something interesting that happened was Shawn Morris crash-landed onto the farm. Based on what I’ve read so far, I predict that Shawn Morris will try and sell the tuataras later in the story because Jason thought he was lying when he said that he just saw bushes up where he crash-landed his plane.

What is your favourite chapter book? 

Drop a comment below!

Over the next few weeks, we are diving into a novel study! Each week, we will read assigned chapters, complete reading activities, and work on creative tasks.

My Week 1 Book Review: This week, I started reading [petronas] by [Tina Shaw]. The story begins by introducing [baba], who is at [the desit]. In the opening chapters, something interesting that happened was [they needed to find water]. Based on what I’ve read so far, I predict that [they will find a lack] will happen next because [the problem will need to be solved some how].

What is your favourite chapter book? Who is your favourite author?

my favorite chapter book is the babysitters. my favourite book author is Joyce Carol Oates

This week, I started reading a book called “The Last Tuatara”by Des Hunt. I     began reading the first 4 chapters. The story begins by introducing two twins called Jason and Jessy, who live on a farm near the mountains. In the opening chapters, something interesting that happened was when a man named Shawn Morris crashed his plane into the farm and claims he works for an oil prospecting company. Based on what I’ve read so far, I predict that Shawn Morris will hunt some animals because he acts very suspicious and there are some rare animals at the top of a nearby mountain.

Here are some questions: What is your favourite chapter book? Who is your favourite author?

This week, I started reading The Last Tuatara by Des Hunt. The story begins by introducing Shawn Morris, who is at a farm near the jelly mountains. In the opening chapters, something interesting that happened was Shawn Morris crash landed in the farm. Based on what I’ve read so far, I predict that Shawn Morris is the antagonist and try hurt the animals will happen next because he stole Jason’s clay figure and is acting very suspicious.

We have been learning how to search things properly and to use the right images!

This is my learning about smart media with the topic of… kiwis!

I think I did really good on this one! I finished almost all the slides really quickly!

I used Google slides to make this.

What do YOU know about kiwis?

We are learning to make a video and protect our local environment.

I used Google Vids to make this.

DLO shows a video of protecting our local environment.

Something I would want to improve is making Google videos.

Have you ever made a Google video?

This is my blog comment post! When you do this you have to find a blog post (that isn’t yours) and write a comment for it!

I feel really proud of my blog comment mileage! But the sentences that I wrote could be a bit longer.

I used Google slides to make this too.

I have a question for YOU.

Have YOU made something like this before? And if you have, did you find it easy, mid, or hard?

When I first started doing my speech, I thought I might not get into the semi finals when I heard my friends speeches, but now I realize I am actually very good at it, and you will soon find out how I know this.

In week five, the class started presenting their speeches. Me and my friends chose to do it on the first day to get it over and done with. I was very scared, but when I started, all my nerves went away.

How the process works is like this:

We do it in front of our class, then our teacher picks 3/4 people of each year to go into the semi finals. From the semi finals the two teachers that are judging us pick 5/6 people to go through to the finals. Then from the finals they pick first, second, and third. First and second go through to rotary, which is a competition against other schools.

I know that I am good at speeches because I got into the semi finals. There were about nine or ten people in the semi finals. I am a year six and I presented to the year fives. Then the teachers judging us picked me and 5 others to go to the finals. The finals were held in the hall, so I had to talk very loud. I presented my speech in the finals to the year fives and sixes. Then the teachers picked out the first, second and third. I wasn’t third, or second, I WAS FIRST!!!!!!!!!!! That means that I am the best year six and doing speeches in the whole hub!!!!! Luckily, second was my friend, so I don’t have to go to rotary on my own.

The biggest challenge I faced while doing my speech was the nerves and deciding whether to have my cue cards with me or not. (In the end I kept my cue cards to be on the safe side.

My speech topic is why we should stop littering, here is my speech if you want to read it:

Drop a comment below!!!!

In the past month, my hub have been writing our speeches about different subjects and topics to present to their class and teachers. When we all presented out speeches in our literacy classrooms in week 5, each of our teachers decided how many year 6s and year 5s woould move onto the semi final. I was one of them. My speech was about fears and my points were how fears keep you in your comfort zone and never let you explore, how many fears a single person can have, and how many fears there are. Me, my friends, and another one of my classmates from year 6 moved onto the semi finals and had to present out speech infront of the year 5s. But the year under us-year 5s-they had to present their speeches to the year 6s. I honestly thought it was unfair because they presented to the older kids; but I know they did great. After the people who got chosen from the semi finals moved onto the finals and got feedback on what they should work on in the finals. Mine was volume because I was a little quiet. Then the finals came-I was super nervous because I had to present it to the year 5s AND year 6s; this made me I little bit stressed. But I powered through it and said my speech with no cue cards to help me. Then I got through to the Rotary so with my friend and I am glad I am with her so I can have a friend cheering me on next term.

Here is my speech writing ;

Have you ever experienced something that makes your heart race or even makes you cry and run—well this is called a fear. A fear is something that you hate and can’t stand; like if you see a needle and you faint or cry you have trypanophobia. If you see, hear, or say a long word and get scared easily, that means you have hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia. Some people think that having a fear means you are weird and you are not normal—you might wonder if thats true. But it’s fine to have a fear; science even shows us that it is normal. If I’m speaking about myself, I have a fear of my own too; it’s glossophobia. Glossophobia is the fear of public speakin—which means I don’t like speaking infront of a crowd of people. Glossophobia is also one of the most common fears you can have.

Speaking about fears—let’s dig deeper. Lets talk about how fears always keep you in your comfort zone and never let you explore—how many fears a single person can have—and how many fears there are.

First we will be discussing about how your fears keep you in your comfort zone; but why? Fears keep you in your comfort zone because it makes you think that everything you try will be dangerous, which means your body will avoid everything for its need for safety. This means you don’t get to explore and discover things you want to. Imagine this, if you go out to bungee jump—you can—but your body will hold you back and try to tell you not too. This also affects your learning. This is because you have a safety-first mindset, which means you try to avoid unknown problems, view mistakes as a threat, and treat new things like they are dangerous. What your brain feels inside is different from what people think of you on the outside, because your brain doesn’t want you to learn anything new and stops you from mistakes. In 1965 Frank Herbert once said; “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear.”

But how many fears can a single person have? Well, it is actually unlimited; fears don’t have a limit because they don’t affect your health, your walking, or talking and anything else attached to your body. This is because a fear is nothing; it’s just trauma, or something you don’t like. Imagine I have aquaphobia which means I hate water—it doesn’t change me—it just changes my feelings and perspective of water. You might be saying right now, “that doesn’t make sense, and it doesn’t sound right.” Well, your wrong—this is completely right. Fears just trigger a sense inside you and makes your alarm in your brain go off saying—”stay cautious of this horrible thing!” But it doesn’t make me sad, angry, or nervous.

Now we’ve uncovered how many fears you can have—lets talk about how many fears there are. If you guessed 400 your wrong, but if you guessed over 500 you are right. Amazingly, experts have listed over 500 specific fears; including ophidiphobia—which is the fear of snakes—-arachnophobia—which is the fear of spiders—and atychiphobia which is the fear of failure. Failing with that fear would be a catastrophe!

To wrap things up, fears are something that makes you stronger when you face them—make you a better person when you build up courage. But if you don’t face your fears, you will have a safety-first mindset, will become a weaker person, and you can never explore. I have a question for you; will you face your fear?

This week in class, we took on daily writing challenges to stretch our imaginations and practice new literacy skills. Each day, we were given a quick prompt and a short amount of time to write as much as we could.

Out of all the prompts we tried this week, my absolute favourite was trunk o’ trouble, this was the prompt for this challenge:

Uh-oh!  An elephant was loose at school.

WHAT happened?  Oh, and you CANNOT use the following words:

• catch
• corridor 
• smash
• trunk

Easy, right?

Here is my writing:

“Oh my gosh, Miss Clears, you have to see this!” I screamed.

“Why are you interrupting my lesson Aurialla?” said a grumpy Miss Clears.

As she came out of the door, her face turned from angry to white. She froze, then screamed “Aurialla, come back into the classroom, this is not a safe situation for a year 6!”

I walked calmly back into the classroom, only to find my classmates all craning their necks to see what all the fuss is about. I walked over to my desk, trying to look calm, like it was not a big deal about the Elephant.

“Well, Aurialla, aren’t you going to tell us what’s out there?” said Hazel Chandra.

When I was writing this, I tried to focus on what my character was feeling. I think this piece turned out well because there was a lot of drama involved. 

One thing I noticed about my writing this week is that I have gotten much better at really expressing what my character was feeling. Next week, my target is to use lots of precision. 

What was your favorite part of my story? Let me know in the comments below!

This week in class, we took on daily writing challenges to stretch our imaginations and practice new literacy skills. Each day, we were given a quick prompt and a short amount of time to write as much as we could.

Out of all the prompts we tried this week, my absolute favourite was “Glowing Report”

Here is my writing: 

In a magical mystic forest named Sparkle forest, lived a majestic animal with glowing antlers named Clio. While Clio foraged around Sparkle forest, she stumbled upon a creature who had been severely hurt. It was me. Wondering how I got so hurt, she asked me what my name was and I said to her my name was Shimmer. As Clio found some leaves to wrap me in she asked how I got hurt—but I couldn’t answer because I was so hurt. Scared how I wouldn’t survive on my own, Clio waited for me as I got up to gain back my strength. When I woke up she took me on a journey I could never forget; it was a journey of my lifetime. I went inside mountains and up above clouds.

When I was writing this, I tried to focus on my precision and my sentence styles. I think this piece turned out well because I got 100% which made me very happy.

One thing I noticed about my writing this week is that I have gotten much better at writing more in a shoter period of time. Next week, my target is to work on my precision as it is slipping very fast.

What was your favorite part of my story? Let me know in the comments below!

This week in class, we took on daily writing challenges to stretch our imaginations and practice new literacy skills. Each day, we were given a quick prompt and a short amount of time to write as much as we could.

Out of all the prompts we tried this week, my absolute favourite was one about two macines

Here is my writing:

I went to the airbase in the middle of the Sahara desert. There were two machines, A tank and a plane. I went into the plane. It had giant screens. It was spacious ; it had many little room capsules. It was awesome. I turned on the engines by pressing a button. My friend went in the tank. I lifted the throttle. Quickly, the plane sped through the Sahara desert. I was 5000 feet in the air. I turned on autopilot and watched TV.

My little friend was in the tank. I flew to 30000 feet. There were enemy planes following me but I activated the forcefield. Below the clouds, the enemy planes burned into flames. The plane started shooting down enemy fighters. It was world war 3 and I was in the Air Force. The plane flew through the middle east. The enemies were waiting but they were shot down.

Later, I landed at an airbase in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It was a safe place. Sadly, the tank didn’t make it. It was shot by an enemy fighter. Luckily, my friend survived. I ended world war 3. They said I could own the ultra hi tech airplane.

When I was writing this, I tried to focus on Trying to make the story interesting and adding precision. I think this piece turned out well because I got out all my imagination and put them into a prompt I am proud of.

One thing I noticed about my writing this week is that I have gotten much better at presicion. Next week, my target is to make my words longer.

What was your favorite part of my story? Let me know in the  below!

This week in class, we took on daily writing challenges to stretch our imaginations and practice new literacy skills. Each day, we were given a quick prompt and a short amount of time to write as much as we could.

Out of all the prompts we tried this week, my absolute favourite was one about a BMX rider.

Here is my writing:

Blaze Ryder was riding his BMX in the forest trail. He was just chilling for a moment. Blaze Ryder saw a cop who was standing there. He said to go away. Blaze Ryder realized that the cop was actually a bandit and pedaled away. Seeing the bandit taking off his disguise, he pedalled away quickly. He pedalled away, kept checking, and narrowly avoided the bandit. Quickly, the bandit caught up on his motorcycle. On the mountain, a park ranger was checking the forest. Blaze Ryder made a sharp turn left and sped away.

When I was writing this, I tried to focus on making it really cool. I think this piece turned out well because it had lots of great stuff in iy

One thing I noticed about my writing this week is that I have gotten much better at Precision. Next week, my target is to Focous on sentence length.

What was your favorite part of my story? Let me know in the comments below!

This week in class, we took on daily writing challenges to stretch our imaginations and practice new literacy skills. Each day, we were given a quick prompt and a short amount of time to write as much as we could.

Out of all the prompts we tried this week, my absolute favourite daily challenge was  Peek-a-boo (Aug 3rd)!

Here is my writing:

INSERT HERE;

Miss Patel hid from her class every single day. No one knew why which was ominous and wierd—but the main question is, what was she hiding from. Week after week at the same time, she hid behind the trees hoping she wouldn’t get caught; but who was she hiding from. Frantically, one day Miss Patel one day stayed to late at her meeting and burst out the door running to her hiding spot hoping no one would see her. Worried that she was caught, Miss Patel put on her emergency disguise suit and blended in with the trees. Inside her emergency disguise was an air tube, so she could breath as it was very stuffy in her disguise.

When four minutes past, Miss Patel worriedly came out of her disguise and ran back to class like nothing happened. Miss Patel, who was a very odd teacher, decided that she would uncover her secret of hiding behind the trees. Wondering what her secret was, the next day everyone surrounded her to hear the secret. Then Miss Patel walked into her classroom looking at kids from year 1, year 6, and year 8. But what was she hiding.

When I was writing this, I tried to focus on what the reader wanted to think. I think this piece turned out well because I pout alot of effort into it and tried my best with the 10 minute timer we had, I think I also turned out amazing because of all the sentence styles I used and how I followed the instructions really well

One thing I noticed about my writing this week is that I have gotten much better at was making my overall score. Next week, my target is to write more.

What was your favorite part of my story? Let me know in the comments below!

When I first started learning about my speech topic – which is littering, I thought that it was just dropping stuff on the ground, but now I realize that there is much more to littering than just this.

I learned that even food scraps count as litter, and that in New Zealand littering is illegal. Did you know that there is even a fine for littering! The main Idea of littering is dropping stuff on the ground, but as I told you before, there is much more to it than just that.

I know that this sounds crazy but the litter that you drop on the ground gets into the ocean because of the wind, rain, and rivers.

The biggest challenge I faced while starting off my speech was writing the content in a way that people will not get bored of, I handled this by trying to add facts that people will be shocked by and listen to me by, and by trying to add some humor into it.

What would you have done to make sure your class will listen to you. Drop in a comment below!

The moment I heard the word fears I knew that I would learn about this topic, and that it would interest me-and make me always ask questions. Fears made me so interested I used it as a speech topic and about how they can affect you, how many can you have, and way more. The main idea about fears is that they don’t let you explore and keeps you in your comfort zone. An example about fears is that if you go on holiday and have to go in a plane, you could, it is just that your body won’t let you because it has a safety-first mind. But the biggest challenge I have faced this week with learning the topic fears is that some of the sentences I have to write are complicated and that some of the fear names to pronounce are really hard to learn. One question I still have is, why are you born with two fears? This is all I have learned, completed, and thought about fears. Do you have a fear-and if so, how did you get it?

In class we have been learning about blog posts.

The tools we used were Google slides but you can also use Canva or a Google drawing.

Guess what? If you were wondering you CAN’T  just spam the keys so don’t even try.

i found it kind of easy and i think i will do it again.

Have you ever done a blog post?

In class we have been learning to make a good quality blog post and to make sure that we have everything we need to make the blog post clear and ready to publish.

The tools I used was Google Slides to make the blog post and my DLO (Digital, Learning, Object).

I think I worked pretty well in the time we had to make the blog post.

I my opinion I think that the blog post was an easy process, but sometimes I struggled alot to find the right words to use.

Do you know how to make a clear and quality blog post?

In class, I have been learning about how to write a quality BLOG post.

I used Google slides to make this DLO (Digital, Learning, Object)

I think it was pretty easy, but I struggled to answer some of the questions.

Have you made a DLO before?

Our latest task, we have been learning to do our quality post.

To build this digital learning object, the tool I chose to use was Google slides. 

The trickiest part of this whole creation process was reviewing. 

What would you change if you were making this?