Speeches

 Term 4 means speeches, so our class started at end of Term 3. Our starter topic Going for gold. My topic is COVID Vaccinations, and why you should get them. Originally I was going to do Valerie Adams, but vaccines seemed more important at this time.  Here is my speech for now: 

Are you vaccinated? Are you vaccinated? Are you vaccinated? Covid. Vaccinate. A humongous problem, and one little thing to help. The world wants the problem dead. But for this to work, everyone must play their part by getting their vaccine. Vaccinations will help to change this mess we have gotten ourselves into. In my opinion, everyone should get vaccinated in the age group.

If the population gets vaccinated, it will reduce people from getting Covid. That is what they are made for.

This one is simple. If you get vaccinated, it is less likely for you to get Covid and spread it. The government wouldn’t give out vaccinations if they weren't safe.  Imagine being stuck in hospital, on a ventilator with nurses rushing around you, think about it, that could be you if you’re not vaccinated. Although you can still catch Covid, it is less likely for you to be badly affected by it. It helps not just yourself, but others as well. 

Vaccinations also mean travel, if everyone can get vaccinated, everyone can travel safely. 

When you have a happy life, you have memories. But lots of memories can be traveling. One night I was looking at a photo album of when my parents went overseas, and I wished I could do something like that. Covid stopped my dream of traveling to Greece and stuffing my face with feta and salad. You could go travelling safely if you get vaccinated, and so could others around you. 

If you get vaccinated, you protect yourself, whanau and your community. 

Protecting people is kindness. Protecting no one is selfish. By getting the vaccine, you protect the people who are most in danger of dying, our whanau over 70. Us kids can’t get vaccinations yet, but we can encourage our elders to get it. Vaccinations are like a present to our world, don’t take advantage of it.

We have been taught to protect our planet, recycle, plant trees, help save our oceans, but we can’t enjoy and appreciate our beautiful world, if we aren’t healthy ourselves. So you see, from reducing Covid, to protecting others, vaccinations don’t have an upside, they are the upside. Encourage vaccinations, so we have a future.

I hoped you liked my speech so far, I really have enjoyed working on it!

Green Gold Walk

Yesterday we went on a hikoi (walk) while the enviro people inspected our school. Our school has been working towards Green Gold for at least 7 years. Green Gold is an award for enviroschools, there is Bronze, Silver and Green Gold. Koka Rozie had organized our class to go for a walk on a farm where she rides her horses. 

We walked from school to Scarlys Way as this was where the farm was. On the farm it was very boggy and wet. At first I was a bit annoyed because we had to cross Hamanatua Stream in our shoes! But after not landing my jump across the awa, me and my friends decided to do a challenge. The challenge was when we had to walk through an awa or some mud, we couldn't complain. 

Water was running through my shoes, mud filling my shoes so much, I barely had enough room for my feet! I could hardly wait to take the soaking things off of me! Before we went back, Koka Rozie asked us what we think was a negative impact on the awa. We all agreed that a negative was the farm animals droppings that washed downstream. I also thought that a negative was when the animals would run or walk on the edge of the awa and mud and grass would build up in the stream and make it all brown and muddy.

When we got back something amazing was waiting for us, GREEN GOLD! YAY! I loved the walk, here are some photos from the day:

Jean Batten Day

 This Tuesday MLH had a day all about the famous New Zealand woman aviator, Jean Batten. The teachers had booked the hall for the whole day, so we could work in there. We were put into groups of 3-5 and I was with Betsy, Krissie, Harry G and Mahanga. I was really excited because the teachers said we had codes to crack! I love cracking codes! I have been learning how to crack onomatopoeia codes in my own time.

Our first clue was a little cat tag that said: Buddy, (this was Jean Batten's cat), and J=B. We all thought this meant Jean Batten, but it didn't. After a while we realised it was the alphabet. We finished that clue in about 20 minutes.

The next clue was a morse code. If you don't know what a morse code is, I didn't know either until we did it. A morse code is a group of sounds that add up to a code like, long short, short short long and long long short. This was a bit confusing but we got there in the end.

After lunch we were making buzz panes. Buzz planes are made out of the head of a toothbrush, batteries, lights and when you make it, it should buzz and move on the floor. This was quite tricky and our buzz planes didn't work, but the ones that did work, had a race.

At the end of the day, we each got a awesome badge that the teachers got for us. I got one that said Creative in French. I really wanted this one. It was so much fun learning about a awesome NZ aviator. I really would love to do some more of this learning!

Cross Country

 This Wednesday was School Cross Country. But because of being in Level 2, only year 4, 5 and 6 students went down. Level 2 also meant no spectators, so no parents or family were allowed to watch. I was really nervous! As we walked to the track, my heart started beating just a little bit faster. 

Year 6 girls were up first so I lined up as soon as we got there. When Koka Sue blew the whistle, the sound ricocheted in my ears. I ran as fast as I could when that whistle blew. For some reason I could taste blood. The metal taste felt like money. My asthma made it hard to breathe. 

After the race my breathing got worse. I took my asthma pump and had a drink of water. Me and my friends recreated a photo from athletics, here is the original and the recreation:

 This is the original:

Here is the recreation:

Olympic Booklet

 This term one of our Inquiry topic is Olympics. At the start of the term we got given booklets that the teachers printed from Kiwi Kids News. Our booklets have lot's of tasks to do with the Olympics and Paralympics. I enjoy researching and finding out new things.  How much do you know about the Olympics? 

In the booklets, we also have our favourite Kiwi Olympic athlete and Kiwi Paralympic athlete. My favourite Olympic athlete is Emma Twigg, a 34 year old that won gold in rowing at this years Olympics. My favourite Paralympic athlete is Sophie Pascoe, a 28 year old that has won nine gold medals and six silver medals in swimming. Who would be your favourite Kiwi Olympic and Paralympic athletes?

Here is what the cover looks like: 

I love working on my booklet and it makes me feel more ready for Intermediate next year with all this knowledge about the Olympics. Would you enjoy filling in a booklet like this? I know I enjoy it! 

 

Reading Questions

This term, in our L3+ Reading group, our teacher set us questions and we would find a book, that isn't in a series, to answer them. I chose 'The Midnight Gang' by David Walliams. Here are my answers:

Midnight Gang

1. I chose this book because it had a nice message to it and I liked other books that the author had written.

2. If I was Tom, the main character, I would have stayed with Sally instead of leaving her on her own, and because of her illness she would want some company. 

3. If this book was a TV show the actors I would put in it would be: Andrea Barber as Tootsie,  Candace Cameron Bure as Tom’s mum, Paris Berelc as Matron, Isabel May as Amber, Finn Carr as Tom, Elias Harger as George, Mckenna Grace as Sally and Michael Champion as Robin.

4. The book is set in London, England.

5. If Tom lived next door to me, yes, I would be friends because he could introduce me to the other characters.

6. In my head, the setting looks exactly like London and I would definitely want to visit there.

7. The two new words I learnt were 'adversary' and 'pantomime'. Adversary means opponent or rival, and pantomime means faking, like in The Midnight Gang, Tom was pretending to sleep or be in a pantomime of sleep.

8. I think the author wrote this because he wanted kids to have a laugh and show them that, one day, your dreams will come true.

9. I chose this book myself, but sometimes other peoples choice of books do help me change vary my choices of books to read.
   

Rhythmical Dance Group

This week Lola and Rio started a rhythmical dance group with year 5 and 4 girls from Moana syndicate. Me and Ella are assistants. At morning tea and lunch they practice and practice, everyone loves it! They can do amazing back bends and flips, even I can't do that yet! They are very flexible and have clean moves. The song they dance to is, Levitating by Dua Lipa. 

We practice in the hall with the mats and outside the classes on the grass. I wish I could do dancing like they do! Have you ever been in a dance group?