In Mahi Tahi this week, we have done an art task.
We made a self-portrait and traced it onto wood. We then coloured them with our house colours using special paint-pens. These will be put up in our school for all to remember.*







*photo(s) to come.

Should Mixed Teams be Allowed in the

RWC?

The Rugby World Cup takes place every four years

and is the decider of which country has the best rugby team.

Despite all of the teams’ physical and strategic differences,

they all have one thing in common; they’re all completely male

teams. This is a completely good and reasonable decision.

Here’s why:

First of all, male and female players have completely

different builds. While males are stronger and have more

brute force, females will be more agile but less able to take

a hit. This could change strategies in the teams, seeing as

certain strategies will work better in completely male or

female teams. Agility-based strategies won’t work with a

team that only has 30% females. The same could apply for

the opposite; a team with a very strength-based strategies

but mostly females.

Building off of this, getting a good number of good and experienced players of both genders will be difficult. In countries like ours, it may be easy to get a willing number of players, but in some countries, it may not be the easiest thing. In some countries may not allow for women to play these kinds of sports or even sports in general due to cultural or religious boundaries. For this to be a fair game, all countries that can compete should have an equal number of males and females to another. That means that there should be a good amount of both genders on the sides in case another person gets hurt. Some countries may not be able to supply this many female players.

With the new changes on the teams, male players may be removed from the team. This will most likely annoy the male players who worked hard for a chance to be on their national rugby team. We say ‘survival of the fittest’, and this rule will definitely apply to the choosing of the teams. Only the most useful, strong, fast, agile, and strategic players from both genders will be picked from the team, cutting some of the previous team members. The two genders of players will have to be evenly skilled. Some countries’ male players may outshine the female players, which could make the mixed teams completely null and void.

So these reasons are why I think that mixed teams should not be in the Rugby World Cup. The male and female players may be too different, the male-female ratio may be hard to create and some of the best male players may need to be cut from the team.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a maths learning website that can teach you 

things in a wide range of areas and strategies.

Everything from volume to area to long multiplication.

The R.E. Contract

The R.E. Contract

Every fortnight, we have a set of tasks relating around religious 
education. This week, the theme was "God's Gifts/Taonga of Free 
Will".

My Holiday

My Holiday

AWESOME:

One thing I thought was AWESOME in my holiday was when I went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. It was awesome to see all the history that went into the grounds and the country. 

INTERESTING:

One thing I thought was interesting in my holiday was when I saw four pages of my sketchbook ripped out. This was interesting because it took me a while to find out what had happened (My sister had ripped them out).

RELAXING:

One thing I thought was RELAXING in my holiday was all the days I spent lying around.

The Rosary
During the month of October, we celebrate the Rosary.
In the Rosary, there are four categories of "Mysteries". Mysteries 
are stories that recount important events in Jesus and Mary's lives.
The categories are the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries, 
the Glorious Mysteries, and Luminous Mysteries/Mysteries of the 
Light. 
Each category has a certain theme. We are currently on the Joyful
Mysteries.

For this task, we found a word and created an image based off of the word. I chose the word abstract. In the art sense, abstract means an image that conveys a picture using just shapes, colours or textures.

Who invented the bicycle

Who Invented the Bicycle?

For most people, the bicycle is the vehicle of choice if you can’t drive a car. Many people don’t know who invented this marvellous machine, though.

Most historians trace its origin back to 1817, when a German aristocrat called Karl von Drais invented a two-wheeled wooden machine that propelled riders with their feet. This invention became popular in England and France and became known as the velocipede. Unfortunately, the machine was soon banned as it became a hazard to pedestrians and was rarely seen after the early 1820s.

Things were quiet for decades, but the bicycle pedals were eventually introduced in 1963 in Paris by Pierre Michaux. It is unclear whether he or his employee, Pierre Lallement should be given credit for the innovation. Lallement moved to the United States, where he patented the idea in 1866. The machines started to be called bicycles by 1869, but many people referred to them as “bone shakers”, which described their clunky movement due to the fact that they had a heavy wooden frame and steel wheels.

In the 1870s brought about the new “ordinary” bicycles, with one big wheel at the front and a small one at the back. The main flaw with these was that they had bad breaking, as the rider could fly off the front with the momentum. Eventually, the English inventor John Kemp Starley designed a "safety bicycle" with two small wheels of equal size, a chain drive, and a set of gears. With the added in pneumatic tyres and better braking system, the bicycle sales and production skyrocketed. Over one million bicycles were created by 1899.

Scamming: it's bad!

We were tasked to create a poster which could teach someone about a certain area of net-safety. I chose scamming.

Sir Peter Buck, The Maori Hero

This week, we had to research a Māori hero. I chose Peter Buck, who was a doctor, soldier, politician, museum director, and anthropologist.

Matariki Slide: Our Matariki Knowledge All in One Slide.

This is my Matariki Word Art.
Our task was to create a piece of word art about Matariki containing at least 20 words. Mine contains 26.

To create your own go to https://wordart.com/

Should Universities be Free to Attend?

Universities have a reason they’re expensive. Another ‘pre-uni’ school will cost you money, so why would a university be different? If universities were free, then schools would get crowded, teachers would barely get paid and students wouldn’t take it as seriously.

If universities were free, then there would not be enough space to fit all of the students. This could push schools into having a waiting list or broadening the one they already had. In the classes, the student cap will most likely be exceeded. This can put a lot of stress on the teachers, who would have to help students with  and discuss an assignment to such a large crowd. The student to teacher ratio would be vastly out of proportion compared to what it is now with universities costing money.

To add on to this, teachers wouldn’t get paid as much as they do now. When a student pays their fees, the money goes towards the government and the school, which goes towards the teachers. Only a small portion of money comes from other places. This can make teachers want to quit their job, thus making the teacher to student ratio even worse. The schools wouldn’t get as much money for learning, either. They wouldn’t be able to sell books because they would barely have enough money to buy them. Of course, they would be able to get some books.

The students in the universities would probably find the free schooling as an easy pass for education. This could make the students not value their education as it would come so easily. The students who do become something like a doctor wouldn’t get as much credit because of the fact that the amount of people who could get into the profession would vastly increase. On the other side of the spectrum, there will be a lower percent of students who graduate. This is due to students not valuing their education and dropping out of university.

So in conclusion, universities should not be free to attend because the schools would get crowded, the teachers wouldn’t get paid as much and students wouldn’t take university as seriously.

KWL Chart:

KWL Chart

The Problem with Pluto

Know	Pluto was once a planet, but is now classified as a dwarf planet. Pluto was the farthest planet from the Sun, but is now the farthest dwarf planet from the Sun. Pluto was declassified as a planet in 2006. Pluto is one of four dwarf planets in our Solar System. Pluto didn’t complete a single orbit before losing its planet status.
Want	How many moons does Pluto have? Who discovered Pluto? What size does an object need to be to be classified as a planet? How many days (or years) is Pluto’s orbit? How hot/cold is Pluto?
Learned	Pluto was discovered in 1930 by an American astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh. An eleven-year-old girl named Venetia Burney named the ninth planet after the Roman God of the cold and dark underworld, Pluto. It takes Pluto 248 Earth years to complete a single orbit. Pluto has three moons. Pluto cannot clear other objects out of its orbit. Many people protested and held “funerals” after Pluto’s declassification.

For a KWL Chart, you have to write what you know, then what you want to know, both before reading an article. Then, after reading the article, write what you learned.

Our task was to look at a list of things used in the army and find the definition of the words and why they were useful.

Learning Goals Term 2 2019

Literacy

While reading aloud, having good pacing and volume is a good goal for me. I will achieve this goal by reading to my sister.

Maths

Be able to find volume based on an outside area. I can learn this by watching Youtube repeating the process, thereby memorising it.

Religious Education

Reading the bible, this lets me understand more about it. This can also help me in other parts of life, remembering the verses, helping me overall.

Gallipoli

     Scary        Deafening

Running   Shouting   Slipping

Trenches    Mud    Blood    Bullets

Shooting   Murdering   Dying

Cold       Dark

ANZAC

Our objective for this task was to create a piece of writing on if we were sharks. We were to make it creative, interesting and entertaining, but not too long.

Shark Writing

I am a shark. There’s nothing to it really. All I do each day is swim; that and eat. I eat to survive, so I don’t see why everybody is scared of being eaten by me.

I was taking a stroll, and while chewing on a couple of measly fish I saw that there was a big grey fish. I think to myself ‘I bet I could beat it in a duel’. I charge at it full speed, which turns out worse than what I’d imagined. From above my aquatic confinements, I hear multiple cries of terror. Although big and juicy, its hard exterior brings me away from the battle.

I didn’t realise this was a squid, because when I hit it, the fish, or squid, started leaching out black ink into the water. I accidentally inhale some of its ink and start to feel a bit tired. A small school of fish seem to be surrounded by the squid’s odourous concoction. Easy prey. The small fish barely move before I snag them into my grasp.

I try to swim away but the evil black liquid prevents me from doing so. I slow to the speed of a sea snail. Now I understand the problem with those fish; they inhaled oil. I look up to see that I wasn’t battling a large fish or a colossal squid, it was a boat. The boat leaked oil when I hit it. The screams were from humans. Now it’s my fault I’m dying.

I can’t move a single fin. I’m stiff, but slowly relax my muscles. I hope I don’t meet any of the fish I’ve slaughtered in Fish-Heaven. At least I’m dying with a full stomach.

If I was Prime Minister

Our task was to create a piece of writing about if we were Prime Minister. We were to list some perks, some struggles and some thing we would do to help our country.

If I was Prime Minister

If I were Prime Minister, the first thing I would do is be surprised over the fact that I actually made it into the position. Then I would immediately tackle helping people in impoverished conditions.

People who would need help finding a job or struggling to keep up with our current economy would definitely be my first order of business. Where we are now, most of us have stable jobs, access to food and water, great homes, and education etc, but many people around the country may not have access to any of those things. To increase education, I would radically increase funding to libraries so people can have a wider selection of free books. Things like having more accessibility to food through things like the Food Bank are important, so obviously, more funding towards those sources. Making bad decisions is sometimes not  even a certain person’s fault; they could have been forced into doing so. Some bad choices make life a lot harder than it needs to be.

It would be hard to be Prime Minister. It would be difficult to leave the role of Prime Minister with the country the same as it was when you came into the role, let alone better. Helping out smaller communities while still focusing on the bigger ones is a lot to handle. Asking people how we could help in itself be challenging. If I were to promise that, finding the time to do so might be complicated to do. If the country was unhappy, I would probably give everyone a day off, run a poll to see what the communities would want.

Being Prime Minister would definitely be tiring. I really wouldn’t know what to do in that position, but giving people respect is what I know is the right thing.