Crazy Character Creation

Hello Readers,

This week in literacy we have been focusing on character creation and diving deep into their backstory. This will help us when we start writing our narrative.  It is important to have a good character so that readers feel attached to the story. 
Here is my character map for my narrative.

My character is called Perry the Pig and as you can see he is a swimming pig. I thought that it would be easier to write about an animal but it turned out quite difficult. What are you writing about this term?

See you next time.

10 Brilliant Ways to Have a Better Conversation

Hello Readers,

This term in Inquiry we have been focusing on relationships within our school and community.  Conversation plays a huge role in building our relationships and connections with people. 

We watched a TED talk by Celeste Headlee that talked about the 10 ways to have a better conversation. Then our teachers made us make an animation that explains them.
Here is the animation I made with my friend India.




 Here are the 10 ways written out.
1. Don't multi-task 
2. Ask open-ended questions
3. If you don't know say you don't know
4. Don't compare your experiences with others
5. Don't repeat yourself
6. Don't pontificate - or act like you are better
7. Go with the flow - let thoughts go in and out, don't hold onto them
8. Be brief
9. Don't focus on the details
10. LISTEN

Now that we know this information we have to put it to the test. Every Friday from 11:30 until 12:30 we are put with people we don't usually talk to and made to play board games with them. This is a really fun way to practice our conversation skills and build relationships with new people. Do you like talking to new people?

See you next week!

Individuality Portrait!

Hi Readers!

At the start of this term, we had to make a portrait so that people could get to know us.

The artist that we based our ideas on was Romero Britto. He is known for his colorful, abstract portraits. Here is my portrait.

As you can see my portrait is very bright and colorful. The background had to feature things that we like to do and our culture.

My portrait has waves because I like swimming, art supplies because I like to draw, A dancer because I do ballet. It also has my pet dog George, who is a mini schnauzer.  I collect cacti so I put that in the background too. I have the Netflix logo because I watch lots of TV. 

I was born in the UK but I live in NZ, so I included both of those flags. Where are you from?

See you next time.  

What I Have Learnt In Spanish

Hello Readers,

During the last two weeks, we have been learning Spanish with Mrs. Davies. We have learned heaps of words and grammar rules and this is a reflection of what I have learned. We used PearDeck for the lessons which made them super interactive and fun. Here is what I learned.

How to Count

Uno
Dos
Tres
Cuatro
Cinco
Seis
Siete 
Ocho
Nieve
Diez

Days of the week 

lunes
martes
miercoles
jueves
viernes
sabado
domingo

Months of the year

enero
febrero
marzo
abril
mayo
junio
julio
agosto
septiembre
octubre
noviembre
diciembre

Masculine and feminine nouns

Colours
rojo
naraja
amarillo
verde
azul
rosa
blanco
negre

As you can see we learned a lot during this short amount of time and hopefully, I can remember it all.  Have you ever used PearDeck?

Spanish Llama Animation

Hello Readers,

For two weeks this term our class is learning Spanish. While the other groups in the class have been at school swimming, other groups have been learning Spanish. Today we learned some basic greetings, here is an animation I made showing two llamas having a basic conversation in Spanish.

As you can see the conversation is very basic because we haven't gone very in depth yet. Llamas are one of my favourite animals, did you know llama has properly pronounced "yama"?

See you next time!

Inuit Culture Slide

Hello Readers,

For Inquiry, we have been doing rotations and learning about different cultures, this time it is learning about the Inuit culture. Inuit live in very cold places and are sometimes referred to as Eskimos, but this is offensive to them because they are not Eskimos. Here is a slide answering a lot of questions about the Inuit culture.

 

As you can see the Inuit are a culture that survives by using nature, they use snow to make their houses and they catch their own food. Have you ever heard of Inuit before?

See you next time!

African Culture Inquiry

Hello Readers,

For today's Inquiry rotation we researched the African culture and made an adobe slide about it. The categories were: Country, People, and Animals. Here it is.

Have you ever been to Africa?