I have just finished creating persuasive writing text, I wrote about why the beach was better than the pool. First I drew a template with lots of opinion sentence starters (e.g. I believe… , I also feel that…), then I chose two reasons why the beach is better, next I wrote a introduction using these, after that in my body of information I had two paragraphs each explaining one of the two statements of mine in more depth, eventually I moved on to writing the conclusion, I wrote down some facts just to cement down that fact that the beach is better, finally I then had to go through my writing adding persuasive devices. I used the A. F.O.R.E.S.T. method:

A – alliterations

F – facts

O – opinions

R – repetition & rhetorical questions

E – emotive language & exaggeration

S – statistics

T – (rule of) three

I found this experience interesting for me as I have never written a proper persuasive text before, here is my work:

Swimming at the Beach is Better than Swimming at the Pool –

 

I feel that swimming at the big beautiful beach is better than swimming at the pricey pool because it is free and it is refreshing to dive through the waves on a hot day. I also feel that swimming at the beach is better than swimming at the pool because you can go surfing there. I will explain these in more depth in my body of information.

 

I think it costs completely nothing to visit the beach anytime because the beach is so big that no one could monitor all of its vast area so it remains free to enter. I am especially grateful for this on a boiling Summer’s day and I feel I could die when I can dive carefree through the waves. I say it is refreshing because the cool water helps to keep my body temperature not too hot because I am in some cool water and not too cool because I am constantly moving about. And also if you are a parent, you wouldn’t let your poor child swelter, you could just drive down to the beach right now and save them.

 

Another reason the beach is better is because the beach is also able to allow you to surf through the water by catching and then riding the turbulent, washing waves that are relentlessly racing towards the sandy shore. I think this is a very cool experience as I am ceaselessly soaring through the sky of waves and foam. I and it gets even better when you learn to do some cool tricks or surfing through a huge tunnel air in a wave.

 

In conclusion this is why I think that swimming at the beach is better than swimming at the pool. Did you know the beach also lowers stress? It has been scientifically proven that spending time at the beach can lower your blood pressure, and nervous system alertness. Did you also know 100% of all people are relaxing in the sun, hearing the ebbing and flowing de-stimulates their brain. All of these make you less anxious. This is why I think swimming at the beach is better than swimming at a pool. So next time you pass by it, stop for a splash in the refreshing, relaxing and altogether awesome beach.

For the past few days I have been learning about how to say something is different and how to say something is the same. Then we had to pair up (I chose pippin) and create a 4 sentence conversation using comparison words. I found it interesting about how the sentence is pieced together and it also definitely helped me remember those words. Here is the conversation:

Orite – Same

Rereke – Different

Thanks for reading,

Heath :7(_)3

At school at the start of this term I was asked to write a recount about what I did in the school holidays. At first I was worrying because I couldn’t think of anything, but as I slowly started writing as soon as I’d finish writing about one thing I would remember another. I really enjoyed my school holidays so it was really fun writing about it. Here is my recount:

I am writing to tell you about the stuff I did during the school holidays. I mostly spent my time at home reading a book or possibly just enjoying the fact that I didn’t have to do much. I also spent a lot of time working on my math badge. The math badge that I chose is one of many other badges each with their own type of math. The badge that I chose is about 3D shapes so I have to complete various different activities about 3D shapes. After I finish the badge work I then get the badge. I spent some of my other time doing Children’s University work to earn hours to get a higher level.

During the first week of the school holidays I went over to Kaiden Seymour’s house because we are good friends. Somewhere in the middle of the school holidays the whole Hammond family (except dad who was working) went to the Arts Center and the Teece Museum to do lots of fun activities, we visited/did: the Teece Museum, the Great Hall, Matariki star harakeke weaving, and fudge making. My favourite thing was fudge making. We were given a lump of fudge to mould into shapes, decorate with lollies and then put in the fridge before eating. It tasted so good!

Near the end of the school holidays everyone except dad (working) went to Spreydon library to do a magical treasure hunt. I learnt that Spreydon library is tiny! The treasure hunt was okay but after that we made origami dragon bookmarks and that was cool. Around that time we also made a lantern in the shape of a bunny. First, we made the frame out of willow branches, then we put paper mache all over it, finally we cut out a face and glued it on, it was cool. Speaking of cool things, on one of the days just before the end of the school holidays we had spaghetti bolognese which is one of my favorite foods. A few days before the end, my dad took me and the girls to a hiking and biking place on a mountain. First we rode a chairlift to the top then hiked down. That was my favorite thing even though it took a long time. On the second to last day my mum and dads friends came over for lunch to share our Matariki feast. We had something that resembled each star and my favorite was the jacket kumara from Tupuanuku. And then on the last day I just relaxed and enjoyed the holidays before going to see Matariki in the night.

Today the class watched a video about animal adaptations, it was very informative. It talked about the different types of adaptations. After that I was then given the task of finding three animals: one from Africa, one from Antarctica, and one from New Zealand.  We then had to find out what kind of habitat it lives in. After that we found out what its threats are. And then finally we had to find out three adaptations about it and how these help it.  For Africa I chose the Emperor Scorpion, for Antarctica I chose The Elephant Seal, and for New Zealand I chose the Kakapo. I really enjoyed this task as I have learnt heaps. There is a link to my mahi here. If you did this what creatures would you choose?

Thanks for reading,

Heath 🙂

Today the class has been told we will be going on 2 school trips: Waste A Time and Saving The Sand Dunes. Apparently they will both have something to do with the kaitiakitanga, the schools topic for the year. Kaitiakitanga meansbeing a guardian or protector. We were asked to write down 3-5 questions each for both trips. I am really looking forward to the trips. Here are my questions:

Saving the Sand Dunes                                                                                                                                                                        What will we learn?
Will it have something to do with rubbish?
What lives in the sand dunes?
Will we be going to New Brighton Beach or another beach?

Waste A Time                                                                                                                                                                                        Where are we going?
What will we be doing?
What is the learning?
How does it have something to do with conservation?

Have you gone on any trips recently? Answer in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

Heath 🙂

Yesterday I was given the task of creating a document with certain information about a famous Maori person. I decided to choose Hone Heke as the title of this blog post suggests. I chose him because I knew that he was a great Maori warrior and at one point cut down the British flag pole, but I wanted to know more. I found out lots of interesting information about him, for example: He actually cut down the flag pole down four times in his life because the British didn’t see the Maori people as equals. Throughout the land wars he was a great warrior, but before that he was the first Maori chief to sign the treaty and was trying to get other chiefs to sign the treaty. I was super fun and next time if I do it again I am thinking of choosing Dr. Rangi Matamua, the famous Maori person who has hugely changed how we thought Maori astrology was.

Here is a link to my mahi: link

 

Recently I have been working through a slide deck full of activities about kaitiakitanga. There is lots of activities and they are: Watch 2 videos and 2 posts on kaitiakitanga, summarise the videos and text, have a news paper article about kaitiakitanga, and then to post this blog post. I found it really fun and a good learning experience. I hope in the future this information comes in handy. There is my newspaper: Link

When was the last time you showed kaitiakitanga? Tell me in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

Heath 🙂

A couple weeks ago the rest of the class and me were given a talk about about whales and how to help them. We spent a lot of time listening to the person about how to help a breached whale. They were just one person in a big group of people called Project Jonah. After this the class was given by the teachers a slide show showing activities to do that show our learning. The activities were: Make a breached whale help poster, make a whale anatomy poster, show the size of some whales using a graph and write about how plastic affects whales.  If you see a breached whale immediately dial 0800 4 WHALE.

Here is the links to my work:

Slideshow of activities

Whale breaching help poster

Fin Whale anatomy

Whale to scale

Whales & plastic

Thanks for reading,

Heath 🙂

Over the past few weeks (I also did a little bit last year) the rest of the class and me have been learning lots of Maori words and writing them down with a picture on a slide deck online we call the puna kupu/spring of words. We are given a list of adjectives in English and Maori. Just today we did this and we were writing down words about the environment. I found this really interesting and a good learning experience for me.

(ps: some of the words may not have tohutoa/macrons when they are meant to.)

Thanks for watching,

Heath 🙂