Spectacular Surreal Surfing

 

Hey people,

This is one of the last, maybe even the last, blog post that I will be doing at Marshland School. The end of the year is approaching along with CHRISTMAS, how exciting! Many people in my class are excited for high school, ready to leave Marshland and begin a new journey. I on the other hand isn't. I mean I am really excited to go to Marian College (my high school next year), but all the same, I have had a lovely two years at Marshland, bonded really well with both students and teachers, and I just, don't want to leave! Anyway, I hope you all had a fantastic week.

I'm sure you all would have had a highlight from the week that has just flown by, mine was surfing. On Thursday Toroa hub went to summer and had surfing/boogie boarding lessons, it was so much fun and a great day. They taught us how to surf and boogie board, and helped us when out on the water (my it was cold, but with the help of spring suits [3/4 wetsuits {well some brought their own full lengthen ones}] we were relatively warm. 

We got split up into groups and some went surfing first, others boogie boarding, some even waited their turn whilst playing on the beach or having a snack. I went surfing first, then had a break for morning tea and lunch, and then went back to boogie board. Thanks to some parent help we got loads of photos, some even of teachers who tried to surf and boogie board as well. 

Anyway here are some photos of me and my group, they vary from surfing to boogie boarding, to playing around on the beach! Look below:

Thanks for reading and I hope this interested (maybe even entertained) but DO NOT show anyone else those photos of me, I'm reluctant enough to post them on my blog (I can always take them off you know)... !D

Have you been surfing or boogie boarding before? 

If so how was it? Did you like it?

If the answer is no would you give it a go?

See ya later;

Soph   :D

Incredibly Interesting Inside Out

 

Hey people, me again, 

Hope you have had a great week, the weather's been a bit hit or miss so I hope you stayed warm and dry (or didn't overheat)!

Over the past week, with films aside and almost completed, we have been looking into Inside Out and Edward Scissor-Hands. We had to watch the films and then decide which one we wanted to do for our essay. We were allowed to start writing it and take notes during our own time and then had 1.25 hours at school to complete it and hand it in. 

I decided to do Inside Out because I found it easier to write about, I had loads of ideas and really enjoyed the movie when I was younger. We had to choose two themes and write about how they are key to the film. I chose to write about the themes Sadness and Growth/Change. I new they were super important and were displayed in copious ways.

Here is my essay:

Hope you found this interesting and hopefully learnt something!

Have you ever written an essay?

If so what was it about?

How would you rate Inside Out out of 10 and why?

Catch ya later;

Soph  :D

Spectacular Special Speeches

 

Hey, yet again people,

I'm not sure if you're aware, but over the past several weeks Toroa has been working on speeches. Yes, speeches, the thing where you get up (voluntarily) and speak in front of several people, apart from the fact that this was not optional!

I don't know if you know that public speaking is something I fear a lot. I know it may sound stupid but honestly, I hate it! We had to write our speech (at least 3 minutes long) and present it to the class (around 30 people). Sounds fine right? Well not for me, that is why I chose my topic to be; "The Power of a Positive Mindset".

The time approached and I was so scared and worried; "What if I messed up? What if people made fun of me?". But this was silly; the whole purpose of my speech was to be positive so I tried my best to be. When it did come to the time of me doing I shook all over, from head to toe. But I went for it and tried my best. Surprisingly every really liked it and I got 10/10! This was one of the best achievements I had ever accomplished. 

Although Mr. Shaw then had to select a handful of people to do it again, in front of the whole hub, I was one of them. Pressure built up yet again, but when it came to doing it, I knew I had one shot at this and tried (yet again) my hardest.  

The reward was (I think) best speech won $60, or something like that. And the top two from each year group went through to the Belfast competition. Now I didn't get through but I was so glad I did do the speech in front of the hub (it was optional). My speech was all about being positive, including how I used to have anxiety, etcetera. 

This time 2 years ago I couldn't tell even my closest friends about it! So anyway here is my speech:  

Hope you learnt something!

Have you ever done a speech?

What was it about?

Were you nervous like me, or did you just take it in your stride?

See ya later;

Soph   :D

Wonderful Windy Wellington

Hey again people, hope your week is going well!

Last week we (the Student Leaders) got the amazing opportunity to go to Wellington for the day, it was such an awesome experience. I had never, ever, gone to the North Island, or even flown domestically before, so everything was new for me!

We went to several different places; first of all, Christchurch Airport, then Wellington Airport, Weta Workshops, outside Parliament, had lunch on the waterfront, Te Papa, then back to Wellington, then Christchurch Airport. It was such a fun day! We all learnt so much, not only about leadership but other things too! 

Now don't tell anyone (sshhh), but here's the upcoming article about it written by Zara Dick, Sophia Turnbull, and I:

Now I'm sure you'll want to see some photos! Now I can't show you all as there is too ma- or can I...

Here's a quick collage I made (couldn't quite fit all the photos):

Here is also an example of one of the sculptures:

I hope you learnt something! And thanks for reading!

What do you know about leadership?

Have you ever been to Wellington?

If so what was your favourite part?

See ya later;

Soph   :D

Wonderfully Wicked Wearable Arts

 

Hey people,

Hope all is well and you are enjoying your extra long weekend!

As you may know from my previous posts, over the past term we have been working on our Wearable Arts pieces for inquiry. This has been such a cool experience, my friends at Chisnallwood did it last year and told me all about it (I may have been a tiny bit jealous)!

We had to get into groups of no more than six and select an issue we wanted to be showcased in our art piece that was to do with the theme. This year's theme was issues in our ocean. As you should be aware our ocean is extremely important to our planet, without it we probably wouldn't be alive.

My group selected Seismic Testing as our issue as it is a very big one that goes quite unnoticed (don't tell anyone but I didn't even know what it was either)! If you don't know, Seismic Testing is when a boat sails out to somewhere in the sea they put buoys and this device thing in the water, they then let off big bangs. This is done to detect any oils or gases in the ocean, and also the ground level. Whilst this is useful it also disturbs, injures, deafens, and kills sea animals from hundreds of miles around, it is even loud enough to kill a human!

Anyway, we had to write a speech, rap, poem, etc to be spoken in the background while the model walked and music played. I took charge of this, here is the poem I wrote about Seismic Testing:

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T-GYYvUC83uccMygTuxkaH5yCRy-A-cJ3720NuEvJz8/edit?usp=sharing

Of course, that doesn't really bother you, what you want to see is our outfit; The Sound of Seismic:

This took us a while to do but it was finally done! Our outfit was made up of the following elements; a hat, salt dough (the fish and boat on the hat [which isn't that easy to see]), plastic and bread bags (for the lines that represent the fish and the boat "talking", fabric and belt (for the dress which represented the ocean), wire and a holla hoop (to make/hold the skirt together), and a trampoline net (for the skirt, which represented the silence and deaths of sea animals).

I hope you learnt a lot from this post!

What was your favourite wearable art?

Have you made them before?

What are you doing for your inquiry?

See ya later;

Soph    :D

Puzzling Probability

 

Hey people, 

Hope you had another great week! Just a quick post today but I really wanted to show you all Zara and I's probability report!

Over the past wee while in maths we have been looking into probability. We were given the task to pick something that we could experiment with and then report. We could either do this in pairs or individually, I did mine with Zara. 

Our report was on Murphy's Law, at the time I had no idea what that was. It basically means like according to Murphy's Law the worst thing will always go wrong (there is a better definition in the report below). Both of us actually struggled quite a bit coming up with an idea, the classic one was to butter some toast and see which way it would land when it was dropped. Murphy's Law would say face down. We did our own version of that, we had a folded piece of paper and put glue on one side.

Here is the report, our results were quite shocking really:

Thank you for taking your time and reading this!

Have you made a report like this?

If so what was it about?

Have you learnt anything new?

See ya later;

Soph   :D

Fabulous Fantastic First Friday & Formerly For Fun Fourth!

Hey everyone, 

Hope you had a great holiday and are excited and motivated for this coming and final term of the year (the best term). Fabulous Fantastic First Friday & Formerly For Fun Fourth! That is just my way of saying Fabulous First Week For The Fourth Term (I just wanted to only use [f's at the start] alliteration).

Anyway, I was going to give you a log today about what I did this week:

Monday: 

• Maths
• More probability work on our investigation (I may blog this once done)
• Spelling
• Reading Recovery Buddy
• Over the last few weeks, I have been helping my little buddy Karlee with her reading, spelling, and writing.
• Literacy
• We continued working on our film scripts (I will blog this once completed)
• Inquiry
• We continued working on our Wearable Arts piece, the show will be held in week 3 (I will blog this once done also)

Tuesday

• Maths
• More probability work on our investigation (I may blog this once done)
• Spelling
• Reading Recovery Buddy
• Literacy
• We continued working on our film scripts (I will blog this once completed)
• Athletics Practice
• We are practicing in the run-up to Athletics for next week on Friday (well in this time I sorted through the recycling bins pulling out all the rubbish [with help from a few good friends]

Wednesday

• Technology
• I am currently learning and working with Digital Technologies (the last cycle of the term)
• Personality Quiz
• After that whilst the other group went to Technology we took a survey and found out 25 traits in order from 1-25 for us. My top 5 (in order) were; Honesty, Love, Perseverance, Curiosity, &  Gratitude. 

Thursday

• Orthodontist Appointment
• I wasn't at school in the morning as I had an appointment although I was back in time for:
• Reading Recovery Buddy
• ICAS Writing
• I missed Literacy as I missed ICAS in the morning.
• Athletics Practice

Friday

• Tickets
• Zara and I counted the tickets and did the weekly draw for who won the ice blocks. If you don't know these tickets are points for each house.
• Cultural Live Stream
• It was the cultural day when everyone dresses up in their culture, some people made presentations and talked about their country (we watched through the TV because alert level 2 restricts the whole school from gathering.
• Maths
• We just finished off some work for only 15 mins before:
• Kiwi Buddies
• We all have one (some 2) buddy(s) that we help, read to, they read to us, or play with them for 30-45 mins.
• Inquiry

I hope you enjoyed reading about my week. Please leave any feedback or questions in the comment below.

What did you do last week?

Have you taken a survey?

If so what were your top 5 character traits?

See ya later;

Soph    :D

Fantastic Fantasy

 

Hey people, 

I hope you are surviving lockdown. Finding things to do, avoiding boredom, and helping your family are all great things to do during this tough time. Fingers crossed we come out of it soon!

As I have mentioned in my previous post my literacy group is diving deep into different genres doing fun and exciting tasks. So far we have looked at; horror, sci-fi, and now, fantasy. Fantasy is possibly my favourite genre it is so extensive and there are copious different cliches that make it what it is. 

Yesterday we were focusing on the different cliches in fantasy, a video helped us identify the following. They are pretty much displayed in all fantasies, there is/are:

1. The Chosen One
2. The Prophecy
3. The Dark Lord
4. The Wise Old Wizard
5. Mythical Creatures
6. Magical Items
7. Different Races
8. Magic Spells]
9. Old English Accents 
10. Haunted Forests

These are listed from most common to least common, of course, there are other things too like; Strange Spellings & Fictional Languages, A Bumbling Idiot, and so on. Anyway, let's get to the task. Our task was to choose a fantasy series, film, novel, short story, etc, and to write in-depth about how the cliches are shown. Then we had to create our own character and try to fit it into the story. Does it change the whole storyline? If so in a good or bad way?

Here is mine:

Thanks for taking the time to read it, here are a few questions:

What is your favourite fantasy novel, film, etc?

How about your favourite task you've had to do in lockdown?

What did you learn from my post? 

See ya later! 

Soph  :D

The House of a Ghostly Tale

 

Hey people, 

I hope you aren't suffering too badly from this lockdown, remembering to get some fresh air and try to relax as much as possible. But also putting in the effort and letting yourself enjoy the tasks that have been set, and make sure to stay in contact with friends and other family.

Yesterday Toroa students had the day off but today we got into distance learning by starting off with a zoom call with our home group teacher. He/she told us what and where our tasks were for the next couple of days and we started cracking into them. 

I actually really enjoyed my literacy task, we are currently doing Genre Studies, the genre we are focused on is horror. I'm not a huge fan of it but I really like writing horror stories, which was pretty much our task for today. We had to write a ghost short story that was about a page long (mine was 601 words) then we had to make a book cover for it (on something like Canva). I also decided to put the rest of the story on my Canva as well along with the blurb. 

Here it is: 

If that is a bit unclear then HERE is the link to the document!

Hope you enjoyed it here are a few questions; 

1. What is your favourite genre and why?
2. What kind of tasks are you doing, and what is your favourite one and why?
3. How are you entertaining yourself during this lockdown?

Post any feedback in the comments below!

See ya later!

Soph   :D

Capsulating, Creative, Captain Marvel Website

 

Hey people,

Last term (term 2), we focused on Superhero Studies where we looked all over the many ways of how this can be/is presented. As you may have seen in my last post, there was a lot of work; comparing Marvel to DC, creating new heroes/villains and cities, and loads more. But of course, after all of that, we would have had some main project to do.

Aaaaaaaaaa... WEBSITE! We got to pick a hero/villain of our choice (I chose Captain Marvel) and had to study deep into them and their universe. Information had to be gathered for the following things:

• Describe their setting, city, or home
• What are the colours and why?
• Talk about the sounds in the examples
• Talk about the imagery and how it's presented
• Talk about how the character fits into their world, are they symbols of something? 

Once we had done that it is put into TEXAS-formed writing (Topic sentence, Evidence, Example, Analysis, Summary) and onto a website! I also added a couple of my own things like the comparison of DC to Marvel, and a dictionary explaining some more complicated words. 

We have a set time to do all this (around about a term) and once that is done then we will receive a mark. For mine I got a 6B which is 42/44, that  was the best mark I have ever gotten for anything! Anyway this is what you will want to see:

CLICK HERE!

Post any feedback in the comments below! 

See ya later! 

Soph   :D

Spectacular Superior Superhero Slides

 

Hey people, 

I hope you are enjoying being back at school 1/4 of our way through a brilliant Term 2. In literacy, we are focusing on the Superhero Initiative, about what superheroes/villains are and what climate they live in. 

Over these past 3 weeks, I have been working on a set of slides explaining a lot about superheroes. This included watching the introduction of a film, looking into a lot of the superheroes home towns, and finding out how superheroes have changed. Here is my work:

 

One of the first superhero things we had to do was to research about a hero and a villain and write about the

good and bad things they did. This was a challenge for me as I knew absolutely nothing about superheroes, I decided to go with Black Widow and Loki. I wanted to look at both male and female just to get a feel for how they are different or similar. These two slides will tell you the good and bad things about them.  

Another thing we had to do was to research any superhero. The aim of this was to see they have developed as a character over the years. I found this task both fun and difficult, since I didn't really know much to do with this topic I decided to search up a few different ones and to see which one was the most interesting (I decided Captain America). Once we had selected our superhero we then had to find an old and new trailer and then compare and contrast them (finding the similarities and differences). Here is mine:

 

If you want to watch the trailers here is the original Captain America one, and here is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier one. 

Later on we had to pick any superhero we wished and write about why that is. I took it a different way and had a look at Captain Marvel. Curiousity sparked inside me, wanting to know why in DC he is so different to how she is in Marvel. The slide below will tell you a brief explanation about her/he.

The following slides are talking a bit about how superheroes fit into their cities. The second one will give you an example of this shown with images and similarities. 

Last but certainly not least, actually this is probably my favourite superhero activity I have done so far. we had to create our own superhero city from scratch. It had to be 100% unique, it had to be somewhere that a superehro could live in and achieve things. After we had done that Mr Shaw would pair us up with a random person and we would have to create each others superhero for their city. I was paired up with Lucinda who had an amazing idea for her city, but then also had an amazing superehero idea for mine! The two slides below are; 1 my superhero city description, and 2 Lucinda's superehro she created for me. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this long blog post! 

Until next time...

Soph   :D

Dreadful Dropping of the Goods!

 

Hey people, 

I hope you are having an amazing week! On Wednesdays, Toroa students have technology at Christchurch East school. Half of the hub goes before lunch, and the other half goes after lunch. While not at technology the teachers set some fun tasks for the students. 

This Wednesday just been, we started doing a bit of S.T.E.A.M (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) work. Our first experiment was to do with dropping the goods (the problem is stated in the slide below). To represent this we had to get into groups of around 5, each group was given the following equipment:

• 3 sheets of A4 photocopy paper
• 1 plastic bag
• 1 metre of string
• 1 sheet of A5 thin card\
• Cellotape
• Scissors 
• Something to write with
• Paper to sketch design on

We were allowed to use these things, and only these things, no exceptions. Along with this we were given 1 egg. The aim of this was to create something so that the egg could be dropped in it without breaking (from upstairs in the makerspace, approximately 3 metres high). 

As soon as we had shown a teacher the sketch of our design we were given an egg, just one. We had to look after it until it was time to put it in its package and get ready for the drop. There were no exceptions (although ours broke before we even had completed our package, we got another one, sneakily). 

Below is a slide going into further detail about how our drop went and why it was successful or not:  

I hope you learnt something!

Have you done something like this before? If so then how do your drop go? Do you enjoy learning about S.T.E.A.M? 

See ya later!

Soph  :D

Trailing Timeline of Te Tiriti o Waitangi

 

Hey people, 

Hope you have had an awesome day, 

Today we have yet again been looking at Te Tiriti O Waitangi. I am so far finding this topic very interesting and informative. I enjoy looking back into the history of our country and finding out about how our country was formed with all the different people, plants, and creatures. 

Waitangi day is about looking back into our past and seeing how the culture of New Zealand was created. About the Declaration of Independence, The Treaty itself, and the Waitangi Tribunal. Also, the 27 year-long series of battles (the NZ Wars) about how the treaty was not translated correctly and the tribes were both thinking different things. 

Our task today was to make a timeline on Canva about what happened over the last couple hundred years. We had to include; all the different years' key events, a small description of what happened in each event, and a few images. Here is mine:

Did you find Te Tiriti O Waitangi interesting? Do you like history?

Hope you learnt something!

See ya later;

Soph   :D

Te Tragic Tiriti O Waitangi

 

Hey people, 

Hope you have had an amazing weekend full of fun!

For inquiry, we have been looking into our New Zealand history and what happened. So far we have learnt about Te Tiriti O Waitangi (the treaty of Waitangi). I now know about what happened between the Maori and Pakeha, how the treaty was translated incorrectly, and the war between the two tribes. 

Our task was to create a digital presentation on Voki. Voki is a website where you choose a character to be talking, then pick a background, then clothing or accessories for that character. You then paste in some writing no more than 600 characters long and then change the voice/language to something that is suitable. 

We did this about Waitangi writing from either the Pakeha's perspective or the Maori's perspective. I did mine on the Maori's. Here is my presentation: 

Hope you learnt something!

See ya later;

Soph  :D

Eventful Exclusion at the Disco

 

Hey peoples, 

Hope you are enjoying your week so far!

Every Wednesday after technology we look into KOS (keeping ourselves safe). Today we were talking about times where you felt/were responsible for someone else. This isn't just physically but emotionally. We were given two scenarios to choose from to do our activity on. Here is the scenario I chose:

One night you went to a disco with a whole bunch of people from school. There were a few girls hanging out having a great time, and two other girls who were having a good chat to one another, one of them had a lazy eye. The few girls pulled the girl with out the lazy eye towards them and turned their back on the other girl. The one that got pulled away reluctantly stayed with them...

This was drawn on a comic with an empty spot on the side. We had to draw what we thought should happen next and colour the whole comic in. I drew the girl leaving the group and going over to hang out with her friend. This is because she would have felt very emotional and upset. I don't think trying to get the other girls to include is the right picture because if they were excluding her in the first place then they aren't very nice people. 

Here is my drawing and the completed comic:

Have you been excluded before? When have you been responsible for somebody else?

See ya later;

Soph  :D

Calm, and Cool, KOS Posters

Hey people,

I hope you are having a fantastic week! As we are getting older and some of you will be turning 14 next year keeping ourselves safe (KOS), is a very important topic to learn and be confident with. At school for the past two Wednesdays, we have been taught about how to KOS when we are home alone, especially if something dodgy seems to be happening. 

The scenario we were given to think about was something like this; your home alone at night and there is a random stranger outside who opened your gate and started walking up towards your house. This person could be drunk or just trying to break in you don't know for sure. What is the safest thing to do in that situation?

In Canva we had to make a poster with all the options you could take and the consequences to that option. You had to use at least three options, the consequences could be either good or bad depending on the situation. I also added another poster with the best option and everything you should do in the scenario. 

Here are my posters:

I hope you have learnt something from my posters! What was your scenario and best option? Has anything happened to you like this before? If so, how did you react to it? Post your feedback in the comments!

See ya later;

Soph  :D

Amazing All About Me

 

Hey peoples, 

Yet another blog post from me today! This one is an activity that I started and completed in just one day. We had to make a video/slideshow all about ourselves. This had to be created on Canva. I included the following things;

• My name
• Where my ancestors are from
• My favourite colour, author, animal, and food
• Fun facts
• And my activities/hobbies I like to do

Here is my slideshow:

What is your favourite colour and animal? What hobbies/sports do you do?

Please post any feedback in the comments!

See ya later;

Soph   :D

Lucky Lego Person

 

Hey peoples, 

Over the week we have also made self-portraits lego style. We had to try and re-create ourselves by drawing lego characters. The head, facial expression, and clothing all had to be looking as close to us as possible. 

I made this person for the following reasons;

1. The expression is a happy one which represents me because I'm generally really happy with everything I have and what I do.
2. The hair is pretty much the same length and colour.
3. The t-shirt is one of my all-time favorite ones to wear. 
4. And denim just goes well with everything so I wear it a lot!

Here is me!:

What does your one look like? Do you like art?

See ya later;

Soph  :D

My Precious Pepeha

 

Hey peoples, 

Hope you are having a fantastic week. Over the week we have been creating, learning, and recording our pepeha's. A pepeha is a Maori way of introducing yourself. It tells you about your family, what your mountain and river are, and your culture. 

Our task was to create a digital video pepeha on Adobe Spark. We had to include images and a voice-over on each page. 

Here is my video:

What is your culture? Have you made a pepeha before?

See ya later;

Soph  :D

My Marvellous Moment At Camp

 

Hey peoples, 

I hope your holidays went well. Over the last week, Toroa has been at Wainui camp. We were there for 3 nights and 4 days, over those days we did the most fun activities and games! This included; kayaking, code breakers, orienterring. coasterring, and high ropes. It was great fun!

Our task today was to make a presentaion about our favourite moment in camp. Mine was high ropes. High ropes is climbing on different courses, one of them was a giant ladder. My presentaion includes a couple of slides about why I like climbing and why I liked high ropes this last camp. After that is a short animation of someone climbing and the other people belaying them. 

Here it is:

I really enjoyed camp and I hope you did too! What's your favourite moment? And what's your favourite camp you've been on?

See ya later;

Soph  :D