I am a Year 7 student in the Uru Mānuka Cluster. This is a place where I will share my learning. Please note that some of it will not be complete, it will be my first drafts. Remember to be positive, thoughtful and helpful when you leave me a comment.
This week in 'Heroes' we have been learning about local heroes. We were to chose some heroes from near disasters that happened locally. Our two choices was either from the 'massive earthquake' or the 'terrorist attack'. After that we then did our research and started making our DLO. We looked back on what makes a hero which is added on the DLO.
This week in 'Counting the Beat' we have been looking through popular genres, songs and musicians through the decade. We had to get into groups, no more than 4 and create a google slide. Each slide has to have a decade between 1900s - 2010s. Each decade's slide had to include an iconic or fashion image, some famous musicians, a new/popular genre that was from that decade. My group decided to choose a theme through the slides. For example: making the background all pastels, adding shade to the images, etc.
For the past few weeks in Drama our class has been learning how to tell stories/plays. We are mainly focusing on making dialogues, roles and using props for our play. We also have been trying to add costumes for our roles to express more of how our character are played. These are all what we need or what we can use to tell a story of our play. Other decided to create their play from a template the teacher has given us. Most plays were about bullies but our group decided we wanted to make our own play. We haven't decided on the title yet but we have been trying really hard to create a play that would entertain the class. Our plays' genre is romance and comedy. We're trying to make it funny to at least not bore the audience. The main characters on our play, is Rose Ainsley and Zakey Evans which are played by our two classmates, Jordan and Hollie. The two other roles which is the Duke and Agea are played by me and Amanda.
This week on our heroes work we have been learning about 'political decision-making'. We mainly talked about the two main political decisions in NZ. The first one is how we select our government and the second one is about passing new laws. To choose a government for NZ we, kiwis have to cast two votes. One, we have to vote for who we want to represent us locally and another vote of which party we want governing New Zealand. These general elections usually happen every three years.
For passing a new law difficult steps are concluded. Before a law is decided it is considered as a 'bill', it is similar to what you might call a 'draft'. First the bill has to be announced to parliament and then passed on to a group of MP. This group of MPs then invites the public to have their own say. It then gets reviewed by the 'House' with any suggested changes. If it survives the second reading ( the review) it will then be discussed furthermore though this time concluding the whole house, this was the last chance the bill could be changed. The bill will then get its third and final reading, if it survives it will be confirmed by the Clerk of the house which will be then sent to the Governor-General for royal approval before becoming an official New Zealand law.
These steps are similar to what our class had to go through to create our class treaty. We went into groups which each had a topic to write rules for. The four topics were, Commitment, Achievement, Resilience and Respect. After we made a few propositions it was then reviewed by others, quite similar to the second reading. Then the whole class reviews it and then we sent it our final format to our teacher. A few changes were made and then our class signed the treaty similar to the royal asset.
Here is a video example:
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Thank you for reading this blog post.
Have you made a rule or treaty that is quite similar to what the 'steps of passing a law' had to go through?
Two weeks ago our class learnt about the Treaty of Waitangi. First we had to learn the backstory between of both sides (Maori and Pakeha). The treaty of waitangi is about an agreement between the British and the Maori. Then we had to make a DLO showing what we have learnt about the Treaty of Waitangi.
This week for inventions we have been learning the differences of needs and wants. Our class and our neighbouring class decided to combine classes and split us into two groups consisting of both the students from the our two combined classes. Before we could spilt the groups up we learnt about what are needs and wants.
A need is something essential, and you need it to survive. Some of the basic things you might need is food, water and oxygen. A want is something that is considered as something unnecessary. Wants might be something that makes you comfortable but you don't really need to survive. For example: transport, devices and jewellery. Though sometimes other things are neutral and can be on both sides. For instance a pet can also be a need if considered as helper animals.
My group read 'Fostering Felines' this book is about orphaned kittens and information about them. What I have learnt reading from this book is that every cats' eyes are blue at first and they might change overtime.
This week for 'Counting the Beat' we have been learning about musicians. We were tasked to make a little Biography about our favourite musicians. It was hard to choose a musician because I like one of their songs but I don't really listen to the rest of what they had produced. Though I chose a Korean Girl group called 'Blackpink'.
