Mould

We have been learning about mould and how it grows. I am happy with my work. Next time I would make it more colourful and try harder at animating.

Seeds of the word

WALT: Explain the meaning of the term ' seeds of the word'. Over this week we have been working on explaining the definition of seeds of the word. We were asked to write a definition and choose a symbol that represents our culture. My next steps would be to inter-prate and explain information correctly the first time.

Replying to blog comments.

We have been learning about how to reply to blog comments. I worked with my friends Amber & Trinity. We are happy with our work and hope it teaches you how to deal with and respond to blog comments. Here Is Trinity's blog, she is really clever and posts lots of cool things. Here is Amber's blog, she also posts her great work. I would like to put these skills to the test so please give me a comment ( My last comment was all most two months ago).

Mould

We have been learning about mould and fungi. This is an explanation about the life cycle of mould and how mould is used in our day to day lives. Next time I would spend more time trying to explain difficult vocabulary. Overall I am happy with my effort.

Planning

How does mould grow and how does it affect me? To start off you may think mould is a plant. Mould is actually a fungus ( not a plant or animal). Did you know that you encounter mould every single day and are unaware of it?

When you think of mould you most likely think of that gross stuff that grows on old sandwiches. You would be partly correct but mould is also essential to your everyday life. Some examples include milk; cows need fungus in their stomachs to digest their food and derive nutrients to make milk. Cheese; fungus is used in cheese to break down and reform milk to make it solid and give it flavor. Soda; Fungus keeps your soda bubbly and carbonated. Mushrooms are a member of the fungus family.  Yeast is a fungus that eats starch and excretes gas which makes air bubbles in your bread.  

Mould grows in about seven stages. When a piece of mould matures it sends out spores. Spores are like seeds for fungi and are airborne. The spores then land on something organic ( piece of bread, pile of leaves e.g). The spore sends out hypha ( hyphae in plural) a hair like tube that makes up the main mass of mould.

The hyphae penetrate the enzymes (produced by an organic thing that changes one substance to another or decomposes it) on the surface they have chosen. The spore grows more and more hyphae that intermingle together creating a net of hyphae called mycelium. Once the mycelium has grown it becomes mould. The new mould then matures ( grows up) and sends out spores. It all happens again.

Spores are microscopic sized particles that act as seeds for mould and fungi. Like a tree has seeds, spores  float on breezes and wind to find a place to grow.

Bread is one of the main things mould grows on, especially white bread because it is high in sugar and starch. Most people keep their bread in somewhere cool and dark like a refrigerator. Spores are attracted to places like that. Because moulds do not contain chlorophyll ( the main cell in plants that helps it get nutrients) mould becomes very aggressive when it comes to food. That’s why one slice of bread could have millions of spores on it in the first few days.

Fungus and mould is an essential thing in our lives and there is nothing like it in the entire planet!

Orca whales.

We have been learning about endangered animals. Each person in our class chose an animal from a list. I chose the Orca whale. I learnt whilst researching that orcas are not endangered but I didn't want to start over. I am happy with my work and hope you learn something new!

Planning

When you think of an orca whale you think of deadly predators that have no other instinct but to kill. It turns out that orca whales are some of the most graceful and civilised creatures in the animal kingdom.

Orca’s live all over the world and have one of the largest ranges for survival in the world. Male orca whales can grow up to nine point five meters long and females can grow up to eight. This incredible size makes them one of the largest predators on the planet!

Orca whale’s main diet includes seals, sea birds, turtles, octopus and squid. They are social creatures and hunt in pods (groups) like wolves. Orca’s use echolocation to hunt, whales make a sound and listen for it to bounce back and echo to determine where things are and how big they are.

Each pod has a different sound so they can identify members of their pod and members of another pod.

There are thought to be three types of whale pods, off shore, resident and transient. Transient pods migrate regularly to follow their prey. They have small pods, with 2-5 whales in each pod.Resident pods stay in one area, close to the shore. They contain both genders are have a very tight and trusting bond, a resident pod has between 10-50 whales in it. Offshore pods prefer open water. They are also very large pods, consisting of  30-60 orcas in each pod.

Orca’s tend to mate with members of other pods to avoid inbreeding which can lead to birth defects and shorter lives. It takes 17 months for a whale after mating to have a baby. Female orcas can have a baby every 3-10 years. Due to the tight bonds between members of a pod , newborn calves are well protected. Often younger females in the pod look after the calve and learn to raise young.

Presently orca whales are not endangered because they are not hunted by humans and don't face the problems other marine life do like lack of food. Pollution isn't a huge problem for orca whales either because they can easily migrate to somewhere different due to their huge amount of the ocean they can survive in.

Despite their names, orca whales are not whales they are dolphins. When sailors first saw orcas they named them ‘whale killers’ because they were feasting on whales. Over time the name was switched around through mis-understanding and to make it easier to say.

Catholic order of events.

W.A.L.T: Recognise the ways Te Wairua Tapu (the holy spirit) prepares people to carry on the mission of the church. I enjoyed making this and it was a fast activity.

Plant or animal?

WALT: Differentiate between plant-like and animal-like characteristics of mould.

Under the rug

This is a story I wrote based on a picture and a story stater. We had no learning intention, that's why I didn't include one. I am happy with my work and hope you enjoy it.

Under the rug

Two weeks past, It had happened again. He thought it was a dream like the last time. A recurring nightmare but no, this was too real. Bob was reading his favorite book before this happened. Just like his nightmare. Under the Persian rug he found  something was moving. It scurried all around the place, never revealing itself. Panic burned through Bob as adrenaline flowed through his veins. He picked up his chair and started stabbing it into the rug, hoping to catch the monster below. It scurried under the table, knocking it over. The lamp fell and the tablecloth was ripped to pieces by the falling glass shards that were once a lampshade. He tripped over the table legs and landed face first on the ground. Bob’s head hurt as he attempted to pick himself up. The thing under the rug rushed towards him. He rolled out of the way, grabbed the thing and exposed it. A mouse. It was a mouse this whole time. Bob started laughing as he realized that it was only a mouse terrorising him for the last few minutes. The mouse was struggling to get out of Bob’s hands whilst he was shaking with laughter. He took the mouse outside and watched it scurry into the city, never to be seen again.

Chaos in the hospital

WALT: Explore different ways of planning. We were given random characters, settings and problems that we had to turn into a story. I am happy with my work and think that my story is suitable and entertaining for all who read it. My next steps would be to add more detail and go into more descriptive language.

Last Monday, during the world cup final an all black was rushed to the hospital because he broke his arm. In the ambulance a police officer came with him because they were best friends. Once they got to the hospital he was taken to the emergency department to get treated. The police officer waited outside the room on a big chair, hoping her friend's injury wouldn’t cost him his career.

Out of no-where a gun shot boomed through the air. The police officer grabbed her gun and started to hunt for where it came from. After clearing the top two floors she went to the cafe. Bingo. A middle aged man was holding a pistol whilst the hostages in the cafe were cowering under the tables.

The police officer hid behind the door and started to asses the situation. From her four years of training she learned that she must arrest the man with as little casualties and possible. The man ran behind the counter and started firing rapidly, as he couldn’t find the police officer. One elderly man got shot in the arm. With one precise shot she knocked the gun out of the man’s hand. Within  a few, short minutes the man was arrested and the hostages were saved.

Later that day the all black and the police officer went to starbucks to get coffee and donuts in celebration. The man who got shot in the arm was treated and put in a cast to heal. The middle aged man was arrested and sent to jail for five years. The end.

What is BEDMAS and how do you use it?

W.A.L.T understand and explain the rules for order of operations including explaining the acronym. Trinity and I have been working on this slideshow to explain how BEDMAS works. Our next steps would to be to simplify our directions. Trinity is really smart and has posted a lot of helpful things so here is her blog.

The mirror in the attic

This is a reading activity. The first paragraph was the story starter and I wrote the rest. I posted this because I am proud of it, even if the best paragraph is the one I didn't write.

She had found it lying alone, deserted, abandoned in the attic. After making the discovery, Anna had gazed and marvelled at it for some time. Where had it come from? Why had no dust settled upon it, as it had done over everything else that resided in her attic? A layer of the thick dust blanketed the attic floor, and as the sunlight glared through the attic windows, the dust particles yet to settle were illuminated as they hovered in the stuffy air. Yet, the mirror looked flawless, untouched by age, not a fingerprint in sight.

Anna propped the mirror up against one of the thick, timber beams that jutted from the attic floor. Settling down into a comfortable position, she tentatively placed a finger against the glass…

The glass starts to ripple as her reflection starts to transform. The reflection then spirals, creating an abstract image. It take a moment to figure it out but then Anna realises it. She sees it all the time. It is how she portrays herself. Her figure has been disrupted with moving, bullying, trust issues and lack of confidence. All the things she has been through have left their mark. Tears gather in her eyes and run down her cheek, leaving a red line in their tracks.

Her mind clears as she thinks of the positive things in her life. She thinks of her best friend and their shared moments, of the people that love her and most importantly, her.

Anna reaches out to the mirror and with one finger, touches the muddled reflection. The image clears and is her once more.

Door installation

In our class we have been writing recounts about our holidays. We have been learning about the proper structure or a recount and sentence structures. My next steps would be to make it more interesting.

On the last Saturday of the school holidays Dad and I put in the deck door. Our first step was to buy hinges and a lock from mitre 10. Once we got home Dad got the drill and I got a sharpie. It was now time for installation.

Our next step was to mark the holes for drilling so Dad held the hinges in the desired spot and I marked the dots. We now took the drill and drilled the holes. In the process we broke two drill bits.

We then held the hinges up to the holes and screwed them in. Seeming this was my first time I accidentally made a big scratch on the wood with the drill.

Later that day a kitten came around. Lauren named it Oreo because of how it’s coat was made up of black and white spots. Within the first minutes of it's arrival Dad chased it away. Of course it fled to the gap under the freshly installed door and climbed beneath the deck. I opened the door and set it free. Of course it did this again.

After these events I felt proud because I installed the deck door and satisfied when I freed Oreo twice.

Order of operations

WALT: recognise that the order of operations matters in real life situations. For maths we have been organising tasks into basic orders. We will then apply this to maths. I think this could be neater but the information is there and that is what counts.

Togan languages

In term one we have been learning about the Tongan language. This has been difficult for me because I could only get this information by remembrance and most of the learning has been things that are difficult to memorise.  Further more the only language I can speak a full sentence in is English. My next steps would be to get the other people I was working with to contribute more instead of doing it by myself. This is basic pronunciation.