Holiday Time

Term 2 break is upon us! Sorry to have missed the last week of school. I wish everyone an enjoyable and safe break!

World Vision has just held it's annual 40 hour Famine, this year shedding light on the situation of refugee families. "Leaving home is the last resort for refugee families. When political unrest, persecution or armed conflict make normal life impossible, people flee because they fear for their lives. The situation in Syria is complex but the issue we can engage with right now is the refugee crisis."

For each of the following tasks you must comment on your own blog using lists or comments about your discoveries. You're tasks are as follows:

1. What would you pack? Identify items you would take with you if you were forced to leave your home suddenly and didn't know when (or if) you would be back. The items must be able to fit into your school bag. Make sure you list the items you would take on your blog.

2. Compare what items you've packed against the items packed by the interviewed refugees and migrants arriving in Greece. Most are from Syria and they show photos of what they packed in their bag. https://medium.com/uprooted/what-s-in-my-bag-758d435f6e62#.tfv9qoug8

Make sure you write the items you were surprised about, forgot to pack or what items were similar on your blog.

3. In the news. Find a headline or news item from newspapers, websites, radio and TV about refugee situations around the world today. Give the link on your blog and write a brief summary about what the article is about.

4. What is a refugee? Write a definition of what a refugee is in your own words

Matariki

This week is Matariki. Your task is to create a presentation to share to the class next Monday. Your presentation can take any form you choose. Some ideas could include a piece of art, a slideshow, a movie, a poster,  a report, a story a poem, or any other creative medium!

Your presentation needs to show your understanding of Matariki.

What is it?

What are some of the traditions associated with it?

What happens during Matariki? What is its significance?

What do the seven stars signify?

...and any other important, relevant information. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Whakawhanaungatanga - Doing your best for the Community

Homework -  Term 2, Week 4 

As part of our learning around whakawhanaungatanga - doing your best for the community, we are going to have a secret buddy week. You will all have a buddy that you need to do something nice for each day. This also reinforces Mrs Clark's message and our team expectation, that it costs nothing to be kind. There is to be no monetary component to this task! Ideas of things you could do to be nice to someone could include:

• Write them something - a letter, story, poem, card, song, email, a note
• Compliment them
• Help them with their learning
• Ask them how they are & listen to them
• Tidy their tray for them
• Share something from your lunchbox
• Do some baking for them
• Make them something - art

Being Successful

Week 5 of this term we are presenting out speeches.  Our big idea is 'being successful'.

Homework for Monday night:
Discuss all the possibilities of what you could write about with your parents/caregivers.  Remember to try and think 'outside of the box'.
Record in your homework book and comment below that you have had this discussion.
Remember you have Mathletics as well.

Homework - T2, week 1

Welcome back to Term 2. Hope everyone has had a relaxing break and reading to start thinking and learning.

In a few weeks you are going to be expected to deliver a speech. This week for your homework complete the following tasks onto your own blog.

1. Think about what makes a good speech. Can you identify six key things to include and consider that will help you write and deliver an effective speech.  (If you can think of more than 6 things, go for it)!  List these as bullet points on YOUR OWN BLOG.

2. Find an example of a good speech online. Make sure the speech you choose is delivered by someone approximately your age on a topic that is appropriate for school. Copy and paste the link into your own blog and answer the following questions:

What is the main message of the speech you have chosen?

Identify 3 key ideas that the author has used to support their position?

What are 3 things that you like about this speech?

What is something that that you think could be improved on?

3. Find a class members blog and watch the speech that they selected and comment what you liked about the speech under their post.

Biography writing.

We ended our term learning about someone that interested us. We had to read biographies about our person and collect information that would help us write our own biography catching their greatest moments. Below is a sample of our biography written by Amy Bonnor, Year 8, on Margaret Mahy.

Wonderfully weird poems, amazing adventures and fantastic fantasy. These are the types of books Margaret Mahy loved to write. Margaret’s father, Frances George Mahy, was the one who inspired her to write by telling her adventure stories as a child. Now her books are everywhere, for example, there are around about 100 books in the Morrinsville Intermediate School library alone.

Born in 1936 in Whakatane, Margaret was the eldest of five. Her father was a bridge builder and her mother a teacher. She was apparently a slow learner and really hated maths. From around 1965 Margaret lived in Governors Bay. Margaret was also a solo mother to two daughters.    

Over the years Margaret has won numerous awards. One of those was the International Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her lasting contribution to children's literature. This award has only ever been given to thirty writers and she is the only New Zealand author to win this. In 2009 she was made one of the twelve local heroes and has a bronze bust of herself in Christchurch. The year after that, her book The Kaitangata Twitch was made into a television series.

Even though her books had strong supernatural elements, they related to everyday life, and for some her stories changed lives . She was a passionate woman who loved to write, she got a tattoo of a skull with a rose in its teeth because she was writing about a person getting a tattoo and wanted to write it convincingly. She was also a motivator. An example of this is when she was seven and had a book published in the children's page of the Bay of Plenty Beacon. She showed this to her class to let them know they could write well even at their age.

Sadly Margaret died in 2012 after being diagnosed with an inoperable cancerous jaw tumour. She lived a long life to the ripe age of 76, and all over the world her books are still inspiring people.

Amy Bonnor, Yr 8.
Term 1 2016.

#Let Kids Be Kids!

Write the answers into your homework book.  Place the questions and answers onto your blog with the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32n1JHaDTg4 .

1. What is your favourite sport and why do you enjoy playing it?

2. What is your greatest memory about playing sport?

3. What attributes does it take to be a great sportsman/sportswoman?

4. What could you do if you were faced with someone not displaying good sportsmanship?

5. Comment on your opinion about the following: Ability is something you are born with or Ability can be developed by hard work. Ensure you support your opinion with detail/evidence.

Flag Referendum

If you did not know our country is about to vote on which flag we should have to represent our country.....

1. Discuss with your parents which flag they are going to vote for & why. Do you agree or disagree with your parents perspective? If your parents are okay with you sharing their opinions via our blog you can also comment on this, but as voting is confidential it is important you ask first as they may not want you to share their opinions with the world!
2. If you could vote in the flag referendum which flag would you choose & why? Justify your answer! (Comment on 1 and 2 below).
3. Flags of the world - select a flag from each of the six continents (there are actually 7 continents including Antarctica but as this is not owned by any one country we will not include it).  If you don't know what a continent is you will need to find out! Neatly sketch (use a ruler!) and shade with coloured pencils a flag from each continent and comment on the following - country flag belongs to, what the colours and symbols symbolise, and why you like it - don't forget to justify your opinions! 
   

Room 8 - Developing their own blogs

Room 8 today have been uploading their own blog spots. Above are links to each class members blog. Click and have a look.

Class Councillors

Over the past week about half of Room 8 have been writing a speech explaining why they should represent our class.  Well done to everyone who stood up and spoke.

A big congratulations to 

Briana Clark and Ashton Rogers 

who are our Room 8 Class Councillors for Term 1 and 2.

The Secret of My Success

The Secret of My Success is our inquiry study (topic) this term.
Today we watched a brilliant video on Lessons in Leadership - Younger New Zealanders.
During this video there are 7 lessons and with in these lesson are further messages. We started to discuss the video and Room 8 asked to watch the video again as they had felt they had missed a few.
Watch and leave your thoughts about Leadership that I could share with my class.

Week 1

This week our focus has been learning and what it means to be a learner.  We have been exploring our expectations as a Year 7 and 8 in Morrinsville Intermediate School.

Together Room 8 put together our two brainstorms and came up with a definition for....

Learning means.....

Taking risk, applying new and prior knowledge. 

Always working to the best of your ability. 

Respecting ourselves and others around us.  Learn from our mistakes and continue to try.  

Always building our potential future self.

Welcome to Rm 8, 2016

We have had a great couple of days getting to know and understand Morrinsville Intermediate. Today we brainstormed 'what is learning and what it means to be a learner'.  As a group we came up a range of amazing ideas.

In team time we watched Mr President Pep Talk. Watch the clip again and comment on how you are going to be awesome this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-gQLqv9f4o