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Wednesday 30 September 2015

Blog Challenge 10, 9, 8, 7, 6... Places I want to go.

I'm fortunate to have already travelled to many places around the world, Holland, Japan, Paris, Berlin, London, Rarotonga, Bali, Vanuatu, Tonga, San Fransisco, but the world is a very big place, so there are still many many many places that I would love to visit. Today's blog challenge is to list only 6, so I've narrowed it down. 


  1. Sri Lanka - A small island near India, which is full of culture, animals, surf, sun and yoga. We had actually planned to go here earlier this year, but due to other circumstances had to cancel our plans. Hopefully one day we still make it there. 
  2. Mexico - Another country full of culture, wonderful language, sunshine, beaches and great food. 
  3. New York - I've heard only amazing things from friends who have been to New York. My niece is off there this Christmas too, so I'm sure she will come back with lots of stories to tell. 
  4. Scandinavia - Including: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. I really don't know a lot about these countries, which is why I really want to go and find out. Find out about the culture, history and wonderful things in that part of the world. 
  5. Morocco - located in the north of Africa this would be a warm, and culture filled adventure. 
  6. Holland - I know I have been here before, but for me, this is a place where I want to learn more about my own ancestry. My grandparents both moved to New Zealand in their mid 20's and my mother was born in New Zealand, but I discovered on my last visit, that my dutch family is huge, and I really want to learn more about that and connect with my heritage. 




Tuesday 29 September 2015

Blog Challenge 10, 9, 8, 7...

What are the seven things that I want the most you might ask? Well let me tell you. 

  1. I want everyone in Room 7 to learn lots this year and have a great time doing it. 
  2. I want to go paddleboarding everyday this summer. Every. Day. Even when the water is a bit choppy, that just adds a challenge. 
  3. I want a sewing machine. Then I could make all the things that I want to make. I would start simple and make some new cushion covers, but when I get better I could even make my own clothes. 
  4. I want to learn how to garden better, and look after plants. My brother is really good at it, and gave me a punga tree for my birthday... it didn't do very well, so he had to rescue it and take it back home. 
  5. I want to learn te reo Māori. At the moment I speak a little, but I want to know more, and be able to have a proper conversation in Māori. 
  6. I want to be successful in everything I do. It's a big challenge, but if I work hard I should be okay. 
  7. What I really want, is a puppy. I love dogs, and haven't had one of my own since I was a little girl. I would love to have a puppy again, one that I can teach tricks, take for walks, and that loves belly rubs! 

Monday 28 September 2015

Blog Challenge 10, 9, 8 ...

What are my 8 biggest fears??? Well, let me tell you....

  1. Spiders. Yes, they are tiny, but some jump, others run really fast and they can jump out and surprise you at any moment. Cockroaches too. Luckily I have some very brave children in Room 7 who can take any spiders carefully outside!
  2. Losing my passport. I know it's technically just a piece of paper... but without it, I would be stranded!
  3. Internet fraud. I like to keep my personal details private as part of our cyber smart curriculum. The internet is a big wide place, and it's important to stick to websites that you can trust. 
  4. Earthquakes. I used to live in Christchurch, but thankfully we moved just before the large earthquakes. I am forever grateful, and in awe of the damage they can do if they strike. Next term we are participating in the New Zealand Shake Out, to make sure that we all know what to do if an earthquake were to happen. 
  5. Birds. Yes, birds a beautiful, and they sing lovely melodies. But when they are up close and the wings are flapping... terrifying. I think this fear started when I was about 12, my friend had a pet cockatoo and it used to corner me squawking and flapping its wings. 
  6. Needles. If I ever have to have a blood test for anything the needles make me so squeamish. I still donate blood though, I just have to make sure I look the other way. Luckily they have big tv's to watch at the blood donor centre. 
  7. Heights. I always forget this one. Then I get up the top of somewhere, and paralysis hits. For example, climbing trees, I'll be having great fun, then I get to the top, and can't get down. Same with the Eiffel tower in Paris. We got all the way to the top and the wind was blowing and I couldn't move. 
  8. and Number 8. I am afraid of challenge. Not necessarily afraid, but trying new things always makes me anxious. I don't let that hold me back though, I like to try new things all the time, but it is still scary. 

Sunday 27 September 2015

Blog Challenge 10, 9...

Today's challenge is to write about 9 loves. 


  1. I love cooking, and then eating it, but mainly the cooking and sharing kai with friends and whānau
  2. I love dogs. Growing up I had a staffy called Jagger, he was the best dog ever. He lived to be 17 years old and I loved him very much. 
  3. I love riding my bike around the neighbourhood. It has a wicker basket on the front where I put my groceries. I bike to the veggie shop and to the bakery and load up my basket with food for the week ahead. 
  4. I love my big brother. When I got a flat tyre on my bike, he kindly fixed it for me and made it like new again. 
  5. I love Room 7 tamariki. You guys are talented, funny, courageous, and full of energy. 
  6. I Iove watching lightbox. Sometimes on a rainy day I can watch 4 episodes back to back. 
  7. I love christmas time, it's one of the only times all year that all my whānau are together. We live all across the country so it's important to spend time together when we can. 
  8. I love braiding my hair. I'm not very good at it, but I do love it. 
  9. I love living in Auckland city. I grew up in a small beach town, so I love all the opportunity that Auckland offers. There is always things to see and do and a lot of different cultures. 



Saturday 26 September 2015

10 Day Blogging Challenge

This Holidays Room 7 have a 10 day blogging challenge to complete 10 blogs, one a day over the holidays. 



As part of the blogging challenge I will be completing it too. 
So here goes. Counting Down. 

Day 10: 10 SECRETS!

  1. I like listening to Justin Beiber when I am driving to work.
  2. I love dancing to Jump Jam, even though I don't always go the right direction or get the moves right
  3. My favourite place in the world is at my whānau bach in Mahia, we go there every christmas, lay the mattresses out and have lots of great family time. (See photo below) 
  4. Sometimes I wonder what all the wonderful tamariki in Room 7 will become when they are older. I believe they might be doctors, lawyers, All Blacks, business owners, teachers, sports stars, police officers, musicians, parents and even more! 
  5. My least favourite time of the day is teeth brushing time, but I do it anyway, because these teeth have to last my whole life. 
  6. Sometimes I dance around my living room by myself and it's really fun. 
  7. I love travelling and want to go all over the world to explore new things. 
  8. Sometimes I wear my black Nike's I love them because secretly they have a wedge heel inside and make me 2 inches taller... (Shhhh!!)
  9. Last week after writing out the class certificates, I put them somewhere 'safe' until assembly. But then, I forgot where the 'safe' place was... I had to look everywhere, and was panicking a little bit, bet eventually I found them, and they were 'safe'!
  10. Earlier this term we wrote about eating insects as part of a healthy diet, I mashed some raisins on the fly swat, then ate them pretending that I was eating real insects. It was pretty funny tricking everyone, but I did feel a little bad for keeping it a secret!


Be sure to join in the blogging fun and share every day for ten days too!  


The view from our family bach in Mahia

Friday 25 September 2015

Holiday Reading

Being part of a digital school we are very lucky to have a digital library available to us. 
During the holidays be sure to fill your reading log with books that you have read from the Tamaki Online Library 
tamaki.lib.overdrive.com

Your password is your Glenbrae gmail id. 

Happy Holiday Reading 

Thursday 24 September 2015

Science Week: Light

This week we have been doing science rotations among the senior classes learning about different elements of the physical world. 

In Room 10 we were learning about floating and sinking with Mrs Tofa
In Room 9 we were learning about electricity with Mr Nath
In Room 8 we were learning about sound with Mrs Moopanar 
and in Room 7 Mrs Parker was teaching about light. 

First we learned some of the key vocabulary we would need to know to be able to explore the experiments that were set up around the class. 


a)  Focus
To bring light rays to a meeting point
 
b)  Lens
A piece of plastic or glass that changes the direction of light rays
 
c)  Shadow
A dark patch caused by little or no light falling on a surface
 
d)  Prism
A piece of shaped glass or plastic that splits light rays into different groups 
 
e)  Reflect
To cause light rays to bounce off a surface 
 
f)  Refract
To bend or change the direction of light rays. 

We discussed some common myths about light, for example, even though the moon glows bright, it does not actually make light. The light we see on the moon is actually light from the sun being reflected off the moon. 

Next we explored the experiments about colour & light rays, and refractions of light through lens and prisms. 

Spinning rainbow coloured wheels really fast to make the colour turn white. 


The convex lens made things look closer,
and blurry and upsidedown
But the concave lens zoomed out
and made things look further away 





Shining a green, red and blue torch onto the white paper, the light didn't get darker like we predicted.
Instead it went brighter and whiter... 


Shining light into a prism makes the light refract and split into different rays. 
We were really surprised by the way the light changed and reacted during our experiments. We learned that the light that comes from the sun and light bulbs is known as ‘white light’ but white light is actually made up of all of the colours of the rainbow!
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Indigo and ,
Violet

When it rains the light hits the raindrops and refracts, splitting into its original colours. This is why we see a rainbow when the sun shines.

When we spin this coloured wheel quick enough it colours merge and are reflected back at us as white.




Junior Warriors Rugby League

Over the past few weeks some of the year 6, 7, and 8 students have been getting coaching from some of the Junior Warriors. They have been playing league on the field at lunchtime. Today were the final games. The entire senior school went up onto the field to cheer on their class mates.
Check out some of the great action shots we got!


Tamati, making a run for it! 

Going in for the tackle

Tamati about to tackle Luisa... 

... but, she side stepped and he missed... 

...and she's off!

Monday 21 September 2015

Court is in Session

Last week we concluded our persuasive writing campaign with 4 courtroom debates. 
Each class member became part of a team and had to collaboratively write an argument to convince the audience of their point of view.
Afterward each debate we got to score the teams using a specially designed rubric to assess them on persuasiveness, teamwork, organisation, supporting with facts, and addressing the topic. 


The four debates held were: 
Soccer is better than rugby School uniforms should be banned Chromebooks are better than iPadsCats make better pets than dogs

We set up the class like a mini courtroom and the teams proceeded to make their cases. 

Trent explaining why Chromebooks are better than iPads

Salesi describing how dogs are better than cats because they can learn tricks

A tense debate with Alex arguing that Soccer is better than Rugby

Loto also, convincing the audience that Soccer is better than Rugby. 

After each team spoke the scores were tallied and the outcomes were: 
Soccer is better than Rugby - Affirmative team won
School Uniforms should be banned - Negative team won, convincing the audience that we should wear school uniforms. 
Chromebooks are better than iPads - The negative team won, convincing us that iPads are better. 
Cats make better pets than Dogs - The negative team won, convincing us that Dogs make better pets. 

Sunday 20 September 2015

Coming to a cinema near you November 2015

This term the Glenbrae Film Club have been busy creating something pretty special for your viewing pleasure. 

From the Producers of 2014's Sci-Fi Mockumentary: Zombie Apocalypse, starring some of the same Glenbrae Actors, as well as, some up and coming new talent

The latest blockbuster to hit the Sylvia Park Xtreme Screen this summer... 

THEY'RE COMING.... 











We look forward to the opening screening of the full film at the Manaiakalani Film Festival November 2015 and we hope you are too. Please leave a comment below if you enjoyed the preview, and you're welcome to guess in the comments below, what our adventure might be. 

Wednesday 16 September 2015

Argument Writing in Action.

Over the past few weeks we have been learning persuasive writing, however this week in Room 7 we aren't doing our usual writing... Instead, we are doing a debating. 

This means that we are conducting 'courtroom' style arguments to make a case for our topic. 

We have been split into teams of three or four to argue our case. 

Some of us are being very challenged, arguing something which we may not necessarily agree with. 

We are all very excited about this collaborative writing and speaking activity and looking forward to presenting our debates later this week. 


Monday 14 September 2015

Glenbrae School is the Best ~ By Mary

Mary wrote this piece of persuasive writing to remind us all that Glenbrae School is the best. She has a clear introduction which states her point of view and then three examples to support her idea. Well done Mary, just like you are proud of the school, I am proud of you! 


You can read more of Mary's work on her blog: gbsmaryp.blogspot.co.nz



Glenbrae school is the best.


Glenbrae school is the best school in the world because we are good at sports, we are digital learners and we keep our school beautiful.

I like sport because of the lovely netball tournament games that we have played. Also Kiwi Can have games at school for us. We also have Kiwi Sport that we go to on Tuesday mornings. What we play in kiwi sports is baseball, octopus, touch, athletics and basketball.

I love learning with digital tools because we learn more and more of stuff like math, writing, reading and we used our netbook for IXL Maths and for reading and writing. We make lots of movies and diagrams by using our netbooks.
 
I love keeping our school beautiful because when visitors come to our school they will love it.
                                                                                                                                            
I love my school and I am proud of it.

Friday 11 September 2015

Our future food ~ By Luisa

Luisa, has managed to convince me, with the use of facts, humour, and examples, she makes a strong case for something which most of us would consider absurd, but don't let me tell you... read for yourself. Or read more of Luisa's work on her blog gbsluisam.blogspot.co.nz



WALT: Create an argument with a point of view (P.O.V) and reasons for or against.
SC: Use evidence for or against the topic to create an argument.

Here is a link to video clips about Eating bugs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLUF3W_0ps5zpNO28voNwUW_40wyic4i1

I know what you would be thinking, "Gross Insects".? You would be very surprised to see the good side of eating insects and maybe you would consider insects in you healthy diet. Well its up to me to convince you to join my side but before you carry on reading let me tell you a joke. What is a insects favourite sport? Cricket. 


People should include insects in their healthy diet.


In my opinion I agree with the statement and that we should consider eating insects in our healthy diet because insects are very nutritious, raising insects is free and sometimes we don’t know it but we automatically eat food that contain insects in them.


Firstly, Eating insects are not as bad as you think, insects are actually very healthy and environmentally friendly. They have highly more protein, fiber and nutrients like iron and zinc than beef and chicken. We need iron, protein and fibre to keep ourselves healthy. Insects are no different to their relatives shrimp, crabs and lobsters. 2 billion people currently eat insects like tarantulas s or toasted grasshoppers. Plus the after tastes of some insects taste like normal food that we eat every day. Like as some people say “Crickets taste like potato chips” or “Scorpions taste like popcorn”. So what do you think about flavoured insects.?


Also insects have less fat and fewer calories than a piece of chicken, beef or pork. If you  compare a piece of beef to a cricket, a cricket has more protein, vitamins and minerals then a piece of beef which only has protein. Plus insects are more edible and digestible. For example we can only eat 40% meat of a cow, 50%  meat of a chicken but only 80% of a cricket. So when you eat a cow or chicken you're actually wasting the other parts of the animal unlike insects.  There are at least 2,000 edible insects in the world and when people eat them it's called Entomophagy.


Unbelievably, in other countries like Mexico and Cambodia it is very normal to cook and eat insects. Turns out insects are part of their traditional food. Some people would mix insects in cookie mixtures or make grasshopper kebabs. So the message here is that some countries find eating insects completely normal. Insects are slowly starting to appear in Western(Countries like NZ or Aus) menus but most people are still squeamish around cooked insects.


Secondly, raising insects are much more cheaper and free than harvesting cows or chickens. To produce 1kg of beef it takes 22000 liters of water. To produce 1kg of pork it takes 3200 liters of water. But to make 1 kilo gram of a cricket only takes 1 liter of water. Which is because most insects keep hydrated by the food they eat.

Harvesting insects are more efficient for third world countries who find it hard to look for food. To raise insects we use less technology or investments unless they are needed. To grow a piece of meat it takes 200 square meters of land and to grow 1 pound of crickets it takes 15 square meters of land. With all insects that are free its is much easier to hunt and catch them.


Some believe that eating insects are our future food. Higher food prices develop as the years go by, which some people are not able to afford. So we should start to consider insects in our daily food choices because insects are cheap and free. Plus even though I haven't eaten insects I wouldn’t doubt that they are disgusting but I think that they would taste delicious. Nothing wrong with taking one step in my food choices.


Finally, people may not know it or believe it but most of the food we are eating  are contained with insects. Food like fruit canned sodas, peanut butter and chocolate. Shocking right, and I eat chocolate all the time. But I guess healthy insects in junk food makes junk food healthy-I doubt it. Also in every 100 grams of spinach there are at least 50 insects in the spinach. In peanut butter, they only allow 30 body parts of a insects such as heads, bodies or legs.


Now I will be talking about insect food made by some of the famous chefs. For Entree we got Crispy grasshoppers or known as Chapulines which are very famous insects in Mexico but normally people call Chapulines crispy bacon. Now for main is the deep fried tarantulas, deep fried tarantulas are put into tempura batter and then fried in hot oil. Last but not least to finish our meal I have desert Grasshopper almond flour cake, with square pineapples with coco loco ice cream with a touch of grasshopper on the pineapples. I would like to have some tasty fried tarantula, How about you.?


Last but not least insects are more available than any food products. Once all our food products sell out, insects would be all we got along with other animal meat. But I think if we have to choose between meat and insects I guarantee insects would have a better healthier chance than meat because there are enough insects for everyone to share and insects have been around longer than expected.

Including insects in our healthy diet is important because insects are unbelievably healthy, raising insects are more efficient and eating insects are already part of our natural life. But the important question is, Would you eat insects?, I know I would.

Mufti and Wacky Hair Day

So proud to see so many of Room 7 supporting our senior school camp fundraising by wearing mufti and having WaCKy hAiR today.
What a fun way to fundraise Room 10. We wish you all the best on your camp next term. 



Monday 7 September 2015

Teeth brushing in Room 7

Twice a year we get toothbrushes delivered  to school as part of the Kids Can programme.
Our second toothbrushes arrived today and so we practiced brushing our teeth. 
We should brush our teeth for two minutes. That takes a lot longer than you might think... some of us struggled to brush our teeth for that long. 





Sunday 6 September 2015

August Bloggers of the Month

This month was far to hard to choose just one blogger of the month. So the title of blogger of the month is to be shared between two people, a boy and a girl, and both for different blogging reasons.

Firstly, Honey. Throughout the year Honey has consistently applied herself and worked hard to meet the blogging criteria: labels, title and a short description of her learning. This hard work has paid off and her blog is becoming a great portfolio of her learning journey.

Congratulations to Honey. You can view her full blog here


Our second blogger of the Month is Salesi. Salesi has over the month of August really begun to take pride in his work, which is reflected in his blogposts. He has been completing work on time, updating the blog log with the link to his posts and making sure to include the WALT. Salesi was also the first person from Room 7 to create a post a Movenote. Movenote is a great app which records the screen and ourselves so we can talk about our learning for the audience to listen to.

Ka Pai Salesi - Keep up the great work. You can view his full blog here

Friday 4 September 2015

Human Geometry

Today we were learning about geometry rotation, symmetry and translation. We practiced by using our bodies, we all had to stand up and practice turning ourselves 1/4 turns clockwise and anti-clockwise, then we were really challenged, using translation codes to move left and right, forwards and backwards. Later in the day when we were having our reflection circle some of us said that was our learning highlight of the week. 
Next time we will get a video of our Human Geometry translations and rotation. 


Friday Fun Day!

Today in Room 7 we had a great afternoon filled with celebration, food, fun activities and laughter. First we had a short assembly to celebrate the new murals that have been made for our school by our Kiwi Can leaders and the Lion Foundation. 
After the assembly we had a sausage sizzle and our lunch break, then we gathered in house groups and played some fun relays for the afternoon. It was great to see the teamwork and fairplay happening. 




Thursday 3 September 2015

What's really in our snacks?

Over this week we have been focusing our maths learning around reading the food labels on our most popular snack food. All of our packets told us how many grams of sugar was in a serving, but we wanted to know how teaspoons of sugar that was. We found out that 1 teaspoon of sugar is equivalent to 4 grams of sugar. 

This meant that we had to use our knowledge of four times tables to solve the problem. Some of the labels however could not be equally divided by four! Those ones we had to use fractions as well to solve the problem. 
1 teaspoon of sugar is equal to 4 grams


A 250ml cup of Whittaker’s Chocolate Milk has 30 grams of sugar.


How many teaspoons is that? 
7 ½ teaspoons




A Banana Calci-Yum has 21 grams of sugar in it. 

How many teaspoons is that?

5 ¼ teaspoons of sugar


A triple chocolate chunk cookie has 20 grams of sugar.

How many teaspoons of sugar is in it?

5 teaspoons of sugar





Once we solved the problem we measured the sugar out into a clear bags so we could all see, just how much sugar is in the food we eat. 

We know that too much sugar, is not good for our health. It can damage our teeth and is linked with obesity and diabetes. By knowing how much sugar is in the food we eat we can be more mindful about the food choices we make and remember that sugary foods are an occasional treat. Not something to be eaten all the time! 
Also, we need to remember to brush our teeth every day, so that we don't end up with big dentist bills! 


We know that too much sugar, is not good for our health. It can damage our teeth and is linked with obesity and diabetes. By knowing how much sugar is in the food we eat we can be more mindful about the food choices we make and remember that sugary foods are an occasional treat. Not something to be eaten all the time! 
Also, we need to remember to brush our teeth every day, so that we don't end up with big dentist bills! 

Tuesday 1 September 2015

Assembly Presentation - Ghostbusters Flash Mob

Here we have the video from our assembly last week. Well done Tamariki