Reading - Text Composition

In reading we have been learning to:

recognize the way words, sentences and paragraphs are put together (eg sentences that express cause and effect) and use this knowledge to understand complicated texts.

Here is a link to our online modelling book

These documents show evidence of my learning during this unit:

• Defining parts of speech
• Types of sentences
• Analyzing paragraph construction
• Explain the relationship between components of texts.
• Complex text analysis

My Next Step: Is to continue to apply this new knowledge of parts of texts, to help me make sense of increasingly complicated text types.

Blog Post #2 Home Learning Challenge

Home Learning Challenge: Design Your Own Challenge ( E10 )

For this design your own challenge, I decided to create a landscape artwork using oil paints. The first

step I did was to sketch out ( in pencil ) what is going to be in it. The sketches doesn't have to look exactly like what you're going to do, its just there so you know where everything is. The next step I did was to cover the top half of the painting in light blue for the base color. After the base color of the sky, we went on and started to add some shades of pink to it and different types of colors to form a pastel looking area. The hardest part that I found while doing this is probably getting the colors to contrast each other because the colors are quite complicated to make. The easiest part of this was the mountain because I have done a lot of mountains before and I find that quite easy to do. Something I would do differently or improve it would be to make it more of my own and contrast the colors more.

The CARE Values that I showed were Excellence and Active Thinking.
I showed Excellence by making this look the best as I can make it.
I showed Active Thinking by problem solving if something didnt work or looked how I wanted it to look.

I demonstrated Leadership by showing Resilience because I found some of this hard but I kept on going and used my initiative by asking for help.

Excellence Blog Post #6 Leadership Around The School ( Student Leaders CBD Trip )

On Monday at 8:30, all the Student Leaders went on a trip to the CBD. We traveled by bus and we got to bring our devices with us to take photos. When we got there, we took a walk to the Council Office Area and met an instructor called Celia. First thing we did was, we went inside the building and went into the Function Room. We learnt about all the different things that the Councillors do and the different areas they have. We got into groups of 3 and met with an expertise to tell us what their part of the council is. We were with Kelly and her part of the council is working with Park Management; and preparing Sports fields/parks for everyone to enjoy. One of the hardest parts of her job is making decisions about the sports fields and the cost of money to repair grass and adding new fields to share with everyone.

Something I learnt during the session with Kelly was that the popularity of Rugby is going down because of bad injuries such as head injuries. She told us that nowadays, there are more elderly s than young kids like us and Biking and Walking are now getting more popular than Rugby. The most interesting thing about her job is that she has to make good decisions with sports teams and clubs. Its not always easy managing parks and making everyone happy. We also visited the Chamber and where the decisions are made. I got to sit in Pauline Cotter's chair, and we all got to use the microphones that was on our desks. My favorite part of the trip was the lunch that we had because I tried something that I've never tried before and it was delicious.

The CARE Values that I showed during this trip was Respect and Active Thinking.
I showed Respect by listening to the instructor and not talking when she was and showing respect throughout the whole trip.
I showed Active Thinking by contributing to the lessons and giving good ideas to my group.

I demonstrated Leadership by using my manners when i'm outside of school and representing Oaklands positively.

Excellence Blog Post #5 Key Leadership ( Bake Sale )

On Tuesday, the year 8s bought in food to for the bake sale to fundraise for our Wellington Trip in Term 4. Half way through our dance lesson, the House Captains got called over to set up the tables before morning tea. There were three stations to put our food on. 1. By the Basketball Court. 2. Near the Chess area. 3. On the juniors deck outside the old music room. Alex, Jacinta and I were running the station by the Basketball Court. At first there wasn't many people coming over; after awhile it felt like we were celebrities signing autographs for other people. The food was going away really fast, we made a heap of money from our station, which was really good.

At the end when it was the House Captains turn of getting something, all the good food was gone, we didn't have much choices left but the good thing was that all the prices got lower.
Our first Bake Sale was a success overall. We made around $900 all together and we got a lot of people coming to buy the food.

The CARE Values that I showed during this Bake Sale were Excellence and Community.
I showed Excellence by being flexible when people took forever to choose what they wanted.
I showed Community by cleaning up at the end and helping put the tables back.

Excellence Blog Post #5 Leadership Around The School ( Dance )

On Wednesday at 10:20, the year 7/8s had their 3rd to last dance practice. We are learning two different routines and we are going to perform them both on Friday. Our first routine that we learnt was a Hip Hop routine; we did it to the song Uptown Funk. At first, I thought it was going to be hard because ive never done hip hop before. Lucky for us the instructor ( Dean ) make it simpler and more easy for beginners. I really like the routine because I have learnt some new moves and the routine involves lots of energy which I think is good. We have finished our routine for the hip hop dance, but also working on making it look nicer and tidier and keeping in time. My favorite bit about this dance is the energy and a lot of moving around.

Our other routine that we are doing is call the Jive. It involves working in partners and the steps need to be precise. The jive is also energetic and has a bit more difficult moves than the hip hop. This dance is really challenging for me because I forget the moves sometimes and it happens really fast. I also really enjoy learning this one because I like to try new things that ive never done before. Something that I like about this dance is that it is very different to the other styles dance I have done but I like learning new styles.

The CARE Values that I showed were Respect and Excellence.
I showed Respect by listening to the instructor so I know what to do.
I showed Excellence by trying my hardest even if I got stuck in the middle of the dance.

I demonstrated Leadership by not mucking around when the instructor was giving instructions.

Excellence Blog Post #4 Leadership Around The School (Tech)

On Thursday, the yr 7/8s went to Technology at Lincoln. When we got there we went straight into our classes/groups. I was in group C and we were doing Wood Work. In Wood Work, we are making speakers. The first step we did was to plan a few different designs for our speaker. We then chose our favorite design and make a bigger copy of it with all the exact measurements. After that we had to get all of our pieces of wood and start putting it together using PVA glue. That step was the hardest because the glue wasn't that strong when it was wet so we had to ask other people to help us hold it in place.

The next step we did, after our basic structure has dried, we had to start sanding the edges to made it smooth so the speaker doesn't have have rough edges. We were also told that we could use the Sanding Machine to sand our edge s and I found that so much easier because it gets the job done faster instead of using your hands to sand. Then the next week we started painting our speaker boxes and designing them however we want.

The CARE Values that I showed were Community and Active Thinking.
I showed Community by helping others if they needed help.
I showed Active Thinking by using good techniques with sanding and painting so I can get the most out of it.

I demonstrated Leadership by helping others and sowing all the CARE Values outside of school kind of.

Excellence Blog Post #4 Key Leadership

On Tuesday, at Morning Tea, the Student Leaders had a leadership meeting about our trip to the City Council in a few weeks time. We also discussed at the start about how we are going with our leadership responsibilities and what is something that we get frustrated about our leadership position. A lot of the same things were said such as to do with flags and bins. But the main thing about that meeting was about our trip to the city council. All the leaders got sent a google form and we had to fill it out. It was about the food choices on the trip and what we would like to eat for lunch on that day.

The CARE Values that I showed during this meeting were Respect and Excellence.
I showed Respect by listening to the person that was speaking.
I showed Excellence by completing the task that was set to us on time.

I demonstrate d Leadership attending the meeting and turning up on time so I don't miss any important information.