Case Closed

Today we have completed our Crime Scene Investigation on who broke in and stole the Milky Ways. It took us around six weeks to find out who committed the crime. We had a final catch up with Mrs Taaffe to present our evidence to her on why we thought she was the Milky Way thief. Finally, this morning she confessed to committing the crime. Some of that evidence included was that she had fingerprints all over the scene, She was here on the day of the crime and she had been using an HDMI cord regularly because she was having Chromecast issues. After confessing to her crime she told us her story on why she did it. She had come into school on the day of the crime to drop some work off and she needed to get an HDMI cable from our class because she was having Chromecast issues. When she came into Whetu she saw the Milky ways and she loves mini chocolates so she took some and hurried off in a rush because she thought someone was coming. Along our journey of solving the crime, we have learnt how to lift and identify fingerprints, We have had people come in and show us how to use special investigation tools and devices and all-round we have just learnt so much from this. Whetu has forgiven Mrs Taaffe for what she has done as long as she buys us another bag of Milky Ways!

Letter of the Week

  

Today I have completed my Letter of the Week. The letter was E! I found this letter pretty easy because there are quite a few words with an E in it.  I had a lot of fun trying to find a way to present my learning and answers. I made the whole background of my slide by myself and I didn't use any pictures apart from the big E. I am pretty happy with how my LOTW turned out and I can't wait until next week!

Letter of the Week

 

Today I have completed my Letter of the Week. I went with the theme of a game called AMONG US which has recently become a big hit! I chose this theme because  I really like the look of the little characters and I thought it would be cute to do as a theme! The letter for this week was C! I am so happy with how my LOTW turned out and I think that it is a SUPERNOVA because I made all the little characters by myself and really tried to put detail into the presentation. I really can't wait to see what I come up with next week!

Letter of the Week

 

This is my Letter of the Week for this week. The letter was R! I tried to come up with a new idea for presenting my work this week but my mind went blank. Suddenly I thought about how the US election is happening so I did something along the lines of America. I am not very happy with my LOTW for this week. I kinda feel like I failed and I rushed it because I had to do all sorts of other things.  I hope next week I can come up with something that can make up for this week!

 

My Letter of the Week

 This is my Letter of the Week for last week. This LOTW came a bit late because the presentation took a while because I had to trace everything and make it my own. The Letter was N for last week and I am so happy with how my LOTW turned out!!! The theme I went with was Halloween fruits because Halloween was coming up so I just went with it. I think my work is a SUPERNOVA because I really tried hard to make everything my own and make sure my idea for my presentation was out of the box! I rate my work a 10/10 and I can't wait until I finish the next letter and what I come up with!

NPS Athletics Reflection

 

Yesterday was our school athletics day! I competed in Long Jump, High Jump, Shotput, 800m, 100m and 200m. I came first in all my events apart from 4th in Shotput with a 5cm difference from 3rd to 4th. The event I found the most challenging was the Shotput because I don't usually practise it and I'm not very good at throwing events.  The event I found the easiest was the Long jump because I have been practising it forever and I jumped a distance of 4 meters and 23cm! I think I used a lot of Resilience in my events when it got challenging and I'm so happy with how I did yesterday.  It will be fun to see how I go in Hauraki Plains if I made it!

Whetu C.S.I 2020: Fingerprints

 

Lately, for our Whetu Case, we have been focusing our work on fingerprints! We have had someone working for the police ( Sally) come in and teach us more about fingerprints and blood samples etc. She taught us a lot and we learned so much from her! Later on, in the week, we got a chance in our C.S.I rotations to transfer our fingerprints onto a piece of paper and identify what pattern they were. Did you know that there are three main fingerprint patterns! There is the loop ( Most common) The whorl ( Second most common) and the arch ( The rarest). But there is also another pattern called the double loop which is very rare and apparently, if you get it then it means you can see both sides of an issue and you would be a great lawyer. I found out I have 4 loops and 6 whorls! I think transferring my fingerprints to paper was fun but it was harder than I had thought it would be.  I can't wait to carry on with our investigation and it will be fun to see what we do in future!

Whetu Case # 2020

 

Yesterday was the first day back to school and the first day that we were trying something new! We started doing a criminal investigation in the class because someone had broken in and had stolen all the chocolates! Whetu started off the investigation by observing the scene and seeing what was left behind that might help us to find out who had stolen the chocolates. As well as doing that we got a booklet to fill in and draw a sketch of the scene and what it looked like. Quite a few things were left by the thief that we might be able to do a swab of and check if it has any D.N.A left on it. The second day of school we continued on with the investigation and had a talk about theories and collecting evidence to help us. The teachers also got us to fill in a case file on google slides to remember all the things we had learned within the days we had been investigating. So far that is all we have done and I feel like we are covering a lot of ground. I can't wait to continue on with the investigation and find out who the culprit is!

My Case File slides

My Letter of the Week

 

Today I have finished my Letter of the Week! The letter was M. I found this letter really easy I guess just because I know a lot of answers related with M. I had lots of fun presenting my learning and I am pretty happy with it. The only hard part was that I don't have many ideas left seeing we have done so many and I have used most of my ideas. I rate my learning a SUPERNOVA because I got it done really quickly and I made sure I thought it was up to my standards!

The Mystery of the Missing Moji

 

Today I have completed the Mystery of the Missing Moji. I had so much fun solving the Mystery and I found it pretty easy to do.  I worked alongside Madeleine to complete the mystery and I found it great to work with her. The missing emoji I got was the emoji with a halo ( Angel emoji)! I hope I got this right because I am 100% sure we did everything correctly. I can't wait to do another Maths Mystery soon because I had so much fun!

My Literacy Mystery

Today I have completed the Literacy Mystery. I had so much fun solving the mystery for this week and I thought it was pretty easy. The teacher had to explain to Fred the Moth what the first clue meant but after a short moment, I got the hang of it. I think the winning astronaut is Hugo Cooper. I'm 100% sure I got it right and I hope the Maths Mystery will be even better! I rate my working out a SUPERNOVA because it took me a very short amount of time and I was able to figure it out by myself.

My Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori slides

This is my Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori slide. Since it is Maori language week the teachers gave us a challenge to do with Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori. I had so much fun doing this challenge and I think my slides turned out great. The challenge was to do a bunch of slides with the things the teachers said you had to have in it. But you also had to pick a phrase to base your slides on. The phrase I used was To ataahua Hoki. That means you look beautiful. I rate my work a SUPERNOVA because I really tried hard to make sure I paid attention to all the things the teachers wanted in my slides and I think I did that successfully.

Her is the LINK to my slides.

My Letter of the Week

 

This is my G Letter of the Week. This was my last LOTW for this term. I'm pretty happy with how it came out and I really enjoyed presenting and finding my answers. The theme I went for was shapes. I found some cool pictures and ten cropped them into shapes before putting my answers in them. I think the final result of my LOTW turned out great and I cant wait to see if we do it again next term.

Literacy Investigation

 

For this blog post, I did the Literacy investigation. I had to solve who stole the missing gold medal. I worked alongside Maddy when it got a bit hard. I found it pretty easy most of the time but there was this one clue that tricked me because it didn't really make sense to us and we hadn't learned much about it and the different names it had. I had heaps of fun solving the mystery and I can't wait to do the Maths mystery. I think the thief is CLAIRE WHITE!

My Letter of the Week

 

This is my Letter of the Week. The letter was L. I found this letter really easy because there are a lot of nouns and adjectives etc with L's in them. I had lots of fun finding out my answers. But I had a lot of trouble trying to find a new way to present my learning. I have no idea what I am going to do next week but I can't wait until the next letter! 

Letter of the Week

 

This is my LOTW for this week. The letter was J! I found this letter super hard because J isn't a very common letter so it was hard to find words and nouns for the letter. I also learnt something new along the way like what a Hajj is. A Hajj is an annual Islamic pilgrimage where they travel to Mecca and Saudi Arabia. I had lots of fun with this weeks letter because it really challenged me. I am also so happy with how I presented my findings because I made the background myself.

Letter of the Week

 

This is my letter of the week for week 6. The letter was T! For some reason, I felt like presenting my work in a way that involved cupcakes. I have no idea why I presented it this way but I'm really happy with how it turned out. I had so much fun creating my letter of the week and I can't wait until next weeks letter!

Whetū Workshops Reflection

 

Whetū Workshops Reflection

During Term 2 and 3 the Whetū students have had the opportunity to be involved in a range of different workshops.



The workshop that I have enjoyed participating in the most has been fitness because I have been trying to stay on top of my physical health and I feel like that really helped alongside my training at home.


The new learning that I have learnt is about what happens when you put certain things together just like chemical reactions.

We did one reaction where we put Vinegar and warm milk together and it curdled it all and I didn’t know that would happen when you put them together.


What I have most enjoyed about the workshops are changing workshop times from a 2-day workshop course to a 3-day course because then you can really get stuck into what you are doing.


I am interested in learning more about making pom pom birds because they came out looking like an absolute fail and I thought mine was so ugly and I was not happy with them at all.

Letter of the Week

 

This is my LOTW for this week! The letter was A which was cool because that is my first initial! I had so much fun doing the letter A and I really love the way I presented it. I think the background and everything in my presentation POPS! I also think I used my space on the slide really well because most of the time I had to cram things in.  I rate my work a supernova because in my sentence I have 19 A's in it! I can't wait until next weeks letter which will be T!

My Zoo inquiry

 

For the last few weeks, Whetu has been working on an inquiry to do with zoos. Our question was " Should Animals be kept in zoos?"  To present my findings I made a poster with lots of little animals on it. My opinion on animals being kept in zoos is yes they should. The reason behind my opinion was because if they are in zoos they have breeding programmes for animals becoming extinct and they also have proper medical care for animals and other things like that. I am so happy with how my inquiry came out and I can't wait to see if we do another one.

Letter of the Week

 

For the Letter of the Week for this week, it was H!  I found this letter pretty easy and I love how I found all my words first really quickly and then had lots of time to focus on presenting my findings. For my presentation, I went with something that also started with H. The first thing that came to my mind was Homer Simpson. I ended up going with inside Homers mind. I'm so happy with how my learning got presented and I think its a Supernova! 

My Cross Country Reflection

 Cross Country Reflection 2020

This year I participated in the NPS Cross Country held at school on the Ngatea Domain.  I ran in the 11 yrs age group.

I am most proud of coming first in Cross Country by quite a bit because I have never won before and so that means that all my effort and all of my training has paid off.

I think my effort towards our training at school was extremely awesome because I always made sure that I was pushing myself and focusing on things I should have done last year like my breathing.

I showed the Learning Power of Resilience by pushing myself towards the end of the race by making sure I picked up the pace so they didn't close the gap during my run. Another way I showed the Learning Power of Resilience was by always getting out there on my training runs at school and at home even though I didn’t feel like it.

Whetu Challenge

Today for our Whetu Challenge we had to work with our learning constellation groups to recreate a cartoon show group using google drawings. My group decided to go with the Simpsons. At the start, it was a little hard to get going seeing none of us had used google drawings in a long time or had never used it before and the Simpsons had lots of detail in them.  I went with Homer Simpson which I think is the hardest one because his shirt has all the little collar bits and his face was super detailed. In the end, I'm so happy with how ours turned out and I hope we do one of these again in the future. I think my favourite google drawing from another group was probably the Kermits, the Kermits had also done the Simpsons. I think why I like theirs the most is because they really paid attention to all the little details and made it look exactly like the real thing. I had so much fun doing this and I really hope you liked my groups google drawing!

This is my Homer Simpson.

Letter of the Week

For the letter of the week this week it was S! I had so much fun with this letter because it was easier and it gave me more time to think about my presentation.  For my presentation, I decided to just scramble all of it over the page but  I made sure that it was a tiny bit organized. I've seen other people do this which made me try it but I figured out that I can push myself to do even better the that. I don't think I will end up trying this way of presenting my findings again because I don't think it's up to my standards. Either way, it was really fun in the end.

Egg Drop Challenge

Whetu Egg Drop Challenge

Today for our Whetu Challenge we had to create something that would hold our egg and keep it from cracking when our groups dropped them from the Grandstand.

We used only 3 straws, some scissors for cutting, 2 balloons, some newspaper, an egg, a roll of tape and an old sock.

 I think we did super well in our drop because our egg came out unharmed and we dropped right at a good time because there was no wind to blow it around while it was in the process of dropping.

I worked with Chloe and Lola because I know they are both great creators and that I can work well with them because they are always extremely focused on what they are doing.

I think the best part was when we drew some evil eggs on our balloons and both eggs were saying       "Yo!"  it was really funny and we all cracked up when we drew it on the balloons. ( I hope you got the joke!)

In the end, I'm really really happy with how we did and I don't think we could have done any better at all.

LOTW week 2

For our letter of the week for week 2, the letter was P! Once I had thought of my ten words I tried to think of a way to present my words that was different from last week. The first good idea that came to my mind was hot air balloons! I don't know why I chose this idea but I thought it would look cool. In the end, I'm really happy with the final result.

Letter of the Week

The letter of the week for week one was B! For a couple of my sentences and words, I wanted to go with something different to other people. For my proper noun, I went with Belinda. A proper noun could be the name of a person or your dog or cat. I don't think anyone else went with the proper noun I went with which I think is good because I really thought about something different. Another one that we had to do with letter B was an onomatopoeic word. I went with BOOM because that was the first one the came to my head and I thought it sounded like a really WOW word. Once I had written down all of my nouns and things like that I had to think of a way to present it on slides. I went with a girl sort of having a vision with all my words and nouns to do with B. I'm extremely proud of my work and I hope to do something different next week.

Term 2 Reflection

The new learning activity that I have enjoyed the most this term is my Number of the Day because I have learned way more about things that I had no idea about when I started such as Roman Numerals and I have really built up my knowledge just as well as challenge myself to try and succeed.


Something that has challenged me this term has been Maths Investigation because I learnt something new and was able to understand more just as well as open my brain to new knowledge that I would challenge myself on.


The Whetu Challenge I enjoyed the most was the tennis ball tower challenge because I got to work with my friends who I know I can work well with and I was able to share my ideas and think outside of the box.


The opt-in workshop I enjoyed the most was PE because I really enjoyed getting myself moving and becoming fitter than I was last year and feeling like I have accomplished something by working hard and really pushing myself to be better every time.


An aim I have for my learning is to always be aiming for a Supernova and never settle for something I know I can do better on because I want my work to be amazing and I want other people to think that too.

My Ultimate Kiwi Holiday

For Whetu's blog challenge this week we had to make a slide of our ultimate kiwi holiday! For my ultimate kiwi holiday I want to go to Queenstown. I have been there before but it's just an amazing place and I would love to go there again. I actually found this quite hard because we had a budget of $1,000 dollars so it was hard to stay within that. I rate my work a Supernova because I really thought about all the little thing like my budget and how much I was allowed to spend on certain things.

Maths Mystery

This week for the Maths Mystery it was all about codes. I think that doing an all codes mystery this week was great because I was able to improve and get better. I don't think it was too hard because I got through it reasonably quick. I had so much fun decoding all the words on the slide and I would love to do it again.

Word of the Week

The word of the week this week was Oblivious. Oblivious means unaware of what is happening around you. I think that I found the right meaning for oblivious and I'm really happy with my google drawing this week. I think that the word for this week was more challenging than the others but still wasn't super hard. I rate my work a Supernova because I checked my sources and made sure I was getting the right answer.

Egg Carton Creation

EGG CARTON CREATION

This week for our Whetu Challenge we created something using egg cartons.

For my creation, I made a lizard but it turned out to be a snake so I guess its a snake. The materials I used to make my snake was an egg carton for the body, blue/ purple paint for colouring it, pink wool for the tongue and googly eyes obviously for the eyes.

I had so much fun creating my snake ( lizard /snake) because even though I stressed about time a bit I still had so much fun creating my plan, painting and creating my snake.

I think the thing I would do differently next time would be cutting out my egg carton before school so I have extra time to paint and focus on all the little details on my snake but in the end, I think I sort of managed my time well.

In my opinion, the creation was pretty easy if you had control of your time and had your idea locked in your head. But if you didn't I think it would have been a real challenge and I probably wouldn't have finished.

In the end, I'm not the biggest fan of my work and I think I could have done better with more time but I think it was all about having fun and challenging yourself to be creative. And even though my creation didn't turn out to well I think I achieved something at the end of the day.

Word of the Week

For the word of the week, it was cacophony. A cacophony is a harsh mixture of sounds with no harmony. I had lots of fun finding out the meaning of cacophony and finding a way to use it in a sentence. I rate my work a Supernova because I checked my sources for my answer and I tried to make my answer detailed. I would love to do the word of the week again next week.

Blog challenge

For Whetus blog challenge this week we got to become interior designers! We had two rooms we could choose from the first one was our bedroom and the second one was the classroom. I chose the classroom because my bedroom is already renovated. We had to design our room or classroom on google slides. I thought doing it on google slides was fun and interesting  because I've never done it before. I rate my work a Supernova because I added lots of detail to the classroom and I think it looks great!

My Read Predict and Write

Instead of doing a read and predict this week, we had to do a read, predict and write! I think I like the read, predict and write better than the read and predict because I can let my mind take me wherever I want when I'm writing and I can spill all my ideas and words onto the page. I think I like my story because I tried to make it short and interesting and I'm pretty sure I did that. I rate my work a Supernova because I really tried to make both my description and writing as good as I could make it.

Maths Mystery

For this post, I did the Maths Mystery. The culprit I got was Berniece Lowry. I think this mystery was so much harder than the others and it really challenged me.  I worked with Jessica to solve the mystery and she is a really good partner to work with. I think I got the right answer and I really hope that I get pulled out of the draw. I would love to do another mystery like this one because it really made me push and it challenged me a lot.

Roll a drawing

As my workshop today I decided I was going to try roll a drawing. At first, I had no idea what this was but a soon figured out that you had to roll a dice and it had something you had to draw for it. I drew some monsters and a spider and I'm really happy with them. I rate my work a Supernova because I think I nailed the shape and details of my drawings.

I didn't have time to finish and sharpie this one but I still really like it.

I don't really like this one out of all of them because I think it looks sort of gloomy because of the eyes.

This one is my favourite out of all of my drawings.

My Read and Predict

For my Read and Predict this week I did my own. The book I am reading is Tracks of the Tiger and I am really enjoying it at the moment. I had lots of fun doing my predictor because I got to share what I was learning about the book. I rate my work a Supernova because I put lots of detail into my prediction.
I would love to do another predictor again next week. I rate this task a 10/10.

Word of the Week

For Whetu's word of the week this week it was Bewildered.  I found out bewildered means confused or very puzzled. I had so much fun finding out the meaning of bewildered and I'm really happy with my discoveries. I rate my work a Supernova because I really tried my best with finding out the meaning of the word of the Week.

My blog challenge

For Whetu's blog challenge this week we had to create a new school birthday card for Miss Coles and Mr Fraser. The first thing that came to my mind was bright and colourful things. I went with a dog wearing a party hat. The reason I went with this is because it makes me really happy and so does birthdays. I'm really happy with the card I made and I think it's a Supernova.

Maths Mystery

Today in Whetu I did another Maths Mystery. This one was reasonably easy but I really enjoyed it.  The culprit I came up with was Ruby! I think I solved the mystery and got the right culprit. I had so much fun solving all the answers and figuring out who stole the pencil cases! This week I am really hoping I will get pulled out of the draw.

Word of the week

As one of our Whoogle tasks, we had to do the word of the week. The word this week is Luminous I found out that it means giving off light or bright and shining. I think that stars are luminous because they are always shining in the sky and they seem to be giving off light. I had a lot of fun doing the word of the week and I will definitely do it again.

Read and Predict #2

For this post, I did the Read and Predict task. I thought that it was really easy this week and it wasn't really a challenge. Although it was really easy I enjoyed reading the story. I think my prediction is right because the writer has made it very clear that the animals in the story will escape. I rate this task a 10/10 because I really liked reading the story and I am 100% sure my prediction is correct.

Me in the next 10 years

For one of our Whoogle tasks, we had to create something about ourselves in the next 10 years. I used google slides to create mine and I think it turned out really good. I think I rate my work a 10/10 because I tried really hard to make it a Supernova and I think I did. My favourite part would probably be when I created my avatar of me 10 years later because I really like to create new things and I have lots of experience with avatar making. I really enjoyed creating my slides and I'm super happy with my work.

Maths Mystery

This week I decided to do the maths mystery. I thought that this weeks one was a lot harder than the previous and I had so much fun solving the mystery. In the end, I came up with Seb as the pancake thief. I really liked clue number 5 because it was a really easy one just to finish it off. I'm really happy with my answer and I think I got it right when I finished the mystery.

Tennis Ball Tower Challenge

Tennis Ball Tower Challenge

Today for our Whetu Challenge we worked in a group to build a tower out of newspaper, 2 straws and sellotape. We needed to make our tower strong enough to hold a tennis ball and be able to stand alone (not leaning on anything or needing support).

Today I worked with Lola and Taylor B because I know I can get along with them and they both have great ideas.

At first, we had trouble with thinking of an idea because we all thought of a different plan but in the end, we ended up with a volcano-like structure and it worked really well.

The easiest thing was rolling up the newspaper to make our support beams because I've done it several times in the past so I had lots of experience.

The best part of our tower was connecting all the beams together and putting our ball holder on top because we weren't sure if it was going to work so we were really stressed but it worked so that made us really happy.

Our tower looked pretty good to me because we made sure it was creative and successful and the beams looked really nice when they were all together and standing alone.

In the end, our tower was 76 cm tall it wasn't the tallest but it was close and it also had a lot of creativity and strength so I think we ticked all the boxes and I'm really happy about that.

My pet #2

For this post, I decided to do a second meet my pet. For this meet my pet I did it on my dog Feebee.
She is a very relaxed dog and is always trying to take the easy way out of things. She is probably the best dog I could ever ask for and I love her to bits. I had so much fun making this google drawing about her. I decided to go with a google drawing because I didn't want to do the same thing as last time. I really enjoyed creating my meet my pet and I hope you learned something about her.

Meet my Pet

For my blog challenge this week we had to create a template or something to present things about your pet. I made a slide about my cat Weasel. The reason we named our cat Weasel was because he was a stray cat and Weasels are usually wild so we thought it would suit him. I really enjoyed presenting some things about my cat because I really like using google slides so I had lots of fun and experience with them. I think my slide is a Supernova because I did multiple slides not just one and I think I did a great job decorating them.

My Read and Predict

For one of my learning constellation doc tasks, we had to read and predict something from a little story.  The story was about a professional motorbike rider named Vince Thunder attempting to jump over 17 school busses!  As Vince started up his bike and started to head down the ramp he noticed something he had never seen before it was an oil slick! Vince attempted to stop the bike but he had already built up too much momentum. I predicted that he had flown off the ramp and had an extremely bad crash and ended up in a hospital. I also think the crash would have ruined his career because I don't think you can recover from a crash like that. I am happy with my prediction and I really liked the story.

Catapult making

Whetu Catapult Challenge

The things that I used to make my catapult were: five rubber bands to stablise everything, seven popsicle sticks for foundation, a plastic spoon for the pompom holder and a pompom to shoot out of our catapult.

To make my catapult I worked with Lola because I know I can work really well with her and we get along nicely and both have great ideas.

The most challenging part was... getting everything to stay with the rubber bands because they were very fiddly and I don't have much experience with them.

Our best results were about a meter which we didn't exactly hope we would get but that's okay because we can always try again.

Overall I think that we could have done a bit better with our catapult and it's strength because we always broke the spoons or made the catapult worse then it was for some reason but I thought we had a great time making it!

My Emojis

For this post, I did the emoji blog challenge. I made all four seasons of emojis a Winter one, a Summer one, an Autumn one and spring one. My favourite would have to be the spring one because I think it's so colourful and its flowers took me forever but I think it really paid off. I think my emojis are a supernova because I tried my best to make them look better than a shooting star. I really enjoyed this task and would love to make several more emojis.