Te Tiriti o Te Waitangi | Māori Gods 💫

Social studies activity: Gods

1. Write next to each god what their Deity is
2. Then find their equivalent in Roman, Greek and Hindi
3. Make a poster of one or more of the gods and a summary story about them

Māori	Deity	Ancient Greek	Ancient Roman	Hindu
Ranginui	Sky	Uranus	Jupiter	Indra
Papatūānuku	Land/Earth	Gaea	Terra Mater	Prithvi
Tāwhirimātea	Weather	Zeus	Jupiter	Indra
Tāne Māhuta	Forest	Ceres	Silvanus	Aranyani
Tangaroa	Sea	Poseidon	Neptune	Varuna

Is climate change a lie?

Is climate change a lie? I will be arguing against this question. 

• Scientific evidence to prove that climate change is true - most scientists agree
• We are seeing the evidence of climate changes already - hotter temperatures mean ice caps are melting, leading to the sea level rising and flooding the Earth
• There is a reason that climate change is happening - we are releasing excessive carbon emissions into the air and not planting enough trees

THESIS: It's the question that the world is wondering: is climate change fake news or is it true? In this essay, I will be discussing why climate change is a very real issue on Earth, and the facts behind it. 

IDEA ORDER:
1. We are already seeing the effects of climate change: hotter temperatures, ice caps melting, sea level rising etc.
2. There is backed up scientific evidence that climate change is real and is happening: include researched info from the internet etc.
3. Climate change isn't happening because of nothing: it's happening because we are releasing too much carbon emissions into the air and destroying the trees.

a collection of poems

Should energy drinks be banned for adolescents?

For today's essay brainstorming, I decided to plan an essay based on 'should energy drinks be banned for people under the age of 16?'. 

This is a topic that's been popular in New Zealand after Countdown banned the sale of energy drinks to all people under this age. I argued for this idea. 



Some reasons why I am against energy drinks:

• Health is not benefited, there are only disadvantages
• Unhealthy and barely effective
• Addictive and costs a lot of money
• There are many better alternatives to energy drinks
• High levels of sodium

Strongest ideas (1 being the strongest, 3 being the least strongest)

1. Many health disadvantages/side effects of consuming energy drinks

- Rapid heartbeat, insomnia, nervousness, irritability, increased blood pressure etc.

2. Expensive and addictive

- The ingredient caffeine found in energy drinks has a tendency to cause withdrawal symptoms

such as anxiety and panic attacks in some frequent users.

Caffeine is addictive and harmful if consumed too much.

3. There are much better alternatives to energy drinks

  - Getting the right amount of sleep improves your general well being and replaces the need for

energy drinks enormously.

Gender portrayal in musicals (Critical Literacy)

Focus-representations
Vocab-stereotypes, construction, bias, gender, masculinity, femanity

Masculine:
woodcutting/lumberjack
barbeque, rugby, alcohol

Feminine:
the colour pink
raising children, cooking and cleaning


LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS: (1960s) Somewhere Green (interpretation)
 How does the text depict age, gender, and cultural groups?
In 'Somewhere Green', the woman is portrayed as soft, pink, delicate - a complete stereotype of women and femininity. It's almost as if she wants everything to be perfect, 'somewhere green' after reading a magazine where everything is perfect, and she longs for a life like that, a future just slightly out of her reach. 

Whose views are excluded or privileged in the text?
It's the woman's views who are privileged in this text, the man and children are mentioned only very briefly. As this is a song written purposefully to depict the emotions many women in the 60s maybe felt, it is only natural for the woman to sing it. The men and children's perspectives have been left out purposefully. 

What if this text was told in a different time period?
If this text as told in a different time period, or if it were made now, it may have seemed that the director was challenging gender stereotypes back in the 60's, by making it 'satirical' or emphasising the stereotype that now seems very wrong in modern-day society. 

Why has the composer of the text presented certain people in certain ways?
The director composed the woman to be very stereotypical as it is how women were viewed, or had to be like, in the 60's. Women often had to cook and clean and raise the children whereas men had the high-paying jobs and owned the fancy cars and houses. Women were literally there to do the work only. 

LEGALLY BLONDE (2010's) I'm So Much Better (interpretation)

In Legally Blonde the woman's goals are much bigger and better, and they are achievable because of how the world has changed in contrast to what stereotypical women were actually able to do. 
Back in the 60's, women definitely did not go to law school, whereas in Legally Blonde, times have changed and so this woman is able to achieve her dreams. 
The women from Legally Blonde and Little Shop of Horrors each have goals, but they are very different.

Gymnastics unit mega blog

For the past few weeks we have been doing gymnastics in PE. I genuinely hate gymnastics so much because I'm really not good at it. But I've been actually trying at this and it's gone well so far. I'm focusing on the floor routine as I am most confident in this area, as well as the beam and trampoline routine. I'm not as confident on the bars. 

What have I done well?
I've done well because I asked for help when needed and learned how to do a side mount onto the beam because of it. I'm also kind of okay at the floor routine, gotta give props to my year of gymnastics I did as a child. I became more confident when I was able to lift myself on the bars. 

What do I need to work on?
Maybe work on learning my routines more rather than playing around on the equipment. I also want to learn how to do a flip on the bars. 




23.09.19
I'm practising my routines on the beam and floor, and I'm doing well so far. I've asked for help when needed and I'm improving on the beam as well as on the floor.

I'm having trouble with the final dismount on the beam, for my chosen routine I have to do a tuck jump dismount. To give you an idea of what that is:


As for the floor routine I'm pretty much doing well at it. I think the floor is the thing I'm strongest at, but I need to work on gaining more momentum so I can do the 'trick' I want to do: standing up immediately after doing the forward roll. I also want to try and finish off with a strong stance and not just on the floor after the final roll. 

However, since I'm strong at the floor I'm wondering whether I should try a harder routine or make my own up. 

Here are some photos of me in action on the beam

Here is the video of me on the beam

Home economics: cultural unit recap 🍒

This term we have been working on our cultural unit where we explored the preparation, cooking methods and equipment of different meals from different cultures such as Japan, Greece, NZ and Thailand. 

During this term I not only learned how to manage my time, equipment and food portions efficiently, I now know how to cook foods from different cultures. 

My favourite dish we made was the Pad Thai which originated in Thailand but made its way to New Zealand through immigration and is now found commonly in New Zealand as we have such a diverse population. The Pad Thai ingredients could be altered to suit our individual tastes. I like my food sweet with some kick which we were able to achieve. Pad Thai, by the way, is noodles with some sort of protein, with a really flavorful sauce. 

The skills were helpful to learn because as time progresses, more people migrate to New Zealand and bring their delicious food with them. Last century, meat and 3 veg was the common way of eating meals whereas nowadays we have a better selection and diverse range of foods to choose from, and learning to cook these foods are really helpful. 

Working with other people in a group has been a good learning experience. I didn't know some of the people in my team that well but we worked together and were proud of how all of our dishes came out. We were definitely good at finishing on time. 

Overall I really enjoyed this cultural unit. I will definitely use these skills in the future, in fact I've already cooked sushi from Japan for my family.