Creek Tranquility

 For a whole week now everybody in Miss Morrow - Rankin's writing group have been focusing on learning personification. Including this piece unless you were away we should have written four stories with personification in each paragraph. We also needed to add four other language features, eg: similes, metaphors, nouns, dialogue and onomatopoeia.

For me the most difficult or challenging part on this activity was choosing what I was going to write about. We had to write about our favorite place to be. I ended up choosing the creek we have on our property because I remembered how peaceful and tranquil I felt when I was there. The creek on the title page doesn't look like the creek in my story but we saw something like that on the way to the creek / lake. 

I found it rather easy to describe how I felt and what the area looked like. The lake I was writing about is actually the end of a long creek that wound through the bush on our property. Other then that there is practically nothing in particular that I found easy, but nothing was extremely hard either. 

To improve I feel like I could have described the bush part quite a lot more. I feel like other then that I did pretty good. But if you have picked up on something I missed on how I could make my writing better please leave a comment below telling me how I could improve.

Brazilian Ju Jitsu Recount

The learning intention of this writing session was to write a recount about the best or worst day of our holiday. It has to be about one moment in time, using rich descriptive language to paints a picture in the reader's mind. I think I achieved that, don't you? I chose to write about my first Brazilian Ju Jitsu session in quite a while, and since we went to the library afterwards it was definitely the best day of my holidays. 

It was hard to figure out what I found challenging but here it is: I found it challenging to put in as many language features as I possibly could. I ended up only being able to put in one simile some dialogue. I also put in one example of hyperbole.

I found writing three paragraphs on my BJJ class to be the easiest part of this writing session. I also found it easy to use past tense. Our BJJ gym is near where the farmers market happens. Just go to said farmers market then head towards the back wall. That is where Te Kura Awhio is.

To improve my writing next time I will add more language features, for an example I could add in a metaphor, some onomatopoeia or maybe a piece of personification. How else do you think I could improve my writing skills?

Kayak Adventure

 Today in our writing lesson we were learning about creating a very descriptive recount about a moment in time. I finished my draft at home because my first session on this piece of writing was cut short because me and the rest of the house leaders had to go to the salvation army to give them our cans.

I found putting lots of description into very little words rather difficult but I think I did pretty well. I only wrote four paragraphs using 238 words. That might sound like a lot to you but some of the recounts I've written without restraining myself have used around 586 words.

Choosing a worthy moment in time to write about was the easiest part of this activity for me because the saturday before we started this writing piece Me and my family had gone to the river by the marine reserve to do some kayaking. So naturally I chose to write about that because I love kayaking.

I quite enjoyed remembering the moment in time I chose so I could spill my feelings onto the google doc, publish it then post it to my blog where it will be red by people like you!

Something I could improve on for the next time I do this would be to take a closer look at the example then follow its lead. For an example I could use more descriptive words to make the reader feel like they are really there watching me. What else do you think I could improve on?

100 Meter race

 Today we were publishing a piece of creative/imaginative recount writing. The writings topic was about the hundred meter olympic race. Mr Barclay was the teacher conducting this lesson, he created an example of the piece of writing we were meant to be making during the first lesson before lockdown. I had already published my writing to a slide so all I had to do was add some images and post it to my blog.

I found it rather challenging to do my mote because when I attempted to use the mote app it kept on making me do the sign in process again and again. Mr Barclay helped me solve this problem by letting me use his computer so I could do my recording properly.

The easy thing about this lesson was probably adding lots of emotion to my writing because to know what it would have really felt like I just had to imagine I was there so that is what I did. I think in reality it would be really hard to be an olympic competitor.

I enjoyed doing the whole thing because it was something different to what we normally do and what I'm used to. I also enjoyed trying to get my writing standards as high as possible, especially since Mr Barclay was writing a story too.

In future I think a way I could improve would be to end on a more excited note and to put more of the emotion from the story into my voice when I am reading it in the mote.

Spring Limerick

 For this learning at home activity we had to either write a recount about our bubble life, or you could do what I did, create a poem, an acrostic poem, a haiku poem or a limerick. I chose to do a limerick. No matter what poem you chose it had to be about spring. It took me a while to make my limerick but it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

The thing that was slightly easier than the rest was deciding the first line, I knew I was going to use it because that is what I wake up to every day. Because I have my own room and it is close to the top of my family's house. The other easy thing was understanding the rules behind the limerick. If you want to learn them click here.

The thing that challenged me most in this activity was making my limerick sound cool. In the video explaining limericks it doesn't say anything about the syllable structure. So I ended up adding too many syllables into my limerick. The syllable structure goes like this: The first, second and fifth line have eight or nine syllables and the third and fourth line have five or six.

To improve my limericks next time I will follow the syllable structure that I mentioned just now. It might be a little bit difficult but I would manage. 

Persuasive Writing Publishing

We were learning about creating pieces of persuasive writing. Our topic was is it important to be prepared for a natural disaster. I believe that there is absolutely no point in being prepared for a natural disaster because one could happen at any time, no matter what plan you had.  

I found it easy to add emotive language and create a conclusion that left the reader's mind whirling and confused, strung between their original opinion and mine. If you don't believe me take a peek at my writing. The other thing I found easy was to create a title that hooked the reader in (see my second slide).    

I found it challenging to find evidence to support my opinion because most of the websites that I found were all about how to be prepared for a natural disaster, not why there is no point in being prepared! I ended up searching the web, and found some pretty good results, including one from Wikipedia. 

Next time I will treat my writing like it is a piece of writing, not like it is an inquiry. A lot of my writing sounded like it was part of the inquiry we were doing in the afternoon, so I ended up deleting quite a bit. I now have a paragraph that is barely three lines long!  

Coming Back From Camp

 We were learning about writing about a moment in time. I chose to write about coming back from camp Kaitawa because it happened recently and it was also quite emotional. The learning intention for this lesson was to include powerful adjectives, verbs, adverbs and emotive words about a moment in time.  

I found it easy to make my writing really emotive. I also found it easy to publish my draft onto a slide because all I had to do was copy and paste my draft onto a slide, give it fancy font and change the background.   

I found it challenging to not overwrite because there were so many cool things that happened at camp, I was surprised that I only had 294 words! Although that is quite a bit. The only other thing that I found difficult was choosing what part of camp to write about. I chose what I did because it was the most recent memory I had.

Next time I plan to write about a time that has a bit more of a positive vibe, such as kayaking, like I said in the writing below I found out that I love kayaking! So that would be a very positive piece of writing, especially if I chose to write about jumping off! That was a fun time.

Sunflower Poem

We were learning about writing a environmental poem about sunflowers. Our poem should personalise the sunflower, talk about it like it has human traits and powers. In my poem the sunflower I'm writing about ages with each line. At the beginning it is happy and young, then at the end it sad and old.

I found it easy to make my published writing look spectacular by adding pictures and word art. Filling in the text box black against the gold, gradient background also made the slide look very grand if I do say so myself.

I found it challenging to find a decent start and then continue decently. This was so hard that I ended up spending a whole lesson devoted to changing and fixing up my draft copy. At the beginning I wanted all of the words at the end of each sentence to rhyme so that made things even trickier! Near the end I dumped the idea of rhymes and just went with whatever I came up with in the last ten minutes of the lesson.

Next time if I notice that it is getting really hard and I have tried persevering I should try a different method or style so I can make that change faster.

Awapuni School Triathlon

 We were learning about writing a informative recount about our school triathlon. We had to use descriptive, rich words to paint a picture in the reader's mind. Mrs Bavas exact words that she had written on the Team Toroa were: I want you to  include powerful adjectives, verbs, adverbs and emotive words about the School Triathlon at Churchill Park. The success criteria for this lesson was to include a range of descriptive words, adverbs, verbs and use the correct tense.  

I found it easy to use heaps of emotive words in my writing as there was a lot of emotion included in the school triathlon for me. Another thing that was easy for me was publishing, all I had to do was copy and paste my draft writing into a google slide, make it look interesting then post it to my blog. 

I found it challenging to to finish my writing in the time we were given, so I only ended up publishing and blogging about my writing in this finishing up session. The other challenging thing was to find some amazing rich words to replace the boring ones. I did it eventually but it was still hard.    

Next time I will do some of the writing at home since I have my own chromebook. If I do that then I might be able to finish the writing and post it to my blog sooner.

The Twelve Days of Kiwi Christmas

 We were learning about the twelve days of kiwi Christmas book/poem/song. We listened to the twelve days of Christmas song that Mrs Barker had found on Youtube, here is the link to one of the videos. We were then to get into groups and go onto the slide deck that Mrs Barker had prepared for us. On the slide we had to create our own "Twelve days of kiwi Christmas."

I found it easy to copy and paste the words once we had done our plan slide, which we deleted so don't go looking for it!

I found it challenging to finish on time because at the beginning my group did not work well together. Tania and Amy-Lee had both made a copy of the slide so it took a bit of time before we got started. Burt in the end we all managed to get our blog post finished.

Next time I will take five before I lose my concentration so things don't get even worse than they already are.

A Moment In Time

We were learning about writing a moment in time, this moment in time was based on a video that Mrs Barker had put on our site under the writing button, the video was about a hunt between a hawk and a squirrel. We had to write from either the squirrels perspective or the hawks, I chose to write from the hawks. 

I really enjoyed writing from the hawks point of view because I like bird of prey (birds that hunt other birds) or just any animal that hunts. But my favorites are big cats but anyway another thing I liked about this writing session is that I managed to publish it really fast and on only two slides!

I didn't find it difficult to do anything really but if I had to choose something it would probably be that I found it hard to chose which hawk I wanted on the title page and what background I wanted for my second slide.

Next time to improve I think I will add more detail about the chase rather than getting to that part and skipping quite a lot of the exiting parts. 

What Christmas means to me

We were learning about writing a letter to the Gisborne Herald for a competition. The competition was, in the whole of Gisborne a few schools were chosen to make a piece of writing about what Christmas means to you. Ten people are going through and getting to have their writing put into the Gisborne Herald newspaper, I hope that I will be one of those people.

I enjoyed doing my getting creative part. After we had finished, checked and the teacher had printed our writing we could do anything to get creative about our writing. I made a scratch game with my family, a fruit platter and a roast chicken in it.

I found it challenging to find all the right things to make my scratch game, eg the fruit platter, my family sprites and I also found it challenging to make the roast chicken. I had to get the chick sprite then remove the legs and the beak after that I had to get a bowl sprite to put the chicken in then I put tiny half oranges around the chicken so that it looked like veggies.

Next time I make a scratch that is not just information but fun as well. To achieve this goal I will make my game a quiz or a real game, I could make there be roast chickens and fruit platters, stockings or Christmas trees and that you had to click a certain one or answer questions that my sprite has asked.

Fireworks Acrostic Poem

We were learning about Guy Fawkes and his story, we also were learning about writing Acrostic poems. My one was about fireworks, I tried my best to make all the ends of each line rhyme to make it more interesting and attractive.   

I found it easy to publish it on to my slide once I had found the words that made the most sense and rymed in a way that was the most mysterious and moving.   

I found it challenging to find the best words for my acrostic poem. Like I said above I wanted my poem to be mysterious, moving and make the reader feel how it was then.  

Next time I will choose an easier word to base my acrostic poem on because it took me one session and a half just to finish my draft. 

The Top Ten Most Important Things In A Recount

We were learning about recapping about what a recount is, then with our writing buddy we were to make a blog post about what we thought are the most important things to have or do to make a recount a recount.

I found it easy to write the top ten things about recounts once I had started, (the starting part was hard.) This session was not the easiest so I don't have that much on the I found it easy to... paragraph.   

I found it hard to think of the top ten things that are most important to include in a recount in the first sesion, my head must have still been in weekend mode! But fortunately in the next sesion I managed to get my head around it. The only other thing that I found hard was working with Manaia.

Next time I will sit beside Manaia (my writing buddy) and try to corporate more thoroughly with her. Another thing I will need to do next time I am with my writing buddy is to not give up on working with her so soon, even if she is not doing the same thing as I am. I will just have to show her the top ten things I have made.    

Me and my writing buddy Manaia think that these are the top ten most important things to have or do to make a recount a recount:

#1. It has to be a recap of a recent event.                                                                                                    

#2. It has to be in past tense.                                                                                                                      

#3. It has to have paragraphs.                                                                                                                      

#4. Sizzling start and clever conclusion                                                                                                      

#5. Punctuation.                                                                                                                                        

#6. Descriptive language.                                                                                                                        

 #7. Language features.                                                                                                                              

#8. Senses (smell, see, feel, hear and taste.)                                                                                               

#9. Nouns/Adverbs.                                                                                                                                    

 # 10. Rich words.

My goal for this term is to be recognised as a leader for being the perfect Awapuni kid, eg: Wonderful manners, Correct uniform, A bucket filler and a lid fitter.    

Persuasive Writing

 We were learning about creating an amazing piece of writing - not any piece of writing but a piece of persuasive writing. We had to create a plan that Mrs Bava had created on a slide, we had to finish the slide with quality planning and once we had done that we needed to start our draft writing. The draft had to be amazing because it was going into our PFA (portfolio for assessment). As soon as we thought we had finished it we had to show the teacher and she would tell us if we needed anything else. If she told us that our writing was good then we went onto publishing then our good copy (we needed to post it our blog clearly). After that there was some fast finisher activities that we could do.               

The thing I most enjoyed about this particular writing session was the fact that we were writing about something I was so sure about my opinion on. The topic we were doing this writing about was: Is the environment our responsibility? I am 100% sure that the environment is our responsibility and will be forever or as long as we walk the earth which might be until it is destroyed. Which will be sooner than we think if we keep on polluting the the world like we are at the moment. I bet you are saying: "I have never done anything like that in my life," you might not have actually dropped a piece of rubbish on purpose but, here comes the big but have you ever done anything to make a change to how much rubbish is in our world today? If you have I shake you warmly by the hand, clap you on the back, thank you and congratulate you. If not try to do something - it might be a little thing eg: picking up the old juice packet that you saw on the side of the road this morning, but please do something. 

For me it was challenging to get enough hard, firm truthful evidence to support my main points. I kept on going to Mrs Bava thinking that I was finished but when she saw it she said that it needed more evidence! I did that two times until she looked at it and said that it was ready to be published, but she was right, it is a lot better now than when it was when I first brought it to Mrs Bava. If you think that I am lying take a look at my writing and make up your opinion, (you do not have to make a persuasive writing post about it though!) and go on with your daily life like after mindfulness.

Next time I think I will add more facts the first time I am told and keep on going until I have got at least two links in the references. this will help the readers (you) believe me more than if I just put in a tiny bit of not truthful facts. Just think please if you agree with that statement or not, now I need to stop writing before I do too much instead of not enough or the right amount.                                 

My favourite time of the day

We were learning about writing great, descriptive recounts.  

I found it easy to publish my recount to a slide. 

I found it challenging to give my moment the right mood.

Next time I will publish to a slide as soon as I'm finished writing in the doc.

Wildlab Recount

We were learning about writing a recount 

I found it easy to create the slide for my writing to go on 

I found it challenging to finish on time 

Next time I will save all editing at the end

Nau mai, haere mai