Sustained Silent Reading: 'Midnight Sun"....

This week in "Power to the People" --one of our subject that we will have this term-- we are currently starting Sustained Silent Reading. This means that throughout this subject we will be sustaining a reading book and writing about the experiences that we have whilst reading the book that we have chosen. The book that I have chosen is titled, "Midnight Sun"; the author, Jo Nesbo. The blurb (a sentence) of the book is, "Jon is on the run. He has betrayed Oslo's biggest crime lord: The Fisherman".  It has been quite a while since I have bought this book, however, I am only reading it now, currently, I am engrossed into looking at crime novels, movies, generally crime topic. The first impression of it, the writing style of the author is quite to my liking. It is on the viewpoint of the main character which is, Jon as mentioned in the blurb.  The progress that has been made, is that Jon is currently in a place called, Kasund. In the first pages, it seems as if he is hiding, it is heavily hinted that he is hiding. Though it has not been introduced, who he is running away from, however, as seen in the burb it must be The Fisherman.

The following actions and plot movement that have been happening in the story have been quite mellow. The story progressed in a manner in which the characters are being introduced and having their first interactions. The progression also has given us some insight into the personality of each of the characters for example 'Knut' which a character with a young age. 'Knut' is a kid in the story where he represents that of a young, simple-minded and direct character.
Moving on, the settings and the placements paint a picture in my head. The plot is slowly introduced and is moving on, the reasons are steadily shown and the conflict is progressing.
So far, I have found the story quite interesting; I have enjoyed how each of the characters is introduced as well as how each is personified.  The writing style is also to my liking, being detailed and somehow resembles that of how I like to write as well.

The following days that I have been reading this book has been very quite progressive. The detail and the plot are really coming together. The relationships between the character are becoming better and being closer to each other. Now with the main character, Knut and "Ulf" [MC] are becoming closer,  as if I can somehow picture them having been known each other much longer than they have. They have an aura of "Ulf" being an uncle or really, like a big brother to Knut. After time about Knut and "Ulf" it is then given in the texts that, during this certain time, he has escaped death 100 hours ago. Then the following pages then began to explain 'The Fisherman' and his relation to "Ulf".

The next chapter focuses again on the relation of the characters specifically, Knut and John. For this "Ulf"  [John] talked about his grandfather to Knut; as well as Knut giving some insight on his life as well. Then later in the chapter we then looked further once more on the relation of the 'Fisherman' and John. It discusses one of the people that has "wronged" the 'Fisherman' and is then confronted by John who is now the 'Fisherman's' debt collector as John had killed the previous over problems.

It is then stated over a period of time that John regretted not killing Gustavo. He then thought that if he had killed him at the time, he would have twice the money that he got from him. As Gustavo, offered him money in return of his life being spared. This was then approved by John who could not kill anyone, having a conscience of when people begged for their life. The face that people make in these times cannot be resisted by John. Perhaps this would not be a good characteristic for those in this business. 

Ella West Visit

This week Ella West has now visited our school; in the first period of the day, all of the 7&8 classes went into our auditorium to listen to Ella West. She talked about her life and what she does; she also talked about her books. The first book she started to talk about was 'Night Vision'; as she listened we learnt how she got the idea for writing the book. 'Night Vision' she said, was inspired by a documentary that she had watched which featured people with genetic conditions; there she found out about XP, Xeroderma Pigmentosum. It is a condition where the skin of the individual is sensitive to UV rays, especially the sun, therefore she has to stay inside most of the time and has to take vitamin D pills. Ella West then mentioned that she wanted for the character to have a big event to happen in her life, and so she decided for the character to be a sole witness for a murder.  However, it needed to be big enough to see in the dark, as the main character is only able to come out at night. A car fire was then decided and the rest was history. 'Night Vision' has won two awards since its release, it has also been translated into Italian as well.
Moving on to 'Rain Fall' is based in Westport, it is also mentioned that one of the settings in which she introduces to us in the book was inspired by the house of her friend. Utopia Road was also mentioned in the story which Ella took as a moment to insert humour in her book. As Utopia Road was not as "Utopian" like as you may think if that makes sense. Those were the main inspirations for the book and then she also mentions that she added horses, because why not? (I agree).
After talking more about 'Night Vision' and 'Rain Fall' we then transferred into asking her some questions. We then learnt that her first books were the 'Thieves' series, but it was not the first-ever story that she wanted to publish; also the first 'Thieves' had to be completely re-written. When she writes a book she usually tries to reach a thousand words a day; in a separate tab, she keeps a word count to see her progress.
After some more questions, at the end of period one, our class then had some time alone with her.
We further asked, questions; we found out more about her, her name isn't really Ella West just as Stan Lee's real name is not Stan Lee. Another thing that we learnt about her was her mother has read all of her books and she thinks that the 'mums' in the story are her as well as the 'dads' is her dad which is not quite true.
Then again after more questions, our group, which has been on of the reason that she came to our school had extra time with her. There we discussed about the ending of Night Vision which we "criticized" her for, not so serious way. She gave us advice and told us why she decided to end the book that way; in the end, we were more than pleased that it actually end in that fashion.
Ella West has brought us happiness, entertainment and inspiration, I look forward to reading more of her books in the future, 'Sound of My Heart' which is teh book she is currently writing. It has been a very, very enjoyable experience being able to get advice from authors again.
Thank you Ella West!

Ella West

As a part of our reading activities, we [our group] had to comment on the blog site of Ella West [the author of "Night Vision" "RainFall" and many several books]. In our comments, we presented and given light to what we enjoyed about her book, "Night Vision", how we felt about reading it and asking any questions that we had.  We hoped dearly that she would reply, though for me I thought that chances were slim, however, shockingly she did! I cannot describe how we felt at the time, though even now, we're still shocked by the incident (unbelievable). Each and every one of us was exuberant, even our teacher as well, we felt proud of what we've achieved. To add to that, we were informed by our teacher [Mrs. Allan-Flecther], that Ella West had contacted her and she told us that she was glad that we enjoyed the book; how she was happy that her target audience liked and loved what she had written.
This September she was originally coming to back from Dunedin, and so she told us that she is willing to meet with us; made us all crazy.

Thank you very much Ella West, we adore you and we admire you for what you do. Thank you for the books and the story that you've told us.
Thank you.

Night Vision

In reading, this term we have been doing Novel Studies which is reading a novel and doing activities that connect to it. Our group has been reading "Night Vision", a story about a girl with a disease, which is XP or Xeroderma Pigmentosum. The disease causes her to be only out at night, she is not able to absorb sunlight, if exposed to a great extent she or he may die. One night while out, he saw something that she shouldn't have seen; it was a crime, murder and robbery. The question is what will she do with the money? The direction in which this story take is very surprising and would recommend anyone to read. We have been progressing with the activities that were given to us; such activities were, for example, creating the main character and other characters as well, like animals, etc.

This book had been an enjoyable novel, I liked the plot on the book and that it had been set in New Zealand. How it was written was simple yet interesting; it hooked me at the moment I read the blurb. There wasn't a point in the story that I felt uninterested in reading further; not only that but I quite liked the fact that it tackles on a real disease and spreading knowledge about it while the plot continues. Moreover, it was in one of my most favourite genres mystery and thriller. There were only a little things that I didn't enjoy so much, specifically two.
The first one is that the character development was not seen in some characters, like for example, the dad. He didn't change as much or at all during the story. The character development on the mom, however, was a little bit confusing as I can't tell if it was because Viola was on the papers and that's why she changed. I didn't see an event where the mother would show more affection towards Viola.
How it ended was too quick and fast-paced, but I would guess if that were to happen in real life that would be a very likely scenario to happen. the case would be left as a mystery and there would probably be no evidence that would prove it.
Nevertheless, the book was an amazing read; I would hope to read more of Ella West's books.

Here are some of the activities that we have been making:

Crossword puzzle



Creating a Poster/Advertisement.
(Recreated version)

"Treaty of Waitangi"

This week 7/8 AL has been working on learning more facts and information about "Waitangi Day".

We then read articles about what has happened in those times, the people involved in liberating this country we call our home now. In it we learnt also about the conflicts and a great war that happened in 1845 between the Maori and the British; it has since then finished a year after and in when we finally made peace with the British. After reading an article that we were in we then had to answer questions about what we've read and also make a short summary of it. Now students are to create blog posts about what they've done which many have done at this moment.

Digging holes for Term 4?

In Term 3 we've started to look at novels for reading. In that term I choose to read the Among The Hidden; this term we've been doing same novels studies but with another book this time the title of the book is "Holes by Louis Sachar". It's about a boy that was accused of something that he didn't do and went to Camp Green Lake. Then we started to work on the character traits, it is where I take a look of some of the characters at the first chapters and write them down and some information about them. It 's still a work in progress but here are some of them that are almost finished. I want to know what do you think needs an improvement; for example if you think that I need more information or description. If you have something that you think needs an improvement please comment down below. Any way have a nice day, bye!

Among the Hidden (Kit)

Focus: Thinking Critically about what you've read,.
This week is our final week at term 3 which means there are a lot of things to finish out. This DLO that we've finished is about the Novel Study that we started to study at the start of the term. We decided to be in groups and again I'm with Khush and Vann (again). This is about what the things that are important to the book or the main characters, either people or things. We made it in a google drawing and we also thing link. Here it is, it was really fun making the clay models that we did and it was also fun reading the book. Comment down below if you have read this book and if you liked our creation, bye!

Here is the link to the Thing link that we've done: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/969776894436179972

"The Shadow Children" (Among The Hidden)

W.A.L.T retell a important part of the story

This term on reading we have been learning about four kinds of novels. Among the Hidden, Holes, Freak the Mighty, Number the Stars those are the four books that we could choose from. I choose Among the Hidden. It was about a boy named Luke and he is a shadow child/third child. In that story the place that they live in is a place where nobody can have a third child. If you had a third child and he or she was found out, your child will get taken away or be killed. Your child could get away with it but you'll need... Money, and lots of them.

That's just what I'm gonna tell you, read the book to know the whole story.

As I said, I choose Among the Hidden. Then this week we needed grab one or two people to help you to retell the most important part of the story. My partners we're Khush and Vann. But we thought instead of doing one important part, we all the important parts of the story from Chapter 1-8 .

It was a bit tricky to come up on what we needed to write and was a bit tricky when doing the drawing because I don't know they're faces. That a side we've finished it and I hope you'll like it.

No Sun by James Brown

W.A.L.T create a presentation that gives a visual recount of a poem.
W.A.L.T read fluently.

This week in reading we looked at poem and as a group of two or three to read it. We chose a poem titled "No Sun" . It was fun reading it with my group/friends and it was fun reading it in a Darth Sidious voice. The processes was fun too, we had many bloopers. Anyway here are the videos.

This video is Vann, Jullien and I reading the poem

This one is made by me in my normal voice

Then for the Star Wars fans I tried to do the voice of Darth Sidious

"UFO" TimeLine

This term we've been learning about unsolved mysteries of the world. I choose the "Roswell Incident" where apparently a "UFO" crashed. Then after the years the Air Force said that the "UFO" was only a weather balloon that they experimented on. After that, I made some presentations about it, but I just wanted to post this one. In this DLO, I also added some of the "UFO" sighting through out the years. This was really exciting  and I really liked it, learning about "UFO's" and when they started to appear. But I think, next time I ever do a DLO maybe I need to put a bit more detail to it. Now after this Ako Ngatahi is  going to do handmade DLO to put in the blog and I'm really excited to show what me and my group are making/made.

W.A.L.T

Summarizing

I am learning to summarize and retell  the main ideas and important information from what I have read in my own words.

Evaluating

I am learning to think carefully about what I am reading and how I use the text.

Mascots of War

In these weeks of the term we've been learning more about Anzac day. First what we needed to do is to pick a topic about the Anzac/WW1. I choose the mascots of the war, and then we had to do a presentation about it and here it is. I choose three of the mascots and drew them in paper, I also gave a bit of information below them. I liked doing the presentation especially the drawing, it was abit of a difficult process though.Maybe what I need to do next time is maybe put more information on my presentation.

Success Criteria

Investigate this further. 

Then choose a mascot/mascots that was or were used in war. 

After that create a DLO about it. 

W.A.L.T

Questioning

I am learning to ask questions before, during and after reading.

Summarising

I am learning to summarise and retell  the main ideas and important information from what I have read in my own words.

Synthesising

I am learning to put new ideas from the text with my prior knowledge or other text to develop new ideas and understandings.

Evaluating

I am learning to think carefully about what I am reading and how I use the text.

Information Literacy

I am learning to read and find the appropriate information I am searching for.

P.S here are the websites that helped me learn about these mascots of war.

TodayIFoundOut

Samvoa

The Moon

In the past three weeks we have been learning about the moon. Some about it's history, legends and some facts about it. Now this week we had to make a presentation about it. The information are really interesting you could learn some things that you didn't know yet. Anyway have a good day, bye!

The Moon

In this post I'm talking about some facts for the moon. Last week we started a new topic called "The Man in the Moon" and we had to do many things like this one, this is just a taste of it. All of these are facts about the moon, like how far it was, what it's diameter and more. It was a bit challenging, but it's really fun. As always I hope, you learnt something, bye!

If you want to get a better look here is the link: The Moon

Dinosaur insect!

W.A.L.T summarize and retell the main ideas and important information from what I have read in my own words.

Success Criteria:

• Find important information about the weta and write them in my own words.
• Find information from a range of sources including one I have found by myself.
• Write information in my own words.
• My layout/presentation is easy to read/understand.
• Include information about at least 6 parts of the weta's body.
• My information and ideas help my audience to understand the learning. 

This past 3 weeks,  we have been learning about weta and we had to create a DLO about it. Now I made a thinglink and here it is. Wetas are invertebrates that had evolved into 70 different species and they lives in New Zealand. This post is about one of the giant weta that have 11 different species and the biggest species is the wetapunga, Any way I hope you find this interesting as I do, bye!

Diwali

Last, last week my group and the others was ask to do a Diwali presentation to show what we learnt about it. Our group chose the history of Diwali to make our presentation, then we made a poster. I hope you will like it, enjoy bye!

Diwali

Today I have made my comparison about the Diwali, the Christmas and the things that are the same about them. I really enjoyed making this and I really hope you will enjoy looking at this too. Coming up next would be my presentation about it so stay tuned bye!

Vocabulary!

This is another of my vocabulary, that I made. This was my attempt of making this the best I can. If you like me posting another more of these please let me in the comments. But thank you guys, Bye!!!

Vocabulary!!!

So this week we are learning to figure out the words that we don't know. We went into our Independent Tasks then we have to do at least 4 of the tasks. So the day before yesterday I chose to do the vocabulary and here is the picture of it. We need to pick a word that we don't quite understand. I chose the word cluttered so here it is. I hope you'll like it!!!

Island Bound

This is a presentation about the novel that I was reading. The novel was about a girl that do not want to move to Bermuda and now I think she like to in Bermuda now.We have answer this activities and tried our best I hope you will like it Bye!!

My Mid Year Evaluation Goals.

This is my learning goals form last term, and I'am gonna have my learning conference tomorrow. I hope you'll like it