Argument Writing

This week in Te Ngahere we have been writing an argument of our choice. We had to come up with topics of arguments that we can write about. We had to come up with reasons to persuade the person we are writing to. Our teacher suggested to us to argue against punishing the whole class when only a few do something wrong. I haven’t finished my argument but I will be posting it sometime soon.

Stoat Report

Introduction
Stoats are a dangerous threat to our endemic and native bird species. They have been introduced to New Zealand and now are making a big impact to our native and endemic birdlife.

Why was it introduced? How did it get here?
Stoats, weasels and ferrets were originally introduced to New Zealand from Europe in 1880 to control the rabbit population. Rabbits were shipped to New Zealand from Australia in 1830 for food and for sport. By 1890 the population of rabbits grew dangerously and they started to destroy land. They would scratch the grass off the hillside of hills until it was bare soil. With no grass to hold the soil in place and covered in rabbit burrows the hillsides were damaged from the wind and rain. The stoats, weasel and ferrets job was to kill the rabbits to keep the rabbit population in balance but now they have become a pest to New Zealand by killing our native and endemic birds.

Classification
A stoat is classified as a mammal that is closely related to the weasel and ferret.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sarcopterygii
Order: Carnivora
Family: Mustelidae
Genus: Mustela
Species: Mustela erminea

Animal Name
The stoat is known as a short tailed weasel or ermine. The scientific name for the stoat is Mustela erminea. A male stoat can be named a dog, hob or jack and a female can be called a jill. A baby stoats can be called a kitten or a kit. A group of stoats can either be called a gang or pack.

Anatomy/Appearance
Stoats have a long slender body with four short legs and a long tail. They have reddish - brown fur on their back, a creamy white colored underbelly and a long tail with a dark black tip. An adult male stoat can grow up 390 mm (39 cm) and can weigh up to 260 grams.







Locomotion
Stoats are very fast moving mammals and can reach a speed of up to 20 km per hour. They extend their legs to reach further distances while capturing their prey. They arch their back while they are in the air running to gain more speed. Their speed helps them for catching prey but is vulnerable against traps.

Diet
Stoats are carnivores which means they only eat meat. Their main prey are mice, rats, possums, hares and insects such as weta. They also eat New Zealand's birds that live on ground in the forest. Stoats will jump on their prey and bite their prey on the back of their skull or their neck. Stoats are one of the top predators in the food web.

Habitat and Range
Stoats prefer to live in areas where they can find prey to eat. They can be found on beaches, in remote forests and in mountains regions. In New Zealand they can be found in forests where they can find prey to eat. Stoats can be found in Britain and Southern Europe. The are known to be the most widespread mustelid.

Behaviour
In winter the stoats fur turns white and only the tip of the tail stays the same color. Stoats like to burrow under thick layers of grass where they can hide and stalk their prey. The stoat is nocturnal which means they are mostly active at night. At night they follow their prey into their burrow and kill them.

Defence/Offence
Stoats kill their prey by biting the back of their prey’s skull or neck until it dies. The stoat defends itself by biting their prey and holding on firmly. They try to wrap their body around their prey while still holding on to them with their teeth.

Conclusion
Stoats were introduced to New Zealand to kill rabbits but now they are killing our endemic and native birds. But there are now community's placing traps in the forest to kill these pests that harm our endemic and native birdlife.




A couple of weeks ago in Te Ngahere we wrote informational reports about a pest of our choice. We were learning how to use the correct structure for an information report. In each paragraph of the report we had to write about a different topic of the animal that we were researching. The paragraphs we had to write were the why it is introduced, classification, animal name, anatomy/appearance, locomotion, diet, habitat and range, behaviour, defence/offence and conclusion. I enjoyed researching about the stoat and next time I could use more topic sentences in my informational report.

Moment in time draft

Last week in Te Ngahere we wrote a piece of writing describing a moment in time. We had to describe a forest using present tense verbs. We were learning to use the correct structure to describe a moment in time. I enjoyed describing the forest and trying to find new words to describe one part. Next time I could write more in my introduction and conclusion.

Plantation disperses across the forest floor. Birds chat away up high in trees.

Beams of sunlight shine through the canopy as people walk through the serene trail.
Long white clouds are spread across the sky as Sparrows and Fantails soar through the air.
Vines are hanging from tall trees swaying side to side in motion with the wind.
A Falcon’s screech echoing across the forest.
The continues smell of damp soggy wood smacking your nose as people wander around the forest.
Little insects scamper along the forest floor as their surroundings are silent around them.

The forest is an untroubled peaceful place.

Ecosystems Explanation Writing

Since the past term, Te Ngahere have been working on an explanation about ecosystems. We were learning to use the correct structure for an explanation. I enjoyed learning about ecosystems and what they need to have in them. This explanation is better than any of my other explanation writings.

What an Ecosystem needs?

Living in all ecosystems are inorganic matter and organic matter. Inorganic matter is a non living thing but is very important in an ecosystem. Organic Matter is a living thing. Producers and consumers are organic matter because they are all living things. All ecosystems need these to become a healthy ecosystem.

Inorganic Matter

Inorganic matter is a big part of the ecosystem even though it’s not alive. There are many different types of inorganic matter such as rain, grass, rocks, sand and much more. All these things help producers and consumers to stay alive. For example grass helps consumers because they produce food for them to eat.

Producers

Producers are plants that can produce energy on it’s own. Like trees, seaweed and kelp they create energy from sunlight. Without producers food chains would be unbalanced. They also produce energy for consumers because consumers can’t produce food for themselves. For example, kelp produce energy from sunlight then consumers come along and eat the producers to take the energy from them.

Consumers

Consumers are a big part of the ecosystem. Some consumers feed off producers which means they are herbivores. Other consumers eat each other to stay alive and survive and they are called carnivores.

Decomposers

Decomposers are a bit different to the other living things. A decomposer is a nonliving thing. They break down dead matter with chemicals inside of them. Example worms are decomposers. They recycle the dead matter into chemicals which they release into the air and water. This is very important because without decomposers recycling the dead matter and releasing chemicals into the air plants won't be able to get nutrients that they need.

Ecosystems are very fragile. When you damage one part of the ecosystem you affect the whole area. The food chain will become unbalanced and it won't be good. For example at Matai Bay there is no kelp because people were overfishing and taking to much snapper and crayfish so there were to many kina eating all the kelp. Ecosystems are very fragile and us kaitiaki need to protect our environments.

Metaphor Poem

A couple of weeks ago in Te Ngahere we posted a draft of our Metaphor poems. After we improved and changed our poems to make them sound better. We had the same learning intention but improved on them. The changes I made was I had to extend my sentences to make it sound better.

Izaiah is …

Izaiah is a hyena giggling and smirking with my pack

Izaiah is a spider, active when I learn new things

Izaiah is a dolphin, eager in what I learn

Izaiah is a honda NSX, accelerating down the track of knowledge

Izaiah is a Lamborghini Aventador, slick and beastly

Creative Writing

Two week ago in Te Ngahere we created a creative piece of writing. The language features I use was Onomatopoeia. What I think I did well was writing all of the poems and the haiku's and what I think I could work on is to use more onomatopoeia in other pieces of writing and learn more about haiku's and other types of poems.

Haiku

It harms animals

Let's Reduce Reuse Recycle

If not life will die

Acrostic Poem

Recycling is important

Everyone needs to recycle

Cans and more can harm animals

Your child or you could harm any of these animals

Common fish that you know could die

Littering is bad

It can also kill you

Not all people do this

Go out there and do the best that you can to stop this

Limerick

Rubbish is in the sea

Save our planet let it be

There is rubbish around you

This is not a lie it is true

We should stop this you and me

Onomatopoeic Poem

Crunch, munch, crush,

The rubbish goes crunch

The rubbish goes munch

The rubbish goes crush

In the cow's mouth

Poems with a Twist

People picking up rubbish

People using energy

People trying to help save animals

But still rubbish on this planet

Cinquain

Pollution

Endangered animals

It is disgusting

No one likes it

People caring for our planet

Saving and caring for our animals

Plastic bags

Should Plastic Bags be used at Supermarkets?
Would you prefer having plastic bags that float in our seas and harm our sea life or would you have paper bags that waste a lot of energy and time cutting down trees and taking away some habitats from animals in the forest. In this piece of persuasive writing I will be explaining why people should be using reusable bags. Plastic bags are killing our sea life and harming most of them. Dolphins are getting stuck in between plastic bags and turtles are eating them because they think that they are jellyfish. As we can tell the difference between a plastic bag and a jelly fish, a turtle can’t tell the difference.

Plastic bags that are sent to the landfill take up lots of space because they can’t photodegrade because they are buried under lots of rubbish so they can’t break up into pieces. Since plastic bags are made from oil in the future there might not be anymore oil left in the world so eventually they are going to stop making plastic bags or they are going to find another material to make plastic bags. Paper bags are made from trees. People should stop making paper bags because if we have less trees there will be less oxygen in the world.

Also you are taking some of the animals homes away from them and they could dy from any animals that want to eat them. For all of these reasons we should be using reusable bags in supermarkets so you are not harming our sea life.


Last week in Te Naghere we started our persuasive writing about plastic bags. We started this writing because we learnt about what's happening with plastic bags and how the are affecting the planet and killing animals. We were learning to use the structure of a persuasive piece of writing. What I did well was that I evidenced some of my goals and what I needed to improve is that I need to make it more descriptive.

Writing Goals

 Last week in Te Ngahere we created a google drawing for our writing goals. We created our writing goals to remind us about what we need to acheive this term in writing. We were learning to identify our next learning goals in writing.

Report writing

Japan Did you know that Japan has at least 6,852 islands overall? In this information report I am going to be stating some facts about the historic events, architectural styles, natural disasters, and sports in Japan. Architecture Japan has interesting ways to build different buildings. Many structure’s from back in the day were made from wood and to make huts and villages. Back before we were born Japanese people use to make castles to protect their king or leader and protect themselves from enemies. Also during the Edo era the samurai were meant to protect and surround the castles and villages of their own. Historic Events On August 6th, 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing took place in Japan. Another name for Hiroshima is Little Boy. It was a gun type bomb with about thirteen kilotons of force and explosion power. Hiroshima was home to about 280,000 - 290,000 people and about 43,000 soldiers at the time. But sadly at the time between 90,00 and 166,000 people were declared dead in the time of 4 months. Three days after America dropped the Hiroshima bomb. America bombed Nagasaki on August 9th. The bomb was a device also known as Fat Man. On the day of the bombing 263,000 people were in the Nagasaki bombing. Also between 40,000 - 75,000 people were killed. During the Nagasaki bombing another 60,000 people suffered severe injuries. The total of deaths in Nagasaki would be about 80,000. Natural Disasters Japan is one that have several natural disasters. In 1995 it was reported that The Sakurajima Volcano to have erupted 200 times. The Sakurajima Volcano erupted around late October and Early November. The Hanshin Earthquake took place in Japan on January 17th Tuesday 1995. The earthquake lasted 20 seconds and destroyed 150,000 buildings. The magnitude of the quake was 6.8. The quake killed over 6,000 people and the quake made people either homeless or have severe injuries and in hospital. The 1993 Sea of Japan earthquake happened on 1993 May 16th. The earthquake lasted for a minute and measured about 7.8 magnitude earthquake. The earthquake killed 100 people. The tsunami struck through communities on the coast and the coast was damaged badly. Sports One of the sports that Japanese people play is Sumo wrestling. Sumo wrestling has been around in Japan for 1,500 years. Sumo wrestling tournaments take place in Tokyo, Nagoya and Fukuok. Sumo wrestling is a traditional sport too. Another sport that Japan participate in is Karate. It is one of the most famous martial arts styles. Karate first started in India.Chinese trainers brought the fighting styles and skills to Japan back around in the fourteenth century. Karate was never properly introduced to Japan until the twentieth century. But after WWII they changed the name and the characters so that it was translated to be called empty handed. In Japan there is a lot of things to do and see. You can go to different places in Japan and look at all the interesting landmarks. You can participate in different sports in Japan. Try and avoid all disasters that happen if you want to go to Japan. The last activity you can do if you want to go to Japan is look at all the places in Japan where historic events took place.

In week two in Te Ngahere we wrote reports about any country we wanted to research about. My chosen country was Japan. First we had to plan our writing. We chose four topics for our writing for each paragraphs. When we finished we wrote our reports. I was learning to use the correct structure for a report.

Writing Goals

Last week, in Te Ngahere we all created a google drawing about our writing goals. The first thing we had to do was open up the writing rubric and see what we needed to work on. Then we had to go on our term two goals slide and see what we needed to work on this term. The last thing was we had to all create a google drawing about our writing goals. We were learning to identify our writing goals.

Fidget Spinner

A couple of weeks ago we were doing our fidget spinner art on a A3 paper. We were learning to use space crayon and dye to make our fidget spinner art. Next we had to write a persuasive story about should we have fidget spinners in class or at school. When we wrote our stories I was learning to use the structure correctly and colons.

Making Ice Cream

On week seven on Friday we got to make ice cream because we all finished our learning plans. When we made the ice cream we had to pick partners to work with. The partner I chose was Noah. When we tasted the ice cream it really tasted like real vanilla ice cream but it was creamier. The next week we were writing a recount about us making the ice cream. I was learning to use metaphors and Onomatopoeia.

 Ice Cream Collaboration - Izaiah
Last week on Friday the whole class of Te Ngahere made ice cream. The whole class created a slide where we all had to do a reading activity and answer comprehension questions. When everybody finished we got to make ice cream but we made it in a big bag. Noah and I were working on the table and we were talking about learning. Then the teacher chose Noah and I to go to the table to make our ice cream in a bag. When we walked to the table we could see Sam and Max waiting for us and the teacher. We sat down on the chairs and the teacher was pouring the cream into a measuring cup. Then we had to put the sugar in the bag also with the cream added in. Then we had to close the bag and put the ice in the big bag with salt. Then we both put the small bag into the big bag and went outside. We walked out the door and started to shake the bag. Bang bang bang, Noah and I were shaking and swinging the bag around to make the cream and the sugar the consistency of ice cream. When we finished we spilled the ice down the drain and put the small bags of ice cream into the freezer for the ice cream to set. Moments later we got to try our ice cream. When we ate the ice cream it tasted creamy and it was delicious. It was a vanilla ice cream dream. Noah grabbed the back and put it to his mouth and all the ice cream went down on the floor and down his neck too. Soon the bell rang and all the kids grabbed their money and went to go buy the sausages that were for sale that day. The process of making the ice cream in a bag was very exciting and fun to do. I had lots of fun making ice cream with Noah.

Triathlon Madness

At the triathlon we did three things, Swim, run and bike. First we did the swim, then the run and the last one was the bike. When we finished the triathlon we got a bar to eat. After morning to we went out in the front to cheer on the juniors. That day was fun and cool. I enjoyed the triathlon.

Deadpool writing

He has red jagged clothes with stripes of black going down his suit. his sharp swords sharper than any other thing that is sharp. His not serious voice, so not serious that people are not scared of him at all. His athletic ability is amazing. Doing flips and handstands to block thrown knives and and big sharp axes.

I Remember

I was learning to notice the structure used in the exemplar for writing called Remember. The first line had to begin with what you were doing, next we had to write what was happening at that time. The third line was you had to write something you did and on the last line we had to write why we did it. We had to make sure we had descriptive and interesting words, verbs and also adjectives.

What I think I did well was make it have interesting words but I need to work on my verbs more.

Christmas Menu for Christmas

We got to make our own Menu for Christmas. We could choose anything to put on it and we could decorate it.

Boring World. More like the Best World

When we went to Action World it was fun because there were lots of things to play on. My favourite ride was the inflatable slide that you could go down on. I only went on the biggest slide because it was the most INTENSE and the small one would not be as fun as the other one.

Most Amazing Big Blue Riding Hood Story Ever

The thing I learnt with Narratives is there is always a problem and solution. What I also learned about Narratives is the structure of it too.I need to improve in Narrative writing Speech Marks (Commas), Onomatopoeia, Exclamation Marks and Alliteration.