Month: July 2024

WLJ: Activity Seventeen

Activity Seventeen: Research an NZ athlete who is competing at the Olympic Games. Share your learning about their statistics and Journey to competing.

For this Winter Learning Journey activity, I recently conducted some research on a New Zealand athlete who will be participating in the upcoming Olympics in Paris, France. After careful consideration, I chose to focus on Aaron Gate due to his impressive track record as an Olympic bronze medalist and a six-time Commonwealth Games medalist.

Born on November 26, 1990, Aaron Gate is a prominent New Zealand road and track cyclist currently affiliated with UCI ProTeam Burgos BH. Standing at a height of 181cm, he surpasses my height! Notably, Aaron Gate secured an Olympic bronze medal in Team Pursuit at the London 2012 Olympic Games and has accumulated a total of 7 medals, including 4 gold and 3 bronze. With an impressive track record, Gate has been a consistent performer in the cycling world, demonstrating his skill and determination in numerous competitions. His achievements have solidified his reputation as one of New Zealand’s top cyclists, inspiring others through his dedication to the sport. Gate’s passion for cycling and his outstanding accomplishments serve as a testament to his talent and unwavering commitment to excellence in the competitive cycling arena.

This research endeavor proved to be an enlightening experience as I delved into the achievements of New Zealand’s most accomplished Olympian.

WLJ: Boggle for Snowstorm

WLJ: Activity Eleven: Given the word ‘snowstorm’, kindly list as many words as possible using the letters contained in the word. For the Winter Learning Journey, I undertook the task of finding as many words as possible from the word “Snowstorm”. I started with the word itself, Snowstorm, and then broke it down into its components, snow and storm. I continued this process until I couldn’t think of any more words, and in total, I managed to find 39 words.

WLJ: Activity Nineteen

WLJ: Activity Nineteen: In Maori culture, the winter solstice is a time for reflection. It is a time to reflect on challenges and successes and to set intentions for the coming year. Write 5 things that have gone well for you in the last year and 5 goals you are going to work on. For the Winter Learning Journey, I fulfilled the task that required me to list 5 positive experiences from the past year and 5 goals I aim to achieve. 

I found this task quite enjoyable as it prompted me to reflect on my accomplishments and set meaningful targets for the future.

Catapult Research

Before we created our catapults, we had to do some research about them. The three catapults we gathered information about were the Trebuchet, Mangonel, and Ballista. 

The purpose of catapults are to hurl hefty objects such as rocks, hot tar and spears. One of its main points is to demolish castle walls. Catapults are used to launch arrows in the directions of the castle. Catapults are confirmed to be very violent. It can cause a lot of damage. There are 3 types of catapults: Ballista, Trebuchet and Mangonel: The Ballista was a highly accurate weapon. A Ballista is a type of catapult, a mix of a catapult and a crossbow. Its purpose was to shoot arrows and darts, along with stones to launch at enemy soldiers. A Trebuchet was designed to throw heavy stones at the enemies to unalive them. The trebuchet was made out of wood and iron, Trebuchet used a counterweight and a lever. A Mangonel is a type of catapult used to hurl heavy objects at a castle’s wall. An advantage of the Mangonel was that they were light, and its ability to throw rock and fire. But a major disadvantage was that they were not that accurate. 

This activity was enjoyable because of all the information we collected and finding new things to learn.

Rewrite Challenge

LS2 was challenged to rewrite a sentence without using certain letters, as well as keeping the same meaning. Thanks to WordHippo, which it’s a website that helps us discover a new different word. We were given 3 texts to rewrite and each text got really hard with certain letters that we couldn’t use. For example: We had to rewrite the text of “Humpty Dumpty” and the letters we couldn’t use were “A, L and K”. If you want to see our text, take a look at the next slide! 

I found this activity challenging yet helpful because the words we used could be added into our vocabulary list!

Matariki Assembly

Matariki Assembly: Before the day of Matariki (Fri, 28 June 2024). We went to an Assembly which was organized on Thursday 27 June, each class presented their own class star. LS2: talked about “Tupu-a-nuku and Tupu-a-rangi.” Tupu-a-nuku is the eldest daughter, is the star that is associated with food and growth within soil and Tupu-a-rangi is associated with food and life above the ground, signifying its connection with birds, fruits and berries. LS1: talked about “Our whetu.” Our whetu’s embodies the whakapapa of each student in LS1. We should always be mindful of the people and place we represent. Room 6: talked about Ururangi. Ururangi is the star connected to the winds which determines the nature of the winds for the year.