The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon丨Critical Literacy

Hi everyone! Welcome to another post, today we did another reflection session. This time I decided to write about a book I have recently read, it is called 'The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon'. 

Title: The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon 

The text was a book about how archaeologists found the Hanging Garden of Babylon. It gave us an insight into the process of finding one of the seven wonders of the world. It wrote about the history of the hanging garden, why it was so hard to find and some information about the architecture of the garden. 

Text Type: Book

Text Creator: Stephanie Dalley 

Text Purpose: To be read and inform.

What knowledge does the reader need to bring to this text in order to understand it? 

In the book, The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon by Stephanie Dalley, knowledge of the Hanging Garden of Babylon is needed. This is something that is needed because the book is on the subject of the hanging garden. The book discusses how the hanging garden was discovered so it is mandatory to know a few things about the hanging garden so that the reader can fully understand the text that is being written. The following sentences above give us evidence that we need to know about the hanging garden to be able to fully understand the book and what is written in it. 

Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon.jpg

Reflection Sessions | Ｗānanga

Hi everyone! Welcome to another post, this year for wānanga we are going to be doing reflection sessions, where we have to summarise a text that we have read or watch throughout our week, we then had to choose some critical literacy questions about that particular text that we have summarised. This week I chose to summarise a book we have started reading in English.

Title: Children of Blood and Bones

This was a book that was written by a Nigerian-American novelist about some myths from her country. it is about a girl who lives in a world that was once bustling with magic, but something happens that takes the magic away. So she goes on a mission to bring magic back with the help of her family and a princess. 

Written by: Tomi Adeyemi

Text Purpose: She wanted to present a story where it would feature African-Americans and show how she wanted to respond to police brutality. 

What views of the world is the text representing?

In the book Children of Blood and Bone, they talked about how there was a war between two races where one race believed that the other did not belong in their land because of the difference between them. This is where war was initiated by the king, mainly because they want to rid of a threat to their kingdom, the maji, which were people who were gifted with magic. During this war or what they call the 'Raid', many innocent lives were lost and maji's lost their magic and their culture. A prospect of the world that this represents is the police brutality to African-Americans and how their culture and language were taken away from them. I am mainly mentioning the transatlantic slave trade and how west Africans were taken away from their homes to be treated like slaves in another country where they were downgraded and criticized. In that time they were taken away from their home, they had nothing at this point, their home, culture and language were taken away from them and they couldn't do anything about it, because they were slaves. Both of these are similar because of how people of other lands were treated harshly due to what they look like and how they live. 

Gymnastics Reflection

 For the first 3 weeks of Term 4, we did a course about gymnastics where we learned how to do skills on equipment and how to do them properly. 

My focus is:

1. Routine on Trampoline 

2. Cartwheel on the mat

3. Balancing to the beam

The thing I like the most about this gymnastics course was learning how to do a forward roll on the beam. I think that learning about gymnastics was a really fun thing to do and I would like to learn more skills in gymnastics. One thing I didn't get to do properly during the 3 weeks was how to do a pullover on the bars. (A pullover aims to get your legs over the bar and your hips on top of the bar so that you land in front support.)

30sec Self Directed Film - Film Study

Hi everyone! Welcome to another post. Recently for film study, we were, appointed with a task where we had to create a film. There were some requirements for making this film. The final product should be no longer than 35 secs, no shorter than 30 secs, any music used has to be free, the film has to include multiple camera shots/angles and the finished product should have an understandable plot.

Process:
We first had to choose what our film is going to be about. We chose to do a horror film where a group member would retrieve a kicked ball from a bush. After choosing our topic, we then had to create a storyboard showing our plan for our film. After that, we then recorded our film and afterwards, we then finished filming and started editing our video.

Reflection Questions

1. What was your film about?

Our film was about someone retrieving a ball in a bush. 

2. Something I enjoyed in making my film...?

I enjoyed filming in the bushes and creating a creepy atmosphere in the film.

3. Something I learned when making my film...?

I learned how to put multiple videos down together and put music together to create a film.

4. Some film techniques I included were...?

Close up, Low Angle, Point of View, Medium Long shot and Over the Shoulder.

5. Something I found challenging was...?

I found it challenging to edit the video because it was hard to time the video. 

6. What I would differently next time:

Next time I would include more interesting music and show more of the theme in the film.

Week 5 Reflections

Hi everyone! Welcome to another post. It is Friday today, so we have to do our weekly reflections. I wasn't at school for three days last week, because I had injured my foot, so there weren't many things to write on week 4 reflections. So this week I attended all week and tried to walk on my right foot. 

This week I noticed my feelings and emotions was:

• I also felt very lethargic because I couldn't walk well with my right foot and it was hard to walk to classes on time, but luckily I arrived on time. 
• I was very lazy and slow this week. I don't really know why because I slept very early and then I felt very sleepy in the afternoon, which was unusual because by the afternoon I would be very energetic. 

Week 4 Reflections

Hi everyone! Welcome to another post. It is Friday today, although I am not at school today I still have to do my reflections.

This week I felt affirmed in my unique identity when:

• A needle went inside my food and I was very scared because it felt very long and I was very scared but I didn't scream or cry, which I am very proud of. 
• I screamed at my sister and she screamed back at me and then we screamed together and then we got ice cream. 

Week 3 Relfections

Hi everyone! Welcome to another post, today we did our reflections for week 3. This I decided to do a post about when I felt a sense of accomplishment.

• I finished all my chores at home without needing my sister's or parents to help because I was injured. 
• I finished learning a quarter of a piece we were learning for music. 

Week 1 Reflections!

Hi everyone! Welcome to another post, this term in class we have started something new. Now for the rest of the term, we have to write reflections every Friday on how our week was. After writing about it, we then had to choose an aspect and write a post about it.

- This week what I noticed about my feelings and emotions was:

• This week I felt very calm and satisfied. This is because of my new timetable, it has all the subjects that I like. 
• This week I also felt very tired because I slept late and woke up very early the next day. So I felt very sleepy and lazy when I was at school. 

Did I do well?

Hi everyone! Welcome to another post today I will be reflecting on how well I did on Tuesday P.E hurumanu. Like the post, I did about 'Kick Longball' we had to rate ourselves on how well we contributed as a team.

This week in our P.E Hurumanu we have been… 

• (What) - We played games and worked on our teamwork/effort.
• Where - Gym
• (Why) - To make our teamwork better.

S - Statement

E - Explanation
E - Example

Statement

Our first activity was Floor Hockey For this activity, I rated my self as a 4.

Explanation

To achieve level 4 we have to show that we can consistently: Make a contribution to the team,
make sure to include everyone, also encouraging everyone and leading the team.

Example

During the first game of Floor Hockey, I showed that I am working at level 4 by instructing
the team, helping others to be better players and encouraging other people. These examples
show that I have met the standard for level 4

Statement

Our second activity was For this activity, I rated my self as a …

Explanation

To achieve level 4 we have to show that we can consistently: Make a contribution to the team, make sure to include everyone, also encouraging everyone and leading the team.

Example

During the first game of 6 corner soccer, I showed that I am working at level 4 by helping
people sort out which numbers they were and encouraging them to do well. These examples
show that I have met the standard for level 2 

Next week I am aiming to work at level 4 To make sure that I am working that level I am going
to work on making people happy and being a better leader.

Look at the mirror......

"YAY!" Another DLO, well this DLO is about reflection, like the mirror lake and many more. But on this one I am talking about using a grid and putting in some shapes and reflect it.  On my DLO I am going to show you how to do, I hope you enjoy have a great day bye!👍👍

Reflective Comment: I know I did pretty well on my DLO but next I also next time I should show them how to do it.  

What stage am I?

In the last week of term I have been learning strategies on addition and subtraction problems.  I have made a DLO about my learning reflection.  Here is my DLO it includes what stage I am in and what my next step is.