Week 3, Day 5: Here to Stay - SLJ

DAY 5: Here to Stay

Activity 1: Persistent Pollution [4 points]

In 2016, the World Health Organisation announced that Timaru, a small town in the South
Island of New Zealand, had the highest recorded levels of air pollution in New Zealand.
Some of this pollution was caused by natural events (eg. fires) but most of it was produced
(made) by humans.

Watch this short video on air pollution. It will tell you more about natural and human causes
of pollution.

On your blog, share three new things that you learned about air pollution from this
video.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For this activity I’ve decided to create a little presentation, Enjoy!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Activity 2: Changing Climates [4 points]

Over the past decade, the climate in New Zealand (and around the world) has been
changing. In fact, the climate has been getting warmer and warmer. While many of us like
warm weather, climate change is not good news. Higher temperatures can cause glaciers
to melt (leading to flooding) and increase the amount of rain that falls.

Here in New Zealand, we have noticed the change. In fact, we sometimes have torrential
(huge) rain storms causing flooding, landslides and road closures. When it starts to rain
really hard, Aronui and I usually hide out in our lounge and play games like Yahtzee,
Monopoly and Uno. If it rains all day, we will also spend some time reading, watching
movies and baking.

What about you? What do you like to do on a rainy day?  

On your blog, tell us about five things that you like to do when it is too rainy to go
outside..

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Activity 3: Let It Rain [10 points]

Over the past few decades, we have seen an increase in the amount of rain that falls here
in New Zealand. We are lucky, however, that most of the rain that falls is regular rainwater
and not polluted acid rain. Acid rain is rain that has bad chemicals (pollutants) in it. When
acid rain hits the ground it can enter the water system, killing plants and animals.
Click here to learn more about acid rain.

Let’s imagine that New Zealand was hit by a massive acid rain storm. Acidic rain fell for
three days and three nights. When the rain fell, you stayed inside with your friends and
family. When it stopped, however, you and your family decided to go for a walk outside.
You opened the door and...

On your blog, write a short story about what happened when you opened the door
and walked outside after the acid rain storm. To earn full points, you must write a
story that is 8 – 10 sentences long.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘Wow’, What a huge catastrophe. I slowly opened my eyes and walked straight to the front
door, my sister was telling me not to go out there, but I refused to listen. I felt sick and
wanted to stay inside, my mind was telling me ‘Stop, do you know what your getting
yourself into’. I opened the front door and it didn’t sound so nice, but I continued to walk.
My eyes were half open, out in the open I couldn’t see anything so I waited a few minutes.
10 minutes later. A while after that I could see everything, I was in deep shock mode and
was clueless of what to do. I wanted to clean up this place but I had a bad feeling that the
acid rain storm would come back. What should I do? A lot of families knew they were in
deep trouble and were asked to find a new home, I felt sorry for them all and wanted to
invite them to my home but I knew my house was already full. The storm was incredibly
serious and everyone is in deep trouble, I checked the weather of when the next acid rain
storm is, It said upto 4-5 more months until the next one. Are you serious 4-5 months now
our families of Aotearoa is in serious danger. Do you have any ideas of what we could do
about this issue? Comment below NOW!

Task Description:

For this task I was given another 3 more activities to complete. For today's task description
it’s going to be a little short as I have to leave to Manurewa Bus station to pick up my sister.
For more information about today’s activities (as always slide up and enjoy the
rest of your day) Thanks for reading!       

Week 3, Day 4: Like a Scene Out of a Movie - SLJ

DAY 4: Like a Scene Out of a Movie

Activity 1: The Southern Lights [4 points]

Once in a while a very special event takes place in New Zealand. It is a show of beautiful,
bright lights that appear in the sky over the South Island. The lights are called the ‘Aurora
Australis’ or ‘Southern Lights.’ They are similar to the ‘Northern Lights’ that are often seen
in places like Northern Canada, Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The southern and
northern lights are so stunning that they often leave people, who are watching them,
speechless.

For this activity, you are to write a short acrostic word poem about the beautiful lights.
Hazel has written an acrostic poem about summer to give you an example.

S - Sun outside,

U - Umbrellas in the sand.

M -  My friends and I, having fun,

M - Making sandcastles,

E - Enjoying ice cream on a hot day,

R - Racing to the beach!

On your blog, use the word ‘LIGHTS’ to write an acrostic poem about the Southern
Lights. Be as creative as you can!

For more information and examples of acrostic poems, check out this poetry website.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

L - Luminous, Sky

I - Incredible, Bright lights

G - Glorious Glow

H - Heavenly, Rich, Shine

T - Tumbling, Rainbow, Shine

S - Soft, Smooth, Glowable, Colors of the sky

----------------------------------------------------------------

Activity 2: The Seven Sisters [4 points]

In the middle of winter, a very special cluster (group) of stars appear in the sky over New
Zealand. This cluster is called the ‘Matariki star cluster.’ It re-appears in the sky each
May/June and signals the start of the Māori New Year. Many songs (waiata) and stories
have been written about the cluster. One of these is called ‘The Seven Stars of Matariki.’
It was written by a New Zealander named Toni Rolleston-Cummins. She is from Maketu.
Click here to listen to Toni read her story.

On your blog, write a short summary of the book. What was it about? Try to
summarise the story in 6-8 sentences.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There once was a young, adventurous man who’s name was Mitai. Mitai lived with his
seven brothers in a village called Maketu. Mitai was known as the youngest brother of his
family and was raised by his kororua Tohunga Te Raiwhara from whom he learnt much
magic. Mitai could change and form into a bird and eavesdrop on his brothers conversations.
One day Mitai and his brothers went hunting on, pukemaire hill. Mitai and his brothers
came along to the most beautiful singing, they wanted to discover who and where the
singing came from. As soon as the brothers discovered who the wahine were they
immediately fell in love, all except Mitai. The brothers bought the wahine back to their
village Maketu where they would become husband and wife. Mitai did not like his brothers
wives as they didn’t take part of their village lives, choosing instead to comb their hair
and singing. Mitais brothers no longer went hunting only leaving the whare to collect kai
moana for their wives. The wives refused to eat the kai moana only to eat something
besides seafood. Mitais brothers no longer ate, looked after their gardens nor did they
even care for their appearances, they became skinning and their good looks became to
fade away. Mitai become more suspicious of his brothers wives and decided to watch
them all very, very closely. Mitai noticed that the wahine never seemed to leave their
houses. Mitais eldest brother ( Rongonui ) arrived home early from fishing, Rongonui
called for his wife and was nowhere to found. After searching the whare Rongonui
noticed that his other brothers wives were nowhere to be seen by anyone in the village.
A while after that Rongonui asked his wife where she had been, Rongonui’s wife flew
and turned into a terrible rage. Rongo told all the wives how they vanished as for Mitai
his suspicion grew.  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Activity 3: Crazy, Cool Clouds [5 points]

Have you ever looked up into the sky and seen a cloud that had a really cool shape? I
certainly have, and so have dozens of other people. Choose a crazy, cool cloud given
to you down below.

Clouds are formed when small drops of water stick together. To learn more about clouds
and how they are formed, you can watch this cool video. Once you have learned about
clouds, please choose your favourite cloud picture.

On your blog, tell us what you see in the photo. What shape(s) do you see? Be
sure to tell us which picture you have chosen and describe what you see in lots
of detail!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.The shapes I see:

First of all I wouldn’t have a clue of what sort of shapes are in this picture, would you have
an idea of what sort of shapes are in this photo? With a lot of shapes in the world I would
say, there's about 2 - 3 circles and 2 - 3 triangles. I wouldn’t say that I’m perfectly right but
I would say that the circles belong to the nose, paws ( 2 for the paws of the hands and 2
for the paws of the feet ). With the triangles I would say that they belong to the ears of the
cloud.

What the cloud is:

What I see in this image is a dog or also known as a puppy. The reason why I chose this
specific cloud is because it looked very interesting. Another reason is because I wanted
to try something quite confusing to figure out but incredible to look at. I would describe
this cloud as a cute little puppy as it looks exactly like a puppy and everyone's got to say
that puppies are absolutely cute, soft and cuddly. What would you say this cloud looks like?

Task Description:

For this task I’ve decided to accomplish another day of blogging during this summer
holidays. For the three activities I was to an acrostic poem, write a short summary about
Matariki and the seven stars, last but not least I was to create a short description about the
cloud I chose out of three. For more information enjoy and check out what the post is all
about. Happy New Year Everyone!

Week 3, Day 3: Taking Flight - SLJ

DAY 3: Taking Flight

Activity 1: Bird of the Year! [4 points]

Aotearoa New Zealand is home to many different kinds (species) of native birds.  Sadly,
about a third of our native bird species are at risk of disappearing forever (becoming extinct).

Each year, Forest and Bird New Zealand hold a ‘Bird of the Year’ competition where people
can vote for their favourite native bird. This year, the winner was the kererū (or woodpigeon).

Go onto the Bird of the Year website, look through the native birds on the site, and choose
one that interests you.

On your blog, write a short description of your bird. Where does your bird normally
live? What does your bird normally eat?  Post a picture of the bird underneath your
description. Be sure to attribute your picture properly.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For this activity I decided to choose the Grey Warbler Bird, I´ve gone with this bird due to
how incredible they look and how they personally live. The grey warbler bird has a  Māori
name called riroriro. When the Grey Warbler bird is outside of New Zealand they are called
grey gerygone. The Grey Warbler bird is an insectivorous bird which means it only eats
Caterpillars, Flies, Beetles, Moths and many more. How do they live? After researching
a little more about Grey Warbler birds I found out that this bird lives in all sorts of habitats
around New Zealand. So there we have it, Thanks for reading my short description about
the bird I´ve chosen for today's task ( Grey Warbler ).

Image Attribution:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Activity 2: Flying Foxes [4 points]

Not only is New Zealand home to many native birds but we also have a number of
native bats. Some of these bats are really small while others are much larger. None,
however, are as large as the largest bat in Australia. It is called the flying fox
(pictured below) and it has a wingspan of up to 6 feet or 2 metres. Wow! That is taller
than most of us!

Flying foxes usually sleep during the day and hunt for food at night, using their ears to
guide them through the darkness. Like other bats, they have the best hearing of any
mammal. It is their ‘superpower.’

If you could have a superpower, what would it be? If I could choose, I would like to be able
to fly. It would make it possible for me to fly back to Canada and visit my family whenever I
wanted. How amazing would that be?!

On your blog, tell us what superpower you would like to have and why you’d like to
have it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If I was to choose a superpower and I was given a lot of options my final option would have
to be Invisibility. One reason why I would choose invisibility is because it´ll make funny
pranks, nothing harsh or anything. Another reason is that if I was to go to a birthday party
I would be able to eat anything and everything as I am invisible, It´ll also be funny to see
the looks on peoples faces as there watching me take any type of food or drink I've taken.
My final reason is that I will be able to win any sort of game like

( tag, Hide and Seek, Etc. ) as I am invisibly and I can just turn invisible anytime I want.
Overall my final decision of a superpower it would be Invisibility. Hope you enjoyed, feel
free to check the other two activities.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

Activity 3: Wind Beneath My Wings [10 points]

Birds and bats are just two species of animal that are able to fly. Did you know that some
fish, squirrels and snakes are also able to fly? Check out the ‘Top 10 Flying Animals of
the World’ website to learn more about these incredible animals.

Once you have explored the site, choose one animal and create a digital learning object
(DLO, eg. a poster) that tells us all about the animal. Be sure to include at least three
interesting facts and a picture or two of your animal! Please follow these
instructions for attributing your pictures properly.

Here is an example of a DLO that was created about lions.

On your blog, post a final copy of your DLO..

Here is my final copy about Flying Animals. Check out the #3 facts written below you,
Image Attributions will be below the DLO copy.

Here is the Image Attribution For Both Images ( There both the same photo by the way ):

Task Description:

For this task I´ve decided to complete another 3 activities given to me and all the Summer
Learning Journey Bloggers. For this task I was to choose an animal that flys listed on this
website. I was also given the task to choose a superpower and my answer to that was
Invisibility. For the final activity I was to write a short story about the bird I decided to
choose. I really hope you enjoyed todays task and hope to see you back here. Enjoy
and Happy New Year!