Tuesday, 28 March 2017

Persuasive writing - TRANSACTIONAL

This week we looked at some pictures of the deforestation happening in Australia and the effect its having on their native animals. We wrote persuasive texts to explain why we think this should stop. Here are some examples of our writing.
WALT use emotive language
WALT use a range of sentence starters

Save our environment

Did you know that one and a half acres of forest is cut down every second? If Australia don’t start taking care of their indigenous animals, they may not have any left.  The continuing destruction of their habitats at the rate they are now, will force native animals to find a different location to settle into. Have you ever gone to the zoo, What if all the animals go extinct? The only thing at the zoo would be the empty enclosures or sad, lonely looking animals waiting for a mate.

The Animal Kingdom relies on food chains. Food chains are very important to all plants and animals. If plants were to die out, all animals will suffer. One plant going extinct leads to another then the animal, this is called the domino effect. The domino effect can occur when animals and plants will die from hunger. Many reasons that the animals could die out is because their prey would be no more so their would be nothing left for them to feast on. To us that’s like having no Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

The majority of countries have their own native animals. If we keep on demolishing their habitats, then they won’t have a place to live and they will die from starvation.. If the country's native animals went extinct, tourists will stop coming and the economy of the country will drop. If the helpless native animals go extinct there would be no more native animals to breed, so animal breeders would also lose their jobs. The country that the animal inhabits wouldn’t be so eye catching. Zoo’s who keep endangered animals safe from the dangerous wildlife would also lose money since the animals they protect would be no more. If a Koala was to move to another country the Koala would have no food to eat this is because Eucalyptus trees are only in Australia.

If Australian companies and business continue to be greedy and cut down innocent animals, natural habitats.  It won’t just affect that animal but all animals that are linked to it with the food chain or food web. The Amazon Rainforest is losing 150 acres every minute of every day, and 78 million acres lost every year. More than 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest is already gone, and much more is severely threatened as the destruction continues.

Great work Samarah and Chantelle, you have used lots of emotive language and rhetorical questions to make your audience think. Your reasons are clear and supported by evidence and facts. Your next step is to make sure that your examples are relevant eg Are foxes a native Australian animal affected by deforestation?

Miss Richardson


People on earth are making an immense mistake by destroying animal habitats.  The native forests of the world are being cut down everyday, forcing their native animals out of their homes.  It is unfair on the animals as these creatures need certain habitats to survive!  Would you like it if someone came to your house and used TNT to destroy it?  Where would you live?  Would it be nice?  Think about it...  it is important that we should help save animal habitats and stop destroying trees.  

Did you know that there is more than 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres lost every year?  20 percent of the Amazon rainforest is already gone, and much more is severely threatened as the destruction continues.  It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year.

One of the main reason that the forest destructions is so harmful is the loss of native habitats.  The world’s native animals will only live in certain countries for example, the kiwi bird is only found in NZ, while the koala only lives in Australia.  By cutting down forests, we will lose native trees like the manuka tree which is in NZ.  If we destroy the animal’s native habitat, there won’t be any grass so that means that it would lead to the erosion of the land and the animals would have nothing to eat.

Trees are a commodious source of food for herbivores and workers are cutting down all of them for resources.  The food chain will be affected as there will be no herbivores left and most carnivores feed on them.  Also, there won’t be any more plants for the herbivores to eat.  Soon every herbivore and carnivore will then they will succumb (R.I.P) and become extinct...  FOREVER!!!  The outcome might be that people will become weak as some people (non-vegetarians) eat animals and also plants will relinquish life (death).

If all of this rapid destruction of forests continues, then the native animals of different countries will slowly start to die out and then the countries will not have any more native animals left.  These companies are very greedy and all they want is money.  We can prevent this by not buying the products of those companies and then the companies will have to change the way they produce their products hopefully more environmentally friendly methods. Scientists have proved that all of this disintegrating will lead to a major loss of animals.

Well done Pratham and Viraj, a great transactional text. You have included a range of sentence openers and use lots of emotive language. Can you find a fact to support your text?

Friday, 24 March 2017

Year 6 Piha Trip

On Friday the Year 6's went to Piha beach to learn about water and beach safety. The weather was amazing and we had a fantastic day and learnt lots about what to do at the beach. Here is a slide to show what we have learnt...

Wednesday, 22 March 2017

Reading - Stuart Group

Following some research the Stuart group created this describe map to identify the different aspects of Maori Culture. 

Well done Stuart group you have found lots of interesting information about the different parts of Maori Culture. Could you make a prediction about what these things may look like in the future? 

Reading - Cause and effect map

Using the Inquiry slides the Bob group have created a cause and effect map to show the reasons the British and Maori entered into the Treaty of Waitangi and evaluated the outcomes this had on the Maori people. 

Bob Cause and Effect Summary
Introduction - Nuha
The treaty had benefited the British Empire the most because they had gained many things from New Zealand. On the other side the Maori did not get any of the benefits that the British Empire wrote in the treaty. Have you ever wondered why there was a treaty in the first place?  The Maori thought that the treaty would give them the right to rule over half of their own country and have protection under the Queen of England.  The Maori had protection but the British still used their power to take the Maori’s lands.  Here is what happened after the Maori signed the Treaty of Waitangi.   

Diseases - Brianna
After signing the treaty many of the British residents came into the county and spread lots of different diseases that they brought from Britain.  The diseases were measles, mumps and whooping cough. Maori had no immunity to these diseases or any treatment so it was very deadly and many of the Maoris didn’t survive.  Nowadays we get immunised and we have medicine for these illnesses.

Loss of Land - Pearl
When British came to NZ, they needed land to build houses so British demanded land and put pressure on the Maori to sell it to them.  If the Maori wouldn’t sell the land then the British would continue to pressure them until they did.  

Why Britain Needed a Treaty - Gabrielle
Britain needed a treaty to gain more power and land since the population was growing and they needed farms to grow their crops for food. At the time New Zealand had lots of useful resources that appealed to Britain. They also needed a treaty to settle everything down and put rules in place     

Musket Wars - Torres
The musket wars caused lots of death during 1810 and 1840. The Maori population decreased when British settlers came and sold/traded muskets with the maori. The warfare between maori tribes became much more deadly. It caused lots of loss to maori population. The Maori’s were no longer safe on the hill tops, they had to move to flat ground.

British Empire’s Power - Samarah
Britain was also motivated by the desire to forestall other european powers such as France etc. Britain wanted to colonise New Zealand before other countries could like the Dutch and Spain. This happened because Britain felt that they needed to have more power than the other countries. Today Britain has colonised 52 countries in the whole world. The members have a combined population of 2.3 billion people, almost a third of the world population, of which 1.26 billion live in India and 94% live in Asia and Africa combined.
Why did NZ Need a Treaty - Dev                
The Maori needed a treaty to settle the troubles that were caused with the Maori and the British, they also needed the treaty to make rules and to be sure to have protection from the Crown.  Maori gave the Crown exclusive right to buy and sell land and in return the Maori got full authority over their lands, forests, and fisheries and other possessions.  The treaty was very well translated but for a few important words they had problems or intentionally translated incorrectly.  In the Maori version the word ‘sovereignty’ was translated as ‘kawanatanga’ (governance).  The other word ‘undisturbed possessions’ was said as ‘tino rangatiratanga’ (full authority).  

Conclusion - Bob Group
Overall we believe the British let power reach their heads and they went a to harsh on the Maori.  We think that it was wrong for the British to claim the land as theirs since they didn’t give the Maori any choice and didn’t care about what the Maori thought about it. The British went too far in forcing people to be like them, act like them, wear clothes like them and even speak like them. Britain had ruled over a lot of countries and were selfish that lead them to wanting all the power to themselves.  We think that it was a bad idea to have a treaty because we didn’t need Britain to rule our country. They were just selfish and wanted NZ just for themselves. The Maori was the first living here at that time and we think that they should still be in charge of their own land.

Great work Bob group, you have summarised your ideas clearly and drawn your own conclusions about the events. I like the way you have evaluated the outcomes for both the Maori and British people.

Friday, 3 March 2017

Picasso Portraits

For art we looked at Picasso for inspiration and copied his use of shapes and bold colours to create our own self portraits. 

Thursday, 2 March 2017

The start of 2017...

The start of the year is always a busy time of year.. Here is a video of just some of the groups, teams and activities that have kicked off in 2017...