Design Technology Challenge

LI: To design and make a holiday decoration that fits the clients brief

Over the past couple of weeks LS2 have been creating Christmas decorations to hang in the foyer of the school office. Close to the start of the term we planned what we were going to create and the materials that would be needed. During some of the sessions we would get visits from Mr. Johnston and Ms. Ferguson to show us how to plan the design. Mr. Johnston was our client meaning that he would give us a brief of what he wanted. We then created DLO's that would give us an idea of what we wanted to create. This process took us awhile but this was necessary as it is important to plan. After planning we started to construct our decorations.

At the end of this design process we wrote an evaluation. Something positive about my product is that all the colours matched each other, the stitching was small and sturdy and I enjoyed seeing the different faces on the product. Somethings I need to work on is to make sure that the size of the stitching is the same size throughout the whole design, make sure the decorations are all the same size and stuff the decorations fully. My design met the original criteria as it was close to 10cm and was a celebration decoration. This was hard to make at first because I was new to sewing but after a couple of sessions I got used to it and was faster at making the decoration. I am pleased with the end result as it meets the criteria the client had said on the brief and because the design gave a festive vibe. 

I really enjoyed this activity as I got to learn the design process and I tried something new. I would definitely do this activity again as you can make different decorations for different celebrations or you can use your creativity to make other things. I am really proud of my designs I've made as I've worked hard to create them.

Inquiry | Changes I would make

LI: To think deeply about a change I would make. 

Who will get my vote?

LI: To decide which political party will get your vote by making an informed choice 

List some of the things you, your parents and caregivers do.

Weekday	Weekend
Go to work/school	Grocery Shopping
Do shopping	Go out to places
Walk the dog	Go to the park
Go Walking	Walk the dog
Go to the park	Go Walking
Cook food	Chill at home

Important Governing Topics:

Go to the Policy.nz website and read about the topics that government policies centre around. Consider yours and your caregivers’ daily activities. Which two topics are most important to you?

Important topics:
Incomes & Employment	Economy

Compare the political parties’ policies in your chosen governing topics, then choose a party to vote for. If you are still not sure, try this quiz to help find a party that aligns with your priorities.

The party I will vote for is:	My reasons are:
Green Party	They banned single use plastic bags. Legalised Medicinal Cannabis Brought Te Reo into schools Have introduced paid parental leave to 26 weeks so parents can spend time with their babies. They have provided over 200,000 kids with lunch at school. They’ve also ended family violence and sexual violence.

Read about the candidates for governing your electorate (the area where you live) here. You have another vote for your candidate. Use the ‘change electorate’ button if you need to.

The electorate candidate I will vote for is:

Mark Simiona

If you were Prime Minister, what one thing would you do to change NZ for the better and why?

Poverty, because to be honest this problem hasn’t been dealt with properly.. As in it’s been talked about but it’s been swept under the rug. Poverty is one of the biggest problems in New Zealand and I want to end that so in the future, people who live in poverty can live more comfortably. If I help with poverty they don’t have to worry about having no bed to sleep on, not having a roof over their head or not having no food on their plate. Education, housing and income also falls under poverty as people have to drop out of school to provide for their family. Therefore not having enough education to enter certain jobs. Parents have to work 2-3 jobs just because their income is very low. Housing has raised their rent too high for people to pay, therefore leaving them to have to live on the streets or live with family. If I were Prime Minister I would change poverty so future generations have better opportunities. Then they’ll be able to enjoy the remainder of their life :) ~ (Honestly I have more things to change but that’s one of the main things I would change) ~

'If I were Prime Minister I would change poverty, because to be honest this problem hasn’t been dealt with properly.. As in it’s been talked about but it’s been swept under the rug. Poverty is one of the biggest problems in New Zealand and I want to end that so in the future, people who live in poverty can live more comfortably. If I help with poverty they don’t have to worry about having no bed to sleep on, not having a roof over their head or not having no food on their plate. Education, housing and income also falls under poverty as people have to drop out of school to provide for their family. Therefore not having enough education to enter certain jobs. Parents have to work 2-3 jobs just because their income is very low. Housing has raised their rent too high for people to pay, therefore leaving them to have to live on the streets or live with family. If I were Prime Minister I would change poverty so future generations have better opportunities. Then they’ll be able to enjoy the remainder of their life :)' If I were to change poverty younger generations would have more of a variety for jobs. The people who barely make a living can live comfortably in their homes without having to worry about money as much. This would help the community and can help them to live freely.

Inquiry | Elections

LI: To decide which political party will get your vote by making an informed choice.

This week in pairs we decided which political party we would vote for. Before we decided on who we were going to vote for we worked through a google doc to help us decided which party our vote would go to. We then created a DLO about the party we would vote for and reasons why we decided on that party. If I was 18 my party vote would go to Green because they've helped ban single-use plastics as plastic has been a problem in the environment. This means if Green Party won the election in my electorate Mark Simiona would be our member of parliament and James Shaw would become Prime Minister. Something I found interesting was that Green Party was the party that banned the single-use plastic. Doing this activity has allowed me to make an informed decision.

Natural Disasters

Last week was the last week of our distant learning. Our activity for inquiry/reading was to make a DLO of a natural disaster that had occurred and to inform someone who may not know about natural disasters. A natural disaster is a phenomena that can occur at any time which can be caused by a volcanic eruption, tsunami, earthquake or flood leading to people fleeing the area. I chose to make my DLO about volcanoes. In my DLO I include what volcanoes are, what a volcanic eruption is, examples of volcanic eruptions in New Zealand and a fact. Something I found interesting about volcanoes was that Rangitoto was last active 600 years ago. 

Light DLO

LI: To use our understanding about light to create a DLO.

This week for inquiry Diana and I created a DLO explaining what light is. Mr Johnston came to teach us about light. In our DLO we included 5 interesting facts about light and what light is. A interesting fact I found out about light was that since light travels faster than sound you can see lightning before you can hear thunder. 

Periscopes DLO

LI: To explain how periscopes work

This week Diana and I worked together to make a DLO about periscopes. Mr Johnston came and taught us about periscopes and how they are used. Periscopes are like binoculars but instead you can see above without letting the person know who is above. I found this activity interesting as I was amazed at how periscopes work. I never knew that there were mirrors inside periscopes so I found this interesting. I also found out the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. This means that if light hits the mirror at a 45 degree angle it reflects the light back at a 45 degree angle.

Longest Place Name in the world.

This week Mr Johnston made a visit to our classroom to recap a little bit about explorers & adventurers, and introduced us to the longest place name in the world (picture above). He informed us about why places have their names, for example it could be named after somebody important who then got something in return. After the recap Mr Johnston surprised us with a huge sign with the longest place name in the world written on it. He set us a challenge to try and memorise the name and try pronouncing it. The name is a hill called taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu and means "The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the slider, climber of mountains,the land-swallower who travelled about, played his kōauau (flute) to his loved one". 

Places named by Early Explorers

This week for inquiry our topic was about early explorers. For this activity we go into pairs and I paired with Chris. In pairs we created a map about which places the early explorers named. In our map we marked the places Captain James Cook, Kupe and Abel Tasman named. I really found this activity interesting as I never knew who named places like the Hokianga Harbour. Also another fact is that most of these place names were either named by the explorers, important people, friends, and their physical appearance. For example Cape Maria van Diemen was named after Anthony van Diemen's wife. Anthony van Diemen was one of Abel Tasman's assistance. 

Needs and Wants

This week for inquiry we looked at what a need and want is. In groups we looked at what needs and wants were. In my group there were 3 other people Joel, Sakina and Sela. In the slideshow above it shows what we looked at and what we found out.