Social Studies: Comparison of Cultures

Over the past few weeks during social studies, we have been working on comparing cultures. We were required to pick a European culture and then compare it to New Zealand's. Here is my finished result.

Your Turn: Descriptive writing

During English for the past few weeks, we have been working on descriptive writing. Our task was to take a sentence from the descriptive writing we had been doing and create a google drawing with an image that would depict that particular phrase. I chose to do two because I couldn't figure out which one I preferred. 

Science: Food and Digestion

During science for the past few weeks, we have been studying food and digestion, and have recently been looking at teeth,  comparing carnivore teeth to herbivores. We learnt how the different diet of that particular animal affects the tools they have to break the food down. For example, the teeth cows possess  grind down their food are predominantly premolars and molars, as those teeth offer a wider and flatter surface area for them to use to break down the fibre rich grass which their diet predominantly consists of. Carnivores on the other hand, possess sharper and more prominent incisors which are used for cutting into their food, as well as canines, four large teeth situated near the front of the mouth which are used for holding and securing their prey to prevent it from escaping. These teeth are also responsible for tearing the food into smaller chunks, making it easier for the incisors and other teeth to chew. We also looked into the different ways these groups of animals have of chewing their food. Cows have a jaw that enables them to move their mouth in a circular motion, and this makes it easier for them to grind the food over their teeth. Carnivores on the other hand, possess a jaw that moves up and down, and this gives them a much stronger bite power. Their jaw is able to move upwards with the help of strong temporalis muscles that pull their jaw upward and backwards into their skull. That kind of went of the point, so to cut a long story short, below is a video that we made. We had to look at the teeth the different skulls had and then had to guess what it was and then answer a few more questions in the video (which is below). 

Showing not Telling writing: My Friend

Pixie hair the colour of hot toffee dances across olive toned skin splattered with brown paint. Her toffee hair frames owlish eyes, deep pools of new bark, set deeply on the olive canvas like gemstones in the ground, glinting with unprecedented mischief. Her blunt wide nose is situated smack bang in the middle of her face, with nostrils that flare with the waves of her emotions. Under her wide nose, her cherry coloured mouth is most often painted in a smile, unconsciously lighting up the world. She is lithe and strong, with a colourful personality that is rivalled only by the clothes she wears. Flames on her pants, the sea on her shirt and the clouds hanging on her headband. Quirky and bright, she looks like she is wearing a rainbow. 

Her general angelic facade barely conceals a personality brimming with mischief, mostly brought out by chocolate. She has an evil twin that feeds on this substance, hiding in the depths of her soul, and will emerge when there has been excessive consumption of rubbish food. She is a bit like a coin, one side of her is stubborn and determined, the other making her one of the kindest most sentimental people in the world. In fact, at prize giving last year she was crying rivers when it came to saying goodbye. Rivers, plural. The flip side of the coin is like a wall that will not budge, and will stand tall even through waves of insults or ridicule. Like a wall she protects those she stands in front of, simply because she can and wants to help. However, over time, sections of the wall can become worn and fragile like the petals of a daisy, shattering in a gentle breeze. We are her wall through these times, by her all the time no matter what. The wall may look blunt and staunch in the daylight, but under the stars and with her friends, the wall shines the same silver as the moon. 

Friendship is like a wrought iron chain, it can be bent, pulled, tugged, broken, but there are still more links, and the broken ones can be forged back together. She values friendship and treats it like you would a growing plant. Nurturing it with words, maintaining it with actions, and keeping it alive just by being herself. She is like an open book that is written in a secret language only we can understand. Her secrets spill from these pages, her thoughts, her moods, her feelings. Trust is another important thing in a relationship like this, where pretty much nothing is hidden away. Trust is the first flower that grows on the vine of friendship, keeping things locked away in plain sight, such as secrets. Trust waters friendship, keeping it alive. Fun is the laughter that follows an exceptionally bad joke, or the giggles of mirth that echo through the night at a sleepover. Fun is the second flower on her friendship vine, keeping relationships alive with a giggle, a laugh, a chuckle. So friendship, trust, and fun. The three sides of the dice, and the flowers on her plant of friendship.