Blog Action Day 2015

Hi there,

I think that the issue of shark finning needs to be addressed.

What is shark finning?

Shark finning is the practice of removinf of shark fins after being caught. The 3% of the sharks body weight are the high valued shark fins and then the other 97% is the lower value of the body. Often the body of the shark still alive is thrown back into the ocean but without being able to swim or pass water through the gills dies a slow painful death of suffacation, bloodloss, or predatation from other species.

Why is it a problem?

It is a highly unstable fishery. Targeting any species, sex or size. There has even been testing to prove that the most protected shark species in the world the great whit has been shark finned.

What is being done?

There are many websites where you caan donate to or sing a petition against shark finning. But something that has recently been shown to me is Yao Ming former basketball star who has dropped sales in shark finning by up to 70%. Read this interesting article to find out more.

Sources of information:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/chinas-choice/2014/aug/08/sales-of-shark-fin-china-drop-70
http://www.sharksavers.org/en/education/sharks-are-in-trouble/finning-and-the-fin-trade/

Reflection on Exhibition

If you have read the post below this one you will know what I mean by Exhibition.

I thought overall exhibition became one of those projects that you just really didn't want to finish. But we did and I was really proud of how far our groups learning had come.
I think that our movie showed everyone the message but the facts were all the facts are at the end and I found most of the students walked away after the beginning and didn't stay for the rest of it.

We could have engaged the audience a bit more maybe by having a game as well as our movie.

I also think we could have pushed our can drive a bit further so we could of collected a few more cans.

This was a great learning experience for me and I hope I will continue to learn about child poverty in New Zealand and I hope that the statistics will start changing for the better soon.

Thank you to Mrs Hogg for these wonderful photos.

Child Poverty in NZ

Last term we had Exhibition there was about eight weeks leading up to the day and a lot of work and effort went into the final products. My group's topic was child poverty in NZ after researching we found that this was a huge problem in New Zealand so we decided to take two actions our first one was to collect cans from the school and then donate them to a school who needed help with supplying food for their children and the second one was to create awareness by showing the community our videos and pamphlets.

Here are some photos from the day:

Thank you to Mrs Hogg for these wonderful photos.

New Books

If you have read the post I wrote last term then you will know that I have been one of the ones chosen to be a blog librarian. Part of this means that we get to read some of the new books before they get put on the shelves and review them. Here are my first five reviews:

Thirteen days of Midnight
Leo Hunt

I found this book full of adventure, suspense and thrill. The last 4 chapters I couldn't even put my book down I was that hooked in. ( This book only has 13 chapters so the chapters are long!) I personally really liked it and I would recommend this book to anyone who likes thriller novels. This is a bit of an insight into the book. There is a boy named Luke and hi dad passes away so that would mean his son could inherit  million dollars but he had to sign something first that he had no idea what he was signing for. So he ends up with 8 murderous ghosts who come  million dollars but he needs to learn how to control these ghosts before Halloween when they will break from their binding and murder the whole town. Will he get this under control before it's too late...

If You were Me
Sam Hepburn

This book for me wasn't the best book I have read but it was still worth reading. This book was about a family who were refugees from a country and came to London to stay. A couple of weeks later police find the eldest son with a bomb in a workshop where he is injured. They said that that is why he came to London in the first place and it turned everyone against him. Aliya his younger sister knows that he would never do such a thing so she risks her life to try and uncover the truth...

The Storm
Virginia Bergin

This is a great book for anyone interested in a sad and just a bit depressing fantasy. I really enjoyed the book it kept me turning the pages. Th book is set after an apocalypse. Rain is the deadly killer that caused the apocalypse and once you have survived that the old rules don't seem to matter so much. This book tells the story of Ruby Morris who hates rain.

How to Fly with Broken Wings
Jane Elson

This book has a beautiful message to it . At times it is sad and others fun but it brings a lot of joy. This book I found moving and for those of you who haven't read the book A Room Full of Chocolate by the same author you should. Any way back to this book. Willem Edward Smith is twelve years old and is on a mission. He wants to make friends but with most of the kids his own age in gangs he finds it hard.

Pinocchio by Pinocchio
Michael Morpurgo

This book has a message to it about doing the right thing. I didn't really enjoy this book as much as the other two because I got so frustrated with Pinocchio for always doing the wrong thing. Pinocchio is more than just wood and strings so it's about time he tells you his story.

Thank you Happy Reading,
Danielle :)