For the past term I have been doing theatre sports, which I really enjoyed. I really liked the games but I would have definitely found it more fun if we did at least some plays or acting, but I do understand that it would be hard to do those things in the amount of time we had. I enjoyed the freeze frames and the whoosh games we played. I would definitely do this again.

For these past week I have worked on a persuasive speech about why we should ban smoking.

Here is my speech:

Did you know that over 3 million people globally die every year from smoking? Smoking is terrible for your physical and mental health which can take effect on our world for the worst. My name is Addison and today I would like to talk to you about why we should ban smoking.

 

Smoking is a big problem for the body. Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. It is estimated that every cigarette you smoke takes away 11 minutes of your life. Within 10 seconds of your first puff, the toxic chemicals in the cigarettes reach your brain, heart and other organs. Smoking affects almost every part of your body. As a smoker you are also harming people around you when they breathe in the smoke you exhale.

 

Smoking plays a big part in mental health. When you smoke, the nicotine causes pleasant feelings and distracts you from the unpleasant ones, but this is not long term. Smoking causes depression, anxiety and loneliness. Nicotine makes you socially isolated and then you can’t make friends, or want to socialize with friends or family. Other symptoms are attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and anxiety disorder. Frequent uses of nicotine creates changes in how the brain works in relation to self control, stress and learning.

 

Even the environment is affected by cigarettes. About 1.69 million pounds of cigarette butts end up as toxic trash every year and globally 1,134,292 cigarette butts were cleaned from beaches and waterways in 2021. Cigarettes are the most littered item on earth and it pollutes the air, water and land with the toxic chemicals they contain. The butts go down the drain and wash to the ocean and beaches. Cigarettes also harm a lot of wildlife and it causes deforestation.

 

So what I’m trying to say is cigarettes are harmful in so many ways, and I think that we should take action before more harm happens to us and the people around us. I hope you will take all this into consideration and help us ban cigarettes and make the world a safer place for everyone.

Today we did a 100 question division test. I got 60% in 10 minutes. My goal next time is to get at least 70%.

Have you thought about gender equality? Normally this concept does not cross many minds as it has progressed over the years, but there are still problems regarding the workplace, social media, cat calling, harassment and more. We are all people, gender should not divide the way we treat each other. In the profession side of things, as the woman dominated occupations end up being lower paid than in men dominated occupations. Social media is also a problem because women are constantly sexualised, and put down causing depression, and negative body image. I hope that we can do better by making sure people are treated equally.

We are learning about persuasive writing, in this paragraph I used a rhetorical question and factual language.

Today I did 100 times table test. I got 87% I did this in 10 minutes. My goal is accuracy.

Spencer park camp. 

 

Next week I’m going to Spencer park to camp for a night. We have to walk, make our own food and put up our own tents. I think that the walk will be difficult but I will try to use resilience and keep on going. I will use empathy by helping my tent mate when they need it. I will use integrity by not staying up all night talking. And I will use success by finishing the camp. I hope I can reach my goals and have a great time at this camp.

Reflection

I have to admit, entering Tangaroa was scary, because I knew that I had many responsibilities. But I feel that it has given me so many skills and opportunities like our podcast, choice and challenge, surfing etc. The highlight for this year is camp. I really enjoyed camp and it taught me a lot of things I may need to know in the future. I learned how to stay calm if I need to, and how to look after our community. I also learned air rifles and archery. My goal for next year is to improve my handwriting skills by writing more stories on paper instead of digitally. My other goal is to learn how to read people better so I am not always looking for reassurance. I will try to get better at being considerate and putting myself in others’ shoes. When I’m older I would like to be an actor.

 

On Tuesday the year 5 – 7 participated in the top team. Top team is where we get put into teams of 6 – 7 people and we complete many activities such as egg and spoon race and naughts and crosses. We had a lot of fun and fulfilled many rise values, like success (Finishing top team) and resilience (Working without a teacher). I had a great time.

For the past week we have all been making an eco friendly cabin. I put solar panels on the top and a fire inside so that we don’t have to use as much power.

Today we did 100 timetables and I got 86% right. My goal is to become faster so I have time at the end to work out the ones I don’t know.