Tag: Writing

PapyrusAI

Today, we have been using a website called PapyrusAI to help us write a narrative story. PapyrusAI is a type of generative AI that uses a LLM (Large Language Model) to help us create various topics. It learns patterns in words and predicts/suggests ideas that could come next. We watched two fairytale stories, ‘the Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs’. We used the ‘S’ Chart to help us summarise the main ideas/events then used those to help us plan our writing.

I really liked how PapyrusAI suggested some tips to enhance my story because it made me think about ideas I wouldn’t normally have thought of. 

The Little Red Riding Hood’s Unusual Journey

Once upon time, there was a little girl living with her mother in the village, which is located near the edge of the forest. The sun was shining bright, the sounds of the leaves from the trees rattling, birds can be heard chirping outside, and the sounds of laughter and chatters from the villagers. The atmosphere was cheerful and lively. The little girl is currently standing outside her house, happily observing the environment around her, she is usually called ‘The Little Red Riding Hood’. Everyday, she always heads out into the forest to enjoy the view of the beautiful nature. However, there was something that was always on her mind that she couldn’t shake off and it always annoys her. Everytime the Little Red Riding Hood leaves the house, her mother always reminds her to not talk to strangers. Each time, her mother warns her that her irritation increases. She always pondered to herself why she wasn’t allowed to converse with other people.

One day, the Little Red Riding Hood was getting prepared to head out into the forest once again, this was basically her daily routine. As she was about to walk into the woods, she heard her mother yell out in the background, “Darling, please remember to NOT talk to strangers you stumble upon during your journey!” she warned her, feeling worried for her safety. This caused to roll her eyes in annoyance before replying back to her mother. “Yes mom…” she silently muttered in irritation and began to approach the forest.

 

While she wandered through the forest, she admired the beautiful scenery around her. The forest was silent except for the soft sound of her footsteps, her gentle breathing, the rustling leaves, and birds chirping. As she soaked in the peaceful atmosphere, her mind was filled with thoughts: “Why am I not allowed to talk to other people? It wouldn’t be that bad, right?” Her thoughts shattered as she noticed a figure lurking in the shadows.

She squinted her eyes therefore she could catch a glimpse of who was hiding in the darkness properly. She finally caught the sight of who was lurking in the shadows, and it was a wolf. The Wolf stepped out of the shadows, revealing his presence, his figure towering over the Little Red Riding Hood. His sharp eyes analyzed the little girl’s appearance before an innocent grin crept onto my face, revealing his sharp teeth. However, that grin made the Little Red Riding Hood feel a bit uneasy around him yet she decided to shake it off with a smile. That’s when she finally chose to break her mother’s rule and decided to have a conversation with the wolf. “Hiya!” she spoke in a soft tone, not noticing how much danger she is currently in. “Hello…” He greeted, the tone of his voice sounded deep and ominous causing a shiver to run up her spine. The Little Red Riding Hood was beginning to grow tense around her, she seemed to notice his eyes observing her with hunger which made her even more nervous. “…Uhh… H-hi…” This time The Little Red Riding Hood muffled apprehensively, his presence made her feel anxious and intimidated around him. She was beginning to realize that talking to the wolf might not have been the safest choice, her heart began to thump quickly.

The wolf’s sharp gaze roamed around the Little Red Riding Hood’s appearance, there was a hint of hunger in his eyes which made her increase her anxiousness even more. “You know… You look delicious… I wonder what you would taste like…” He spoke in a sinister and ominous tone. The Little Red Riding Hood’s heart was thumping really quickly inside her chest, and she slowly began backing away from the creature in front of her. She also noticed that the sun was setting and the sky was growing darker and darker. “U-uhh… I have to go now..! Uhm-.. Yeah, bye bye!” she stammered uneasily, before turning around and walking away at a fast pace. The wolf growled in annoyance, feeling frustrated that his meal was attempting to escape from him. He began following her, not letting her get away from him. Little Red Riding Hood’s walk quickly turned into a sprint as she raced through the woods, desperately trying to escape the wolf. Her breathing became quick and heavy, and her eyes darted around the forest, searching for a safe place to hide or someone to help her. Her mind was blank with fear, she was focused on nothing but attempting to get away from the wolf. She could hear the sounds of footsteps and growling behind her, leading her to quicken her pace as she realised the wolf was closing in on her.

Little Red Riding Hood glanced over her shoulder and caught sight of the wolf lurking in the shadows as he sprinted after her. Filled with fear and panic, she zigzagged through the woods, hoping to make the wolf lose track of her. The wolf, noticing her clever plan, growled even louder in frustration. Although he tried to keep her in sight, she was surprisingly swift for a little girl, causing him to struggle to keep up. The wolf slashed at the trees with his sharp claws, effortlessly chopping them in half to clear his path and keep up with her. “Don’t think you can escape from me!” he exclaimed in frustration. However, his efforts couldn’t quite match Little Red Riding Hood’s swift and agile movements. Her fear and panic surged as she witnessed the wolf cutting through the trees. Her breathing grew heavier, and sweat began to bead on her forehead as she pushed herself to run faster.

The chase continued like a relentless game of cat and mouse until it finally came to an end. However, the wolf was unable to catch Little Red Riding Hood and lost sight of her among the trees. Frustrated, he growled and clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. “Don’t think you’ve gotten away!” he shouted angrily, ensuring his voice echoed through the woods so she could hear his threat. “I will find you and make sure these sharp teeth will be chewing your flesh.” he said this in a dark and malicious tone.

Meanwhile, Little Red Riding Hood continued to sprint through the forest. Glancing back, she realised she had finally managed to escape from the wolf…for now. She paused to calm herself, taking deep breaths before releasing a final sigh of relief. She was feeling to have slipped away from the wolf’s clutches, she looked around and realised she was lost in the dark forest. The atmosphere had shifted from lively to gloomy. The Little Red Riding Hood shivered as she felt the cold breeze blow against her, therefore she decided to keep walking to find her way back home…

As Little Red Riding Hood wandered through the woods, a noise that was heard in the distance caught her attention, causing her to stop on her tracks and listen closely. The sound of multiple people arguing piqued her curiosity, and she decided to investigate. Following the voices, she made her way to their source. As she arrived, she discovered seven dwarfs—Sneezy, Sleepy, Happy, Dopey, Doc, Grumpy, and Bashful—engaged in a heated argument. Standing among them was a beautiful woman, Snow White, who was trying to calm the situation. (Sorry wasn’t able to complete the whole story!)

Why Sleep is important?

We were requested a task to complete, which is to create a DLO about why Sleep is important. We were also given questions to answer by doing smart researches, reading articles and watching the videos. Some of the questions we answered were ‘Why is sleep important/healthy?‘ ‘Do we all have chances to have a healthy sleep?‘ ‘What are the effects of oversleeping?‘ ‘What are the effects of having too much sleep?‘.

I found this activity helpful because I was learning why is sleep important/healthy and also practicing my smart searching skills to answer the questions.

Speeches

LI: To explore the structures and features of a persuasive speech.

We had to write a persuasive speech about a certain topic. A persuasive speech is a type of speech where the goal is to convince the audiences to accept the speaker’s point of view. The topic I wanted to write/talk about was the “Importance of Cultural Art” or “Why art is important to every culture?“. After writing our speeches, we got into groups and began reading our speeches to each other, whoever has the highest votes were the students that were going to read in front of the class. (I was one of the finalists!)

This activity was helpful because it builds more powerful words into my vocabulary.

Persuasive Language Features

LI: to explore the language features of a persuasive text.

This term we have been learning about persuasive writing to help us get ready for the school speech competition later in this term. Persuasive writing is used when you want to make others think like you. Yesterday we were looking closely at the language features used in a persuasive text. I have chosen to share the persuasive language feature of Emotive Language. I think authors use this language feature to make the reader feel a certain emotion, like sadness, excitement or anger.

I found this activity helpful because it would help me try to persuade others to agree on my side, when I get in a speech competition.

2 Words 2 Minutes

Today, we played a game called the ‘2 words 2 minute’, it was a challenge, were you had two words and write a story or a description about it in two minutes that relates to those words. There were also 3 rules in the game which were, Don’t stress just guess, Write as fast as you can and Make sure it makes sense. We had to write a description about the Ancient Olympics. We had a conversation with a partners to revised the stuff we knew about the Ancient Olympics. After that, we created a list of words (vocabulary) that would help us write our description. The two words we chose were”Greece” and “athletes”, its to help us think about what we were going to write.

We talked about ideas with a partner, then we had 2 minutes to put those ideas into sentences. After the time was up, we had 2 minutes to reread what we had written, we fixed the sentences that didn’t make sense or if we had words and punctuation in the wrong place. When we finished checking, we had 2 more minutes to carry on writing our descriptions. Lastly, we counted how many words we wrote in 2-4 minutes.

This activity was really enjoyable and helpful because this help us add new words into our vocabulary.

Rewrite but don’t use…

LI: To use a wider range of variety vocabulary 

Today, we were challenged to rewrite a sentence without using certain letters, as well as keeping the same meaning. Thanks to WordHippo, which it’s a website that helps us discover a new different word. We were given 3 texts to rewrite and each text got really hard with certain letters that we couldn’t use. For example: We had to rewrite the text of “Humpty Dumpty” and the letters we couldn’t use were “A, L and K”. If you want to see our text, take a look at the next slide!

We found this activity challenging yet helpful because the words we used could be added into our vocabulary list!

Haiku Poem – Maui and the Sun

For this activity, we created Haiku Poem about the Maui and the Sun. We had to watch a story on how the Maui slowled the sun, we had to write 5 verses with 3 sentences in each of them. In a Haiku Poem, there is 5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables on the second line and 5 syllables on the last line. A Syllable is a word that are broken into pieces and it contains a vowel, here is an example, Syl-la-ble.

I found this activity helpful because this could help me write poems.

Procedural Writing

LI: To write a set of clear instructions that shows how to make a Hangi.

Title: How to make a Hangi?

A Hangi is a traditional form of underground cooking for New Zealand Maori.

You will need:

Equipment/Materials:

  • Equipment/Materials
    • volcanic stones
    • shovel
    • paper
    • lighter
    • twigs/kindling
    • cloth sacks
    • metal basket (cooking tray)
    • hook tool
    • gloves
    • cylinder of water
    • leaves
  • Ingredients
    • vegetables (cabbage, potatoes, carrots, taro leaves, kumera, pumpkin)
    • meat (ox, chicken, beef, lamb, pork)

Steps:

  1. Dig a hole for the food basket in it. (Make sure it’s a slightly bigger hole to fit the food basket)
  2. Collected twigs/kinding 
  3. Stack the iron and the woods to a Jenga way.
  4. Get a metal basket (cooking basket) for the foods and place tin-foil on it. 
  5. Light the twigs/kinding and the stones on fire with the lighter.
  6. When lighting the fire leave the fire to burn about 3 to 5 hours
  7. Get your meat ready while waiting, put your meat in the metal basket.
  8. If your Hangi finish burning, use your shovel to place the heated stones in the hole. 
  9. Soak 5 sacks into the cylinder of water
  10. Place it on the stones (Or you could use taro leaves)
  11.  Then carefully place your food basket into the Hangi (use gloves) 
  12. Place a wet sheet all over the food basket
  13. Cover the wet sheet and food basket with sacks
  14. Cover the hole with dirt and place it.
  15. Wait for 3 hours (While waiting, just make sure that everything is safe)
  16. Dig out the dirt and take out the wet sheets and sacks.
  17. Carefully take out the food basket

Safety Message: Make sure to stay around the oven and don’t leave it hanging.

Today we unpacked how to follow and write a set of instructions. To do this effectively your instructions need to be explicit and the steps to follow ordered. Each step begins with an instructional verb and should be written in a way that is easy to understand.

I enjoyed the roleplay because it was fun and easier for me when I’m instructing my partner on how to do something and what you need.

Key Competencies

LI: To create a comparison of the before and after experiences at camp.

Before camp, we wrote down what we would achieve at camp by using the acronym TRUMP. The letter “T” stands for Thinking which means you have to use your own thinking on things. The letter “R” stands for Relating to others which means you have to be kind to everyone and support each other. The letter “U” stands for Using language symbols and text which means you have to use appropriate language by using gentle words. The letter “M” stands for Managing Self which means you have to take care of yourself by following instructions and being responsible for your things. The letter “P” stands for Parcitipating and Contributing which means you have to communicate and collaborate with your group to have a good teamwork. These 5 words help us to remember when to use them in every activity. When we came back from camp, we wrote down how we used the key competencies for our belongings and in the activities. 

I found this activity useful because it tells us what key competencies we will need to use in our activities.

Moment in Time

LI: To recount and explore the learning and experiences from our Year 7/8 camp

Our group wrote a poem based on our senses like auditory, tactile, visual, and kinesthetic. We used our prior knowledge of the senses and unpacked different words and ideas that describes the Hunua Falls. These moment in time poems represent our experience at Kokako Lodge. One of our ideas were “The waterfall was falling down”. We then used word hippo to find more powerful words to strengthen our poems.

I found this activity helpful because it helps me find more powerful words to make my text more interesting.