SLJ- 7!

Hello Bloggers, I'm back and at it again!

Today is the 7th day of the Summer Learning Journey and also the holidays! That means there is only 3 weeks left or 15 days because it doesn't include the weekend, that's why! If you don't know what the Summer Learning Journey is then keep reading, otherwise, skip to the next paragraph! So the Summer Learning Journey happens through out the summer holidays and the reason why we should do it is because we spend all that time in school learning but when we have the holidays, we forget about everything because we are having so much fun! Then we have what is called a Summer Slump which kind of shows how your learning was, before and after the holidays. The reason why we should do it is so we don't forget everything we learnt but we also learn new things! If you come 1st, 2nd or 3rd, out of your school, then you win awesome prizes but if you come 1st out of your cluster you win a Chromebook or many other cool prizes! I think its worth it! 

Each day, there are 2 main activities which are both worth 4 points and then there is a main activity which is worth 6 points. If you complete all of them, then you get 14 points in total! Each comment or reply you do as well is 2 points each! Okay, lets get started! This is what I have to do for the first activity! 

Activity 1: A Long Walk to Freedom [4 points]

Nelson Mandela was an activist and civil rights leader who was born and raised in South Africa. For over 40 years (1948-1991), the country of South Africa had a political system called ‘apartheid’. This meant that there were different rules for people who had white skin than for those who didn’t. Nelson Mandela felt that this was very wrong and he fought for many years to change the law. Eventually he became the President of South Africa and ended apartheid, but not before spending 27 years in prison.

In Robben Island prison (where Mandela spent 18 years), life was very tough. Mandela had a tiny, damp, concrete cell, with only a straw mat to sleep on. During the day he was forced to work in a quarry, breaking rocks into gravel. He was only allowed to see one visitor and receive one letter every six months. At night, Nelson read and studied to be a lawyer.

For this activity, please imagine that you are Mr Mandela and that you are living at Robben Island prison. You have been given a journal and each night you write in it.

On your blog, write a journal entry imagining that you are Mr Mandela. What do you think he did each day? How did he feel? Include as much detail as you can in the journal entry.

*Please check out the Eye-Catching Blog Posts page for ideas!

Here is the 2nd activity!

Activity 2: School Strike for Climate [4 points]

You may have heard people talking about an issue called ‘Climate change’. Climate change refers to an increase in the temperature of our planet. Warmer temperatures can cause natural disasters (floods, storms, droughts, bush fires, hurricanes, etc), rising sea levels, and the extinction (disappearance) of plants and animals.

Many people in New Zealand (and overseas) are worried about climate change, including Greta Thunberg, a 16 year old girl from Sweden. She believes that climate change is not only real, but that it is a “crisis”. She is upset that adults, particularly governments and powerful people, are not taking climate change seriously. In 2018 she began protesting outside the Swedish government buildings every Friday instead of going to school. She inspired the School Strike for Climate protests and, in 2019, spoke to the United Nations about her concerns. Not everyone, however, is convinced that climate change is really happening.

For this activity, we would like you to explore the School Strike for Climate Australia website.

On your blog, list three facts (things) that you learned, and include a photograph of something that you are doing around home to help the environment.

*Please check out the Eye-Catching Blog Posts page for ideas!

Here is the bonus activity!

Martin Luther King Jr was a Christian minister in the United States of America (USA) in the 1950's and 1960's. He spent much of his life fighting for equality (equal rights) for people of colour. At the time, there were laws that kept black and white people separated - they went to different schools, used different toilets, and even sat in different parts of a bus and ate in different areas of a restaurant. This was called ‘segregation.’

Dr King did not agree with these laws and he led many protests against them. He was joined in his protests by many people, including an African American woman named Rosa Parks. In 1955, Rosa boarded a bus in Alabama (USA) and when the bus filled up with people, she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. You can read about this famous incident here and watch a video about Rosa Parks here.

The brave actions of people like Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks were instrumental in changing the way that African Americans (people of colour) were treated in the United States.

For this activity, please consider the problem that black men and women faced in America at this time.

On your blog, describe the problem. What did Rosa Parks do about the problem? How did other people react?

*Please check out the Eye-Catching Blog Posts page for ideas!

I will just do it here!

(I will be saying black men or women or white people throughout this activity, but I'm not trying to be racist or anything!)

The black men and women, at that time, were not treated equally and the white people would have more opportunities because of this. The back people were treated like slaves and they were slaves of the white people, when they were walking down the street and saw a white person, they would either have to cross the street or not even look up to them. Martin Luther King said a speech called 'I have a Dream' and one of the lines were 'I have a dream that my 4 little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by their content of their character.' Rosa Parks was on a bus and then everyone was forcing her to give her seat to a white person but she refused and she didn't give her seat to the white person because she believed in equal rights and she got known for that. 

That was it for today, I hope you enjoyed! If you have any questions then please ask! Otherwise, until next time, goodbye!