SLJ Week 2 Day 1 : Taking the Lead

Activity 1: Playing Favourites [4 points]

Barack Obama was the President of the United States of America (USA) from 2009 - 2017. He made history as the first African American person to be elected President of the USA.

Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. His father was from Kenya, Africa and his mother was American. His parents divorced when he was young and his father died in a car crash when Barack was 21 years old. As a young man Barack studied law at university which is where he met his wife, Michelle.

Together, Barack and Michelle have spent much of their adult lives helping others and giving back to their community. When they are not at work, they can be found doing their favourite things, including spending time with their family, playing with their dog, or going to the gym.

What do you like to do for fun? Do you also enjoy spending time with family? Do you have a special pet?

For this activity, create a list of your ‘Top 5’ favourite things to do and take a photo of yourself doing each of these things.

On your blog post both your list and your photos of your favourite things.

My 1st favourite thing to do is eat. 

My second favourite thing to do is play touch.

I love to run.

I like studying maths.

I like going pools.

I have no photo of it so here is a thing I like to call photoshop.

Dr Jessa Rogers (Metuamate) is a Aborignal Australian and a leader in indigenous education. She grew up in Queensland, Australia, and when she had a baby while she was still at school, it seemed like her education would suffer. However, Jessa not only completed her high school education, but she went on to University and completed several degrees, including a PhD which means she is called Dr Rogers!

Dr Jessa Rogers became the first school principal (and youngest Aboriginal principal in Australia) of the Cape York Girl Academy, a school in far north Queensland for young indigenous mums and their babies. For her work on improving indigenous education in Australia, she won the NAIDOC Youth of the Year award in 2010, has gone on to win many more awards and write several books.

For this activity, we would like you to calculate Jessa’s age when she won the NAIDOC Youth of the Year award. She was born on 7 April 1985 and she received the award on 9 July 2010. Please provide the answer to this question in years, months and days (eg. 20 years, 6 months and 2 days).

On your blog, please post both your final answer and an explanation of how you solved this maths problem. You could write your explanation, or use screencastify to record yourself explaining how you solved it.

Activity 3: ‘Dear Jacinda’ [6 points]

The Right Honorable Jacinda Ardern is the current Prime Minister (PM) of New Zealand (NZ). You might have heard of her because she’s in the news a lot! Did you know that she is the second youngest person and the second woman ever to be elected PM of NZ?

As PM, Jacinda Ardern makes a number of important decisions every day. Before she makes these decisions, she meets with many people to hear their ideas and get their perspectives (views) on issues.

Let’s imagine you were to write a letter to Jacinda Ardern about an issue that is really important to you, and to ask her for help. It could be something serious to do with education, health or welfare, or it could be something more fun and crazy - you decide!

For this activity, please write a letter that includes the issue you have chosen, why you have chosen it, and what you would like our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, to do about it. It is your job to persuade us (and her!) that it’s an important issue.

On your blog, share your letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Dear Jacinda Ardern

My issue I have to talk to you about is the New Zealand native animals are becoming extinct. New research shows the Maui's dolphin is sliding closer to extinction, but it is far from the only species struggling to cope in New Zealand's water, forests and rivers. Here are some ways we can stop the native animals from becoming extinct.  We can stop polluting rivers , forests and air. We can help feed the animals. Let them be free in the wild. And stop putting them in zoos just for a show to make more money.

Thanks for listening by Auckland