Tag: Writing

Exploring AI in Writing

PapyrusAI is a generative AI that uses patterns and the large language model to predict what to write next. It helps and assists you when writing your story by giving you feedback and suggestions. We used our knowledge of fairy tales and prompts to construct a new fairytale. We combined the two fairy tales, Snow White and Little Red. I really liked the suggestions and feedback that it gave me to improve my story and add extra detail. I found a bit of the vocabulary that they used challenging because I didn’t understand a few words.

Who’s the Fairest of Them All?

Princess Snow White’s evil stepmother had a magic mirror that told her she was the fairest of them all. One day, the evil stepmother asked the mirror, “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” But it replied with Snow White. The evil stepmother became jealous and full of envy. She banished Snow White and ordered her to go live with her sick grandmother on the other side of the forest.

On her way to her grandmother’s cottage, she meets seven little humans, dressed in colourful rags, wearing adorable little hats. They were going in the same direction as Princess Snow White. They were carrying a basket full of herbs and ingredients to make good soup for her sick grandmother. Snow White asked them how they knew her grandmother. One of the dwarfs said in an Australian accent, “G’day mate, I’m Kale and we look after ye grandmother with yer cousin, Little Red.” “I have a cousin?” Snow White replied. The shortest dwarf of them all invited Snow White to her grandmother’s house, “Hoi, I go by the name of Ryleigh, would ya like to walk with us to ye grandmother’s house.”

Wicked evil queen once again asked the magical mirror, “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” The magic Mirror replies, “My queen, you are beautiful, but Princess Snow White is far more beautiful than you, she is still the fairest of them all.” The evil queen became jealous, so she concocted a devious plan to get rid of Snow White. The queen decided to create a deadly poison and combined it with cherries to give to Snow White. The poison made the cherries glow, making them seem delicious. The queen disguised herself as a small sweet, innocent old lady with a basket full of cherries and set off to find Snow White.

Meanwhile, at the grandmother’s cottage, the dwarfs set off to work while Snow White gets to know her cousin, Little Red. “How long have you been living with grandma?” asked Snow White curiously. “I have been living with the dwarfs for 10 years, ever since my parents got eaten by a mysterious creature,” gloomily replied Little Red. The two keep chatting until Snow White decides to bake some fresh cherry pies for them to devour for dessert. As she bakes, she realises that she has run out of cherries. “I’ll be back later, I need to go pick more cherries for the pies,” yells Snow White. As Snow White is picking cherries, the queen, disguised as a little sweet old lady, comes along and approaches Snow White. “Hello beautiful, would you like some fresh cherries?” the queen said in a quiet raspy voice. “Oh, thank you,” Snow White said gratefully, while smiling.

Snow White gladly skips back to the cottage with the basket full of bright, juicy cherries from the old lady. She continued baking her pies and combined the poisonous cherries into the mixture. Once the pies were baked, she left them out by the window sill to cool down. While the pies cooled down, a moose came and gobbled up all of the pies, which caused the moose to pass out. When Snow White went to check up on her pies, she was shocked to see the unconscious moose. She then realises that the cherries have been poisoned!

A few minutes later, the seven dwarfs arrived home and Joe asked, “Why is everybody in shock, and why is there a dead moose outside our window?” “Somebody had poisoned the cherries and gave them to Snow,” replied Little Red in a scared voice. “Never take anything from strangers,” Grumpy Greg said as he scolded the girls. “But I never did anything, it was all Snow,” complained Little Red. “It doesn’t matter, from now on, don’t let anyone in and don’t take anything from strangers,” Grumpy Greg said angrily. The next morning, the dwarfs were off to work.

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all,” the wicked queen said full of self-admiration. “My Queen, you are quite the stare, but Snow White is still far more fair,” the magic mirror said honestly. The queen, now enraged with anger, stormed out of the castle and turned into her true form, a giant… scary… monstrous…

“Where are the dwarfs, they have been gone all day as if they just disappeared,” said Grandma full of worry and curiosity. “I have no idea, let’s go look for them Snow,” said Little Red eagerly. “Be careful, and remember what Grumpy said,” Grandma told them. “We will,” shouted the girls as they walked out the door. On their way to the mines, they heard rustling in the bushes. This caused them to start running to the mines full of fear. When they entered, they found Joe’s hat along with all their tools, lying amongst the rocks and concrete. “Where have they gone?” yelled Little Red. As they continued exploring the cave, they found… fur?

They picked up every piece of fur they came across, eventually leading them to a path of footprints. They followed these mysterious footprints through the forest. “This path is familiar,” Snow said confused. “Wait… This is leading to our cottage!” yelled Little Red. They raced back to the cottage to find the door left wide open. This sent shivers down their spine as they slowly entered the cottage. “Grandma, are you there?” trembled Little Red. “Come in, come in,” replied ‘Grandma’ in a soft voice. “Oh my! What big eyes you have, Grandma,” exclaimed Snow. “It’s my new glasses, all the better to see you, my dear, come closer.” “Oh my! What a big nose you have, Grandma,” said Little Red. “All the better to smell your delicious baking, my dear, come closer.” “Oh my! What big ears you have, Grandma,” Snow said shocked. “All the better to hear you, my dear, come closer.” “Oh my! What sharp teeth you have, Grandma,” said Little Red, “All the better… to eat you!” The queen yelled as she ate them both up before shape-shifting back into the queen’s body.

“Snow White, are you here?” said a voice from outside the cottage. “I’m in here; they are gone missing!” The queen said trembling with fear. The king enters the cottage and sees it’s in a big mess. “What could’ve possibly happened to them?” the king asked curiously. “I have no idea,” The queen said, trying to act innocent. The king starts exploring the cottage. “Why is the bed messy and full of… wolf fur?” The king asks. “Why are all of their shoes here if they have gone out?” the king asks again. “Why is a piece of your gown here, my love?” asked the King for a third time. “STOP ASKING QUESTIONS!” The queen growls in a deep voice filled with anger. “My queen, what’s happening?” the king asked worryingly. Slowly, the queen started to transform into her true form, a wolf! “I have put up with this nonsense for long enough, I should be the fairest in the land, not your useless daughter!” The queen replies, full of envy and hatred.

“Guards! Help me!” yelled the king, signalling for his guards to come in. “Nooooo,” yelled the queen in defeat. The guards successfully took down the wolf and rescued the 7 dwarfs, Grandma, Little Red, and Snow White. “I told you guys we shouldn’t have let that old lady in,” Grumpy scolded the other dwarfs. “It’s not my fault!” Ryleigh said in defence. “Let’s all just be glad we are safe now,” said Toby. “Let’s all just go back to the castle,” said the king, relieved that they are all alive. They all head back to the castle and explore their new home. The dwarfs now have their own rooms and do jobs around the castle. Little Red looks after their Grandmother and the king goes back to his normal duties. Years later, on the day of Snow White’s coronation, she decided to have a look in the previous queen’s room. She dusts off some boxes and cleans it up a bit, and she comes across a big box. She opened it to find a large mirror draped with an old cloth. She looks into it and says for the last time, “Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”

The End.

2 words 2 minutes

2 words 2 minutes:

Today we did the ‘2 words 2 minute’ challenge to write a paragraph about the ancient olympics, and practice our physical writing. In the ‘2 words 2 minute’ challenge, there are 3 rules. Don’t stress, just guess, write as fast as YOU can, and make sure it makes sense. We were given the words ‘Greece’ and ‘Athletes’. 

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 and make changes if anything 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 piece. We checked if we had simple , compound, and complex sentences. Along with capital letters, commas, full stops, a rhetorical question and adverbs. We then wrote down what we need to work on. 

I enjoyed this activity because we got to revise on our ancient Olympic Games knowledge in a fun way.

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 prepare for the school speech competition, that will be happening later in this term. Persuasive writing is used when you want to make others think like you, and have the same opinion as you. 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 others feel what they are feeling by using emotions. In a persuasive writing piece, you should have reasons and evidence, to show why your opinion is correct.

I enjoyed this activity because I learnt different language features that can be used in persuasive writing.

Rewrite but don’t use

LI: To use a wider variety of vocabulary.

We were challenged to rewrite a piece of text without using certain letters, but to keep the meaning. To be able to find different vocabulary, we used a website called Wordhippo to replace words with synonyms. Synonyms are two different words that have the same meaning. One of the pieces of texts we had to rewrite was Twinkle, Twinkle, little star. But the challenge was to rewrite it without using the letter “e”. Because the letter “e” is so common is words, we had to figure out how to replace the words that contain the letter “e”. How do we do that? We use Wordhippo to find synonyms. An example of what we had to remove was Twinkle. Because “Twinkle” contains the letter “e”. So we changed it to Shining bright.

At first, I thought that this activity was going to be simple. But I soon realized that the letters we weren’t able to use were so common, giving use a challenge. Overall, this activity enhanced and expanded my vocabulary.

Information Report – Bengal Swamp Tigers

L.I: To write an information report that informs the reader about the Swamp Tigers

We used our smart searching skills to find facts about the Bengal Swamp Tiger. Once we had found the information we needed, we made notes in our own words. We used these notes to help us write our information reports. Information Reports give readers information on a chosen topic by providing them facts.

 

Swamp Tigers

Swamp Tigers, also known as Panthera Tigris Tigris, are located in the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world. Not many people know that these vicious animals are endangered because as pollution deforestation and city expansion becomes more common, it takes away the natural habitat of animals.

These beasts have vigorous jaws and acuminate incisors, giving them advantages, like being able to shred their prey into pieces. They are Muscular and are Colossal in size, making them able to pounce onto their target. Because of their orange fur and black stripes, they are capable of camouflaging into their environment. A full grown male weighs around 300 kgs, and a fully grown female weighs about 225 kg. Did you know that their height can vary from 2.7 – 3 metres?

The diet of a Swamp Tiger consists of meat only. Making them a Carnivore (solely meat eaters). They are solitary and nocturnal hunters, meaning that they hunt on their own, and at night. Their meals are scarce, which means that they are hard to find. They have adapted to their habitats and have included marine life into their diet. Their meals vary from crabs, reptiles, turtles, deer, wild boar, fish and even humans.

The Bengal Swamp Tiger inhabits the continent of Asia, throughout the border of India and Bangladesh. Sundarbans, where they are located, is a mangrove forest with tidal waves surrounding. Unfortunately, the habitat is being wrecked from deforestation and natural disasters.

Did you know that Swamp Tigers are very territorial? That means that they guard and defend their territory. Because they live around aquatic areas, it enables them to have exceptional swimming skills. Did you know that they can swim up to 8 km?

Surprisingly, these brutal animals are vulnerable and endangered. In the future, we have to think about the effects that city expansion causes. Don’t you think so too?

Swamp Tigers

L.I: To create a multi modal DLO that tells others about Swamp Tigers.

Our challenge was to make an Information Report about Swamp Tigers. To be able to write about it though, we had to do research about Swamp Tigers. We wrote about its Appearance, Diet, Habitat, and its Behaiviour. Did you know that Swamp Tigers can run 40 mph! The Appearance of a Swamp Tiger is useful for camouflaging. Camouflaging is blending in with the surrounding. A Swamp Tiger is a Carnivore, meaning that their diet consists of only meat. Their food is scarce, meaning hard to find. Swamp Tigers are solitary hunters. Solitary means on its own. Did you know that the Habitat of Swamp Tigers is the largest Mangrove forest in the world! It’s located in Sundarbans. Unfortunately, it has had some damage caused to its environment because as humans are expanding cities, they are also taking away the natural habitats of animals. Swamp Tigers are very territorial, meaning that they defend and guard their territory. They are exceptional swimmers, and can swim up to 8km!

I enjoyed this activity because I learnt how to accept and reject facts, and I learnt how Information Reports are structured.

Moment in Time Planner

L.I: To write a poem that describes as Moment in Time.

To write a Moment in Time Poem, you would need to imagine how you would feel or what you would think if you are in that scenario. To do this, we watched a documentery of a man in a safe looking glass/plastic cube. And a polar bear was trying to attack the man. We wrote this poem and used the words “Show not tell”. We used the senses Auditory, Visual, Tactile and what thoughts would pop up in our head if we were in that situation.

I enjoyed writing this poem because I used a lot of adjectives and used Wordhippo to enhance the vocabulary of my poem.

Sentences Structure

L.I: To explore sentence structure.

All sentences begin with a Capital letters and end with a full stop. Simple sentences include nouns and verbs. A noun is the name of something, or something you can physically touch. An example of a simple sentence could be, “The cat sat on the mat”. The noun would be the cat and mat, and the verb would be sat. A Compound sentence includes two simple sentences that are joined by using conjunction words. Like for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. An example of a Compound sentence would be “The cat sat on the mat and the dog laid beside the mat”. A Complex sentence includes independent clauses and dependent clauses. With a word from AAAWWWUBBIS. From this challenge I can see  that I have a clear understanding of Simple and Compound Sentences. I now know that I need to focus on Complex sentences.

I enjoyed this activity because it taught me what I needed to focus more on.

Simple and compound sentences

L.I: To explore sentence structure.

All sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop. A simple sentence includes nouns and verbs. A noun is a name of a thing or something you can physically touch, and a verb is an action or something you can physically do. Compound sentences use two simple sentences and are combined with a conjunction word. For example “I went to the store and bought ice cream”. The conjunction word here is “and”. Here are some examples of conjunction words: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.

This activity was interesting because I learnt what conjunction words are and the difference between a simple sentence and a compound sentence. I also learnt how to explain what a noun and what a verb is.

Moment in Time Planner

L.I: To write a poem that describes as moment in time

To write a Moment in Time Poem, you would need to imagine how you would feel or what you would think if you are in that scenario. But we first went up Maungarei to see what we would feel, see, hear, and what our thoughts would be. This DLO is a plan of how our Maungarei Moment in Time Poem would look like. We used senses such as visual, tactile, and auditory, along with thoughts.

I enjoyed making this poem because I learnt information about Maungarei and was able to use it in a poem.