Science Fair

On Friday most of my class and some others from Berkley went to the  NIWA Waikato Science Fair. About 22 of us entered projects, including me and the others came to help us and have a look at the other boards. All of the contestants were interviewed and judged and then we had some fun walking around the gardens.

There are prizes up for grabs in hard cash so that would be cool to win but there is a lot of competition so that would be rather hard to do. So far there are 17 prize winners from Berkley but none of us knows what those winners get so it's a waiting game for them till Tomorrow night when prize giving takes place.

Here are some photos Brooke took from the gardens:

Perspective Photos

In Media we have been taking perspective photos and how to look at life through the other end of a telescope. Some of our end products I really like but there not all that good. Here they are.
We took these over two blocks.

Appearance

Do you judge a book by it's cover?

Watch these two videos that show the reality is that we do judge people for what they look like.

What do you think about these two videos?
Why do you think we do this?
Comment you responses in the comments section.

UOI 3 and UOI 4

These are three powtoons showing my learning of theses two UOI's

Dove - Good or Bad

Is dove an all round good company?


Watch this video:

Think about these questions:

How does this apply to you?
Will you take one of dove's workshops?
Do you think dove is a good company for boosting women's confidence?

Tell me what you like about this video in the comment section and then scroll down to watch the next video on the next post.

Dove - Good or Bad continued...

If you have watched the video above now watch this video:

Think about these questions and then comment with your opinions below:

What do you think about dove now?
Are you going to buy dove's products or talk to dove about their usage of palm oil before it's too late?
Has this video changed your opinion about the first video?

Gymnastics Continued...

Yesterday was our gymnastics competition. I wasn't placed but many children from my school were. Berkley scored 4 x 1st which is really some 2nds a few 3rds, 4ths and 5ths.

Berkley entered lots of people in this team we had girls and boys who were on steps, club twisters,  twisters, flyers, and springers.  We also had some people performing trampoline.

Here are some photos from the day. Hover over each photo to see a close up.

Ratios

Ratios Game

So you Think you can Dance?

Last week my school held a dance competition. Read the prezi to find out more.

Gymnastics

At school I am in the Gymnastics inter schools team for the school gym sport festival.

I am learning 3 routines for this competition. We do 1 on the beam 1 on the floor and 1 on the vault. These are here: Can you do this?

This is my beam routine:

This is my floor routine:

This is my Vault routine:

















The competition is on Wednesday the 17th of June I will up date you after I have performed at the competition to tell you how our school did. Wish me Luck!

My Ballad - Before the Treaty

In class we have been learning about why the treaty of Waitangi
Was written and signed. We have been writing ballads about this.

Before the Treaty

Trading wood, flax and food were the chief,
Of many tribes to save them the grief,
Of their tribe numbers dropping to one and then none,
You see they were trading for muskets; a gun
Tribes fired on tribes within their range,
As their tribe boundaries were starting to change.

Next on the traders list were the whales,
Who got slaughtered then traded when a ship rose their sails,
They were a way for a while,
Out further than a mile,
So when land was in sight,
They would party and fight.

The Missionaries came,
With one big aim,
To change the customs that were tribal,
So that Maori could read the bible,
They then bought some land,
With a shake of a hand.

There were many changes to Maori ways of life,
Including Pakiha and Maori becoming husband and Wife,
In 1835 NZ got an independence,
Signed by 34 chiefs in attendance
We signed the treat in sync and afterward had a friendly drink.

Berkley's ANZAC Service

A few weeks ago my Class set up our own ANZAC service. About a month ago we were given 30 crosses to represent 30 soldiers around our area who gave the ultimate sacrifice fighting in war. Everyone in my class did their part to help to set up our service; giving out roles to hosts, readers to read out the ode and our singers to start off our National Anthem and our hymn. We even had someone sharing about their ancestor who fought in the war and returned but he had nightmares of the war till the day he passed away.

Lots of people also helped to make the crosses. There was a lot of precision put into this as each cross had to be the exact replica of the others. After two days our crosses were finally finished and it was time to make our Field of Remembrance. We had to measure how far apart each cross was from the back and side on. We finished our Field and started on our speeches. By the end of the day everything was prepared for our ANZAC service the next day and we didn't think anything could go wrong.

However... The next day I arrived on the bus to find some of my classmates picking up the crosses from our field of remembrance. I raced to class; my curiosity getting the best of me only to find some drunk 17 year-old boys had vandalized our crosses by kicking them over and had left them in a heap on the ground. My class couldn't believe how someone could choose to do this. After all it was hallowed ground. Our crosses weren't damaged too bad but some still had chips and cracks in them which we did our best to fix an hour before our service. A group of about 6 people including me stayed behind from our Tech Art to make the Field of Remembrance again. We did the best we could to make up for what these two boys had done to the crosses.

Making our Field of Remembrance

Next Block...
Now was finally the time for our ANZAC service. We started by welcoming our guests to our ceremony and then we sung the National Anthem. Next we had Rose sharing about her ancestor, then a minute of silence and after that the ode, the reveille and our hymn. 

I think overall our ANZAC service was a success we all rose above the example of the 17 year old boys and we were able to deliver a clear and heart warming message to those who attended our service and our speakers did a fabulous job. 

The Finished Product

We were written about in newspaper articles . Here is a link to this http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/68030286/teen-arrested-over-anzac-cross-vandalism

We were also in the Waikato Times and when the RSA found out they were rather emotional. They decided to come to our school to replace our crosses. When my class found out we were very excited.

When they Came:

We welcomed them in by singing Toia ( a maori hymn ) and then the National Anthem.

Mr Gibson talked to us about the war and compared the drunk 17 year old to 17-year-old Private Persson, believed to be the youngest Kiwi to die at Gallipoli. He referred to the person who committed the vandalism as an "idiot" and Private Persson a "Hero".

Mr Gibson and Mr Francis also gave us some gifts including ANZAC Warriors tee-shirt 4 Anzac tee-shirts a scarf for our teacher and some badges.

This was also written about here:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/68317532/trust-replaces-hamilton-schools-vandalised-anzac-crosses

Thank you to Brooke for the photos this is her blog here: http://brookeroom10.blogspot.co.nz/

Ice Blocks

Food Tech - Ice Blocks

At our school we are fortunate enough to have a food tech room, where my group trialed a quick pop maker, called Zoku. Here is a list of pros and cons.

Pros:

• It was really fast and efficient
• Really easy to use
• Clear instructions, with eye catching booklet

Cons: 

• Quite hard to remove quick pop from product/machine
• Breaks fairly easily

This product was really easy to use, there were only a few steps and it was undeniably efficient. One flaw though, was that the orange tool you use to remove the quick pop broke with minimum use. Overall I think that our experience with this product was quite enjoyable and I recommend you try out the Zoku Quick Pop Maker.

We also trialed the old way of doing it using molds. This way wasn't as efficient and takes longer but is more reliable.

We made a smoothie for this with berries milk and yogurt, and then put the mixture in the molds. We then left the ice blocks in the freezer overnight to freeze.

Review by: Danielle and Renee

SBC - Week 10

Posts

How many Posts did I write?

I wrote 19 posts including this one.

How many were school based, your own interests or set by the challenge?

15 were set by the challenge

4 were school based

How many comments did you receive from classmates, teachers or overseas students?

Overall I received 16 comments from:

9 from class mates

5 from overseas students

2 from teachers

Which post received the most comments? Why do you think that happened?

My Turangawaewae poem received three comments along with Adding and Subtracting Fractio Review and My mini game I made.

I think this happened because they were different and fun posts and visitors asked questions and I answered them.

Which post did you enjoy writing the most and why?

I enjoyed making my mini game on sploder as my post the best because it was fun and creative.

Did you change blog themes at all and why?

Yes, I did change blog themes at the start because I wanted my posts to be on a plain background, my widgets to be on a transparent background and my background to be Autumn-ish.

How many widgets do you have? Do you think this is too many or not enough?

I have 9 widgets I think this is too much so I will take one of the irrelevant ones off like my fish.

How many overseas students do you have on your blogroll?

I have 5 at the moment and I will try and find more. The ones I have on their though are great blogs.

Which web tools did you use to show creativity on your blog?

I have used Lucidpress, GetLoupe and Sploder. These are all really easy and fun to use. I will know try and use more web tools I haven't used before.

Energy

This is My ThingLink

In class we have been learning about types of energy. My ThingLink shows 5 different types of energy.

Food Technology

Today in Food Tech we melted chocolate with a chocolate fountain and moulded it with shapes:

How has the chocolate fountain evolved over time?

They have become bigger, more complex and more common. The first chocolate fountain was invented by Ben Brisbane and were popularized in 1991.

Evaluation of the chocolate fountain and our method:

The chocolate fountain was easy to use. But our method of moulding it takes a while for the chocolate to set. This could be improved by freezing the moulds before hand.

Defenseless Ducks SBC - Week 9

It's duck shooting season in New Zealand at the moment, and in class we are having a bit of a debate about whether ducks are defenceless or not. There are two sides to the story. One thinks that they aren't they think that the ducks can fly away and they choose to come in range of the gun. The other side thinks that they are hopelessly defenceless.

I think they are tricked into flying into the range of the gun. When the hunter, duck calls the duck is tricked into coming into the  sound of the call becoming in range of the gun.

Some facts about Duck shooting.

•  Maori Hunted ducks for their meat and feathers; mainly in the late summer when the birds were fat.

• European settlers introduced more than 20 species of game birds to NZ; not all survived though. Mallard ducks and Canada geese established and laws were passed to set a season for duck shooting.

• Lots of wetlands ( The ducks main habitat ) were drained so that the land could be used for farming. Luckily the two species mallards and paradise shelducks did well on open farmland and today some organisations are working to restore wetlands.

• Ducks and geese have good eyesight so hunters will hide in a maimai sometimes and will also wear camouflage clothing. They use decoy ducks which are fake birds made from wood cork or plastic. They also blow on instruments to mimic the birds call to make them think it's safe to land. These things are all done to attract and trick the birds.

• On the opening day of each season ( the first Saturday in May ) Most hunters take part so tis is when most of the birds are shot. Hunters head out to their own shooting spots in the dark and then at dawn the shooting begins.

• After a day's hunting the hunter will oil his gun put away gear and pluck and dress the birds. Ducks are often roasted and eaten with gravy.

Info from :  http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/duck-shooting





 Taken by Dr. F Eugene Hester. Picture supplied by Fish and Wildlife Service Website. http://www.fws.gov/hunting/ The gun fired by the man standing is a Browning Auto-5 or possibly a model based off of it.

So are Ducks Defenceless?

 

 

My adventures in Fiji

Thanks Mum for the photos

I'm on my Way

Japan
Canada
United Kingdom

Toilet signs in each country

Japan:

This is Japan's Toilet sign

The Canada and UK toilet sign is the same as the New Zealand one.

Road signs:

Canada

Japan

United Kingdom

Time Zone for Skyping:

Canada: The difference is taking 16 hours away from nz time so a good time to skype would be: 5:00 pm Canada and 9:00 am NZ or 6:00 pm Canada and 10:00 am NZ

Japan : The difference is taking 3 hours away from NZ time so a good time to skype would be:  any where in between 7:00 pm NZ and 4:00 pm Japan to 10;00 am NZ and 7:00 am Japan

United Kingdom: The difference is taking 11 hours away from NZ time so a good time to skype would be: 7:00 pm NZ and 8:00 am UK or 6:00 pm NZ and 7:00 am UK

The Website I used was :

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/difference.html?p1=22

Student Blogging Challenge - Week 8 - Let's Travel

The countries I will visit:

South Africa - Africa
Bouvet Island - Antarctica
Fiji - Oceania
Canada - North America
United Kingdom - Europe
Japan - Eurasia
Argentina - South America

I'm now 18 and I'm going to go travel. Over the this week I will post blog posts planning my trip, what it's like their and at the end sharing my experiences.

This first post is all about planning. I will plan for three countries these will be:

Japan
Canada
United Kingdom

Visas

Japan - Because I'm not staying longer than 90 days and I have a New Zealand passport I do not need a visa to enter the country how ever if i am working I would need that. The table that I used to find out this information is really easy to follow. Information found here

Canada - Because I will also not work in Canada I do not need a visa to enter Canada with my New Zealand Passport.

United Kingdom - The UK visa conditions are that if you are staying linger than 6 months then you will need one but because I am not I will not need one.

What will I need to pack:

Canada - Because the weather conditions in Canada are warm and cold at the moment I will need some warm clothes for example coat, thermals, jumpers as well as the basics (shorts and tee-shirt). This is the weather in Canada.

United Kingdom - The weather conditions in England - UK is mostly sunny with a slight drizzle so I will pack some warm clothes as I stated in the canada one as well as the basics. This is the weather in the UK.

Japan - Because the weather conditions in Japan is a nice warm temperature. I will want tee-shirt, shorts maybe a jumper and a rain coat in case it rains. This is the weather in Japan.

Where I will stay:

Japan - I will book a hotel using this website.

UK - I will stay with my grandparents and other friends in England.

Canada - I will book a hotel using this website.