Dora The Explorer!

 I have traced Dora The Explorer using the polyline tool on Google Drawing. This is part of the cartoon Summer Learning Journey activities, where we had to draw a cartoon that we watched when we were younger. I found this very hard as I watched a variety of different TV shows like; Paw Patrol, Little Princess, Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom, Bubble Guppies and Sofia The First. What did you watch when you were younger?

Google Art Book

Today for Manaiakalani, we did an activity for the teaser week of the Summer Learning Journey (SLJ) where we went onto a site called Art Colouring Book and got to colour in famous artworks. There were quite a few pieces but I chose the one below.

At first, you saw the real piece.  Which the one I was doing was this.

Then you pressed another button and it came up with just the outline. Where you then were given 12 colours for a colour palette and colour the piece of artwork in.

After colouring it in, you could download the artwork, or delete it and colour it in again. I did multiple designs because I was just playing around. I found this quite relaxing and felt that you could socialise with others as well as colouring the artworks in. What design do you like best? Have you heard of the Summer Learning Journey before?

1.                               2.                                   3.                               4.

5.                                      6.                                    7.                                      

      

BTS - My Opinion (SLJ)

 For a Summer Learning activity we had to watch an 8 minute video about BTS, then write our opinion of BTS and whether we like them or not. 

BTS

BTS are inspirational for some, but not for me.

BTS is not my music I am more into artists/bands like Thirsty Merc, Miley Cyrus,  Fifth Harmony, Carly Rae Jepsen and Shakira. Though, the only song I quite like (not love) is dynamite, the one which is in the apple phone advertisement. 

People at my school adore them, they do there dances and sing the lyrics. The choreography is quite technical and looks pretty awesome. My friend says they are inspiring and that they help you feel better about yourself, music does that to you, not just BTS. I know BTS have had a hard life with stuff happening in South Korea and them most likely having to serve in the Military, but that is the same for all those other people living there too, who probably have it worse and can not travel the world to sing and dance before serving.

I can see a little bit how people idolise them, but some fans, I just think they are too crazy to like them the about that they do. I would not be interested to go watch one of their concert's, but would not have a tantrum or mute the radio if one of their songs came on. 

What would you do if a BTS song came on? What are your thoughts on BTS?

The World Wide Web Of Tools

 Today I did a Summer Learning Journey from last year. It was where you had to make a poster or presentation of four useful tools/websites  that you use. I decided to do a presentation on google sides for Google Drawing, Canva, Screencastify and Google Slides. It was pretty simple to do as I just stated why I liked them and the difference between them. What are your four most useful websites/tools? 

Is Your Plant Growing Properly?

For the past couple of days, for reading, we have had to watch a video on plants then create our own video on Biteable. I found it quite easy to do as I started off with a template then edited it.  This was my first time creating a Biteable. Have you used Biteable before? Can you grow a plant without it dying?

New Range Announcement (copy) on Biteable.

Planting Is Simple? Or Confusing?

In the past 2 weeks for Reading, we have been reading a site about what you need to grow a plant.

Every underlined/hyperlinked word we had to click on it and read about that word. From the site I learnt a few interesting facts:

• Earth has a thick atmosphere which means the atmosphere absorbs the heat from the sun for when at night when earth cools down the atmosphere basically warm up Earth like a blanket.
• Mercury has a thin atmosphere, during the day it is warm but then at night it freezing cold because the atmosphere is not able to keep heat.
• Small pores on the leaves suck up the Carbon Dioxide into the plant

Once we had read all the information, we had to make an infographic to show the 6 essential elements for a plant to grow. I used Canva. Because it was not going to fit on one page I almost made it into a leaflet. Have you used Canva before? Did you learn anything new from this post? Are there any other good sites to make an infographic that you can think of?

Leadership Day 2020

 Last Thursday the year 7's and the prefects went to Spencer Park to do some team building activities.

At the moment, the year 7's are going through the process of applying for the 2021 leadership team. In the process you have to make an application for the leading positions you would like to take on next year. As part of the teacher's deciding, all the year 7's go to Spencer Park to do some activities that the prefects of this year put together. The teacher's and prefects then judge how well the year 7's work in a team.

In my group, there was Tiare, Ashly, Kayne, Oliver B, Jason and me. 

Some of the activities that our group worked through were..

• Climbing up the blue slide with just your socks on your feet
• Fitting 3 people on the flying fox without touching the ground
• Climbing on the Condour, holding hands with 2 other people with the person in front with their eyes shut
• Walking along the ropes without falling off (If 1 person falls, everyone has to restart)
• Going along an obstacle course with the person in front having their eyes shut and the person 2nd in line having to guide the person
• Climbing up some ropes

At the end of the day, the year 7's had to write and perform a 1 minute speech on the day, what their goals were and their strengths and weaknesses as a leader. 

The next day, I had sore tummy muscles from climbing up the slide as you basically had to pull yourself up with your top half! 

The leadership day was super fun, the best part was mixing with other people in your year group instead of just your friends. My favourite activity was the flying fox as it was funny Tiare, Ashly and I sitting on the flying fox. Have you gone to Spencer Park before?

Dumplings & Wontons

Last Tuesday our class made Beef Dumplings and Pork Wontons thanks to Amy, her Mum and her younger brother.

Our class learnt how to 

• Roll out the dough for the dumplings
• How much mixture to spoon on the dough cases
• Fold the dumplings
• Cook the Wontons
• Fold the Wontons

Once we had made the dumplings and Wontons, we then pan-fried the dumplings and boiled the wontons.

After the Wontons and Dumplings were cooked, our class ate them, I had soy sauce with them. Overall, I think we made around 140+ dumplings and 100 Wontons. 

It is really easy to make dumpling and the recipe for the dumplings is basic, for the dough, all you need id 1kg of flour and 600 ml of warm water, but remember that make over 100 dumplings.

Here are some photos of us making the Dumplings and Wontons.

What Is Media?

In Manaiakalani for the past few weeks we have been learning about Media, we have been looking at different types of media and whether they are trustworthy or not. Down below is a Venn diagram I made to teach others what media is. I chose the colours of the Venn diagram from doing art with Mrs Turpin at technology where we learnt about prime colours. Red, yellow and blue are the three prime colours, so I coloured them in each of the circles.  The three different categories of media are:

• Broadcasting media - media that has sound
• Online  media - media that is found online
• Print media - media that is found face to face without a screen between you and the media.

Here is my Venn diagram.

Events

 A few things have been happening lately like Athletics zones, read aloud and Puppy Training. So I am going to tell you about them.

1. Athletics Zones

Last Tuesday, our zone had their zones athletics day at Nga Puna Wai. It was a very windy and cold day, our school was freezing as none of us had actually realised how cold it was going to be so we were not prepared and did not bring blankets. I competed in the Shot Put where my best throw was 6.45 metre throw. I did not get place or anything. At the school athletics day I did a 6.45 metre throw as well so at least I did not get worse at Shot Put!

2. Read Aloud

I think it was like 2 weeks ago when some people from the school were selected to go to the Piano Centre in town to listen to 3 New Zealand authors talk about their books and how they wrote it. Afterwards we got a photo with the 3 authors and their books. Take a look.

3. Puppy Training

The other week my puppy (Jimmy) graduated puppy school at Sit Happens. He has been going there every Thursday for 6 weeks. He has learnt: 'sit', 'down', 'stay', 'touch', 'drop' and 'leave it'. Our instructor was Katya (pronounced car-tea-a).  I am very proud of Jimmy as he has learnt a lot. This is his certificate with a picture of Jimmy, Dad and I.

Drowning

In my spare time, for the past 2 days, I have been writing a story/speech about water safety. I came up with the topic while I was lying in bed one night. The story at the start is fiction but then the rest is true facts and my opinion. How do you think I could make this piece of writing better?

Fire in my throat, oxygen no more.

Kicking to reach the top.

But the turbo washing machine now has me and I am trapped.

“He was a handsome boy!” said the mothers sister.

“At least you retrieved the body,” said the fathers Dad.

But nothing, not anything could stop the boy’s Mum and Dad grieving over the boy’s death. The Dad had

the guilt: I should have been there with them swimming (even though he was at work).

The Mum had the guilt: I should have gone out with him, I should have not let him go out by himself, I

should have known that he was in trouble sooner (even though she hated going in the water and the boy

went down quickly without any screams or cry for help).

His parents both wondered whether they should have spent more time with him or taken him on more

holidays to explore the world, but they never wandered: Should we have taught him how to swim?

Should we have taught him about the rips and strong currents in the sea?

Logan Fisher, a 12 year old boy, had a Mum and a Dad. He went for a swim at Sumner beach one hot

Summer’s day. Little did he or his Mum know that that day the surf was dangerous and had a big out

going tide that could sweep a weak swimmer out in less than 10 seconds. 

His Mum had let him go for a swim when they had settled for the afternoon on the beach. Logan went in

by himself and was only planning to go out to his waist. Though, a set came rolling, a really big set, with

waves 5 foot. Logan jumped over the first 2 but then the third came and knocked Logan over underwater

into the swirling washing machine that swept him out to sea in less than 30 seconds. The lifeguards only

realised when Caitlin (Logan’s Mum) glimpsed up and could not spot Logan in the water. She quickly

rushed to the lifeguard whimpering that she could not see her beloved Logan. Urgently the lifeguards

scanned the beach and quickly released the IRB and rung the police. 4 hours later they had recovered

the deceased 12 year old Logan. By that point his Dad, Auntie, Uncle, Grandfather, and Mum were

sitting on the beach mourning.

His funeral was a 2 weeks after.

If Logan had learnt about the beaches rips and currents then maybe he would have not gone into the

dangerous swell and instead went to a swimming to cool off that day. 

If Logan had learnt how to swim he could have be able to float and reach the surface of the waves to

inhale some air into his lungs.

Beach safety, I think is very important for most humans living on Earth.

If you live by the lake, you should be taught about how to stay safe and be known to the danger of it. 

If you live by the sea, you should be taught about the dangers like potholes, bluebottles and rips.

If you live by a river, then you should be taught about the strong currents and how they can sometimes

get polluted.

The only beach safety that is taught is when once every 2 years you go to a surf club in the area with

your class and be taught the basics of rips and dangers. (I do not even think every school in

Christchurch do this).

Swimming lessons, are extremely important.

If you fall into water - you need know how to swim to get to the edge and get out.

If you go swimming in a swimming pool - you need know how to swim to be able to swim!

If you need to help someone in trouble in the water - you need to be able to swim to rescue them.

Schools in Christchurch either do ‘swimming lessons’  in their school pool or at a public swimming pool.

Though the swimming lessons are basic and most of the time they do not even teach you the right

technique (like teaching us to go head first down a river when you are meant to go feet first, incase there

are rocks) And the swimming lessons are rare like 2-3 weeks a year, you can not learn much in 2-3

weeks, can you? Plus, not everyone goes into the pool, either because they are sick, because the water

is too cold, or just because they do not want to. 

I know how to swim, from doing swimming lessons/squads. If I fall into deep water, I trust myself that I

will be able to get out. I also know beach safety from doing Surf Life Saving since I was 4. If the waves are

too big and the currants are too strong I will not enter the sea, simple. But does everyone know that?

Jacindar Ardern (the current New Zealand Prime Minister) should make beach safety and water safety

compulsory for all children in schools, from doing this, we could save many lives, and stop families from

having to go through the devastation of loosing a member from something that could have been

preventable, like learning how to swim. Are you for compulsory beach/water safety?

Spring Growth

Mary came into school again to teach us and look at the new growth of the school garden. From Mary coming in:

• I learnt that you have to wait 2 years for the fruit trees to grow before you let them have fruit because if a big apple grew on a little tree it would end up tearing the tree in half and ruining the branches, so we had to clip the little fruit off and the flowers off too
• I learnt that you can measure to see how far the tree has grown by looking at the thick dry branch to then the fresh thin branch. So we measured the trees growth and one had grown 26 cm!
• I learnt that Feijoa tree's is are evergreen and will not grow for like 3 years and that you do not need to cut off the fruit before that age as the tree can manage.
• I also learnt that it is best to have plants growing underneath the tree so that the soil stays moist and the roots on top are not getting exposed to harsh weather like the frost and the sun.

Mary will be coming back in Autumn or Summer to teach us more about the garden and orchards.

Does your school do orchards in schools? What fruit trees do you have at home or at school?

ASB Get Wise

Today, a man called Jeff came into our class to teach the second module for ASB Get Wise. ASB Get Wise is where someone comes in and teaches you about money whether it is about saving money, budgeting, interest, or what we did, spending. Jeff taught us about influences and how people influence you to buy things. Some people/things that influence you are:

• Sales People
• Social Media
• Price
• Parents/family/children
• Fads and Trends

As a class, we also brainstormed what to stop and think about before you buy something and this is what we brainstormed (I put all this information on a google drawing)

At the end which was the fun part, we put all this new information that we learned to the test as we got into groups of 3, got given an iPad, a booklet and had to pretend we were in another planet. We were given 160 dollars (of their currency) and had to buy a pair of special gravity shoes, chocolate to give the people who had looked after you while you were in this planet, a guide book, a decoder and a signal booster. Our group (Leandri, Trinity and I) managed to get everything with $88 leftover.

I enjoyed the session that Jeff took and I found that I learnt a lot. In future hopefully I will save money from this session. Do you often buy something without thinking? Have you ever bought something then not actually wanted it or needed it?

Surf To Turf 2020

The other week (Wednesday 28th October) the seniors had the surf to turf event. Which is where we have    to run 5.1 km (from the Waimakariri River to School), do exercises (50 sit ups, plank for 60 seconds, chicken wire and tyre rolling), and pull a fire engine (as a group).  So that we would not die on event day, we have been doing training on a Tuesday and Thursday every week for 6 weeks (we had 2 weeks off in between as it was the holidays).  For 3 of the Tuesday's we had been up at 6am so that we could train 7-8am, that was a pain especially when daylight savings hit, but at least you did not have a full tummy from food which happened once on a Thursday session after we had just had shared lunch! When we were running we had to stay in groups for health and safety reasons, I was with Payton and Laisa.

In the end, I did enjoy doing the whole thing as it made me stronger and fitter because at the start, especially after lockdown, there would have been no way me running 5.1 km!  After we had pulled the fire engine, the fire brigades then squirted water at us. As a rewards the BCN put on some sausages for us to have afterwards. How many kilometres can you run?

Cultural Festival 2020

The other week (Thursday 29th October to be exact) Belfast School performed at the Cultural Festival in Horncastle/Christchurch Arena. We stay after school in Room 20 where we ate Pizza for dinner, got into our uniforms and did each others hair. The bus then arrived at around 5-5:30 where we headed to the arena. As our performance was in the middle we watched a few other schools perform first. I felt nervous even though I had done it a few years before. When we were called to go to the back of the stage, I felt even more nervous as I was worried that I would forget the actions and just have a mind blank, but luckily for me, I did not. We actually performed incredibly and for such a small Kapa Haka group we were, we were loud and passionate. After the performance everyone was all happy and jumping round as the nervousness had gone. We then headed back to our seats, watched the rest of the nights performances, sung He Honere at the end and headed home.

Down below is the youtube clip of our performance and some photos. My favourite part of the performance was the last song, which is E Hara I Te Mea. Apart from our school the other performances that I enjoyed were, Oaklands School and the performing arts which took everyone's breath away. What part of our performance did you like the best?

Thanks Youtube

The other day, my Gran and I were watching videos online of Jamie Oliver and Nadia Lim cooking/baking.  I loved there recipes so much that I want to share them with you.  We watched a few but I have only chosen the really yummy recipes to show you. I have put the video up next to the abbreviated recipe that I did, and the full recipe linked in at the top of the abbreviated recipe (except for the porridge which is its full recipe). 

Yesterday I tried that flavour of putting brown sugar on top of the porridge, it was really nice and it did taste a little like butterscotch.  Usually with my porridge I put in a pinch of cinnamon, sultanas and brown sugar. I used to also put in some banana as well. What do you put on your porridge?

Weet-Bix Recipes NZ

From watching TV and seeing that Weet-Bix NZ has Recipes online, I decided to take a look, and down below are just some of recipes that I found. There are breakfast ideas to lunch ideas. I am definitely going to try some of them out, especially the Weet-Bix waffles which look very yummy and sound not that unhealthy for waffles. Which recipe are you licking your lips for?

Recipes 1

Recipes 2