Summer Learning Journey Preparation - Country Research

Hi Bloggers!
Today we have a person named Emma with our class, and she is helping us prepare for our summer learning journey. Our first task was to choose a country to research (We had a list of countries to choose from), and we answer questions about this country we chose; We use google to do our research but we are not allowed to copy and paste.

The country I chose was Australia. Here are the questions I answered:
1. The capital city of Australia is: Canberra.
2. The population of the capital city is: 356,585 (Around the population of which city I live it, which is Christchurch)!
3. In January, the weather of the capital city is usually: 
In January, Canberra, the weather is usually a high of 29 degrees celsius, while at a low it usually sits at 14 degrees celsius. 
4. The capital city is located in: Canberra is located in the 'South East' of Australia. It is in the bottom right corner of the country.  
5. The languages spoken in the capital city are: English. The main languages other than English spoken are: Mandarin (915 people), Vietnamese (802 people) and Cantonese (609 people). The main language other than English spoken in Canberra was Mandarin. 

Sources: 
The answers automatically came up on google when I asked the questions. 
I didn't need go into any websites :)

Pet Day Update!

Hi Bloggers!
The other day I told you guys how we made vegetable sculptures on pet day, but now it's time to tell you the rest that happened!

After we made the veggie sculptures, we watched sheep shearing, duck herding, and much more!
Some of us got to meet the judges and write for them. I was one of those people, and I was working with 'Large Dogs'. They had to complete a course, which was: "Go up onto the bench, weave through the cones, go up onto the bench again, and then go around a cone and sprint back". Some dogs were really obedient, but some not!

We also had a coffee cart at our school, a bake sale, and lots more! I brought a hot chocolate from the coffee cart, and the man gave me extra marshmallows!

Here are some pictures from the day:

My Friend Group and I sitting watching the duck herding

Duck Herding!

Sheep!

ZONES - Sports

A few weeks ago we went to zones. I went for High Jump, Long Jump and Sprints. The event was held at a park in Rolleston, and we competed with Lincoln and Selwyn schools. There were so many people that had been to centrals before, and that made me really nervous!

Here are some photos from the day:

These aren't photos of me, but you can get an idea of what the venue looks like!

Did you go to zones? Comment down below!

Veggie Sculptures - Pet Day

Hey Bloggers!

Today at our school it's pet day. One of the first things we did was make a Veggie Sculpture or a Sand Saucer. I chose to do a Veggie Sculpture. I used bananas and a red capsicum.

By now, you guys might be asking what I made! Well, I made a squid!
What I did, is use a banana for the body and red capsicums for the eyes. I found it a bit hard to do but it worked out alright, here's some pictures:

Do you have pet day at your school? Do you make Sand Saucers or Veggie Sculptures? If so, tell me what you made/did on pet day down below!

Learning to trace with Google Drawing!

Hey Bloggers!

Throughout the year I've seen so many of my classmates doing amazing drawings online, and when they said the did it with Google Drawing, I was simply amazed. 

I always wondered how they did it! And I finally learned how. 

Tracing. With google drawing, you can insert an image, and then use the tools to trace around the image, but, of course, you would need to add your own things some of the time, because if you didn't, then you'd be committing plagiarism by completely copying it!

This time I drew an astronaut. 

This is the original image: 

This was the one I made: 

Thanks Guys! If you'd like to know how I did this, let me know in the comments! Thanks

Hooked On Books Week: Book Character Day!

This week for our school, it was 'Hooked on Books Week', and one of the things we had to do was dress up as book characters! We all planned our outfits carefully, and some of us even won prizes!

Me and my best friend Grace decided to dress up as Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge from Archie Comics. I went as Veronica, and Grace went as Betty.

Here are some of our pictures!

Our Attitude Visit!

Hi Bloggers!
Today we got a visit from a guy named Tamatea, and he came from Attitude.

He talked to us about our personalities and the kind of people we decide to be. He talked to us about 4 personality types that we think we might be. 

1. The Otter

The Otter is someone who wants to find the 'fun' in everything. Sometimes they can be a bit silly. 

The Otter usually tries new things, but sometimes without thinking it through. 

2. Lion

The Lion is someone who likes to take charge, but also helps people while doing so. 

The Lion is usually the leader of the group. 

3. The Golden Retriever

The Golden Retriever is someone who loves to help people out. They are labelled 'The Peace Makers'. 

4. The Beaver. 

The beaver wants to do everything right the first time. 

I personally think I am an Otter. What are you?

Thanks

Ariana!

Teacher's Strike!

Hi Bloggers, I don't have much work to blog about, and here's why:
My teachers went on a strike!

On Wednesday 14th of November, primary school teachers across New Zealand went on strike, which means they don't come to school (which means students don't come to school either), and they usually go on protest.

They go on strike because they are unhappy with the situation of NZ's education at the moment, and they want to make it better for us. Every teacher went on strike yesterday, and the students are happy with the message they are trying to send.

Thanks guys,
Ariana!

LAKE RUA = SAILING

Hi Guys! Last week Rimu Class went sailing. We drove by bus to Lake Rua, and had an amazing time.

This is me recount:

Sailing @ Lake Rua

Last Friday, we all huddled around in the classroom. Our classroom was buzzing with excitement and nervousness. Everyone was in mufti, and we all inspected each other’s outfits.

We were going sailing. Some of us were looking out of our classroom window and gazing at the bus we were going to be travelling in. Carb Break. The teacher announced that this morning we were going to be able to make our own carb breaks, since it would be too hard for one person to make them and hand them all out; we didn’t have enough time anyways.

I made a peanut butter and margarine sandwich, but not with exaggerated amounts of spreads like I would usually do it. After I had enjoyed my sandwich, my friends and I wandered around for a while, until we were called to the mat by the teachers. We were all excited, but we made sure to keep quiet, because the only reason we would be waiting around would be because we were holding up the teachers.

The teachers of our class explained the rules and expectations. Sunscreen was compolsory, sadly. I really wasn’t sure why kids don’t like sunscreen actually, including me. All sunscreen was, was something that protected you from burns, or even cancer. But we seemed to be anaware of that; when the teachers called out that we needed to wear sunscreen, a wave of groans spread around the classroom.

The teachers ignored this of course, they weren’t going to get involved with something so pathetic. When all of the rules were explained and the teachers made sure that they were drilled into our heads, we were allowed to line up by our school gates. It was all real now, and I was sure that we were all wondering how we were going to go. We all imagined or remembered (the ones who remembered were the ones who were fortunate enough to go last year) the glistening water, and the beautiful surroundings, mostly trees, and blue skies.

Once we had stopped day-dreaming, we walked out of the gates. The bus was huge, or should I say… Ginormous! Considering the size of our class though, the bus had to be big. We climbed in, fascinated at the comfortable-looking seats, the television at the front, and the length of it! We walked down the aisle, wide-eyed. I sat down near the back, and my best friend, Grace, sat down next to me. I made sure I had everything, including my watch (since I had lost my Fitbit on wellington camp, I sure didn’t want to lose my apple watch!), and then I noticed something missing. “My bag,” I turned to my friend, “My towel…” I included. It seemed that I had left my plastic bag with a towel in it; It was inside!

I looked around, panicked, and then pushed past my friend and told the teacher about my ‘mistake’. There was a little bit of babbling on, and then we decided that I should just sprint back to get it.

After I had got my towel, we were off. We went down a rural area, and even went past my friend’s house, and that caused the whole bus into histerics. “Piper!” we all yelled, but of course, we knew she wouldn’t hear us… There wasn’t much road to go down, just grass, trees, and we even went past the Christchurch airport, and after that, we took at turn. The bus driver slowed down and that’s when everyone knew we were where we needed to be. Lake Rua.

After that (discovering we were at our destination), we thought we just had to go around a bend of a sand driveway. We were wrong. The bus was moving, and reasonably fast. We all saw the small hill. The bus was going up the hill, and before we knew it, it was going down!

We all screamed of delightment and fear. Then we saw it. The lake, it was glistening!

The sun reflected off the lake; it was moving steadily and slowly. Trees surrounded the beautiful lake and it almost looked unreal. We saw the instructors and they were standing behind the ‘boats’. We all rushed out of the bus, some of us helping the teachers get some of the equipment out of the car, some of us not. We gazed at the boats, not yet set up.

There were chairs set up, and tarpolans. We placed our bags on the blue tarpolans; it looked like a sea of stranded bags in the sea. I gazed at the bags for a second, and then turned around, to see the instructors lined up. “Hi guys…” One old (but not extremely old), and tall man said; I got the vibe that he didn’t want to be where he was then, and he sighed. Then he blurted out a couple of questions, and started doing that thing that adults do to little kids: Like expecting us to finish his sentence for him. For example: “And this is called the…” and then someone says the last word.

And the WORST thing was that he did it with every sentence! It got EXTREMELY annoying and that’s when I started not to listen. Ugh I thought, and I just wanted to get on with sailing. We were taught how to rig the boats, and how to sail. Once we had done one step, we had to go back to the instructors. It was extremely slow the whole morning, and I got really tired and impatient.

Eventually, we went to the lakefront and we met the instuctors there.

I got on the boat. “3, 2, 1!”, and they pushed the boat forward. It just as hard learning to sail as a chicken to fly. “AghHhh!” I screamed as the boat tipped one way, nearly throwing me into the water. “Just go this way!” “Just go that way!” I heard everyone screaming and laughing, but thing was, I wasn’t finding it funny. The instructor came on the boat with motor on the back, and drove me back to shore.

We watched everyone have their turn, and when I had my second turn, I nearly ran over some ducklings, which made me scream of guilt.

We had an amazing day, and we all had lots of fun. I hope I go again someday!

How to find the Area Of A Circle

Yesterday in maths, I learned how to find the area of a circle. I decided to share with you guys how to do it. What I found hard was the whole process of working it out.

First you have to work out the diameter of the circle.












The radius of this circle is 8cm. To figure out the diameter, we times the radius by 2.
8 times 2 is 16cm. The diameter of this circle is 16cm. To figure out the area, you times the diameter by π. This symbol means pi. Pi equals 3.14, so we times the diameter (16cm) by pi (3.14), so thats 16 times 3.14. This equals 50.24, so the area of this circle is 50.24squared.

Athletics Day!

Hello Again Bloggers!
The for past 3 weeks, our whole class has been working on recounts.
We have been focusing mostly on things like:

• Time connectives
• Descriptive Language (similes, metaphors, sets of 3, etc.)
• Advanced Punctuation (semi-colons, colons, brackets, hyphens, etc.)

I found it hard to include descriptive language throughout my recount, because I was only thinking about the events, and not how I can make them seem more exciting. 

I think I have improved on my punctuation quite a lot compared to the last time we worked on recounts. Here is my recount:

Inquiry - Antler Cafe Questionnaire

Hey Bloggers!

In our class we have been doing a rubbish/ocean pollution project, and we have been researching things like: 'How many sea creatures die each year from ocean pollution', and other questions and answers related to pollution and rubbish. 

My friend and I (Grace), thought it might be a good idea to go down to a cafe just down the road from our school, and do a questionnaire. We thought it would be a good idea because we wanted to see how much rubbish an average cafe uses, and if they use Eco products. 

If you would like to see the questions and answers, click on the link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yHoFSY3fc5SZWbZdZI-stTOYMQcfKL4-TYLDYqO_kGM/edit

Please suggest any questions down in the comments, we can go back and ask them and tell you what the answers were!

Thanks,

Ariana

Geometry and Measurement - Maths

Hi Bloggers!
For the past couple of weeks I have been working on Geometry and Measurement, so things like working out angles, converting weights etc.

I thought I would share what I've done with you guys since I don't really share slides much.
I have been working on a google slide specially made for my maths group, with questions, videos, and more.

Here is the slide I have been working on:



I have not yet finished this slide, but you guys can take a look of what I have done, and give me any tips to make my work easier.

What I have found difficult so far is figuring out angles of a triangle and working out a perimeter of a shape, but with the help of my friend/s, I was soon able to figure it out and I found it much easier.

What do you do while you're doing maths in your class? Do you find a teacher to help you, or do you prefer 'C 3 B4 Me'? I usually go find help from people in my maths group first, and if they're not sure either, I go to the teacher for help.

If you have any suggestions, please comment below!
Thanks, Ariana.

Refugee - The Book

I think it's safe to say that our whole class was upset at reading the end of our class book, - Refugee, by Alan Gratz.

The book is about three refugees, and their story. All of their stories tie together somehow, and they all know each other (you will find out how in the end).

Here are the character's names:
Isabel
Mahmoud
Josef
 As I said before, they are all refugees, and they are all trying to escape from the country they are in.
My favourite character was Isabel, (part of the reason was because she was the only girl, and that made me relate to her even more) and her story was very intense. Here is the thing I liked best about her story:

When she was trying to cross countries on a handmade boat, she had a pregnant mother, and it made the story much more intense, since you never knew when her mother was suddenly about to go into labour!

I found the story very interesting, and all of the chapters made me want to keep reading. 

I definitely recommend this book, you should read it!

Anne Frank - The Diary of A Young Girl

Hi Bloggers!

For Term 4 our class have started a new Novel Study. Each reading group was assigned a book to study. My Group (Camp Half Blood), has been given a book called "Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl". 

It is about a 13 year old girl who has to hide in a Secret Annexe, because they are afraid of the Germans raiding their home, killing them, or sending them to a concentration camp. Interestingly, this book is based on Anne's diary that she was writing in while she was in hiding. I find it much easier to relate this way because I know these were real words coming from a real girl. 

While I am reading, I can imagine her sitting, writing her diary, and it makes me enjoy this book much better than I thought I would. 

Two years later (1942, two years after she had been in hiding), Anne and her family were found by Germans in the Annexe and Anne was sent to a concentration camp and eventually killed. 

Anne Frank's diary was placed into this book after two workers found her notebook in the Annexe she had been hiding in. This book was then returned to her Father, Otto H. Frank, and he made Anne's wishes come true by publishing the book after it being proven to be a real diary from that time. 

I haven't finished reading the book yet, it explains this information at the start of the book to give us an understanding while we are reading it. Throughout reading the book, we are required to do a Novel Study and complete a series of questions on a Google Slides set up for us kindly by our teachers.

In our Novel Study we also are able to do things like story webs, and we are also able to present our activities in creative ways like using Prezi, PiktoChart, and other DLO Sites. This helps us be excited to express our learning and I think it will affect the quality of our work in a good way. 

To give you a better understanding of the book, here is the blurb:

The Diary Of a Young Girl

remains the single most poignant true-life story to emerge from the Second World War. 

In July 1942 Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the horrors of Nazi occupation, hid in the back on an Amsterdam Warehouse. Anne was thirteen when the family went into the Secret Annexe and, over the next two years, she vividly describes in her diary the frustrations of living in such confined quarters, the constant threat of discovering, the hunger and fear. Her diary ends abruptly when, in August, 1944, she and her family were finally discovered by the Nazis. 

Anne Frank died in March 1945, aged fifteen, in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. 

This book provides a deeply moving and unforgettable portrait of Anne Frank - an ordinary and yet an extraordinary teenage girl. 

Here is a picture of the front cover of the book. 

I definitely recommend this book to you, it is very interesting, and a great book to keep you occupied.
Have you read this book before?
Please feel free to comment any advice below, Bye Bloggers!

Biscuit Decorating - House Rewards!

All throughout the term, we have been collecting HERO Cards for our school houses.
Once each house has got 200 HERO Cards banked, we have something called 'House Reward Day', and we get many options to choose from.

Our house voted for biscuit decorating. We got to make our own icing, and decorate our biscuits. We also got m&ms and jellybeans to place on top. The other houses got to do things like 'Disco' or 'Bring your own toy'!

Here is a picture of what my friend made:

Student Summit 2018!

Hi Bloggers!
A few posts down I promised you that I would tell you about what I did when I went to the Student Summit 2018!

I was lucky to be given the position of being the leader of the PiktoChart DLO Group. Our group was to show other students how to use PiktoChart to make blogging more exciting. We had a Google Slide set up for steps and we let the students try to make their own PiktoChart, with Images, Backgrounds and Info about their topic.

After this, we went to different presentations on computers. I went to a presentation on how to make a 'Biteable', and after I went on a presentation on how to make an animation on google slides.

Here is a picture of my group presenting PiktoChart.

Zipline - My Story

Kia Ora! For the past three days I have been working on a POST Test, writing a narrative.

My narrative is named 'Zipline', and it is about a girl going into Paris, France, and travelling through the city on a Zipline. I went through a process when writing this and followed steps.

1. I Planned my writing on a google doc to come up with some ideas for my story and lay it out
2. I drafted my writing to get an idea of the base of my story and come up with more ideas
3. I highlighted improvements I made to the story 
4. I found a website I could use to decorate my story (PiktoChart), and now I'm publishing it on my blog.

If this writing is too small to read then click on this link: 

https://create.piktochart.com/infographic/saved/32751462#

Student Summit Preparation 2018

For the past two weeks a part of our class have been preparing for an event called 'Student Summit'. We will be meeting at Hornby High School, and presenting online websites and showing people how to use them. There are any different people teaching different things, and I am the leader of the 'PiktoChart DLO Group'. We are teaching people how to make blogs exciting with PiktoChart, and we have prepared a whole slideshow presentation to present at the event. I can't show you the slideshow yet, because the Student Summit hasn't happened yet! After tomorrow (when the Student Summit is on), I will be able to show pictures of the event, and the slideshow. Comment if you went or a going to Student Summit! Thanks!

A l g e b r a - Maths!

Today I learned more about algebra and worked out algebra math problems. I learned that if a letter was next to a number, it means to multiply it. I worked out worded problems and average equations.
Here is an example of an algebra problem to give you an idea of what it looks like. Have you learned about algebra yet? Comment below if you think I should improve anything within my post. Thanks!