Book Character Day

This Friday, Awahono school had a Book Character Day. We all dressed up in costumes and paraded around the court! Here are some photos of my class's and mine Book Character Day costumes!

Living Springs

From the 4-6 of November, Room 6 went on a fun camp to Living Springs in Christchurch. When we got back from camp we had to make a slideshow talking about the activities and what we did. Here is my slideshow.

Procedural Writing

Have you ever heard of a Pet Day? At our school we have one every year and this is when all of us, kids make a pet project on our pet and then we bring our to pet to school! We have a set of tasks for our pet projects like, Procedural Writing and a 3D Creation. For the procedural writing we had to write about things like how to look after or train your pet. Here is my procedural writing!

How To Feed A Newly Born Lamb

Equipment:

• 330 ml Transparent Bottle

• One Medium Sized Jug

• A Big Round Plastic Jar

• Lamb teat

• A Patient Attitude

If you are thinking about orphaning a lamb I have all the top tips on how to feed it properly!

The one thing that any animal needs is food and water and that is exactly what a lamb needs as well. When lambs are born they need warm milk for food and their mother easily gives it to them but its a whole different story when orphaning one. First you need to get your 330 ml transparent bottle and take the lid off it and screw the lamb teat on, ( if not the right size you have to get a new one.) 

Now you have a so-called “lamb bottle,” that you will feed the lamb with. If there is a little hole in the hard outside part of the teat that screws around the bottle then you have to make sure it is always closest to the sky otherwise you might lose some milk! The easiest way to warm up the milk is to full up ¾ of a jug, flick the switch and then pour the hot water into the big round plastic jar. 

If your lamb is newly born then you should only fill your lamb bottle up to about halfway not any more than that otherwise the lamb will drink too much. Put the lamb bottle into the hot water jar and wait until it is nice and warm ( if it is too hot rinse the bottle with cold water until you get your desired temperature.) A good way to check the temperature is to squirt a little bit onto your finger and that will tell if its too hot or still cold or just right. 

When warm, quietly walk over to your lamb and put one of your fingers in its mouth on top of its tongue. Then if it’s hungry it will start to suck on your finger because it will think it is the mum’s teat. Slowly transfer your lamb bottle’s teat into the lambs mouth to where your finger laid, get your free hand and put your fingers on top of its nose and your thumb under its chin. 

Then when the teat is safely secure in the lamb’s mouth you have to start pushing up and down with your fingers and your thumb, ( it will not hurt the lamb and will help it learn how to drink and it will get some milk out.) Keep doing that until the lamb starts to suck on it by itself.When feeding your lamb, milk, you have to have the bottle on a good angle. If you have it straight up it will come down too fast and it will choke the lamb. So you need to hold it on an angle where milk still comes out and there are bubbles coming out which means the lamb can still breath in air. Once there is only a little bit left tip it right up so the lamb can drink the last of it. 

A lamb is fill when it starts to breath differently, it will be bulging and a sign that you have feed it too much is shaking ( which you DO NOT want!) Normally don’t feed it to this stage because it only needs to be a bit chubby for it to have a good feed. When there is no milk left, remember to take it out of the lamb’s mouth right away otherwise the lamb could suck in too much air and get sick. Feed your lamb about every two hours if your lamb is newly born. Once it gets older it can eat lamb nuts, grass and it will have less and less milk until it is weaned off it. Make sure to clean your lamb bottle with hot water every time you use it because young lambs can pick up tummy bugs.

Just be aware that the lamb can still squirt milk at you, your clothes and it really hurts if you get milk in your eyes so I don’t recommend wearing your good clothes while feeding a lamb! When you put your finger into the lamb’s mouth you need to watch out for it’s teeth because it might decide to bite you. Lambs hooves are as hard as rock so make sure you keep a safe distance from them as well.

I hope you have learnt some new things about how to feed a newly born orphan lamb.  

 

Paper Rockets

Are you into astronauts and rocket ships? If you are, this is the perfect activity for you! Even though you might not be able to ride in this paper rocket you can still control it and call it your own. Here is a set of instructions and info on how Room 6 made paper rockets during science and how you can to! 

Cow Yoga!

Have you ever heard of Cow Yoga? Yes, there is such thing! For our literacy bingo this week we had to get onto Kiwi Kids News where we had to find an article that interested us and make a poster about it. I picked the one about cow yoga. Here is my poster!

Catapult

Have you ever wanted to make a catapult all by yourself? This slideshow will give you all the knowledge you need on how to make a catapult. On Friday we were in Room 2 for science and we were learning all about how to make a catapult. We had to write about what you need, how to make it, what you thought would happen, what happened and what you could change next time. 

The Force

How many times have you heard the saying " May The Force Be With You?" In reading at the moment my group are reading a book called The Force in a School Journal series. It is about this boy that is really scared to jump off a bridge and into a river but gets guidance from... You guessed it! Yoda from Star Wars! After reading the story we had to pick one of the quotes that were involved and make a poster about it. Here is my poster!

Dairy Products

 Who doesn't like butter on toast? Did you know that you could make your own homemade butter! At Awahono School we have started doing science rotations on Friday's. This week Room 6 were in Mrs Bailey's classroom and we got to make butter and ice cream! We haven't yet got to try the ice cream because it needs to freeze but the butter tasted pretty good. After we finished making the products we had to pick one to write instructions on. I picked butter! Here is my writing about HOW TO MAKE BUTTER!

Nitro Type

Have you ever played Nitro Type before? If you haven't heard of it, that's ok, because I will give you all the info. Nitro Type is a school friendly game that allows students to practise their typing while having fun and I recommend it! Here is a screenshot of me having a go! My name is Fast Fairy.

Name Plaques

 Do you remember how annoying it was when someone stole your bag spot? Well, as a part of maths Room 6 have started making some name plaques for where our bags go. We have to get the right and certain measurements for our piece of wood and after that we can paint it however we like. Our class have been having heaps of fun making these objects. Here our some photos!

Is Power Good For Humanity

Have any of you competed in the Speech Board Competition? Well, I have and it was a great experience! A judge came down from over the hill in Christchurch to our small school for Speech Board. The children who wanted to do it wrote a speech about things they liked, popular topics and things they were passionate about. I wrote about whether power is good for humanity. At the end a good majority of us got the highest known rank of distinction. Here is my speech.

Is Power Good For Humanity?

Would you rather have someone who is powerful and controlling for the leader of your country or someone who is caring, respectful and humane? My speech will make you question your beliefs. My first example of powerful leaders is Adolf Hitler from Germany.

Adolf Hitler started out as a Chancellor of Germany in 1933 but then quickly rose to Leader of Germany in 1934. His plan was to eliminate all other races and religions in central and eastern Europe. Hitler believed that only blond blue eyed Germans were a superior race. His rank as leader made him very powerful and the German army was under his command which was made up of 13 million young men who were easily led. On September 1 1939 Hitler’s army invaded Poland and that sparked the start of World War 2. Adolf was a cruel ruthless man and from 1941 to 1945 Polish Jews were gassed, shot, worked, starved and tortured to death in the death camps in Poland which resulted in %90 of Poland’s Jewish population executed. Knowing that the Nazis weren’t going to win the war Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945 a few months before the war ended on 2 September 1945. This is an example of how power was used for injustice and because of Adolf Hitler’s actions 85 million people died for no reason whatsoever.

Nelson Mandela is my second example of powerful leaders. It all started with an Apartheid. Apartheid was in South Africa during the 1940s-1990s. This is when people from different races and religions are separated from white privileged people. A South African political party called the African National Congress fought for equal rights for everyone. Nelson Mandela had a big part in this party. He led protests and performed a few speeches that include “I am prepared to die,” and “ A rainbow nation.” But the South African white government was not happy with what was happening and they thought that the ANC was getting too powerful and was going to overthrow them. So in 1964 Nelson Mandela and ten others were sent to jail for life. But in 1989 Mandela got pardoned by the new national president De Klerk. Which resulted in Nelson Mandela winning the election for president of South Africa in 1999 after having lived 27 years in prison and ending apartheid. This is an example of how power was used to bring people together for the greater good.

Now let's stop talking about the past because we can’t change that but let's talk about the present. During this global pandemic a lot of people with power have acted differently with the rising covid cases. I have two examples of how powerful people reacted to this virus.

 If you have been through the New Zealand lockdown you will have seen Jacinda Arden’s face on the Television a lot, talking about the alert levels, how many cases we have and how David Clarke broke the rules. New Zealand started out at alert level 2 but then we began 60-80 coronavirus cases a DAY! Jacinda Arden used her power to make a critical decision of putting us into lockdown.

But on the other side of the world Donald Trump did the exact opposite of that! The President of the USA actually has more power than Jacinda so why is Donald Trump not taking action? America is getting more than 55 thousand covid cases a day and he is just ignoring it! Trump says that the U.S was prepared for coronavirus but why has there been over 150 thousand deaths and still no one taking the lead. 

So who were the powerful people who acted humanely and seriously to the different problems they faced? Was it Adolf Hitler who loved to kill, Nelson Mandela who fought for equal rights, Jacinda Ardern who managed to keep coronavirus at bay or Donald Trump who ignored everything? I’ll ask you once more, Is Power Good For Humanity?

Doing Maths At Home

One of the activities for the Winter Maths Challenge was to make a slideshow or google drawing showing how we all use maths in our homes. I had lots of fun with this post!

School Holidays Poster

Have you heard of the School Holidays maths and reading challenge. Well, most schools have to do it and one of the activities for Awahono was to make a poster about one of your favourite authors. I did mine on Tom Huddleston! Here is my post about my favourite author.

Should Trees Be Cut Down?

Should Tree Be Cut Down? Think about it what would your answer be... yes or no? This was one of the things we had to do for writing in Room 6. For me it was just too hard to pick what side I was on so I did the pros and cons. Our writing had to have lots of evidence and true information in it. When the whole class had finished we had a DEBATE about whether trees should be cut down. There were some VERY assertive people who fought strongly for their point during this. In the end nobody really one but it was a great experience for all of us. Here is my persuasive writing.

Should Trees Be Cut Down?

What do you think when you hear this question? Do you disagree or agree?
Do you like how forests help the world? Could you not live without wooden
products?  I was one of those people who couldn’t decide so I have written
the pros and cons. Here are three paragraphs about the pros and cons of
cutting trees down to help decide, whether you’re on the green team or
the forest league!

One crazy fact about forests is that they help shelter and sustain over
80% of plants and animals that live on land! National Geographic says
that trees are living things just like us humans and they breathe in
carbon dioxide and breathe out fresh oxygen which is the opposite
of what we do. Trees can also cool down our homes and city by shade
but in Los Angeles the average temperatures have gone up  six degrees
in the last fifty years because there has been less trees and more
roads and buildings that absorb heat. Did you know that inside the
tree there are few, or lots of rings that actually tell us things about
history? That is the way to tell the age of a tree and the history of
the weather where the tree is grown. Which is pretty useful! So why
do we cut them down?

Have you ever wondered what life would be like without a warm fire,
chocolate and toilet paper? That is what could be lost if we stop
cutting trees down! Not to mention all the essentials like, tables,
chairs, paper and electricity. 13.2 million people who work for the
lumber industry would lose their jobs because they wouldn’t be
allowed to cut down trees and make them into products. Did you
know that 1.6 million people rely on forests for their living, as well?
What would we use for houses, furniture and fences? Some of you
might say why not metal or steel, but did you know that those two
materials are both more costly. Professionals who build houses also
don’t always have the same experience working with metal or steel.

Did you know that cutting down trees can be a win, win for human life
and the forests? If we cut down a few trees in the middle of the
forest it will reduce the competition of trees trying to get light and
water so the remaining trees can grow big and healthy. Humans also
get a bargain as well! We get the trees that were cut down and make
essentials for our living!

According to an anonymous source on AskIdeas “ Humans are the only
creature in this world who cut the trees, make paper from it and then
write Save The Trees on it.” 

What do you want the world to look like in the next century?

David Walliams Challenge

Who doesn't love the amazing author David Walliams? Well, in Room 6 we were lucky enough to read a book called The World's Worst Children which is one David Walliams books he wrote. While reading it we recognised some alteration, and onomatopoeia in the sentences so since David Walliams has a cool and unique writing style we thought that we could try to write just like him. Some of Room 6's titles where really funny like, Obnoxious Olivia, Lockie who loved Literature and Arguing Annabelle. The next stage was drawing an illustration that matched the character but I did not get up to that stage. Here is my writing!

Lockie Who Loved Literature

You may think that it is good to have a child who loves
literature… BUT YOU ARE WRONG! Kids who always
have their nose in a book pay no attention in class,
WHATSOEVER! One example of this is Lockie. Lockie
loved literature so much that he had piles of books in
his room and he had to take the roof off so he could
fit in his Harry Potter Series. He wore an orange
cardigan with a Brain on it and blue trousers that
overlapped his bright pink crocs. The boy never
had time to trim his hair or cut his nails, so he
used his golden pigtails for bringing hundreds of
books home and his nails were two metres long
and were chipped from turning billions of pages,
as well. Lockie's face had two eyes that looked
as if someone had cracked some eggs onto his
flat chubby face, whilst mistaking it for a plate
and when he moved his head they fell into place.
One day he had to go to the dentist but he had
his nose in a book so Lockie accidentally walked
into the Plastic Surgery Unit. When he came he
had duck lips that looked like someone had stuck
two sausages together. 

At Big Potato Elementary lots of kids called him
names like Bookworm and Big Brain but he didn’t
really take any notice because he was too busy
reading. Lockie lived in a town called Potatoton
which had a population of 200 but everyone got
sick of Lockie not paying attention to ANYTHING
so they left so now there are 50 people who live
there. Here’s where our story starts…

On one normal school day, Lockie was reading
the last one hundred pages of Stacy Gregg’s
The Lazy Horse in Science when Miss Jefferson
screamed out,” It’s raining Skittles, go and
get buckets, children!” “ But we are in the
middle of dissecting octopus hearts,” Exclaimed
Tony. The teacher ignored him and scurried
outside, to begin filling her stinky socks with
the rainbow lollies. While everyone was outside
Lockie sat quietly reading and not even noticing
the gigantic green skittle hurtling towards him.
Just as he was reading the last sentence of his
book it crashed through the roof with a BOOOOM.
And that was the last anyone saw of the literature
loving boy. So what’s the moral of the story, you
may ask? Well, just remember to pay ATTENTION
in class otherwise your favourite confectionery
might just crush you to death!

Volcanoes

Have you ever wondered how people make those cool erupting volcano's on YouTube? For this task, we had to write instructions on how to make one by watching a video about that, but we couldn't just say " you need a bottle," we had to say " you need an empty plastic bottle with no lid, " ( yes, very specific, I KNOW!) If you want to know how to actually erupt the volcano, here is the link to the video we watched. After that we got to do the fun part...  making the volcanoes! What I found hard while making the volcanoes was trying to thicken the frame. Here is some instructional writing on HOW TO MAKE A VOLCANO!

 How to make an erupting volcano!   

Equipment:

Volcano

• Empty Plastic Bottle With No Lid 
• Large Box
• Tape
• Red Paint
• Brown Paint
• Small Paint Brush
• Large Paint Brush
• Lots of Newspaper
• Glue

1. Put your empty plastic bottle with no lid in the middle of the large box with its opening towards the ceiling. Then start to scrunch up your newspapers. After that put your newspapers against the bottom of the empty plastic bottle. Get some large rolls of tape and stick them from the top of the bottle to the floor of the large box. ( But make sure you are not covering the whole of the opening on the plastic bottle.) This will be the frame. 

2.  Next you rip up the remaining newspapers and then you smother them in glue and then start to stick them to the frame of the volcano. ( It might take a few layers for the volcano to be solid.)  Once done let it dry.

3.  When dry get your large paint brush and dip it into some red paint and start painting the newspapers on the outside. After that get the small paint brush and start to smoothly brush a few small straight lines from the top to the middle of the volcano. Put 1 or 2 more layers of the red or brown paint on, if not bold.  Then let it dry.     

Place Value Partitioning

69+36= Hard isn't it? Well, one of the ways to make it easier is using Place Value Partitioning! For this task, we had to pick something that we learnt last week and make a DLO on it. Then we had to the choice of finishing it of with a video or not. I made a video. What I found hard while talking in the video was trying not to leave big gaps between words and jittering was hard to conquer. Here is the video about Place Value Partitioning?

Bird Feeder

Back in the classroom! YAY! One of the homework assignments for this week was to look up bird feeders. Then we had to make the ones we liked. I made one out of a log lying around. First, my Dad cut a hole in the log big enough for a bird to fit in with a chainsaw, so it looked a bit like a canoe. Then I drilled in the wooden sides on it. We spread some bread around inside but haven't had any luck with the birds. Does anyone know what kind of food, birds like best? Comment suggestions below. Here are some pictures of my bird feeder! 

Rugby

We have been learning how to write instructional writing. For this task, we had to pick a thing to write instructions for and then we had to try and do/make it by following them. Then we had to make a video for an example on how to do/make it. We picked to make instructions for how to play a game of rugby. What I found hard while playing rugby was trying to get past the other team to get a try. Here are two videos of the example!


Video 1

Video 2

David Walliams

Have you ever heard of David Walliams, the writer of The Beast of Buckingham Palace, The Boy In The Dress, Awful Auntie and the very common The World's Worst Children series. For this task, we had to answer some questions about David Waliams like how old he is, what made him start writing and his interests. What I found hard while making this post was trying to get the right amount of information to answer the questions. Here is my post about David Walliams!

What's Out My Window

If you look out the window, do you see bustling streets full of cars? Or a fantastic view of beautiful mountains? For this task, we had to write a descriptive paragraph about what we see out our window. What I found hard while making this post was trying to find good things to describe. Here is my post about What's Out My Window!

What’s Out My Window

I can see two broken, brown bird nests up high in the leafless, plum tree
who had given in to Autumn. Tall, thin pine trees are all bunched up in the
distance. A noisy green tractor bumping its way along the uneven gravel
is like a dragon going to war. Cows of different sizes mooing in unison,
hungry for their next meal of cleanly cut silage. Growing impatient they stride
over to the rotten fence watching the huge tractor transport the food closer
and closer. Behind the restless cattle are enormous mountains that vary in
sizes and shapes all topped off with prickly shrub sprawled out evenly
across the muddy surface.

Harald Competition

Have you ever heard of Harald the Giraffe? I'm sure you have! For this task, we had to make an entry for this competition and then email it to Harald! What I found hard while making this post was trying to think about a creative thing to do. 

Here is my entry for the Harald Competition!

Speedy Mum

Whats your dream superpower? Strength? Flying? Telepathy? Well, my Mums dream super power is speed. For this task, since its getting closer to mothers day we had to think about what their super power would be or ask them what their dream super power is. It could be realistic like cooking or unrealistic like flying or flexibility. Then we had to write about why they wanted that super power. What I found hard while making this post was trying to get ideas for paragraphs. Here is my post about Speedy Mum!

Speedy Mum
If my Mum had a superpower it would have to be speed. Here are

three reasons why she picked to be fast.

Supermarket Lines

Have you ever got sick of standing in line waiting to buy your groceries?

Most people have and guess what? My Mum won’t have that problem!

Speeding to the front of the line to get her groceries… easy. Nobody will

see her and they’ll just feel a whoosh of air as she runs past. That’s just

one of the many privileges of being fast!

All Day Chores

Washing the dishes, making the beds and vacuuming are all time

consuming jobs. They seem as if they are everlasting. But one easy

fix is speed! My Mum could finish the dishes in 2.8 seconds and making

the beds will take no more than 0.3! All you hear when my Mum vacuums

will be the on and off switch. The house will be spick and span by the

time we have breakfast. Now how convenient would that be!

Farm work

Do you want to finish your day’s work and get home by morning tea?

You could do all your jobs on the farm and then get home for your cake

and coffee at 10.00 o’clock, if you had SPEED! My Mum wouldn’t need

a motorbike because she could just run to where she wants to go.

Feeding one hundred calves at 7.00 o‘clock in the morning and

wanting to be home by eight might seem impossible but my Mum

would be a pro at it. 

Just think? How cool would it be to be able to skip the lines at the

supermarket, finish chores by breakfast and get all your farm work

done by 10.00 o'clock! If my Mum had speed for a superpower she

would be unstoppable!

Nut Catching

What do you do to get moving? For this task, we had to try and make up a game that was inside or outside. I made a game called Nut Catching. What I found hard while making this game was trying to figure out what to throw into the air. Here is my post about a game called Nut Catching!

The Small Things That Make You Smile

What things do you notice in life and what are you missing out on? For this task, we had to create a short story with requirements of: A good title, a beginning, middle and end and sentences describing what has been happening at your house during lockdown. What I found hard while making this post was trying to find the right sentences that disolved into each other. Here is my post about The Small Things That Make You Smile!

The Small Things That Make You Smile

Have you ever wondered what we haven’t noticed during our busy lives? On the 25 of March our lives changed. New Zealand was officially in lockdown. 

Stuck at home with my family for 4 weeks… not something that happens everyday, right? But spending more time with the pets has been wonderful. Watching a movie at night with a fluffy purring cat sitting on top of you seems like bliss to me and running through the swaying grass with your loyal furry friend towards the water trough is what living life to the fullest feels like.

Sitting around a table with my few companions, sharing laughter, smiles and good memories. This is what living in lockdown has been like for me. Making red velvet cupcakes that aren’t actually red to wearing pink hats twirling around the dance floor in front of a camera. Life couldn’t get much better than this! We always look out for each other whether its watching Mum complete an obstacle course (that includes climbing up a ladder,) to helping look for the tv remote. Or looking for more important things like my brother's bank card while Dad sulks because we make fun of him. There has also been an unusual visitor coming into our bubble on a daily basis lately. He flies in, chirps to us and then spends about 5-10 minutes trying to get out again! 

Looking out the window on a frosty Autumn morning I see five nests up in the plum tree and a big plump Kereru pecking at the few everlasting seeds. I have never noticed this scene before and now I wonder why people don’t recognize the small things in life that go by.

Staying at home is pretty fun if you have a loving family, cuddly pets and a ray of sunshine covering your deck.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

We have officially finished lockdown! WOOHOO! But that doesn't mean we can drive around town and visit friends because you can only make your bubble a little bigger and we are still told to stay at home. For this task, we had to watch a video around Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and then there was another one about the same thing. Then we had to write three paragraphs on why doing these things are important to you. What I found hard while making this post was trying to find good questions to start my paragraphs. Here is my post about Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Have you ever wondered where your plastic waste goes? What it impacts?
The environment around you are the victims of the tons of rubbish lying
around our atmosphere. Here are a couple of reasons why I think reducing,
reusing and recycling are important.

Reduce

Do you normally have 20 minute showers? Because I know I do and shortening
our showers is one of the many ways to save the planet. Remember that time
when you spotted that delicious chocolate bar on the counter when you were
about to finish buying your groceries. What did you do? Grab it quickly for a
snack on the way home. Or did you see all that plastic on the wrapper and
decide that you didn’t need it. Many people choose the first option and that’s
not always the best option.

Reuse

Plastic bottles sitting beside the sink, straight into the rubbish bin for them.
KFC and McDonalds burger wrappers, chip packets and drink holders. Where
do they end up? In the bin, they couldn’t possibly be reused, could they? Did
you know that some of these things can be easily reused? Plastic bottles, for
instance, can be cleaned and then filled up again ready for another gym workout
or long journey.  Sometimes letting your imagination run free will help make
new creative inventions that are reused from other things

Recycle

Do you have three different bins at your house? A green one, a red one and a
yellow one? These are all used for different kinds of rubbish… like paper, glass,
grass cuttings, plastic, clothing and even tree branches. The yellow one is for all
the recyclable waste like plastic and paper, while the red one is used for general
waste like glass and clothing and the green one is used for environmental waste
like tree branches and grass cuttings. It’s so easy to just put everything in the
general waste bin, right? But most things can actually be recycled.

Now that you know the three R’s are you going to put more effort into saving
the planet. As Sir Edmund Hiliary once quoted: You don't have to be a fantastic
hero to do certain things -- to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap,
sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.