Science Intensive: Earthquakes

Last week, Room 7 had three science intensive lessons. The lessons were about Earthquakes, Insulation and the three states of matter, (I actually only went to two lessons because I was away on one lesson). My favourite session was our Earthquake lesson with Ms.Sigamoney.

We did a information activity, where we watched a video about the various movements of the tectonic plates. I learnt the four most common ways they can move in which are. The plates move in four different ways. The plates could slide past each other, the plates could collide,  they move past each other, etc. It was quite fascinating learning these.

Our next activity was a more physical and hands on activity. We were told to create a earthquake proof out of 30 straws, clips, needles and a two meter long string. The challenge was to create a 2 story building out of the materials we were given. The building had to be stable and sturdy enough, that it can hold 20 grams of sand and a little bit of shaking. My group failed at first, but we redeemed ourselves and created a tower that looked a bit similar to the real model. The point of the activity was to make a building that was earthquake prone.

We carried on learning about making buildings more earthquake prone. Also how to reduce damage to a building during an earthquake. It all depends on the height of the building, structure material, the support of the building and the roof structure.

Out of all the activities we had done, I enjoyed building the house structures the most, it was fun and informative too!. I had loads of fun and

Fitness reflection

Today at Fitness we prepared ourselves for camp. We did this by running 3 laps around the courts and having relays. The girls began their run before the boys and when we finished our 2nd lap, the boys joined in.

Afterwards we had a running relay, boy against girls. The girls won the first round and the second round also. It was quite hard versing against the boys, because the boys were more athletic and faster but we proved them wrong.

Our session was fun and challenging also!. We are going to be doing  this for the next week or so. 
Photo link

Winter Learning Journey top bloggers

Congratulations to the winners and to those who participated in the Winter Learning Journey. I was very greateful when I checked the site and saw my name in first place. Also congratulations to Telesia, Anita, Cherise and Aaliyahna who also placed. We all had fun going on the digital journey and can't wait to participate again!. Thank you to Rachel and her team for making the journey very fun!, we appreciate it.

Day 7-Winter Learning Journey

7. #Keep New Zealand Beautiful

Dawn breaks on Day #7 – the final day of your Great Kiwi Road Trip. You wake up early, ready to make the long trek back to Auckland. Along the way, Curious Kiwi stops at two beautiful places, Taupo and Rotorua, for you to get out and walk around.

Activity 1: While in Taupo, you go for a walk around the lake and you notice pieces of rubbish floating in the water. You also notice that there is rubbish on the footpath. As you know, it is really important to put rubbish in the bin and keep New Zealand clean and beautiful for generations to come.

http://www.kiwidaydreaming.com/p/new-zealand-maps.html

With that in mind, it is time think about what you can do to keep New Zealand beautiful. Use your imagination and come up with three things that you could do to make your neighbourhood more beautiful. Post your list on your blog ☺

1- Create a clean up committee which once or twice in week does a community cleanup to ensure the are community is neat and clean.

2- As an individual, i’ll be happy to pick up the rubbish myself. Whatever I come upon, I pick it up. Or I create a movie, along with other peers to show other what the right thing to do! Which is to pick up the rubbish and keep our environment as clean as possible.

3- At school, I encourage everyone to show integrity towards our environment. Speak to them about the consequences of the rubbish as well as the great outcomes of having them picked up!. That way, they can spread the news to the whole community, family and friends.

Activity 2: After you have finished up in Taupo, it is time to hop back in the car and head for Rotorua – a town where will have the chance for some much needed rest and relaxation. In fact, you will visit the Tarawera Bush Pool – a geothermal hot pool that is located in the middle of a forest. The warm water in the pool comes from underneath the ground. After a few hours in the pool you feel really relaxed.

On your blog, post a picture of yourself doing something relaxing. I find reading really relaxing. Here is a picture of me reading one of my favourite books!

After a long soak in the natural hot pools, it is time to get back home. Your family and friends can’t wait to see you and they can’t wait to hear all about your adventures. Take a moment to think about what you have seen and done over the past week.

Now that i’m home, I want to take some me time. Me time, means reading time for me!. I sit back in bed and read one of my favourite candy apple books, Miss Popularity. As I do this, it’s just me and my booking, nothing else.

Bonus Activity: On your blog, post a video or write a description about your week. What have you learned? What did you like about the trip? What didn’t you like? Was there anything that surprised you?

To earn full points for this activity, you must talk about what you learned, what you liked and what you about your great kiwi road trip.

I have enjoyed the journey throughout the whole of New Zealand. It's been an amazing experience digitally visiting  the Sky Tower, Rangitoto,  KareKare And visiting the tallest tree in New Zealand,  Tane mahuta. I loved  going sightseeing throughout the whole of the North Island. I enjoyed writing those questions for Laura if I were to meet her. I also enjoyed creating my own flag using some bits from the original flag. I loved finding out more information about the brown kiwi, it was a pleasure meeting Elijah, my Brown Kiwi pet. I actually learnt that there was a kiwi specie called Brown Kiwi, that was amazing. I also learnt a lot  about Lorde when I was creating my DLO on her.  I learnt several of techniques of saving whales too!. I enjoyed reading the article about how the local people of Farewell spit saved the whales. I enjoyed blogging especially. I enjoyed going on this excellent journey learning about a variety of sources that have to do with New Zealand. It was really fun!.

Bonus Activity: 12 points

Well, New Zealand truly is a stunning country, isn’t it? I think that we are so lucky to call it home! Let’s make sure that we do everything we can to keep the country safe and clean for future generations…

#Keep New Zealand beautiful!

Day 6-Winter Learning Journey

Day #6: Native Aotearoa

Welcome to Day #6 of your journey and the last day in the south island. You are going to start the day by traveling 63 km north up State Highway 1 from Dunedin to a place called ‘Shag Point.’ Shag Point is one of five places in the south island where the Maori arrived hundreds of years ago to settle in New Zealand. They arrived at Shag Point in large canoes called ‘wakas.’ For more information on Shag Point and other Maori landing places, go to the Waka landing places website.

http://www.kiwidaydreaming.com/p/new-zealand-maps.html

Activity 1: Let’s imagine that you were on the first waka to arrive at Shag Point. You had never been to New Zealand before and you had no idea what to expect. Write a poem describing how you would have felt when you arrived in New Zealand. Would you have been excited or scared? I would have felt pretty nervous, I reckon…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waka_(canoe)

I see ahead, miles of land

Specked with thousand green spikes

With large brown and green fans dancing in the air

Tiny miracles blossoming on the ground

Everything fresh and Beautiful

But what awaits me on this land?

Vigorous creatures,

Enormous and ferocious

Evil spirits,

Dark and intimidating

But perhaps good things await me on this land?

Beautiful animals,

Majestic and colourful

Food!,

Delicious and heavenly

Feeling nervous as ever, I will soon be able to find out.

Activity 2: After visiting Shag Point, you hop back in the van and drive all the way up the east coast of the south island until you reach the town of Picton. You get out of the van and onto the Interislander ferry. It travels back across the Cook Strait to Wellington. Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand and every winter the city hosts a huge Matariki festival to celebrate the Maori New Year. This year part of the festival is being held at Te Papa, a big museum in Wellington.

Read about the Matariki festival at Te Papa.  There are so many different things to see and do at the festival this year. On your blog, tell us about three of the events. You can choose any three events that you wish.

Timo Timo-

This event is where all sorts of people come together to celebrate Matariki through traditional Maori and Modern storytelling. Exploring a new world with movement, song and taonga puoro.

Matariki Fireworks-

This is event is where the Wellington city council lights up the sky with stunning fireworks to display over the harbour.  This commemorates what Matariki stands for which  is the celebrations of people, language, spiritually and history. Matariki to some is a Maori new year.

Tīramarama: Storytelling for kids-

This is a programme of storytelling for little kids. Told both in Maori and English. The goal of this programme is to entertain and to brighten  the young children. Their story telling sessions are interactive and delighting to a range of audiences. Various of stories are told, stories of heroes, Nz adventures, mythic creatures/characters and ancestral leaders. Stories are told of Matariki too!.

Bonus Activity: As part of the Matariki festival, there is a two day Kapa Haka competition. The haka is a traditional war dance that Maori performed before going into battle. The haka is now performed by children/adults in the community and by professional sporting teams, including our national rugby team, the ‘All Blacks.’  The All Blacks have performed various haka over the years. Watch the following three haka videos (1 – 3) and, on your blog, list the haka videos in order from best (#1) to worst (#3). There are no right or wrong answers ☺

#1. World Cup 2015 – All Blacks vs Argentina

#2. All Blacks vs South Africa 2016

#3. Rugby World Cup 2011- All Blacks vs France

I personally favour and always will favour the original haka that every New Zealander knows and loves, Ka Mate. The “Ka Mate” haka is well known and a beloved haka in Nz. My second favourite would be Kapa O Paonga haka, I love the rhythm and beat in this haka, but not as much as the Ka mate haka. Lastly, the last video I watched, (I don’t know the name of the haka), I didn’t favour as much as the first two. Overall, all hakas were excellent!.

#1. World Cup 2015 – All Blacks vs Argentina

#2. All Blacks vs South Africa 2016

#3.Rugby World Cup 2011- All Blacks vs France

At the end of your day at Te Papa, you head to your hotel in the centre of Wellington. You are staying on Cuba Street, one of the coolest streets in the city.

Bonus Activity: 8 points

Day 5-Winter Learning Journey

Day #5: One Step at a Time…

After a long day at the beach, it is now time to move away from the water and drive inland, through the middle of the south island. You are going to start in Nelson and drive south before crossing a huge mountain range called the ‘Southern Alps.’ The scenery is going to be amazing!

Activity 1: After a few hours in the car, you, your group and Curious Kiwi arrive at your first stop – The Lewis Pass Scenic Reserve. It is a beautiful, regional park located at the base of the Southern Alps. You and your group get out of the van and follow Curious Kiwi. He is going to lead you on a short walk through the park. As you start walking, you notice a really cool looking tree on the side of the trail and you stop to take a closer look. When you turn back, the group (and Curious Kiwi) is nowhere to be found. Eek! You are all alone in the middle of a strange forest.

For this activity write a short story (8-10 sentences) about what might happen next. Please be sure to include lots of details about what you might be feeling, seeing and doing after you realise that you are all alone in the forest…

http://www.kiwidaydreaming.com/p/new-zealand-maps.html

I  turned around to see that C.K(Curious kiwi) and the gang had stranded me. In a matter of seconds, loud and sinister noises echoed through the forest, this left me looking around, wide eyed like a owl. I began strutting through the bushes, looking for the gang, that is when I relieved myself of every horrific thought that flew in my mind until I felt a pair of eyes lie upon me. All the horrific thoughts came flying back, I was as paranoid as ever. I slowly breathed in the cold air, counting to 3, “1…...2…..3”. I ran as fast as I could, continuously looking back and every time I did, a black figure appeared getting closer every metre I moved. Scared out of my wits, I glanced back and the figure disappeared. I looked back to the front, and came face to face with the dark figure. I gasped in fear, gradually fading away, hitting the dirty ground, head first. I woke up to the sight of six familiar faces, “What happened?,” I asked. “Well you ate a berry that made you hallucinate, you ran every where thinking that you were being followed. Then you passed out after you touched a Wet,” C.K replied. We laughed hysterically at this and finished our tour.

Activity 2: After the adventure at The Lewis Pass Scenic Reserve, you are pretty happy to get back into the shuttle van and continue with your road trip. Over the next few hours you travel up and over the Southern Alps, arriving in the city of Christchurch to eat lunch. You have a delicious meal at a café downtown and then hop back into the van to travel to Twizel, a small town at the base of Aoraki-Mt Cook. Mt Cook is the largest mountain in New Zealand. It is also the mountain where Sir Edmund Hillary trained for his climb up Mt Everest – the tallest mountain in the world. Sir Edmund Hillary is very famous because he was the first person to ever reach the top of Mt Everest!

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1702543,00.html

Now it is your turn to learn about a famous New Zealander. Use Google to research one famous person from New Zealand and then create a DLO and post it on your blog. Be sure to include: 1. The name of the famous person, 2. Where they were born, 3. Why they are famous, and 4. Two other interesting facts about them.

Lorde

Lorde is one of my many New Zealand inspirations. She started off in a small country, New Zealand, and grew up to be one of the most beloved pop musicians in the world. She is like most girls in our country, with high ambitions and courageous. I created a small biography of the singer using google drawing. I forgot to mention her Hit songs which are Royals, Tennis Court, Green light, Yellow Flicker Beat and Team, which are all my favourite songs of Lorde also!.

Bonus Activity: You and your tour group have enjoyed your day in the mountains but you’re ready for a change of scenery. You ask Curious Kiwi to take you to Central Otago, a region of the south island with lots of rolling hills and flat, brown grasslands. While in Central Otago, you decide to join the Otago Central Rail Trail – a 150 km long cycle trail. Curious Kiwi and I (Rachel) cycled the Rail Trail in April and we loved it!

On your blog, tell us whether you would like to cycle the Otago Rail Trail one day. Does it sound like fun? Why or why not?

Rachel on the Otago Rail Trail, April 2017

I would absolutely love to cycle the Otago Rail Trail!. I would love to explore the amazing sceneries as I cycle past them. This will challenge my biking skills as I would probably be biking on sturdy, bumpy, narrow trails which will for sure raise the bars for me. It sure sounds like a fun and amazing experience. I hope one day I will get the opportunity to visit!.

Bonus Activity: 10 points

Whew! It has been quite the day of sightseeing. You reach your hotel in Dunedin tired but excited. Tomorrow you are going to visit a very special and important place in the south island before you drive back to Auckland…

Letter from brother✨

Today, my family and I received a letter from my older brother, Mateaki, who went on a three week course down in Palmerston North. The letter was very sentimental, I really miss my brother very much. A paragraph that he wrote stated that he missed us all dearly and that he was enjoying the trip though it was quite cold. It's been about a week and two days since he left, one more week and five more days. It was sweet of my brother to write it from a long distance, which left most of us in tears.

I also miss my brother very much and hope he'll come back strong and healthy. The course that he went on is to challenge him physically in various situations. I heard that it is a very tough course, and I wish him all the best!.

(Throw back photo with Mateaki)

Day 4-Winter Learning Journey

Day #4: Swimming with the Sharks

By the end of Day #3, you have seen a lot of the north island of New Zealand.  Hopefully you have enjoyed it and you’re excited for the next phase of your journey – the ferry trip across the Cook Strait from the bottom of the north island to the top of the south island. You will spend the next two days exploring the south island before you head back up to Auckland, via Wellington (the capital city of New Zealand).

http://www.fourcorners.co.nz/new-zealand/interisland-ferry/

Activity 1: When you arrive in the south island, Curious Kiwi rents a shuttle van and drives your group from Picton (the town where the ferry dropped you off) to a beautiful beach on the opposite side of the island. The beach area is called Golden Bay and, at one end of the bay, is a stunning area called Farewell Spit.

http://www.kiwidaydreaming.com/p/new-zealand-maps.html

Farewell Spit has been in the news recently as a number of whales accidentally swam into the spit and became stuck on the beach. They were unable to swim back to the ocean because the water was too shallow. Many local people tried to save the ‘beached’ whales. Please follow this Farewell Spit link to learn more about what happened. On your blog, describe what the local people did to try and save the beached whales.

The heroic local people did all they can to save the whales including these things

• Draped wet blankets, t-shirts,  sarongs on top of the whales to keep them wet
• They grabbed their chilly bins, water bottles, cooking pots and mixing bowls to fill with water to keep the whales wet (The reason for this is to because the whales couldn’t breathe our air so they were suffocating, the only way for them to breather was for the helpers to keep them wet!)
• They also tried their best to keep their blow holes clear and to keep as far away from their tales

Activity 2: After a morning of learning about beached whales in Golden Bay, you and your group are driven to a nearby town, Nelson, to watch a special movie called ‘Whale rider.’ It is a famous movie about a young girl who was born and raised in New Zealand. Watch the following movie trailers for Whale Rider: Whale Rider trailer #1 and Whale Rider Trailer #2 and then write a summary of the movie on your blog. What is it about? Be sure to also give the movie a rating out of 5 based on the trailer [1 = bad movie, 2 = okay movie, 3 = pretty good, 4 = good movie, 5 = excellent movie].

http://www.incrementa.ca/leadership-succession-whale-rider/

When ‘Whale Rider’ finishes, you and your tour group enjoy a delicious meal in downtown Nelson before heading back to your hotel. You need to go to bed early because you have to get up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning to travel back to Farewell Spit to see a group (pod) of Hector’s Dolphins. It is going to be an early morning!

Whale rider

The movie Whale Rider is a film about a very special family. A family that grew from a name called Paikea, a man who travelled to a Nz suburb on a back of a whale. From there, in every generation of this family the first born son had carried on the name of the great Paikea and becomes the leader of their tribe. That is until, instead of a boy being born, a girl was. Paikea who was supposed to be a boy, was looked down to by her koro(Granddad). She feels unwanted by him because of her turnout, because he wasn’t who he expected her to be. The leader her koro wanted her to be, was in her the whole time.

I think movie is excellent[5]

Bonus Activity: Hector’s dolphins are a very special native animal found only in New Zealand. They are the smallest dolphin in the world measuring 1.5 metres long and they are quite rare. Sadly, many Hector’s dolphins are killed every year when they get caught in large fishing nets and can’t escape. Some people have argued that fishermen shouldn’t be allowed to fish in Farewell Spit in order to protect the dolphins living there. What do you think? On your blog, tell us whether you think that fishing in Farewell Spit should be banned (stopped).

https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/hector-s-dolphin

In my opinion, I believe that fishing in Farewell Spit should be banned.

Because these dolphins are rare and maybe endangered, this is all the information that should be provided to stop this from happening. Every endangered animal should have the right to be safe, to be saved and to live. If fishing is not banned there, this act will continue to endanger these animals, probably leading to these dolphins being extinct. The benefits of having these rare dolphins around can affect us all is they become extinct, especially if it reflects upon us humans. All sea animals should be left unharmed, unless they have a great reason not to be.

Bonus Activity: 10 points