Yearbook Poem

 Hello bloggers, last week we had been working on making a yearbook. This yearbook is a poem that contains some activities that we did during the year. Underneath is my yearbook.

It started off as the usual,
We went camping which was suitable,
Were the bike seats comfortable,
But this joyful beginning was about to end,
Because Covid was right round the bend.

As we left camp in the nick of time,
Then we looked at global problems such as crime,
We did some art to share them online,
Hundreds have seen while drinking some wine

We all went into lockdown for ever so long,
We thought it was ending but man we were wrong,
After 35 days or 5 long weeks,
Covid-19 had reached its peak,
We all had seen and we started to freak.

Finally, we escaped from the lockdown alive and ferocious,
At school, we learned and flew rockets which went atrocious,
Then we went to technology which went fabulously,
Then it finished which was a catastrophe,

As the year was coming to the end we started to cheer.
For the year 8's this will be their last year here,
As they are off to their high schools next year,
They have nothing to worry about,
Because they still have surfing and sailing plus the year 8 big day out.

On one gloomy misty day, we ventured out to sail,
Those would be one of the last days to fail,
Surfing came quickly after on the hot Sumner beach,
Now the year has come to the end time to give a speech,
They'll say their farewells and leaves some friends,
They are in high school so now they'll befriend.

I am quite proud of my yearbook poem. If you think I missed any major activities please comment them down below.

Super Villain: Darth Seguris

Hello bloggers, today we had to choose to do 2 of 12 tasks while other people were at swimming. The first activity I chose was to create your own super-villain. His name is Darth Seguris. Underneath is his backstory.

Please tell me if you think I could add anything else to the character, Darth Seguris. I think I did a pretty good job. 

Scratch animation For Ki O Rahi

 Hello, bloggers today I did another create task for inquiry.  This on we had to explain how to play Ki O Rahi. Ki O Rahi is a traditional moari ball game. You have two teams on the field, the teams need to hit 6 poles and then a barrel in the middle to secure your points.

That is my scratch animation telling you how to play Ki O Rahi. I hope it was easy to understand and follow. If you have any questions Please comment them down below. 

Hangi's Past and Present

 Today I had to make something that shows the difference between a traditional hangi and a modernized hangi. I made a poster on canvas to show this. I split the page in half to show the differences.

Both traditional and modern have their pros and cons. The modern one can cook faster but it can't cook as much. It also doesn't take nearly as long to prepare. 

Traditional ways have a better taste of the cooked meat. The cons of the traditional ways are, it takes a long time to prepare and a lot of effort. 

Underneath is my poster.

Haka's Culture

 For inquiry this week we have been looking at New Zealand's culture and heritage. There were three different traditions that we could look at. The first one is Ta Moko which looks at how tattoos are used in culture. The second one was Kakahu which is the traditional clocks of the leaders. The final tradition is the Haka. I choose to do the Haka.

Above is what the Haka means they normally perform it for good luck and intimidation. They would do the Haka before they go to war to show their strength. Now they use it to intimidate the opposition before a rugby game.

Leaders Trip to PYDT(Papanui Youth Development Trust)

 Hello and welcome back to my blog. How was your first week of school? My week felt longer than usual. On Monday and Tuesday, we went on a leader's trip to Papanui Youth Development Trust(PYDT). We were taught about 6 habits to become a better leader.  We went to a climbing wall on the second day which was fun. We also had to write a short speech to summarise our trip. These are the habits below.

Habit 1: Be proactive, not reactive

Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind

Habit 3: Put first things first

Habit 4: Think win-win

Habit 5: Seek to understand, then to be understood

Habit 6: Synergize

Underneath are some pictures of the leader's trip.

   

Sign Ninja

 This week on Wednesday for sign language week we had to sign our name. NZSL is a combination of hand shapes, facial expressions, and body movements. NZSL is the natural language of the Deaf community in New Zealand. It reflects New Zealand culture by including signs for Maori terminology and concepts, which can not be found in other sign languages or countries.
As one of the country’s official languages, more than 24,000 New Zealanders use NZSL daily. It is also the 12th most frequently used language out of approximately 190 languages currently used in New Zealand (Census 2006).

So why aren't other languages recognised in the same way? Other languages like Samoan, Tongan, Mandarin, have recognition in their own country of origin. Like Maori, NZSL is strictly “home-grown” in New Zealand.There are hundreds of sign-based languages in use around the world. every where sign language is a bit different. For example people in Christchurch may use slightly different signs than people in Wellington. As spoken languages can be different from one region or country to another. American Sign Language for instance, is quite different from British Sign Language.

Video

Science experiment

 Hello bloggers today I am blogging to tell you how our science experiment went. Just in case you have forgotten what our experiment was, I will remind you. Our experiment was the geometry of goal scoring. We found 7 different angles around a goal and took 10 shots at each angle. We had to make sure that we kept everything even. We chose one person to take all 70 shots and the was me. Tāne, my partner was recording all the misses and goals. We had marked off 75cm in the middle of the goal to act as a keeper. The goal was 2m wide and 3.8m tall.

International Space Station

The week we have been researching the ISS(International Space Station). We downloaded a map of the ISS in Minecraft. We had to make a module that does something other modules don't. The ISS is an outer space station that conducts science experiment that you can only do in space. Underneath is my module.

Link to photos here

My module is built to go to different planets and find new resources. It is extremely fast and has great suspension. Do you think that I could have done any better? Comment down below if I could.

Hammer Hamsters

On Wednesday this week, we had to pretend that we were starting up a business. We had to think about how we could make a profit. We could do this in a group and I did it with Harper. Our idea was to make a gaming company called Hammer Hamsters. Hammer Hamsters makes a game called Royal Hamsters.

In Royal Hamsters you need to save your King and Queen from inside your Villa. Your Villa has been invaded and taken over by worms. You will have a sidekick helping you the whole time. The further you progress into the Villa the harder it gets. Along the way you can gather Hamster warriors to help you conquer the Villa. If you die you go back to your temporary camp and there you will have a chance to upgrade you Hamster warriors. 

What are Factorials????

This week in math I learned about factorials. Factorial is a mathematical term which means you times the number with every number in it. For example 4 Factorial is 4x3x2x1. If you cannot be bothered to write factorial every time you can write it like this 4!. That is saying 4 factorial.

                                                
You don't need the times one at the end because it keeps the number the same. Factorials are very easy until you get past ten. Please comment down below and say if you knew what a factorial was before this.

Flight results

Hello, welcome back to my blog. This week for literacy we have been working on conducting our own experiment. Next week we will have full control of our experiment. This week my question was "what can you do to maximize the distance of a paper plane?" To do this I made 6 copies of the same plane and made different modifications on 5 of them.

Plane	Modification	Distance flown	Average Distance flown
Unmodified	None	360cm, 530cm, 430cm, 420cm, 530cm	454cm
Modification 1	Wings bigger	320cm, 240cm, 270cm, 330cm, 230cm	278cm
Modification 2	Flaps pointed down	490cm, 380cm, 440cm,. 420cm, 380cm	422cm
Modification 3	Nose	120cm, 190cm, 180cm, 260cm, 310cm	192cm
Modification 4	Flaps pointed up	140cm, 230cm, 150cm, 260cm, 120cm	180cm
Modification 5	Wings smaller	430cm, 420cm, 400c,cm, 380cm  450cm	416cm

Above are my results. As you can see the unmodified plane flew the furthest. This was extremely surprising because I thought that the plane with downwards flaps would fly the furthest. I thought this because downwards flaps create lift, making the plane stay in the air for longer. Comment if you think there are any other modifications I could have made?