Technology

Today in tech we were cooking vegetable curry with rice. This meal was very easy and enjoyable to make. The curry was meant to only have vegetables in it, but Mrs Hamer (Cooking Teacher) didn't want us to only have veggies in it, so we added in some chicken. Today in class we made one of my favourite meals. The only thing that I didn't really enjoy was the rice because it was hard and dry, I don't think it was in the oven long enough. My favourite part of the meal we made was the chicken and carrots because they were just right. This term is when we rotate our classes, I think my next technology group is Science, I can't wait for Science because Science has Math and I really like Math. Hapefull on the last day of food tech we make a dessert like cookies and ice cream or brownies.

My First Day of the Holidays

 

Hello. As you may have seen in my last blog post, I posted about it being the holidays and also The Last Day of Term 2. Last night I stayed up way past my bedtime, I'm not saying that I have a bedtime, but what I'm trying to say is that I've stayed up later than usual. I should've been sleeping by 10:00 or 9:00, but because it was the holidays already I thought that it was alright to stay up until 3:00 am, but it actually wasn't. Did you know that staying up late could affect the way you act during the day? Well if you didn't, now you do, and I just found that out recently. Staying up late really messed up my daily routine, my schedule and my eating time. Today I woke up around 12:00 pm, which is lunch time and because I woke up so late I was eating Breakfast at Lunch. I really do hope to not stay up as late as today in the future.

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Last Day of Term 2

 

Happy Last Day of School everyone! Today was the last day of Term 2 for 2021. I was really excited to go home today, and couldn't wait for the holidays to start. A few people in my class didn't show up, I guess they had already started their holiday. If you don't know what's happening, in New Zealand our school time is separated into four Terms. In each Term there are 10 weeks of school, and after each 10 weeks are over, we have a two week break from school. After the two weeks are over we go back to school and start another 10 weeks. On the last day of Term 2, my class and I had shared lunch, and in New Zealand that is what we normally do. Each person comes with something to share with the class. In my class some people wanted to do shared lunch, but other people didn't want to have it. I really enjoyed the last day of school, and I hope the holiday takes its time to go by. I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday and I hope to see you all next term.

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The Matariki Light Trail

 

In Auckland Glen Innes, there is a event and in this event there are lights. These lights go around a huge grass field, and it takes place at night. Its right behind Te Oro, and in Te Oro there are performances like singing and dancing. There are also some things on sale like deserts, coffee, island food, clothing, paintings, light balls and swords, some candy and hot chips. It's a Light Trail display and people walk around and take photos, it also brings the family together and you get to spend quality time with your siblings and parents.

I visited this event with my family and it was really fun to explore the new lights they've displayed. My family and I also bought some hot food because of how cold it was. The cool thing was that my Nana had a food shop, she was selling curry and rice, drinks and Faikakai Topai, which is a tongan desert and its made of balls of dough, and glazed in homemade caramel sauce. 

She made a lot of money after selling all that food, and that has gone into a saving account for the end of this year. On the last day of this event there is a huge firework display there. My family and I went there again and the fireworks were beautiful and it was definitely big. I really enjoyed this Light Trail event and especially the fireworks. I'm looking forward for next year's Light Trail because Matariki is going to be a public holiday for the first time. My favourite part of this event was the circle lights on the floor and every time you step on it, it would change color, I also enjoyed the hula hoops.

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Matariki Art

Today my class and I were doing art. This art was based on the celebration Matariki. Matariki is very important for the Maori culture, and its important for them because it is the day of the Maori New Year, and there are nine stars that are important for them, because they were the stars they used, to lead them here to Aotearoa (New Zealand). Maori's don't follow the normal calendar, they follow the Lunar Calendar, Lunar means moon. Now that you have a little knowledge about Matariki, let's get into what my art is about and what I used for it.

Firstly, my teacher split us into four groups, one was the silhouette painting. We used dye for this and black paint or pastel. The second one was Acrostic Poems, there were only a few people who did this. They needed a piece of paper and they had to write out what each letter of the word Matariki means to them or means. The other one was Stars + Goals + Patterns. Int this activity they had to color in a star with circles around it, and put their goals in it, they could also add some patterns if they wanted to. The last art activity was Whare (house). In this activity only a three people could do this because there wasn't enough popsicle sticks to make the whare with. They had to glue the sticks together and make a whare, they also added a background using cardboard.

The group that I was in, was the Silhouette painting group. In the image above is a picture of my piece of art that I did. It is also an example of what my group was doing. I really enjoyed doing this painting, even though I had made a few mistakes during the process, I still managed to complete my art in one day. We were going to use paint for this activity, but my teacher said to use dye because it blends a bit more better. In my opinion it was much better than paint because it blended better. It was really fun and enjoyable, now all we need to do is display it in the hall for other people to see.

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The Life Education Van

 

Today my class and I had a visit to Heralds home, also known as the Life Education Van. It was an enjoyable experience and hopefully next time it will be as fun as today.

First, we lined up outside and one by one, all went inside and sat against the walls. Then we got into lines of three and faced the front to where Silvia (The Life Ed Teacher) was standing. In groups of three, we had to write in a white board about what we think peer pressure is, and why people do the things they do when they get peer pressured.

After that, we just recapped on what happened last week in the video we watched, and there were a few new people that didn't come with us last time, and that's to bad because it was really fun. After we've recapped about last week, she let us lay a game, so we all stood up with our backs against the walls. Then, we had to get into two lines, one in the front and one in the back because we were going to watch another movie.

Silvia paused on the second and it showed a boy, we had to guess what he is and what he likes to do. The things we guessed weren't 100% correct, but we gave it a try. He likes Math and Drawing, he likes playing guitar at church and he wants to be an architect when he grows up. Silvia wanted us to judge and have a good guess of the image or video we see.

Finally, once we've finished watching the video and finished having a good guess we all had to stand up again with our back against the walls. Then we went outside and packed up our class. Overall I really enjoyed our session with her and I really look forward to having another session with her next time.

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Learning About the Morse Code

 

Today we had a few people come over and taught our class about Morse code and robots. morse code is a different way of writing, as you can see in the image above that is a example of what morse code looks like. So basically morse code are just dots and dashes, but the cool thing is that you can use it to write secret messages and use it as a way to communicate without talking.

First, they all introduced themselves and their names were Tony, Scotty and Nova, there was another person but sadly I have forgotten his names. Then they asked some questions and if you got it right you would get a chocolate. After a few questions were asked we got on with what they were teaching us. Our first activity was a designing and building activity. We had to get into pairs and then we had to choose which one would be the designer and which one would be the builder.

My partner was Aria and she was the designer and I was the builder. They handed the builder a bag of shapes and the designer a piece of paper of what the builder had to build. We couldn't look at each other, so we had to be back to back. Aria was my partner and I knew that we were going to make a great team. Once we've done placing all the shapes into its right positions, Aria revealed the picture and everything thing was correct.

After that they showed us what the morse code was and it was really hard to understand. Next they handed s a piece of paper and we had to write a word down, but in the morse code. This was really cool and enjoyable. Next, one of the older student handed each table group a laptop and we had to insert a code.

In the code we had to insert the morse code of any word, and programme it into the lego robot they gave us. We had a little help from one of the students and overall my group managed to complete this activity. We also made the robot move forward and turn back to us. The word we put into the robot was Dora. Once we were done we showed one of the older students and he said that we did a good job.

Towards the end of the programme they asked a few last questions and you would get a chocolate if you got it right, unfortunately I didn't get to answer one. Nevertheless I really enjoyed this session with them and I hope next time they could come in again. It was interesting to learn about the morse code, and I would definitely use that next time so we won't get caught passing notes.

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