Science badges

In term 4, Kaupeka got to choose if they want to do a maths and science badge for the rest of the year. I chose to do a science badge because I love science a lot and its so interesting. there are different topics for science like home chemistry, home physics, zoology and a lot more. You get a badge for each topic complete. I chose to do home chemistry and home physics. To get a badge for each topic, you need to get 20 stars on that topic. Down below is one of my assignments I completed.

In Home physics, one of the assignments was to make a telephone using 2 cans or pots that are similar and you needed some string. What I did first was get 2 empty Pringles jars and I also got some string. Then I got my dad to help me drill a hole on each can at the bottom for the string to get through. I then put the string through and tied knots so they wont fall out. One of the questions for the assignment asked "Can you make it work around corners? How?" So I wrote a brief report on how it works.

"You can make it go around corners as long as you make the it so that the string is looped and twisted around a solid object so where the string is twisted, it forms a continuous vibration. If the string is gong around the corner and it touches something that doesn't vibrate, then it wont work."

This assignment was 2 stars and I know need 18 more to get a badge.
Are you doing a science or maths badge?

NZSL

In Term 4, Kaupeka has been learning sign language because if we met someone who can't talk or is deaf, we can communicate with them so they feel included. I really enjoyed learning sign language and would love to learn it more. I learnt the whole alphabet in just one session and I'll now show you the alphabet in NZSL.

Have you ever learnt sign language before? 

Art day

On Monday 13 November, our teachers were away doing some PBL work so we had relievers. In the morning we did prayers like usual, and then we got to some Picasso art. Picasso art is a type of art which doesn't have to be perfect so if you are bad at drawing but like it, this is a good piece of art to do.
I drew a Christmas tree with a face and some stars in the background just for fun.

Have you ever done Picasso art before?

Book Character Day

On Friday, the 3rd November, St Francis of Assisi had book character day. Book character day is where you dress up as a character from a book. I dressed up as Alice in Wonderland and Amber and Methuli dressed up as the white rabbit and Mad Hatter. In the morning, we had a parade with all the costumes walking around the court. After that, we had a dance battle between Kaupeka and Tumu but I think Tumu won. Then we had a class photo of all the costumes.

What would've you dressed up as or if you were here, or what did you dress up as?

What the Kaupeka hub is about

In Kaupeka hub, there are 66 students. There are 3 main rooms in our hub and we also have a silent room called the breakout space.
 For literacy, we get to choose what writing pieces we want to write about.
We use Chromebooks in Kaupeka so we can do most of our work on them.
This is what our timetable normally looks like: In the morning, we do RE and a bit after that, we start doing maths. At 10:25 am, we go out for play and at 10:50 am, we eat our morning tea. Then we do literacy and at 12:25, we go out for play again. We eat lunch outside and then we do stuff like languages and after that we do fitness. At the end of the day, we all go home. PBL is project based learning.
One of my favourite PBL's was a science project. The science project was to see which rock candy crystals would grow the most in water or in water with sugar melted in it.
 By the time you go to high school, you should know all your times tables and know how to spell/read everyday words.
My favourite learning area in our hub is the breakout space because if you want to work without getting distracted, you can go in the breakout space and work silently.
My proudest moment of the year was when I finished the cross country course and when I built a dam in the river so we can get clean water at camp.

What are some similarities and differences about your classroom/hub/school?

Giving back to the community

At school we have been doing Community PBL and it is going pretty well. It consists of going into small groups after lunch and talking with our classmates about random questions the teachers ask us. We also have topics of people in the community and we had to write a letter to them. My groups topic is parents so we make sure that they all feel safe about their children/child.

What is the most important thing you learned during this project and why?

Collaboration skills because they will help with talking to others.

What do you wish you had spent more time on or done differently?

I wish I had spent more time and helped more with the letter.

What part of the project did you do your best work on and why?

Communicating to my group because it is fun learning about other's interests and hobbies.

What was the least enjoyable part of this project and why?

Writing the letter because I didn't understand what we were doing.

How could we change this project to make it better for next time?

The groups could change to our own groups or have different things to do with our groups.

Have you ever written a letter to the community?

Hanmer Springs

In the first week of the holidays, I went to Hanmer with my family. I had to wake up at 7:00 am and we had to leave home at 8:30 am. It was around 2 hours to get to Hanmer. We arrived at Hanmer Springs at 10:30 am and then I got changed into my swimming togs. My favourite part at Hanmer Springs was when one of the pools had a bucket up high underneath the water slide and when the bucket was fill with water, it would tip upside down and pour over our heads.



After we went to Hanmer Springs, we decided to go to the Animal Park. At the Animal Park, my family and I had lunch. I ate a cheese toastie with ham. I got to pet and feed all the animals like alpacas, llamas, pigs, cows, emus and much more. My favourite animal was the llama because it kept on following me and was so cute. I would love to go again sometime.

What did you do in the holidays?

Reflection on Personal Karakia

My favourite time and place to pray is....

At home and at church, normally at night time.

Most of my prayers are about…...

If someone in my family is sick or if I really want something.

Sometimes I pray for…..

Homeless and natural disasters around the world.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

My favourite karakia is…...

The Our Father prayer.

Prayer in my whanau is …….

Thanking for the food before we eat our dinner.

How often do you pray?

My Political Party's Campaigning.

The party I am in is called the Kirikotea Party. We each have certain jobs and my job is a speech writer. The word "Kirikotea" means fair in Maori because we try our best to make everything fair and let people have their say. Our group has 3 policies.

The first and main policy is to have 1 hour each day outside while doing some handwriting, reading, do some art and even writing a story while listening to nature.

Our second policy is to have different sports on for different hubs once a week. So many students love sports and having fun with friends and even these topics were said a lot by the parents. We would like to have students enjoy trying fun friendly games and show us their skills. Most of all enjoy the time with their friends.

Our last policy is to have a wet and water day where on one Friday next term we have some more fun in the outdoors. Where students bring their togs and have fun with FRIENDS and then we are also putting an oomph into the school!

The most important thing I learned about this project is how the whole election worked and how important all the jobs and campaigning is. I wish I had spent more time on the speech for Emily so it could be longer and have more details. I worked best on the polling booth and getting all the votes in time. The most enjoyable part of this project was making the poster and getting photos taken. The least enjoyable part was writing the speech because I didn't know what to write and it was a bit boring. Next time when we do something like this, I would like to have more family members vote.

Have you done anything like this before?

Politician visits

For the last two weeks, we have been visited by Nicky Wagner, Jo Hayes, Poto Williams and Duncan Webb. Before they came, all I knew about politics was that there were some parties and people voted for a party they want to be the government and they can create the policies. Here are some of the things I learnt from the four people that visited us.

Jo Hayes
Jo Hayes is a current list MP for National. She is campaigning to win the Christchurch East electorate. You can join the National party at the age of 13 and the party leader keeps everything in line. The politicians go around with big signs to get peoples attention, sometimes they get rude responses or they get a toot. You need to persuade people to vote for you.

Duncan Webb
You have to have relevant policies and you should explain why people should vote for you. Don’t say “Vote for me I am cool and awesome!" You have to explain who you are and what you will do for the community. When you want to persuade people, listen to them and use their ideas. Don't bribe people so you can be proud of what you have accomplished.

Poto Williams

Make sure you are able to present yourself in a way that shows what your group is about. You have to have a meaning for our tagline and always be positive. There are 70 electorate seats (Generally) and you should have fair opportunities to all. Ask people what's important and once you've found out, talk and find out what you can do about it. Stand out from all the others so people can notice you.

Nicky Wagner

You need to have good policies so people will vote for you. It's hard to become a MP like its hard to become an All Black. Wear the colours of your party so people know who you are and what party you stand for, and also to cover all things people are interested in.

Do you know what party your family is voting for?

Digital Badge

I have earned a Silver Level Smart Learning Badge. This means I have achieved and understand how to use the following on Google Docs...

• Change background colour
• Insert and wrap images
• Insert a drawing onto your doc
• Add a border to an image
• Get shareable link
• Change size of doc
• Rotate image
• Put a comment
• Add table colour
• Use strikethrough
• Delete an extra page
• Insert a link

Speech reflection

On Monday, I did my speech. My speech is about why kids should have healthy food in their lunches. I felt really nervous at the start but when I started to talk, I felt less nervous which was good. When I said my speech, the teacher timed me and my time was 3 minutes and 50 seconds. The speech needed to be around 4 minutes so I did quite well. Overall I think I did pretty good since I was quite nervous.

Have you done speeches before? If so, how did you feel while presenting?

Thursday sport

Every Thursdays, Kaupeka and Tumu hub go to Hagley park for Thursday sport. We had 4 choices on what sport we wanted to play. The choices were Netball, Football, Rugby and Hockey. I chose Netball because I love netball and it was the only sport I could play. I trialled for it and got into the Netball A team. In my team their is Emily, Hannah, Tiana, Liana, Kama, Ashley, Val, Ella, Niamh, Bella and I.

What sport would you choose?

Maths

For the past few days, my maths group and I have been recording a maths video to show people how to do reversibility, place value or repeated addition. I chose reversibility because that strategy wasn't too hard and wasn't too easy. This is the video where I show people how to do reversibility.
What strategy do you like the most?

 

GRIP conference

On Wednesday 22nd of November, the Year 7's of my school went to the GRIP conference. GRIP stands for generosity, responsibility, integrity and people. GRIP is all about leadership and having integrity.  The day at GRIP involved meeting kids from other schools, and having conversations that connected with other growing leaders.

We had three sessions during the day. The first session was about transforming and becoming a leader. The second session was all about being a strawberry and not a watermelon. This is a metaphor which means that strawberries are mostly the same on the inside and outside but watermelons are different on the outside to the inside. You should be true to yourself as a leader. The third session was all about integrity and what leadership is like.

My favourite part of the day was the games and how we got to meet new people. I also enjoyed the loud noises where we got to scream as loud as possible.

I want to become an librarian and join more leadership groups because I want people to know myself as a good role model and I also want the badges so I look presentable. Maybe next time for GRIP, we shouldn't have questions at the end because everyone looked bored and only the people who have questions should go up and ask.

Do you want to become a good leader and role model?

Community PBL

For term 3, after every lunch time, we have to go into groups of 4 people for the rest of the term. We eat our lunch while the teachers come around the class and tell us what the question is. One of the questions were "If you were in the Olympics, what sport would you do?" I said gymnastics because I love gymnastics and it looks really fun to do. I think that the new lunch change is okay because you don't have a chance of talking to your friends but you also have a chance of making new friends.

What do you think about the new lunch changes?

Think Make Solve

Today after the maths assessment, we got to do think make solve. Think make solve is when you have packets of Lego and try to put it together to make something really cool and exciting. I was put in a group of four with Amber, Jorja and Petra. We made a firetruck/Jeep and it had a flag with lights, horns, a seat and lots of other cool stuff. I used the skills of problem solving to show my imagination and creativity. Those skills are important to have so you can have a good childhood. Making it was really fun and I would love to do another one.

Have you ever made something really cool out of Lego?

New Changes

Kaupeka has some new changes for Term 3. We are now having bread with butter, peanut butter, Marmite, Vegemite or just bread at 9:30. I normally have Vegemite and it's really nice. We have morning tea and lunch different now. When the bell rings, we go out and play and when the bell rings again, then we go back inside to eat for 15 minutes. The new change is really different and better because we get to have more play time instead of getting changed, eating then playing.

What do you think of the new changes?

Celebration of learning

On Wednesday the 27th of June, the kaupeka and tumu hub had a celebration of learning day where our parents and other family members came in to see our learning. I shared my science experiment to my parents, my friends and even Mrs Earl. I had a lot of fun at the celebration of learning and it was really interesting looking at other peoples science experiment to see what they have done.

Did you come to the celebration of learning?                 Learning showcase placemat

Science driving question

How do I conduct a successful science investigation?

To concentrate on my science experiment and follow the instructions carefully. Also to try do it on my own and make it really decorative so it catches peoples eyes. You need to add a question, hypothesis, materials, procedure, data and conclusion. Don't do it at the last minute in case something goes wrong.

How did your science project go?

Science Experiment

Science Experiment

For science, I did growing rock candy crystals. The first time I tried to grow rock candy crystals, I didn't add enough sugar and too much hot water so the crystals wouldn't grow. Luckily I didn't do it at the last minute so I tried again. This time I added 6 cups of sugar instead of 3 and 2 cups of water instead of 4. I had so much fun making this project and I would love to do something similar next time.

Would you like to grow rock candy crystals?

My Collaboration Reflection

My Collaboration Reflection

For collaboration, we have been learning to work together.

How well do you think you collaborate in a pair, small group or in a big group? Explain this.

Pair: I work really well when I'm in a pair because there is more things to work on instead of not knowing what the other person is doing in a big group.Small group: I work well in a small group as long as I'm friends with everyone and I get along with everyone.Big group: I work quite bad because I never know what to do or what the other people are doing.

Which one (independent, pair, small group, or big group) do you think you work better in and why?

I work the best in a pair because I know what I'm doing and I get along well with my partner.What do you still need to improve on within collaboration? 

I need to improve on talking to the other members in the group and asking questions more.

What should the "ideal" collaboration look, sound, and feel like in the Kaupeka hub?

The ideal collaboration should look like listening to everyone, sitting together and being happy.

Have you ever collaborated well?

Peer Mediation

Peer Mediation

When I was on Peer Mediation, Jelena and I solved about 3 problems together. One of them was this little girl that threw her soft toy into a tree and couldn't get it back down so Jelena and I had to shake the branch and get her soft toy. I love Peer Mediation because it is a really good experience.

Have you ever solved little kids problems or stopped a fight?

Chinese

For Chinese, we have been learning about food, full sentences, events, colours and our names.

Noodles= Mian tiao
Dumplings= Jiao zi
Steamed stuffed buns= Bao zi
Rice= Mi fan

Hello, my name is Anna. I am 11 years old and I'm a New Zealander.=
Ni hao, wo jiao Anna. Wo shi er sui he wo shi xin xi lan ren.

Red= Hong se
Yellow= Huang se
Blue= Lan se
Green= Lu se
Orange= Cheng se
Purple= Zi se
Black= Hei se
White= Bai se
Pink= Fen hong se

Have you ever learned Chinese or any other languages?

Materials and Method.

My next stage for my science project is materials and method.

This is what I will need and how I am going to do it...

Materials:

• Yarn or cotton string (about 1.5 feet)
• Water
• Cup
• Tablespoon measuring spoon
• Small plate
• Granulated white sugar (3 cups)
• Wax paper
• Screws, wooden beads, or other small nontoxic objects to use as weights (2)
• Wooden skewers, Popsicle® sticks, or pencils (2)
• Marker to write with
• Ruler (with centimetre markings)
• Tape
• Glass jars, make sure they are identical in size and shape (2)
• Pot
• Stove
• Measuring cup (for liquid ingredients)
• Measuring cup (for dry ingredients)
• Wooden mixing spoon
• Pot holders
• Paper towel
• Lab notebook

Method:

Day 1: To start the science fair project, cut two pieces of yarn. Each piece should be approximately 1 inch longer than the height of the glass jars.

1. Set one of the pieces of string aside and do nothing to it. Soak the other piece of string in a cup of water for 5 minutes.
2. After soaking, use your hand to squeeze the excess water from the string. Roll the string in 1 tablespoon of sugar on a plate. The string will be coated with sugar. These small bits of sugar are the seeds on which other sugar crystals might grow.
3. Lay both your seeded (sugar-coated) string and your non-seeded string on a piece of wax paper overnight. Make sure they are not touching.
4. Lay both your seeded (sugar-coated) string and your non-seeded string on a piece of wax paper overnight. Make sure they are not touching.

Day 2:

1. Take your seeded string and tie one end to a screw, wooden bead, or other small object that can serve as a weight. It is ok if some of the sugar falls off while you're tying it to the weight. Repeat the process with the non-seeded string and a second weight. Be sure to use the same type of weight for each string.
2. a. Tie the other end of each piece of string to a skewer, Popsicle stick, or pencil.  

 b. Using a marker, colour the edges of the skewer that is holding the seeded string. That way you will know later which string had sugar on it. Make sure to write down in your     lab notebook the marking of your seeded string skewer in case you forget later.

    c. Lower the weighted end of the seeded string into one of the jars and rest the skewer across the mouth of the jar. Roll the skewer to wind the string until the weight is suspended approximately 1 centimeter (cm) from the bottom of the jar, which you can measure with your ruler. Tape the string around the skewer so that the length of the string cannot change. Repeat this process for the non-seeded string, then take the skewers and strings out of the jars and set them aside.

3. Preheat the glass jars. This will ensure that you are not adding your hot sugar-water solution to a cold jar, which would result in a dramatic temperature change that might make small crystals form along the glass. The small crystals would disrupt your rock candy formations.
1. Caution: get help from an adult when handling boiling water.
2. Boil enough water to fill both jars.
3. When the water is boiling, carefully pour it into the jars. You might want to use a funnel to avoid spilling too much water.
4. Let the full jars sit, with the hot water in them, until your sugar-water solution is ready.
4. Make the sugar-water solution.
1. Using a liquid measuring cup, add 1 cup of water to a pot. Bring the water to a rolling boil on the stove. Turn the heat down to low. Note: if you are using jars that are larger than 14 oz, heat 2 cups of water.
2. Using a dry measuring cup, add 2 cups of sugar to the hot water. Note: if you are using jars that are larger than 14 oz, add 4 cups of sugar.
3. Mix with a wooden mixing spoon until all the sugar has dissolved.
4. Turn the heat back up and wait until the sugar-water solution returns to a rolling boil. Make sure to keep stirring so the temperature is consistent throughout the solution.
5. Remove the boiling sugar-water solution from the stove.
6. Continue to add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. Stir thoroughly after each added spoonful, making sure that the sugar is completely dissolved before adding another spoonful. Note: do not confuse the tiny little bubbles in the solution for undissolved sugar. You can tell them apart by stopping your stirring for a moment; the sugar will settle to the bottom of the pan, the bubbles will remain suspended throughout the solution.
7. Keep adding sugar until no more will dissolve in the solution. If you think you've added too much sugar to your solution, don't worry. Keep stirring and if even after a full 2 minutes of stirring, you have undissolved sugar at the bottom of your pot, return the pot to the stove. Heat the solution until it just begins to boil, then remove it from the stove. This should help you to get that last bit of sugar into the solution.
5. After the last bit of sugar has been dissolved, allow the solution to cool for 5 minutes.
6. Pour the hot water out of the preheated glass jars. Caution: the jars will be hot, so use oven mitts or pot holders to handle them.
7. After the sugar-water solution has cooled for 5 minutes, pour the solution into the two preheated glass jars, dividing the liquid equally between the two containers. Caution: Be extremely careful when pouring the sugar-water solution; it is hot and will burn if spilled on your skin.
8. Using pot holders, move the jars of sugar-water solution to a place where they can be left undisturbed for one week. Place both jars in the same location. Large fluctuations in temperature can interfere with the crystallization process, so avoid putting the jars in places that get direct sunlight, or are near a heating or cooling vent.
9. Gently lower the weighted strings into the jars of sugar-water solution, one string per jar.
10. Securely tape the skewers holding the strings to the edges of the jars to prevent the strings from being accidentally jostled.

Have you ever done a method correctly?

Hypothesis

For my science project, I am doing "growing rock candy crystals."
My hypothesis is "Adding hot water will dissolve the sugar quicker because hot water has more energy than cold water."

What do you think will happen?

Peer Mediation

At school for the last 2 weeks, the Year 7/8's have been doing peer mediation. Peer mediation is where you have a buddy, go around the school to help little kids and their situation.So far for peer mediation, it has been quite fun and interesting. Mieke and I had to keep little kids off the back paddock.This was hard because some little kids just ignored us and ran into the back paddock. To get them to listen we had to get a duty teacher.

Did you have anything like this at your school? If so, was it fun and interesting?

My family culture

At school, we are learning about different cultures. During this week, we were talking about our family's culture. In my family culture for Christmas, every year my mum, dad and I go to my cousins place which is my dad's side of my family. We always have a barbecue and pavlova, ice cream and fruit salad for lunch. We just hang out at their house until 4:00 pm.

What is your family culture?

Science Question

For science, we had to pick a project and think of a question that we can answer through the project.
At the end of the term, we are going to start our project.
I am doing "growing rock candy crystals" and my question is "which temperature of water holds the greatest concentration of sugar?"
I chose this question because I love crystals and it looked quite fun to make.

Have you ever done a science experiment before?

Kaupeka Learner Profile

Last term the Kaupeka hub split into groups and got to write what it means to be a Kaupeka learner.

Creative
My strength is creative because I'm good at using my imagination and I love new ideas.

Collaboration
 My weakness is collaboration because I can never think of ideas to say and I prefer working by myself.

Think, Make, Solve.

This time for Think, Make, Solve, we had to get into groups of four. Each group had bits of Lego and you had to build something out of it. My group had; Jelena, Methuli, Amber and I. We made a bumble-bee with a grill, windows, wheels, lights and guns.

When have you used problem solving skills?

Quick Write- Troll

A few weeks ago, I wrote a story in Quick Write about a Troll. Read my story below...

Bang! Thump thump! Ahhhh!!!

There were so many noises in the middle of the night so I went to see what was going on.

“Hmmm what’s making all that noise?”

As I looked out the window, I saw this big, hairy loud TROLL!?!

I sprinted downstairs to wake my family up. My mum, dad, my twin Jelena, my 1 year old sister Amber and my 10 year old brother, Ethan. We packed our stuff like our devices, canned food, 7 packets of chips, more food, 10 bottles of water, spare clothes, blankets, money, first aid kit and our dog, Coco’s food and toys. Jelena put Amber in the stroller,

Ethan put a leash on Coco and me and Dad brought all the stuff. We hopped into the caravan and off we went.

“Oh my gosh! The troll was right next to our house!” Jelena screamed.



What did you think of my story?

Camp

Camp was so awesome! Although it was drizzling, Camp was so entertaining. We had canyoning, Abseiling, Pool, Games room, indoor games, Star wars breakout EDU, team building and bivvy building. My favourite activity was probably canyoning because it was so adventurous. I also slipped on a rock, landed on my back in the river and floated half way down the river! In my bunk room, there was Amber, Aleisha, Charlotte, Methuli, Monique, Jelena and I.

Comment about a time when you went on camp...

Welcome

Welcome to my school blog! This is a place where I will share my learning that I'm proud of. My favourite subject is spelling. Please follow me by email so that you get notifications of my learning!