End of Year

2018 has been an exciting year with lots of opportunities and memories that I will cherish forever. There has been roller coasters of emotions. There has been happy times like when my friends and I are laughing too hard that we end up on the floor with tears in our eyes but there also have been some sad times. My last year of primary school has been challenging but my friends made it easier and have encouraged me to thrive my best. My highlight at St Francis would have to be the Caritas Challenge as it made me have sympathy towards people living in poverty and overall made me become a better person. 

Next year what I want to take every opportunity I get because you never know, I might like it. I also want to be friendly towards others and not fall behind in my work.

In the future when I finish university, I want to achieve my dream of becoming an Interior designer or Architect. I'd also want to do a bit of acting in my spare time and would love to experience becoming an actress in a movie.

I made so many new friends this year and I cant wait what 2019 will bring me. 

Memoir

This Term, Kaupeka has been working on our own memoirs. Memoir is a writing piece about something that is special to you. I did my Memoir about the Caritas Challenge we did back in Term 2.
I chose this topic because it changed the way I see the world and made me become a better person. I also had great time with my friends. Click the link below to see my Memoir.


Caritas Challenge Memoir




What is your favourite memory from your school?

Dance

Every Tuesday and Wednesday after school I do dance. I go to 2 different dance studios.
On Tuesdays, I go to Pitter Patter dance studio and I do contemporary and Jazz. We are currently doing a contemporary group dance about a widow and her husband died in world war. The song is called "To build a home" This is one of my favourite dance routines and I want to do more like this one. I go from 4:20 pm - 5:30 pm and I've been going here since I was 6.

On Wednesdays, I go to Silhouette dance studios. The lessons I take are acrobatic dance and a fitness session. For Acrobatics, we are doing a dance to the song "This is me" but it's a remix so it goes from a slow contemporary dance to a fast Jazz dance. We learn and practise all kinds of acrobatic tricks like walkovers, aerials, handsprings, flips, etc. This lesson goes from 6:00 pm - 6:45 pm.
The next lesson I take is all about improving your strength, balance, stamina and flexibility. We do all sorts of workouts like push ups, sit ups, jumping using skipping ropes for 3 minutes straight and so much more. After we have done the fitness part, we then move onto stretching. This helps with our balance and flexibility. Some of the stuff we have to do are holding the split position for 3 minutes on each leg, stretching our backs and also just basic stretching. This session goes from 6:45 pm - 7:45 pm. I joined Silhouette dance studios this year and I'm really enjoying it.

What activities do you do after school?

Story starter

A while ago this term, Kaupeka got to do a story starter writing sample. We got given this story starter about magical empty boots that moved. I love this type of genre and this is one of my best writing pieces because I showed my writing skills. Here is my writing piece.

Link to my writing piece

What is your favourite genre for writing?

Production Overview!

I know this overview is a bit late but I'm going to do it anyway.
On Thursday 27th of September, Kaupeka did a dance production all about the Maori myth. This myth is about 2 Gods and their 6 children. The children felt trapped so the second oldest child, Tane, came up with an idea. Tane is the God of forest and nature. The plan was to become a small seed and slip in between the parents. It took years to grow the tree and it finally pushed the parents apart. The parents became really sad and Tane created the first woman. Tane and the woman got married and they had a child.

I was the main dancer in my group called Tawhiri so I had many parts in this production.
My costume was a plain white shirt with black leggings and purple hula skirts and a black bandanna.
All the groups choreographed their own dances except the final dance which the teachers choreographed.
My favourite part about the production was practising with the people in my group and getting to know them a bit better.
Before we were going to perform in front of everyone, I was a bit nervous that I was going to forget some dance moves but when it was over, I felt proud and was also sad that it was over because it was such a fun experience. I would love to do another production like this again.

Have you ever been apart of a production?

Athletics!

On Thursday 25th October, St Francis of Assisi had Athletics day 2018. The events that was held were sprints, long distance, shot put, discuss, long jump and high jump. For shot put, I threw the ball 5.94 metres. It was my personal best but sadly it wasn't far enough to get into zones.

My favourite event for Athletics is shot put because it is the one that I'm best at and it is also always very interesting to see how far you threw the ball. For discuss, I purposely threw the discuss terribly and I got 3 metres and I couldn't stop laughing.
For high jump, I didn't try and I ran up to the pole and slowly put my leg over it. My friend also didn't want to try so she ran up to it and crawled underneath the pole. The teacher wasn't even looking so she had to ask if my friend got over the pole and it was very funny. Athletics day was really enjoyable and I'm sad that it was my last Athletics.

What is your favourite event for Athletics?

Kids in town!

On the 1st of November, the year 7/8 singing group went to the art gallery in the city centre. We went to an event called Kids in Town. We went with the ukulele group and the Jump Jam group. The first item was the ukulele group. They played a Japanese traditional song. Then the ukulele group and the singing group did 2 items together. First one was a song called "The Smell of Sunscreen" and the second one was "Take it Easy" by Stan Walker. This next item was the main one for the singing group. We had been practising this mashup for maybe 2 months. This mashup is a mix of Don't stop me now, Castle on the hill, Better now, I want it that way, Middle, 2002 and Bye Bye Bye.
Overall, this day was super fun and I really enjoyed it.

Do you do singing?

PBL

In the past 3 days, the year 7/8 students got put into a random group of around 3 - 5 people. Each group gets a country name. My groups country was Sri Lanka. We each decided on what type of food we were bringing. In my group, there were people who brought Dragon Fruit, Coconut treat and other traditional foods. I brought some curry with a lot of different spices and I also brought homemade naan bread. Today we all brought our dishes to school and we had a shared lunch. I got to try delicious and unique foods for the first time.

This term, our main PBL is based around Shark Tank. Today we got to choose our groups of 4. The people in my group were Charlotte, Gaby, Ellen and I. We wrote some of our ideas on what we could do like sell some of our baking, sell homemade bracelets and perform a magic comedy skit. Thats just a few of our many ideas. The community market is on the 4th December and I am really excited!

What is your favourite country?

Production

In week 10 on Thursday, Kaupeka will be doing a production about the Maori Gods and how the earth was created. There are 7 dance groups. Each group is a God of something for example; my group is Tawhiri, God of Wind and storms. In my group, there is Lily, Casey, Alex, Taylor, Ethan B, Glen. Kayla, Jonte, Katie, Ben and I. For each group, there has to be a main dancer. In my group, I am the main dancer and Katie is the back-up dancer. We are performing this production on the 27th September 2018, twice. The first show is at 11:00 am and the second show is at 6:00 pm. Although I can't do the 11:00 am show, because of high school tests, I am the main dancer for the night show.

Have you ever done a production for your school before?

6 Steps on how to make the PERFECT blog post

Hello everybody, welcome back to my blog. Today I'm going to show you how to make a quality blog post.

Did you enjoy this post?

Why humans are getting dumber

In week 5, all of Kaupeka presented their speeches. I presented mine on Tuesday 21st August. My speech is about humans getting dumber. The length of my speech was 3 minutes and 51 seconds and I was very nervous but I eventually got through it very well even though I messed up quite a lot. Click the link below if you want to watch my speech.


Anna's speech

My opinion on Teacher's Strike

If you didn't know, on the 15th August, all the primary school teachers that are part of the Union went on strike and petitioned because they wanted more pay, less paperwork and to spend more time with their students. Which means that they refused to work on that day! In my opinion, I think their pay is fine and should stay the same but I completely agree that they have way too much paperwork. Overall, I think that the teachers should interact more with their students and get less paper work with the same pay.

What is your opinion on Teacher's Strike?

The Rainbow Tournament

On Sunday, 5th August, my netball team did the Rainbow Tournament at Hagley park. We all dressed up in light blue tutu's with blue ribbon, pink high socks, blue Minnie Mouse ears, gold face paint and a red dot of face paint on our nose. My favourite game was the second game, when I was center because I kept on getting the intercepts and getting the ball. After the third game, we went inside and had lunch.

After having lunch and talking a lot, we submitted our team in the Year 8's costume contest. Their were maybe around 5 or 6 Year 8 teams so that gave us a good chance on winning the contest. When they announced runner up, we were getting quite nervous but they said "St Francis of Assisi" so we got really excited. Our prize was 10 flip out tickets! All of us were shocked because it was such a good prize.

We decided to go to flip out on the 14th September and after Flip out we are going to Cocopellis for dinner. I'll make sure to tell you all about it on one of my blog posts in a couple of weeks so stay tuned!

Have you ever done a special tournament for your sport?

Novel

At the start of this Term, we had to choose a book to read for the rest of the Term. There were 5 options. Oracle, Goodnight Mr Tom, The Drovers Quest, Jenna's Wave and The Greyhound of a girl. I chose the last one, The greyhound of a girl along with Ellen, Joe, Nasili, Alex, Oscar and Ben.


Why did you choose this book?
- I chose this book because I'm interested in books about ghosts and mystery.


Summarise what you have read so far.
-  A 12 year old girl called Mary is best friends with Ava. But sadly, Ava has to move to a different town and Mary becomes really upset. Mary meets a ghost called Tansey, short for Anastasia. But Mary doesn't know that Tansey is a ghost. She though that Tansey is her new next door neighbour, moving into Ava's old apartment. Mary's grandmother, Emer, is in hospital, dying. Tansey and Mary have had a few conversations and finally Mary's mother, Scarlett meets Tansey and is shocked.


Has the book started off how you thought? Why/Why not?
- I thought it was going to be about a greyhound that is the ghost and wants to see their owner one last time before the owner dies but it turns out that it's Mary's great grandmother that is the ghost, trying to talk to Emer, her daughter.


Describe the literacy circle method of reading that we are using this Term.
- In my literacy group, we have a google slide that we share. We have different roles each week. The roles are Discussion Director, Illustrator, Word Master, Summariser, Passage Picker and Connector. Each week we comment our answers/opinions on a slide with questions about the book.


How have you found this so far?
- I think this new way of collaborating is actually quite interesting. I love how each week we get questions and talk to our group about our opinions. I want to work more like this in the future.


What are you looking forward to the most in reading this Term? Why?
- I'm not sure but I am enjoying this new way of reading and collaborating.


What do you think of this new way of reading?

Holidays

In the Term 2 holidays, I didn't really do as much stuff as I did in the last holidays because most of my friends were quite busy. Although I didn't do much, I'm gonna be talking about some of the most enjoyable days of my holidays.

Friday 13th July:
After 4 days of literally nothing, Ellen and I decided to go to Palms mall to catch up on all the drama. First, we met upstairs where the movies are and then once our parents left, we went downstairs and went to each shop, row by row.
We bought a couple of beauty products and some food, and then we sat at a table to relax.

Monday 16th July:
On Monday in the second week of the holidays, I decided to do the kids market so I can get rid of my old toys and make some money. I arrived at the place at 8:00 and we were the first ones to get there. We set our table in one of the best spots. Amber was next to me, selling her old toys. At the end of the day, I made $70.00. i was really exhausted but it was a pretty interesting experience and was definitely worth it.


Thursday 19th July:
 Amber and I decided to go QE2 because the last time we went was when we were 5 years old. We arrived at 6:00 pm and we immediately went to the lazy river. My favourite part f QE2 is definitely the hydro slide. I went on it 6 times with Amber. The first 4 times, we went forward and it was really fun but the 5th time, we accidentally turn around and started to go back wards. That was when we really started to scream. When our 5th turn ended, we couldn't stop talking about how enjoyable it was. So, our 6th turn we purposely turned ourselves around so we went backwards and it was so hilarious. I was screaming that I was having a heart attack and Amber started laughing her head off on how scared I was. We went home at around 7:30 pm. Overall, QE2 was definitely a good experience but I think they should of added more interesting pools like the wave pool, diving boards and a lot more.


What was your most favourite part of the holidays?

Maya

Maya is my parents friends daughter. She is 1 years old, turning 2 in August and she is really adorable. Maya is half Japanese and half Kiwi, like me. We know each other because we go to the same church and I sometimes babysit her, which is very enjoyable. We recently found out that Maya is going to be a big sister! The baby is due in around September. The gender is a girl and I am really excited. I see Maya maybe 2 - 3 times a week and I am one of her favourite people. It is really funny because sometimes she sings a song out of nowhere. She is quite smart since she can count to 10 and say the whole alphabet by herself. Since I am always around her, I know a lot about her.

 Her favourite colour is pink and she really likes cats. 

Here are a couple of photos of us together.

Do you like looking after toddlers?

About me

Hi I’m Anna and this is my blogger profile. I am a female student that goes to St Francis of Assisi school. I’m a year 8 and my favourite subject is Maths. I enjoy playing Netball, Gymnastics, Dance and Speed Skating. I used to play the Piano and Violin. The dance styles I do are Acrobatics, Lyrical, Jazz, Contemporary and Musical Theatre. I don’t really do ballet but I do techniques on it. I have 2 half brothers called Karl and John. My Mum is Japanese and my Dad is Kiwi. I have a black Staffordshire bull terrier cross Labrador dog and his name is Coco. He is 2 years old and really playful! My favourite colour is white and gold and my favourite animals are obviously dogs because they are really cute. My goal for this year is to challenge myself and try something new. Thank you for reading,see you next time. :)

Do you have any pets?

The Kidnapping Mystery

Every Tuesdays, Kaupeka gets to do the "Kidnapping Mystery". This is a fun game about a guy called Mr Banks who got kidnapped and we have to find out who kidnapped him. First we got into groups of around 4 - 5 and we get about 3 or 4 clues each Tuesday. Altogether, there are 25 clues and the first group to find out who kidnapped Mr Banks, wins and gets a prize. My group has 21 clues and we are so close to finding out who kidnapped Mr Banks. Overall, I really love this game and I want to do more like it this year.

Do you do any of these types of games at your school?

Saturday Sport

Every Saturdays, I play Netball for my Netball Club. This week was my first game this year and I was so excited! When I got there nobody had arrived yet so it was just Amber, Jelena and I. The game started at 2:10 pm and finished at around 3:15 pm. The first quarter of the game, I subbed and then the second quarter, I was GA (Goal Attack). At half time, Petra brought some oranges and I couldn't stop eating them! For the rest of the game, I was GS (Goal Shoot) and I got around 3 - 4 shots in. The overall score was 8 - 6 and we won! This was the first time winning for this team and we were really happy. The player of the day went to Lilla, and at the end of the game, we all got lollies. We had a group photo and shook hands with the opposition team.

After Netball, I went home with Jelena and Amber and later that night, we had Hamburgers for dinner. We also watched "The Greatest Showman", which is now my favourite movie ever!

Do you play any sport in the weekends? If so, what sport?

Life Education

In the last two weeks, St Francis of Assisi got to go to the Life Education van. Overall, each class had 3 sessions in the Life Education van. My first session was 2 weeks ago on Friday. We had learnt about different ways of becoming a Leader and how personalities can effect you as a Leader. At the end of the first session, we got to see Harold, the Giraffe and he told some jokes which everyone was surprised because the jokes were quite rude.

In the second and third session, we learnt the differences between being a Leader and being a Boss. For example, being a Boss is telling everyone what to do and being a Leader is letting other people say their ideas or opinions. In the second session, we got to see a video of a teenage boy wanting to ride a kids brand new bike even though the kid didn't want him to. He had 3 choices; being aggressive, passive or assertive. In the last session, we got to see Harold do karaoke and it was really funny. In each session, we also got to play a game.

Overall, it was such a good experience and I definitely learnt something new from each session. I really want to see Harold again but sadly, I can't because Life Education van only goes to primary school and I go to High School next year.


What did you learn from Life Education?

Caritas challenge

On the 18th of May, Kaupeka did the Caritas Challenge to support the people in Timor Leste. We did the live it challenge were we slept in cardboard boxes outside. We also did the move it challenge were you have to do non stop fitness for 3 hours. We ate like them and basically lived like we were people in Timor leste. At night time, we did a reflective journal and we got some questions we had to answer. Here is mine.

1. Describe your experience of our Kaupeka Caritas Challenge so far. What does 1 day of difference mean to you?
- The Kaupeka Caritas Challenge has been such an awesome experience so far. The first part of the day was a bit boring since it was just mass and assembly but the rest of the day was so fun! My favourite part of the day was probably either building our shelters or playing spotlight.
- I think 1 day of difference means that we can do as much or as little to help someone but we are still helping someone on the other side of the world.

2. What was the biggest challenge for you?
- Definitely building the shelter because it went dark pretty quickly and my group didn't have much resources. The other challenge for me was sleeping because I slept on the very end so I was sleeping on the wooden floor. It was pretty warm but after around 2:00 am, the temperature dropped and it was freezing.

3. What connections can you make with the people living in Timor - Leste/ those living in poverty from your experience in our Caritas challenge?
- That the people in Poverty live like this every single day so make the most of your life.

4. What could you do to help those in poverty living in our community?
- You could give them food, blankets, or anything really, but don't give them money because they could spend it on other stuff that is not necessary like drugs or cigarettes. And if you do see someone who is homeless, call the city missioner and they will try to help them.

5. What have you learned about Social Justice and Empathy while participating in the Caritas Challenge?
-  Social Justice means not only standing up for someone but letting them hang out with you, or do something to make them feel good. Empathy means being able to understand how someone is feeling.


Have you done the Caritas Challenge? If so, how was your experience doing the Caritas Challenge?

Winter Sport

Every Thursday, Kaupeka and Tumu (Year 5 - Year 8) goes to Hagley Park to play Winter Sport. Winter Sport is were you go verse other schools that play the same sport as you and you do that once week. The sport options are Hockey, Rugby, Football and Netball. The sport I play is Netball and I am in the B Team.

Today was Thursday so I went to Hagley Park to play Netball. The position I normally play is Goal Shoot. I love playing Goal Shoot because you don't need to run around much. Today, I played Goal Shoot for the first half of the game and the second half, I played Goal Attack. The school my team versed was Selwyn House School. We won 10 - 5 and it was such a good game.

What Sport do you play for Winter Sport?

Science Question and Hypothesis

During last Term, we have been learning about Science and the teachers have been running workshops on different areas like the hypothesis and method & materials. We also had to go to a certain area one or two times within the Term.

From what we have learnt in the Term, we now had to create our own science projects from the Question onward's. I had chosen to do a project with Charlotte because we were aloud to go in pairs this year. Charlotte and I struggled to find a projects that suits both of us. So we came to our teacher with our problem and then our teacher came up with the idea of doing a science project about laughing because we laugh a lot. So we all searched up laughing topics and it came up with this picture of a monkey so of course we both started laughing. so our teacher helped us to create our Question. " The laughter of which age group is the most contagious?"

To elaborate on this question we had to research and find out more about contagious laughing. My partner and I weren't that sure about the topic so we researched and found that the human brains react better to positive sounds such as laughter and triumph rather then negative sounds like screaming and retching. After we had found this out, we realised that the younger people have higher pitched voices, so we created our Hypothesis. " The younger the age of the person laughing, the more contagious it will be because the younger you are, the higher pitched sounds you make." I have enjoyed researching about this topic and I can't wait to go further on this topic. 

Have you ever done a science project? If so, what was the topic about?

Public vs Private Information

Holidays

On the 13th of April, we had our last day of Term 1. Overall, we had a 2 week holiday and in the holidays, I did some pretty interesting stuff. I'm just going to talk about the most enjoyable days of my holiday. On the 20th of April, I had a really fun day with Charlotte and Liana. First, at 12:30 pm, I went to Charlottes house and I had about 4 bags full of my stuff, especially clothes. When I got to Charlottes house, I just dropped of my bag for Ice-Skating and then we went to Lianas house which is pretty close to Charlottes house so we walked. When we arrived at Lianas house, Charlotte and I dropped off our other bags for later that night. At 1:30 pm, Charlotte, Liana and I went in Charlottes dads car and he dropped us off at Alpine Ice.

Ice-Skating was actually really fun because it is my favourite sport. The session went from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm. The first activity was speed skating for anyone who wants to skate really fast without any slow people getting in their way. Charlotte and I wanted to do the speed skating so we did it and it was very fun. The second activity was spin the bottle and all you had to do was stand on the outside of the rink and if the bottle points at you, you win a free drink or candyfloss. The third activity was dance battle and it was for anyone who wants to dance on the ice and win a free candyfloss. There were two song choices; YMCA and The Chicken dance. Most people voted for YMCA so that was the song everyone had to dance to. Liana didn't want dance so it was just me and Charlotte and a couple of other people we didn't know. I actually won the dance battle and I got a free candyfloss which was really nice.

At 4:10 pm, we went to the supermarket to buys some candy, chocolate, chips and popcorn for later that night. We bought skittles, chocolate block, 1 bag of chips, pringles, party mix lollies, packet of red skins and a big bag of popcorn.

After we went to Pakinsave, we returned home and the beds were already made. As soon as we got home, we picked a movie and the first movie we watched was Barbie and the 12 dancing princesses. Half way during the movie, we ordered fish and chips. When the movie finished, we decided to go outside in the dark, and dance to music for fun. We then did the try not to laugh challenge with water in our mouths; and I think I lost. At around 8:00 pm, we chose the next movie, which was Bring it on All or Nothing. By the time the movie finished, I'm pretty sure I gained like 48 kg from all the junk food I ate. It was around 9:00 pm when Lianas family went to bed so we tried to be quiet. While Liana was doing something for like 5 minutes, Charlotte and I got motivated to make up a cheer routine. By the time Liana got back, we had finished and we showed the routine to her. It was really funny because she was quite shocked and weirded out, but also laughing.

Later that night, we were reenacting people that we thought would be quite funny to reenact. We got told off a couple of times for talking and laughing to loud. We went to bed at 2:00 am and Liana went to sleep first but Charlotte and I watched Barbie life in a dream house. At around 3:00 am, we decided to go to sleep.

It was around 9:00 am when we woke up. For breakfast, we had waffles with blueberry's and maple syrup on top and it was delicious. We all got changed, packed our stuff and then we were just talking after that while doing each others hair. Just before I left, we were practising our netball skills. Overall, this was probably the most fun thing I did in the holidays.

What did you do in the holidays?

Celebration of learning

At the end of term 1, we are going to have a celebration of learning for the parents which is held on 11 April 2018. The teachers put us into groups of about 4 to 5 at the start of this term and we have been working with each other. Each group has an area on the wall to put their amazing work up there for the Learning Showcase. I have a group of 5 with Malia, Ethan M, Ben, Phoebe S and I. 

What is your proudest accomplished work you have ever done? 

Term 2 goals

At the start of this year we had to think of a goal that we could try and finish at the end of the year or check in at each term and see how we are going.

My goal for this term/year was to be able to do better in my maths so I can possibly be not in Target Maths any more.

I have enjoyed this term a lot like when we went to Ferrymead and technology. I have enjoyed these things because our class did them as a group.

My goals for term 2 are to do better in my maths and to do more reading because I want to grow as a better student and be a good role model to younger people. To ensure I achieve my goals I need to concentrate and never give up even when things are hard.

What are your goals for term 2 or even for this year?

Diana Issac Visit

On Friday 23rd march, me and 5 other students went to the rest home, Diana Issac. When we arrived we talked to the
residents about their history and learnt what it was like in their time. I talked to two people called Maggie and Margret.
I asked them a lot of questions about the 1900's. One of the questions were "What was your first job?" One of them
said Air hostess and the other said short hand typer. After we shared our stories we went onto blogger, I showed them
a few of the blogs that I had already done and they were really impressed. I loved hanging out with the residents
at Diana Isaac.I really enjoyed their company and would like to do something like this again with them.
For example, the resident's coming over to my school so we can have more fun again

Have you done something fun with your grandparents or some elderly people that you know?

Ferrymead

On Friday 16 March 2018, Kaupeka hub went to Ferrymead and the Bridle Path. There were 2 big groups; 1860's group and 1950's - 1960's group. I was in the 1860's group so I got to dress up and see what activities kids did in the 1860's.

First, I went to Ferrymead and there were 3 stations. The first station I went to was the Bakery. In the Bakery, there was a huge, old oven full with cobwebs. We also got to make biscuits and make butter using a butter churner.                                 
                                                                             

The second activity was toys and games kids did in the 1860's. There were a big variety of toys you could play with like bubbles, stilts, croquet, and a lot more.

The third activity was my absolute favourite. We got to go to the old school and role played as students in the 1860's era.







In the afternoon, we stayed at Ferrymead to have lunch and we also got given our biscuits from earlier.
Then we split up into our own small groups to climb the Bridle Path.

My group and Miss Hansens group joined together to climb the Bridle Path. After a while, we saw a shortcut to get to the Gondola but it was a lot more steeper than the long way to get to the Gondola. Luke, Tiana, Andres, and I, chose the long way with Miss Hansen. We finally got to the Gondola and I went down in the Gondola with Malia and Liana.

I'm now going to answer some questions.

What were the differences and similarities of the time you experienced at Ferrymead to now?
- Back then, the teachers were way stricter and it was a lot more harder to use certain stuff. Some of the work we did were very similar to some of the work we do now.

From your experiences, what do you think life was like at home in the era of your event?
- Being in NZ in 1909 would of been very hard since there wasn't much technology or much power at that time.

How do you think the early settlers felt climbing the bridle path with all of their belongings?
- It would of been very hot especially in summer and also very tough because they probably had to do it everyday while carrying heavy belongings.

Find someone who was in the other group at Ferrymead and compare what it was like in the era they experienced to what you experienced.
- Charlotte:  When I went to Ferrymead, we did the school and honestly it was really fun but a bit to quiet for my liking. Then my little group went over to the bakery and we made scones. When we were there, we talked about the 1950's and what they used as an oven and what accessories. After the bakery, we went to toys area, we got to see the different toys they had because they didn't have TV back then. So they had bubbles, Go Karts and other old activities they used for fun. From my opinion, the two groups were pretty similar, you can see that technology didn't change much back then.

Highlight/s from the trip.
- My favourite part about this trip was the school because it was super realistic and we got to use ink pens.

How was this experience changed your understanding of your recount era?
- I learned about how hard life was back then in the 1800's and early 1900's.

Have you ever been to Ferrymead? If so, how was your experience at Ferrymead?

Science T1 W7 - Fizzy Fountain/Lava Lamps

Every Thursday, Kaupeka gets to do Science. First, you have to opt into a science workshop; either Chemistry, Biology/Planet Earth & beyond or Physics. There are different lessons for each category every week. By the end of the term, you must have completed at least two of each of Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and 1 Planet Earth & Beyond lesson.

This week, I chose to do a Chemistry lesson with Miss Wilson. The lesson was about Fizzy Fountains/Lava Lamps and we had to get into around 5 big groups. The people I went with were

Liana, Grace, Tiana, Malia, Charlotte, Jorja and Claudia. 

Materials:

• ¾ of vegetable oil
• 1 x bottle
• ¼ of a bottle of water
• 2 x Effervescent tablets
• Food colouring (a few drops)
• Optional: Glitter, feathers, beads

Hypothesis:

• The vegetable oil and water will not mix
• I think the food colouring will change the colour of water

First, we had to put down some old magazines or newspaper so the food colouring won't get onto the table. Then we had to fill the plastic bottle with ¾ of vegetable oil. After we did that, we went to the sink and filled the rest of the bottle with water. The water separated from the oil as the oil went to the top and the water went all the way down to the bottom of the bottle. 

Now for the fun part! 

We went to go get some pink beads and blue food colouring. We didn't put too much food colouring because the group that started before us put way too much and theirs turned brown! Then we went outside onto the balcony and put a lot of silver glitter into the bottle to make it pretty. Jorja shook the bottle and it turned out to be so beautiful! The Lava Lamp was yellow at the top, (because of the oil) and green in the middle, then a beautiful bright blue at the bottom. It was quite funny because everyone else's turned out to be very brown and ugly.

Everyone went to the back field and we all started putting the Effervescent tablets. You had to get two for each group and break both of them in half. When we put the tablets into the mixture, it didn't really do anything for some reason so we put a bit more and it started bubbling. At the end of the lesson, my groups mixture turned into a magnificent Lava Lamp!

Have you ever made a Lava Lamp?

Treasures

In Week 2 to Week 5, everyone in Kaupeka shared approximately three things that are special to them. I shared my treasures to my Homebase in Week 3.

Treasure 1 - My dog

My old dog, Pocky, is very special to me because she was the first dog I had up until 16th December, 2015 when she died at age 14. Pocky was a German Shepherd and was born around 1st December 2001. Pocky always used to look after me when I was just a little toddler and we would always play in the park together which is right outside our house. 

Treasure 2 - Dance

Dance is really special to me because I have been doing dance for 4 years; this year is my 5th. I am also very passionate about dance and I love being the centre of attention. I go to 2 dance studios. Pitter Patter Dance Studios and Silhouette Dance Studios. I go to Pitter Patter Dance Studios at 4:20 to 5:30 on Tuesdays and I go to Silhouette Dance Studios at 6:00 to 8:00. The types of dance I do are Lyrical, Contemporary, Jazz, Combo, Acrobatics, Commercial, Musical Theatre and Tap. My favourite genre of dance is Acrobatics because you get to go upside down and all these different contortions.

Treasure 3 - Gymnastics

Gymnastics is probably one of my favourite sports ever. Gymnastics is special to me because I started at age 5. I did quit gymnastics, change my mind and come back quite often. In 2016 sometime in December, CSG (Christchurch School of Gymnastics) held a Christmas competition and anyone from CSG could join but they have to learn a routine for Bars, Beam, Vault, and most importantly, floor. I remember practising everyday for this competition. Everyone got a certificate on how well they did with each category and a coloured banner underneath it. A Gold/Yellow banner which has 4 stars means you did really well on that category. Red has 3 stars, Blue has 2 and Green has 1 star, As you can see, I didn't get green because that's what happens when you actually practise. If you were lucky enough, you get another certificate which either has 1st, 2nd or 3rd for the overall score and guess what; I came 2nd overall for my floor routine! I sadly quit gymnastics in 2017 because I thought it was time to move on.

What are some things that are special to you?