Ghost Town in Bodie, California

 

Today Ellie and I decided to make a drawing about a ghost town in California. The ghost town is called Bodie and it is quite creepy! It was very interesting making this drawing because we learnt lots of fascinating facts. We really tried to make this quality cause the teacher said we would get a sticker if it was up to standard. I really enjoyed learning all these interesting facts about this cool town in California. I disliked trying to fit all the text boxes into the drawing. It challenged me by trying to find lots of facts. Next time to be BTB (Better Than Before) I will try to space it out a little bit better.

You went where writing

 Houhora

Houhora is a harbour located about 40 minutes away from Cape Reinga, in the North Island. It is a great place for fishing and swimming in the warm water. On sunny days, it’s great to play some backyard cricket and go for a nice snorkel near the drop-off.

In the daytime the water is nice and refreshing to go for a quick dip in the water or do some fishing off the wharf. It’s great to go for a bike ride and feel the cool wind blow your hair back, with all of your friends. Down the wharf is very pretty with all the little fish splashing around in the water and it is always a highlight jumping in the cool, fresh, clear water. Going to the beach for a quick surf or boogie board is always a highlight as the water is crystal clear and really warm. You can go out deep and see beautiful stingrays swim under you in the clear water. The lagoon is good to go for a paddleboard in and snorkel around while the adults sit in the sand and sunshine.

In the night-time the harbour has a beautiful view of Mt Camel and great water to go floundering in with the bright torches spotting out each flounder. It's really nice to go out for a quick kayak and look at the beautiful water with all the little fish. It's nice going for a walk along the big wharf and seeing all the ships floating out in the water and watching each little fish hurriedly swim along. The beach is really pretty at night to watch the sunset and all the nice waves crashing down on the surface. The lagoon has crystal clear water, perfect for a night swim, and amazing little fish swimming around calmly in the rocks. 

A little while ago we had to write a descriptive writing piece about somewhere we went in the holidays. I didn't go there in the summer holidays but I have been there a lot, and I am going this upcoming holiday so Miss Gibson let me use it. I wrote mine about Houhora, a place up the top of the North Island. I enjoyed writing this because it brought back lots of great memories. I didn't really dislike anything about writing this but I could have been BTB (Better Than Before) by adding more writing and more descriptive words, but otherwise, it's pretty good.

Energy rap

 

For the last couple of weeks, me and Ellie have been working on a song all about energy and how to save it.  I found it challenging filming while people were around and editing all the clips. I enjoyed filming because we joked around a lot and it was lots of fun. I could be BTB (Better Than Before) by having more quality clips and being more prepared but other than that it's pretty good.

Djibouti

 

Last week we had to do a blog post about one country that speaks French and I chose Djibouti. I enjoyed looking at their national food because it looked really yum!!! I found it hard to get lots of information and it confused me when it said that Djibouti is a country in another country. I could have been BTB (Better Than Before) by putting in more information.

Little Red Riding Hood Comic

 

For the past week, we have been making comics on storyboard creator and I did Little Red Riding Hood. I really liked hunting through all the characters and changing them up and I disliked trying to find the grandma because it took ages. I found it challenging to make the wolf look dead. Next time to be BTB (Better Than Before) I could make the wolf look more dead and make the writing look less fuzzy.

Collins Dictionary- Word of The Year

 

This week we have been looking at a quiz from the news that has happened all over the year and I chose to do the word of the year, which is lockdown. I enjoyed looking at photos but I didn't like doing the work. I found it challenging to get lots of information and I could have been BTB by adding more information.

Bella

Banksy profile

 

Today I started doing Task 3 which is to make an artist profile about Banksy. I found it very hard to find lots of facts about him cause I don't know much about him. I enjoyed looking for photos because his art is really cool and fun to look at. Next time to be BTB I can add more information about him but it's good for now.

Task 5- Artwork

 

For Task 5 we had to make a peice of art such as a drawing, music, a dance, some chalk that had a message. My message is to stop pollution and make the world more better. I found it hard to colour everything because it was hard and I liked trying and finding the quote.

Capture the Flag Instructional Video

For the last 3 weeks we have been working on script writing and making the instructions very specific. We started off with writing instructions, then we wrote our spcript for our video, and then we filmed. It was really hard to film because people kept having to leave for other peoples videos and so I had to swap some people around. I enjoyed making this vodeo cause it was fun and I could have been BTB (Better Than Before) by sticking to the script a bit more.

 

Task 2- Graffiti: Street art or crime?

I think graffitti and street art are 2 very different things. Street art has meaning and is used to help spread positivity and help others understand things easier but graffitti is lots of scribbles and its quite messy. If you search up street art and graffitti you will see two very different results. I think street art is different to Graffitti cause it looks more proffesional and it has lots of menaing. Well all in all I think the men should have been arrested because they did graffitti and you can't use fame to help you in life.

Painting the Town

 

So for today and yesterday, we have been doing work on the graffiti arts in Christchurch. We have been looking at the meaning behind all of them and what inspired the artists to choose that specific thing. Some of these questions were easy but others were really hard and made you think about them for a while. I especially liked doing number 4 because it was probably the easiest and it made sense the most. I found it challenging to do number 3 because I didn't really have much to say about it. I probably could have been BTB (Better Than Before) by adding a bit more information and explain what its about more but otherwise its good for now.

Bella

Coral Reefs

 

Today and yesterday Tahlia and I have been making a thing to show how coral reefs are getting more polluted, the waters are warming, physical destruction, people are overfishing and ocean acidification is getting worse. I really enjoyed choosing the fonts and making it look beautiful and I disliked waiting for Tahlia to write her bit. I could have been BTB (Better Than Before) by adding more information but otherwise it's good for now.

Bella.

Capture the Flag Instructions

Capture the flag is a fun game to play with friends and family in any big area.

Time: Capture the flags time can change depending on how long it takes to find the flag, but normally about 10-30 mins.

People: You need about 6 or more people on each team but more people makes the game more fun.

What you need:

• As many tires/cones as you need to split the playing field in half.
• 2 cones, flags, socks, beanbags, or even old t-shirts to hide as the flag.
• OPTIONAL: Obstacles like hills, trees, rocks, and big objects to make the game more fun.

How to play:

Lay out all the tires/cones so that your playing field is equally split in half. Divide all the people into two equal teams. Both teams choose a side and go hide their cone on their side of the tires/cones.

Everyone goes up to the tires and gets ready. When the starting person says “Go” then you can choose to stay and guard your flag or go find the other team flag. If you choose to stay and guard your flag then you always have to stay 3 meters away from your flag. If someone from the other team is on your side, then you can tag them and they choose whether to do 10 push-ups or 50 star jumps and then they go back to their side. If they make it to the flag then you have to stay 3 meters away until they touch it, and then you can go and try to tag that person.

If you choose to go find the other team's flag and you get tagged you still have to choose either 10 push-ups or 50 star jumps and go back to your side of the tires. If you pick up the flag then you have to sprint as fast as you can back to your side. If you get tagged then you drop the flag and do one of the two exercises and everyone has to move 3 meters away from the flag. The opposite team can’t touch the flag and you can’t pass the flag to each other.

Tips and tricks:

When hiding the flag I would split up into different groups so the other team doesn’t know where the flags are hidden.

When you start the game try having people distract others so you can easily get the flag.

Guard a place where the flag actually isn’t so the other team gets tricked.
Pretend you’re playing hide and seek or a spy game while you’re trying to get the flag.

For the past couple of days, we have been doing a set of instructions on how to play any game that's longer than 10 minutes. I chose to do capture the flag because we've been playing that for the past couple of weeks and it's a really fun game. I enjoyed writing the tips and tricks but I didn't enjoy writing the instructions because you had to be very specific and that was hard to try remember every rule. I probably could have been better by using smarter words and going into more detail.
Bella

Participating and contributing

 

This week when we got back from tech we had to do some sort of presentation about Participating and contributing, relating to others, or managing self. I chose to do participating and contributing because it looks easiest. I enjoyed choosing the background colour and I found it challenging to think of things for It sounds like. I could have been BTB (Better Than Before) by adding more writing probably.

Bella

Novel Study

 

For a couple of weeks now we have been reading novels in our literacy groups. My book is called My Brothers War and it's about 2 brothers who go to war but one refuses to fight and the other wants to fight. They both take very different journeys and somehow end up together. It's really good and we've been doing activities in our books. I've just finished these activities and it was quite hard. Next time to be BTB (Better Than Before) I could probably add a bit more information but otherwise, it's pretty good I think. 

Bridge Valley Recount

 Tuesday

Last week on Tuesday at 7.15 in the morning, my whole class and the year 7's from Taiao all gathered up on the court at our school. We were getting ready for a 4-hour drive to Bridge Valley. I went to dump all my heavy luggage in the trailer and then I met up with all the other kids on the court. Miss Farr called out our names and told us what vans we were in. I was put in a really nice van with 2 of my other friends and some of the boys. We sat in the back and sang the whole way. It was really fun.

When we arrived we had to wait for ages until we got told our cabins. We all went and explored while we waited for the teachers. There was a really cool playground and a flying fox and a massive lake with 2 slides. When the teacher finally arrived we all sat on the court and got ready to sprint to our cabins. I was with 7 other girls and as soon as I got told what cabin I was in I sprinted to try to get the top bunk. I did get it but there weren't enough beds so we had to go to the next-door cabin.

We unpacked all our bags and had some food and chilled out for around an hour. After a little while we finally got to start doing activities. My first activity was called Team rescue and we had to go through obstacles with a dummy on a stretcher. In my group, who I do all the activities with, there was Calais, Meka, Taj, Mack, Max, Dion, Harlem, Kalani, Kohen, and I. Our second activity for the day was called a Burma trail. We go through the bush holding onto a rope with blindfolds on. We did one more activity for that day and that was top teams. In this one we all competed against each other in 6 different activities. My team came 2nd out of 4 teams. Once we were all ready we got dressed into our togs and went down the black waterslide if we wanted to. I went down maybe 5 or 6 times and then I went to have a shower and set up dinner.

 Once we were all showered and dressed the teachers hit the weird gong thing and we all gathered up inside. Since we were at a catholic school we had to sing weird prayer songs and that night we sang 'The Brown Cow'. Once that was all done we took turns in table groups to go up and get food. The food for that night was spaghetti and meatballs. I loved the meatballs but some of the spaghetti was overcooked and the rest was undercooked. There were also these absolutely disgusting veggies and they were actually so bad but Miss Farr threatened us that if we didn't finish our veggies we wouldn't be allowed dessert. How Rude!!

After we finished all our dinner and ate the delicious donuts we got to go out and play spotlight. In the first round, I got out straight away because Mack fell down the ditch and we all started laughing. After a couple more rounds we all got changed and ready for bed. We chilled out for about 30 mins in our cabins. After a little while, Miss Farr came in and told us that it was lights out and then we went to bed.

Wednesday

On Wednesday morning we all woke up at 6.45 and started getting ready at 7.00. We all went to have breakfast but the teachers told us we still had to wait another hour. While I was waiting I got completely ready and met up with the year 6 girls. We finally got to have breakfast and Tahlia and I put on way too much sunblock. My first activity was laser tag and I absolutely sucked! I got shot more than 20 times and I shot about 2 people. I was really bad but the game was fun. We then went to have morning tea and then we moved onto low ropes. I really liked low ropes but it was kinda boring. We had a bunch of obstacles, mainly ropes, that were close to the ground. After we all went through once we got to have a race and I won, of course. Once we had finished that we went to have lunch which was burgers. It was really yum but also really filling. After we ate lunch we moved onto Team initiative. 

On team initiative, we had to work together as a team to work out how to solve puzzles and use our teamwork. There were about 5 or 6 different challenges and I participated in all of them but some people didn't. After that was all done we got to go onto our last activity for the day which was orienteering. I sorta liked it because I liked the clues that were given and trying to hunt for the sign things but I really needed to pee and some signs weren't in the place they said they were in.

After orienteering, I don't really remember exactly what happened but I'm pretty sure we had free time for a while and then we got to go onto the big blue slides. The slide was really fun on the way down and then when you hit the water it was sooooo freezing. I only went down 3 or 4 times because I'm a chicken but I went with my friend down and we got pushed so we went super fast and it felt like we were gonna fly off the edge. Once I was all finished on the slide I sprinted over to the nice warm pool and stayed in there for about 10 minutes. After I got bored from the pool I went back to the cabin and had a nice longggg shower. After a while, everyone else started getting out and we finally got to eat dinner.

Dinner that night was probably a 6 out of 10. We had Butter Chicken but instead of cut-up chicken we had drumsticks and I didn't like that. We then had dessert which was chocolate moose inside of a meringue and that was delicious. After we had cleared up, we got ready for our next night game which was the Burma trail in the dark. The first time everyone went through and no one got scared but the second time you got to choose whether you did it or not and I chose to do it. People were jumping out and scaring us and I got so scared, I fell down the bank a bunch of times.

We all walked back to our cabins and went to sleep. Calais, Grace, and I couldn't sleep so typical Calais started singing and Grace and I joined in.

Thursday

On Thursday morning we all woke up at 7.00. We were absolutely shattered. We got dressed and ate breakfast. At about 9.30 we started on our first activity which was abseiling. On the way up we had to climb through a little maze to try and get up. Once we were up I was really excited. I went 2nd and when you went down you had to lean all the way back and it was a little scary but really fun. I got to go twice but it was only Taj, Mack and I that got to go twice. We went back and had morning tea then we moved onto kayaking. Kayaking was really fun and I was a pro. I won all the races and fell out of my kayak near the end. We went to have lunch which was really yum hot dogs and wedges and cheese. We then moved onto archery and I wasn't very good but Taj and I both shot bullseyes so yeah I guess I'm a pro at that as well. After we were all finished and I got all the wet grass off me that Dion spilled on me, we went to fire and damper. I honestly loved the Damper because I coated it in cinnamon sugar. We put bread dough on a stick and then heated it up over a fire. Mine was definitely the best and even our adult leaders said that.

Once we had finished all the activities we had afternoon tea and went on the black waterslide again, but this time we put dishwashing liquid on it. We had showers and went to eat dinner which was delicious nachos with spring rolls and for dessert we had lamingtons with chocolate and cream on it. We cleaned up and everyone sat down. 1 person from each group got to go up and grab a subject out of a hat for the concert. My group got lip-syncing. I was really happy because that's what I wanted. The other subjects were comedy, little red riding hood play, and dancing. We went to the cabins with our groups and we practiced what we were gonna do. We took ages to decide but finally, we chose to do Barbie Girl. We each got 10 minutes on the stage to practice separately and ours was really weird. We finally got to go on stage in front of everyone and we went last. My favorite one was probably group 4's or my one. It was really embarrassing on stage but really funny and I liked it. We finally finished and we all went to bed. That night was really funny because, in the night around 10 something, the teachers all came in with face masks on and started trying to scare us. It was really funny and I got really scared.

That night it was soooo hard to get to sleep so Calais, Grace, and I just talked for a little while and then sang quietly which was funny. After a little while we finally got to sleep.

Friday

On Friday we all slept in till 7.30 cause we were absolutely shattered. Miss Farr barged in our door and yelled at us to get up. We all slowly woke up and started cramming everything in our bag. I was really excited because Miss Farr told us we were doing an iron man a couple of days ago but I didn't know what it was. We all went to have breakfast and I was so sad that we had to leave. We had to clean everything perfectly and put our stuff in the van and finally, the teachers hit the gong. We all gathered up on the field but I missed whatever they were saying because I had to fill out a form about the overall experience. When I got there everyone was playing a big game called Get Fresh which made no sense at first. I asked the teachers if this was the whole iron man thing but they said we weren't doing the iron man because its a big marathon thing and they don't want us to get wet so we just played get fresh instead. 

How you play is there are two teams on either side of the field and everyone has to try tag the opposite team but you have to be fresher which means you have to be behind your line for longer and try not to stay on the field. So when you go on the field you're fresher but if someone comes on after you it means they're fresher because they're newer to the field. Well if you both tag each other than the fresher person brings you to jail. When you're in jail you form a massive line and when you get to jail you have to go to the root of the line. If you want to get out of jail one of your teammates has to bring you back and they can only bring one person back at a time. 

That game was really fun even though it was confusing at first. Finally, it was time to go and I was gutted. I didn't want to leave because Bridge Valley was definitely the best camp so far. I really wanted to stay for another week and so did probably most of the class. We all got loaded up into our vans and drove back home. I was trying to sleep but other people were being so annoying and loud. We finally got home and I realized after a while that my Mum had forgotten about me so Miss Farr had to drive me home. Overall that was my funnest camp and definitely search it up and go there because I loved it.

Japan

For the past couple of weeks, we have been writing information reports about Japan. I liked writing the introduction but I found it challenging to get lots of information. This is just my first draft so I'll make a couple more copies with more detail and more information. To be BTB (Better Than Before) I could add more detail and more information but otherwise, it's good for now.

Japan

Japan is a small string of islands with a range of beautiful views, busy shopping centers, cool entertainment ad lots of cherry blossoms. Did you know that Japan's only 40% bigger than New Zealand and has more than 100 million people living there.

Culture and Tradition

Early Japanese culture was influenced by China. The influence of Buddhism, Confucianism and other elements of Chinese Culture had a huge impact on the making of Japanese culture. Cherry Blossoms are also a very important part of Japanese culture. They are used to announce the rice planting season and they are also beautiful flowers that stretch on throughout most of Japan.

Green Pheasants are found throughout most of Japan except the island of Yezo. They are beautiful birds with long stretched tails and nice green coats. Some people believe that they can sense earthquakes a few minutes before they happen because they start screaming and making loud noises.

Location and Geography

Japan is made up of around 6,900 small islands with about 127 million people living there, making it the 10th largest population in the world. It's also made up of about 75% mountains. The tallest mountain is called Mount Fuji and it is about 3,776 m tall. The mountain range runs through each of the main islands.

Entertainment and Cleanliness

Tokyo offers unlimited shopping, entertainment, culture, and dining to its visitors. Tokyo also offers heaps of green spaces in the city center. Tokyo is a very clean country. It's so clean that it basically looks brand new. Tokyo even has dedicated smoking areas so the littering of cigarettes can be reduced. People say it is as clinical as Singapore, just with more character.

Weather

The average weather in Japan is about 28.9 degrees Celcius. The hottest summer weather can be found mostly around Tokyo and in some other parts of Honshu, Japan's main island. In Honshu, the temperature can reach almost 40 degrees Celcius in the summer.

Conclusion

And in conclusion, Japan is a beautiful, clean, traditional country that would be lots of fun to visit for all ages.

My Brother's War

 

Today our teacher gave each of our literacy groups a novel. We didn't start reading it but we did start reading the front and back and predicting what it's about. My book is called My Brother's War and it looks like a very good book. I really liked writing about this novel but I didn't like it when I was doing it wrong and I had to delete everything and restart. I found it challenging to get heaps of information out of only the back and the front of the novel. I could have been BTB by adding more stuff about the author but otherwise, I think it's pretty good.

Water Quality Write Up

 

On Monday we went down to the creek to find out if it was healthy or not. We did lots of different experiments with the water to find out whether it's nice and safe. I really enjoyed getting in the water even though it was freezing but I didn't like doing the hard maths. I could be BTB (Better Than Before) by adding more to the conclusion and hypothesis but altogether I think its good.

New Zealand Wars Timeline

 

This week and last week we have been doing a timeline about the New Zealand Wars. It was very hard because I didn't know much about it and we had to gather as much info as we could. I liked decorating it and making it pretty. I could have been BTB (Better Than Before) by adding more slides and more information. 

K byyeeeeee.

Bella the Best out *Drop The Mic*