Float Your Boat

For today's Summer Learning Journey task, we had to make paper boats. But, that isn't all, we also had to test our boats to see if they could float. 

From there, if we wanted to complete the Step It Up task we also had to see if they floated with weights (rocks) and see what boat can hold the most weight. 

To test my paper boats, I went down to the river with my family. At our river spot we have a small flowing creek which I used to float the boats in to see if they floated in both still and flowing water. 

I found the making of the paper boats really easy and fun, my boats floated perfectly with and without weight, although once I added to many rocks... it sunk! But to be fair, it was already a little bit wet and so the paper had already been soaking in the water and there were way too many rocks in the boat. 

Anyways, without further to do, here is the pictures I got...

In this photo (above) I am holding my 2 boats, I also named one of my paper boats Bateau De Papier. I don't really have a reason of why I called one of my boats 'Bateau De Papier' I just thought that calling it 'Paper Boat' would be boring so I chose a country, used Google translate to translate paper boat, and that's how I got the name!

In this picture one of my boats (above) is floating down the stream

And in this photo, my boat flowing down the stream once again. I got sidetracked swimming and playing around at the river and completely forgot to get any photos of the paper boats carrying weights, but the Bateau De Papier did manage to carry over 10 rocks before sinking. 

Have you ever made a Paper Boat? Did you find it easy or hard to make?

String Games!

Today I completed the 'string games' activity from the Summer Learning Journey page. This blog post was super fun to do! This blog post is quite short, but their really isn't a lot to it. All we had to make was a cup and saucer, I remember making one of these when I was younger, and it was relatively easy, anyways without any further to do, here is my cup and saucer... 

There is a 'Step It Up' task coming soon! 

Summer Symmetry

Today's task for the SLJ was all about Symmetry, Summer symmetry. For this task I started by completing the Kick start activities, which were to watch and sing a quick song about two kids at the fair explaining symmetry. Then from there, we had to read an article about finding symmetry in nature and finally play a quick game called Seafloor Symmetry. I found the game pretty easy! 

Finally, we were asked to take 4 photos of symmetrical objects, from there we had to draw a symmetrical line across every object. Anyways, here is my four objects with symmetrical lines...

I hope you enjoyed my blog post and look forward to more!!

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream!!!

The next Summer Learning Journey task is another Te Reo Maori task, this time about Ice Cream. What's your favourite flavour of Ice Cream? First, we started by making a copy and filling out a deck of slides, full of questions about ice cream flavours and how to pronounce them along with how much it costs. The deck of slides basically explains everything. 

So, here is my slide deck.

Next, for the Step It Up task we had to create an animation on Scratch of characters talking using words and sentences we learnt. I had some knowledge on who to use Scratch because I have used it in the past! I had so much fun doing this and I hope you enjoy my animation. (My animation is on the very last slide of the slide deck!) Enjoy!

(I'm terribly sorry about my screencastify, I am not familiar what so ever with Te Reo Maori, I don;t mean to offend anyone, sorry)

I hope you enjoyed it! Comment in the comments below, what your favourite Ice Cream flavour is! Do you like to have toppings on your ice cream? I had loads of fun doing this blog post and I can't wait for the next one! 

Summer sounds

Today I managed to achieve another blog post, this time about Summer sounds (sounds you can hear in Summer in NZ) 

First, we started off by reading a poem about Summer sounds written by Jenny Bornholdt. Next, we were asked to highlight all of the sound words and words we don't understand. 

Then, the funniest part of this blog post... was to go outside and record summer sounds that we can hear on our Chromebook. Listen back to them and create our own Summer Poem. Anyways, here is my poem...

I also chose to Step it Up and narrate my poem using screencastify. So, here is my screencastify...

Origami!

Today's SLJ post is about Origami and 3D paper! Our first instruction was to find a video clip on YouTube explaining how to fold origami, slow it down and complete the tutorial. I decided to fold and create a paper cup. After we created the origami, to Step It Up we were asked to create a screencastify to explain how we made our origami creations. This took me a little while to create, and I found it quite challenging, but anyways, here is my final result, and instructions to how I made my cup. Have you ever tried Origami, what did you make? Tell me in the comments and I will try to reply as soon as possible! Enjoy!

Surprisingly, the cup actually held water and I managed to drink out of it! 

Now, for the screencastify, and how I made it...

(there are actually two videos, sorry for the inconvenience!)

 

Which Face Is Real?

Today for the SLJ, I completed a task about faces, and guessing if they were real or fake. I started off by playing a game called, 'Which Face is Real'. When playing this game, you get given 2 faces, and you have to decide whether which face is the real one. Overall, I got 9/10 questions correct. 

Then we were asked to take a screenshot of one of the questions we had, and add it to a Google Drawing to point out why we decided to chose that face over the other one. So, without further to do, here is my question and why I chose the face I chose. 

To Step It Up, we were asked to try out a tool on Google called reverse image search to see if it would help us find what face was real and which face was fake. To explain more about this feature, I have made a screencastify...

(I was having some problems inserting the video so to watch my video, here is a link)

And just another thing I would like to add that I forget in the video above, if your using the last way I showed you, it only works on Chrome. 

The very last step for this task was to, explain in our own words what we think the old saying "the camera never lies" so here is my explanation...

I think that the saying means that, words can twist and lie, but a photo tells the truth, or a photo captures a moment and when you look back on it, it brings back, emotions, feelings etc.

What do you think the saying means?

Here is one for you to solve, which one is real? 

Tell me in the comments! 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Today, I completed the Giuseppe Arcimboldo task on the SLJ website. This task was all about creating a collage of fruit and vegetables. To create my collage I used old magazines and newspapers lying around at home. I went through just about every magazine we own at home and cut out every picture of fruit and vegetable, along with words related to fruit and veges. I managed to fill up a whole page. Here's what the final product looks like...

I also made another collage or art piece, the second picture I created digitally online. I made an animal out of 2 cabbage leaves (for ears), a kiwi fruit for eyes), a carrot (for the nose), a chilli (for the smile), an eggplant (for the neck), and orange (for the body), and corn for the legs. 

I hope you like it and here it is... 

Comment below what you favourite fruit or vegetable is!

Tastes of Summer!

For today's Summer Learning Journey task, we had to create a Summer food collage using Google Drawings. This task was pretty simple, and all we had to do was add Summer foods to a Google Drawing, and describe at least 3 foods we featured in our collage using adjectives. To Step It Up, we were asked to write in a different coloured text box, why we like particular foods. However, even though this task was simple, I still had loads of fun doing it! I hope you enjoy, so without further to do, here it is... 

What is your favourite Summer food? Comment below!

It's Cool To Be Kind!

For today's SLJ task, we learnt about being kind, and that it's cool to be kind. Our first step or activity for this task, was to play a little game It’s Cool to Be Kind. Which is a game all about spending kindness to others and blocking the bully. Personally, I found this game quite fun! 

Our next step was to screenshot a nice comment (and our reply) from our blog and place it onto a Google Drawing, provided on the SLJ website. Our last step was to embed the Google Drawing a PNG and post it to our blogs. 

So, without further to do here is my kind comment..

Do you think the comment and my reply were nice, and kind? Tell me in the comments below, I'll reply as soon as possible!

I hope you all enjoy the rest of the Summer holidays!

Te Huarere

For this Summer Learning task, our two main focuses were... Te Reo Maori, and the weather. For a start we had to complete a deck of slides full of questions and activities, all about pronouncing "What is the weather forecast today?" in Maori and answering that question. Afterwards to Step It Up, we were asked to create a screencastify. So, without any further to do, here is my screencastify and deck of slides... 

What is the weather like where you live? Today, for me we had rain, cloud and sun!

Building a Dam!

Today the Summer Learning Journey challenged us (SLJ participators) to create a dam, out of natural resources. I made my mine in a aluminium foil baking tray, because their isn't a lot of running water at the moment. While making our dams, we were asked to take pictures of the steps, progress and final result (if we could). Here is how I made my dam... 

First off all, I started by folding up the edges of the tray to make more of a container. Like this..

In the photo above you can see the tray before I folded the edges.

And in this photo above you can see the tray after I had folded up the edges.

From there, I placed a layer of dirt in a straight line right across the centre of my tray. Then I added sticks and bark to support the centre of the dam wall. Like this,

After that, I used another layer of dirt to cover up the sticks, followed by a layer of ferns. I used the ferns as I thought that they could mesh it together with their shape.

And once again, covered the ferns up with dirt. Here is what my dam looked like, before I added water.

Afterwards, as my final step, I added water to one side of the container, to test if the dam wall in the middle blocked the water from seeking though to the other side. 

After pouring the water into one side, I left my dam sit there for around ten minutes. As I watched I saw that water was starting to flow into the other side of the dam. I think in conclusion it worked quite well, and it kept a lot of water from flowing to the other side. 

Although, next time if I made my dam again, I would make my dam wall a curved shape, and not just a straight wall, this is because the curve usually used in huge dams around the world like this one...

makes the structure stronger, and harder for the water to burst the dam wall. Next time, I would also use thick mud or clay, because when I placed the dirt, the surface of my tray was flat, so there were little gaps between the dirt and the tray. 

Have you ever built a dam at the river, creek, or at home? 

 

Kiwi Jingle Bells

For today's activity I chose to start off by completing a task called, Kiwi Jingle Bells. Our first instruction with this task was to watch a small video of a singer's interpretation of Jingle Bells, but Kiwi edition! Then we had the task of creating our own! So, I have been busily creating my version of the song. Then if we could we were asked to sing our songs by our selves or with a friend or family member, and this family member is, "drum roll please" my Mother! Here is my song...

Apologies for the laughing and terrible, singing! 

Let's Go On A Treasure Hunt w/ The SLJ

Today for the Summer Learning Journey we got to learn how to encrypt and decrypt Pigpen coding. Now, you may be think "What in the world in Pigpen coding? A pig stuck in a pen and you have to code the pig to get it out?" Well, if you guess was anything like that, I hate to tell you but... your incorrect! Pigpen coding looks like this... 

And I am sorry if this picture made it look even more confusing! But, I promise I got the hang of the Pigpen coding pretty quick, and I am sure you will too, if you try it! It's a little hard to explain, but I will try my best, here goes...

Here's how Pigpen Code Works -

Pigpen cipher is a code system and is made up of 4 main grids. The first grid is like a naughts and crosses grid, made up of 9 boxes.In each of the 9 squares there are 9 letters, one filling each box. In the first box, the letters go from A to I, just like this one...

Then you take the sides of the box that the letters are in. So the letters A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H and I will look something like this if they are translated into Pigpen code...

Anyways, for the next 9 letters in the alphabet you will need to do the same, draw a naughts and crosses box and fill in each box with a letter this time the letters in the box should be, J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R and should look like this...

But, instead of doing the exact same thing as last time you are going to add a small dot in the corner, translated into Pigpen code it should look like this...

Now, we have covered 18 letters of the alphabet and we have 8 to go, here is where the system changes again. Instead of a 3x3 box, you need to draw a big ( X ) like the one below. 

After you have drawn your ( X ) take the next 4 letters of the alphabet (S,T,U,V) and add them to the X, like this...

From here, it's like the first grid again, where you need to take the sides of box that the letter is in, meaning it should look like this...

Then, finally for the last 4 letters it like the one we just did with the ( X ) however we add dots, so it should look something like this... 

So, in conclusion the Pigpen alphabet should look like this...

After, finding out how Pigpen coding works, we were instructed to complete and fill out a deck of slides. Here is my completed copy of the Pigpen coding slides...

HINT- The beach is located in the North Island, the initials are AB

Tell me your guess in the comment section and I'll tell you if your correct or incorrect! 

Maybe you will even make me one to solve? 

I hope you enjoyed my blog post! This one was super fun, tricky, but I learnt lots of new things! 

My Hana Kōkō Design

Today I decided to complete another Summer Learning task, this time the task was about creating our very own Hana Kōkō outfit designs. Hana Kōkō is the Maori Santa. Firstly, we started by reading a small story from a School journal, from there our instructions for the creating side of the task were, to open a new Google Drawing or to use the template below. Then we were instructed to make our own outfit for Santa, based on our surroundings and where we live. I have made a short video for you below and also embedded the Google Drawing. I had a BLAST making this and I hope you enjoy!  

(I was having some problems with embedding my video, however if you tap HERE it will take you to my video on a separate tab) 

Summer Haiku

Today, I chose to complete a quick writing task from the Summer Learning Journey, all about writing poems! But not just any poems, Haiku's! A Haiku, incase your unsure, is a poem constructed of 3 lines, the first line has 5 syllables, followed by the middle line which includes 7 syllables and the last line once again made of 5 syllables. I have written a few Haiku's before at school, have you ever written a Haiku? However, the poem couldn't just be about anything, we had to write them around, Summer! Have you been enjoying your Summer? 

When I think of Summer I think of LOTS of things, but I'm not going to list them because when if I started I wouldn't be able to stop, although, 1 of the main things I think of is the river or going to the beach. So, I decided to write mine about the beach. Here is my Summer Haiku, (well I wrote a few, not just one!) Here they are...

(Sorry, in the image above I have made a small spelling error and I don't have the original to change it, 'shells' is supposed to be 'shell', thanks!)

I hope you like my Summer Haiku's! Enjoy the rest of your Summer holidays and be safe! What do you like to do the most in the holidays?

Rise Up!

Recently, the Summer Learning Journey featured a task called 'Rise Up'. For this activity we had to write our very own song chorus. We started off by listening to an incredible song written and performed by Mangere Collage students 'We Will Rise'. If you would like to listen to their song you can take a look here. 

For my song, I wanted to include all off my School values in my song, so without further to do, here is my song! (If you wondering my school values are Excellence, Perseverance, Community and Respect. This song chorus took a quite a long time to create, and I hope you like it! 

One more hing before you read it though, the bold words is the main parts of the chorus and the faded (not bold) words are the echo's. Here it is!

I hope you all enjoyed my blog post, can't wait for the next task!

(Part 2 - A few days later, after posting this)

Today, I finally got enough courage to post the video of me singing my song lyrics. I like singing (even though I am not good at it at ALL) but this style of singing I am not great at! Singing is not my passion or strength, but I gave it ago anyways, and I am not offended if you don't like it! Tell the truth! Do you like singing, leave you answer in the comments below, I will reply as soon as I see it! Anyways, here it is...

Te Reo Maori - What Are You Doing Today?

Another task from the Summer Learning Journey that I chose to complete today was 'What are You Doing Today?' For this task we were provided with a Google Slide that had small activities on each slide, to help us understand the words, what are you doing today? in Te Reo Maori. Firstly, we had listen to a quick clip then arrange the words to make the sentence, and so on... Here is the slide, so that you can look at my work...

And here is my Step It Up work...

We had to draw a picture relating to the work above, what's your favourite thing to do at the playground?

Which One Doesn't Belong!?

Another activity from the SLJ that I chose to complete today, was called 'Which One Doesn't Belong'. To start we were given a set of slides, on each slide there was 4 photos, from there we had to list all of our reasons why we believed they didn't belong with the others. (sorry for my terrible explaining!) 

For example...

This plate of 4 donuts, they're all different, meaning we had to write our reason why they didn't belong... 

- D (bottom left) is the only doughnut that has pink frosting or the only doughnut with sprinkles

Another one could be...

- C (bottom left) is the only doughnut with nuts 

or A (top left) is the only doughnut with no frosting and so on...

What doughnut would you like to eat the most?

 Here is my reasons why these pictures below in the set of slides don't belong...

Do you agree with me, could you add any on top of mine? 

Here is one for you...

(write your reasons in the comments)

I hope you enjoyed! Can't wait for the next task! This task was a BLAST!

Incredible Insects

 December 15th 2020 - Summer Learning Journey - Task 2

Today the Summer Learning Journey challenged us to create a piece of art work using nature around us, the artwork was inspired by Raku Inoue, a Japanese artist who only uses leaves, barks, flowers and other things found from his backyard to create spectacular artwork like these...

If you would like to look at more art by Raku, this website has hundreds of cool photos!

To make the insect in photo 1 I used, a Chestnut seed casing (for the body), 8 small twigs (for the legs), and 2 thorns from a rose bush (for the fangs).

And to make the insect in photo 2  I used, a Lavender (for the body), green/unripe blackcurrants(for the eyes), ferns (for the antennae), 6 sticks (for the legs) and Zinnia petals (as wings).

Here are the final results!

Photo #1 (above)

Photo #2 (above)

I also made some more insects, however this time I chose to make some butterflies. To make the butterflies I used petals from flowers, the pistil, stigma, style and ovary (the middle of the flower). The types of flowers I used were... Nasturtium, Pansy, Alyssum, Chickory, Shirley Poppies, Marigold, and Salvia. Here are the butterflies I made...