Hard Materials USB

Here is my USB Design Concept:

Term 4

Today it is my birthday and so far it has been great.
I can't wait to have a swim in the high school's pool at lunchtime to cool off because it has been so hot lately.
I can't believe it is nearly the end of the year and it has gone really quickly!
It is nearly Christmas and I cannot wait.

Term 4 - GRIP Conference

GRIP Conference

On Tuesday this week, all of the student leaders travelled down to Palmerston North at 6:15am in the morning to be at a leadership conference called GRIP. You might be thinking: What does GRIP stand for? It stands for.........

G - generosity
R - responsibility
I  - integrity
P - people

At the conference, there were about 300 students and it was all about leadership. One of the things that I learned while I was there, was to lead like a strawberry, not like a watermelon. Strawberries are the same on the inside as they are on the outside, whereas watermelons are very very different on the inside to how they are on the outside.
I also learned lots more and overall I found that it was a great experience and opportunity.

Week 4, Term 4

Explaining the Unexplained Inquiry Topic:

For one of my inquiries, Leni and I made a mini cardboard house for a 5 centimetre tall alien at school. We also made a lego house together outside of school.

At the moment, I am writing a narrative about ghosts.

Athletics Day Today:

Athletics day was today, from  9:00am to 12:30am. My favourite sports activity in athletics is the vortex throw for some reason. It was really hot during athletics so I was glad to have a nice and refreshing Juicie when we had the year seven Hillary girls rest time. The other activities were also really fun and overall it was a good day.

Hard Materials Key Tag

This is my final design for the Key Tags that we made in Hard Materials this term:

Term 4, Week 2

Athletics:

This week, we have started to practice different athletics events for P.E. So far, we have done shot put, long jump and vortex. I learned the right technique when throwing a vortex and also why a shotput is called a shot put.

Forensics:

Also this week, two detectives came to speak to us about what they do and how they find DNA and fingerprints. It was very interesting and I learnt a lot about forensics.

Term 4 - Week 1

This week is Chinese week. Yesterday, we made dumplings in Chinese and they were delicious! We got a piece of dough (that had already been prepared earlier) and rolled it out flat. Then we had to put a bit of raw pork inside and fold it up so there are no gaps or holes in it. After they were boiled in a giant pot of water, we got to eat them! They were extremely hot but nice!

Here are a few photos from yesterday:

Week 5, Term 3 - Food Tech

Food Tech

This week in food tech, room 21B were making some Scroll Scones. They were delicious and if you want the recipe we went by, then look below:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons of butter (30g)
• 2/3 cup of milk
• 4 teaspoons of baking powder

Toppings: (optional - choose which ones you want, or add any different ones for taste)

• 1/2 cup grated cheese
• 2 tablespoons crushed pineapple - drained
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/4 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
• 1 tablespoon small onion finely chopped

Preheat oven to 220 degrees on Bake

Method for toppings:

1. Choose some toppings of your choice (see list above)
2. Mix them all together and put aside so you can start on your dough.

Method for scone dough:

1. Sift all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and combine. 
2. Rub the butter into dry ingredients with fingertips till it resembles fine breadcrumbs. 
3. Add the milk and stir into the mixture. 
4. Knead the dough about five times on a lightly floured board so the dough doesn't stick. 
5. Roll the dough out into a big rectangle about 1-2 cm thick. 

Putting it all together:

1. Get your topping and smear it all over the top side of the dough. Make sure that all of the dough is covered carefully and there are no bits that are not covered. 
2. Next, roll the sheet of dough up tightly. 
3. Cut up the roll into pieces (size of your choice). 
4. Then, spread them out evenly on an oven tray that is covered with baking paper (so that they don't stick).
5. Now place the tray into the oven and put the timer on for approximately 10 minutes or until golden. 
6. Finally, take your scroll scones out of the oven when they are done and enjoy!

New Learning

New Learning

We have been learning Mandarin lately and a couple of weeks ago and I found out my name in Mandarin. Seeing as my name is Emma in English, my name in Mandarin is Ài mǎ. In China, they also write with symbols, so my name in Mandarin (in symbols) is 艾玛. I learn a lot during the Mandarin lessons and about the Chinese culture.

Week 1, Term 3

New Learning

This week I have learned lots more cool things about the Science Fair Project that I have been working on. I have started a Writers Journal and so far I am just writing about myself. My friend Leni has been teaching me and Ana some German. She is from Germany and has just had a big holiday around Europe. It is a really cool language. 

Alice In Wonderland

Ana, Katie and I are organising a workshop for room 21. The workshop is going to be teaching people to act seeing as it is a theatre workshop. At the end of the workshop we are going to perform the play of Alice in Wonderland. Ana and I are writing the script in our own words and we have got our own twists in the play. Everyone is learning their scripts at the moment and we can't wait to get it all ready to perform!

Piano

I love to play the piano and if you want to see the Google slide presentation that I made about them, hit the link below:

Piano

Science - Week 8

Science

On Thursday, the 21 b tech group that I am in did some fun and interesting experiments. 

Here is what we did and what I learned during the session:

We were looking at acid and bases and were comparing different liquid substances to see where they were on the PH scale. If it we had an extremely strong acid, then the PH scale would be red and would be number 1. If the liquid was very bitter and milder, then it would be a very light yellow colour. We had liquids to test such as dishwashing liquid, lemon juice, normal fruit juice, tartaric acid, citric acid, baking soda, water and lots more. We tested each of the liquids on a strip of a special kind of paper that was made to test acids and bases. 

After we finished looking at liquids on the PH scale, we got to make some delicious sherbet! The sherbet had acids and bases in it. An example of a base in the sherbet would be the baking soda and an example of an acid in the sherbet that we made would be the tartaric acid that we put in. 

Overall, it was really cool and interesting learning about acids and bases. I learned a lot in that session and I really enjoy learning science!

New Learning This Week

New Learning This Week

This week, I have learned and done quite a lot, including:

• Last night, my hockey team lost against Hereworth 2-0 but we still had a good game and tried hard and altogether it was really fun to play! 
• I was doing some work on multiplying decimals and now I know how to.
• For my reading group, we have started doing Literacy Circles. In my Literacy Circle, everyone in the group has to roll a dice and whoever rolls a one on the dice gets to choose the page in the booklet that we are going to do. The things that we do are discussing our book together, make predictions about what is going to happen next, making connections, draw scenes from the book that were interesting, look up new vocabulary that you found in your book, answer questions from the book, make a brief summary of the book so far and lots more!
• I learned a new game with a pack of cards that is called Last Card. It was fun and I won one of the games!

I also learned lots more too!

Ovenless Awesomeness!

Ovenless Awesomeness!

Today in Ovenless Awesomeness, we made fruit kebabs and rocky road. Here is a picture of my fruit kebab:

The rocky road recipe goes like this:

Ingredients:

100g dark chocolate

1 1/2 tablespoons golden syrup

70g butter

50g marshmallows chopped up

100g of plain biscuits

Raisins and/or cranberries (optional)

Method:

1) Place biscuits into a bag and crush them until they are broken up. Put them aside.

2) Melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup on a gentle heat in a microwave

3) Cut up the marshmallows into tiny bits and add the raisins and/or cranberries into the biscuit mix.

4) Mix your butter/chocolate mix together till completely combined.

5) Make into a log on baking paper and sprinkle coconut on top. 

6) Wrap up the baking paper and, over it, wrap some glad wrap around tightly. 

7) Put in the fridge until it is set. 

Enjoy!

New Learning - Week 6

New Learning GoalsWeek 6 of Term 2

My new learning goal for maths is to use inverse operations to simple linear equation.

My new learning goal for literacy is to select the most significant ideas from my own thinking, my knowledge and a variety of sources of information.

New Learning

New Learning - Week 4, Term 2

My New Learning - Week 4, Term 2

• I have learned what exponents are and how to use them, in maths. 
• I have been practising different algebra problems. 
• Today, I am going to be in a dance battle that was set up by Ana and Katie. It is contemporary vs hip hop and I am in hip hop!
• Last week, in my elective - Ovenless Awesomeness - a nutritionist called Nova came in to speak to my group about healthy food and the food pyramid. 
• So far in Ovenless Awesomeness, I have made old fashioned pancakes (basically pikelets) and listened to Nova speak to us about healthy eating. I think that I will be making rocky road next week. 
• Yesterday, my netball team (the Knights) played our netball game and unfortunately lost against the other team (I think they were a Tuki Timu?). 
• On Tuesday afternoon, my hockey team (HNI Gold) won against Woodford 1-0. It was really fun!
• I made up a story about a random girl being bullied last week for my writing. 

This week has gone really quickly and has been really busy. I can't wait till the long weekend!

New Learning - Week 3

New learning - Week 3

This week, I have learned some new things.

• I learned more about ordering different decimals and practised ordering them from smallest to largest and vice versa.
• In science, I learned about what causes thunder, why stars twinkle, why boats float, why do bees buzz and lots more! 
• I am learning some new songs to play on the piano for the Symphonic Band that I play in - The Final Countdown, The Mission Impossible (theme song) and some more too! The Symphonic Band is a really fun thing to be part of!
• I learned a few of the basic notes for the clarinet (I don't play it) from Katie - as she plays the clarinet. They are sort of a bit like the notes in piano! Here is a photo of some basic notes of the clarinet:

I also learned lots more this week!

Atom's

Here are some links that are explaining about the size of atoms and what they are:

In science technology, we were learning all about what atoms are!

Just How Small Is An Atom?


What Is An Atom?
Atom Size

New learning

My New Learning

       I have learned and done lots of things this week such as:

• The symphonic band that I play in got a silver award in the Hawkes Bay festival of bands competition on Sunday.
• Tonight is the Dance Festival and my dance group is dancing to a mashup.
• I learned a new and helpful strategy in algebra.
• I learned a new game that was called Doctor Random and it has a few different rules to it. 
• I had my first hockey grading games on Tuesday and we lost against Tamatea intermediate 1-0 and against Taradale boys we lost 4-1. 
• On Wednesday, I had my first grading games as well and my team won the first game 3-6 and lost the second one 6-3. I played Centre and WA in the games. 

Week 1, Term 2

Week 1 Blog Post

This week, I had my first science lessons. We learned how to make rockets and after we had finished making them, we got to launch them on the courts. When we finished launching the rockets, we all had a competition to see who’s rocket could go the highest. It was really fun and I can’t wait to do more science tech!

I also learned more about Roman Numerals and converting them into the basic numerals that we use every day.

I learned what colloquialisms are. They are words or phrases that are used in ordinary conversations.

I also learned lots more as well!

New Learning - Week 11

My New Learning

- Week 11

I feel like this term has gone so quickly and the holidays are approaching so fast!! This week has been a really cool week so far and here is some of my new learning and excitements……………..

• I love hockey and I am looking forward to the hockey season. This morning I found out that I got into the first year seven team too!
• In debating, I learned what the ‘chairperson’s’ job is - their role is to tell the debaters when they are ready and lots of other things too. Being the ‘chairperson’ is quite a big role in debates. I found out about the ‘chairperson’ because in debating yesterday, we had a mini debating competition!
• I learned how to play a really fun sports game called Ki O Rahi!
• I found out that if I lived in Italy instead of New Zealand, then I would use 46.21% less electricity. I also learned lots more while comparing different countries - it is actually quite interesting too!!
• I learned how to make cool scratch art - colour in a white piece of paper with bright wax crayons and then paint over it with black poster paint. Once you have done that, just get something sharp (like a skewer, scissors, a pencil etc.) and scratch out the picture/drawing that you want. Lots of my class did zentangle patterns.
• In Media Tech, I learned the roles of a floor manager and all of the other jobs when filming a scene and producing a film. Here are some jobs in the filming part: camera controller/recorder, floor manager, vision switcher, characters and lots more!
• This week, I have also learned a lot more and it has been really fun too!!!

Week 10

My New Learning 

- Week 10

This week, I have been learning heaps about lots of different things such as:

• I learned quite a lot about David Bowie, while I was creating a Kahoot about him, for music. 
• Jemma and I made a presentation about fish

• We also made an inquiry and we researched about computers and found out a lot while doing this as well.
• I had my music assessment/test yesterday and it was actually quite fun :)
• I learned about famous composers during music (we had to research them and I found out their Christian names, year of birth and nationality)
• I learned a lot about different famous singers and bands like Lorde, The Beatles and Alicia Keys while I was researching and making my presentation for music
• I found out that Powtoon is a really good site to create presentations and animations on
• I also learned a lot more too!!!

New Learning - Week 9

This week I have learnt a lot of different things:

• It takes approximately 1,000,000 mosquitos to drain the average human body.

• I learnt how to say goodbye in Japanese - ‘Sayonara’ , it is pronounced Siornara though (never say the ‘say’ bit separately from ‘onara’, unless you are wanting to talk about rhinoceros fart in Japanese. ‘Say’ means rhinoceros and ‘Onara’ means fart, but when they are both put together it actually means goodbye.

         In Japanese, goodbye is actually written like this: さよなら.

• In 2007, an American man named Corey Taylor tried to fake his own death in order to get out of his cell phone contract without paying a fee. It didn’t work.

• In 1567, the man said to have the longest beard in the world died after he tripped over his beard running away from a fire.

• A horse's teeth take up a larger amount of space in their head than their brain.

• The longest place name in the world is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, a hill in Hawkes Bay.

I also learnt a lot more this week and I hope you learnt something as well.

Sir Edmund Hillary

- Week 8 Learning

This week, I learnt more about Sir Edmund Hillary. It was really interesting and I was quite surprised by some of the answers that I found on the internet and from my peers! Here are some facts about him………….

• He grew up in Auckland
• He has three children - Peter, Sarah and Belinda
• As a child, he was quite shy, but when he started boxing, he became more confident.
• He died at the age 88 (he was born in 1919 on the 20th of July and he died on the 11th of January in 2008).
• Sir Edmund Hillary was named one of the most 100 influential people of the 20th century, by The Times magazine.
• He helped build lots of schools and hospitals in Nepal and he devoted most of his life, to help the sherpas (the people who helped guide him up Mount Everest).
• The sherpa that helped him up the mountain, was called Tenzing Norgay.
• He finished primary school 2 years early and at high school, he got average marks.
• Sir Edmund Hillary attended Tuakau primary school in Auckland.
• He became a beekeeper in the summer and in the winter he pursued his time to climb mountains.

Here is a photo of Sir Edmund Hillary:

• 

Are Animals Colour Blind?

- Week 7

This week I learnt that lots of different types of animals can see differently. It was very interesting and I learnt a lot! Here are some animals and the way they see………....

Snakes see like this:

(They can see heat waves and in the dark)

Cats see like this:

(They can only see shades of grey and a bit blurry.)

Flies see like this:

(In slow motion, they can't focus and they see things with a mosaic effect)

Fish see like this:

(Some fish can see ultraviolet light.)

Dogs see like this:

(They can see more because they have eyes that are on the side of their heads.)

Mice see things like this:

(They can only see blues, yellows and greys.)

Bees see like this:

(They can see ultraviolet light and they have the ability to see colours faster than humans.)

Sign Language - Week 6

Sign Language - Week 6

This week (and some of the other weeks), I learnt some sign language. Sign language is a language that can be spoken internationally for people that are deaf. It is a language that you can't hear, because it is just signals and movements made by your hands. I learnt how to do the signals for the colours, good morning and good evening, shoes, dolphin, clap and lots more! Sign language is a really cool language! 

Here are some examples of a few sign language signals:

• Sign for thank you - put your hand on your chin, then put it down
• Sign for please - brush your hand down your chin, quickly
• Sign for dolphin - it is sort of like how a dolphin jumps, move your hand up and down
• Sign for good evening - put one of your arms down flat and start with the other arm up straight and then move it down until it is flat down on your other arm
• Sign for good morning - do exactly the opposite of the good evening movements (instead of putting your arm down, move it up)
• Sign for book - put your hands down flat together

Electronics - Week 6

 LED Emergency Light - Week 6

In electronics, we have been working on our LED emergency lights for the last couple of weeks, and I have now finished mine! I learned a lot while I was making my LED emergency light - I learned how to drill holes in corflute with the driller, how to solder and connect wires and resistors, which way to put the LED lights into the drilled holes (I was a bit confused about this one at first) and lots more helpful and interesting things. It was fun finding a picture to glue on the front of the corflute. I chose dolphins, seeing as they are my favourite animal!

Here are some photos of my finished LED emergency light:

Week 4

Electronics - Week 4

This week, room 21 went to technology and half the class went to Electronics (me!). We were looking at circuits of electricity and other things to do with them. I found the lessons really interesting and I learned heaps!

I learned all about Breadboards - why they are called that, their history and what they are used for now in science experiments and circuits. We were learning about circuits because we are going to make our own LED lights in case of emergencies - such as power outages (we were also learning about crisis's like the Christchurch earthquake, the recent fires here and in Christchurch and also the Gastro bug in our water too). LED stands for Light, Emitting, Diode. I had no idea what LED stood for, before the lesson and now I know a lot about LED lights and circuits!