Epro 8 Challenge

 

On Monday morning we were sent 6 big boxes by Room 8 for a challenge. Mr Bell, Our teacher introduced us to a challenge named Epro 8. It is an engineering challenge that helps kids build things and understand how some things work. Every student received a booklet for instructions for our projects on what we’re working on. 

Our first project was about building a box by watching a tutorial video. The class was split into 4 groups that Mr Bell thought they would work well with. Our first project is building a box with the tools and equipment and using teamwork to complete this task. Our project was one of the first to be finished and successful. 

The next day we were learning about building a hut by only making it by ourselves. It was a tricky project but still fun to learn. We would only follow the measurements on the booklet then do the rest on our own. We put extra sticks and joiners to make it more secure. I thought our team would make it the best.

Others had different ideas and had so much creativity with their hut. We put cardboard boxes on top as a roof for if the hurricane came. The next day we were building a dump truck. It was hard for us to build the tray behind it and make it flip since it had to dump things like dirt. I liked building it because it taught my team how some things work. 

That was our last project and we learned to measure toys. I liked this challenge because it was unimaginable and important for us to help human society in the future and could fix problems that come ahead of us.

 

Recently I have achieved my Big Diploma which is the most important in doing my time tables. I have mastered and completed my goal such as mastering my time tables. I feel proud of myself for completing a goal that I thought I would never master.

Here is a screenshot of me finishing all my time tables :

Waka Ama NZ

In the morning I was excited to go to Waka Ama. I changed in my normal clothes instead of my usual school uniform. I played in the playground for a while until the bell rang and for the bus to arrive. It was just us seniors year 7 and 8’s that were going for some reason. Our teachers told us there were going to be 2 Waka’s for our whole group.

We all went by bus and went past Sylvia park arriving at Ian Shaw Park. We sat in the shade to avoid the sun getting in our eyes. We had this kind lady showing us 5 instructions for canoeing. For the start, it was called Easy then, set ’em up, Hoea , Hup and Hold.

The girls were separated from the boys because they both went to a different waka.The Instructor gave us our paddles and we went down to the wharf to our waka. I was in front of the waka along with a teacher and I had to balance to the left side of the waka. When everyone got into the waka we went off and had a little paddle on the lake.

We tried the instructions that our instructor taught us and we were getting pretty good. The other instructor in the boys waka asked our instructor if we wanted to race now and everyone screamed yes. We paddled to the boys who were waiting for us to race them. Since I was in the front me and room 8’s teacher turned the whole waka to the right to make it fair with the boys.

That’s when the race started. We paddled as fast as we could splashing ourselves with water, we didn’t care. We looked straight and both wakas were on the lead I tried so hard I started to get leg cramps to try to keep still. We were almost at the finishing line and we ended up getting a tie!

Since we had a tie we were gonna have another race soon but not now because everyone was exhausted. We practice some strong strokes and how getting the timing right was how you won. I just realized we were way beyond shore and I was getting chills. The instructors thought it was time to race again now.

We came back to the starting line and we stared hard at them letting them know the girls were gonna win. We reminded each other to focus on our timing the most because it was very important if we wanted to win. There was a count down to 3 and we zoomed as fast as we could to try our best. We used our timing and they didn’t. We ended up winning!

 

 

 

To me, Anzac day means that I have time to appreciate and respect our New Zealand and Australian soldiers who have died for us to protect our country and our family and friends. We should remember and celebrate our soldiers who have fought overseas. I hope there won’t be anymore wars for soldiers to fight in so they won’t get hurt or killed.

ANZAC day is celebrated on the 25th of April and a time to visit our soldiers who died. On my day off on ANZAC day, I sometimes ANZAC cookies from pak ‘n save because it tastes so good to eat. My brother and I go on our devices or go to my Grandmas’s house and have dinner there. When I scroll on my device I see couple of videos about the ANZAC day parade and I think about wanting to go there some time.

I found out that poppies represent ANZAC day because the fields that they fought on and died on had poppies. It also symbolizes hope and for a peaceful future. I also didn’t know the word “ANZAC” stands for something. Australia New Zealand Army corps.

St Patrick’s Day

 

In the morning I woke up with excitement. I put on my clothes as fast as possible because I knew we were going to do outside activities and games. I went running to School when my Mum dropped me off and played with my friends in the park until the bell rang for learning. When It did we went to class because we were going up church soon.

 

I walked up to church for St Patrick’s Day with my classmates. I saw more people than usual. There were people praying which is what I like hearing because I just love the sound of people worshiping God. It makes me feel welcomed. The school sat down as we were waiting for the church to start. The church was set up nicely in green to represent St Patrick’s Day.

 

Finally the people praying have finished so it could start. The Altar servers came, along with the Priest. Everyone started to sing while they were walking towards the altar. The introduction came up then the prayers of the faith and a group of singers were singing for solo parts. (cantor)

 

The Priest read the bible and welcomed everyone for people that came to the celebration. It was time to eat the body of christ. Everyone came up to him and he blessed them. It was a nice time at church to spend time with God.

 

Since the church was long it was morning tea already. I got my tea and ran out to the park. I had fun playing with my friend and tried to complete a parkour by climbing poles. When the bell ran I knew it was time for games.All classes met in the canopy with water bottles and hats. 

 

I was so excited and they called out people’s team names. When my one was called out I was one of the eldest so I had to take care of 2 frustrating kids. 

One of my friends was a leader and had a card. It had numbers which were taught in the same number of classrooms.

 

 We went to my teacher’s game which was in the bottom court. We played scatter ball and we were in the throwing team. I helped the young ones throw the ball and run. We kept switching sides and it was fun!

 

When we finished I soon realised it was time to announce how many points we had. My team won the most points and we jumped with joy. The principal came outside from the office to ring the bell to move to another activity. (another teacher). We played Rock, paper and scissors with one of my favourite teachers and we played Gumboot throw with another teacher. We went walking at the canopy for our next game.It was pretty fun!

 

Lastly, the next game was on the top court. It was called T-ball. We were in the fielding team and the other team was in the throwing team. The other team threw a ball and we used teamwork to try and win!

 

When the Principle came to ring the bell all teams went back to the canopy to eat ice blocks. We enjoyed our day and did our inside activities and nominated our MVPs for the week.

For summer learning Journey, I went on an online coloring book and chose this. I chose this because I am obsessed with rainbow coloring and it has lots of colors to choose from.

This summer learning journey was about the meaning of the Samoa flag. I read a YouTube clip about the meanings and I learned something new today.

For today’s Summer learning Journey activity, I did music with paint.

There were 4 instruments to choose from. Flute, Saxophone, Trumpet, and violin. I chose flute and drew to make sounds. When it was played it sounded beautiful. Click here to try.

Here is a example.

I learned about manga and it was very interesting. Manga is Japan’s most famous and important art style and they are basically comic’s or graphic novels.

This challenge was about making our own manga characters. Here is mine: I was pretty good for a starter!

This drawing reminds me of when I was playing water guns on Christmas with my cousins. There were three of us and we started to splash water on each other. This drawing is my type of Christmas and it looks like the kittens are having fun!

These kittens look very energetic and happy.