Dunedin Year 8 Camp

Last week from the second to the sixth of December, the year eights got to go on a camp into Dunedin. We started Monday morning early, getting into our vehicles and beginning the 6 hour drive to camp. On the way we stopped at a few parks, and also stopped at Moeraki Boulders to walk down to the beach to see some of the sights. After that, we were about an hour and a half drive away to camp.

Once we arrived we all got unpacked and sorted into our cabins, I was put in the girls cabin, room 1 with Addison, Amber, and Emma. That night we stayed at camp settling in, getting ready for Tuesday morning, where we were beginning our activities.

On Tuesday we went to the Settlers Museum (A museum about Dunedin History), Chinese Gardens, Otago Museum Chemistry Department, A walk up Baldwin Street, and Sandfly Bay. I really enjoyed this day as we had a lot of activities to take part in, and I was also pretty proud of completing both the walk up Baldwin Street, And the way back up from Sandfly Bay, as I felt these were rather challenging.

On Wednesday, we started the morning by going to the albatross colony, we then went to the Marine Research Centre, where we saw a shark getting dissected, and finally, my group was lucky enough to get to go on the Monarch Wildlife Cruise. While on the cruise we saw Orca whales, A dolphin, and a baby penguin. That night, we got to go to the Moana Pool, where we got to go in the pools and on the water slides.

On Thursday, My group began with going to the art gallery, where we looked at lots of artworks, then made one of our own. We then went to the Otago Museum where we went to the planetarium and saw the butterfly house. On Friday, we finished our camp by packing up and setting out on the road back to school to go home.

Looking back at the camp one of my favourite activities was going to the Chinese Gardens, I felt it was such a peaceful, beautiful place and I really enjoyed the sights. For me, two of my most challenging experiences were the walk back up the sand hills of Sandfly Bay and the shark dissection. I thought that the sand made the steep uphill walk pretty hard, and the smell from the dead shark was really hard to deal with.

Over all, I think as a whole, I would rate my Dunedin camp experience about a 9 out of 10. The only thing I think I would have changed about the camp would have been the cabins, I wish we were given the option to pick who we were with. My advice for the children attending this camp in the future would be to be open about all the activities and give everything a go, even when it seems too hard, or not to your liking. I learnt that even with the things I didn’t enjoy or felt hard, in the end I was glad I did it for the experience.

Book Covers

Today for Literacy, we looked at book covers and how they are designed. We looked at some different book covers, and then tried to create our own. I made a horror book cover, showcasing an old house with a ghost looking through the broken windows, and gravestones surrounding the house. I called the book ‘The Lost Soul’ after some inspiration from Google. Here is my book cover below.

Year 8 Girls Self Defence

Throughout the past two weeks, the year 8 girls in Tangaroa and Ata hapara have done two sessions of self defence in the hall on Tuesdays. We worked with the teacher to learn lots of different self defence moves and listened to stories about girls using self defence in unsafe situations. We started with learning flick kicks to the shins and punches and then worked our way up to acting out situations where we had to use our self defence.

Throughout the two sessions, I learnt a lot of kicks, punches, and moves that could help in the future. If I did it again, I would be ready to learn more stuff and become more experienced. I think I showed resilience and success by keeping trying, and completing both sessions in order to get a certificate.

Term 4 Action Stations – It’s Quiz Night

Today was the first session of action stations for the term.

I chose to do ‘It’s Quiz Night,’ we began with getting into our teams, and then played 4 different rounds, Capital cities, Word unscrambling, Flags, and two word clues to find one main word. Me and my team, Amber, Anika, and Jayde, lasted the majority of the quiz tied in first place, until the last round, we got 10/12 and ended the game in 2nd place, tied. I enjoyed playing the round where we had to unscramble letters, but I didn’t like the last round as much, as it was pretty difficult.

Duolingo

Today for Mahi-a-tahi I have been learning some basic French words using duolingo. Three of the things I have learnt were that in French a cat is called chat,  A woman is called femme, and to say “a croissant and an orange” in French, you say “un croissant et une orange.”

Kowhai Tree

As part of the spring Learning Journey, I have created an infographic poster showing five interesting facts about New Zealand’s native Kowhai tree.

Here is my poster:

Spring Themed Math

As part of the Spring learning journey, I have chosen to create 4 math problems using things you would find in spring.  I made a different problem for each subtraction, multiplication, addition, and division. My first problem is about flowers, the second is fairy bread, the third being bunny rabbits, and the fourth one is about candy.

Here are my math problems:

Spring Sense Poem

As part of the Spring learning journey, I have created a spring sense poem on Canva. The senses my poem includes are what you can hear, what you can feel, and what you can see. Here is my finished poem:

Letter

Yesterday for Literacy, we read a fake article on a newly introduced idea of New Zealand schools finishing at 5:00 pm. After reading through this, we had to make a fake letter/email that we would supposedly send off, about our concerns on the new idea. Here is my letter.

Star Infographic

For our work around Matariki, and working towards writing a few Matariki inspired pieces of writing, I have created an infographic about all the Matariki stars and what they represent.