The Fantastic Trip To Urupukapuka Island

 Kia ora, in Te Ngahere the year sixes went to Urupukapuka Island to help Project Island Song in what they do. Project Island Song are people that help islands and try to make them pest free so far they have done that with 7 islands. Early in the morning when we got to school we left at 8:30 in the morning so we could catch the ferry in time so we could get to Urupukapuka Island. We were assigned jobs there were Biosecurity, Health and Safety, Construction, Media Team and Planters. The people with the biosecurity jobs role was to check our bags to make sure no rats crawled into our bags and we had to scrub our shoes so nothing would attract pests onto the boat. After that we went onto the boat and we chose the seats we wanted to sit on. Then we got handed clipboards and booklets, inside the booklets were activities there were places where you could mark off what animals you saw while on the trip. It took just over an hour to arrive at our destination(Urupukapuka Island). When we got there we had morning tea and then were sorted into two groups Roopu Tahi and Roopu Rua I was in Roopu Tahi and we were planting trees first. We had to walk up a lot of hills and it took around 15 to 20 minutes then we got told to steps to planting a plant properly when we arrived at the planting place. It took about ten minutes to plant all the plants. Then we walked back to the place we were staying at and had lunch for 15 minutes, then after lunch the two groups swapped over so now my group were making rat traps and the other group planting trees. We were told to get into groups of three I was with Jacob and Aaron, when we got into the groups we got told for one person from each group to grab the materials needed to make the traps. The materials were 4 pieces of wood, 8 screws and 2 small metal gates. My whole group were really stuck when it came to making traps because we didn’t really know what to do first because we tried to put multiple pieces together and then screwing screws in but it kept collapsing. But then an adult came over and suggested to put a few pieces together and then screw the pieces together and then keep doing that so we did. After we finished we got give a container of felts and was told to decorate our box for the next 5 to 10 minutes. Then when time was up we took some photos while holding our trap. Have you ever made a rat trap before? or have you ever been to Urupukapuka Island?

Crazy Confusing Math

 Last week my math group and I made a DLO about our learning. In the question it said we had a restaurant and there were three tables, the biggest table had three times as much as the small one and the medium one had two times as much as the smallest one. Everyone struggled on that part so to make it easier the teacher said to concentrate on the middle part of the question the middle part said on tuesday night three quarters of the seats were taken and then twelve people arrived unfortunately there were only enough seats for half of them. It made it easier because it was easier to understand and we all knew the answer and how to solve it. We all knew that half of twelve is six and if three quarters were full then there were one quarter free, then half of twelve is six and so six is one quarter. So if there are 6 in each quarter and there are 4 quarters so six times four equals twenty-four. Next we were guessing random numbers to equal up to 24 we guessed a lot of numbers then we guessed 4. Next we went four times two which equal 8 then 4 times 3 which equals twelve then we added them altogether and it all equaled up to 24. I think it was really challenging because it was hard to understand. Have you ever done something like this?

Catapult Engineering For King Richard The 3rd

 On Tuesday afternoon the year sixes got into groups of 3 and 4 then attempted to build a catapult. I was in a group of 4 with Hudson, Jaelyn-Marie and Manaaki. We got the materials that we were going to use, the materials were 30 bamboo sticks, 30 rubber bands, 1 roll of electric tape, string, scissors, two A4 paper, 1 A3 paper, measuring tape and 1 ping pong ball. We had to launch 1 ping pong ball at least 3 metres using the materials that we were given. Then we brainstormed for a bit, after we finished brainstorming we built a sturdy structure made out of bamboo sticks and rubber bands. The thing I found hard was building the launching part of the build. But then we started to talk with each other, then we came up with multiple ideas but we finished just as the time was up so that was a bit dumb but we had fun. I think we did really good at the base and how sturdy it was. I think we need to improve on communicating with each other.

Confusing Instructions

 On the first day back at school we had a reading test so the teacher could see if we were able to read instructions properly. Firstly we got a pencil and then our teacher handed out the sheets of paper that we were going to write on. The first thing on the sheet of paper there were 23 instruction we had to follow, the first instruction was to “read everything carefully before you do anything.” Personally I thought the first instruction meant read the instructions carefully and then do it after you read those instructions. Then I moved onto the second instruction, the second instruction said to “ Put your name in the upper right hand corner of the sheet” so I did that and so on. I carried on until the time was up. When the time was up we got told to sit on the mat when we sat down the teacher talked us through the first few instructions, when she did some of us just noticed what the first instruction was meant to read all of them carefully before you do anything. Then when you got to the last instruction it said to only do question one and two and then draw something at the back of the paper.

At the end I felt so embarrassed when we got told what the last instruction said. I learnt to read things carefully. In the future I think I will try get better at reading things care. Have you ever done a reading test like that?

Maori Pronunciation

 This week in Te Ngahere we have been doing things around Te Reo Maori. We had to record us repeating and learning the Maori alphabet, Maori place names and Maori vowels. During this session I learnt how to pronounce Maori place names properly and learnt what the Maori words are for the place names. During this I thought I did well at the Maori vowels, and the Maori alphabet. I think I need to practise more on pronouncing my Maori place names more accurately and need to pronounce the vowels correctly.

Best Lunch EVER!!!

 On Tuesday my class went to Greens for Shivam’s birthday Shivam is one of my classmates in Te Ngahere. The reason we went to Greens was because Shivam’s parents own the restaurant. We started walking to Greens around 11:45 it took us around 5 minutes to get there. When we got there we went into the indian cuisine when we walked in we said hello and then got seated. I was sitting on a table with Tawhiwhi, Angela and Jade, after sitting there for a few minutes they gave us a can of Coke or Sprite I got Coke. Then after a few minutes of waiting we finally got our food. We were given Butter Chicken. When my table got our food it was so delicious I felt so happy when I ate it. It took us around 20 minutes or longer to finish when we finished we got surprised at the end with a trolley of easter eggs. They handed them out we got one each there were Pineapple Lumps and Freddo I got a freddo. By thanking Shivam Angela and Jade gave Shivam a birthday card to say thank you, when we gave it to him we put our things down and then performed a few songs for his family to say thank you. Have you had Butter Chicken before?

Smart Surfing

 This week in Te Ngahere we have been doing something called smart surfing. Smart surfing is when you find the key words in a sentence and use those keywords when you google something. For example, let's say the question is “What does a spider eat?”. The key words in that question would be spider and eat. Let's change the word eat to diet so now it is “spiders diet” why you change it to spiders diet is because when you write spiders eat it won’t make sense but when you say spiders diet it will make more sense. It is better to use keywords in a google search because when you search the whole sentence you will get an inaccurate result while when you type in keywords in a google search you will get a more accurate result. You get a better result because you when you search the key words it will search the web for those words mainly so when you click on one of the links you will get a more accurate result.