City of Ember

For the last term, we have been reading a book called City of Ember. It is about two kids who live in an underground city, and the whole city has no knowledge of what is above ground. The city was created to keep mankind safe from the nuclear war that was raging above the cave. I found the book very down to earth and in-depth, however, the movie was a whole different matter. It was one of those average movies with average teenage actors with an average budget. I lost interest about halfway through, however, the book kept me hooked in the whole way. Half the book was covered in the first 20 minutes of the movie. The thing that completely ruined the movie was some sort of mutated massive star-nose mole that eats people. For all the bookworms out there, I highly recommend the book, but not the movie.  

Rotorua Lakes High School Visit

On Wednesday the 11th of September Mokoia Intermediate School went to the local high school for the open day. I am applying for the excellerant  class so i had chemistry, physics, the gymnasium, cooking, mathematics and international languages.
Physics was my favourite one because we used a Van de Graaff generator (which is a machine that generates static electricity) and I learnt a lot about kinetic energy and centrifugal force.
My second favourite was surprisingly mathematics because the challenges made it fun. We had to solve algebra problems and mapping problems.
In chemistry, we burnt chemicals to use an identifying technique. They all let off different coloured flames.
 In the gymnasium, we played a game called pirates which was fun.
 In cooking, we made molds for chocolate and poured melted chocolate into them and made chocolates. International languages was pretty fun and we learnt a bit of French and Spanish. Overall I would rate the day a 9/10.

School Speeches

For the last few weeks the school has been working on speeches. they have to be 3-4 minutes for the year eights and 2-3 minutes for the year sevens. I did mine on why I am scared of cockroaches, and i progressed into the learning center finals, which were yesterday. It was intense sitting in a chair, listening to all the others but i was really looking forward to my turn. I did my speech and I made it into the school finals this Friday.

The Devon Intermediate Sports Exchange

On the 3rd of September, 2013, Devon Intermediate School came up from New Plymouth to the yearly Mokoia vs. Devon sports exchange battling for victory against Mokoia for the Richard Thomson trophy.
the sports played were rugby, girls and boys soccer, year 7 A netball, year 8 A and B netball and basketball. I took a billet which stayed for the 3 days. Mokoia won the exchange, 6-1. I played rugby, which was the sport that lost, but did improve from last year. When me and my billet went home we went to the park with my other friends billets and they all came for tea. We went to the disco afterwards which was fun, but the only downside of all this was waking up in the morning after! (picture of us warming up)

Excitement level graph for storm breaker

Stormbreaker quiz

Stormbreaker Compare And Contrast

Stormbreaker Review

Cliff hanging, chest pounding. These are a few words to describe the dramatic ‘Stormbreaker’ book by Anthony Horowitz. In P4 we have been reading this exhilarating novel .

Stormbreaker is about an average 14 year old boy, Alex Rider that lives in suburban London with a pretty average normal life. However, his parents are dead and he lives with his rather antisocial, sort of boring fitness frantic Uncle Ian Rider. Alex knows karate, being an expert. Tables turned one early morning when police arrive and his Uncle on a trip around Europe for his drab job as a banker, but Alex discovers that his uncle is dead and is much more than a lousy banker. Ian Rider was a spy for Britain’s MI6. Alex goes to his Uncles funeral, still not knowing the truth, and notices to much things don’t go together. Something fishy is going on. When he finds out the truth via the suspicious actions of his fellow work mates, Alex gets hired by MI6 to go on the same daring mission his uncle took on and died. Alex gets sent to Sayle Enterprises, Port Tallon to investigate into the suspicious Herod Sayle and his diabolical new invention.

My favourite part was when Alex was going for a walk from the factory to the town, and Sayles sidekick, Mr Grin, hires two people to kill him on the luscious walk. Alex hears roars of engines and it turns out to be two assassins on quads, with cheese wire between them.  I really thought he was going to die in that part, but he uses his trusty karate skills to defeat these people. I like it when he fools one of the people on the bikes to go straight into the electric fence and plunges to his death over the craggy cliffs of the Cornish coast.

I highly recommend this book and series if you enjoy action stories, or even if you like the cherub series. This book does have its ups and its downs, however it always keeps you amused the whole few hundred pages.

Guess the Character

The Self Inflating Baloon

In week three, We were all thinking of cool experiments to do in our lab groups. My lab group investigated into 'the self inflating baloon'. I found out that the thing that triggers the inflation is the acetic acid in vinegar.
Lemons also have acetic acid, so we formed a hypothesis and a question. Our hypothesis was that the vinegar would still end the fastest to inflate the baloon, which ended up correct.

The Graph for the Knowledge Quiz

Interhouse General Knowledge Quiz Results for our Class

My Minecraft Debate

Intro

Whatever happened to playing with the ball and cup? Jacks? Or going outside and helping dad cut down the trees and mow the lawns? Well, my answer is what children of our age are doing in their rooms 24/7. No, not searching up silly things on the internet but playing games like minecraft, a game invented by Markus Persson. It started off as a small game bringing in barely any profit, however, over the years minecraft has become a game played worldwide by millions of people.  In Mokoia School, we have been experimenting with this new craze of a game.

Into the Curriculum?

I highly disagree with introducing this game to schools. First, it has no educational side to it what so ever, and second, children nowadays play it enough at home. Did you know that 50 percent of our New Zealand children don’t exercise every day? This is all due to kids playing silly computer games like minecraft. If we introduce this into our curriculum, the children not guilty of playing this abomination of a game will soon become addicted, making that percentage climb.

Fighting in school

Throughout Mokoia, the controversy rate has climbed at school due to silly students TNTing other people’s houses. This game makes students brains turn to mush, making them do even more silly things on this game.

Conclusion

This game should not be allowed into the New Zealand curriculum, as it just doesn’t do anything good for our hard working students. I believe it shouldn’t be in the curriculum, but that’s only one person in about a million.

• Courageous Kids Run for Kids Cancer

On Friday the 7^th of June the children of Mokoia Intermediate ran a gruelling cross country around the lush hills of Rotorua. A bunch of generous children decided they should gather sponsors for the cross country and donate all the money given to those children to the child cancer foundation. 26 students took part in the sponsor run, along with the whole school. One of the kind donors, Flynn Baxter, won the cross country. It is expected to have around 400-500 dollars raised.

My Mystery Drawing.

Lately we have been doing a lot of of procedural writing. One example of this is we had to make instructions for a year 2 class for a drawing. You can try it yourself:

1.       Draw an oval, 3 cm wide and 2 cm tall.

2.       Then draw 2 small circles(1cm wide and tall) on top of the oval. Make sure they are evenly spaced.

3.       Draw even smaller circles inside the circles you just drew, and colour them in with your pencil.

4.       Then draw a smile in the middle of the oval.

5.       Draw a circle 3 cm wide and 2.5 cm tall on the bottom line of the oval.

6.        Then, inside the big circle you just drew, draw two half banana shapes half a centimetre wide and one centimetre tall, make sure the round tip of the banana shape is facing downwards.

7.       This is where it gets harder. On the bottom of the circle, draw a smiley face 4 cm long and half a centimetre tall facing upwards so the curve touches the bottom of the circle.

8.       Draw another half banana shape 1.5 centimetres long and half a centimetre thick going downwards.

9.       On the bottom of the curves draw triangles 1 cm long and wide.

10.   Then draw 3 mini circles on the left, middle and right of both feet.

You have now finished your mystery animal!

My Viscosity Powerpoint.

Click here for my powerpoint.

The second part of our paper plane statistics.

The first part of our paper plane statistics.

Home Made Lava Lamps

In P4, we have been doing a lot of things in the science lab lately. One of the many experiments we have done is the 'Bubbles in a Bottle' experiment. What you did was you filled a clear bottle up with about 1\5 of water and the rest with canola oil. You then drop any colour of dye you want into the bottle, wait until it hits the water and then drop an Alka-Seltzer tablet into the bottle. This has been one of  my favourite experiments so far. To turn this into a challenge, we formed a question and then a hypothesis. Our question was 'Would the temperature of the water effect the amount of bubbles that rise'? and our hypothesis was correct. We all had a fun time.

My term 2 goals.

my 

My goals for Term 2

Maths

To be able to successfully read and use a tally.

Science

To finish the fair with an on – topic task.

Reading

To get 90 % or over in my running record.

Sport

To complete cross country in under 35 minutes.

Writing

To finish a dark mythica

Good Instructions

We are learning: The requirements of good instructions.

You need detail, an example: Fold the paper in half longways.

You need 1 instruction per step, example: 1. Take a big step to the left. 2. Take a short step straight ahead.

You need precise language, example: Chop exactly half the paper, (32 cm) off.

You need descriptive words, example: Take a big step to the right, then a little to the left.

Use directional words, example: Turn left, turn 180 degrees.

Use appropriate verbs, example: Run, jump, tip toe.

You need to consider your audience, example: If your audience is for 5 year olds, you need to make the steps simple.

Respect explained- PB4L

Click here to watch video.

PB4L Session with Miss Sharp

My respect brainstorm.

How to make a normal dart

First fold your paper in half longways.

Unfold.

Fold your top corners into the middle.

Take the corners around the middle into the halfway.

Fold in half.

Fold wings down to bottom edge.

Make sideburns on wings. ( small folds on wings)

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Class Science.

The other day we watched a video on how to make a homemade lava lamp. We watched it and found out what we had to do. We then had to come up with a new question and hypothesis. Mine was if temperature of water affected the  experiment. Our hypothesis ended up correct. Here is a link to the website. http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/lavalamp.php

Journal entry #2

We just finished a book called 'Hatchet' by Gary Paulsen. It is about a boy called Brian, who is on a flight to visit his father. The pilot has a heart attack and he crash lands in a lake. My favourite part is when he is out hunting with his bow, and he doesn't see a moose a couple of meters away from him, and he upsets the moose and the moose comes and pounds on him, Brian tried wrestling it off but he had no luck. He got very bad bruised ribs, hurt his arms and he lost his bow in the action. We had to make a dustcover for the book, and here is the blurb I wrote: 13 year old Brian Robeson is traveling over the Canadian Rockies to visit his father in the Canadian oil fields. But, when the pilot suffers from a heart attack, he gets much more than he bargained for. He crash lands in a mysterious lake, and he has only one tool to help him survive, a hatchet. I highly recomend this book, it is really cool. I would rate it 10 out of 10.

What has happened lately

This week it is the last week of school. we havent been doing much lately. I cooked the sausages for the sausage sizzle.

"The Hatchet" By Gary Pulsen.

We just finished reading "The Hatchet" by Gary Pulsen. It was a story about a city boy that knows nothing about the wild and is on a one man flight on the way to his dads in the oil rigs of Canada. But, When the pilot has a heart attack. He crash lands in a lake and lives in the wild for over 3 months. The story has ups and downs, but it is one of my favourites.

Norm Hewwitt Visiting

Yesterday morning Norm Hewwitt visited our school. He talked about his days as an All Black and how animal violence links to family violence. He told stories of his childhood and how violence wasn't a bad thing when he grew up (not frowned upon). His stories were really sad but some were very inspirational. It was a great morning.

My senses poem Camp Rotoma 2013

In front of me I see the blazing hot sun glaring of the crystal clear water.

In the distance I see the humongous green mountains with little houses dotted around.

 Below me I see the green grass dancing in the cooling breeze.

Above me above me I see the white - as – snow clouds making odd shapes.

I hear the lake softly hitting against the rock-strewn sand.

In the distance I hear a boat splicing through the tranquil ripples.

I feel the chilly breeze slowly blowing at my face.

I smell the odour of rotting water in the swamp behind me.

It makes me feel chill’axed.