NZL - Kumara Trip

Yesterday (Monday April 9th) all of year nine went to Kumara. Kumara is a small little town that you pass through on the way to Christchurch. It is situated approximately 24 km away from Greymouth. We went there to do a few activities that are about the history of Kumara. Kumara was originally a gold mining town that people from all over the world came to get gold from. Especially the Irish, about half to population of Ireland came over to New Zealand because they wanted to get some gold. Another thing is that at that time in Ireland there was a famine. All the potatoes were going black so that they could not be eaten.

Activities
We arrived at the Kumara hall at about 9:30 and got straight into the activities. There are four activities we had to complete throughout the day. The first one we had to do was a walk to Londonderry rock which is a few minutes outside of Kumara. We had to do a ten minute bushwalk to get there. Londonderry rock is a massive rock that fell down a cliffside in the 1800s. It was named Londonderry rock because one of the miners that was working on the cliffside came from Londonderry which is a place in Ireland.

The second activity we had to do was a dramatization in the old historic swimming baths just outside of Kumara. We had a look around and made groups to do a small play that was based off of a poem. We chose a poem called "Blackjack Joe" It was about a man called Mike Mccool who had to beat up this mean old guy that was terrorising and harming irish folk in the town. We did a pretty good interpretation of it and I'm pretty sure we one. Others did a poem about the grey river and a story about the Banshee. The Banshee is an Irish tale that is about a woman that would wail really loud to warn others that death was coming. After that activity we had lunch.

The third activity was behind the Hall on a small, damp, paddock. This activity consisted of three smaller activities we had to complete. The first activity we did was called river crossing. We split into three teams and had to make it from one set of cones to another set of cones which was about 20 metres away. We had 6 little rubber/plastic pads and a plank of wood. There were 8 people in our team and we came last. We still got a lolly though so it was okay.

The fourth and final activity was a history activity. A man dressed as Richard seddon came into the hall and talked to us for a while. Then we had to split into teams of about 3 or 4 and got handed a piece of paper with some questions on them. We then had to go to the place in Kumara where the info panels are and read them to answer the questions. that we had been given on the piece of paper. It was quite fun and we got to hold Mr Seddons gold piece that was on his waistcoat. Apparently gold is 17 times heavier than water! After that activity we went back to school and then we all went home.

I had a relatively good time and it wasn't as terrible and as i thought it was going to be.

English - My Hero

For English we have had to write a S.E.X.Y paragraph about someone we admire. I did mine, You should read about him below.

My hero is someone called Desmond Doss. He was a medic in WW2 and saved over 70 people on the battlefield. Desmond Doss was a conscientious objector, this meant that he would not touch a gun. Doss was a medic in WW2 and whenever he heard a call on the battlefield he would risk his own life to help others.

When he joined the Army, Desmond assumed that his classification as a conscientious objector would not require him to carry a weapon. He wanted to be an Army combat medic. As luck would have it, he was assigned to an infantry rifle company. His abnegation to carry a gun caused some amounts of trouble amongst his fellow soldiers. They viewed him with hatred and thought of him as a liability. One man said to him “Doss, as soon as we get into combat, I’ll make sure you don't come back alive”. His commanding officers wanted to get rid of him. The didn’t see the need for a soldier who doesn’t handle a gun. Doss was intimidated, scolded, got assigned extra tough duties and declared mentally unfit for the army. They even tried to court martial him for refusing a direct order, to carry a gun. Until one day on Hacksaw Ridge where Doss saved 75 people from death, there whole perspective on Doss changed.

Doss did this all without killing anybody or touching a gun. Before being discharged from the army in 1946 Doss developed Tuberculosis. He would spend most of his time in the hospital. As the illness progressed his left lung had to be removed as well as five ribs. For the rest of his life he survived on one lung, until that too failed. At the age of 87 he passed away. He is buried in the National Cemetery, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

I find Desmond a hero because he risked his life to save multiple other people when he was under fire. He is also a hero because he stood by his principles and did not do anything to condone violence. His beliefs in god made up for any physical attributes that the other soldiers had over him. He believe that god would not let him die so he did what was necessary to save as many people as possible. He believed that saving another person's life was more important that saving his own. He risked everything to save those 75 men from their deaths, he saved a man when he was 25 ft away from enemy lines. He thought that violence was not an ok thing to do. So he didn’t partake in it. He was a very very religious man and he followed the ten commandments to the T.

Wearable Arts Review

WEARABLE ARTS REVIEW

How we made it...

Our costume was inspired by the festival Chinese New Year. Since the traditional creatures of Chinese New Year are the dragon and lion we decided to make a traditional dragon I think it turned out okay. Our Costume is constructed of a lot of cardboard and newspaper. The head was made out of chicken wire moulded around a bowl which then had a lot of newspaper which we moulded to make the eye sockets and a little bit of the dragon's nose. We made both of the jaws out of cardboard and newspaper and the teeth are made out of cardboard also. We then paper mached the teeth to the jaw so it looked like it had gums. We then got newspaper and made bumps on the nose so it wasn't too flat and unrealistic. After that we cut toilet rolls on an angle to make the nose. We then got used crepe paper and dangled it from the chin of the bottom jaw. We painted the head red and the jaws red. We made the cheek bits out of coloured paper and glitter glue. The tail is made out of a PVC pipe that has been bent. We then put wire through the pipe so there is something for the sheet to hang onto, We have had some ups and downs one of ups for example was when we finished the bottom jaw. We were a little bit distressed when we had to remake the top jaw. For the second time.

The Festival...

Chinese New Year is traditionally celebrated on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar moon of the chinese calendar, I know, it's a long name. The festival goes for 23 days ending on the 15th day of the next year on the chinese new year. People normally clean their house to welcome the spring festival, They put up red posters with poetic verses on the front of their doors. They also put chinese new year posters on their walls and hang red lanterns up around their house. Many people also visit their families at the time of the Festival. At the evening of the festival eve many people set off fireworks to send off any bad luck and bring forth good luck. Children often receive “luck” money. Many people wear new clothes and send New Year cards to each other. Various activities such as beating drums and striking gongs as well as dragon and lion dances are all part of the Festival

What Went Wrong...

Throughout making the costume we had many ups and downs. In this paragraph I'm talking about the downs. When the glue gun broke when we were half way through making it, when the tail kept consistently falling off on the dress rehearsal and the night and when I couldn't go down stairs.

What Went Right...

What made Ella and I really relieved was when we finally put the whole thing together on the dress rehearsal. That made Ella and I really, really happy. I really liked when I first tried on the head and it fit, it was also really comfortable.

What We Would Change...

I think that we should have started way earlier so we didn't have to rush to get everything done and maybe made the head a little bit more balanced. We also would have painted the sheet a little bit more detailed and maybe add a little bit more of a recycled effect.

Here is our wearable arts booklet and some photos

WEARABLE ARTS BOOKLET

Writing T2

For the last couple of weeks we have been doing wrting about body parts me and my buddy chose the pancreas here is my report about the pancreas

The Pancreas is a long flattened gland located deep in our stomachs and it is six inches long. Because the Pancreas isn't seen in our everyday lives most people don't know much about this part of the body as say the heart or the brain, but the pancreas is a vital part of our digestive system and a critical controller of our blood sugar levels. 

There are 4 parts of the Pancreas. The Head, Neck, Body and The Tail. The head of the pancreas is the largest part of the organ. The head is found on the right side of the abdomen nestled in the curve of the duodenum. The Neck is a small section of the organ between the head and the body. The Body is the middle part of the pancreas between the Tail and the neck. The Superior mesenteric artery and veins run behind this part of the pancreas. The thin tip at the end of the pancreas is called the tail the tail is placed next to the body as you can see in the diagram. The tail is in close proximity to the spleen. 

The Pancreas regulates your body’s blood sugar levels. If your pancreas is faulty you could become diabetic. What is Diabetes? To answer that you need to understand the role of insulin in your body. When you eat, your body turns food into sugars and glucose. At that point your pancreas is supposed to release insulin. Insulin serves as a “key” to open your cells, allow glucose to enter and give you energy. But with diabetes this system does not work. There are two types of diabetes type ii and type i. Type one diabetes is the most severe. This type of diabetes is also called insulin-dependant diabetes. This type of diabetes doesn't open your cells to allow the glucose to enter this means the glucose builds up in the blood. If left untreated this can harm your eyes, kidneys, heart and could lead to a coma and death. This is why some people carry insulin pens. When needed those diabetic people use the pens to put insulin inside their body. This insulin opens the cells and puts the gathered up glucose in your body so you don't get harmed. Another one of the general jobs the pancreas does is putting different chemical messengers called hormones into your blood.

In conclusion the Pancreas is a very important organ in our body. It regulates our blood sugars to stop us from getting diabetes and produces enzymes to help us with our indigestion. It is an allround important part of our body and without it, we wouldn't be able to survive.

Reports Google Drawing of Examples

WALT: Write a report

This week we have had a few reports we have had to read through. We then had to find examples in these reports that matched the success criteria and put them into a drawing. Above is my drawing.

Hanmer Camp

Hello Everyone,

This post is about the latest of my adventures out of Greymouth. Last week from Wednesday to Friday two of the classes in my syndicate went on a road trip to Hanmer Springs:

When we got to Hanmer we had to complete one activity out of 5.  My groups first activity was Tree Climbing. I found this scary because I looked down and I trust no one. Then we hopped in our cars and made our way to the Hot Pools. We stayed their for about 1-2 hours. The next morning we had another activity. Mission Impossible. This activity consists of many other smaller activities that we had have to complete. We then had lunch and then our group went mountain biking. After that we went for a walk up Conical Hill. I really liked this walk because the view from the top was amazing. After our trip up the hill we all made our way down to THE LOLLY POT to grab some yummy lollies. We then finished that and for the second and last time on this trip went swimming again. We then came back to camp and had sausage casserole. The next morning would be our last day at the camp so we packed our stuff after breakfast and loaded all our stuff into the cars. We then had our final activity. Orienteering. Personally I love this activity because we get to roam the forest on the tracks looking for small tubes hanging amongst the trees. we get a map that marks where the tubes are and we get a piece of paper and a pencil. Each of the tubes have two letters on them, that is what the pencil and pen are for. To write down the letters from the tubes so the instructors know that your not cheating. After our last activity we ate our lunch and took the
2-and-a-half-hour-long journey back to our home town of Greymouth. So there. Thats the whole trip. Hope you enjoyed going back to this place through my writing.

DONE

Weekly Revision T2 W1 / Numeracy Review

MATHS

I did a Stop Motion on how to calculate area. Here it is:

TOPIC

We have started a new topic this term. This topic is about Vincent Van Gogh. Vincent Van Gogh is a very famous artist, he painted the famous piece. Starry Night:

READING

For reading this term we have a journal to read. This journal has about 6 stories and we have questions to answer the stories that we have read. I have completed two stories over the space of two days.

THE END

Reflection

This week for literacy our class have started a new topic. It is ANZAC. I have been working on multiple tasks. The one task I have been working on this week is Animals At War. This is about the animals that went to WW1. Turns out a lot of the planes had mascots, such as a cat, a fox, a bear and a monkey. We had to work on certain questions like how many horses went to war? Why they went to war, what did they do? etc. I haven't exactly finished this presentation but I will post it up on my blog ASAP. 

This Week for maths my group have been working on percentages and how to work out the circumference of a circle. Let me show you.

To work out the circumference of a circle you have to multiply the diameter by the first two decimal points of pi:

 

which is 3.14 so just say the diameter of the circle is 2cm soooo we have to times 2 by 3.14 which in maths form looks like this 2 x 3.14 and the answer to that is 6.28 so the circumference of the circle is 6.28 and it is also the answer to the question.

This term for art we have been working on multiple things. We have had two things of art to choose from. we could either draw a bunch of lines on a piece of paper and colour in each segment of the lines a different colour which blended with another colour or do a silhouette of a person with something coming out of something. I did a boy lying on his front reading a book. and coming out of the tip of the book was a library it looks like this. 

That is my weekly revision soooo...... bbfn

The rest of them

This post will be a end to my disasters topic. This is the rest of my activities that i have to do.

 

This is the link for the diary entries and newspaper articles:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13R9XSjMlUKZtI_cjW8-2NvbjS31s0qFfK_d9N9YDa5c/pub


THE END