Today we had the CRT (Cool Rise Team), come in. We don’t normally blog about CRT, but this time we were told to. We were starting with a spelling test. Yay! Oh. We weren’t. It was a joke.

We were doing PE. My least favorite thing to do. I just wanted to read.

We started with a game with cones, where it’s The Stinky Gentlemen vs The Lovely Ladies. Us ladies had to knock the cones over and the boys had to put all the cones up. The Stinky Gentlemen won. We had another round and this time the ladies were on put up, and we won. We had some more rounds and then it was on to capture the flag.

We were split into 2 different teams and I was with the not-so-experienced-people. To be fair, I wasn’t the most experienced either. We were meant to come up with a Strategy, but we kinda only elected who would be doing what. I was on defense, and that was probably the only thing that I was slightly OK with. We lost, as the other team got all our balls/flags. Another round, we’re dead. They beat us again. Time for morning tea.

After morning tea, we were going to play dodge ball. We were on the same teams as capture the flag, so we were horrible. When the whistle was blown, I ran up to get a ball, and someone hit me. Cheater. I went on to the bench, and we lost. Another round, we’re all hopeful. We started out REALLY good, only 5 seconds into the game and their bench was full, but then we started getting slack. And again, we lost.

Terrible morning, I wish I could have just done a spelling test.

For the last 4 weeks, every Friday we have been doing action stations. We had to fill out a form and pick 3 different things. You picked something for your first choice, and if you didn’t get that you would get your second choice. If you didn’t get that you would get your third. I chose Drama for my first, stop motion for my second, and making dragon eyes for you third. I got into drama, and since then every Friday after lunch I go down to Tane Mahuta to play drama games, and have fun.

The first game we did was called ‘name game’ and told everyone my name and something I love, which was reading and cats. Than we played something called ‘Whoosh!’ In whoosh, everyone would stand in a circle. Someone would start by saying “Whoosh!” And the next person would either say whoosh, whoa, (You go round the other way in the circle.), zap, (Make eye contact with someone across the circle, and the trail goes to them.), groooooovalisiose! (Skips the next person and goes to whoever is after.), or freak out! (Everyone runs around screaming and than comes back and goes in a different spot.) If you did the action wrong or at the wrong time, or took too long, you would be out. The last person standing is the winner.

Then we played a game called Reflections. In Reflections you pair up with someone else, and you had to try and copy them at the same time. you had to go slow, and this was causing a lot of people to catch the giggles.

The next Friday we played a game called Freeze Frame, where you had a scene and you had to try and act it out and freeze. Like pretending you were in a photograph. The first scene was a birthday party, and the next was that your cat had died. THE SECOND ONE WAS AWFUL!!!!! I love cats, and it is a horrible thought of them being dead to me. Than we had to put together a story using five different freeze frames. I got into a group with 3 other people, and we did Goldilocks And The Three Bears. It was really fun.

For Monday Mashup I have been making an action movie trailer. I worked with Millie, Kera, and Ashleigh. We used an app called 1Movie, and we made a trailer about exploring an old, abandoned playground. Then someone falls off some of the equipment, and runs away. They go missing. That is why our movie is called ‘Lost.’ Everyone else searches for the missing girl, but the trailer doesn’t show whether they find her or not.  The last part that we have written is ‘Lost in cinemas now.’ That means that it is lost in the cinemas, so you will never see it. But, you can imagine the ending! We worked together, and listened to each other’s ideas. At the start I didn’t even know what the plot for our story was, and now we all love the trailer. We let everyone have a go in the photos, and we put together a brilliant film.

For Math we have been working on time. I already know how to use an analog clock, so it was pretty easy for me. We made timelines showing what we do from 8 o’ clock, to 9 o’ clock. The picture I took may be a bit blurry,  and I’m sorry about that.

Since I normally wake up at half past 7, at 8 o’ clock, I am finishing making lunch. After 5 minutes I go to eat breakfast, and finish that at 15 past 8. I bike or roller blade to school at 20 past, and unpack and say hi to friends for the next 10 minutes. I then read from 25 to 9, to 10 to nine. I head down to the mat and then it’s Iwi time.

A very complicated schedule, and I sometimes use a lot of time at home with Lizzy, (my cat), during half past 7 to quarter to 7.  She always wakes me up by walking all over me.

Do you know how an analog clock works?

Last week we went to see the life education van, which at the time was run by a woman named Jo. She and Harold the giraffe came to teach us about our bodies and needs.

We learnt about the nine basic needs, which are oxygen, food, water, love, clean things, shelter, exercise, sleep, and safety. We were told to split into pairs, and talk about one of the needs. I was with Ashleigh, and we talked about exercise. We talked about how we need to move everyday, and you don’t have to go for a huge run, but you can just move.

You can move in lots of different ways, you can go for a run or walk, you can play sports, you can Rollerblade or skateboard, go rock climbing, or you go on a bike ride. You can also be resourceful and creative and make an obstacle coarse, or you can actually clean your room! There are lots of different forms of exercise.

Everyone shared their thoughts, and than we talked about healthy eating and sleep.

Every night when you go to sleep, your brain sorts through all of your thoughts. That’s how you have dreams. Your brain sorts through everything, sending the thoughts you don’t need to the back of your brain, because your done working on that. For example, say your done learning your 3x tables. Your brain sends those thoughts out a bit so you can focus on new things. You don’t forget them, but they’re stored away for next time. Whereas if you’re still learning your 9x table, your brain keeps those thoughts in the front. Although I’m not an expert with brains, I think this makes sense and covers what we learnt.

We then learnt about healthy eating, and than it was time to learn about blood.

Blood pumps all through your body, using veins and arteries. Arteries take blood to the heart, while veins take blood out. Did you know that your blood is actually blue? You can see veins if you look on your arm, they may be blue, purple, or you may even have both colors! That depends on your skin color. Your blood turns red when it is exposed to oxygen, which is why when you cut yourself your blood is red.

It was a really nice trip, and the lessons ended with Harold telling us jokes and we got to have a disco party. It was really fun, and I would love to do it again someday.

Have you ever been in a life education van?

Today at school 3 people came, these people were from a group called Strike. Their names were Katie Lee, Tack, and Muzza. They came to put on a performance of percussion instruments. The instruments were mainly drums, but there was also a violin and a marimba, which is just like a giant xylophone.

They played a lot of songs, using different drums each time. They also had some home made instruments, like an old biscuit tin. Believe it or not, the biscuit tin sounded really good. After a few songs they asked 2 teachers to come up. Urmi was being urged to go up. I started a chant. “Urmi Urmi Urmi!!” Everyone joined in and eventually Urmi got up. The other teacher that went up was Matua Travis. They were going to have a drum off. Urmi was positioned on the hi-hat and was told to play it on beats 1, 2, 3, and 4. Matua Travis was positioned on the snare drum and was told to play on beats 2 and 4. They started playing and they were both really good. Than all the students had to vote for whoever they thought was better. I voted for Urmi. It was a tie. Urmi and Matua Travis both got a chocolate bar, and than they went to sit back down. The strike people played some more songs, and than they asked us if we had any questions. I asked how they carry all the equipment around, and they said they used a big black and white van called the panda mobile. They played one last song and than it was all finished.

For Monday Mashup we have been working on making digital creates. This is my second one, my last one was an animal shelter. Since cats are my absolute fave, I made my cat Lizzy out in the dark at night. I made bushes, grass a moon, and stars. I made the clouds and grass darker because it’s night, but the bushes are still green because when I made them grey, they just looked dead. For my cat I used circles for her face, eyes, and body. I used ovals for her legs, and triangles for ears.

Can you spot the two moons?

For Literacy we have been working on Persuasive Writing. We had to write about Zoos, and pick a side for whether they are good, or bad. I picked the side Zoos are good, and I had to write an article about it. I explained why I think they are good.

For CRT, (Cool Rise Team) we have been doing an hour of code.

Hour of code is when you go onto a site, and from there you are asked to pick one of the four options. Minecraft Adventurer, Minecraft Hero’s Journey, Minecraft Designer, and Minecraft Voyage Aquatic. I chose Minecraft Adventurer.

The goal was to make a code, dodge obstacles, and make it to the end. You had a limit to how many coded blocks you could use though. Some levels you could only use 14, while others used 9 blocks. My favorite part was on level 13, where you could build a railway from your house. Levels 11 and 12 were really hard though, and it took me a long time to cross all the lava. Level 14 was freestyle. You could create whatever you wanted. I made a random line, and it still said ‘Congratulations!’ 14 was the last level. I earned a certificate and I started on Minecraft Designer.

I’m only up to level 3 on Minecraft Designer, but from what I can tell it’s about programming animals such as chickens and cows, and getting them to do what you want.

For Monday Mashup, we have been working on making a digital Create. I decided to make an animal shelter using Google Drawing. It’s called Mayans Animal Shelter, and you can adopt a cat, a dog, or a reptile. It’s inspired off the SPCA of which I adopted my cat from. The word SPCA stands for Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It sounds really official, and it’s all about taking care of animals in need.

On my Google Drawing, there were different houses for different animals, and you can see some through the windows. The animal in the window of the reptile house is a green snake, with orange eyes. In the cat house is my cat, Lizzy, and in the dog house is a brown dog with green eyes, and a huge tongue.

Have you ever been to an animal shelter?