Rocket Science! - Step 1, Parachutes

 Kia ora bloggers,

This term for Inquiry, we have some people from the wonder project coming in to help us. They come in every Tuesday afternoon and teach us about engineering. Our goal by the end of this term is to successfully launch a rocket! Last Thursday and today(Monday) we have been challenged to design and test a parachute to try out our engineering skills. We had newspaper, fabric, scrap paper, paper towels, and string to make our parachute. It had to be strong enough to hold 2 hex nuts.

My team made one out of fabric and string. We got a square piece of fabric and cut holes into every corner. We then tied string into those holes and connected them all together. This design worked ok. It took 1.85 seconds to go from the top of a staircase to the ground. We didn't have enough time to change and improve our design but if I were to change it, I think I would use a different material. I think a big piece of paper would work well as it has fewer holes than fabric.

Thanks for reading! See you next time:)

Amazing Aurora

Kia Ora Bloggers,

It is finally the end of term 2! It feels like we've been in term 2 forever. For the last day of term, we have made some art that is inspired by the Aurora lights and Matariki. Matariki is the constellation that becomes visible around this time. It is the sign of the beginning of the Maori new year. There are 9 stars in the constellation, these are named Matariki, Tupuārangi, Waipuna-ā-Rangi, Waitī, Tupuānuku, Ururangi, Waitā, Pōhutukawa and Hiwa-i-te-Rangi. 

The name 'Aurora' comes from the Latin word for sunrise or the Roman goddess of dawn. An aurora is a natural light display in the sky, it is usually a greenish colour but sometimes it is red or blue. This natural phenomenon usually occurs in areas known as the 'auroral zone' near the poles of the Arctic in the north and Antarctic in the south. In Southern hemisphere latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora australis or the Southern Light. An Aurora is caused by the collision of energetically charged particles with atoms in the high altitude thermosphere within our atmosphere. Auroras are associated with the solar winds that flow past Earth. These winds flow out from the Sun and contain plasma particles (ionized gas) which gets pulled into the Earth's magnetic pole fields. When they accelerate towards the Earth, collisions occur between these ion particles and nitrogen and oxygen atoms in our atmosphere, releasing energy in the form of amazing aurora lights.

See you next time:)

Matariki Book

Kia Ora Bloggers,

For the past few weeks we have been learning about Matariki and creating something about it. We had a few options like a puppet show, an animation, or make a children's book. I chose to make a children's book on book creator. I made it with Billie-Jo and it took about 3 sessions to complete. It is about how the Matariki stars came to be. It is not based on real-life events.

Here is the link to my book - https://read.bookcreator.com/R1IGm6DIthPO9IMKYpmPOoy9w3S2/rE9AGQadSleu18rsZVOkbQ

See you next time:)

Week 10 Work

Kia Ora Bloggers,

This week for literacy we have been studying Horror. We started by watching Hocus Pocus then we pulled it apart. After that, we tried making a poster for Hocus Pocus except we had to make it scary. Then we had to pick apart 3 different movie posters from different decades.

For maths, we have been learning about linear and non-linear relationships. We had to figure out if number sequences were linear or non linear. We also had to find patterns in different maths questions.

See you next time:)

Wizard of Oz Website

Kia Ora Bloggers,

Our Wizard of Oz websites were due on Thursday this week meaning that mine is finally finished. It took about 2 weeks and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. We had to write 9 texases on 3 characters, 3 symbols, and 3 themes within the story of the Wizard of Oz. The characters I chose were Dorothy, the lion, and the Wicked Witch of the West. The 3 symbols I chose were Dorothy's silver slippers, the yellow brick road, and the bucket of water that kills the wicked witch. Here is a link to my website: https://sites.google.com/marshland.school.nz/woz-hanakennedy/home

Global Issue Art

Kia Ora Bloggers, 

On Tuesday we looked at some pictures that showed some global issues. Our teachers put them up around the class and we had to write on a piece of paper next to them what we thought they meant. After that, we had to choose the picture we liked the most. This si the one I chose.

See you next time:)

Cool Comic Strip

Kia Ora Bloggers,

This past week we have been learning about irony. We learnt about the three different types of irony: verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony. Verbal irony is basically sarcasm, if the weather is terrible, it would be verbal irony to say 'What wonderful weather we're having.'. Situational irony is when you expect something but get the opposite. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something before a character does. My friend Bailee and I made a comic strip showing verbal irony. Here it is:

See you next time:)