Monday, September 19, 2016

Paora Winitana School Visit News Report

Parkvale Breaking News!

IMG_2357.JPGAt the beginning of Term 3, we got to see Paora Winitana come into school and talk to us about the Olympic Values, his goals and his career as a basketball player in general.

But what goes on behind the scenes of Paora Winitana and his life? We all know what he does - he's a professional basketball player but what does he do? He did explain it to us when we were listening to him. Here is the real story.

During his life, Paora has set goals, and with these goals, he has become a better player. He talked about it lots during his visit and he even got some students and some teachers to come up and reenact the his entire career as a basketball player and the challenges he has gone through.

The entire school loved his visit to school and we hope to see more from the man of action sometime this year.

Reflection.

What was something you found tricky and why did you find it tricky?

When I had to restart. I had to revise my plan and rewrite the day.

What are you most proud of?

The progress I got up to. I had a paper copy which I was going to write it on, but I also had a draft on my laptop (which I wrote all the work on).

What is 1 thing you need to improve upon?

Putting in less detail into my paragraphs.

My PBL Mascot.

What is the history of the Olympic Mascots?

The first official mascot in the Olympics was a dog named Waldi, He was a dog with many vibrant colors and features that resemble a dog like it's face and it's tail. There was one before that, but not much is known about it, it was for the Winter Olympics and it appears to be on a ski with numbers on the side and with the Olympic logo on it's head as well.

Where do the Ideas for the mascots come from?

In more recent years, there has been a voting system for different mascot ideas to be official mascots for that Olympic year. In 2016, the design and the names for the mascots were picked and put into a public vote, the design and name with the most votes becomes the official mascot for the Olympics that year.




What is the mascot and what is our project?

My mascot is based off the native bird of New Zealand known as the kiwi. It's design is based off the current status of kiwis and the culture that the kiwi brings.

Sep 8, 2016 10:42:16 AM.jpgThe kiwi has certain features within it, like a black beak, a koru on his stomach and the legless design of the kiwi. The koru on the kiwi is to represent the culture of New Zealand and to it's also to represent the plant and art that is the koru.

The reason of the legless kiwi is because it's to honor the dead kiwis that have died from man-made reasons, because we have taken over the home that is the kiwi, and that is also the same reason for the black eyes and beak as well.




How to create a kiwi mascot.

Resources Required:

  • Thick brown fabric like fur. (But brown fabric will work too.)
  • Black felt or fabric.
  • Green felt or fabric.
  • At least 3 huge handfuls of stuffing.
  • Basic sewing equipment.

Step 1: Make the pattern.

  1. Cut out a large circle which is bigger than 20cm x 20cm. Repeat this step as you need to sew both sides.

  1. Cut out a circle bigger than 10cm x 10cm for the head. Also, repeat this step as well to sew both sides.

Step 2: Start sewing.

  1. Cut out your head and body, it's time to sew them together. Sew from the bottom and work your way up until you reach ¾’s of the way upwards. Remember to sew both sides before you stuff it.

  1. Get ⅓ of your stuffing and put it all into the kiwi to fill it up or to make it soft.

  1. Sew the rest up until all of the kiwi body has been sewed up.

  1. Repeat all these steps for the head.

Step 3: Sew the head on.

  1. Put the head on the side the koru will be on and sew it on top. When you're satisfied, cut it off and tie a knot.

Step 4: Sew the koru on.

  1. Sew the koru on the same side as the head and use any technique to sew it. You don’t need to stuff it but you can if you want too. Sew it, cut off and tie the knot.

Step 5: Sew the eyes and beak on.

  1. Get your black fabric and cut out 2 small circles and 2 sharp triangles like pyramids, but don’t make them as big as pyramids.

  1. Sew the beak onto the face side and sew it on with any technique. Do the same with the eyes, but put the eyes on both sides.

Now your kiwi has been fully recreated and ready to play with!




Reflection

I thought the kiwi was going to be a hard task, but in the end, It came out alright, and everyone really seemed to like it! Because of it's softness and it's very cool look. The challenge was clear to me, I needed to try a different technique of making something, and to my surprise, It worked!

When I started, it wasn’t easy, but when I became absorbed into my work, I could do much more on the spot, and it was fun!

I loved every second of determination that I put into the project and I hope I can make more projects like this with Growth Mindset that I had in place when I made this project.




My 2016 Calender Art

IMG_0593.JPG

My art piece shows my family behind a huge mountain like rainbow. The huge koru in the middle represents me as I am the creator of the art piece. The korus around me are supposed to represent my family, their colour is related to something they really like or just a thing I thought about them.

The rainbow background is to represent my vibrant and colorful personality within me.

(Turn your head around to see the best effects.)

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

P.E Reflection on Blind Throw

Building Learning Power - Reflecting on Blind Throw - P.E


What went well? Why? How?


Me and the rest of my team were communicating with each other and helping each other out.


How did it feel as a Learner when playing Blind Throw?


It felt challenging because we couldn’t look at our throws when we threw the bean bag. We had to wait until the end to see out results. It also felt amazing when I hit all 3 targets in the same round


One thing I could improve on is …..

Being more exact with my buddy when communicating to him.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Minecraft: Pirate Bay

Minecraft: Pirate Bay
Written By Adam Neilson, Callan Robson & Noah Rogers.

Chapter 1: Ahoy Mateys!

It was a normal day in the realm of Minecraft, the non existent birds were chirping, flowers were blooming, on a day like this, kids like Adam and Callan, should be attacked by pirates?

The pirate part will come later, but let's talk about the normal day.

Adam and Callan walked in the Birch Forest, climbed mountains, swimming through rivers and reached the edge of the Birch Forest. They were sitting on a perfectly fine beach. The location they were sitting is right next to where the dock was. Usually, boats would come here to make a pit stop or people come here to catch fish. But rarely, and this only happens once a year, pirates could come by.

One of these two things happened. Can you guess what happened?

Chapter 2: Ships Ahoy!

A pirate ship came along. Adam and Callan started to freak out and tried to run away to not be taken, but TNT was launched from a TNT Launcher. So they needed to hide.

All the pirates hopped of the ship and went to go look for Adam and Callan.

They started to get resources from the Birch Trees and then they mined into a mountain so they can't be found. They could hear the screaming of pirates from inside. It sounded like they were very much near the mountain.

“What are we going to do now?” Said Callan in a terrified voice.
Adam replied, “Let's just stay in here, not cause much noise and ge-”

The mountain soon burst into pieces from the TNT.

“AVAST YOUNG SCALLYWAGS! YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD RUN AWAY FROM US? THINK AGAIN!” Said the captain of the Pirate Ship. The two boys got tied in rope, dragged to the ship and the ship sailed off.

The boys soon blacked out.

Chapter 3: Who are you?

After getting on the ship, the boys woke up and they were very confused.
(Confused as chickens they were.)

“Who are you?” Said both in a serious voice.
Nobody replies and the ship keeps sailing.

“Okay… So, what's the purpose of this?” Adam asked.

The bird heard and said a very loud call that attracted the people on the ship..

“SQUAK!” to them and all of the pirates started to get rough. They did this because whenever that bird made a call, it meant that danger was coming.

When they were getting near to their location, the head captain started to talk to Adam and Callan.

“Good morning scallywags, I’m Captain Kallyback. We are apart of the Oracle Pirate gang. We take strangers like you and hire them for no apparent reason.

Before you open your mouth, we have highly guarded individuals who can slice your heads off at any time. The current location we are heading too is Pirate Bay, the main location for Pirates and all their loot. Now, have fun with this sleeping gas and we’ll see you tomorrow.”

Both boys fall asleep from the gas and they start to slowly wake up the next day.

Chapter 4: Week I

The next day, both boys wake up to a loud call by tons of parrots within the area, All the captured people there get out of their tents and they get to the front line. Since it was the boy's first day, they got a reminder from the Captain. Both of them were confused but they followed the program.

One week in, the boys were tired. They wanted to get out immediately. But they had to figure out a plan.

“Lets try going into camouflage and try sneaking into one of the boats to escape back.” Said Callan.

Adam agreed and they sneaked into the dress area and got some camouflage on. They soon went into the bush to escape.

Chapter 5: The Great Escape

The place was completely silent at night. If you made a sound that wasn’t sleep talking or reacting to something, you would be thrown into the shark pit for 5 minute because you're, “causing disturbance”. So everyone stays silent as amiba.

When both of the boys reached the beach, they both saw boats in the area.
“I bet we can use these to escape pirate bay and get away for good.” Adam said.
“Good Idea.” said Callan.

They both sailed off, but soon after, The alarm was tripped by the Captain and all the first line of defense came out to find both Adam and Callan. They set sail on their ships to go find them.

Chapter 6: The Aftermath

Adam and Callan reached the shore. They ran, and ran, and ran. They found a shelter and hid in there for a few hours. To make sure the pirates couldn’t find them. This time, their plan worked and they managed to get away.

But this led… to even more drama...

(insert dun dun dun)
(and a dramatic second story plot hole)


TO BE CONTINUED IN:

Minecraft: Pirate Bay 2:
The Scallywags Return.

(Coming Soon, Scallywags.)


Monday, June 20, 2016

Science Experiment Explanation.

LAB-12 Science Experiment #6 - Vinegar Volcano.



Scientists at LAB-12 have been conducting experiments on wacky stuff like quicksand and chemical reactions. The experiment Scientist Adam and his partners did was on chemical reactions to Baking Soda mixed with Vinegar to make a Volcano.

The volcano was made by combining certain ingredients into a container to create the result we wanted which turned into a bubbly mess when put into different containers.


The End Result
IMG_0288.JPGOur end result was a bubble like fizz result which smelled, weird… We also touched our result and we found out that some of the baking soda hasn't even dissolved into the result yet which still leaves some of the baking soda left.


Different Sizes, Different Results
As we said earlier, when we tried different containers, we got different results like overflowing which did happen when we tried a little container which was supposed to hold our baking soda. And let me tell you, it was a pretty messy experience.



What causes this?
When the vinegar collides with the baking soda, both of them react to form gases of carbon dioxide, then it rises to the surface like how it does in beverages like soda.


How we do it / How to do it.
You will need the following items to do this experiment.

  1. A container which can hold a considerable amount of baking soda and vinegar.
  2. The amount of baking soda you're using.
  3. The amount of vinegar you're using.

Now, these are the instructions for the experiment.

  1. Pour the baking soda into the container.
  2. Pour the vinegar into the container.
  3. Watch it overflow, fizz or blow!


So, I think everybody in LAB-12 had a fun time doing their lab experiments. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go clean up the baking soda and vinegar me and my fellow scientists made.


Glossary

Fizz - Something that bubbles up from a chemical reaction.
Vinegar - A liquid ingredient that can be used for many dishes and scientific experiments.
Volcano - Something that can hold a liquid like lava and can heat it up to high temperatures.
Baking Soda - A solid ingredient that can be used for many dishes and scientific experiments.