Microscopes

This week for science we learnt about microscopes. The first thing we did was go to the park to collect some plant and animal samples. It was a fun experience because we got to go out and collect things we found interesting. I didn't collect any living specimens because they would always run away. I decided just to grab some plant samples like grass and leaves to inspect. After that we couldn't use live specimens so we had to use methanol to kill them quickly.

On Thursday we decided to see our specimens under two different microscopes. One was called the dissection microscope. This meant that we could see the "living animals" but it didn't need light to be able to be seen. The other one is called the monocular microscope. this is used for plants like leaves and onions peels but you need sunlight to be able to see it. For the plants, we had to create a slide. A slide is two pieces of thin glass squishing a specimen with iodine to make it easier to see. I looked at a onion peel slice, and a Japanese red sponge. They looked really cool underneath the microscope because you can see it even closer and can also see the cells, here are some photos of them both.    

Gymnastics

In gymnastics this term I would be like to be able to learn how to do a back and forward dismount dismount on the parallel bars.

 So far I can do the forward dismount, but not the backwards dismount yet.

When I first started the Gymnastics unit I wasn't really happy about it because I didn't really like gymnastics, Now I like it a little bit more because its a fun topic that you have to work towards to be able to do. The first piece of equipment I went on were the Parallel bars. They were a little hard to learn at first but then I practiced more and now I can do a forward dismount on them. I still haven't learnt how to do a backwards dismount but I think next year I will be able to do them.

Here are some photos of me doing the Parallel bars

Social Studies

L.O:Understand how the New Zealand government is structured and how people can have a say.

In New Zealand there are three different types of governments, Legislative, Executive, Judicial. A legislative type of government is mainly a type of government that makes laws in our countries. Executives finalize the laws and make big decisions about our countries. A Judicial government also finalizes the laws, and figure out how they work and what the punishment could be.

This term for social studies we learned about the different types of government some of the different types of government are communism, dictatorship and democracy. We were then asked to learn about a certain country and the government style in that country. I chose communism in North Korea because it seemed interesting and I wanted to learn about it. Communism is a very weird type of government because everyone shares the same amount of money, everyone is employed, and everyone is educated.  We were then asked to create a presentation about what we learned about the system of government. This is my presentation about Communism in North Korea. 

Prompt Writing

Prompts:

8. Footsteps slowly creaked on every step of the stairs. The bedroom door handle turned slowly.

10. My hair stood on end, a shiver raced down my spine and a lump came to my throat. It was him...

1. I didn’t mean to kill her.

I ran into the room hoping he didn’t come after me, after all there were seven other people in the mansion. I ran around a corner and bumped into a door. The door was brown, almost mahogany coloured and polished, unlike anything in this old mansion. I turned the gold knob and pushed the door open, too my luck it was open. I ran inside, turns out it was a bedroom. I admired the baby blue wallpaper that was still on the wall, the white trim looking brand new. There was no bed inside, only a white crib with white bedding and a teddy bear, it looked like the one I owned at home, light brown, missing a black beady eye and a blue bowtie. I saw a closet and opened the door, as I opened it I heard someone coming up the stairs. Footsteps slowly creaked on every step of the stairs. The bedroom door handle turned slowly. My hair stood on end, a shiver raced down my spine and a lump came to my throat. It was him. The boy who had just murdered my sister, my brother Daniel. His white top was now splattered with crimson red blood, it almost looked like watercolour paint. His jeans were cut, you could see a deep gash in his knee. The gas was gushing out blood like a drink dispenser. “ I didn’t mean to kill her”. He whispered. I could see a knife in his hand, so I slowly backed away. I looked behind me into the closet, there was nothing but a door. I could fit inside of it but I would have to make a distraction to have enough time to get in and run. I looked beside me and saw a black chinese ring dagger. I grabbed it without Daniel noticing and flung it at the deer paining behind him, I actually liked that paining but either I die or that painting gets a knife into it. The glass protecting the paining shattered and Daniel fell to the floor, trying not to get any shards in his eyes. I quickly ran towards the closed, grabbing a chair on the way to barricade the door with. I ran into the door and hoped that the door was open, to my surprise it was. I quickly ran in, closed the door, barricaded the door with the chair and sat down. Would I ever get out of this house alive?

language Features - Hyperbole

A Hyperbole is a use of over exaggeration that shouldn't be taken literally, It's also used to make you understand a little more about how someone could be feeling. For example "I'm so hungry I could eat a cow." You can't physically eat a cow but you are exaggerating that you will, you're just saying that you are really hungry. When a writer uses hyperbole they want you to see how someone might be feeling. A writer might use hyperbole because they want you to imagine how a character might feel

Hyperbole

An exaggeration

I've told her that a million times!

I'm so hungry I could eat a Tyrannosaurus rex

She’s told that story a billion times, yet she keeps repeating it every day.

Some examples from the internet are

- I told you to clean your room a billion times!

- His brain is smaller than a pea

Conduction

This week for science we are learning about Conduction and Heat. We did an experiment that involved a ball and hoop. We heated up the hoop because it couldn't fit inside, after a few minutes we put the hoop onto the ball and watched it go through.Conduction is when an object has been in contact directly with heat. One of the ways conduction is shown is when you heat up a pot of water on a stove. The heat from the stove is going under the pot which is spreading it around the metal pot, the water then heats up because of the heat being spread around the pot and then it starts boiling because of the heat.

Textiles - Candle Holders

This week for Textiles we are making candle holders, we decorated our candle holders with gem stickers. This is how we are making the rest of the candle holder

Here are what we used to decorate the holders

Materials: 

3 Tablespoons of rice.

3 Tablespoons of coffee beans.

Tealight candle

Small glass jar.

Food coloring (optional)

Add the rice into the jar evenly. 

Add the coffee beans on top of the rice with small indent the size of the candle. 

Put the candle in the small indent. 

Decorate the jar if you want to.

Coloring rice (optional)

Add 3 tablespoons of rice into a snaplock bag with 3 drops of food coloring. Mix around until all the rice is covered. Leave colored rice on a tray to dry over 24 - 48 hours.

Here is my decorated holder. 

Textiles

This week for textiles we were asked to make paper cards with the paper we made a few weeks ago. It was a really fun activity because we were able to do it about anything. I chose to do mine about my sisters 21st birthday, My dads 53rd birthday, an adoration card, and an easter card. For my sisters birthday card I drew a card on a gold piece of paper and then cut it out to glue on the card, then I wrote some memories that we shared when I was younger. For my dads card I wrote happy birthday and then coloured a bunch of different things. For my easter card I drew a chick in an egg and then wrote happy easter, For my adoration card I wrote “I A Door You” and replaced the word door with a door and coloured it in rainbow. Here are the photos of the cards I made.

Textiles

A few weeks ago we had made recycled paper. It was really fun to make, especially when we were able to colour the paper. The first thing we did was pulp the newspaper with a hand mixer and added water in too. We then put it into a box so then we could make the paper. We then grabbed the watery pulp and then took a homemade paper maker that was just a photo frame and material that can take out water and took the water away from the pulp. we then took out the access water and then ironed the piece of paper to dry it quicker. I couldn't get any photos but it was a really fun activity to do. Here is the video that we watched to make the paper.

Distillation

This week for science we have been working about distillation, one of our experiments was distilling water from coke. It was a really fun experiment because at points it was distilling very quickly. Here is how we did our experiment.

Aim: To separate water from coke using distillation.

Equipment:Coke, conical flask, heatproof mat, a delivery tube and bung that fits the flask, bunsen burner, tripod, gauze mat, retort stand, boss head and clamp, boiling tube, Beaker

Method: 

1. Set up your equipment so then it looks like this 

2. add about 50mL of coke to the conical flask and then put the bung and delivery tub on top of the conical flask.

3. Light your bunsen burner and put it under the tripod that holds the conical flask .

4. Heat the coke until it is at boiling point and carry on so then you can get the water out and into the boiling tube that is connected to the delivery tube that  goes into a beaker with ice inside of it. The ice will condensate the water vapor so then you have water.

5. Once most of the water is evaporated turn of the bunsen burner and look at your results.

Results:
Our experiment went very well and we collected quite a lot of water, it was fun watching the water condensate and then drop into the boiling tube. When the coke was at boiling point the water was boiling off quickly. The ice was condensating the water in the delivery tube which was cool to look at, it solidified very quickly and came in little drops. It separates the liquids by evaporating the water and making it go through the delivery tube. Distillation could be used in many ways in real life like turning saltwater into fresh drinking water, Gasoline is distilled from crude oil and so much more. During the experiment two different things are happening, Evaporation and Condensation. when the water is being boiled off it is evaporating into water vapor and going through the tube, condensation then happens after the water goes through the delivery tube which cools it down and turns it back into water.

Would you ever try to do this experiment?