In the first week of the holidays my Mum took Maddie, Amelia, and me to camp. We went to Forest Lakes camp in Otaki. A whole bunch of my friends were there as well.The days have gone bye during the week at Forest Lakes camp.

It was Friday, I woke up and realised it was my birthday. Everyone in my cabin yelled out happy birthday for a surprise, I thought it was more like a wake-up call. After we were up and ready, we went to have breakfast. When I stepped into the dinning room, everyone started singing happy birthday to me.  After they finished, I got a slice of chocolate cake, it tasted amazing. When it came to home time, my mum picked me up and gave me my presents. I gave my Mum a big thank you and then we went home. When I got home I was getting ready to go to the new Down town cinemas in coastlands.

When I arrived at coastlands, I saw Natasha, Mary, Beatrice, Emma and Amelia. We were just waiting for Miggy and Mae N. We all decided to buy our tickets while we were waiting. We were going  to watch ‘The Smurfs in 3D’. After we brought  our tickets and food, Miggy and Mae N had turned up. They had already brought there tickets, so we all went to watch the movie. The movie was really funny. There were these little small blue creatures called Smurfs that used the word smurf  at least once in every sentence they say. For example, ‘You smurfed with the wrong girl!’ So we all did a little shopping and got some lunch and then we all headed home.

For tea my Mum had brought us fish ‘n’ chips, it was scrumptious. My Mum had also surprised me with a double size chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and pink letters spelling happy birthday,  it was delicious.

I had a great birthday with my family and friends and I don’t think it could of been any better.

Here is a great website for practicing your number knowlede. Just click on ‘maths number knowledge’ in pink and check it out for yourself. MATHS NUMBER KNOWLEDGE. 

Here is a list of things that they have on the site:

• Addition
• Subtraction
• Times Tables
• Divisions
• Word Problems
• Hundred Square
• Place Value
• Fractions, Decimals and Percentages
• Mental Maths
• Ratio

The list here is a list of the number skills they teach you. There are alsoother sections like:

• Shape and Space Skills
• Data and Probability
• Measure Skills
• Maths Investigations

So these are other maths categories in this website. I hope you enjoy the site. 🙂

On the first week of  term our homework was to draw a New Zealand icon on a square piece of paper and find some information about it. I chose L & P, (Lemon and Paeroa). With our New Zealand icon we are going to print them onto lino. First we thought we needed a bit of practicing, so we started working on polystyrene. Here are some instructions and a list of stuff that you need.

What you need:

• Polystyrene
• (Scrap) Paper
• Bullet point pen
• Printing ink
• 2 Rollers
• coloured paper/card
• Sellotape (optional)

1. First cut out a piece of paper so it is the same size as your polystyrene.
2. Think about something to draw and put it on your peice of  paper.
3. After you have finished drawing your picture, stick it on the polystyrene with sellotape.
4. Get your bullet point pen and go over the lines on the drawing pushing hard.
5. Then take the piece of paper off the polystyrene and go over the lines with your pen, so you can see them.
6. Now you have your template, get the ink ready. You just need a little bit. It might be sticky put keep on rolling it out so it is all over the roller.
7. Before rolling onto the template, make sure your paper/card is ready and that you don’t put to much or little ink on.
8. Roll the ink on your template, making sure you cover everywhere.
9. After you have done that, stick the template on the paper/card and push it down.
10. Get the clean roller and roll on the side where the card/paper is facing upwards. Make sure you roll all aroud the template.
11. Turn the paper/card over and peel the template off. Let you printing dry. With you template you can do it again and again. Maybe you might want to do multi-colors

So this is my piece of instructions. I hope you try printing on polystyrene. Here is a slide show of my printings.

Well, in term 2 we had a relief teacher called Mr T. He is really good at art, one day during the term he brought in a present he got and decided to trace it. It was a picture of ssome Koru art. Everyone in my class had there own ideas and non of them looked alike. We were thinking patterns to put in the background. People had circles, sripes, flowers and other patterns. So this is the picture of my Kou art.

Today is MOTHERS DAY. I woke up at 6:00 and made scrambled eggs with 2 pieces of toast for my mums breakfast in bed. We gave her some cake aswell. Maddie my sister made her a cup of tea. Then we gave are mum her cards. We then all woke up and sat down on the couch and watched a movie, while eating breakfast. We all got changed and went to watch my sister Zara in her soccer game. Then we went out and got a hot chocolate. Soon we will be going for a run. Well that is the day so far.

At the Marae I learnt the rules they have. Here are some:

1. Girls go in the Marae first and boys after.

2. Boys sit at the front and girls at the back when we are doing the powhiri.

3. No sitting on pillows and walking over beds.

4. Always say grace before you eat.

5. No shoes in the wharenui

I also learnt how to weave out of flax. I learnt how to make a bracelet, cross and a flower, and I learnt about the life cycle of a paua. The carvings and patterns were interesting to learn about as well, but my favourite carving was the one with teddy bear eyes.

I am going to tell you about the invention called skype. On skype you can call and chat for free within skype. Calling someones landline or mobile on skype is not free. The features on skype are instant messaging, file transfer and chats and video calls. Skype has around 663 million registered skype users up till now. Ebay owns skype, not like other services skype is a peer-to-peer system. Skype was released on august 2003. Voice chats only allow calls to other users within skype. Skypes text chats allows more than one person in the text chat. There can be more than one person in a call but not on video. Skype has a mobile, a telephone,  hotmail, gmail etc all in one. We also couldn’t have skype if a computer was never invented. Video conferences were only available for business use not public. Now we have skype which has calls, video calls, conference calls, instant text messaging, free calls to users within skype. I  think skype is for staying in touch with others, the features make it simple to share your experiences with others where ever they are. I also have a skype and it is really good.

When we got off the bus, we were at the Marae, everyone was playing on the beach. Lots of people were throwing stones and rocks into the water. One of my class mates lost their shoe in the water while he was kicking rocks. He was just standing there for a moment, then he went in the water trying to get his shoe. He didn’t want his clothes to get wet so he came back out. Then someone gave him a umbrella and he had another go getting his shoe. With the umbrella he got his shoe back. He tipped his shoe up side down and a hermit crab came out.

After that we all stood near the gate of the Marae. All the senior girls went at the front and the junior girls went behind them. Then all the boys at the back. This is one of the rules, girls go first when we are ready to go in to the Marae. When we are in the Marae, the boys sit at the front and the girls sit at the back. Just before the powhiri has finished we do a hongi. Most of us were nerves because it was there first time at a Marae and doing a hongi.

Then Mrs Gunson said that there will be coffee, tea, juice and biscuits for everyone. So we went up into the dinning room. We got a cup of  juice and a plain biscuit. Some of use got seconds. When we finished, we went down to the grass area and had a play. Then Mr Elms are principle told us what was happening next. He told us we were going to go to the paua farm.

 Next we went in the paua farm and…there was paua everywhere, baby pauas ,mummy pauas. There is a bucket of water on top of the paua, and it splashes down like a wave. Some of my classmates ate a raw paua, some thought it was nice and some spat it out. There is a black tank outside full of water and a tube which runs that water into a open white tank inside. This water is the water which splashes the pauas.

When we got back we said goodbye to the junior classes, then we all got changed into mufti. Everyone now had to get there sleeping bags and set them out on a bed in the wharenui. Mr Gunson talked to us about the carvings and patterns. It was really hard to listen though because a bird came in and most of us got distracted by it. After that, everyone went down to the beach and we found a dead shark and a sting ray. We were just playing around on the beach and some of us went back in the wharenui.

We then went for a walk up a hill. We went up iroam grove, and Mrs Gunson said it is maori backwards. When we got to the gate, Mrs Gunson explained to us why she brought up a milk container full of water. We went up to the very top and there was an amazing view. We saw people walking by at the bottom of the hill, and from up on the hill they looked like ants. We took photos of both of us classes on the hill. There was another way down and Mrs Gunon said we can go either way. I went the other down the hill this time.

The girls did some weaving out of flax. I made a cross, flower and a bracelet. I was proud of my work. The boys were practicing there haka. We then went up to the dinning room where the boys were practicing their haka. They showed us there haka and we showed them what we made. We then all had a cup of milo and Mr Elms said we have to be in the wherenui at 10 o’clock and we had 15 minutes to setal down. It was hard to sleep with people making noises and the torch flashing in your eyes, also when people got up and went to the toliet. Finally I got some sleep.

We then got changed out of our P.J’s and got are day pack ready. We all made are own lunch and just played around in the games room and outside. Then we all started to walk to plimmerton beach. I walked with Sahara and Natasha to the beach. When we were at the beach we ate are lunch and played around. Some of us were writing on the sand with sticks and some were jumping over the water. The water was quite cold.

We went on the train and arived back at school. I enjoyed the experiance of going to the Marae. I don’t think I ever would of had the experiance when I was older. It was good to go early in my life. I wish I can go again another day.

Today we are going to go to the Marae. I am so excited, we are going to go to the pauwa farm and walk up the hill. When all the junior classes are gone except room 3 and 4 , we are going to get change in mufti and go where ever we want on the Marae. I am looking forward for a great experience. I will tell you all about it when I come back. Have you ever been to a Marae, and what did you like about it?

On Monday, me and my class had fitness with Sam. First we had to line up on the yellow line on the courts and run to the second yellow line, but you have to stay together and keep in the same past as the slower runners. We also went to the yellow line by skipping, jumping and lunging.

Secondly, we played under and over. Sam was standing on a faded line and we had to all get over the line. We had 2 even teams. Although I thought my team had a few extra people. The other team won, but it was close because they just got over.

Thirdly, we were in 6 groups and had 6 in a group. This game was new to some of us, but some already new the game because they played it in their netball practice. We had to make a small square, and 4 of us in each corner. The other 2 go behind someone. The person with the ball passes to the other person , but before they can pass the person who is going to get given the ball has to run to the next corner and while  there there they’ll get given the ball.  You keep doing this and then go backwards and do it.

Last but not least, we played and game with batters and fielders. The fielders had to have a back stop and a pitcher. The batters had to stand in place and hit the ball. If they get caught on the full there out if you don’t you can run to the second line and stay there or go there and back without getting hit with the tennis ball. The hit doesn’t count if it’s above the shoulders. The fielders can’t run with the ball. When the batters have 3 people out you change over.

Fitness was fun with Sam, now I can’t what till next Monday.

I enjoyed being with the other year 6’s. I think I’ll have to try not to talk to much. I enjoyed doing maths games. I am looking forward for when we are making something for St. Patrick’s day. My favourite game was with the cards. My favourite card game was trying to make a number with the cards that were in the grid of cards on the floor. I was with Tash and Sahara when we were in groups. In the end Tash was trying to make a different maths game up. When me, Tash and Sahara were playing a game. The game is when you have three people and two had cards on their heads and the third person add them up and we had to try and find out the card on our head. Some how we all had sweaty heads, so the cards were sticking to our heads. I enjoyed being with the other year 6’s and I can’t wait till next time.