My Easter Holidays

It was 5:30 a.m. on Easter morning and my sister, (who had been sleeping in my bed for the night because she had been having nightmares), was jumping up and down saying: “It’s Easter!! Look Easter Bunny left some eggs!!!”

We were in the caravan at our bach where nobody (meaning our parents) could know what we were doing, unless they came in to check.

Soon enough my brother was awake too, and he was very excited; they both wanted to eat their eggs, but I told them no! We knew that none of us would be able to get to sleep, so we decided to wait it out and play a game of memory. That didn’t go down so well because when my brother won he boasted about it and my sister started crying, so we decided to play a game of last card. But the only problem was, the cards were all in the garage, where my parents were sleeping. So my “mission” was to locate and retrieve the cards without letting our parents know what we were doing. But I had a plan. I decided I would pretend to go to the bathroom and then when I opened the door, I wouldn’t turn the light off until I had located the cards. They were on the table. I switched off the light and then quickly grabbed the cards. My mum rolled over. I froze. I don’t think she saw me but as soon as she had stopped moving I quickly ran into the caravan with the cards and we played last card until we all got bored. By that time, it was 6:30 and we decided we would all wait until 7:00 until we got up. My brother was very excited so he wouldn’t stop dancing around. Eventually he started a very noisy dance that shook the whole caravan and my mum obviously heard it, because she came in, and we were all in BIG trouble. But it was still very fun!

Current Events

This is what I discovered:

After a twenty-six million dollar process, New Zealand has voted to keep its existing flag. More than 1.2 million people voted for the existing flag, while 915,000 people voted for the alternative flag designed by Kyle Lockwood. Deputy Prime Minister Bill English said that this was a good process to go through because this meant that the country would be able to choose how we wanted to be presented on world stage. Although Labour leader Andrew Little said that our prime minister had split the nation and achieved nothing.

My Opinion:

I think that this voting process was a bit of a waste of money because the government has paid tens of millions of dollars, only to discover that we didn’t want anything to change. It was a good way to make sure that the whole nation got a say, but it was an expensive process.

Source:

I found this information on Kiwi Kids News.

My Wondering:

Whose idea was it to have the flag referendum?

Answer:

It was John Key’s idea to change the flag.

Words:

Deputy: A person chosen to undertake the duties of somebody superior to them.

Labour: The Labour Party

Alternative: Things available as another possibility or choice.

IE

In Marama we are doing individual Impact projects that we get to choose ourselves. We choose something we are curious about.

I chose the topic of presenting, predicting and recording weather.
We starting deciding our ideas with our Generating Ideas doc that we had to fill in. We had to put in things we enjoy, things we do in our spare time, and things that we might like to do our IE on.
The next doc we had was our Seek Approval doc. We had to choose our topics and think of questions we would like to ask about our topics. We then had to make some refined questions, which would be the main part of our projects. We then have to decide what we are going to create with our project, how we are going to share our project, and what experts we might contact to help us.
After we do that, and have received our Stamp Of Approval, we are all good to go so we can start our next doc, simply named IE Doc. This is as far as anyone has got so far, and it is the main doc for our IE project. It is where we write down our refined questions, and try to find the answer!

My Questions:

Who records weather in New Zealand and how do they record it?
How does weather.com's prediction compare to the actual weather in Ngatea?
What skills would I need to predict the weather?
How is a weather graph made and how could I make one myself?
What skills do a weather presenter need?
How could I present my own weather prediction?

Some of these questions are very hard to answer. But I will persevere and find the answers!

Current Events

New Zealand $5 Note Nominated As Best

This is what I discovered:

The New Zealand five dollar note has been announced as a finalist in the Bank note Of The Year competition. This competition is run by the International Bank Note Society every year. The other nominated notes are the Singapore $50 note, and the Tongan $50 Pa’anga. The winner will be announced next month. Here are photos of all three finalists:

My Opinion:

I think that this is actually a really cool competition and it is great that it is a worldwide competition and not necessarily something that some countries are excluded from. I think it would be cool if they did this with coins as well!

Source:

I found this information on Kiwi Kids News.

My Wondering:

Who designs banknotes in New Zealand?

Answer: The Reserve Bank designs banknotes in New Zealand.

Words:

Finalist: A competitor in the final or finals of a competition.

Nominated: To formally enter as a candidate in a competition.

Announced: To make a formal public statement about a fact, occurrence, or intention.

Technology Project - Food

For the past four weeks I have been going to Technology at the HPC. I have been doing Food Technology. Each week we have made something different.

In our first week we made mini pita pocket pizzas. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients (for 2 people)

2 pita pockets
1 t tomato paste
40g Edam cheese
1/8 red or green pepper or tomato
1 slice of ham or bacon
1/4 of an onion
2 T pineapple

Method:

1. Turn oven to 180 degrees Celsius fan bake. Place oven tray in middle of oven.
2. Spread tomato paste over the base right to the edges.
3. Grate the cheese, wash and chop the capsicum into thin slices. Peel and chop the onion finely.
4. Layer the ingredients on the base and place on a piece of baking paper on a flat baking tray.
5. Bake 10-12 mins.

The next week we made smoothies and juices:

Ingredients (For my juice)

Apple

Orange 

Nectarine

Juice
Water

Ingredients (For my smoothie)

Blueberries

Banana 

Sugar

Yoghurt

Vanilla Essence

Milk

Method:

1. Chop ingredients and put in food processor.
2. Turn on food processor. Mix for 30s - 1m.
3. Turn off, unlock and pour juice/smoothie.
4. Serve and taste.

Next we made pikelets and scones:

Pikelets:

Ingredients:

1/2 C flour

1 T sugar

1 t baking powder

pinch of salt

1 egg

1/4 C milk

1T melted butter

1 T butter

Method:

1. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Stir.
2. Beat the egg with a fork in a measuring cup with the milk. Add the butter and mix well.
3. Pour the milk mixture into the flour and mix well with a spoon.
4. Heat a pan with 1/2 t butter, on a medium heat until the butter is melted and the pan is hot.
5. Drop a tablespoon of the mixture into the pan. You should get 3 or 4 pikelets.
6. When bubbles appear on the surface of the pikelets then turn the pikelet carefully and then cook the other side for a minute or two.
7. Remove and place on a plate. Add the rest of the butter the pan and repeat with the rest of the mixture.

Scones: 

Ingredients:

2 C flour

3 t baking powder

1/8 t salt

50g butter

3/4 C milk

Method:

1. Turn oven to 200 degrees Celsius fan bake.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. 
3. Rub the butter in with fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
4. Add milk and mix quickly with a knife to soft dough.
5. Knead a few times. Be gentle.
6. Line a flat oven tray with baking paper.
7. Press scone dough onto bench turning and pressing.
8. Cut into 4 - 6 even sized pieces. Make the 2cm thick. 
9. Use 1cm space between scones. 
10. Fan bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 10 - 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Then on our final week we made mini burgers:

Ingredients: 

Half a chicken breast

1 t sweet chilli sauce

1/4 t ginger

1/4 t garlic
1/4 onion chopped finely
1 t oil
2 burger buns
2 lettuce leaves
Beetroot slices
Grated carrot
sliced cucumber
1 t mayonnaise/aioli

Method:

1. Chop and wash the onion. 
2. Place chicken in a bowl and mix in chilli sauce, ginger and garlic.
3. Heat oil in fry pan on a medium heat and cook the chicken until not pink. Turn only twice.
4. Wash the lettuce and cucumber. Peel and grate the carrot. Drain beetroot.
5. Turn oven to grill 200 degrees Celsius and use second shelf from the top and cut buns in half, place on flat tray and grill the cut sides until golden brown. Place mayonnaise on bun and assemble burger. 

Current Events

Monster Rat Found In London Playground

This is what I discovered:

A “monster rat” has been found in a London playground, and more could be breeding in the sewers. Tony Smith, a gas engineer unluckily found the rat when he was working on a block of flats near the playground. The rat weighed around eleven kilograms. A spokesperson from the pest-control experts explained that the average brown rat in the UK was around thirty centimetres in length, but these rodents, beating that average by a long shot, could be breeding beneath London’s streets. Zoologists believe that the rat could be a West African grasscutter rat, also known as the cane rat.

My Opinion:

I think that this rat is very large and I really hope that no more of them are breeding! I am happy that this is not happening where I live!

Source:

I found this information on Kiwi Kids News.

My Wondering:

I wonder whether these rats will move and spread to other countries?

Words:

Spokesperson - A representative of a company or group

Engineer - A person who designs, builds, or maintains structures

Sewers - An underground area for carrying off drainage water and waste

Myself As A Writer

Current Events

Police Chase Escaped Unicorn

This is what I discovered:

Some police in California were startled when they received a call reporting a unicorn running around on the road.

The unicorn was actually a pony named Juliet who was dressed up by her owner to attend children’s parties. The scared animal dodged traffic in search of a friend. Juliet took the police on a three hour chase which involved a helicopter to help track the animal.

My Opinion:

I think that it shouldn’t have taken so long to catch Juliet. Maybe instead of chasing her it would have been easier to slowly approach her.

Source:

I found this information from Kiwi Kids News.

My wondering:

Q: How did Juliet escape?

A: The owner was taking photos of Juliet with children and she ran off while nobody was holding her.

Words:

Dodged - Avoid something by a sudden quick movement.

Reporting - Giving a spoken or written account of something that has happened or has been observed.

Attend - Go to, be present at.

ICARE