Weekly Reflection Term 4 Week 3

Goal: Collaborate with my group, achieve shared goals...

This week I think I did really well with our team goal. When I worked on our group GE, we worked really well together, and got heaps done. I think I achieved this goal.

Positives:

- I am happy with my group's progress in our GE. We have nearly finished our research!

- I think I am doing really well in French. By the end of next year, I should be nearly fluent!

- I went to Group Day, and I got a first and a second! That's better than I did in Calf Club, which is less competition.

Negatives:

- I had a lot of difficulty with my Manga High, but I eventually figured it out.

What I learnt:

- I learnt how to make gingerbread at food tech!

Group Day

On the 26th of October, I competed in Group Day. It's a lot more competition than Calf Club, because other schools can compete, AND there are only four places. I wasn't expecting to get anywhere, but it's still fun to do.

In leading, I didn't place. I had to push on Bagel, which you are not supposed to do. 

In rearing, I was SO surprised. I placed 2nd! I was really happy with myself. I only placed 4th at Calf Club, so that was really cool!

In Dairy Type, I was even more surprised. I placed 1st! It was my first ever first, which was really exciting. I was really happy with Bagel!

My Long Weekend

On Saturday, I packed my bags to go to our family bach in Matarangi. My sister, my dad and I all went up at 8 o'clock in the morning. On the way, we went to Oliver’s bakery. I got a cream doughnut, and a mince and cheese pie. On the drive over, we played eye spy, but then got bored of it. We stopped halfway up for morning tea, and so I ate my cream doughnut. Then, when we finally arrived to the bach, I ate my pie. After that I just sat around and read for  a while. Then I went to go put up the tent, which I’m not particularly good at… I hit my sister in the face with a tent pole, which she wasn’t happy about. Then, that night, we had sticky ribs for dinner. They were really good! Dad tried to trick us into thinking they tasted terrible, so that he could have them all to himself. He failed.

On Sunday morning, we went to the beach. My dad went for a swim, but Imogen and I decided to build a hut out of sticks. We worked really hard on it, but we stretched our limits a bit by trying to use really giant sticks - the problem is, we aren’t strong enough! In the end our hut failed. Then, we went back home, and had lunch. I had a ham sandwich which was surprisingly very delicious. It wasn’t just your average ham sandwich. Soon, mum arrived with Patrick, and we all played soccer, and had a water balloon fight. Later we went to the beach. I was riding my mum’s bike, and it has a seat on the back which is designed to hold towels, but it also can fit the average sized person. So because my sister didn’t want to ride her bike, she sat on the back with me. That night, we had a roast beef for dinner. It was really nice, and so was the gravy. After dinner my brother, sister and I played hide and go seek. We hid in the long grass, but because we all have hay fever, when we got out of the grass, our eyes went itchy and our noses were running.

On Monday morning, we all just lazed about, not doing anything. Mum made corn fritters for lunch, and they were really good. At one ‘o'clock, Mum and I left so we could go to clean my calf. When we got there, I cleaned my calf until 5:30, and then we went home.

I Wonder...

Who would make a great President for America?

Personally, I don’t think that Donald Trump would be a very good President for America. If laws allowed, I would vote to keep President Obama, because nothing terrible has happened with him as President, so why change it now?

Soon enough, there will be the big vote on who will become President Of The United States. I personally think that Donald Trump has lost already, because of the terrible things he has said; people have begun to hate him more and more.

Hillary Clinton would make a fine President for America. She would be the first female president, which would mean more people would want to vote for her, because people want change.

If it was allowed, I think things should stay as they are, with Obama for president. He doesn’t seem to feel the need to build a wall around Mexico, or copy Michelle Obama’s speeches.

Everything has been fine with Obama for President, so why change now?

Weekly Reflection Term 4 Week 2

Positives:

- I am really proud of my Learning in the Making conference blog post. It's really long, and it took me the whole week to do it. I am really happy with it, and I think I met all the criteria required for the post.

- I am also really happy because I got my languages milestone completed! It took me a long time to do, but now finally, I have completed it.

- I am really happy about my progress in Duolingo. I have completed lots of tasks and I am now 42% fluent in French.

Negatives:

- For my My Future milestone I need to contact an actor. But everyone I email either doesn't reply or says "sorry, I can't answer your questions" which is quite frustrating. Hopefully next week I will be able to find someone.

What I learnt:

- This week I learnt about what Author's Purpose is! It is one of my literacy goals so I was really in need of that workshop. I now know what it is, and I should have achieved that goal soon!

Calf Club 2016

On the 19th of October I went to Calf Club with my calf Bagel. She is a Friesian who weighs 145 kgs.

In Obstacle Course, I came seventh, and received a merit award. Bagel was pushing on me, and she really didn't want to walk over the wood.

In Leading, I came 5th. Bagel tried to chew on the post when we stopped, which wasn't very good.

In Rearing, I came 4th. I think Bagel was really clean, but she wasn't staying still, which lost me points.

In Dairy Type, I came 5th. There's nothing you can do about that, but Bagel really did not want to stand still.

Learning In The Making Conference

On Friday the 14th of October, our whole school had the Learning in The Making Conference. It is a day when each student goes to 4 different workshops on a range of different things. The year 7 & 8 students even have the option to run workshops! In mine, and I am sure everyone else's opinion, it is a really fun experience that every child should be able to enjoy.

Prior to the day, booklets were handed out to every student, along with an entry sheet. There was a junior booklet, and a senior booklet. In these booklets were all the different workshops available in each of the four breakouts. 

To participate in a workshop, you need to choose three of your favourite workshops from each breakout. You order them from your favourite to least favourite, and fill that out on the form. You do this for each breakout. 

The teachers try to sort you into your most favoured workshops when possible.

On the day, I received a lanyard with all the workshops I had made it into. I had Lunchbox Yummies, Fun With Felt And Buttons, Hot Dog Pasta, and Vintage Bunting. Each workshop is 50 minutes long, which gives us lots of time for the fun activities in store for us!

In Lunchbox Yummies, we made delicious lunchbox treats. For the first thing we made, everyone rolled out a sheet of short puff pastry, and covered it with some savoury fillings. I had pesto and cheese. After we had covered our sheet of pastry, we rolled it up, and cut it into 8 even pieces. We put our pieces on a tray, and squashed them down flat. We then put them in the oven, and cooked them for about 20 mins.
The second thing we made was the same, except sweet. We used short sweet pastry, and sweet fillings. I had cinnamon and sugar. Then we rolled it up, chopped it up, squashed it flat, and then cooked it for 20 mins.
These lunchbox yummies really were yummy! I made some at home, and put them in my lunchbox.

In Fun with Felt and Buttons, we made flowers. First we had to cut out 2-3 flower shapes on felt, and layer them out on top of each other. Then we choose a button, and sew it all together. After that, we got to choose to sew our flower to either a hair clip, a hair tie, a bookmark, or to just keep it as it is. I chose to have a hair clip, and I got mine finished so quickly, I got to make another one! I did another hairclip. This was a really fun workshop.

Next I went to Hot Dog Pasta. First we had to thread raw spaghetti through pieces of frank furter. Then we boiled them, and they tasted delicious! There was a sauce, but I didn't have it. I liked it better without the sauce. At home, I want to make some of this for dinner!

My final workshop was Vintage Bunting. The bunting was made out of two pieces of wallpaper, shaped like triangles. We glued our two pieces together with PVA, and then trimmed off any uneven edges. We made about five triangles each. We then sewed them onto twine using a sewing machine. I didn't manage to get mine finished at school because the machine wasn't working. But I did manage to get it finished at home, and now my bunting looks great on the wall!

I enjoyed making the lunchbox yummies because it was really easy, and it doesn't take long. I make my own lunch, so it was a great workshop for me.

I learnt a lot about cooking, because I went to two different workshops on cooking. I learnt a lot about how to estimate times for cooking. I'm used to using a recipe with a timer, but now I know how to figure it out myself.

I definitely tried a lot of new things in all of my workshops! I've never made lunchbox yummies before, I've never made felt flowers, I've never made hot dog pasta, and I've never made vintage bunting before.

I think some cool workshops for next time would be maybe macrame, wood working, or maybe some gardening!

Here is a quote I chose from the day!


The best part of the day for me was listening to Mark Osborne talk about what jobs we might have in the future. It was really interesting.

The Learning in The Making Conference is a really great experience!