Category: Ako | Learn

Making my tree hut

Last term Room 6 started a project about making 3D tree houses. We had to collect recycled materials and I used hard rolls ,Styrofoam, masking tape, mask boxes, string, cardboard 

 

den cut offs. I found it very hard to make my tree hut balance and have a solid base. But it was worth the hard work and problem solving in the end!.

 

 I first made the base first and then I glued hard rolls under the base to stabilize it and keep it firmly on the ground. Then I made the trunk by gluing it to the base. I tried to put Styrofoam on the top but it kept falling off. After a few tries I had an idea to put it on the bottom instead!.

 

 

 On top I just added a cardboard box on top which I glued on. I was supposed to put in some windows but I didn’t  because I reckoned it would make holes that water might get in (we had success criteria we had to meet.)

 

 I worked on stabilizing for a bit by adding Styrofoam marshmallows for weight. I was done with the tree house structure and now time for decor.

 

 I used some string first to make a rope to hang on the side of the hut. I made quite a few knots in it. I made a person next out of Styrofoam marshmallows. I cut it in half but not all the way then made the body by cutting the sides but not all the way too! Finally I made the head by just cutting it in half!. The last step was just gluing it all together. Weird for making that but it worked out!

 

 The very last step was…. Painting!!!!. It was so much  fun. I loved adding the color to my hut. In the end we had to all test that our huts could pass the success criteria. First, we put our tree huts in front of the classroom fan and counted to ten to see if they would fall over in the wind. None of them did. Then we had to put at least 4 scissors in the hut for weight, without it falling over. Lastly Mrs Yumul poured water over them to see if any water could get inside. I was successful with all of them.

 It was really hard to make but I liked the challenge and experience!

My first summer learning journey activity

Mountain of Light’ or ‘Jabaal An-Noor’ is a piece that depicts the mountain in Makkah where the first few verses of the Quran were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) by the Angel Jibraeel (Gabriel). This place on the ‘Night of Power’ or ‘Laylatul Qadr’ which is the holiest night of Ramadan.

I tried to copy the same colours as the original picture. This was an interesting activity to do.

Preparing For Athletics Day

Earlier today room 6 were practicing for Athletics Day on November 18th with coach Bart down on the field at St Pats.

First we practiced running around the square of cones. We had to lift our right arms up then our left leg. We repeated that over and over again. We then were running on our toes and heels and running while crouching and walking with stiff arms and legs. Then after that we played a game called sheep dogs and the purpose of the game was there were two sheep dogs that had to tag us with the pool noodles and if we got tagged we had to run around the square and enter back in. Then we started the game GO! coach Bart said.  Then we ran from the  people with pool noodles. They got me first so I ran around the square and back in.

After that  coach Bart stopped the game and we moved on to the next activity racing. There was one line of small orange cones and one line of small blue cones. The coach told us to get into groups of four. In my group it was Ion, Nixcent and Wycliffe + me. Coach Bart told us to stand on the orange and blue cones, the first person in front has to step on the orange line then when the coach says on your marks they step on the blue line. He says “get set”, then  “ready” and then he said “GO!” and the person runs. I was the second Ion was first, Wycliffe was third, Nixcent was last.  So Ion went on the blue line got ready then he went. After that it was my turn I was on my mark I got ready and I ran then I remembered something. I have asthma and I forgot my inhaler. The first time I ran it was fine but the other times not so much. I drank water instead and it helped a bit .

Next it was time for jumping and we still stayed in the same spots. The coach gave us a bean bag shaped like a pig. He said to lay down feet on the blue cones and put the bean bag above your head on the ground. Then he told us to stand up and see how tall we were. When I looked at myself I was short but when he said the other words I was amazed he said “you now have to jump over the bean bag without falling over”. I thought to myself “this is my favourite activity now!!”. i jumped over it and I fell over after that jump. He said to keep your legs apart but not too much and bend your knees while swinging our arms and then it was very easy. Meanwhile the room 7’s and 8’s came to the field and waited for us to end our sport session. Then coach Bart ended the experience and we came back to class. It was really fun and remember to always try something new everyday.

Making our class movie.

A few weeks ago we made potato people after our teacher Mrs Agnew had shared a video called “The Potato People” with us. At first it sounded really weird to me but then  Mrs Agnew said, ” ok now we are going to make potato people!” The class was REALLY looking forward to that. Mrs Agnew took out a selection of potatoes and some of them were old and wrinkly, fresh, new ones and a really big one too! Then she took out the art supplies and we got to work!

We used googly eyes, string, pipe cleaners, ribbons, sticks, toothpicks and I made an echidna but after a week or two I made it into an alien! It had sticks all over it and pipe cleaners adding extra character. A few weeks later,  Ms Toland thought our ideas of using  potato people in our movie were great. She taught us about the four important people who make a movie. They are the director, camera man, scene manager and editor. I enjoyed being the director the most because I could tell people what to do.

When we were making our movie we had to have some backgrounds! I was in the group making the rocket and there was also an evil lair, party scene, and inside the castle. The group decided that two people would make the bottom of the rocket and two more people would make the top of the rocket. Then we got to work. The bottom group was going to make so many rocket boosters and the top group was really fast too! Next we had to paint it which was time consuming.

After we had painted we were done.  Then we had to work on the making of the movie, group by group.  We were in the library with Ms Toland and we took lots of photographs as the potatoes moved slowly across the table. In this one scene when the rocket ship flew high and the sunlight was in sync with the rocket! After that we took a break for a while and then we did the voice overs! A friend and I went first and I did my normal voice and he did too but the next time round,  I did a different voice.  Yeah, then we were finished. All right time for a quick story about the movie. The birthday princess gets stolen by aliens and then ninjas save the princess in their rocket. In the end  everyone shares in her birthday party.

swimming lessons

A fortnight before the term ended, we did swimming lessons but before that, our teacher, Mrs. Agnew explained what it was all about and what we could expect.  We were really excited! She told us to bring swimming togs, goggles, a towel, a mask and a jacket.

The day arrived and the boys had to go first. so all of the rooms 6, 7, 8, boys changed in the classroom (with the girls outside). When we were done changing we waited for the bus while choosing a partner (I was with my friend Jaeden).

The bus was here and we all got on. Jaeden and I were at the front and we all sang songs while we were going to CLM pool. It was really fun singing!.

When we got there we quickly went inside and took our jackets off and masks. Then we got to the pool and the swimming teacher told us to hop in.

We learned all sorts of swimming techniques like backstroke, freestyle and floating on our backs and also holding our breath under water. In the end we got to jump in the pool. I had to race the room 8’s but I lost though ;-;

Then the girls arrived and we got out of the pool and dried ourselves and put our jackets back on.

We got back on the bus and the bus driver took us back to school it was really fun! Here is a photo of ME swimming:

ki o rahi

Last Thursday a woman named coach Chelsea taught us how to play some games but they weren’t related to ki o rahi, the game we were meant to play. At first, we watched a video that told us the story of Rahi and Tiara. It was about a guy stealing Tiara and Rahi who is trying to save her. That is most of it. After the video we went outside and played a tagging game. There were two teams, Kioma and Taniwha. The rules were to choose a team then the two teams were back to back and if she shouted Kioma,  then that team would run until the end of the canopy and Taniwha people would try and chase them down. If she shouted TaNiWhA then that team would do the same thing. We played that for 3 rounds and then we stopped. I was tired after that game and since it was raining we all stopped. Then we all said bye and that was it. MY HEART WAS POUNDING. It was really fun though.