Have A Go Sailing Day

Yesterday afternoon on Monday we went sailing around the lake. We buddied up in two's and I went with my friend Elsie. We were all going to go in optimists (boats that were more bucket shaped than others), but since there were many people sailing in our class it was decided that Elsie and I would go  in my family's own boat, which was called a bic and was more swift and streamline than the optimists - much easier to sink. First we rigged up the boats and then took them down to the water. We capsized twice in the bic, once when I was steering the rudder and another time when Elsie tacking (turning), so I guess we're even. What I liked most about capsizing was when we had to pull the boat up again by standing on the center board. Since it was a bit hard sailing the bic we swapped into someone else's optimist and it was much easier. When we were sailing the optimist back to the jetty I dipped my hand into the water  and so did Elsie. It made us feel a little uncomftable  because compared to the usual cold waters of the lake, this was WARM!

Miranda Jane Caird Art

In class this term we have been doing art and in particular we have been focusing on Miranda Jane Cairds style- bold lines and bright colours. First we drew our outline in pencil so that we could rub things out if needed. Next we got chalk and retraced the lines over the pencil marks, then we started to fill in the blank spaces with pastel.  Once done, we got dye and let it sink into the chalk, making it turn black. If I did my artwork again I would probably have added in another island from the other direction with some flax and other plants growing. I especially like this piece of Miranda Cairds art because we have the same texture to the lower waves (a plain colour with different shades of blue).

Camp Reflection

                                                         On Lake Brunner School's
2019 camp the middle and senior classes - Kotuku and Te Kinga went on a three day snow camp to Arthurs Pass Education centre and Cheeseman ski field. On the first day  after Lake Brunner school arrived we got settled into camp and then played a few outdoor, teamwork games. After that we went on a short walk to see the winding road and learnt a little bit about the history in the area as we have been learning about maori history at school. On the second day it was pretty much rain and wind as we ate breakfast and we considered not going to Cheeseman for the wind would be stronger up there. In decision though we decided to go after lunch when it was a bit calmer and until then we played board games and cards. We didn't go skiing that day, but instead played in the snow some of us making igloos which was pretty cool. The next day after breakfast we got into our skiing gear and went outside to ready to start skiing, the weather had changed then and the day was clear and blue skied making the snow look even more crispy white. Some of us had lessons on the small slope while the other more experienced skiers went up the tbar. Overall I mainly liked when we went skiing.

Science Pendulum Art

Title: Pendulum Art               By: Bridget, Tara, Mary & Elsie 

Aim/Hypothesis: We thought that it would look like how it looked on the video. We also thought that it would be easy and we would get it first try.

Method: First we got 2 chairs and then we put a 1 meter ruler and tied it  to the 2 chairs after that we got some string and a paper cup and tied that to the 1 meter ruler so it would hang down in the middle. We put a hole in the bottom of the cup so the paint would come out then we mixed pink and blue in the cup with someone holding a piece of paper at the bottom of the cup so the paint wouldn't come out. We had some newspaper at the bottom of the the good paper that we were going to use. After that then we swung the cup on to the paper and it turned out like this.  

     

Results:  On our first attempt the cup was a foot away from the ground.  It was quite messy and unorganised, the string was every and didn’t end up like the ones in the videos. Once we let go of the string to let it swing and do it’s thing, it just ended up doing blotches of polka dots.  It wasn’t flowing properly and it ended up looking like a mess. Our second attempt was a little bit better, but wasn’t what we wanted. It had the same problem as our last attempt, polka dot blotches and no improvement. For our third attempt we decided to change the pendulum by sticking a pencil through the cup and adding a bigger hole.  We secured the string to the ruler and it seemed to work wonders. We aced it at the third attempt. 

Conclusion: Overall in the end it turned looking pretty cool. It took a couple of tries to get it right but we got it in the end and it worked.  Next time to make it successful we should do the same process as third attempt, but make the hole slightly smaller.  

Mining West Coast History

Work Interviews

Recently we have been having work interviews in class. Today we interviewed Jarred (Zak and Camerons dad) who is now a fire fighter at the local fire station in Moana. We found it interesting how he worked for the Air Force. He also told us he worked for a kids show (Bumble and friends) pressing a button in a little box to make a puppet fishes eyes blink,- we found that funny. We also interviewed Alice who is on the school board of trustees, Rebecca a farmer that also worked with horses and Shirley our school principal who's different work has taken her overseas.

History of Ruru in Lake Brunner Questions

Fair Trade Poem

Recently at school we've been learning about fair trade and how they help kids near our age. We got some fair trade sacks and decided to print our poems on them with Indian ink. I think what we did is better than a decorated poster because it is more relevant to do it on sacks of their own. Bridget and I thought we would do an a acrostic poem, including a small picture below.  Here is what the sack we printed reads and also a picture of us while we're doing our work:

Free to play all day                Treating them fairly                           

An equal life like us              Respecting their hard work

It can help them today          A lot better conditions

Rarely being paid                 Donating helps them more

                                             Every dollar helps

Rain

Self Directed Learning Reflection

Ice Cream Experiment

The Story Of Shirley And Her Car

It was just an ordinary day when Shirley drove to school. Little did she know her life was about to change forever- or should I say it would change her cars life forever. Anyway there Shirley was, driving her old 2004 manual Mazda 6 station wagon to school. A bridge was near and a group of birds were gathered there. Shirley beeped and luckily the birds flew away just in time but the man behind her thought she was beeping at him and bounced against Shirley's car. Breaking the barrier of the bridge Shirley and her car flopped into the lake. Thankfully Shirley is a really good swimmer so holding her breath for the one hour it took for the crane and the tow truck to arrive wasn't a problem - not. In the end Shirley did make it to school, she was eight hours late though. So instead of going to an empty office Shirley went to get lunch even though by then it was 9 P.M.