Nicole's Camp Post

On 23 of October, my fellow classmates and I caught the train to Masterton for our School Camp.  I must say the actual train ride from Wellington to Masterton was quite long because there were so many stops.  I didn't pay much attention to the scenery.

Our campsite awaited my fellow classmates and I.  When we arrived at the campsite all we could say was  " WOW".  The scenery was quite amazing. 

The first activity we did was the flying fox.  I put on a harness and off I went.  I felt the wind rushing through my hair and hitting my face, it was an incredible feeling but scary at the same time.  We also went caving on the same day.  Although I was so scared about the wetas and spiders I made it through and it wasn't that bad after all.

Dinner for the first night was burger and chips which we dipped in and prepared ourselves.   All of us had fun collecting firewood for our cooking.   Meat patties and potatoes were cooked over an open fire.   We  had sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and ready sliced cheese for fillings.  Our burgers and chips  were so delicious.

For the first night we all slept in tents.  I shared a tent with Ruby, Zoe, Manaia and Emma.  It was really warm that night.  We all wanted to get out of the tent and sleep outside but in the end we decided to stay put.

On Wednesday, we walked to Donelly Flats where we built our bivouacs.  I shared a bivouac with Eden, Shannon, Melissa and Emma.  We all had a great night of chat and laughter before we all fell asleep. 

Early Thursday morning, Reilly (our walking alarm clock) walked around all the bivouacs and woke everyone up by screaming " It's 7 'o' clock everybody, get up" even though it was actually  6 'o' clock in the morning.  We were all mad at him.  His punishment was to carry all the containers,  bread trays and of course his own luggage.  Later that day, we took a bus ride to our cabins .  Lily, Arielle, Ruby, Ryley, Zoe, Emma and I shared the 'Browne Cabin'.   

That night we went to Masterton pools.  It was so relaxing swimming in a warm pool.   We were allowed to take our shampoo, conditioner and soap so we could have a proper shower.   Back at our cabin that night, I slept on the top bunk and thank God  I didn't fall off.  Matter of fact I slept pretty well knowing I had a good shower.  Oh yes I felt clean.

The next day was my birthday, the 26 October and by far the best day of camp.   Soon the news spread that it was my birthday so at breakfast my fellow classmates sung 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' to me.  Thank you classmates.  I felt so special!   

After breakfast we did abseiling down a 30 metre wall.  I was so scared of falling but  I made it down the wall safely because I felt secure with my harness being tight and the encouragement from everybody at the bottom. 

To finish off the last day of the camp we did water rafting which I found very enjoyable.   I was so positive about jumping off the high rock until I got to the top and realised it was a long way down.  I wasn't sacred, I was petrified and horrified of the height but I made the leap into the icy cold water with my teacher's encouragement.   Thank you teacher! 

I felt  a little bit sad leaving the camp site behind but at the same time happy that I was going home to see my family.  The bus ride from Masterton to Wellington was long and sometimes scary because of the windy roads and high cliffs.  

Overall my camp experience was amazing.  I had  a great time and I'm sure everyone else did too.  I faced my fears and tried  every activity and I am truly proud of my effort.  I felt that this camp was very much like an adrenalin course.

Lily's Team Entry

Ruby, Renee, Be, Arielle and I have been working on a movie about sustainability to enter for the Outlook For Someday movie contest. We have filmed nearly all of our movie and Ruby is working very hard on editing it, so far it looks great!

 Our movie is about water pollution. Me Renee and Be are news reporters. And Renee (who is a fish) interviews fish about how they feel about the water pollution and how it  is not good for life under water. Then me and Be say some facts about the water pollution.

Making the movie was really fun but it took a lot  of time and hard work. Our first idea was about something different but that did not really work so we had to do it on something else. We had to do all the storyboarding and planning the fun bit was making the fish for our heads to go through then the filming!

 For our whole movie we had to use the green screen and that was really fun. We thought that we filmed all of it but we had to re film most of our movie because we were not very good fish.  I think that we have a really good chance on winning this and that so far our movie looks really good and it will look even better when it is finished.

Out look for someday movie reflection:
Something that I learned from this project that I did not  know before was some of the Information about water pollution like:  How long different objects  took to degrade when there dumped in water.

process?
I learned how to work a camera.

The part of this project that was most challenging for me was:
The green screen and trying to see what worked with the green screen and what did not.

The part of this  project I found most rewarding was:
When we were the first group to finished our movie.

Lachie's team entry!

Here is Lachie's post about their movie.  He has also included a reflection about his learning journey.

I've made this movie along with 3 other students in my class. We have entered this movie into channel 7s competition called the 'outlook for some day' which is getting students to make short films about sustainability.  My group and I made our short film on mind pollution, which is basically what electronics and other modern things are doing to our brains.  We came across this idea when we were discussing possible ideas for our film with Ms Tito.  Here is our film by:  Lachie, Reilly, Jackson and Jorge enjoy!

Reflections:

Something that I learned from this project that I did not know before was how to edit using iMovie and how to digitally insert public domain pictures into a green screen background. I also learnt a great deal about what sustainability means.  I've also learnt how to put legal pictures into a film and that you have to acknowledge where they came from.  During the making of the film I learnt to be more organised especially with the script.`

The part of this project that was most challenging for me was writing the script in time for the deadline, keeping some of the other kids settled while filming.  Managing my time and staying on subject and not going random when I write the script.  Keeping a straight face while acting and using editing equipment and other electronic equipment.

The part of this project I found most rewarding was finding out more about my friends and having lots of fun.

If I had to do another Outlook for Someday movie, the things I would do differently are:  be more organised with my script and possibly choosing different people to work with.  Try not to get as much help from the teacher.

Sustainability Movies

We have been really busy in Room 13 creating movies for the 'Outlook for Someday' young film maker competition.  I apologise for not updating our class blog for over a month, that is a direct result of how busy we have been.

I am pleased to say our class managed to submit 6 movies into the competition.  I'll be posting up the various movies or links to students blogs for you to check out their creations.

Students have given each other some really good feedforward and feedback.  If you are interested in their own reflections about the process, make sure to check their individual blogs for both movies and reflections.

The first movie I managed to upload is available for you to check out and give your own feedback/feedforward.  Here is Anton's 'Sustainability Rap' featuring his good friend Nicole.  Anton wrote and produced this movie on his own.  Well done Anton!

I apologise for the first 10 seconds of blackness in the beginning of the film, it was a requirement for the 'Outlook for Someday' Competition.

Ruby's Dodgeball Post - Win, Win, Win!

On Friday the 29th of July, Room 13 had another game of dodge-ball against Room 3. We lined up, got ready, bent down, and then... the whistle blew. We ran! Smash, smash, dodge-balls flew everywhere! I dodged, jumped, ducked and ran to get away from the dodge-balls. In the end we won! The players the were still in had to line-up so the Sports Committee could count how many people were left. Yea, yea, yea we WON!!

 On Thursday the 2nd of August, Room 13 played a game of dodge against room 8.  It was the best game we have had in the dodge-ball inter-class competition.  About half way through, I got out.  Like the last two games... We Won!! We did our three cheers, shook hands, walked back to class and celebrated! We made to the quarter finals! I can't wait until we play another game.
Reported by Ruby

Budding Animators

Last week Room 15 of the Mighty Pouakai Syndicate were preparing for another TIS assembly.  Being the innovative and creative class that they are, they chose to celebrate Kotahitanga by asking each class in the school to recite a line in a Dr Seuss story "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" 

Room 13 was given the line "Waiting for the fish to bite."  It was decided that we do something different (because we like to stand out in a crowd).  Ruby, Renee, Arielle and Be took charge!  They decided to create an animation.  Once that was created we thought we'd sing our line instead of reciting it.  Thanks Lasi for providing us the background track, so here's the snippet of the animation.  The 'created by' bit was added on to acknowledge the girls hard and creative work.  Well done girls and Rm 13 choir :)  Hopefully I can share the link to the full school effort soon.

Rahul's wonderful writing progress!

This week I thought we'd celebrate students who are making superb progress in their writing.  Meet Rahul.  At the beginning of the year Rahul needed a lot of encouragement to write.  Our last writing sample was a couple of weeks ago and this is Rahul's sample.  I was filled with excitement as he handed this piece of writing in for me to read...

I went to Titahi Bay with my dad to the Field to get warmed up. I put my boots on and my gloves on and ready to play this match.

The whistle blew and the game starts now. I saw the players tackling and passing. My friend skilled the other player and tries to score a goal but he misses. The other player from that team tries to score but i caught the ball and kicked it to the other player. My team got the ball and Narlin passed it to Josh and scored a goal and we were cheering for Josh.

25 minutes to go and the other team tried to score. The player ran up ahead towards the goal and tries to score and I dived towards the ball and bounced off my head and its a miss. The player goes for a corner and he took a shot and they scored.

It came to half time and I had a drink of water and listened to the coach whats he saying. Its our turn to kick the ball and the player passes it to someone and ran up to the goal keeper and took a shot and it went into the goal.  The tacklers tackled the players and tries to score but it was a over.

We won and it was 3-2 and we ate chocolate and oranges. The player of the day was me at my first game of soccer. I really enjoyed my first game.