The Science Roadshow

On monday the 30th of March, Otaki College had the Science Roadshow come and visit. The Science Roadshow had come to one of my former schools so I knew what to look forward to. They change up all the activities each year and it's really fun to look around. At the beginning the hosts of the Science Roadshow introduced themselves then started some pretty cool experiments. 

I'm pretty sure the first one was about when they put some sort of liquid chemical in water and then it turned into jelly. Someone got to go up and do it themselves so they had lots of fun. They then did a experiment in which they popped a balloon using orange peel. We found out it was the juice in the peel not the flesh. They told us we were allowed to walk around and look at all the activities.

I went to a lot of activities but a lot I didn't understand. There was this one activity where you had to try shoot a rocket and see if a shorter or longer rocket was more effective. There was also a kind of curtain sort of room where it spun around. The curtains had black and white stripes and it looked like the room was getting smaller and smaller. At the end they had another show but I can't really remember what the experiments were. I had a great time and can't wait to see them again!

Black Box

 About a week ago, me and my class played a song altogether. The song was Black box by Stan Walker. I was playing guitar while others were either singing, electric guitar, bass and keyboard. The chords were pretty simple so it was quite easy to play and sing. We worked on this for a week or so and it was really fun.This is a video of us playing.

Maoriland Film Festival

This morning, the year 7&8 classes went to the memorial hall to watch a few short movies provided by the Maoriland Film Festival. There were some pretty cool shorts and there were pretty funny ones as well. My personal favourite was Taku Poi Taku Taiaha. It was pretty funny how she tried to do the Pukana and the other songs. There were more funny ones as well. Coyote and Big buff were real funny because of how quirky and amusing it was. Coyote was kind enough to give fox a home and the narrator was pretty amusing. Big buff was full of heaps and heaps of humour. The other shorts were very cultural and really interesting because I didn't know about any of them. I think the maoriland film festival was fun and people should really go and see a movie!

O.C Bollards

 W.A.L.T express our ideas about the bollards installed along our driveway. We are using descriptive language and checking our sentence structure is correct in our blog writing.

Otaki College has just recently installed some new bollards along our driveway. They're all painted in shiny blue and connected with long chains. Otaki College has installed these to insure our safety and to be a bit more careful around our driveway.

There have been students walking or biking on our driveway and people are just a bit worried someone is going to get hurt. The bollards are also helping us to cross a little safer, they have left the little crossing open for people who need to go to the other side.

Now people driving in or out of the college can do it without a student in their way because all students are using the path like they should be. I think Otaki College has made a very smart choice of keeping their students safe.

WALT write a recount about the "SS Ōtaki Commemorative wreath laying ceremony.

12/3/21

Today, Ōtaki College commemorated the lives lost in the battle against the SS Ōtaki and the SMS Moewa. Many important people came to the ceremony to lay a wreath down. It was a very nice day today. The sun was out and hardly any clouds. The ceremony took place outside right in front of the statue. Father Phil led the service.

Whaea Destine and Whaea Maha did the karanga and all the guests came and sat down. This was bit like a Powhiri. A Powhiri is held to welcome people who are new to a place. A karanga is sung to welcome them in. Father Phil spoke and then we all stood. I was raising the flag today so I was in front of everyone. We sang the national anthem and after Father Phil said a karakia. Matua Andy got up to do a speech, he welcomed everyone and started his speech. This took around 5-10 minutes. We then sang Ma wai ra but not very loudly. Commodore Melissa Ross spoke a few words to everyone then sat back down. Captain Roger Blake then read a historic reading.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           We all sang another waiata that was led by Whaea Maha. Krisha Modi (Head Girl) read a second historic reading then sat back down shortly after. Father Phil said a He karakia (Call to worship) and then the Hymn was played. It was now time for the wreaths. Some students and the visitors got up to do it. All the visitors had their name called out before going and laying the wreaths. It was now my time to do one of the flags. Mine was the SS Ōtaki flag and there were four others. There was the New Zealand, NZ Shipping  Company and more. The last post was played and our flags slowly went down. Now the ode was said. It was recited in Maori first by Hinerau Henare Taiapa and then in English by Donald Hall. And now the one minute's silence.

The rouse was played and the flags were put back to full masthead. Father Phil said another karakia and then the guests were led to the hall where they had some morning tea. The part I enjoyed most was the laying of the wreaths. It was nice to honour those who died in the battle.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Problem Solving

 Today we had to solve out a problem with a group of people. Our problem was, 'A kid ate 100 cookies in 5 days. They ate 6 more than the day before, how many cookies did they eat on the first day. It took my group a while and we still didn't solve it. We were pretty close though. My group started to do guess and check and we got so close. I started with 12 but it ended up too much. But for some reason I tried 15 which obviously was wrong. I went with ten but was still too much so I went to 5 but was too less. By then time was up and we didn't even get the answer. There was only one group who got it and they got it on their fourth try. The answer was 8+14+20+26+32=100.