Ako Hiko Student Toolkits

Today we had the Ako Hiko Student Toolkits. We had Cleo, Lesina and Reyna present their Toolkit on Spheros (Programmable robots in the shape of a ball) and Jireh, Astyn and Naia present their Toolkit on Drones. The presenters did an amazing job at sharing their knowledge and skills to students from other schools. Simply loved the passion and drive these students showed. The other students who attended this day thoroughly enjoyed the workshops they attended. We look forward to running our in school Toolkits in the next few weeks. A special Thank you to Mr Gerhard Vermeulen for facilitating this day. It was a wonderful success. Also thank you to the parents who supported this day.

Unsung Hero: Information Report By Cleo

Princess Diana

Princess Diana was the most caring person to ever meet. Princess Diana was the mother of Prince Harry and Prince William. She was homeschooled until the age of nine. Her full name was Diana Frances Spencer. Some people also liked to consider her as “Shy Di” because of how timid she was.

She was born on July 1st, 1961. After being homeschooled she was sent to boarding school, which was also known as Benenden School. When she had finished, Princess Diana had A- grades in Maths, History and Politics. Before marrying Prince Charles, she was educated in teaching as a Kindergarten teacher. She had rapidly evolved into an icon of grace, elegance and glamour.

Being a Princess wasn’t all about a rich life! She had suffered from postnatal depression, low-self esteem, eating disorders, and the mounting strain of being watched or bothered by the paparazzi and the royal watchers.

Diana was the third child in her family. Her sibling’s names were Charles Spencer, Jane Fellowes, and Lady Sarah. She was also the youngest daughter of John Spencer.

Marrying Prince Charles wasn’t the only thing that made her famous. She had devoted her time to charities. At one point she was a patron for over one hundred charities. During her many visits to hospitals, schools, and fundraising galas, she became known for spending hours talking and listening to people’s stories. Afterwards, she led a campaign to ban landmines, she changed people’s perceptions of HIV and AIDS, and most importantly, she was a devoted mother towards her children.

Princess Diana is by far, the most inspirational unsung hero of all. She has changed a lot of things in the world. Diana educated and had taken her children to the other side of the world to tell them “Life isn’t all about the rich.”. Without her being there, the world would be so much different to how it is today. Sadly, she had died on August 31st 1997. She had died in a car crash in this Paris tunnel because the paparazzi had chased her car early hours of the morning. When they stopped the car, the media didn’t realise she was in the car with her bodyguard and her boyfriend Dodi Al fayed. She was probably the most photographed woman to ever live. She will be missed for her charitable work. She is a true angel and hero to humanity. Princess Diana was the ultimate unsung hero.

Sir Edmund Hillary Description By Tausala

During Oral Language Time I have been learning about Sir Edmund Hillary.

We have done a number of tasks created by my teacher Miss Paton. We have
done Anticipatory Guides, Dictogloss, and Say it's on Sir Edmund Hillary's life.
Check out my reconstructed version of the text Miss Paton read us.

Sir Edmund Hillary is an iconic figure from New Zealand. He was the first ever

person to climb Mount Everest. He tackled rock and ice faces for five hours

straight. He did not climb Mount Everest by himself, he climbed it with his good

old buddy Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Mount Everest

on May 29th, 1953. He founded the Trust. Once he established the Himalayan

Trust many people sent money and materials to help with the building projects.

Sir Edmund Hillary has been through a lot of tough times in his life like when

his wife Lady Louise Rose and his 16-year-old daughter Belinda died in a

plane crash while visiting him. The Himalayan Trust built twenty seven schools,

two hospitals, and twelve clinics. At the Himalayan School, forty students

attended the opening.

Sadly on January 11th, 2008 Sir Edmund Hillary died from a heart attack.

Hillary was a kind and caring man. He will still be remembered for his great

work and being on the five dollar note.

Learning about Drones

Today the boys Astyn, Jireh and Naia taught Cleo, Lesina and Reyna how to control the drones. It was a great practise opportunity for the boys to share their knowledge with others. Next Tuesday Astyn, Jireh and Naia will be running two workshops at Hay Park School on using Drones. 

Check out the fun we had this afternoon. 

Preparing for the Student Toolkits

Our presenting team Cleo, Lesina and Reyna were given the opportunity to share their learning to a small group of students in preparation for the Ako Hiko Toolkits, which are being held next Tuesday at Hay Park School. Our presenters are representing our school in sharing their knowledge in using Spheros. Sphero's are programmable robots in the shape of a ball (sphere). Today Cleo, Lesina and Reyna were the teachers and had a practise run through in following their lesson plan. Their students were Patrick, Misganaw and Stella. They did a fantastic job in teaching their students. More practise opportunities will be set throughout the week. 

Calligraphy lesson in Room 1

Today during Mandarin, Miss Wu bought in three of her friends to teach the class Calligraphy. Her friends were: Freedom, Vickie and Zia. The calligraphy lesson focused on the traditional Chinese script. The students used these very delicate brushes and ink to paint the script onto this fine paper. It was such a fun lesson. All the materials from today's lesson came from China. 

 

Toakase's Time at MOTAT

MOTAT RECOUNT: Museum of Transport and Technology.
By Toakase

I couldn’t believe that the whole school got to go on a trip for the whole
day. It was my second time going to MOTAT. I felt like my emotions would
come and cry. We had parents helping and our helpers were
Miss. Paton (our Teacher), Joy O ( Patrick’s Mum), and Tiffany (Athena’s
mum).  We met Kent, he was our educator for the day.

The first thing I went to at MOTAT was the village. The village reminded
me of how New Zealand used to look like in the 1800s. I went into a scary
old cottage and there were mostly dummies. Some dummies had one eye.
My group said that some dummies were moving, even the one sitting in
the bathroom reading his book. There were nice attic seats and tables
from early last century. We saw a school. In my group, we were standing
beside the desk’s and sang the New Zealand anthem then we sang it in
Maori. There was a really bad mistake. The mistake we made was singing
the national anthem in Maori. There was a sign that said: “No speaking in
Maori”. Miss Paton did some maths for us and it was fun in there. I saw a
small chapel. We went inside and I was like “WOW it was so tiny from the
inside”. The chair could only 10-16 people. I was thinking would people be
allowed to marry today in the chapel at MOTAT.  

In the Inventor’s room, I felt cold like ice. The first thing I saw was the
rocket launcher, it was much taller than me. There was a trampoline
game that I had a turn on. The object of the game was to jump on the
trampoline to kill the aliens. After jumping on the trampoline we
went into a room that had iPads. The iPads had an application in
which you could create your own robots.

After that, we went to the Technology room. There were caged displays
of old computers, old telephones, old cameras, and old televisions. My
favorite machine was the selfie machine (that projected yourself onto
this screen. There was another room with old games called Donkey Kong,
Pac-Man, and Turbo the game. There were other games but I didn’t know
them.

The scavenger hunt was the next activity we did. We went into the fire
station. We had to find-hoses, helmets, telephones, and ladders. It was
so much fun looking for things. After this, my group and I wandered
around until we saw a  printer room. There were printers that were
even as big as the room. Everyone met up at the meeting area ready to
eat lunch. I had pancakes with honey. They tasted yummy. Suddenly my
friends and I were screaming because there was a bug crawling on me
and Reyna.

After lunch, my group and I went to the tram station with Ms. Wu and
Tiffany. The tram came. We saw Rob our driver. It was funny because one
of his favorite rules was allowing the ladies to go in first. Once we went
passed the Auckland Zoo we saw Pukekos. There were even baby ones.
They were so cute and tiny.

I was excited to see what was happening inside the Above and Beyond
exhibition. There was a huge TV, where there were birds. We had to
follow and copy the bird that was in front of us. It was fun because
we had to pretend we were flying. Another game we played was
that we had to stand on a stool and look at the TV and make sure no
rubbish hit us.

The last place we went to was the experiment room. We learned about
planes and how they fly. The four terms we learned about was Thrust,
Weight, Drag and Lift.

There were some experiments we took part in. My favourite
experiment was when we had to try to hit the target.

The experiments were:

Ping pong ball with a hairdryer. You needed a cup, and
a hairdryer and a ping pong ball. We turned on the hair
dryer and put the ping pong ball on the hairdryer. We
had to try and put the ping pong ball into the cup.

We were given two items. We held each one in our
hands and dropped the items at the same time. We
tested to see which item fell the fastest and which
item fell the slowest.  

We made flying objects that were light so they could
be put into the wind machine.

We also tested out cardboard on a string in
front of this big fan.  We watched it propel its
way to the top.

I enjoyed my time at MOTAT. I hope my group had a great time. I was
happy to see our parent helpers faces light up like heaven. Most people’s
faces were so happy when we were playing on the trampoline. My favorite
thing of the day was the session about flight. I would be happy to visit
again. When I visit again I hope there are new things to see and do.  

Melita's Time at MOTAT

My MOTAT trip by Melita

Hook/Intro

Wow! I was so excited when I woke up in the morning. Do you know why? Today we were going on a trip to MOTAT – Museum of Transport and Technology. The whole school got to go to MOTAT together on Monday March 4th. We travelled there on a bus. After twenty minutes our bus ride came to an end.

We had finally reached our destination. As we assembled outside the gates we were greeted by a man, called Kent. He took us to the place which we called our meeting spot.Then we were told to have morning tea. After we finished having a snack an instructor came and told us our schedule. We had to go in groups made by our teachers.

Village

I had Miss Wu as my teacher. Ana, Cleo, Zariah and Mikkie were in my group. After having morning tea, it was time to explore MOTAT at on our own with our adult helper and teachers. First my group went to look at the MOTAT village. At the village there were old cottages and inside them there was old fashioned furniture. We also saw some dummies in the houses. Some of us got scared by looking at the creepy dummies. There was also a long drop which is like a toilet where a dummy sat there.  After this we went to the old school. When we entered the school there were lots of rules written on the board. We had to sing the national anthem. My group didn't sing the national anthem because some of us did not know the national anthem. We sang the national anthem in Maori.

Inventors room

The next place my group went to was the Inventors Room.  I was most excited about visiting this room. It had two double doors on the outside. When we entered the Inventors Room it was all dark. There were several rooms. I was so excited to see all the rooms. There were a lots of things to read and learn. There was a trampoline in a room, with lots of comfortable bean bags. The room looked cozy and relaxing. I had a turn on the trampoline game. The object of the game was to look at the TV that was right in front of you while you were jumping. There were holes and in those holes some monsters would pop up. You had to jump where they popped up. In my group Ana asked Wiss Wu whether we could go on the trampoline. Miss Wu allowed us to go on the trampoline. I was not sure whether I should have had a go on the trampoline or not, but I decided to have a go. I felt tired after I jumped on the trampoline. At the end of the game I saw my score. I got three stars.

We also walked into the animation room. We had to touch TV screens. There were also some big iPads in which you could create your own robot. There was also a room with a rocket launcher in and a room that focused on animation.

The Technology room

The next thing that me and my group went to was the Technology room. There were lots of old games, computers, cameras, typewriters, telephones radios, video games (Donkey Kong, Pacman), old TV’s and a Selfie machine (photo booth) that projected photos on a big screen/projector. In my group we were playing with the telephone.There were plenty of people surrounding the selfie machine. It was almost my turn and I was excited to take my picture. After I took my picture it came up on the big screen.

Pump house

We also went to the Pump House. It smelt like burnt oil. Some people didn't like the smell. The most disappointing thing was that no machine was working. We had to walk in a single line because it was dangerous to walk in groups.

Scavenger Hunt

After we had lunch, the next thing we were going to do was the scavenger hunt. We started the scavenger hunt. We first went to the village. In the village we had to search for cards, eggs, pots etc. Then we went to the fire station. We had to search for helmets, headlights, ladders, boots, axes, metal, pipes, etc. Then we went to the old school. We had to solve the maths problems, search for maps, pencils and erasers. We also had to sing the national anthem. I had a lot of fun searching for all these things. We also had to go to the Pump House, but my group didn't get time to go to the Pump House as part of the Scavenger Hunt. After that we went to the meeting spot for lunch.

Tram ride

After lunch it was the tram ride. I was so excited for it. When we went in there was a guy named Rob and he was the driver. Before we went on the tram we were at the tram station and we had to wait there until the tram came. It was really fun. We also went passed Auckland Zoo. We saw some Pukekos on the way. They were so adorable. Then we stopped at the station. We got down and Tiffany took some photos of us. Rob told us about the metal pole which he used to make the tram work. He also told us about the front safety grate. It was used avoid people from being run over.

Above and beyond

After the train ride we went to the Above and Beyond exhibition. There was a Simulator - enclosed room in which we were pretending to fly. There was a gravity game-we hoisted a concrete object up and then watched it drop. There was also a Game-picking up rubbish, etc. I really liked playing all these games. I didn't get to play all the games.

Educator room

After that we went to the Educator’s Room.The best part of the day was having the educator’s session on flight. We did many experiments like the Hair dryer and ping pong ball. We made flying objects that were light so they could be put into the wind machine, we tested out the suction of water and a cup, and we flew plastic toys. I really enjoyed trying these experiments.

Conclusion

After the class we all thanked Kent and we went to the meeting spot. I enjoyed my time at MOTAT. We waited at the gate for a minute and then went to catch our bus. We reached school at 2.30pm. It was a really fun trip to MOTAT. I would love to go back to MOTAT again with my friends or family. I hope to see many new things at MOTAT.

Fun with Spheros

This afternoon during the our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) the students learnt to use Spheros. Spheros are these interactive programmable balls that you can control through an application. The session was so much fun, as we built tracks for the Spheros to go through, and had races with our friends. Check out our photos.

Deborah's Time at MOTAT

As soon as we arrived at Motat I was so happy. I jumped out of the bus and walked very fast. You could say I was running. We were so lucky to have parent helpers. We had (Joy O) Patrick’s Mum, (Tiffany) Athena’s Mum ,we had( Miss Wu) Our Mandarin Teacher and we had (Miss Paton)

The village was fun. They had so many things from the 1800s’.
There was a long drop that people use to use back in the day.
The was also a scary looking dummy. I was terrified for a
second until I realized that it was just a creepy doll. Within the
village there was a chapel. Inside the chapel there were
candles, seats, and a lectern. After the chapel we went to the
school house. Inside the school house we were not allowed to
speak Maori, so we sang the national anthem in English. In the
school house there were so many Math problems that we had
to solve. They were really simple.The bedrooms in the
cottages looked really old that if I sat on the beds they would
probably break. I enjoyed looking at the very old objects in the
cottages.

The next building we went into was the Inventors room.
It was all dark but there was some brightness.
All of us first went to the Trampoline Room.
At first it was just my group in the Trampoline area,
yet when I finished there were two groups wanting to
have a turn on the  trampoline game. I was shocked but
I was too tired to talk. The game was about jumping on the
monster aliens. You had to jump in certain places on the
trampoline. The first game we jumped on one alien and then
you would go onto the next game. The second game you had to
jump on multiple aliens. Later we went into the rocket section.
It showed us how rockets work and had pictures of people who
had been in a rocket. I got bored of the rocket area, so I just sat
down and listened to people speak.

Every person in my group went into the Technology room.
The room was filled with Technology. People were mostly
hogging the Selfie Machine. The selfie machine is like a
photo booth. It takes a picture on this touch screen and your
selfie gets projected on this big screen. Did I mention that there
were old games such as Donkey Kong, Pacman, Super Mario
Brothers, etc. There were also old computers. In my opinion
the old Tv's looked very filthy, same with the old videos games.
The computers looked so different than what we have now. I
was amazed. It was really crowded at the selfie machines, so
we waited for everyone to go so we could have a turn.
There were also touch iPads. The cameras looked so different
to the cameras we have now. I was silent for a moment
because I was shocked how the cameras looked like.
The Technology room was really entertaining.

I felt the scavenger hunt was not that fun. We had to go to
different places and look for certain items, for example
we had to go to the fire station and look for hoses,
medals, boots and so much more.The Pump
House was the worst attraction because none of it was
working and it smelt terrible. I wasn’t going to let this
attraction ruin my trip to MOTAT. Afterwards we went
down and there was a whole bunch of objects. I didn’t
know all of the things so I just sat down and listened to
my parent helper give facts about the Pump House.

After that we went to the village to find items we were looking
for. We were looking for, eggs, beds, teapots, boots,
cupboards. The village was fascinating looking at all of the
objects. The displays were all covered in glass so we could
not touch the items from the 1800’s.

The highlight of the Scavenger hunt was the Fire Station
because it was entertaining. There was a man but it turned out
to be a statue, I was frightened for a second. There were
about five fire trucks at the fire station. Some of the fire
trucks were were big, some were average and some were
small. They were all different sizes.

The Tram ride was amazing first. We walked all the way to the
tram station and we waited for our driver. Our driver was Rob
and he told us a few things about Trams. As were walking
towards the tram, he made it clear that ladies were to go first
ahead of the boys. The girls went to the back of the Tram and
the boys went into the front. Rob started the engine and off we
went. We saw pukekos, went past Western Springs and even
saw the zoo from a distance. After the ride Rob told us more
facts about the Tram. Next we took a group photo in front of the
tram. I learnt that you needed a metal pole above the tram so
it would able to move. Also the driver had to change ends
depending on what side of the rail track he was driving on.  

At the Above and Beyond exhibition my favourite game was
the simulator game where you pretended to fly and learn about
it. It required 5 or 6 players to play it and it took about 5 minutes
to start. Where ever you moved the birds followed. If you made
a wrong move your bird would be red until you make a good
move. There was a gravity game when you pressed the button.
It went up and then you had to wait for it to go down.
I got scared a couple of times. It was so funny watching people
react on the gravity game. I enjoyed the Above and Beyond
exhibition.

The last place we went to at MOTAT was the Pink Castle. We
walked up the stairs and there was a room that had many
experiments. The experiments were the hair dryer and the ping pong ball experiment, water and cup experiment, flying
objects, the fan and the cardboard experiment, the plastic helicopters experiment, and the gravity game experiment.
Our main subject was flight. Before we could even take part
with the experiments Kent showed us what to do. He showed
us some slides on lift, thrust, drag and weight. The educator’s
classroom was really crowded and loud.

I loved my time at MOTAT that I never wanted to leave. Next
time when I go to MOTAT
I hope that They don't get rid of the old displays
I hope that some of the things in the Pump House are working
next time I go to MOTAT
Apart from that I had a lovely time. The best part of the day was the

Educator / flight session. I loved how we all got involved with the
experiments. MOTAT reminds me of what New Zealand use to
look like. I would love to go there very soon.

.