My lessons in Gymnastics + Floor sequence + Trampoline + Beam

In PE, we have been doing a gymnastics unit. Each lesson we have been learning sequences which we had to film and then post up onto our blogs. During this unit so far, I have been trying very hard to develop my floor gymnastics skills. At the start of this unit, I was already able to do a forward roll and a backwards roll as well as a really bad cartwheel. Using my prior knowledge and a bit of help from my teacher, I was able to somewhat improve my cartwheel and make sure that my legs and back were straight. I have become incredibly invested in my floor routine and have been trying to improve something each week. After our latest lesson, I was able to kind of do a handstand into a forward roll but I still have quite far to improve on that skill. For the floor sequence, I have memorised both the first and second sequence and I am soon going to try work on the third sequence, that's where the handstand forward roll comes in.   

Here is my reflection on this unit.

On the video attached to the right, you can see my doing the second routine. I was having an extremely off day and had quite a bad headache so the work in this video is not exactly my best. I think I will redo this video taking if I do have the time to. My toes were nice and pointed during the cartwheel as well as with my arabesque but I do think that I need to straighten my legs and make it flow nicer. My forward and backward rolls were also really bad, but this is just because I had a headache. Next lesson I aim to refilm this routine and maybe start working on my trampoline routine. I'm not sure if the video will work, but when I wrote this post, it is there. I do think that my sequence could be flowier.  I think with the cartwheel my arms need to follow the flow of my legs. If I push off my arms more and then go onto pulling my arms up as my legs go down.

Here is my video of me trying to do the trampoline for the first time. After one practice, I videoed this as I had a wee panic because I didn't think I would have it done. Here I am doing a routine which is quite easy. I do think my controlled bounces were quite nice, I do think that I could work on keeping my body in the centre of the trampoline. But otherwise, the outcome of this was quite good for my first couple of tries.

Here is my final Gymnastics video. After not much preparation, I made a last-minute decision to make my final routine on the beam. I am very shaky during this routine, but I do think that it turned out alright for only practising it once before recording it. I had quite a hard time getting up on the beam itself, but I do think that after all of that my routine was okay. I think that I should have practised working on the other apparatus other than the floor primarily. I looked very scared of doing my routine, and that was because I was scared. I do think that I should have practised more.

Fifth practical for Home Economics Pad Thai

Teamwork Aspects 
This week was another great lesson for our team. When we make the Pad Thai this week, Mrs Hindson wrote down roles on our recipes so we were able to assign everyone roles so it was more organised this time around. An example of a role that I did was the cooking of the noodles, I had to watch over the stove and make sure that the noodles cooked properly and were, soft and easy to eat but still a little bit firm. I think that this addition made cooking much easier and made everyone's lives much easier. This weeks recipe was still quite simple, but the skills needed to be more of the measuring kind. The people in charge of making the sauce and the marinade needed to be very particular with their measurements because if they weren't it would throw off the taste of the dish.

Improvements 
I do think that we could have put less pepper in our final product as it threw off the taste quite a bit. I mean, I love pepper but it was way too overpowering. I would have prefered to put more of the sweet Chilli sauce in instead of the pepper but I wasn't in charge of the garnishing.

Product Outcome 
I think that our product was excellent and I think it had quite a nice fragrance to it, it had a nice essence of sweet Chilli sauce and fish sauce. When I took the first bite of our dish, I first got the texture of the peanuts and got a nice taste from that, and then I got the soft texture from the noodles and a nice hint of fish sauce. When I first bit into the chicken, I thought it was a bit dry but then I realised that it wasn't dry, it was just different compared to the noodles. I really got a big aftertaste of pepper after finishing my mouthful. The spring onions were a nice subtle note next to the punchiness of the other flavours in the dish, it came in right after the fish sauce taste. I really appreciated the addition of the peanuts as it made the dish more interesting to me and kept the textures and flavours balanced.

Modifications
We need to actually calm down on the salt and pepper because we keep on adding too much to our dishes and it ruins the taste for me. I do appreciate it when the pepper is there because it adds another flavour, but we need to balance the seasonings to fit the taste of the other elements. I love the enthusiasm we have but we need to think about the taste of the end product when seasoning. I would also use thicker noodles if I made this at home myself.

Next Steps 
Next time I think we just need to continue what we are doing. I'm not sure if Mrs Hindson will be giving us roles to take next time so I think we should take the responsibility and create the roles ourselves that are even and that will allow everyone to do something. This lesson was excellent and I think we need to continue what we are doing.

Home Economics Mix and Match activity Week 7

Something that I learned (mix and match cards) 
When the English settlers came to New Zealand, they brought their own different hunting methods, and ways of cooking compared to the Maoris. There were various hunting methods that the Maori people were not aware of that the English brought to New Zealand. The Maori knew about traps and spears, but the English introduced them into guns and other forms of hunting. These guns have now developed into different forms of technology for gathering food.

What can you see happening to our food in the future (50years)? What could you invent to change or directly effect relating to how food is produced for a cheaper price in the future? 

Food is necessary for survival, everyone needs it, without it, we all perish. Every being on this Earth needs food but with recent occurrences, we need to create different ways of producing food and meals that are available to everyone for cheap prices, that contains all the ingredients necessary to be nutritious and tasty. In the next 50 years, I think that the food eaten will be produced in labs as recently, new forms of lab-developed foods have been sold in stores and the idea seems to be quite popular with pretty healthy people. I don't really know if that is a good thing or a bad thing because we do need better ways of producing healthy and nutritious foods that won't be hard on the environment because the ways we are currently producing food is probably not the best way for the environment. But the food produced in 50 years time may be more focused on nutrition than the actual taste of the food. If it were to be produced in a lab it might not be the tastiest. If I could, I
would have a different, more effective way of producing meat products. I do think that the way we are going with lab-produced food is a good idea, but I would prefer a way of producing food that is similar to that but has quite a meaty taste to it. I do think that finding different means to particularly meat products would be quite difficult, especially for cheaper prices. I think that something such as using local labs maybe even in grocery stores that are quite small so that the stores can have their product fresh every day would be something cool. Using small local labs would be cheaper than having one big lab then shipping them different places would be interesting. 

Flamin' Heath Land Yacht

Aim
To build the fastest Wind racer out of the materials we were supplied.

Equipment 
Trolley (Cart chassis)
Cardboard
1 meter of paper roll
Scissors
2 meters of sellotape
Metal rod

Method 

1) Put the Metal rod into the trolley
2) Tape the strips of cardboard onto the base of the Metal rod so the base of the sail is formed.
3) Cut out a large triangle of paper and wrap it around the Metal Rod to form sails
4) Secure the sails onto the chassis with tape and tape any extra flappy bits down.
5) Make sure it is all secure and stable
6) Use the leaf blower to see how far it travels and the speed it travels.

Research 
https://www.instructables.com/id/Protei-Land-Yacht/

We took information from this website to figure out what shape our sails would be. We thought that the triangle shape would catch more wind and therefore go further than it would have compared to another shape. The triangle shape was quite a good choice and our design looked nice on that shape. We also want wheels on our chassis to be quite smooth but also have enough friction to stop it from completely falling over. We decided to put bits of cardboard near the base of the chassis just to ensure that it is still secure so it doesn't fall over and so the sails don't flap around.

Pictures 

Here we have some incredible photos of our land yacht. Molly painted Mr Heath on our land yacht.  Our yacht is called Flamin' Heath

Results 
The Velocity of our Land Yacht was 1.18MS-1
(at the time of updating my blog post, I forgot what the measurements were but I will update them when I find out)

To figure out what the Velocity of a moving object is, you need to divide the distance measured by the time measured.
Formula
V=⧍d/⧍t
The triangle means delta, delta means change. So the change of distance, divided by the change of time.

Discussion 
The initial launching of our land Yacht wasn't too bad and it did go 6.4M which was further than we thought it would be. I think if we used our cardboard more effectively by using more of it in more places nearer the base, we would have gone a bit further. I do think that for what we did, we got a good result. Molly and I worked well together and Molly did an excellent job with the designs of our sails. The science department seemed to appreciate the great feats of artistry. If we don't win most creative then I don't know what will.  I think that we did manage to make quite a nice land yacht. It didn't get very far but it went pretty far for what we had. During the race, if I had angeled the leafblower from a lower angle and happened to point it a bit higher up then it would have worked out a bit differently than it did today.


Conclusion 
In conclusion, the launching of our land yacht wasn't too bad and it went further than we expected. There are a few things that we would have changed such as the amount of cardboard and tape we used, but we are still very happy with the end result.

When measuring Velocity, be sure to use the correct formula.

Essay Pre-Planning continued

      This is the poster that our group did to answer the essay question; Describe a relationship between 2 or more characters in this text. Explain how this relationship helped you to understand at least one of the characters. Our group focused on the relationship between Fi, Ellie and Homer. 

Diversity of NZ Culture and Food Choices

29/08/2019
For Home Economics today, Rheanna, Jessica and I completed a mapping task. Each group member had the same map but with different parts of information that everyone needs. On the main map that we had to label the important places that are important to New Zealand food choices. We had to label them and put them on a map using keys. 

Map #1

On the first map, there was a list of settlers that came to New Zealand. We needed to place where they were located and why they located there. The settlers included the Scottish, English, Europeans, Asians, and the Polynesians. The different reasons they moved were because of reason such as humidity, the goldrush, similar environment, opportunity in trade and available land. This part of the map was really hard to complete as we could not exactly find very reliable information but we managed to find some. Key 2. had the information from Map #1. 

Map #2

The second map was probably the easiest to complete in a short amount of time. All we had to do was label the different areas that were marked out on the map. I completed this in five minutes and then went on to help the my other team members. Cities such as Auckland, Gisborne, Napier, and Christchurch were on the map. I used Key #1 to show where these are. 

Map #3

Map #3 was another map that seemed to be completed quite fast. On this map, there was a list of food types that are found in different areas around New Zealand. We had to place them where they are most readily available. Food types included Seafood, Vegetables, Carrots and Potatoes, Dairy Cattle, Wheat and Barley, Grapes, stone fruit and berries. All of the words that are coming out of the North and South island are the different types of foods and where they come from or are found commonly. We found out from this that at the top of the South Island, around Nelson, is where there is a lot of Horticulture (fruit). 

Fourth Practical for Home Economics 2019 Pizza

Teamwork Aspects 
This practical, our group did a much better job of utilising skills and measuring our ingredients. I do think that we all did so much better at sharing the roles this time and no one was left doing nothing, and there was no one carrying everyone else. We ALL managed to work together and all did our part to be finished 20 minutes before the lesson finished. We worked effectively, on time and we made little to no mistakes. We worked great as a group and I do think that every dish or meal we make will be delicious and efficiently made.

Improvements 
There was really nothing that I would change about how we prepared the Pizzas and there's nothing I would really change about the taste or the ingredients either, it all worked very well and this practical has been my favourite so far. As we finished 20 minutes early, we had time for the Pizzas to cool so that the ingredients didn't fall all over the place in our containers. I do think that as a group we do need to focus on the more technical elements of our preparation of the ingredients. When we are cutting vegetables a certain way or if we are mixing a dough, we do need to work on how we prepare our ingredients. I am still very pleased about how our dish was prepared.


Product Outcome 
We were all really pleased about how our product turned out and I wouldn't change a single thing because I thought it thought it tasted delicious. I do think that I should have put more cheese on the top but that was really the only thing that I would probably change because I think that my Pizza was perfect for me. The texture of the Pizza wasn't too dense, it was perfect, I think that I may make it myself when I get home and that I might make one big Pizza for my family.

Third Practical for Home Economics 2019 Vegetarian sushi

Teamwork Aspect 

I think that our group did work well again this practical. We all gel together nicely so working as a team was pretty easy. We started to work more together as a group and with our 5th team member coming back, we had more of an easier time working together and the measurements were more accurate this time around. 

Improvements 

I think that as a group we did great, we would need to work more on the preparation of the food. When we were chopping up our ingredients, we had two people manning that station and had the other three doing something else. When we start to prepare more advanced dishes, I think that we need to continue doing that.  We need to continue reading or listening to instructions more carefully and focus on the end products outcome. Our group does work quite well together, but the communication needs to improve. Again, deciding who is doing what role, before we start, would be the most desirable and realistic goal for our group. I do think that we need to divvy up the workload a bit better next week so everyone does the same amount of work and so no one is carrying the team by themselves. 

The outcome of the product

Our product was quite tasty, we did a good job of cutting up the vegetables and spreading the rice. Although we did not get very much feedback from our teacher about our product, I do think that we did very well and that did well with what instructions we're given. There weren't any issues with following instructions or anything like that. The product was prepared well and we all did our share which was nice. 

Tomorrow When The War Began Essay Pre-planning continued...

The incident of the bridge explosion helped me to understand the important idea of Rebellion and rebelling against what views been brought up with and what values you know. This is because of how it demonstrates the rebellion of the teens against the invaders and what they have been brought up to believe. We see this in the text when Fi wants to break a window, it sparks a small start of rebellion and gets them excited. When Fi tells Ellie 'I've always wanted to break a window.' we see that Fi may have seemed like a pretty reserved person at the start of the book, but now she is starting to see that she is starting to rebel and become her own person. We finally get to see how Fi and many of the other characters rebel in order to stay alive and demonstrate and we see how they change and develop during the story.  


Another way that the bridge explosion helped me to understand that rebellion can sometimes be necessary in order to survive and that these teens would have to possibly sacrifice a lot of what they had in order to survive. This is because of how they risked their lives in order to continue living and to save their country, in a way, from the invaders. Because they prioritised their goal rather than prioritise themselves and what they strive for in life. If they were not in this situation, if they were just at home, themselves and their own survival would be a priority rather than something else. We see Lee prioritise the others and what they aim to do rather than prioritise his own wellbeing or his injuries that he has gotten along the way. 

The construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza

Still, to this day, Egyptologists aren't completely sure about how the Great Pyramids of Giza were built. There are many theories as to how these structures were crafted and experts are trying to develop ways to recreate these Pyramids or to simply figure out how they were built. These ancient Egyptian burial tombs were built to honour the Pharos and higher-ranking officials. Although many people believe that these pyramids were built by slaves, they are now actually believed to be built by Egyptians that lived in that area. Proof of villages abundant with bakeries and other proof of life is situated near the pyramids and seem to have been there for many years. For years, scientists, Egyptologists and Archaeologists have been trying to piece together exactly how these Ancient Egyptians built these structures. Over a span of centuries, the ancient Egyptians created techniques and different forms of technology to build these pyramids. Limestone was one of the materials used to build the pyramids. It was what made up most of the materials used in the construction and the rough Limestone was used in the core of the pyramid. Workers took the stone in blocks by marking out crevices and then transporting them to the construction site. Various tools such as pounders, chisels, hammers and pickaxes made from granite were used to remove the blocks and to carve them into rectangle shapes. Limestone was used in various ways by the Egyptians. Fine, white Limestone was used for the interior decoration of the temples and tombs of the pyramids, whereas the lower-grade limestone was used in other ways, and is normally found in the core of the temples. The ancient Egyptians, in conclusion, had very advanced technology for their time. Their different forms of technology and innovations have really influenced the world we live in today.


The use of Limestone was quite an advanced move for the Egyptians. Limestone was a very easy material for the Egyptians to use for the construction and was used for various reasons. It was very easy to cut, extract and to polish, it did look pretty nice for the aesthetics as well. Extracted from the soil near the construction sites, Limestone was used inside and outside of the pyramids and is found in many other ancient artifacts in Egypt. The Egyptians have developed many interesting technologies and advancements that have been further developed our world and have been developed more and more since the time of the Egyptians. I do think that the world has improved technology-wise after the time of the Egyptians. Ever since the ancient Egyptians first developed these different forms of technology, our world has developed more and more technologies that have further improved our lives.

English Essay Pre Planning

What is going to be my key event? 
My key event will be the bridge blowing up. 

Who is going to be my key character? 
My key character is going to be Fi (Fiona).

What are 3 ways the character changed as a result of this key event?
Before Fi was shy, now she is energetic. 
Before Fi was a city girl who knew nothing about what they're doing, now she is confident. 
Before Fi was reserved, now she doesn't care what anyone thinks about her. 

What did we do this lesson? 
This lesson we were starting to plan our Written Text Essays for our novel study that we have been working on so far this term. Our group chose to write our plan for Tomorrow When The War Began, written by John Marsden. We all have done an extension book from what our class has been reading. This lesson we just planned what we are going to do for our Novel Study essay.