How to Plus, Subtract and Multiply Negative Numbers

Prototec Week 7-8

Order of Operations

Swimming Sports Recount

The whole of Rimu was slowly making their way towards Memorial Park Swimming Pool. It felt almost felt like a 3 hour tramp but it was only a thirty minute walk. We strode in two pairs, one on either side of the pathway. Peter and I were together behind Keelin and Zoe and in front of Matthew and Davin. Mrs Mills drove past with her iPad, taking photos of everyone going past. Soon enough we had reached the pools, lined up in our classes outside the pools main reception doors.  My bag were loaded with three loads of towels, goggles and a pair of speedos. The first class to walk through the doors were Room forty-two. Next, Room thirty walked through girls splitting apart into both changing rooms. It was now Room forty ones turn to split into both changing rooms. I slipped on my speedos and walked outside to the benches. It was time to swim.

Everyone placed their bags onto a location where they could take things out of their bag and put stuff back in. Cones were placed, bags were moved and towels were laid out, everyone was ready. The sun was shining and the wind was low, everything was perfect.

“All Year seven girls doing the twenty-five meter freestyle, please line up behind all six cones” Miss Campbell said through the cone, using it as a microphone. The calls slowly went up Year Seven boys, Year Eight girls until it was then Year Eight boys. All the boys were crawling over like ants finding their dead food. The time... was now!

I stepped up onto the diving block, feet in position and hands ready for the dive. My feet were in place, the call was given

“On your marks!” I placed my hands on the edge of the board and then...

“CLAP!”  We were off like fish swimming away from a giant killer whale. My arms slid through the water while my legs assaulted the water behind me. I stole the lead from Jhan.  I smashed past the second lot of flags, the edge of the wall was so close, I could almost feel it. My hands reached out, almost like it was my only survival. My hands made contact with the wall. I was finished! My head summoned from the waters insides, Leka released the small orange block.

“Congratulations, you won.”

I slowly placed my feet on the small steel footstep. I placed my orange block on the table in front of Ms Mills. She wrote down my points. Room Forty One had a good start, especially considering Noah was in our class. There was a lot in front of us for the rest of today, But I was ready for anything.

Our School Whare

On Thursday, we had Hui like always, every two weeks. Matua Grant gave us a little bit of information on our karakia and our school Whare. The Whares design is designed as a person exactly as the person below. Above the whare there is a big wooden plank that runs from the start to the end of the Whare’s roof. This represents the Tahuhu (Backbone). The walls that come down from the Tahuhu that look like weaves are the Heke (Ribs).


We then walked outside and he explained the structure on the outside of the Whare. The sculpture represented three iwi that always face Northwards, facing the sun. The top ancestor was named Ngati ranginui, he came from takitimu waka. The second one was named Ngai te rangi, he came from another waka, matatua. The last one was named Ngati pukenga. All three of them are holding a rope with every of the ten house colours. Outside of the Matai classes is a small art structure. Inside the artwork there is 4 things, each of them representing a class. There is a tuna, crab, shark and a tuatara. We use our whare for House Hui’s and sometimes gatherings.

 

Prototec Maths Tests

This week I completed 6 different prototec tests. 3 were all just questions and the other 3 were timed multiplication questions. Here are the results from the tests.

Art Technology - First Technology class for 2014

This week, Rimu house has had its first for 2014 technology rotation. Our house is split up into 7 groups, 4 Year 8s and 3 groups of Year 7s. This week, my group, 8B has started off with Art Technology.  There are two art teachers, we had Mrs Balme and we had Mr Roy last year.

Day One: Printmaking with Polystyrene
We first started with print making using ink and polystyrene squares. First, we had to use a visual frame to capture some of the items of Gate Pa sitting on the table in front of us. We first had to draw it on the cover of our art files and then copy it into a polystyrene square. After that, we used rollers and rolled ink across the polystyrene. Once that was done, we firmly placed them onto a piece of paper and used a dry roller to put the ink onto this piece of paper. It turned out with a great result.

Day Two: Printmaking with Wood squares
Today, we pretty much did the same as yesterday but instead, with a block of wood. To start with, we looked at some pictures of things and items from the war of Gate Pa. We then drew them inside our art folder. Jordan and I were the first to be ready and we worked together to make a good result. Once we had copied it onto our block of wood, we carved one small bit of our artwork. We then used the rollers to roll yellow paint across the wood. Mrs Balme taught us that when rolling across the paint trays, listen for a sort of velcro sound. We then did the same drill as yesterday, stick the block of wood face down, roll it onto the paper but instead of on the top, we reversed and flipped the paper over to roll it. Then lastly, we unstick the block of wood. We did 4 limited edition copies and after that, Jordan and I helped pack up and get other people done.

Day Three: 3rd Colour Print on our wood block
Today, we made our 2nd and 3rd colour prints overtop of our first limited copy. My first one kind of slipped off the page but otherwise the rest looked alright.

Day Four: New Artwork
Today, we first started with out fourth and final colour print onto our paper. Then we started a different piece of artwe made a new piece of artwork (picture below). We painted our wood blocks white and made a cool piece of artwork. Today was our last day and we had to say goodbye to Mrs Balme
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Possum Pests

Why don’t we want to see these animals in the NZ bush?

Possums are huge pests in New Zealand. They are one of the reasons our beloved Kiwis are going nearly extinct. Possums eat the berries necessary for birds. They also destroy our native trees/shrubs. Over 30 million possums live in New Zealand bush. Possums were first shipped over here in 1837 from Australia. These pests much through over 9000t of leaves, berries and fruit every night. In Australia, possums are protected there.