My New Blog!!!

I have made a new blog! This year I have made a passion blog. A passion blog is a blog where you focus on one subject and only post bout the subject. I have chosen to do my passion blog on Writing. I will be posting some of my stories and how to write different genres of writing. I have named it Madaline's Writing space! I will still be posting on this blog hopefully 2 times week. Here is the link to it if you would like to check it out!
My New blog!!!!!

Anzac Day

Today is the day New Zealand and Australia remember the men and woman who had fallen in World War 1. ANZAC stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps. So many people died in the war the families of those who died never saw their loved ones again, it must of been horrible. Last year I attended my first dawn service and it put it into perspective for me how serious and unfortunate those people who fought really were. It made me respect all of them for they sacrificed their lives to save the rest of us and gave the next generation a chance to live a normal life without war and destruction.   In New Zealand all over the country we hold dawn services and memorials to remember them. There are many cenotaphs over the country where we lay wreaths and play the last post which is a song that was originally played on a Bugel in the war. There are also a lot of World War 2 veterans that attend the memorials as they are the last veterans of the 2 world wars . Lest we forget.

ANZAC Biscuits

With Anzac day next Monday I thought it would be fittng to share the classic Anzac Biscuit recipe. It is a easy,simple recipe that I love. We also made them at school not long ago and I captured a time lapse of them cooking. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Edmonds Standard Grade Flour

1/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup coconut

3/4 cup rolled oats

50g butter

1 tablespoon golden syrup

1/2 teaspoon Edmonds Baking Soda

2 tablespoons boiling water

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Mix together flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats.
3. Melt butter and golden syrup in pot.
4. Dissolve baking soda in the boiling water and add to butter and golden syrup.
5. Stir butter mixture into the dry ingredients.
6. Place level tablespoonfuls of mixture onto cold greased trays.
7. Bake about 15 minutes or until golden.

Makes 20.

I hope you have fun making them like I did. Here is some photos and time lapse of me making them:

 

Lake Rotakare Ranger for a day!!

On Wednesday the 13th of April a group of kids from my school including me went to the Lake Rotakare Reserve. Lake Rotakare is based in the south part of Taranaki and it is a beautiful lake. It also is a reserve which holds many endangered species of birds that are native to New Zealand. They have a big fence around the perimeter of the reserve to stop all the predators that may kill the birds such as possums, rats , stoats cats and many more. The birds are precious to the reserve because once they are extinct there are no more of that species ever again so they are trying to do anything they can to protect them. The reserve hold many birds such as Kiwis, Tuis, Fan Tails, Robins just to name a few and they have also recently introduced the Saddle Back that were extinct from Taranaki for over 100 years! One of the Teachers from our school, Mrs Derbyshire is currently doing a science programme in the reserve and asked if some of the kids from my school wanted to come and help her for the day and get their hands dirty. I was one of the lucky ones that got chosen and I was very excited to see what we were going to do.



For our first activity we were planting tracking tunnels. Tracking tunnels are little tunnels around the reserve in certain areas with little ink cards. The reason for the ink cards is to put food in the middle of them so when any animal or insect wants to eat the food they walk into the tunnel and they leave their foot prints so we know what is in the reserve. We split up into four groups and we went through a different part of the reserve each and put the ink cards in the tracking tunnels. We would write the name of the tracking tunnel, the date it was placed and then put the food in the middle of it and put it in the tunnel. My group were lucky enough to see the Saddle Back bird. It was amazing to see it and you could tell how it got its name because it had a red look like saddle shape on its back. There is a photo of the Saddle Back on the side of the post.  It was a lot of fun to do because we could cross streams, climb vines and slide down slopes just to get to them. It was a lot of fun and we hope the tracking tunnels we did show any evidence of animals being in them.



After we had lunch we went onto our next activity. Looking for the Peripatus. The Peripatus is a very rare species and there is not much known about them. There is about 30 unnamed species of the Peripatus and Mrs. Derbyshire has found only 2 in the reserve so the chances finding one was very slim. We split up into 2 groups and we each had a 4x4 area of bush with rotten logs and lots of foliage because that is the place they like to hide in. First we descrided the area around us and it was quite cold and humid so we put that down on a piece of paper. We lightly ripped away the old logs delicately to make sure we don't hurt any insects inside them. We looked for about an hour and had found lots of cool insects but no Peripatus. Our spirits began to dampen. Suddenly Brendan Fowler (Riley's Dad) ripped open a big log and we saw it. We had found one. I have a photo of it above. They looked very strange. They looked like a black slug with velvety skin and lots of little legs. Luckily I yelled out for him to stop because he thought it was only a black slug and was just going to chuck it away. We were so happy that we found one. They took it away to analysis it to see if we had found a new species. Overall it was a great day and I had so much fun and I hope I can do it again!

 My Sister Jorja putting the ink card into the tracking tunnel

A curious Robin checking out what we were up to during Peripatus hunting

All of the kids that took part. I'm 6th from the left!

Kaponga Athletics Prizegiving 2016

On Wednesday night I attended the Kaponga Athletics Club Prize giving for 2016. Kaponga Athletics Club is a local athletics club in our area that ranges from ages 0-15 and it is a heap of fun. At the end of the season we have a Prize giving to celebrate how well all the kids have done. I did very well on the night. I got 4 awards. For my first award I got most overall points for 11 years. I also got the junior women's championship, and junior women's track events. I received one more trophy which I happened to tie with my sister Jorja ( here is her blog if you would like to check it out!)which was the trophy for field events. Lots of other kids did really well but I was proud with myself for doing so well. I can't wait to do Kaponga Athletics again next season!

(My Trophies I won)

Auroa School 125th Jubilee Celebration

Thanks to Mr Bloor I have another amazing video to share with you guys. Here are some highlights of the significant event of the year. The 125th Jubilee for Auroa School and districts community. This video was created with footage he took on his drone and also by camera and has once again made an awesome video out of it. I hope you like it.

Quiz Time!

Here are some fun quiz questions to test your general knowledge about technology:

1. Solar power generates electricity from what source?

2. Did the Apple iPhone first become available in 2005, 2006 or 2007?

3. In terms of computing, what does CPU stand for?

4. True or false? Nintendo was founded after the year 1900.

5. The Hubble Space Telescope is named after which American astronomer?

6. Is the wavelength of infrared light too long or short to be seen by humans?

7. Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari and Explorer are types of what?

8. True or false? Gold is not a good conductor of electricity?

9. The technologically advanced humanoid robot ASIMO is made by which car company?

10. True or false? Atomic bombs work by atomic fission.

11. In terms of computing, what does ROM stand for?

12. Did the original Sony Playstation use CDs or cartridges to play games?

13. What is the Earth’s primary source of energy?

14. IBM is a well known computer and information technology company, what does IBM stand for?

15. Along with whom did Bill Gates found Microsoft?

16. What science fiction writer wrote the three laws of robotics?

17. True or false? In computing, keyboards are used as input devices.

18. What does the abbreviation WWW stand for?

19. Nano, Shuffle, Classic and Touch are variations of what?

20. True or false? DNA is an abbreviation for ‘Deoxyribonucleic acid’.

Write in the comments your answers and I will tell you if your answers are correct or not. Keep an eye on my blog for more fun quizzes!

 

 

Swimming Sports 2016

On the 8th of March our school held our annual Swimming Sports Day for 2016. It was a great day. I competed in 6 events (75m individual medley, 25m freestyle, 25m breastroke, 25m backstroke, 50m backstroke and the whanau relay). I was really proud to do so well in all of them. In my first race the 75m individual medley I got 2nd. In my second race the 25m freestyle I got 2nd too. In my last 3 races breastroke and backstroke I was lucky enough to take the win. And finally in my whanau relay ( our whanaus at Auroa are our houses which are Haua Piko(green), Haua Roa(yellow), Auroa( Red) and Hinenakau(blue). I was competing for Haua Piko against the other whanaus and we managed to get 3rd. Overall it was a brilliant day and I was really proud that I did so well. Once again Mr Bloor has made an amazing video of the event so here it is. Make sure you subscribe to sonic vision studios and keep updated with what events our school is doing.

Book Review

Today I am reviewing the book Called "Bloodtree Chronicles: Sanspell" By Elizabeth Pullford. It is an amazing book and it is also by a New Zealand writer. Here is a description of the book:

When the Bloodtree loses its last leaf, there will be no more stories in the Silvering Kingdom ...The Silvering Kingdom is the home of fairy tales but the kingdom and all those within are in danger of vanishing because the Bloodtree - the source of all stories - has been poisoned. 'Sanspell' is a story that has been cursed. It is up to Abigail (Spindale) to enter the fairy tale world and save the story-tree. Together with Flint, whose mother Trinket is being held captive by the evil Rackenard, they set off on a journey: three drops of Trinket's blood is what is required to save the tree. The race is on ...but can they survive the wicked Zezmena's spells?

It is a great book and I would highly recommend it. It is perfect book for the kids from ages 10-14. I give this book a 9-10 and I hope you check it out.

2016 Athletics Day

On the 3rd of March the Kaponga Athletic Club held the Inter School Athletics Day. This is a great day that has gone on for 16 years! 6 schools participate in the event to take away the Fitzgerald Trophy. We (Auroa) had already won it 4 years in a row and we were hoping we could take it away again. I participated in 4 events that were 100m, High Jump, Long Jump and 200m. I was very proud to win the 100m and the 200m. I also placed 3rd in High Jump. Everyone from all of the schools run amazingly well. Though there was only a winning margin by 2 points, Luckily Auroa was able to take the win once again. Mr Bloor also made an amazing video of the day, he even had a camera on a drone! Here is the video of the action:

Bring on 2016!!!

It is a brand new year and a fresh start. I am back and I am ready to post again. I'm ready for what adventures in 2016 awaits me and I will make sure I post twice a week from now on. Lots of exciting things have already happened this year. My biggest achievement is that I was elected as Head Girl of Auroa School and I am honoured to represent my school. Also another big thing that has happened is the annual Athletics Day which I will post about soon. I can't wait to continue posting on my blog and I hope you visit it. My goal this year is to reach 10,000 page views and the only way I can is if you visit my blog and I                                                                                         hope you do.

Butterflies

WALT: write a story about a time when you were anxious

The velvet red carpet welcomed me into the events centre as I trudged along it with light steps. Rushing into the room, the atmosphere was bubbly with excitement and nerves as other kids sat squirming in their seats, Waiting anxiously for the awards to begin. I was unobtrusive in the swarm of kids that were loudly announcing their presence with screams of excitement. Butterflies flew in my stomach by the dozens. Let the show begin.

“The nominees are…” The host boomed through the microphone as blurs of colours and text became visible on the screen. My name appears and a film roll of my blog was viewed for a few seconds. I knew there was screams and cheers but I couldn't hear them. I was in a distant state of mind where I wasn't only hoping to win but to also not be disappointed. My hand clammy, teeth chattering, my body was consumed with nerves. Everyone held their breath...

                                                                                           

Madaline’s Mayhem appears on the screen. The nerves were replaced with joyfulness. My numb, wobbling legs shuffled along the floor as I went up to accept my award. A bright fluorescent light glowed across my flushed face as I snatched the award out of the hosts hands. Millions of eyes peered at me and cheered. 

After a couple of camera clicks I wandered back to my seat with a smile like a crescent moon spread across my face.I was so proud and I definitely wasn't trying to hide it.

The velvet red carpet whispered goodbye as I thundered across it with heavy excited steps. Grasping the glass award in my hand, I whispered “until next year.”



My teacher from last year (Miss Bunker) and I getting a photo taken with my award.