We have learnt about rocks. The moon phases. We have also learnt about the earths spheres.

This term we have done alot of cool things including the readings logs and the Shared reading my faavourite thing we have done is probably  when we do the compititions against each other in the syllables compitiotion.

In living livings in the past few weeks we have been doing many different things one of which is checking the traps. When we check the traps we have been checking them at Haruatai Park. the traps at Haruatai park were not very successful and we didn’t catch any rats or pests. but then we set up our own traps in Te Aho Aho (garden) with the help of Matua David a Doc volunteer. The class in total set up 6 traps and split into groups of 3 or 4. Aubrey, Ari and I have moved our trap 3 times and now it has caught 3 rats. The last rat we caught was probably about 2 and a ha;f weeks old and the was maggots all through its skin and when we picked up the trap they were falling out, they also filled up the trap box with blood. It smelt like incredibly disgusting. At first we put t it behind one of the building the garden, but it did not work, so because of that we put it behind some pallets. The trap is now placed in a bush where the stream used to flow though.

We also did some weed research, Aubrey and I researched: gorse, stinging nettle, dandelion and butter cup. We made a small poster with all 4 of them on it. The poster was on a piece of paper out of our book split in 4 and it had who, what, when, how, where, why.  then we made a slide about buttercup and gorse. We had to do this very quickly because we started late compared to every one else. Aubrey made the background of the slide a literal buttercup and a block of butter.

We then chose a garden box outside the class and pulled out all the weeds and carrots and overgrown plants. There was also coriander, leek, spring onion, buttercup, and many types of other weeds in the box. I also found a very old toy monkey with  faded face, which I thought was very funny. Once all the plants were taken out we put some fresh soil on top of the old soil and mixed it through. Then took the weeds to the compost bin in Te Aho Aho. We plan to plant some more plant sin the garden box once its ready.

We also tried to make worm farms it started off quite good, we took 5 worms out of the ground and had plenty of food and soil for them. But Aubrey and I started to grow a plant in it, which was very surprising. At first we thought it was a pumpkin but now we think its a potato. So we have been watering it and putting it in the sun, on the window sill at the side of the class. Next to the year 11’s plants that they have been growing.

So far, we have been making a positive impact on the environment and taking a proactive stance to our learning in our science class. We plan to catch more rats and grow more plants for a better future.

We have been working on identifying weeds, we have also been doing research on common NZ weeds,  and we have been checking our traps we made. so far with my group’s trap we haven’t caught anything yet. We have also made a worm farm but I don’t think my one is still alive.

We have been pulling out weeds from our garden that our group chose, and making/checking traps, my group has caught 2 rats We also made a presentation about four different weeds

week one- organs            week two- systems           week three-Skeletal        Week four-Nervous

Liver                                   Respiratory                        Femur                               Central (C.N.S)

Lungs                                  Nervous                              Cranium                           Peripheral (P.N.S)

Bladder                               Skeletal                              Humerus                           Sympathetic (S.N.S)

Small intestines                Muscular                             Sternum                           Reflex (R.N.S)

Large intestines .              Immune                              Ribs

Week 1- Organs           Week 2-systems             Week 3- Skeletal        week 4- Nervous

Liver                               Respritory                        Femur                            Central (CNS)

Lungs                             Nervous                             Cranium                     peripheral  (PNS)

Bladder                          skeletal                              humerus                     sympethetic  (SNS)

Small intestines           Muscular                         Sternum                        reflex  (RNS)

Large intestines           Immune                          Ribs

week 1- organs

I learned the names of organs and how they work in our bodies,we created a poster labeling our body parts. For e.g some organs are

-Liver

-lungs

-small intestine

-large intestine

week 2-systems

The class learned the different systems and how they work, we learned their names and took our pulse and learned our heart rate before and after exercising.

Names of systems

-Resparahtory

-Immune

-Muscular

-Skelotol

Week 3-Bones

We learned about our bones and where they fit In our bodies and what they do, for example our cranium protects our brain.

Bones

-Femur

-Tibia

-Humerous

Week 4-Nervous system

CNS-Central nervous system

PNS-Peripharal nervous system

parasympathatic

sympathitic

Those are all part of our nervous system they work together to work against and contrast each other. our peripheral nervous system controls our 5 senses Sight,Hearing,Taste,Touch and smell. The central nervous system controls our insides. The sympathetic and parasympathetic contrast each other and work to keep us regulated.

Competincies

we are focusing on critical thinking

I am Developing

I can think about whether my ideas are working and make changes to get better results. 

I use what I’ve learned before to solve other tasks. 

I use the skills I’ve learned at school to solve problems in my life and the world.

Culture.

I’m good at connecting ideas and love learning new things.

That is what I have learned in humans and how they work.

Links to my work

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11TpaDVxao8lj3FZboz3a2lHw3WVQ6gbFHKS2rQm6NPs/edit?slide=id.g3f6c6e7ba48_0_6#slide=id.g3f6c6e7ba48_0_6

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FLG9m4xZeAdQFuSQvA_RQ18XYjPkHybBFtvsoS5OhhA/edit

In force we have been reading, doing experiments and learning about Newton’s laws of motion.

Some of the experiments we have been doing are kinetic energy, pushing and pulling forces with logo bricks, ping pong balls, marbles and paper.

One of the logo brick experiments is when you flick a logo brick and try to get it half off the table.  The experiment with paper is blow on a piece of paper.

Week 1 – 2

The first two weeks were the most depressing in terms of class environment but the most fun in terms of actual working. We had a couple of experiments I can remember with my bad memory: We used Legos and flicked them to the edge of the table. How it worked is that it’s a one verse one, and the closest person to flick it to their side of the table edge without it dropping to the floor would win. Another experiment, instead of usage of kinetic energy, you would use wind generated from your mouth to blow into straws to push a tennis ball into a goal. It was a two verse two, but my Teammate sucked, Ayden Grant Pahl, so wherever we went I had to do a one verse one with two people on the same team. I learned how to use the wind for these two weeks. For the final experiment, we used cardboard to guide marbles down in a circle. I did not do well in this.

Week 3

I can’t recall much since I was away for a while.

Besides my disappointment when the previous teammate Ayden Grant Pahl swapped out of this class.. Thankfully, I remembered a better teammate was in class.

Week 4

We read a lot this week.

Reading a sentence in front of the whole class at every start class.

I got to pick a book a week late from everyone else.. But I stuck with “THE PHYSICS BOOK” by Jim Al-Khalili because it was better.

W1 – In week 1 we did reading with getting books out and read them a lot and mostly the whole week. We just did reading. We had to do S.Q.U.I.R.T which is a reading type to stay focused and read our books and share our sentences with the class. We also had lego bricks and played games with the lego bricks.

W2 – In week 2 we focused more on forces. And played some games with ping pong balls and straws and tried to blow the ping pong ball into a mini goal at the edge of a table. We did a lot of work on forces and learned a lot of different forces and read books on forces and did some experiments.

W3 – In week 3 we played with marbles and played some games with the marbles. And we focused our forces focus on kinetic energy and did a very good job on figuring out the kinetic energy. This week was very good on learning a lot of stuff

W4- In week 4 we did more lego pieces work and more newton laws and learnt his 3 rules and we have been focusing on that now as well and also reading books on forces still we expand our brain knowledge on forces

In week one we did Reading, Squirt and a Lego goal and you had to get the Lego piece on the table and half off the table to get a point. Squirt is known as sustained, quiet, uninterrupted, reading, time.

In week two we did an experiment of forces with a ping pong ball we had straws and had to blow on the ping pong ball to make it go through the goals to get a point.

In week three we did a marble experiment you had to make a marble run with a cut in half paper towel cardboard thing we had to try get the fastest time down the marble run.  We also did a friction thing we had a plastic rod and we had to rub it on our clothing and then try pick up the shredded paper on the plastic rod.

In week four we  learnt about Newton’s law.

Over the last 4 weeks in SCIFC (forces) we have been learning about forces. In week 1 we did a lot of reading. We are now on our third book. In week 2 we did an experiment where you had to blow a ping pong ball through a straw, this was a push force. Week 3 we used marbles, but I was not here so I did not get to participate. In week 4 we had a look at Newtons laws, we had a worksheet and some equations to figure out using Newtons laws.

In the week 1 we learnt about our organs-  We outlined ourselves and drew our organs.

In week 2 we learnt about our systems- We tested our heart rate.

In week three we learnt our bones- We found out the scientific names for our bones.

In week four we learnt about our nervous system- We tested our reaction with our hands, rulers and marbles.

In week five we did our E-Blogs

critical thinking – devoloping

I can think about wether my ideas are working and make changes to get better results

cutrual puteangtanga – devoping I’m good at connecting my ideas and love learning new things

Hi welcome to my reflection! This blogs is also a bit special because its my first blog of 2026!

Week 1 Reflection-  We started learning from the very basic which are organs. We learned about organs example the stomach,brain, Heart, Bladder and etc

Week 2 Reflection-  We learned about systems like the skeletal system, muscular systems, reproductive systems and etc. (it was quite fun to learn new interesting stuff) We also started an activity to draw the human body and use it as a poster in this class.

Week 3- We focused on the Skeletal System and we used a fake Skeleton to learn.

Week 4- We focused on the Nervous system and we learned about the Central Nervous System (CNS) and also the Peripheral  Nervous System.

Week 5- Writing this blog on a Monday!

Accelerating Critical Thinking

Week 1 I wasn’t here.

Week 2 We learnt about the organs of the body and where they’re located. After learning about organs of the body we had to make an outline of my friend on a large piece of paper. And after making the outline we had to draw the organs of the body into the outline. We also tested out heart rate from doing some work outs.

Week 3 We learnt about the skeletal system.

Week  4 We learnt about the nervous system and we tested our reaction time. We tested our reaction time from getting a partner and making them drop a ruler and we had to catch the ruler.

Week one:

I learned the names of organs and studied how they worked and why they’re needed to survive.

The heart lets blood flow, basically our power source to do anything.

Kidneys clean out blood hourly, which is really helpful.

Week Two:

I learned there were multiple systems besides the immune and nervous systems, which I was unaware of before this time.

I wasn’t aware that our nervous system had two parts: Central and peripheral. Central are connected from the brain to the spine while the rest of the body was gifted with it’s own system, the peripheral system.

Week three:

I missed half of this week, but I still learned a decent amount of information from classmates, eg. The names  of unknown but important bones.

Also the bone dude got an uppercut by someone, really funny. The impact was greater than how it would’ve been against a normal flesh full human, pointing out the weak Durability of the skeleton without flesh.

Week Four:

This week was the best by far, not only learning about how our bodies reacted, but also doing a test with our reaction time before being rudely interrupted by future studies.

The test was in three parts. Part one had us group up in pairs, one dropping a ruler while the other catches as fast as they could, relying on measurements to tell the difference between our reaction times.

5 things i learnt:

week 1 we learned about all 12 organs

week 2 we did system.

week 3  2skeletal  system

week 4 Nervous system

week 5 edu blogs.

I can think about whether my ideas are working and make changes to get better results.
I use what I’ve learned before to solve other tasks.

I use the skills I’ve learned at school to solve problems in my life and the world.

Our competencies are: cultural and pukingatanga

This term we explored colonisation around the world and learned that:

• Colonisation was a global movement that affected many countries and cultures.
• Different countries became colonisers and colonised peoples at different times in history.
• Colonisers often had similar reasons for taking control of land and people, and they used similar methods to enforce their power.
• People responded to colonisation in many different ways, including resistance, adaptation, and survival.
• Around the world, people are still recovering from and repairing the harm caused by colonisation.

Reflection on Ghandi:

Watching Gandhi helped me understand how people can respond to unfair treatment and oppression with courage and determination. The movie made me think about how important family, friends, and kindness are. It showed that people can face many challenges in life, but with support from others they can stay strong and keep going.

I liked how the characters grew throughout the story, and I learned important lessons from their experiences. They showed resilience through caring for others and standing up for what they believed in. Gandhi’s peaceful resistance showed one way people responded to the effects of colonisation and injustice. I found this message both important and inspiring.

Reflection on “Lost Children of Aotearoa”: 

The documentary Stolen Children of Aotearoa explored how child welfare services, including Oranga Tamariki, removed Māori children from their families in ways that were often harmful and traumatic. Many children were taken when authorities judged their families as unsuitable, and some were removed without clear reasons. These actions had lifelong effects on both the children and their whānau.

Many of the children were placed with other families or in care facilities where some experienced abuse and neglect. The documentary shared these stories to seek acknowledgement and an apology from the government for what survivors describe as systemic abuse throughout New Zealand.

This documentary connected strongly to our learning about colonisation because it showed how the effects of colonial systems can continue long after colonisation itself. It highlighted the lasting harm caused when people lose connections to their culture, identity, and family. Although the stories were heartbreaking, they also showed incredible resilience. The survivors not only lived through these experiences but found the strength to share their stories and speak up for change.

My overall learning for Unit 1:

This unit helped me understand that colonisation has affected people all around the world in similar ways. Whether in India, Aotearoa New Zealand, or other countries, colonisation often involved powerful groups controlling others and taking away rights, land, culture, and identity. However, people responded in different ways, showing courage, resilience, and determination.

Through studying Gandhi and Stolen Children of Aotearoa, I learned that the effects of colonisation can last for generations. I also learned that healing and recovery are ongoing processes, and that understanding these histories is important for creating a fairer and more respectful future.

Summary of Ghandi Movie

Watching Ghandi made me think about how important family, friendship, and kindness are. The movie showed that people can face many challenges in life, but with support from others they can stay strong and keep going. I liked how the characters grew throughout the story and I learned important lessons from their experiences. The film also helped me understand different perspectives and cultures . Overall, Ghandi was an interesting movie that taught me about resilience, caring for others, and never giving up when things get difficult.

Summary of the White Man’s Burden By Rudyard Kipling

The White Man’s Burden is a poem the encourages Western countries, especially the United States, to take control of the govern other nations that were being colonised. Kipling presents this as a duty or responsibility. suggesting that Western people should help “civilise” and educate those living in colonised countries.

The poem reflects the attitudes of the imperialism during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Kipling portrays colonised people as needing guidance, which today is widely seen as racist and patronising. The poem is important because it shows how many people at the time justified colonial rule, but it is also criticised for supporting inequality and the belief that some cultures were superior to others.

Overall, the poem argues the colonisation is a difficult but noble duty, while modern readers often view it as an example of the prejudiced ideas that were used to defend imperialism.