End Of Year Reflections 2021 (Leavers Edition)

Hi guys, this is my last blog post for this year. I am writing this post on an old Chromebook. Honestly this was probably my favourite year out of the 6 & 1/2 years I have been at this school. This year at South Hornby School we went to a great camp called Woodend Camp. I personally found this camp more fun and interesting than the one we visited last year. 

Last year I wrote a post similar to this one. But last year we got to see the Year 6 T-ball game and did Top-Team. This year today the T-ball game and last swimming session was canceled, yesterday Top-Team was canceled as well. This year in August we went back into lock-down, I didn't think that we would make it back for a few months but surprisingly we made it back the next month. I'm glad we managed to do the leavers assembly after we had lock-down. I also enjoyed leavers dinner which we had 3 days ago. It was fun to hang out and eat with all the people leaving and the teachers (not all of the teachers are leaving). Next year if you see this blog my new school will either be reusing it or it won't have live stuff. Hope you have a great Christmas & goodbye for 2021!!

Bird Feeders! - Inquiry

This week for Inquiry we made bird feeders. This was fun because we got to spread pine cones with peanut butter and roll it in bird seeds! I didn't find this very hard because all we had to really do was spread a pine cone with peanut butter in between each seed thing. Then we had to roll it through a plate/bowl/tray filled with wild bird seed to make the birds want to eat it. Then we attached it to a piece of string (or you can do it at the start) and hung it on a tree! 

Here it is:

How To Plant A Tree D.L.O - Inquiry

Today for Inquiry we made a D.L.O on how to plant a tree. We got to plant trees 1 or 2 weeks ago so making this D.L.O was rather easy. I found it fun to make because it was about something I knew how to do. The steps go in this order. 

1. Scrape the bark
2. Cut the weed mat
3. Dig a hole with a trowel
4. Tip Plant Out of pot
5. Take plant out of pot
6. Put plant in hole
7. Hold Plant In Place and put dirt back
8. Push dirt firmly
9. Put bark around the plant
10. Water the plant

Here it is:

The Life Cycle Of A Tree - Inquiry

 Today for inquiry we made a D.L.O about the life cycle of a tree. This was fun because we got to learn about the full life cycle of a tree which has four main stages. These are seed, seedling, sapling & finally adult tree. Each year 1 tree gets rid of 48 pounds of carbon dioxide. This means we should plant more trees! I found this rather easy but it was also challenging to find all the info.

Here It Is:

Endangered Animals Red Pandas! - Writing

This week for writing we have been writing to inform texts about endangered animals. I chose the animal red panda, we had to learn about the creature and write down facts we find in a plan. Then using the information in the plan we write the introduction, body paragraphs & conclusion. After we finished that we did self check, partner check and finally teacher check. 

Here it is: 

Red Pandas

Introduction

Did you know there are less than 10,000 red pandas left. Red pandas live in eastern himalayas like China, Nepal & Bhutan. They are given the status of endangered. Red pandas are very skillful and acrobatic.

Endangered Reason

Did you know red pandas are killed for multiple reasons? The fur of a red panda is used for clothes. It is often sold on the pet black market. Red pandas are often caught in traps meant for other animals like deer. Also occasionally poached in the place of another animal.

Appearance

Did you know that red pandas aren’t actually very red? Although they are known as ‘red pandas’ they are actually more orangey. They have black back legs and have orange and brown striped tails. Red pandas mostly have a white face. They also have slightly black bodies. Most red pandas grow up to 2 metres in length.

Diet

Did you know red pandas love bamboo and leaves? They often live in trees and that's why their diets are mainly leaves and bamboo. Red pandas occasionally eat insects. The word panda is said to come from the Nepali word for ‘ponya’ which means bamboo or plant eating animal. The red panda's diet consists of quite simple things.

Conclusion

To conclude, Red pandas are a cute animal that are being harmed by traps for other animals. They are very acrobatic animals and there are less than 10,000 left in the world. So help these animals out by preventing poaching or anything else that will harm red pandas.

Calendar Art - Art

Last term we did our calendar art. Since we were at the time doing art we made graffiti using pastels and pencil to make it look like actual wall art which was then stuck on a brick wall background. This gave it the effect that it was actually painted on the wall. It then looked like some real graffiti. We also used pastels to colour in the letters of our names. We also made a background to colour in a singular or multiple colour/s. 

The 8th Fabo Story Competition - Writing

Over lockdown we wrote stories for a story competition known as the 8th Fabo story competition where we were given a story starter and then had to finish the story using 550 words or less. This was really fun because the story starter was based around magic abilities. At the start they get kits and get to have either a witch or wizard starter kit (read the rest below). I found this challenging because personally in fictional stories I like to have a whole plot but in this competition it was 550 and under so I had to work with it. If you have done anything similar or basically the same tell me in the comments and I will try to reply.

Here it is:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Mark and Maeve skipped along the dark corridors of McMinty Towers, and into the dining hall. They expected to see their mother sitting at the head of the table. Instead, they found a letter pinned to the top of a large, black chest.

My Dear Twins,

First of all, Happy Birthday!

This chest contains two magical things:

1 x Witch-Starter-Kit   &

1 x Wizard- Starter-Kit

Please choose one kit. Choose carefully as you cannot swap your kit once you have chosen. However, Mark may choose the Witch-Starter-Kit, while Maeve might choose the Wizard-Starter-Kit. It doesn’t matter.

Please write down each spell you test, and the results. A few words of warning. When starting out, I advise all young witches and wizards to use their new powers wisely. Because spells, when not followed correctly can go terribly wrong. Terribly wrong!

Good luck. Good luck, I repeat. You will need it.

Yours in witchcraft

Mother Witch McMinty

Mark shrugged his shoulders. Maeve opened the chest …

Now you finish the story…

Inside the chest there are two kits laid out. Mark picked up one kit and around him, the wizard's robes floated, suddenly the robes wrapped around him. Maeve is immensely surprised and jumps back, then suddenly without knowing it was there Mark pulled out a small wand made out of curved and polished wood. Maeve grabbed the remaining kit and suddenly witch robes weaved themselves around her. Maeve and Mark look down at themselves with their magnificent robes. Without thinking, Maeve pulls out a spell book  lined with layers of dust. Maeve blows all of the dust off the cover and says to Mark “so what do we do with these new items”? 

“I guess we do what the letter says and try to cast some spells,” replies Mark.

They both grab their tools and walk down to the garden through the dark corridors. When they arrive at the garden they sit down and try to figure out what to do with their tools. Maeve tries to read the text on the first page of her book but it all just looks like scrambled letters. Mark has absolutely no idea what he’s supposed to do but is waving his wand in random directions and making up words. When suddenly out of Mark's wand flies a small bolt of lightning hitting a shrub and making it burst into flames. Maeve suddenly notices a word that she understands. 

“Aqua pluvia”, yells Maeve at the top of her lungs, and from the sky rains an extreme amount of water, splashing the burning shrub. 

Mark was astounded at what Maeve had just figured out how to do. Maeve then says “I think all my spells are written in latin because puluvia means rain and aqua means water”.

Mark replies by saying “well that was interesting afterall I almost burnt the whole garden”. Maeve and Mark then start looking through Maeve’s spellbook looking for spells they can try out. Mark eventually gets bored and starts yelling random made up words again but this time nothing happens. Maeve then notices a spell named spiritus potator. She says it and out of her book flies a small little pixie-like creature heading straight towards Mark. It’s about to hit him when he yells “exitium laser”, which sends a stream of red light straight at the creature obliterating it and also pushing everything away in a small radius. Maeve looks terrified as Mark holds his wand. Mark then says “you said that the spells were in latin so I said destruction laser but in latin, it's about the only thing I know how to say”. Maeve replies with “I can’t believe that you just shot a red laser out of a wand you barely know how to use,” Maeve then says ``I have no idea what that means but it sounded cool so I said it”. 

Mark then says “I think I know another spell but I'm willing to guess it's not going to work”. 

Maeve replies with “should at least try because what if it works, just make sure it doesn’t have destruction in it”. 

Mark then says in his most confident voice “invisibilitatem”, which makes him disappear. “It worked, I'm invisible! Now I just need to work out how to say visible, and find a Latin dictionary”.