Spanish New Year

Spanish New Year

A Spanish New Year's celebration is quite busy with all their traditions.
It is important for Spanish people so they can try and have good luck,
and for other festive opportunities. They make sure to feast with family and friends.
Spanish New Year’s will be celebrated on Thursday 31st December 2020.

Luck is one of the most interesting Spanish New Year's traditions because it includes many
different ideas. One of the most famous customs is eating 12 grapes, 1 for each stroke of the clock
at midnight. The idea of 12 grapes is to bring good luck for each month leading up to the coming
year. By the time the 12 grapes are eaten, it will be New Year's day and you will have good luck for
the whole year. Another popular tradition is putting one coin into a number of cross-shaped
biscuits, the person who gets the biscuit with the coin in it gets good luck for next year.
Lottery tickets are very popular at the time of Christmas and they have a superstition
so if you rub it against a bald man's head,  a pregnant woman's belly or a cat will make it a winner.
In the northwestern region of Galicia, lottery players hang their tickets to horseshoes! 
If you want to fall in love you should wear red underwear to call Cupid for aid,
in some parts of Spain it only works if the underwear was gifted.

The food is probably one of the most important things in New Year’s traditions.
A custom is to eat lentil soup, as the round lentils represent a coin to bring you wealth
for next year. A traditional meal in Spain is vegetables, pork, cornbread, black-eyed peas,
and beans. Sometimes a piece of gold or a coin will be dropped into a glass of cava for good fortune.

The Spanish culture celebrates New Year because it is the start of a year which will hopefully
bring good luck and happiness.

By Harry

Fractions and Decimals

This is my maths work for term 2, week 3. We did this to understand how to convert fractions to decimals. I enjoyed doing this because you got to watch a video.

Chinese New Year

CHINESE NEW YEAR

Chinese New Year is the most important holiday for Chinese people living in China and around the world. It is like when we celebrate Christmas - families get together, people feast, and there are gifts and fireworks.

The day is celebrated on the first day of the first month on the Chinese calendar which is between January and February. The festival date changes every year. It is also called the Spring Festival. It is the start of a different animal’s Zodiac year.

The Zodiac year is a “turntable” of 12 animals that took part in the great race. The great race was invented because the Emperor wanted to keep track of time. The animals in order of first and last were: 1. Rat, 2. Ox, 3. Tiger, 4. Rabbit, 5. Dragon, 6. Snake, 7. Horse, 8. Sheep, 9. Monkey, 10. Rooster, 11. Dog and finally in 12th place is the Pig. The cycle changes every 60 years because of the heavenly stems and earthly branches.


There are many Chinese myths, but a popular one was about a beast called Nian. The beast would ravage towns and cities in search of food, it would eat livestock (mostly cattle), crops, and occasionally people! The people were terrified of the beast and would put food on their doorstep so it wouldn't harm them or their animals. Once they found out the beast was afraid of the color red, they would hand out red lanterns and other red things to scare the beast away. They used fireworks to warn the beast not to come. After they did this Nian would not come to the towns and cities anymore. They would continue with this tradition but they only did it on New Year to celebrate Nian not coming.


In conclusion, the Chinese New year is globally celebrated by one-sixth of the world population.

By Harry

WALT round numbers including decimals to the nearest whole number

This is my work for rounding up decimals. I enjoyed this worksheet because it was like a game.
Next time I think I could make the lines neater.

Events for next year

Events for next year

After lockdown, I would like to go on one of my favourite walks to Woods Creek. I would like to go

with my family and friends because I have fun with them, and I haven't been to Woods Creek for

a long time. Some of the things I enjoy on this walk are the bridges and tunnels.

I like going to Punakaiki with my family, we sometimes stay with my auntie and uncle and cousins

at the campground in our tent or a cabin. I love Punakaiki because there are really cool walks, 

we camp and play on the beach and go to the pub for tea where they have goldfish and a cart

with horses. It's always good fun to catch up with my cousins.

I’d like to have a Playdate with Taj and Jari when we can see our friends again. My idea is to bike

over to their house and take them to the beach with our dogs Jessie and Jess who would like it too.

I like seeing Jessie and Jess running together, and I like playing with my friends. 

Paroa beach

Paroa Beach

As I walk down to the beach a gust of wind blows on my face, I shiver. As I get down to the full view of
the beach the tussocks blow wildly. I keep on walking when Jessie zooms past me, she's like a bullet
she keeps on running and into the waves. The rough waves nearly toss Jess around. I look around for
a good stick while I walk, I feel the strong winds trying to push me back. I pick up a stick “Jess-ie” I call.
Jessie perks her head up out of the waves and sprints over for a game of fetch. I throw the stick for her
a few times until she gets bored. Jessie trots along beside me. I give her a quick pat as a glint of green
catches my eye. I stumble over the tussock and see a shard of green sand, I dig the object out. It's a
smooth green stone. I smile at my third piece of greenstone I've ever found, “come here Jessie '' Jessie
looks my way and walks over to me, she sees the greenstone and gives it a sniff. She cocks her head
sideways and wags her tail. I know not to open my mouth or she’ll try licking the inside of it! I slip it into
my pocket and keep on walking with Jessie at my side. We decided to walk back so we can get a rest
back home. When we get back Jessie laps up some water and snuggles in her basket.

 I lie on my bed thinking about what I had done at the beach. The beach is my special place because I
can spend time with my dog and listen to the crashing waves.

The End.

By Harry

Reflection

This is my caption for last year's reflection of what I've improved at. I really enjoyed writing and coloring on the pages. The thing that challenged me most was thinking about how I should make the reflection.

100 and 1000s in a 7 digit number

I liked this slide show more than the one I did before because it was more time consuming and it had bigger numbers.

10 and 100s in a 4 digit number

I enjoyed this slideshow because it was really easy I found tricky the slide without a number so I just put a number into the slide. This slideshow was made to show that we could work out identifying 4 digit numbers.

The Nobody news

This is my interview for an elderly person outside our bubble. I enjoyed writing the email to my grandma.

Book Review

This is my book review for the story *The stolen stars of Matariki* I really enjoyed doing the book review because I have never done one before. My favorite part was the character part. 

The stolen stars of matariki

1. How else could the children have solved the problem of the missing stars? 

Brainstorm other ways to get the stars back from the patupaiarehe, then choose the
best solution. 

Use their two torches to trick the  patupaiarehe that sunlight was coming

2. Rewrite that section of the story using your new solution. Don’t forget to edit the

story afterward. 

Get some feedback (positive, thoughtful, helpful) from someone in your bubble and
then write out a good copy of your own ending.

“Look!” exclaimed Sam to the others  “there’s that naughty patupaiarehe with the
missing Matariki stars.” 

“How are we going to get them back where they belong?” said grandma.

“Let’s whack them with the gaff” joked Sam.

“I’d like to whack them with the gaff for stealing, but that wouldn’t get the Matariki
stars back,” said grandma. “The patupaiarehe are vulnerable to sunlight, but
waiting or distracting them would take time.”

“Could we use the torches?” suggested Te Rerehua.

“Great idea Te Rerehua” whispered grandma.

The two children crept down the beach by the water’s edge and shone the
flash lights at the patupaiarehe”s direction. “Ahhh the sunlight!” the patupaiarehe
cried and ran to the hills.

“Grandma, Koro” called Te Rerehua to her grandparents.

“We tricked them!” said Sam.

“But how will get them back up?” said Te Rerehua.

“Koro knows,” grandma said as Koro swung his gaff into the air with a star on it.
Soon both stars had returned to their place up in the sky, and Matariki was
complete again.

The End

Covid lockdown maths

This my maths for day 1 I really enjoyed going through the maths problems and working them out.
the most challenging thing for me was writing how I got to the answer.

Bears

Bears
Lots of people have been putting bears up in their windows during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Since we don't have windows by the fence of the house, our family decided to make some bears out of wood!

This was a picture of our first bear (before it was painted). We made another bear which was smaller for me, and then we decided to cover our fence with bears! After two grizzly bears, we decided to make a where's Wally bear and the three bears.

Next, we thought about what other bears we could do, so we wanted to do Paddington.

We drew out Paddington, cut the wood, painted him and put him on the fence.

It was getting close to Easter so we wanted to make an Easter Bunny!

 

After the Easter Bunny, Dad wanted a Yogi bear and we all wanted Winnie the Pooh.

and that is what our fence now looks like!

Giant Ice block!

Today I made a giant ice cube the size of my face!

I started yesterday by layering water into a container and then today I put two more layers of water into the container and after about an hour it looked ready (it wasn't)I slid the ice out of the container and it was a cube and freezing it was like I had frostbite! I made a hole in it ant a little pool of water came out and got me wet, I started trying to gnaw on the ice but it was solid.after a few minutes in the sun it warmed up and I could rip chunks of ice off it. and I cut it in bits and gave Jessie a quarter. after a small amount of time, I had eaten it!


By Harry

To Mt Cook!

For a few days, I will be walking up steps to get to mt cook!


Day 1


52 meters

Wolf

Wolves

Lifespan: 6-8 years

Height : 66-81 cm 

Speed : 50-60 km/h

Scientific name: canis lupus

Facts about the wolf

1. One wolf can eat 9 kgs in one sitting.
2. Wolves can roam up to sometimes 20 kilometers in a day.
3. A wolf can smell an animal away from 1.6 km
4. Wolves run on their toes which helps them turn quickly and not wear down their paw pads.
5. A wolf howl can be heard up to 10 km away!
6. The strongest male and female pairing lead the pack and are called alphas.
7. The alphas are only wolves to mate in the pack.
8. There are many subspecies of the wolf including the Arctic wolf that howls to communicate.
9. Wolves have deep relationships with their pack and may sacrifice themself or the family unit.
10. Wolves feed their young by chewing up food and throwing up the food in the den.

By Harry