Times Tables

A few seconds ago, I just completed my 'Big Times Tables Diploma, ' on Timestables.co.nz

In the past few weeks, I have been practising my times tables and trying to learn them by heart, and this website is a great place to learn and memorize them.

On the home page, you can click on any of the times tables you need to work on, and it will take you to the '5 Step Plan.'

First, they show you the answers so you can re-read and recite what they are. 

Then, you scroll down and have to write in order the answers underneath. 

Next, you drag and drop the answers into the squares. You're just repeating the times tables in different ways so it makes you comfortable with the multiplication.

Once you've finished the next step of re-writing the solutions into the muddled up boxes, you take a mini quiz of the times tables, before taking your diploma. If you get all your answers correct, you complete whichever diploma you chose. In this example, it was the sevens.

You get a medal for each times table you complete, and once you start recognizing and remembering them, you can move on to your Big Diploma that includes bits of all the times tables.
 👍

Graffiti - Art or Vandalism

Today everyone in my reading group presented a google slides on whether we thought graffiti is art or vandalism. Here is what I think.

Math is Back.

Hi! I am back in Gisborne and back at school. We arrived quite a while ago and today I will be sharing with you some maths I have recently learnt in class.
It's called B.E.D.M.A.S.
It stands for: Brackets, Exponents, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction. 

Enjoy!

My Chocolate Paradise

Exactly two days, eleven hours, and forty minutes ago, we went to a chocolate making workshop. The taste of icing may be permanently stuck on my tongue. It's in a kibbutz called Dafna, and in my opinion, it has the potential to out-do Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

First, we entered the chocolate store. All over the room there were chocolate shoes, footballs, teddy bears, and love hearts with all kinds of chocolate flavours. It got even better as we visited the museum.

The museum was only a room big, but you could see all the workers making chocolate through a glass wall. I was kind of hoping they would be short and orange with curly green hair, but oompa loompas or not, it was still awesome to watch the process of chocolate making. On the other side of the room, we could see the chocolate masterpieces - I had a few favourites.

After we had a look at the museum, we went to our chocolate workshop. A lady was waiting in a large room lined with tables. First, we were quizzed about the different types of chocolate, how to tell them apart, and its history. She let us taste chocolate without the sugar, and our reaction wasn't pretty.

Next, she scattered small, laminated drawings over the table. We picked our own, and I chose a cute, little mouse. The drawings were simple and easy to trace, which is exactly what we did with chocolate icing. We went over all the lines, and then filled the middle in with white chocolate, leaving just the outline.

While we waited for those to freeze, the lady squirted a thick strip of white chocolate across the table. She gave us a plate filled with sprinkles, another with coconut, and our own with four chocolate truffles. We got to decorate them. We rolled them into balls and dipped them in the white chocolate to stick our chosen toppings together. We could also keep them as cubes and just layer the top with the white chocolate, then design it with our leftover chocolate icing.

As we added the final touches to our truffles, our other creations had set. The lady called out our names and we came up to collect them - they turned out so well! We were sitting next some friendly americans, and we all joined in a celebratory picture.

Mission Impossible, Sort of.

Around a week ago, we went to another Escape Room in Rosh Pina ( a town in Israel. )
Since the last one was so fun, we decided to do a harder one at Inside Out.
We were in Paris, and our objective was to track down a terrorist group. According to the tape recorder I found in the second room; the terrorists had hidden a bomb. As part of the story, a recorded message from an agent informed us that we had to find it, put it in the 'Atomic Vault,' and quickly get in the bunker to avoid the explosion. After he finished explaining our mission, the sound of screaming and gunshots emitted from the tape recorder. Yikes.

First, we were on a 'train.' In that room we found a phone, which the lady running the Escape Room used to text us clues if we needed them. We managed to get out of that room pretty quickly.

The second room was the biggest and the hardest to escape from. There were lots of different spices in bowls on a table, and later we figured out that we had to smell them and compare them to the smell of some spices hidden in boxes. The spices in the bowls all had symbols sticking out of them. On the table, there was also a piece of paper with the symbols deciphered into numbers. We then used those numbers to open the lock under the table.

There were many different objects and things in the room, but some of them were just decoys to throw us off. I found the tape recorder in that room. Our last room was all about teamwork. In short, it was really tricky but we managed to find the bomb and put it in the vault. We finished in around an hour. 

Yay!

The Blood Moon...

There's a first time for everything.

A few nights ago, our entire family gathered around to watch the Lunar Eclipse. We walked over to our cousins, and they set up a telescope for a better view. Unfortunately, when I looked through all I saw was a reflection of my eyelash. It was my first Lunar Eclipse and the longest of the century. In between watching the moon, we had snacks and played games outside to pass the time.

It was a very long process but completely worth it. There were no clouds in the sky, and it was surrounded by shiny little stars. At first, the moon was its normal colour, but then it slowly started fading away and turning orange. By the time we went home, it was bright red,

and later it gradually turned back to grey.

There is a big difference between a Lunar Eclipse and a Solar Eclipse. A Solar Eclipse happens during the day and is when the Moon eats the Sun. A Lunar Eclipse happens at night and is when the Earth separates the Moon and the Sun - probably because they were trying to eat each other. The moon passes behind Earth and in front of the Sun, so the planets are aligned closely, with the Earth stuck in the middle.

We were extremely lucky; 

the Lunar Eclipse only happened in 

Europe, North Africa and the Mediterranean Countries!

Stolen Mona Lisa...

The Mona Lisa had gone missing...

and we had to find it.

Back in Kfar Blum, me, mum, dad, and my brother went to an Escape Room in another kibbutz near us.

An Escape Room is basically a game where you're trapped in a room, and you have to crack codes and solve riddles using clues to escape. A man told us the rules, and what we were going to be doing. We were private investigators who were sent to retrieve the stolen Mona Lisa, return it to the museum, and arrest the thief - Carmen Amzalez - before the museum opened to the public.

The first interactive escape room opened in Japan in 2007, and now there are over 1,850 in the US, 350 in the UK, and 408 in Canada. There are lots of different themes like: Bank Robberies and prison breaks, Crime investigations and Zombie apocalypses, and some you just need to escape the room.

Our time limit was an hour and we just reached it. It was so confusing; I don't even remember half of the things we did. There were all sorts of locks and hidden clues and riddles. There was artwork all over the walls like you would see in a museum, and random things that you would not see in a museum.
A bucket of different keys, a sandcastle, giant red buttons, etc. You had to really think outside of the box but despite the struggles, we found the Mona Lisa and managed to finish in precisely
59 minutes - a minute before our timer went off. We had so much fun and Leonardo Da Vinci would be proud.

Western Wall and Tunnel Tour!

Another attraction we went to was the Western Wall.

The Western Wall is an old, sacred wall made out of limestone in Jerusalem. Another word for it is the Wailing Wall, or Kotel in Hebrew. The wall is around 50 metres long and 20 metres high. 

The ancient wall has been there for around 2,036 years and is the most famous landmark in Israel.

Visitors and tourists are supposed to write a wish or a prayer on a piece of paper and then slip it into cracks between the stones on the wall. You can write as many as you want but my Auntie told me that only the first wish comes true. In true tourist fashion, we had the full experience and went underground for a tour of the Western Wall Tunnels.

We went to an underground room where the tour guide was explaining the Old City to a group of people. The Old City is an area within the modern city of Jerusalem. The ceilings and walls were all made out of stone, and the room split into different tunnels leading deeper underground. The tour guide talked to our group about the history of the Western Wall and the tunnels. Since the tunnels ran through the Western Wall, we got to put our wish on it from the inside. We were all grateful to be away from the heat outside and it was a experience we will never forget.

The Zoo!

Shortly after coming to Kfar Blum, we went to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and takes a couple hours by car to get there from Kfar Blum. Jerusalem is also one of the oldest cities in the world, and is about 64 kilometres from the Mediterranean sea. The entire city is on hills, with many valleys around it. We went with our cousins ( the same ones who went kayaking with us ) and they had been planning this trip for a while.

Straight away, we went to the Jerusalem zoo.
Luckily, the zoo was close to the hotel we were staying in, so it was a quick car trip.
The Jerusalem Biblical Zoo covers around 404686 square metres of land and is rated the best, ( and only ) zoo in Jerusalem. The zoo was established in 1940 and a new aquarium is planned for the future. We stayed there the entire day and despite the heat, we saw lots of amazing animals.
Even better; there were alpacas there!                 

Alpaca Facts: Alpacas can live up to 20 years and they don't spit at humans very often.




Wolf Facts: Wolves are the largest members of the dog family and they eat large animals such as deer, elk and moose.

Leopard Facts: Leopards are super fast and can run up to 58 kilometres per hour! They love climbing trees and can leap 6 metres forward in the air. They weigh from 36 to 90 kilos, but females are slightly lighter than males.

Giraffe Facts:

Giraffes are the tallest mammals on earth and can live up to 26 years old. They only need to drink once every few days and lots of water comes 

from the plants that they eat. 

Giraffes sleep standing up and rarely lie down.

Tiger Facts: They are awesome.


We enjoyed it so much and it's not every day you get to see two wolves play tug of war with their food!

Note: 

These animal photos are from the zoo's website - 

(our camera ran out of battery halfway through.) 

http://www.jerusalemzoo.org/home-english

Our Holiday in Israel

Shalom! :)

A few days ago, we arrived in Israel - a Middle Eastern country on the Mediterranean Sea.

Our dad grew up in Israel along with his entire family, and many, many pets. We're staying in a Kibbutz where he lived. Their are many kibbutzim in Israel, but our Kibbutz, Kfar Blum, is a small community where everyone chips in to help each other to get an even share of everything. There is no money, no fences, barely any cars and grass everywhere. There is also a local supermarket, pool, hotel, school, laundry and a dining room for everyone to enjoy. Everything is only a bike away and the entire kibbutz is basically one big family.

Yesterday, mum, dad, me, my brother and our cousins went kayaking along the Jordan River. The Jordan river is around 252 kilometres long and flows from West Asia to the Dead Sea. The cold water was really nice under the 30-degree heat, and I had a great time; especially when I 'accidently' hit my brother Shai in the head with an oar.  The river is still home to a huge variety of wildlife and birds. Over 500 species of birds are migrating to the area seasonally, and a few swooped into the water and sat on the edge of our boat. The rapids were pretty smooth and we all got in one big raft. The day was perfect and we all had so much fun!

My Positive and Negative Art!

A few weeks ago, we learnt about Positive and Negative space with our art.

We had an A3 coloured piece of paper 

and a squared, black A4 piece of paper.  

We cut out random patterns out of 

the black piece of paper and flipped 

it round the other way, so there was a 

positive and negative space. 

Here is my artwork. :)

StoryBird Digital Quickwrite

Hi!
As well as a quick write, each week we do a Digital Quickwrite on Storybird.
(https://storybird.com/create/)

Last week, we had to write a picture book about a messy room.

We had to drag and drop pictures of a messy room onto a blank sheet, and then write our own words into the text boxes on the page. 

We could add as many pages as we wanted, and got inspiration from some picture books in our class.

Here is my 'Messy Wonderland' story.

:)

My Quickwrite!

Hi. :)
Everyday, we do a Quickwrite.
The whole class is given the start of a random sentence and we have to complete it.
My latest Quick Write started like this:

Mud oozed up between my toes as 
the sun began its descent, hardening the blanket of mud confining me. Dry particles of dirt scattered aimlessly in different directions, continuously spraying soil in the air like a sprinkler.
The sky had now transformed into a murky, coral colour, accompanied by clouds fluffier than marshmallows.
A giant stadium encircled the mud fighting arena, hosting thousands of fans wearing tacky t-shirts with catchy slogans like: 'Mud Fight 4 Life,' and 'Squirt Some Dirt!'
The crazed fans screamed and hollered in delight as they watched contestants pelt me with mud balls, cheering in unison as the competitors struck their signature poses.
As the torturous day came to an end, the crowd filed out of the arena, snickering as they reminisced the afternoon's events. The remaining crusty patches of mud peeled off my skin, and I smiled confidently to myself when an encouraging thought resurfaced in my mind.
I was going to beat them tomorrow.

Thank you for reading!

My Chapter Chat Art

This is my Crested Caracara information report.
I made this as a Chapter Chat activity and then posted the finished artwork on twitter alongside all the other creations other people had made.

Chapter Chat is an event where we all read a shared book -  the current one is called The Explorer - and every Friday, we answer questions about the book as a class.
Schools all around New Zealand participate in Chapter Chat and share their artworks and answers on twitter.


I hope you like it! 

Welcome to my blog

Hi, my name is Kaya, and I'm a year 6 at Wainui Beach School.

I live in Wainui, Gisborne, and I love alpacas, rainbows, and making people smile.

I have two cute cats and an awesome twin brother.

I'll be sharing my learning with you, so please leave some positive feedback and

Keep Calm

And

Be A Llama!