The Broken Arm

Today at school we had to practice what to do when someone has a critical injury such as a broken arm. We have done this to practice for camp in case someone gets hurt on a walk.

We had to get into our camp groups and discuss who would play the role as the injured person, the camera crew, and last but not least the 'Nurse'. Once that was done we had to take 6 photos for 6 scenes. For each photo we had to write instructions of what to do when someone is in agony.

We used glad wrap as a bandage for many reasons like, it is easy to twist to put more pressure on gashes, it won't stick to your skin if its a burn. Also when you need to see what's going on glad wrap is see through.

Today we had so much fun and I am looking forward to doing more work on First Aid.

John Roil, bush safety

On the 15th of April we had a special guest come to room 17 to teach us about bush safety, his name was John Roil. John has spent some time in the territorial force and the regular force so he is very experienced with living outdoors.

Before you go tramping there are a few rules you need to know. First you should contact at least two people and tell them you're going outdoors and what time you should be back in case of an emergency. By telling two people you have to remember to ring them as soon as you get back in case they think you're lost. Another rule is to train for your walk instead of just acting like you can handle it. A way to help with your training is to wear woollen socks, two pairs will still give you blisters but woollen socks are supposed to prevent blisters from happening. Talking about suitable clothes wear some comfortable shoes that have adjusted to your feet. For your legs you should wear some nice warm pants with shorts overtop. Finally the last part  of your dress code, you need a thermal singlet with a short sleeve t-shirt overtop.

When you’re packing your home away from home bag always remember to pack your sleeping gear at the bottom of your bag. On top of that you have a torch, water, batteries, lighter, food, warm clothes, a tent, and a beanie. Next in your bag is the easy to reach appliances such as: drink bottle, wet weather gear, and extra space to put on or take off clothes.  

There are some outdoor rules that you need to follow to stay safe outside. STAR is one of the most important rules, STAR stands for Stop, Think, Asses, Respond. Another rule is avoiding certain types of plants that could harm you. Those plants are stinging nettle and bush lawyer. Last but not least when needing to stop make sure the whole group stops or if you have gone too far off the track stay put don’t go wandering around thinking you know the way back it could cause more trouble.

My Nana's roast dinner

We sat on the couch with our noses filled with the sweet smell of roast. My Mum had just pulled out the lamb and stirred up all the vegetables with the creamy cheese sauce. We had a range of food, lamb, stuffed potatoes, veggies with sauce and peas. The food was all cooked by the wonderful chef, my Mum. The table was set out perfectly with the dinner spread out. We all sat down covering our plates in the delicious feast.

The reason we were having this scrumptious dinner was to celebrate my Nanas birthday. She was turning 51 and I could tell it was the best 51st birthday ever. Her presents contained a Samsung tablet and homemade cards filled with hugs, kisses and horrifying singing.

“Happy birthday to you, put you hand down the loo, if you feel something squishy, it’s a present for you.”

“Hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray” we screamed the song rapidly.

    

Carbon footprint difference

Our Earth produces something called greenhouse gases. Greenhouse Gas is in the atmosphere (like water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) they are all useful because they trap heat, warming our planet. If we didn’t have this heat our planet would be 30 degrees Celsius colder, making it very hard for humans to live.

In recent years, huge amounts of greenhouse gases have been released into the atmosphere. Now because of the extra greenhouse gas larger amounts of warmth is being trapped. Our planet is getting extremely hot unless we act fast.

The ways we can stop too much greenhouse gas getting trapped in our atmosphere is to:

-Plant trees and bushes   

-Eat less meat, plant your own veggies

-Switch off household objects when you have finished with them.

-If its a sunny day use the clothesline instead of using the washing machine

-Try and stop using heaters and air conditioning, if hot or cold change your outfit to suit the temperature you want

-Walk, bike or use public transport to get around

-learn to cook, buy bulk bags of food which is using less packaging

-use a compost instead of taking food scraps to the dump

-wear hand-me-downs or op shop clothes

I have received this information from the School journal, part 3, number 1, 2011  

The legend of Tapu springs

In room 17 we had to read the Tapu Springs Legend. We then all read it as a class. I think it was a great story and I got sucked into it straight away.
Once we had read it all we had to write down 6 main events. We chose: The taniwha children getting water from the sacred lake, the chief turning the children into stone, Haumapuhia refusing to go and get some water from the far lake, The Chief getting the water himself but waits there, Haumapuhia goes looking for her father and he tries to drown her, last of all Haumapuhia turns into a taniwha and bashes against the mountains making the river.
We then drew a plan and wrote down some information we could use. Once everyone was up to date we retold the story on comic life, drew the pictures and stuck it in our camp book. 

Beach waves

The whirling sound of the waves rebounding echoes,

I run along the damp sand.

My togs feel like their super glued to my skin.

I sprint down to the crashing waves,

My feet get soaked with salty water.

I suddenly dive in noticing my body growing colder,

I push my head up gasping for air.

By Madison,

Aged 10.  

Glow worms

GLOW WORMS

There are 12 species of glow worms.

Glow Worms live world wide. They prefer moist caves or woodlands. Their habitats need to be moist because the eggs can only survive in damp habitats when they are growing.

Glow worms like undisturbed territory.

They have a coal black body when they are young sometimes when they are older they can turn brown. Their light can change from yellow to green and they use them every night.

They can grow up to 2.5 - 5.0 cm in size.

Glow worms use their light to attract their mates at night by sticking their butt up in the air and seeing whose is brightest.Their light can also be dangerous and can attract predators. once the glow worms have mated they lay 50-100 yellow eggs. The eggs take 3-6 weeks to hatch but they speed up the progress if the weather is warm. The baby glow worm takes 9 months to grow up then it turns into a pupa (cocoon) that takes 2 weeks. They then hatch and become an adult within 3 days.

There are only a few animals that threat glow worms like, spiders, birds, bats and centipedes. Glow worms don’t have many predators mainly animals that can reach them in their caves.

Glow worms eat little amount of food and are omnivores but they do desire meat such as slugs and snails. Glow worms use their attractive light to make their prey enter the cave. Once their prey has entered the cave they will be trapped in the sticky threads that the glow worms have made. They can then tell when the threads have caught something because the glow worms get a sense of vibration. The glow worm will then strangle the other bug to death. After the long process the glow worm will enjoy sucking out the juices or eating the full body.

Glow worms are threatened because of their short lifespan and because of their tail attracting more predators.

The scientific name for the Glow worm is Arachnocampa Luminosa.