Student Blogging Challenge: So Long, Farewell

Student Blogging Challenge 2015, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello everyone,

This week is the last week of the student blogging challenge and our task is to evaluate our blogs and the Challenge.

My Blog:

Our task is to write an audit about our own blog then ask someone that may not have read our blog to write an audit. We sit next to them as they navigate through our blogs. They record observations and we write a post about what they found.

My audit:

This year I have written mostly school and blogging challenge based posts. Although occasionally I have written one out of interest. I have a reasonable amount of widgets, not to many and they aren’t too distracting. I enjoy changing the theme of my blog if there is a worldwide celebration. My favourite posts so far have been my Water slide of the Week posts I wrote whilst doing my passion project. I enjoyed these posts because I was able to research my favourite thing in the whole wide world, water slides. I received the most amount of comments when year 6 at my school were voting on the best class blogs.

Mum’s audit:

I love your blog. It is interesting to look at and easy to navigate. The font is simple and easy to read. The photos and pictures captured my attention as well as the blog post titles. The blog is well laid out and easy to follow. There are no distractions, not too many widgets and the posts are not too long. I have no specific improvements. Just keep blogging and enjoy sharing your ideas and passions.

The Challenge:

Our task is to write a comment on the Student Blogging Challenge Blog about the positives, the negatives and the interesting parts. What did we learn? How did we improve?

This is my comment:

Hello Mrs W,

I have really enjoyed the October Challenge. Through doing this challenge I have been able to read many different blogs and become a frequent commenter. I have really enjoyed the activities, my favourite was the celebration task. I loved writing about Halloween since it was just before the event, but it would have been great to do one about Christmas. I have enjoyed reading others blogs on the flipboard magazine and have been able to learn many skills whilst doing the challenge. I really enjoyed making an avatar and discovering many great sites to use when decorating my blog for a special celebration. Thank you so much for running the challenge, I have really enjoyed it and I will definitely participate next year.

Rachel.

Farewell Year 6!!!

Celebrations, Creativity, Design, Friends, The End, , , , , , ,

Hello everyone,

It is the end of year six and junior school. This year has been so much fun. As you may know if you have read my earlier posts that on our blogs we have tracked the progress of our passion projects and we have written a choose your own adventure story. I have really enjoyed making great memories with my friends and making the most of every last day. Because I am in year six I was a leader of the school along with all my friends. By leader I don’t mean school captain, I mean that we were role models for the younger students.

In year six we were given the privilege of having a leadership role. I was part of the Voice, which is like the student council. I really enjoyed this role because we got to go to classes and ask them how they think the school could be improved. Their answers had to be realistic but this gives them input into what they think could improve the school. The Voice 2015 were lucky to be able to hold the first annual talent show. We had great fun running this event and it was enjoyable to see the girls take part in creating acts to show the school.

We were also Peer Support leaders. We had a small group of younger girls and every fortnight we met and the year six girls will complete an already prepared activity with them. On our last session my partner and I chose to make clay turtles. I really enjoyed this activity and it was definitely my favourite.

Best wishes for all of the future year 6 girls.

Rachel.

Student Blogging Challenge: Game

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Hello everyone,

This week’s task is a game. It is called Count Out Three.

The rules are:

First visit someone’s blog on the October student list: http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/october-2015-students/ or the October class list: http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/october-2015-classes/ – Count One

Then go to someone’s blog that is on their blogroll. – Count Two

Then go to someone’s blog on their blogroll.  – Count Three

Finally comment on one of their posts.

These were my favourite three:

Firstly I visited

Penelope’s Blog: http://www.xpress360.net.au/gou19penelope/

Then Ava’s Blog: http://avac2015.edublogs.org/

And then ended up on Lizzy’s Blog: http://lizzye2015.edublogs.org/

I commented on her post about food and in my comment I wrote:

Hi Lizzy,

I love those foods so much but my favourite food would have to be ice-cream.

I love your blog!

Secondly I visited:

Gracie’s blog: http://gracievpa.edublogs.org/

Then Emily’s blog: http://emilywvpa.edublogs.org/

And ended up on Kaylynn’s blog: http://kaylynnvpa.edublogs.org/

I commented on her post about Pasta and in my comment I wrote:

Hi Kaylynn,

I love your blog. Those facts were so interesting. I had no idea that America eat 24% of the world consumption of pasta.

Lastly I visited:

Anjali’s blog: http://bloggingwithanjali.edublogs.org/

Then Gemma’s blog: http://gemmas2100.edublogs.org/

And ended up on Emily’s blog:

I commented on her post about Novel Studies and in my comment I wrote:

Hi Emily,

I love your Story board. The scenes that you chose to draw were definitely very important. Who is your favourite character?

 

Totally irrelevant. I met Justice Crew today! How awesome is that!!! I bought a copy of their latest single, Good Time, and they signed it for me.

Justice Crew

http://www.entertainment-focus.com/music-section/music-news/justice-crew-twins-pop/

Here is the Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIUDPIGMlG4

Rachel.

Student Blogging Challenge: Nature

Creativity, Planets, Student Blogging Challenge 2015, The World, , ,

Hello everyone,

This week’s topic is nature. Our task was to write about something in nature. Nature is all around us, it is anything that is not man-made. Here are some examples:

  • Plants
  • Planets
  • Animal
  • Volcanoes, mountains, streams etc.

I chose to write about the discovery of Saturn.

It is unknown who the first person was who saw Saturn. Saturn is one of the five planets that can be seen without any form of invention. Although it is unknown who first saw Saturn, Galileo first discovered it with his telescope.

Galileo was an astronomer from Italy. He discovered Saturn with his telescope in 1610. He also discovered the rings around Saturn using the same instrument. When he first saw Saturn he saw an oval shaped planet. He believed it had what he called “ears” or spheres on either side. Later it was discovered Saturn had a ring rotating around it. Galileo was also the first to discover Saturn’s moon Titan.

Facts about Saturn:

  • Second largest planet in the solar system
  • Its rings are made from ice, rock and dust
  • Saturn is mainly made from helium and gas
  • The length of the rings can almost reach the moon if they are placed directly next to Earth
  • The rings are less than 1 kilometre thick
  • Saturn’s rings are the only rings around planets that you can see from earth as long as you have a telescope
  • A day in Saturn lasts 10 hours and 14 minutes
  • The wind on Saturn can travel up to 1800km per hour
  • 29 earth years is about a year on Saturn
  • Saturday is named after Saturn

A very interesting website with more facts about Saturn is:

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/home/F_Saturn_Fun_Facts_K-4.html

To find out facts about other planets just type fun facts about (then type the name of the planet you are looking for) in the search bar at the top of the site. It will then direct you to the facts about that planet.Saturn!!!
Creative commons image

I created a Wordle using my information above. Here it is:wordle

This week I decided to add a task for you.

Your task is to create your own planet. Describe what it looks like and when it was discovered. Does it have rings? What colour is it? Is there life on the planet? What is it made from? What is it called? How wide is it?

Please write a comment describing your planet. This is an example of a planet I made up.

The name of my planet is Bedlet, it is green in colour and is 1500 kilometres wide. It has rings made from gas and Bedlet itself is made from rock. There is life on the planet called Sendles. It was discovered by mankind on earth on the 18th November 2015. It looks like a sphere and it is the 10th planet from the sun. It is the 9th if you don’t include dwarf planets.

I hope you enjoy completing my task.

Rachel.

Student Blogging Challenge: Go Visiting

Creativity, Food, Student Blogging Challenge 2015, ,

Hello everyone,

This Week

This weeks task was to read ten blogs. The writers of the blog can’t be from your class.

My favourite blogs were:

Auggie’s: https://august866.edublogs.org/

and

Penelope’s: http://www.xpress360.net.au/gou19penelope/

These two blogs are now added to my Blog Roll.

Last Week

Last week I made a google form about food we eat and added it to my post. The winning/most regular foods for each category are:

What is your favourite food? Candy

What do you eat for breakfast? Cereal

What is your favourite fruit or vegetable? Melon

What is your favourite sweet treat? Chocolate

What food do you dislike? Fish

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey.

Rachel.

Fish

Art, Creativity, Fish, ,

Hi everyone,

This term we have been participating in The Global Read Aloud. Every classroom around the world that is participating were given a book. The book is the same for everyone. This year the book is Fish by L.S. Matthews. We were allocated two other classrooms from different countries in the world to work with. Each week we read a certain number of chapters and a teacher in our group posts an activity on Edmodo for the group to complete.

The protagonist in the book is a child called Tiger. In the book it does not mention whether Tiger is a boy or a girl. I think that Tiger is a boy. Throughout this post I will refer to Tiger as being a boy.

This week the activity was to create a storyboard on the events in chapter 8.

This is my storyboard:

Storyboard

Here is a summary of the events on the storyboard:

  1. After eating a cooked root for dinner Tiger dreamt about eating a cooked potato. He had never liked potatoes before but he said that if he had a whole plate of them he would eat them all.
  2. As Tiger’s family start on their descent down the hill to the border they hear a whistling. Tiger turns around to see the silhouette of a man standing, a rock behind him at the top of the hill.
  3. Tiger runs into the scrub after three men start to chase after his family. He hides in a bush.
  4. Tiger finds a hole in the dirt. He scrambles through it, bumping his back every time he moves along.
  5. The three men enter the cave where the tunnel finishes. Tiger hides hoping they won’t see him. The small man in the group turns around when Tiger’s tummy rumbles.
  6. One of the men, Stocky, gets annoyed with the small man and shoots him.
  7. Stocky and the leader of the group leave the small man by the mud stream.
  8. Tiger’s parents and their guide find Tiger after he ran away to escape the three men. They comfort him.

In chapter nine I predict that Tiger’s family will hurry to make it to the border. I think that when they get there they will be allowed to cross and the guide will reveal what really happened to his family.

Rachel.

Student Blogging Challenge: Food

Food, Research, Student Blogging Challenge 2015, , ,

Hello everyone,

This week’s topic is about food.

Activity 1: 

Write a post on food that is popular in your country.

Damper:

Damper, otherwise known as soda bread has been around for many years. In the old days of the bush rangers, they used to sit around their campfire cooking damper. Damper has a simple recipe containing:

  • Wheat flour
  • Water
  • A pinch of salt

You mix all of these ingredients together until they form a dough, then you put it on a stick or skewer and cook it over a campfire.

f1

http://firefoodie.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/aussie-damper-bread-on-stick-chapter-4.html

Anzac Biscuits:

Anzac biscuits were eaten by the Australian and New Zealand soldiers during World War 1. Anzac Biscuits were given in their rations as a substitution for bread. Many wives also made and sent it to their loved ones fighting in the war. Its recipe consists of:

  • Rolled oats
  • Flour
  • Sugar
  • Golden syrup
  • Butter
  • Bicarbonate of soda
  • Water

If you go on this website you can follow the step by step guide on how to make them:

http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/anzac-biscuits-L79.html

Although some recipes include coconut it is not how they were originally made. The biscuits do not contain egg so they last longer. That is why they were a great food in war time.

f2

http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/anzac-biscuits-L79.html

I got my information from:

http://travel.cnn.com/sydney/eat/40-foods-australians-call-their-own-651613

Activity 2:  

Visit Inside Scoops Taco Tuesday post to learn what their students eat for lunch.  Leave a comment on Taco Tuesday post to let them know what you eat for school lunches in where you live or write a post to share what school lunches are like where you live.

School Lunches

School lunches for me usually contain a:

  • Salad, wrap or sandwich
  • Piece of fruit
  • Packet of crisps or crackers
  • Sweet treat (like a biscuit)

In the summer I would also have a frozen water to cool me down. Occasionally I have a lunch order from the school canteen. I enjoy having:

  • Chicken nuggets
  • Tomato sauce
  • Banana bread
  • Chocolate milk

My home prepared school lunches I have in a lunch box and I receive my canteen school lunches in a paper bag.

f3

http://www.abcteach.com/documents/clip-art-lunch-box-red-15217

Activity 3:  

Create a poll or survey and embed it into a post to find out more about the types of foods eaten by your readers.

This is a survey I have created on what you eat:

Activity 4:

Visit at least 5 blogs from countries other than your own. Leave a comment on a post at each blog to ask them questions about food in their country. Now write your own post including the comment you have left and linking to each post you commented on.

Here are the blogs I have visited:

http://rm12otonga2015.blogspot.co.nz/2015/11/student-challenge-week-5-food.html

Room 12,
I really enjoyed your post on New Zealand foods.
What are your favourite New Zealand foods?
Rachel.

http://victoriaw06.edublogs.org/2015/11/03/some-of-australias-favourite-foods/ – comment-20

Hi Victoria,
I loved your video on the top 5 Aussie foods.
Are any of these one of your favourite foods?
My favourite is Tim Tams.
Rachel.

http://www.xpress360.net.au/gou19penelope/2015/11/03/whats-your-favourite-food/

Hi Penelope,
I really liked your survey about favourite foods.
What is your least favourite food?
Mine is brussel sprouts.
Rachel.

https://kidblog.org/class/qd6sally/posts/7a8gl58fca343nnhz0w0wsr8x

Hi Sally,
I love your post on food in Korea.
What are the ingredients in Kimchi?
Rachel.

https://kidblog.org/class/qd6uliana/posts/7f294erlitiyzhz5kv7yzcgxu

Hi Uliana,
Pranik sounds like a really yummy Russian food.
Do you have a picture of it?
Rachel.

I hope you enjoyed my post about food.

Rachel.

Student Blogging Challenge: Celebrating Creatively

Celebrations, Creativity, Halloween, Student Blogging Challenge 2015, , , , , ,

Hello everyone,

This week’s theme is about celebrating Halloween.

Activity 1: Dress up your blog for Halloween

To dress up my blog for Halloween I added a haunted house moving widget and a pumpkin background.

  • I redeemed the widget from: FG-A.com
  • I redeemed the background image from: Pixabay

I chose the haunted house widget because it was simple and not too distracting. It was one of my favourites because I think that the house was scarier than the pumpkins. I thought that the haunted house would not scare younger kids as some of the images may and I thought it was the most appropriate for this topic. There are many other great widgets on the website for different celebrations of the year. So if you have a blog I would recommend decorating it using widgets from: FG-A.com

I chose the pumpkin background because I thought that it would be a contrast to the haunted house. The orange works well with the colour of my purple header. Because of the black it makes my blog look spooky and mysterious, which is the theme I want for Halloween. If you need a creative commons image, Pixabay is a great website to look at. If you have an account and click on the image it will tell you it’s licence. So I would recommend looking at Pixabay .

Activity 2:  Write some poetry or a spooky story about Halloween.

I wrote this acrostic poem called ‘Be prepared to be scared’.

Be prepared to be scared !!!

Activity 3:  Write a post about how you celebrate Halloween or the History of Halloween.

I live in Australia and in my neighbourhood we go trick or treating or we hand out lollies. Not all of the neighbourhood participates but many do. Owners decorate their houses with Halloween themed decorations if they have lollies to hand out. Here are some of the decorations that a few of the houses have already put up.

h5   h9

h12    h13

h1   h2

This year I am going trick or treating with my friend Megan and then we’re coming back to my house to give out lollies. We are looking forward to decorating the house. Here are two of the decorations:

h10     h11

At the house the owner will either give you a lolly straight away or say “trick”. When they say trick they want you to tell them a joke or perform an act. Usually when I get asked that, I would tell this joke:

Q. How do you make a witch itch?

A. Take away her W

If you know a Halloween joke could you please tell me it via a comment. I would really appreciate some ideas for this year.

Because so many people celebrate Halloween in my area, this year the most popular and well decorated street has added a rules list.

h15 Rules

This year donations are going to Save The Children.

This I how we celebrate Halloween in my neighbourhood. How do you celebrate it in yours?

Activity 4:  Show off your Halloween creativity using some different tools such as powtoon, thinglink, padlet, glogster, soundcloud, poll daddy and embed them into a post.

I used Toondoo to create my poster about Halloween. On the poster it shows what my neighbourhood usually do on Halloween. I hope you like it.

Tondoo link: http://www.toondoo.com/

All images retrieved from Toondoo.

Please do not use without my permission.Halloween

Rachel.

Student Blogging Challenge Week 3: Images

Movies, Student Blogging Challenge 2015, Videos, Writing, , , , , ,

Hello everyone,

This week’s topic is about images.

Activity 1: Write a post about a favourite time with your family.

My favourite thing to do with my family is to spend time with them, no matter what we are doing together. Spending time with them is unsurpassable and I am really glad that I am able to be with them. Being with them is better than anything in the world, whether we are doing something amazing or boring I will still enjoy it because I am with my family. I especially enjoy it when we are playing sport together or swimming at the beach. We get to bond and have fun, eating ice cream and playing games. I really love it when I play fetch with my dog Sandy. She scampers around the garden chasing after the ball keeping it in her mouth whilst I try to grasp it from her.  It is so exciting when my extended family visit from overseas because I get to spend time with them. I don’t usually see them so whatever we do it is enjoyable. Any minute I have a chance to spend with my family I will take it. Everything is better when my family is there.

This is my dog Sandy:

Sandy Hanky        Keep calm and be with family

Activity 2: Write a post about a person who has passed away.

Ninny was my step grandma on my mum’s side. She died last year on ANZAC day, which is on the 25th April. She lived in England and was always very kind and funny. She joked around which always made me laugh. After her death I was devastated, I couldn’t believe what had happened. She had tea parties with me and took me to events with my grandad. I really enjoyed every minute I had with her. She loved playing Spotto and whenever we passed a yellow bin she claimed it was a yellow car, so she always won. (In Spotto you have to see who can find the most yellow cars. WARNING: It is very addictive on road trips). She knitted me a blanket and bought me presents. She enjoyed being around me but unfortunately a year after I left England after a holiday she passed away because of lung cancer. My mum said she used to smoke when I wasn’t around, I had no idea. She will always be in my mind and heart for as long as I live.

Nin 1      Nin3

Activity 3. Have a relative write a post about their parents or grandparents

I asked my parents about my Grandma on my dad’s side, Lesley. They said: Sadly she passed away five days after I was born so I didn’t get to meet her. She was born in Glasgow, Scotland during World War II. Her favourite sport was tennis and she played the accordion. She trained as an actuary so was good with numbers and maths and was a vegetarian. She had a dream when she was at school to live in a cottage overlooking a loch (a Scottish lake) or water and a castle. And her dream came true. She eventually lived on a remote Scottish Island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland called Barra, in a little stone cottage overlooking a bay and a medieval castle called Kisimul. Barra has an unusual airport as the planes have to land on the beach at low tide. It is also supposed to have the whitest sand in the world. Grandma loved the island and enjoyed walking and swimming. She volunteered in the church charity shop. She also collected things. Lots of things. Rocks, shells, wood and other bits and pieces that washed up on the beaches.

One day I hope to visit the Isle of Barra and see where she lived. I think I would have really liked her.

gran l 1   gran l 2

Activity 4. Add at least one new widget to your sidebar

I chose to add Tigger the tiger as a new widget. I thought that I needed to add something that would catch people’s attention. When I first added Kokoro the panda I received great responses from people on how they loved him, so I decided to add another animal. It was a very tough decision between a penguin and a tiger but I finally decided that the tiger was cuter. I added Tigger the tiger.

Tigger the Tiger

Bunnyhero labs is where Tigger was born. It is a great website that is easy to understand if you want to make a virtual pet widget for your blog. Here is the link:

http://bunnyherolabs.com/adopt/

Activity 5. What have you learnt about using images on your blog? Write a post, create a poster or video explaining your understanding now.

This is my video on using images. I hope you like it:

Creative Commons

All images and videos belong to me and my family.  I have permission to use them.  They cannot be used by anyone else.

Rachel.

Raise Your Voice

RSPCA, Student Blogging Challenge 2015, , ,

Hello everyone,

Today is Blog Action Day. Blog Action Day is when people from all over the world write a post on their blog about a set topic. This year the topic is ‘Raise Your Voice’. I have decided to raise my voice about pet cruelty. Why let them suffer when they have done nothing wrong?

I think that pet cruelty is an important issue. Pet cruelty is when a person is violent towards their pet or neglects them (like not feeding them, not taking them for walks or leaving them on the street). Many people hurt or abuse their pets for no reason. Sometimes they may die or be injured because of someone’s violent actions. I believe that animals should NOT be hurt under any circumstances. There is no reason to treat a pet with cruelty. Every pet has their own freedoms:

  1. Being able to access clean water and fresh food
  2. Being able to live in an appropriate environment, with shelter and a bed
  3. The ability to be treated and get properly cared for if they have an injury
  4. The ability to play and have facilities to be able to meet animals of their own kind
  5. Making sure they are not stressed, looking after them and ensuring that they are safe

Pet Creulty Photo

We need to speak up for pets all around the world that are being treated with cruelty. Even though it is illegal to abuse pets, people still do it. In Australia the offenders could be faced with heavy fines or even imprisonment. Every year the RSPCA cares for 127,000 stray, injured or abused animals and receive over 58,000 complaints of neglect or abuse towards their animals. The RSPCA stands for Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Find out more facts and how you can fundraise, donate or buy merchandise to help these animals by visiting the RSPCA website. Their October fundraiser ‘Happy Tails’ is a great way to help. Here is the link: http://www.rspca.org.au/

Please make sure that you look after your pets and if you see someone hurting their pets you can call the RSPCA and make a difference today.

All of this I have obtained from the RSPCA website in Australia. Maybe you could find the organisation in your country which helps to stop neglect and abuse towards pets.

Sign on Pet Cruelty

Rachel.