More Camp Reflections

We have posted some more camp reflections on our writing blog. The new posts are written by Lydia, Maggie, Eva, and Kahlee. There will be more later on in the week, so watch this space! Please remember to comment on the writing that you read - it makes a big difference to the students, and it does not need to be long or detailed at all.

Camp Reflections

As part of our assessment portfolios going home in a couple of weeks, Pod 11 wrote reflections about their experiences on camp in Mangawhai. Here are a few from the boys. You can read the writing from Connor, Lewis, Chaice, and Tony. We were trying to make sure that we used "thinking words" so that the reader would understand what we were thinking and feeling.
We will have more posts soon with more reflections.

A Slow Week

This past week has not been particularly exciting, as we all have been trying to complete our assessments for the portfolios that will be going home later in the term. I must admit that I have been impressed with both the attitude that most students have shown, and the quality of work that they have produced.

Today has seen most students complete their final assessment - a written reflection based on their experiences while on camp back in late April. We tried very hard to include "thinking words" so that readers can know our feelings and opinions about our experiences in Mangawhai. We will soon have some of the great writing up on our writer's blog here.

We look forward to seeing you back here again soon. Please don't forget to comment on our blog, on any post - we love to hear from our audience!

Camp Leters

During the week we have been writing letters to the parents that came on camp with us. We are very lucky that we get so much support from our parents, so Pod 11 have been writing letters to show their appreciation.

Go to our Writer's Blog to see some of them. You can also see Meg's report about Sea Squirts from last term. Kahlee's letter to Ra is here, Sarah's letter to Adele is here, and Julius' letter to Jason is here.

Camp Photos

Here is a short and quick selection of photos from our Mangawhai camp. The movie was made at animoto.com website, and uploaded to YouTube. Hopefully we'll have some more to come soon.

Another Octopus Attack

After reading about the Octopus attack from 1982, we found an article in the NZ Herald about a recent attack. It turns out that a Wellington diver had his camera 'stolen' by an octopus while it was still filming. The footage that was recorded is very interesting.

You can read the NZ Hereld article here
You can see the footage from the camera on YouTube here
You can also see an interview with the diver on American TV, also on YouTube, here

Attacked by an Octopus

During the first week of term, Pod 11 read about a diver that was attacked by an Octopus just off the Wellington coast. Here is some of the information that Eva and Maggie learnt from the story.

"Attacked by an Octopus"

The divers were diving off the coast of Wellington. They were taking pictures of sea life for a book. They broke "the golden rule" of staying together. Dave was attacked by an octopus.

Dave had to let his camera go because the octopus was attacking it. The octopus “Enveloped the camera” which means it surrounding the camera. He dropped heavy rocks to distract it, but that didn’t work because the pressure of the water made them sink down gently. Dave tried to free himself by punching the octopus between the eyes.

Octopus are good mothers because they will do anything to protect their eggs/babies. The Octopus probably acted this way because it was trying to protect it’s eggs.
Four ways an Octopus can get away from danger are:
1.squeezing through tiny cracks
2.swimming away very fast
3.spraying ink
4. changing colour to match it’s surroundings

The story that we read is called "Attacked by an Octopus" From School Journal 1982, Part 4, Number 3, Pages 44-47.