Discovering Aotearoa

My names Paerau Siale, Im 13 years old and my nationality is Tongan/Cook Island. My dad is Tongan and my mum is Cook Island, both cultures have similarities but are two very different cultures . 

My mum comes from the island known really well for there pearl farms and black pearls in the Cook Island, called Manihiki.  

15 Islands in Cook Island and there names are. Rarotonga, Manihiki, Aitutaki, Mitiaro, Aitu, Mangaia, Takutea, Palmerston, Manuae, Suwarrow, Pukapuka, Rakahanga, Penrhyn and Nassau Island. The most common and populated Island is Rarotonga and the capital city of Rarotonga is Avarua. My mum is from Manihiki and Rarotonga from the Cook Islands. 

My dad is from a Island called Vava'u in Tonga. The Islands known for its beautiful view and it's outstanding waterfalls. The Vava'u Island is so small almost everyone knows everything. The Island has so many amazing views and stunning places to visit.

 Here are some interesting facts about my dad's Side. Did you know that in Tonga it's illegal to conduct business, play sports or even do chores on sundays. why? Because most of Tonga shut down on sundays due to favors of family, church, resting and eating. The two official languages in Tonga are Tongan and English. However, don't just think you'll get by just knowing how to count in Tongan. 

Tonga and Cook Island is a brilliant and entertaining place to visit. You get fresh air, delicious food and amazing views. In Rarotonga there is a place called Te Vara Nui in the city. Te Vara Nui has brilliant and entertaining performances with mouth-watering meals, all representing the Cook Island tradition.  I suggest  you take a  visit to Tonga or the Cook Islands, it's flooded with excitement and addicting foods. 

Art Colouring

 

Here is a image that I coloured in on a site called, Art Colouring Books. I chose this image to colour in because it reminded me of a old and rusty photo that  I found while me and my mum were cleaning and going through our family's old stuff in the basement. The image that I coloured in  looks exactly like how it does in the photo expect for the background.

The photo had my grandmother and grandpa, and In the corner of my eye I could see on the window ceiling a captivating rose plant that was immensely healthy. I love flowers because they look really elegant when they bloom. My grandma got the plant from my grandpa on valentines. The rose symbolizes love and romance. 

I liked going through all our old stuff because it gives me memories from back then. I found lots of old things that I used to have when I was little, sadly we had to let some go because we didn't have enough space for everything.

Technology

 Cooking (Technology): 

Today I have to do a blog about all my technology classes. and my group and I first went to cooking class and learned how to cook recipes like curry,fruits and yogurt. Our teacher's name was Mrs Hamer and We were put into groups and every group had there own kitchen so everyone could cook. We got the chance to make a yogurt fruit jar which was Mrs Hamers traditional dessert in her culture. We first had to dice and slice all the fruits and put the fruits in making a rainbow design going upwards. After we were done doing that we put the yogurt in. Everyone rated the food and it was a 9/10. Everytime we came to our cooking class we would make different desserts. Our second meal we had to make was a curry and our third meal was a salad.

Science (Technology):

At science my group and I had completed all our work that we were given so we learned about plastic, bones and skeletons,pollution and earthworms. I am going to talk about what we did when we were learning about bones and skeletons. In science everyone had to be included so everyone got the opportunity to speak about what they know about bones and skeletons. When we finished talking our teacher Mrs yanny gave us real animal bones and a dead fish she found on the road to learn about and discover. When we were done we put them back in the box, boiled the fish and got the fish out to see its bones. We wrote and learned the fish bone names and drawed a front,side and under skeleton of the fish in our science books.

Hard Materials (Technology):

In my hard materials class there was a teacher named Mr Grundy. Although, his name is similar to grumpy he is actually very kind and helpful. We learned how to make a necklace out of pewter and we had a workbook that my group and I had to complete while creating our project. I learned how to use a saw machine and also learned that aluminum (metal) is very poisonous and dangerous for baby which is why we didn't use it. Mr Grundy helped me make the necklace for a very special person. I finished the workbook and I also finished my project so now I don't have to do any work.

Dr Terry's Visit

 Today my class and I had genomics so we had a visiter and his name is Dr Terry or Mr Terry. He is a scientist and a very well experienced one. He came in today to talk about cells and how to use a scope. He showed us a photo that was about tissues, cell and DNA which stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. He explains what cells do and what cells are made of and after explaining he showed us how to use a scope that are very expensive and are used in university. He explained how to use it and gave us slides to see what we are looking at. After seeing tiny creatures in a scope we got the chance to see a small bug that is called lice. I could see the segments and the tiny hairs on the legs. After seeing all of that and learning about cells Dr Terry had no choice but to leave for a meeting because he is very busy, but at least he gave the opportunity to save his time and teach us all these new and interesting things. After saying goodbye and thank you to Dr Terry he left and hopefully come back next week.

How Our Ear Works.

 

Today at school my class and I decided to make a animation out of slides. And it was about our ear and how it works,The way our ear works is it goes in our pinna and which catches vibrations of the sound, the pinna is made out of cartilage and after the sound goes through the pinna it goes into the auditory canal that has wax that protects your ear from bugs,dirt and water then it goes to your eardrum (tympanum science word for eardrum). The eardrum is a thin layer of skin that catches the vibrations and goes to the cochlea. The cochlea turns the vibrations into electrical impulses that go to your nerve and to your brain.

Technology Hard Materials

 Today at technology my class and I went to tamaki college to do the rest of our pewter casting work on how to build a necklace by melting the metal and pouring it into a mold that we made with a small wooden platform that's called MDF. After pouring the melted metal into the mold and letting it cool down we would start to try and finish of our work on a doc that Mr grundy our teacher sent to us to do. I already done all of it so I am on the part were I have to use a certain sandpaper to help smooth and soften the sides and the edges of the pewter necklace. On each sandpaper there's a number that helps to identify which sandpaper it is because every sandpaper is different. So the first sandpaper I had to use was the number 180, I started using it to scrub the bits that were not as smooth and not as soft as the other. After done I started to use 400 and 1200 and started to scrub the edges and sides, I then repeatedly did it over and over again.