Monday, September 29, 2014

Geography Report - Australia

Over the next few weeks, we will be researching some different countries. As an exemplar, we researched Australia and answered the questions Mum has given us to help us find the important information out about the country we are looking at.  We did the research together and read the information and then answered the questions in our own words. Mum typed it just for this one. This report is a combined one between Lilly and I. 


Australia is knows as the largest island. It is known as somewhere hot and full of deadly creatures. 

Australia is between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.


Australia is 7692024 km2 and 23 130 000 people live there. English is the main language spoken 76 % of people speak English as their first language. Other languages include Mandarin- 1.6% Italian - 1.4%, Arabic- 1.3 %, Cantonese-1.2%  and Greek 1.2 %.

Australia is governed by a Federal Monarchy. This means that the  federation of states with a single monarch ( Queen Elizabeth) is the over all head of the federation but they have no real power over the country. The government who runs the country is based on a parliamentary system. This means that every person over 18 votes for a party to rule the government. 

Australia has a blue flag. It has three elements, the Union Jack, the Commonwealth Star and the Southern Cross. The Union Jack represents the history of British settlement. The Commonwealth Star represents each of the states and territories in Australia.   The Southern Cross represents the stars which helped ships to navigate to Australia. It is on the Eureka flag which represents freedom and democracy. 



Australia's national currently is the Australian dollar. It comes in 5, 10, 20 , 50  and 100 dollar notes cents and in 5, 10, 20 , 50, 1 and 2 dollar coins. Some of the pictures on the notes are Queen Elizabeth, Dame Nelly Melba who was a opera singer, Banjo Patterson who was a famous poet, aboriginal inventor and writer David Unaipon and the founder of the  royal  flying doctor service, Rev John Flynn. 



The symbol of Australia is the kangaroo. Each state has a symbol and it is on the National Coat of  Arms there are the kangaroo and the emu. They were chosen as the national animals as they are the only animals who cannot go backwards. This is important symbol for Australia to keep everyone focused on going forward.



A common thing for people in Australia to eat is vegemite. Vegemite is a salty spread that you put on bread or toast. I don't like vegemite.



Other typical Australia dishes are Lamingtons ( A cake bite that has chocolate and coconut around it) meat pies, meringues  and pavlova ( a whipped egg white dessert with fruit and cream) ANZAC Bikkies ( an oat biscuit), Tim Tams ( a biscuit dipped in chocolate) Fantales ( a chewy caramel sweet covered in chocolate) sausage rolls and roast lamb.

In Australia they celebrate different things like, Easter where people go camping, Christmas where people eat prawns and go to the beach, Australia Day where people have a BBQ and eat lamingtons, ANZAC day where people either march in a parade or watch the parade to commemorate the wars and the soldiers who fought in them. ANZAC day is a very important day for the Mitchell family and is a big day for us.

Most people in Australia have a house with a backyard.

Australia was first settled by Europeans in 1788 where convicts were sent to live. The Goldrush happened in 1851. The Eureka Stockade 1854 where miners rebelled and fought for their rights. Australia became a nation in 1901. 



Some of the famous people who are from Australia include Sir Don Bradman, Hugh Jackman, Steve Irwin and Cathy Freeman, Burke and Wills.

Steve Irwin was a wild animal conservationist and fought for the the preservation of wildlife. 



Burke and Wills were a pair of explorers who set off to discover the centre of Australia in 1860 but sadly they died. 



If you were going to be a tourist in Australia the things you should see are Australia Zoo, Ayres Rock, Sydney Opera House, The Great Barrier Reef, The Sydney Harbour Bridge, The Stockmans Hall of Fame in Longreach and The Min Min lights in Boulia. 


Sunday, September 28, 2014

Eureka Stockade finale post

The Eureka Stockade marks an important event in Australia's history.

Gold began to be mined in Ballarat in 1854. The miners worked in wet and cold conditions.

The miners or as they called themselves, diggers had to pay for a licence. The licences where £6.00 or in our new money approximately $1600 a day even if they didn't find a piece of gold. If they didn't have a licence they would get lashed and put in jail by the troopers. They decided to rebel so they could get fair conditions.

The Eureka Stockade was built on Backer Hill Victoria, Australia. The fight of the stockade was on the 2nd of December 1854 in 3.00am.
They elected peter lawler as there leader.  They had 140 people in the stockade at the time of the fight in including there leaders. But before they where attacked there where roomers about the troppers  coming from the north and south. When the battle was over Peter laylor went into the governments as a politician and fought for the rights of the miners.

The Eureka flag looked like the southern cross with a blue background. It represents the miners and the country.


Eureka Stockade marks the most important political event for Australia as it is the birth of Australian democracy and workers rights. 

This is what's left of the original flag


This is how it would have looked


FEEDBACK - great report Morgan. You have worked hard on including all the important information and explaining the key events and people involved. Watch capital letters for the names or people and place. Remember to read your sentences out loud so you know where a breath is taken and then you can put a comma there!

Friday, September 26, 2014

Science - quantum physics (double slit)

Mum introduced us to quantum physics today and we watched a youtube video of Dr Quantum explain some of the main things. We also have a book called "How to teach your dog quantum physics". It looks very interesting because quantum physics explains how everything in the universe works. 

Today I found out what happens in the double slit experiment. 

So if you shoot marbles trough one slit in a board they will go through and hit the target in a line down the middle like this. 

Then if you add anther slit and shot the marbles through it should have two lines on the target it looks like this. 

They then explained what electrons do - they are tiny tiny bits and are better seen if you look at it in water.

Then if you get a pool of water and a slit board and put a ripple in the water it will make waves. The lightest mark is the strongest pulse it will look like this.

Then if you add anothor slit it does something amazing. The two slits generate one ripple each and they cancel out each other. It will look like this.
So if we shot bits of matter or electrons through it does the same as the marbles one line on the board like this
But here it gets weird if there's two slits it acts as waves and we get a pattern like this.
Even weirder is that when they looked at it it went back to being a marble and all becouse they where watching it.

So it makes two bands instead of many.


The weird thing about all of this is the question - why do the electrons go back to two bands ONLY when something is watching it? Is it self aware?

This is what makes quantum physics exciting. its all about the unvierse and how everything works.




Thursday, September 25, 2014

Eureka Stockade - my second draft of a report.

This is my second draft. Mums markups are in capitals.

The Eureka Stockade marks an important event in Australia's history.

It all startED when gold was mined in Ballarat DATE?? (FULL STOPS ARE NEEDED TO SEPARATE IDEAS) The miners worked in wet and cold conditions. 

The miners or as they called themselves (COMMA NEEDED HERE) diggers had to pay for a licence (FULL STOP NEEDED HERE) the licences where £6.00 or in our new money approximately $1600 a day even if they didn't find a piece of gold. If they didn't have a licence they would get lashed and put in jail by the troopers. So they decided to rebel so they could get fair conditions. 

The Eureka Stockade was built on backer hill Victoria, Australia. (CAPITAL LETTERS NEEDED FOR NAMES OF PLACES)The fight of the stockade was on the 2nd of December 1854 in 3.00am.
MORE NEEDED HERE. WHO WAS IN CHARGE OF THE REBELLION? WHAT WERE THEY HOPING TO ACHIEVE? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PERSON IN CHARGE? HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE IN THE STOCKADE WHEN IT WAS RAIDED? WHERE WERE EVERYONE ELSE? WHAT DID THEY FLY OVER THE STOCKADE?

The Eureka flag looked like the southern cross with a blue background it represents the miners and the country.

This is what's left of the original flag

CONCLUSION? WHAT CHANGED? WHAT DID THE GOVERNMENT DO FROM THEN ONWARD? WHY IS THAT IMPORTANT TO AUSTRALIA AND TO THE WORKFORCE?


This is how it would have looked

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Spelling blog post

I am focusing on my spelling and using words I got wrong in my last test in sentences.

Today I'm doing a blog about some spelling that I need to learn.

I had to wait in a queue for 2 hours to get into the limited edishine movie.

The little golden dog fancied the happy boy to play with him.

The toy co tryed to have less packaging for there state of the art toys. 

The ship was approaching the welcoming Fijian dock.

The wreckage was in the middle of the deep, dark, noisy sea.

The rock band did a campaign for a Christmas cild chairyity.

The govoment a money plummoted down and under in a mater of weeks.

How cool should if be if the world had  infinite food and water for the poor people.

The rhythmic pink and yellow feet taped to the fast yet slow song.

The ninjas disappearance scared all the people in the building.

Feedback - Sentences need to start with capital letters. Check your spelling of other words as well. Read out your sentences to see if they make sense when you say them out aloud.  


Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Eureka Stockade - my first draft of a report.

I am learning to write reports. My first draft is here with Mums markups and questions for me to improve on.

The Eureka Stockade marks an important event in Australia's history.

The fight of the stockade was on the 2nd of December. (WHAT YEAR) The Eureka Stockade was built in Victoria Australia. (EXACTLY WHERE?)The diggers (WHO WERE DIGGERS?) had to pay for a licence the licences where $1500 (IT WASNT THAT MUCH. IN TODAYS MONEY IT IS.. HOW MUCH WAS IT BACK THEN?) a day even if they didn't find a piece of gold. If they didn't have a licence they would get lashed and put in jail. (WHO BY?)
 So they rebelled.(NOT A SENTENCE) Gold was mined in Ballarat Victoria. (THIS NEEDS TO GO TOWARD THE BEGINNING OF THE REPORT) The miners felt wet, pushed and cold.(WHY DO THEY FEEL THIS? WHAT WAS THE ENVIRONMENT LIKE? WHERE DID THEY LIVE?  WHAT FOOD DID THEY HAVE?) The Eureka flag looked like the southern cross with a blue background. (WHAT DOES IT REPRESENT?)

The Eureka stockade is said to be the birth of Australia's democracy. (WHY?)

IN THE REPORT OUTLINE IT ASKS YOU TO USE A PICTURE AS WELL. I GAVE YOU A LINK TO A HEAP OF PICTURES TO INSERT. PLEASE GO BACK AND LOOK AT THE LINKS AND INFORMATION.

TO INCLUDE AS WELL - WHO WAS IN CHARGE OF THE REBELLION? WHAT WERE THEY HOPING TO ACHIEVE? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PERSON IN CHARGE?  HOW MANY PEOPLE DIED? HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE IN THE STOCKADE WHEN IT WAS RAIDED?  WHERE WERE EVERYONE ELSE?

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Bush rangers

Today we learnt about the Australian Bush Rangers.

There were two main types of Bushrangers. The first ones were convicts who escaped. The second were ones who came after the Goldrush and were often bullied by the police and were pushed into crime.Bushrangers where not always nasty people who stole.

The first Bushranger was called John Black Caesar. He escaped prison and then stole things.

Then the gold rush happens and the Bush Rangers start stealing food, supplies and gold.

Some of my favourite Bushranger tales are Captain Starlight and Ned Kelly.

Captain Starlight is famous because he stole 1000 cattle and drove them ( not driving, but made them walk) from Longreach down to Adelaide.

This is Captain Starlight


Ned Kelly is famous because he was from an Irish family and was pushed into it because the police hated his mother.

Here is Ned Kelly's armour and gun with the boot. This is in Melbourne Goal.


Here is the dates of Ned Kellys life, photo and last words.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Gold rush in Australia !!!!! History Lesson

Gold was discovered in Australia in 1851 in Victoria.

When the world found out everyone rushed to Australia. Many came from California in the USA. There was a gold rush there earlier so when they heard about Australia, they came rushing in. Lots of Chinese people came to Australia as well.

Did you know the richest Goldfields where at Ballarat?

Luckily we got to pan for gold today. There were buckets of sand and you put sand into a tray with a holes int eh bottom and wash it through water that was rushing past.

The miners would have done the on the river banks. I think that this would be hard work and I am glad I didn't have to do it.

Here are some photos of us panning for gemstones









Thursday, September 11, 2014

Spanish Lesson 4 - Shops

Bakery - Panadería
Supermarket - Supermercado
Bank - Banco
Autoteller - Coches Eller
Pharmacy - Farmacia
Butcher – Carnicero
Hairdresser – Peluquería
Shop – Tienda

Our favourite shop to look for was... the Panaderia. Walking into a village we could smell them and go and find them.

Carne means meat - so we could work out some shops and what they sold by knowing food names

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Spanish Lesson 3 - Greetings

Hello – Hola
G’day – Buenas
Good Morning – buenos días
Good Evening –  buena noches
Good Night – Buenas noches
Goodbye – Adiós

The most common this we said on the Camino was 'Hola", "Bon Camino" and Adiós.  we basically didn't need much else!! ha ha

Book review (Fire Mage) chapter 1 of the Blacklight Chronicles

Today I began to read a new book called Fire Mage.

Chapter 1

It's set in the Middle Ages.

The main character is a boy whose brother died a year ago.

His brother was a hunter. Talis dreams of hunting a deer all by himself to make his father proud of him.

I think it's a very good book so far and I think that it will become a favourite book.

Here is the book cover.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Spanish Lesson 2 - Days of the week

Monday – Lunes 
Tuesday – Martes 
Wednesday – Miércoles 
Thursday – Jueves 
Friday – Viernes
Saturday – Sábado 
Sunday – Domingo

Monday, September 8, 2014

Spanish Lesson 1 - Numbers

Over the next few weeks, I am reviewing all the languages we have come across on our travels.

We had to use alot of Spanish on the Camino so I am doing this first. 

Today I'm doing Spanish numbers I know most of them and I'm doing a blog about it

Numbers
1  = uno
2  = dos 
3  = tres 
 = cuatro 
 = cinco 
 = seis 
 = siete 
8  = ocho 
9   = nueve 
10  = diez