Category: Ako | Learn

2025/2026 Critters and Creatures SLJ Mountain Stone Weta – Step it Up

 

Kia Ora. This is Kamsi from Glen Innes School. As part of the Summer Learning Journey, I did some research regarding the yeti and learnt some facts, then I traced a cartoon image of a yeti, labelled it, wrote some facts about the yeti and used Graffiti Generator to write the name of the yeti, Alaska, and “Yeti” itself. It was a lot of fun especially since it had to do with art. I had a lot of fun doing the Summer Learning Journey and I look forward to the next one. Thanks a lot to the commenting team and Manaiakalani! Please feel free to give me feedback.

Your blogging friend, Kamsi!

2025 Critters and Creatures SLJ – Eleanor’s Experiments – Dancing Raisins

 

Kia Ora! This is Kamsi from Glen Innes School. As part of Eleanor’s Experiments in the Summer Learning Journey, I joined the experiment live and watched what the experiment was. It was about Dancing Raisins. What happens is you get any fizzy drink and you pop in a shrivelled fruit like a raisin or sultana, then the bubbles in the fizzy drink gather around the fruit and they rise to the top and fall back down kind of like their dancing. This is because bubbles are filled with gas and gas floats around and they are less dense than what they are in. Below is the video of the raisins dancing. I found out that it is easier to see the raisins in a more transparent drink like Sprite, 7UP or Schweppes Classic Dry Lemonade. It is harder to see the raisins in Coca Cola, Fanta, Pepsi, Dr Pepper or Mountain Dew. I used Orange Fanta and Sultanas. Please feel free to give me feedback.

Your blogging friend, Kamsi!

 

2025 Critters and Creatures SLJ – Lots of Legs, Kick Start – Bug Hotel

 

Kia Ora! This is Kamsi from Glen Innes School. As part of the Summer Learning Journey, I watched a video on how to make a bug hotel and then made one myself. With the help of my mom, I cut off the end of an empty Sprite bottle, filled the middle part with lots of sticks, green leaves, dead leaves, white rocks and even a bad plum. Then I found a good spot for it in our backyard and set it there. It took quite some time to make it and the rocks and sticks kept falling out. The trick I used to keep them from falling out was to not do layers. I just put them anywhere and it actually worked for me. As soon as I set it down, heaps of ants started crawling inside and making themselves at home. Even a spider set up a tiny home there using its web. It was really frustrating to make it but it was worth it in the end. Please feel free to give me feedback.

Your blogging friend, Kamsi!

2025 Critters and Creatures SLJ – Legs, Legs, Legs, Step it up – Turbo’s Upgrade

Kia Ora! This is Kamsi from Glen Innes School. As part of the Summer Learning Journey, I learnt about a dog named Turbo that was born with no front legs and had to get wheels. The journey was especially hard for him as he was a very tiny dog. At first his owner tried making wheels for him using PVC pipe, a ferret harness, and parts from toy airplanes and a Fisher-Price toy helicopter. Then Mark Deadrick, a mechanical engineer made a better set of wheels for him. Since then Turbo has found it easier to move around and continue his day to day activities. The challenge was to make an upgrade to Turbo’s trolley, adding either the Snack Dispenser 5000, a way of automatically giving him treats on the go, the Auto-Cooling system, a way to cool him down when he gets too hot or the Turbo Booster, a way of giving him a boost when he needs it the most. I decided to give him all of them. I traced an image off the internet and added things onto it to make it my own. I also gave him a collar. Please feel free to give me feedback.

Your blogging friend, Kamsi!

2025 SLJ Critters and Creatures Eleanor’s Experiments Flip the Arrow

 

Kia Ora! This is Kamsi from Room 10, Glen Innes School. As part of Eleanor’s Experiments, I watched the experiment happen, then I filled a curved glass full of water, got a piece of paper with an arrow on it and put it behind the glass of water. When the light enters the water, the glass acts like a lens and bends the light so much that the arrow appears flipped. It took a while to get a perfect arrow but it was really interesting. I tried it with both colored paper and white paper and both work just the same. I found out that it did not work with no light and if it was too close. Please feel free to give me feedback.

Your blogging friend, Kamsi!

 

 

     

2025 Critters and Creatures SLJ Octopus Oddities – Kick Start

 

Kia Ora! This is Kamsi from Room 10, Glen Innes School. As part of the activities for the Summer Learning Journey, I watched some videos and read some facts about octopuses. Then I had to go to this coloring app, choose an octopus and color it in. It was very hard to color there so I went to a website called Colorify , generated an image of an octopus and colored it using vibrant colors. It was actually really fun in the end and surprisingly satisfying. Some of the facts I learnt about octopuses are that they have copper based blood, that is why it is blue, mother octopuses die protecting their eggs because of a self-destruction process called senescence which stops them from eating and leads to starvation and exhaustion and they have three hearts; two pump blood to the gills and the first sends blood to the rest of their body. Please feel free to give me feedback.

Your blogging friend, Kamsi!

SLJ 2025 Critters and Creatures Legs Legs Legs? – Kick Start

Kia Ora! I am Kamsi from Room 10, Glen Innes School. As part of the activities for the Summer Learning Journey, I read some information about an elephant called Mosha, who lost one of her front legs in a landmine accident when she was just 7 months old. The activity was to create a prosthetic leg for her. I made a leg for her using some flowers, symbols and signatures along with a gradient background. It was a bit tricky with the flowers because I had to make a lot of layers so it would cover the whole thing. In the end, it looked amazing. I chose the glittery-fur like text for her name because it stood out in my eyes and it is probably something people don’t often see on a prosthetic leg. Please feel free to give me feedback.

Your blogging friend, Kamsi!

2025 SLJ Critters and Creatures Legs Tally – Step it Up

 

Kia Ora! I am Kamsi from Room 10, Glen Innes School. As part of the activities for the Summer Learning Journey, I read some information about Aotearoa’s Giant Centipedes. Then I made a copy of the Google Drawing and completed the questions. A fact I learnt was that no species of centipede has exactly 100 legs. It was fun and I enjoyed it. Please feel free to give me feedback.

Your blogging friend, Kamsi!

2025 SLJ Critters and Creatures Legs Tally – Kick Start

 

Kia Ora. I am Kamsi from Room 10, Glen Innes School. As part of the activities for the Summer Learning Journey, I watched some videos about Aotearoa’s Giant Centipedes. Then I made a copy of the Google Drawing, completed the math questions and drafted a question which you guys can try out. In the maths questions, a fact I learnt was that to answer the question 1/5 of 100, you just had to divide a 100 by 5 and then times the answer by 1. It was quite fun and I liked that I was able to think up a question. Please feel free to give me feedback.

Your blogging friend, Kamsi!

2025 SLJ Critters and Creatures Art in the Web – Step it Up 2

Kia Ora! I am Kamsi from Room 10, Glen Innes School. As part of the activities for the Summer Learning Journey, I had to watch a video on how to make a paper spider web. Along the way, I learnt some cool facts about spiders. A fact I learnt is that scientists are studying it for ideas in hopes to copy its strength and stretchiness for different things like ropes, clothing and medical gear. It was super hard to do it but in the end it was so worth it seeing all my hard work put into one. Please feel free to give me feedback.

Your blogging friend, Kamsi!