One of the activities we did during the Leadership Conference was the newspaper tower. This was the activity where you had to try to build a tower as high as you could using newspaper and tape. Our group came up with lots of different strategies and tried different things. A strategy we used was when the tower got quite high, we attached tape to areas on it and taped to the ground. This was to help stabilise it. Unfortunately, the tower ended up falling down anyways. But that was alright.

I found that things got a bit competitive with the activities though. It seemed to turn into a bit more of a winning activity than a team building activity, and it got a bit stressful.

If you could do the activities again, what would you do differently, in terms of strategies or another way?

One of the activities we did during the Leadership Conference was the newspaper tower. This was the activity where you had to try to build a tower as high as you could using newspaper and tape. Our group came up with lots of different strategies and tried different things. A strategy we used was when the tower got quite high, we attached tape to areas on it and taped to the ground. This was to help stabilise it. Unfortunately, the tower ended up falling down anyways. But that was alright.

I found that things got a bit competitive with the activities though. It seemed to turn into a bit more of a winning activity than a team building activity, and it got a bit stressful.

If you could do the activities again, what would you do differently, in terms of strategies or another way?

This is a poem I wrote about Christmas.

Christmas

Colourful, exciting

Decorating, wrapping, writing

ornaments on the tree

Cooking, unwrapping, making

Surprising, wonderful

Time

What do you usually do at Christmas if you celebrate it? If you don’t, what do you do at a different  celebration?

One of the holidays my family and I celebrate is Christmas. Christmas is the celebration of Christ’s birth. Christmas happens on the December 25. There are many things that you can do to celebrate Christmas. One of them is decorating things. One way of decorating is a Christmas tree. Some Christmas trees are living trees while others are fake but they usually resemble fir trees. Christmas trees have colourful ornaments on them and a star on top. Many people also decorate their house at Christmas with Christmas decorations like small strings of bright lights. On the morning of Christmas people usually get presents that people have got for them. At Christmas people usually have lunch or another meal where they eat a turkey.

In our family at Christmas we spend time together. We are usually at our beach house at Christmas. It is very hot at Christmas so sometimes we just go outside and do things. One of my favourite parts about Christmas is decorating the Christmas tree. We have a Christmas lunch at home. For the lunch we have a turkey, roast vegetables and some other things too. 

Another time we celebrate is new years eve. New Year’s Eve happens when one year turns to the next. So it happens on December 31 at night. One thing that we usually do is to try to stay up until midnight (12:00 am). We do this so we can see exactly when one year turns to another. We can do this because since it happens on December 31 the next day will be January 1, the first day of a new year. We nearly always spend new years eve at our beach house. And this isn’t a tradition, but probably about two or three times our neighbours there come over or go to their house on New Year’s Eve.

What is your favourite thing about about a holiday you celebrate?

In year five we went on a camp to Toonallook. We did lots of activities on camp like kayaking and bike-riding. One of the activities we did was called the Toona Challenge. It tested your mental and physical abilities with an obstacle course, a puzzle, two bike-riding challenges and another challenge that involved a hoop. For one of the three nights we were at Toonallook we went camping on expo, which was very exciting. While we were there we played a game called empire which I really enjoyed. I liked sleeping in the tents too. One word I would use to describe camp is unexpected.

My favourite activity we did at Toonallook was the photo rally, which was run by the year elevens. This was the activity where you were given a close-up photo of something around Toonallook and you had to try and find that thing. Then, when you found that thing there would be two letters near it. After that you would go back and record these letters next to the number of the photo on your sheet and get another photo. I enjoyed this because I found it a bit like a puzzle. I also liked it because I got to spend time with my best friend and I got to be with someone who I didn’t know very well (we did the photo rally in groups of two, three or sometimes four, that is why I could do this).

One of the challenges I had on camp was just getting used to things, like how they banged the gong when it was time to come in together. Or for another example, getting used to having all of the different duties we had, like washing up or camp maintenance. 

One P.L.A. I used on camp is knowledge. I used this when we went kayaking. Since I had been kayaking before I had knowledge and knew what to do. Even though the Outdoor Ed people told us how to kayak it was still helpful to of been kayaking before and have knowledge of what to do. Another P.L.A. I used was reflection. I used reflection during and after camp because I reflected and thought a lot about what happened on camp and the activities. 

Did you do anything that you had never done before on camp? If so what was it and how did it go?

This is my avatar that I created. I think it kind of looks like me, except I think I have slightly shorter hair. I chose the colour of my background because it looks a bit like one of my favourite colours, which are turquoise and ruby red. I also really like animals. I have lots of animal encyclopaedias and other books about them at home. I have two pets as well, which are both dogs. They mean a lot and are very special to me. I am close to my family too.

This term we had the gold rush as our unit. I have learnt so much from all of things we did this term, including the camps and the diorama. I have really enjoyed the unit.

What I learnt:

Originally, I knew a little bit about the gold rush because my brother did the unit last year and I heard a few things about it from him. But I have discovered so much more this term. I didn’t realise how much there is to learn about the gold rush.

The gold rush:

Life on the gold fields was incredibly tough and hard. 

1. Life on the gold fields was very harsh because living conditions were very difficult and unhygienic.
2. A lot of children died because of diseases.
3. Their was a thing called the gold licence which was a licence that you had to have to mine that cost money. This was one of the things that caused the Eureka Stockade.

The Eureka Stockade:

I learnt that the Eureka Stockade happened because some of the miners thought that some things were unfair, especially the gold licence. Some other things I learnt were:

1. Before the Eureka Stockade the miners burnt down the Eureka Hotel because the owner, James Bentley was said to be innocent after people said he murdered someone.
2. After James Bentley was said to be innocent some of the miners burnt down his hotel.
3. Right before the Eureka Stockade some of the miners had a meeting where they burned there licences.
4. At this meeting Peter Lalor was their leader.
5. They also took an oath at this meeting.
6. The battle lasted for 15-20 minutes.
7. The Stockade was made of lots of different things including carts
8. After the Eureka Stockade the miners were able to get something called a miners right.
9. The miners right cost one pound a year.
10. It allowed the miners the right to mine, a vote and some land.
11. The Eureka Stockade happened on the 3 December 1854.

Sovereign Hill:

The Sovereign Hill camp was an informative, interesting and great experience. I learnt a lot about the types businesses in the 1850s. This camp helped so much with my knowledge of the gold rush and also building our diorama. The school program gave me a child’s perspective in the gold rush too.

Diorama:

For the diorama my partner and I did the Watch and Clock Makers Store. For our other diorama we made a place with a few trees, a bed, a  camp fire and some bits and pieces like rocks and pieces of wood sitting on the ground. I really enjoyed making the diorama because I like doing crafty things. I liked painting it too, because I hadn’t done much of that sort of painting in a while.

We had some challenges with building it as well. Part of it was finishing it in time. To overcome this we ended up doing different tasks instead of both working on the same task. Like for an example I would glue rocks onto our second diorama while my partner was making bushes for it. We also just tried to work more quickly and effectively. Another challenge we had was that we didn’t plan our second diorama.

Emotions and P.L.A.s:

I felt many different emotions used lots of different P.L.A.s during the unit. Near the end of the unit I felt little bit nervous because I was uncertain about whether we would finish the diorama or not and how it would turn out. But after we finished it I felt relieved. The two P.L.A.s I feel I used the most were communication and collaboration. I used these when we were making the dioramas. My partner and I had to communicate so we knew what was happening and where things were going to go. We also had to collaborate and work together and sometimes even hold things up that one of us had just glued while they were drying.

Advice:

For building the dioramas my advice is to plan and mange your time carefully. Also using rocks, wood and other materials like that also make a diorama look fabulous and realistic.

How did you find building the dioramas?

Recently, we have arrived back from our school camp at Sovereign Hill. I thought it was wonderful and very informative too.My favourite part was when we got our first proper glance at the main street of Sovereign Hill. I didn’t know what it was going to look like and I was very excited.

Before we got to Sovereign Hill, during the trip we went to the M.A.D.E. museum. We did many activities there and found out lots of information, especially about the Eureka Stockade and the gold rush. One of the activities I liked was about a timeline. In this activity you were given some dates and events in time. Then you had to look around the museum and find information to help you figure out which date goes with which event. I enjoyed this experience and found it very interesting. 

During the camp we did the Sovereign Hill school program. I learnt so many things about school in the 1850s. Like the sixteen times tables. I was surprised at how many you could learn in just one day. I also learnt how to use some of the toys. My favourite part of the program was handwriting. I enjoyed learning the calligraphy and just writing with the quill for the second time as well. I felt slightly nervous a lot during the program though because I was very unsure about what was going to happen next.

On camp I used lots of P.L.A.s, like curiosity collaboration. I needed to be curious quite a bit I was learning so many things particularly in the school program. I needed collaboration too for many reasons. Like when we did our shopping. Sometimes you would want to go to different shops but you had to stay together and be patient and collaborate. Another time was at the M.A.D.E. museum. We worked in partners or groups quite a bit there so we used it there too.

What is your favourite camp you have ever been on and why?