Survival Backpack

For our last task for our third round of survivor, we had to make a backpack containing all the things you might need if you get lost in the bush while hiking. This task was really fun and challenging. The hardest part was thinking of the last couple of things for my backpack because I thought I had everything but really I could add more. The easiest part was finding the images because there were lots of options when I searched for the thing I wanted. I really enjoyed our Survivor rotations and would love to do it again.

W7 T4 CC Fabulous Finish

For the past two weeks, we have been creating our Fabulous Finishes. For this term, I did a Descriptive passage. This task was really fun and challenging. The hardest part was finding one word to describe Patina because I can think of sentences to describe her but I can't think of words. The easiest part was the dots because dots are just mini circles and there not hard at all. I really enjoyed this task and give it a 10/10.

Survival Research

What is the S.T.O.P acronym for survival?

When becoming separated with someone in the bush it is important to remember the following information in case this might happen.

Stop as soon as you realize you're lost.

Think about the situation and what is happening.

Observe your surroundings.

Plan what you are going to do.

Finding fresh water.

 Flowing water (rivers, creeks, and streams of snowmelt) are safer drinking options than puddles and lakes (stagnant water) because of lingering bacteria. 

You should also bring a filter for when you need to filter dirty water if you are lost.

Don't drink straight from still water such as puddles and lakes because there is a high chance you can consume bacteria if you have a filter you should filter it.

Shelter.

When building a shelter it is important to remember the following advice.

Build away from creeks or rivers because you can get washed away or wet.

Build your shelter on a dry and flat surface out of the wind.

Your shelter needs to protect you from wind and rain otherwise it's not a very good survival shelter and you won't get protected.

Starting a fire.

When you get lost in the bush and it's freezing it’s very important to keep yourself warm because you will most likely not survive from body temperature rather than an animal attack.

When getting kindling and firewood, make sure that your wood is dry so it burns easily.

Start your fire off with small and dry bits of wood so you can really get your fire going rather than chucking a log on and hoping it will burn when you just started.

You don't just have to use wood you can use dry leaves just as well as wood.

Basic First Aid.

The most basic wilderness first aid skill is to properly prepare. Putting together a well-stocked travel first aid kit means that you’ll have all of the resources you’ll need when you are hiking and need assistance. Common items in a wilderness first aid kit include disinfectant, bandages, bite or sting ointment, a pair of tweezers, and Bandages.

You should always expect the unexpected because you never know when someone will get hurt.

Don't panic when you are hurt or someone else is hurt it is important to be calm in this situation.

Signalling for help.

Something that will always get rescuers attention is fire you should always have a really powerful fire at night with lots of flames because at night it pops out more.

At day time you should always have a smokey fire because it is dark and more visible than just flames so the rescuers can see you easily.

If you're going to light a signalling fire you should always keep checking on it and stay close to the fire so there's more of a chance of the rescuers seeing you.

T4 W5 CC

This week for Chapter Chat I did Digital Design. The task was to redesign the book cover for the book Ghost. This task was really fun and tricky. The hardest part was deciding the layout of my book cover because I had lot's of ideas and it was hard to just choose one. The easiest part was not really anything because everything was just as equally hard and easy. I really enjoyed this task I give it a 10/10.

Shelter Building

For our last shelter building rotation, we had to build a tarp and rope survival shelter. The hardest part was we were just getting started because we didn't really have any control over what we were doing and we were a bit over the place. The easiest part was when we had just had a talk with Mrs Kennedy about having some control and working together because that really got us to actually think and stop and actually have some control over what we were doing. A good skill to have when you're building a survival shelter is to know what the right knot to use is because it can really help with keeping your shelter stable. I would give my ]self a Resilience rating of 5/5 because we were having a lot of times where we really wanted to give up but we kept going.

Tent Building Reflection

For our third Whetu Survivor rotation, we have been learning about building survival tents. Today we had to build a tent.  The hardest thing for me was getting the tent to stand up because the poles that were meant to keep the tent up kept getting stuck in the slits that they were meant to go into. The thing that worked well was when our group actually stopped and talked about it. I learnt that when you work together especially on a tent it's way easier.

Tarp and Rope Tent Plan

The tent we are aiming to make is a tarp and rope tent. To make this we are going to need two trees so that we can tie the rope to. Then we put a tarp over the top of the rope.

To make the next tarp and rope tent we are going to tie a rope around two trees so it makes a rope line then we are going to put a rope through the holes and tie that to the trees so it makes a triangle that we can fit under. We chose these tents because we thought that they were easy to make and that they had a nice shelter.

T4 W5 CC

This week for Chapter Chat I did Pick & Mix for the task we had to make avatars of some of the characters in the book. I made avatars of Patina, Coach Brody, Ghost and Lou. This was really fun and I really liked it. The hardest part was deciding what avatars I was going to do because there were so many to choose from. The easiest part was making them because the author gave us a good detailed description of them. I give this task a 10/10.

Shelter Research

If lost in the bush the best place to build a shelter is in the driest spot you can find because nothing sucks the
warmth out of you more than wetness but if it isn't too cold try and build a shelter on high ground because
breezes help keep the bugs away and you’ll be easier to spot if a search party passes by.

In case of an emergency where you need to build a survival shelter, it will need to protect you from
Mosquitos and other insects also cold temperatures because people who don’t survive in the outdoors usually die
losing their body heat not necessarily starvation or dehydration.

When building a survival shelter
you could use dry sticks and leaves for warmth and a roof to sleep under you could also use big
sticks to make a shelter frame and then cover it with dry twigs and leaves. Also if you have a tarp you could use
rocks for keeping the tarp down.

Some pros of sleeping in a bush shelter are that you could have lots of dry leaves and sticks around you so that you
can keep yourself warm another pro is that some shelters are easy to put up and that they are pretty
sturdy and will last you the night. Some cons of sleeping in a bush shelter
is that if your shelter is to open it’s easy for bug’s and
coldness to get in another con is that it could be really damp and wet and
you shelter just gets soaked thorough and you lose lots of body temperature.

Whetu Survivor rotation 2

For my second Whetu survivor rotation, we had to research about New Zealand native trees. The tree I chose to research was Pohuwtukawa. This rotation was both fun and challenging. To find our research about our tree we used a website called  The Meaning of Trees this website helped a lot because if you tried researching on google it would give you some really complicated sentence that you had no idea what it meant. I really enjoyed this rotation and would love to do it again.

Different names for Pohuwtukawa.

Maori name	Scientific name	English name
The New Zealand Christmas tree	Metrosideros excelsa	Pohutukawa

Where might you find Pohuwtukawa?

North Island

Found throughout the North Island, particularly north of New Plymouth and Gisborne. Pohutukawa grows best in warm, drier areas close to the sea.

The Pohutukawa tree has red crimson leaves and large leaves the leaves are a dark green and The underside of a pohutukawa leave has fine white hairs. 

The nectar from the flowers was collected by Māori and used in the treatment of sore throats. Both Māori and Europeans used a decoction from the inner bark in the treatment of dysentery if you don't know what dysentery is it's bloody or infectious diarrhoea.

T4 W4 CC

This week for Chapter Chat I did Creation Station our task was to write an Acrostic poem. The hardest part was finding a full sentence for the letters. The easiest part was colouring the background because I had lots of ideas for a background so I could easily just pick from one. I really enjoyed this task I rate it a 10/10.