The Wizard of Oz

When Dorothy and her dog Toto werte whisked away by a cyclone, they found themselves in the Land of Oz. Soon she realized that the only way they could return to their home in Kansas was to journey to the Emerald city to ask The Wizard of Oz for help. Along the treacherous journey, Dorothy met new friends, the Scarecrow, the Tin woodman, and the lion. They wanted to join her to look for Oz to give them something. Together, they faced many perils like the two Kalidahs and the deadly poppies. Finally, they reached the Emerald city. But before Oz could grant them their wishes, they had to kill a wicked witch. Dorothy “melts” the witch by pouring a bucket of water over her and they travelled back to the Emerald city to have their wishes granted. Soon they realized that the Great Wizard is actually a humbug! All hopes of returning to her home in Kansas were lost, until a guard told her to ask the good witch Glinda for help. After many adventures in the Land of Oz, Dorothy and Toto finally reunited with her Uncle and Aunt back home in the Kansas prairie. I enjoyed this adventure story. It a book that you will not want to put it down once you begin reading it!

At the Jurong Bird Park (behind the scenes)

Yesterday, together with other homeschoolers we went to the Jurong Bird Park for a talk on birds. The venue is at the Bird Discovery Centre. We were early, so we look at the many interesting exhibits and learn more about the birds and their body parts. It was all very interesting. I, especially was fasinated by the owl. Owls have large eyes to search for their prey in the dark, and they have firm feathers so they would not make any sound when they fly. After that,

In the afternoon, we went for another exciting programme 'behind the scene' . Well, to the penguin expedition but this time behind the scenes! We were split into two groups. My group went in first while the second group had a brief talk about penguins from a guide. Inside we had to put on boots and wear a jacket for it was very cold. The temperature was It was very fishy and I felt like vomiting. I wondered how the staff could worked in there. After a while, I got used to it. The sight was so cool. We could hear the sound that the king penguin made. It sounded like a trumpet. The staff told us that there were about five males that were incubating eggs. He also told us that there were five species in there. The Macaroni, Rockhopper, King penguin, Fairy penguin, and the Humboldt penguin. After that we saw a sick King penguin placed at a corner and even touched a Humboldt penguin. It felt very smooth. We then came out of the cold place and back to the guide for our lesson on penguins. Later we went into the penguin expedition. Now I began to notice the other species and managed to spot them. I loved this experience as I had never been behind the scenes, touched a penguin and came so close to a penguin. I was glad that I knew it now. It was a very eventful day.

Astro Night

Last Friday, my family and I went to Science Centre. Over there, I was very surprised to see an extremely long queue to enter the inflatable planetarium. While queuing, I met Bailey and Dominic. Since the queue was so long, we decided to try some of the hands-on activities while daddy stood at the queue. At one station, we saw some mini rockets flying all around. The lady put a tablet into the film container filled with some water. Awhile later, the lid popped opened, pushing the water out. This was my favourite station as it was exciting waiting for the it to pop! After that, we headed back to the queue to wait for our turn to enter the planetarium. Inside, a man taught us about the star constellations. I knew all of the constellations that he mentioned. Next, he made the fake stars spin around us like it would, in the North Pole. I felt very dizzy.

I liked the exhibit very much and next time, I hope to go up to the observatory tower to stargaze, without the queue.

Chemistry

We just came back from the Chemistry Lab at NUS. Over there we were splitted up into pairs of two, and together with a student scientist, we did some exciting experiments. Most of the chemicals that we used were harmful to our skins. So we had to wash our hands immediately after an experiment. My favourite experiment was called the "elephants toothpaste". We used detergent, food colouring and some other chemicals to form a warm soapy paste. The end product looked like a giant toothpaste. I had a fun time at the chemistry lab today.

Our trip to Bintan(Indonesia)

Last week, My family and I went to Bintan for a holiday. We boarded the ferry called Aria Bupala ". During the ride, I felt very seasick. I guessed the waves were a little more choppy this time.

This is a picture of my brothers and I seating at the top deck of the ferry.

When we reached the hotel, daddy went to the reception to check in. Our room numbers were 1037 and 1035. In the room, my brothers and I quickly changed into my swimming shorts so that I could go and swim in the pool immediately! But when we reached the pool, I found out that the pool was not what I had expected because there were no slides, only a basketball net. I felt disappointed. A while later, we decided to head to the beach. The beach was my favourite place because there were so many black-striped fish, mudskippers and lots of crabs swimming in the stream that led out to the sea. After playing at the beach and climbing large boulders for a while, I decided to explore the stream further. We were so surprised when we spotted a Monitor Lizard!!! Below are some pictures of what we saw at the stream.

The monitor lizard

Mudskippers

The next day, we went to the beach again after breakfast. This time I saw more fish than yesterday. But they were swimming very fast. So, I could not catch any at all. In tthe afternoon, we went to another swimming pool which had a slide, but was not slippery. We ended up walking down the slide instead of sliding down. Daddy, Jabez and I also played table tennis which was fun, but difficult to play. In the evening, we went to the beach again. But this time I managed to catch a small black fish in a rock pool! I was so excited and went to show daddy and mummy my catch. After that, I released the fish back to the sea. I also saw a school of big fish. But they were too big and fast for me to catch. Later, my brothers and I built a dam to try and block the water current. We used rocks and sand to build it.

Our brother Nat wanted to help too! But he ended up destroying our dam.

After building the dam which did not really work, the 3 of us climbed the large boulders again. Jabez and I found some rocks that we thought might be a granite and a geodeo!! As it was low tide , so we could make our way down to a big rock pool where we found more fish and some BIg crabs!

The black spot under the rock is a black crab hiding under a rock.

This is a picture of the 4 of us in the big rock pool

After dinner, we went to take a stroll at the beach. The sky was filled with many stars as the beach was very dark. It was a breath-taking night scene! We spotted 'The Orion' . Actually it was daddy who saw it because I did not know much about star constellations. I enjoyed the night stroll at the beach and listening to the waves splashing.

On the last day, right after breakfast, we went to check our dam. Although it was low-tide, but the water actually covered the whole dam!! We decided to move to the beach and enjoy the gentle waves and swim in the cooling water for a while. By about noon time, we had to return back to our room and get ready to check out. I was sad to leave Bintan, but happy to return home to Singapore. I had a memorable vacation.

Making my first Crossbow

Yesterday, I decided to make a Crossbow. I got the idea from a T.V programme called the Mythbusters on Discovery Channel. The programme is about people who heard of stories and try to make them true. For example Archimedes built a big shield with lots of glass pieces to reflect sun rays to burn down the Roman ships. So, the Mythbusters would try to build what Archimedes built to destroy a ship. This time, the Mythbusters tried to make a Crossbow out of paper and homemade glue and this project worked! I was fascinated by this creation; that they could make actually such a strong crossbow out of flimsy paper! That was why I decided to try and make a Crossbow. These are the steps:

How to make a Crossbow

Things you need:

1. two rubberbands
2. string

3. double sided tape

4. a pair of scissors

5. musking tape

6.wooden chopsticks

7. ice cream sticks.

8. paint(any colour you like)

Steps

1. First, tie two wooden chopsticks together.


2. Then, using a double sided tape and string, attach a ice cream stick to the middle of the pair of wooden chopsticks.


3. Next, use the musking tape to join four ice cream sticks to the first ice cream stick. It should look like a long house.


4. Then, tie one rubberband to each end side of the crossbow. (you might want to use the musking tape to secure the rubberbands)


5. Lastly tie a string to each end of the rubberband with a short piece of string. The string should be about 20 to 30cm.

Optional: You can use the rest of the ice-cream sticks to extend the length of where the arrow would be before fired.

Caution!

do not shoot the arrow at someone. Or Else!

Your Crossbow should look like this

My busy March holidays

During the March holidays, I did lots of things. On Tuesday, I went for my second chess competition. I won four rounds! Although it was better than the last time, I still could not get into the chess junior squad. I was very disappointed, but I enjoyed playing with other players. I also realised my weakness, when I play white.

On Wednesday, my brothers and I went to a road safety park. My friends, Bailey, Dominic, Christian, and John were there too. When we reached the place, I quickly grabbed a cart as cannot wait to start driving it around the course. I felt like driving a fomular 1. After having fun at the road safety park, we headed home to rest before going to Farrer Park swimming complex for my swim meet. When we reached Farrer park, I started to feel nervous. Soon, it was my turn to swim. I chose the 50m Freestyle event because I was most comfortable with that stroke. When I finished the race, I realised that I was in second place!! I was very happy. In the end, I came in third overall amongst 17 swimmers. I won my first my trophy!!! I had a great day.

Read about our trip to Sentosa in Jabez's Jet Plane Our trip to Sentosa(Thursday)

On Friday, my brothers and I went to Bailey and Dominic's 8th birthday party. The theme was on medieval times so when we reached the place (Jurong West) we got to wear knight costumes. When everybody had arrived, we started playing games. The game that I liked very much was "the dragon hunt." We went round the estated looking for clues that would lead us to the dragon. The clues were not easy to understand and find. Our team, found the first clue which was stuck to the extinguisher. In the end, it was a draw. After we finished the game we sang a birthday song to Bailey and Dominic before eating their cake which was an apple pie! The pie was delicious!! Then, we practiced shooting arrows at the dragon. I enjoyed this party.

On Saturday, my brothers and I went to Sungei Buloh for the young naturalist day camp. After we were divided into groups, we went to the boardwalk with our guides to look at animals, mangroves, crabs, and many other interesting things. I saw a Torchginger plant which is used for making the fragrent taste in Rojak. We also saw a very big mud skipper, some tree climbing crabs, a cicada, and mangrove roots that are called"pencil roots" After that, we went to look at birds at the bird watch shelter. Along the way I saw a few Monitor Lizards, Archerfish, Strippednose half backs, and a poisonous black viper with red eyes!! It looked very scary. When we reached the bird watch area, I did not see many birds except a few Little Egrets. I think this is not the migration period. Soon it started to rain and we headed back to do craft and draw. We made a clay mud skipper, weaved a leave to form a Tailor bird's nest, cut out a picture of a purple Heron for a mask, and, cut out a picture of a snake as a wristband. This is my first time seeing so many interesting things in Sungei Buloh. This is my most exciting trip to this place.