Discover Arts Award

Today was the last day of my Arts Award course. It was the big exhibition at Firstsite the gold banana art gallery in Colchester. I've been coming to Firstsite for 10 weeks to complete my award.

My Jackson Pollock inspired cake

 We have learned about lots of artists and different types of art . For example Dadaism, poetry, animation, sculpture and cartoons. We had to do lots of homework every week. I found out about Andy Goldsworthy, Gaudi, and Jackson Pollock. I made a cake for everyone inspired by his splodge pictures. 

My favourite part was making Mr Horny , my superhero, out of clay for the animation. We also had to fill in a sketch book. 

 I'm really looking forward to doing my Explore Award next.

There are lots of activities for children over the summer holidays at Firstsite including films to watch at a private theatre. The seats were really comfy.

http://www.firstsite.uk.net/page/whats-on-category-b

Beaver Fun day at Thorrington scout camp

Last weekend we went to Thorrington campsite for a beaver,cub,brownie and rainbow fun day. First of all we visited the animal man. We were allowed to touch some of the animals. First I touched a skunk. I was a bit nervous but he had had his glands removed so he couldn't spray us. He also had some naked Guinea pigs. They looked like mini pigs because they did not have any fur. I really liked the albino hedgehog. It was spiky like my hair! 

Next we went bouldering. This is a hut and inside the walls are covered in plastic rock climbing hand holds. You have to wear a helmet. You climb up the walls without a rope and then climb around the walls not up. Top tip.....never wear big boots as they will be too big for the foot holds!

After bouldering I tried crate stacking. I was on a harness and my friends stacked up old milk crates for me to step on. I climbed really high before my time ran out and then I jumped off. I liked swinging from the rope. It reminded me of the Tarzan swing that I loved in Costa Rica. 

Near to the crate stacking, hidden in the woods, was a rope bridge. I had to climb up a ladder to get on. I didn't like it because other boys were shaking it. But I did and felt really proud.

By this time I was starving and thank goodness it was time for lunch. We had a ticket to exchange for hot dogs, ice cream and biscuits.

After lunch we tried archery. I got all of my arrows on the target. I even got one in the yellow section. I found it quite hard to keep the arrow in the notch. 

We finished the day with a campfire. The fire was huge and the bits of ash kept on blowing on us. The songs made me laugh especially the worm song.

"We hate bugs,clap clap clap, look at the worm, catch the worm, lick the worm, bite the worm ,chew the worm, swallow the worm, digest the worm, poo the worm, kick the worm, shoot the worm, SORRY MR WORM"

I had the best day so far at Beavers and I can't wait to go to camp.

Oscar's Homemade Lemonade

When I was on our trip I used to drink a lot of fresh lemonade. Today I made my own.

You will need:

About 7 lemons (but today I used 5 and  2 limes) 

1 cup of sugar

4 cups of water

First make a syrup. Use 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water. Mix in a saucepan and heat until all the sugar dissolves. 

Next squeeze all of the lemons until you have 1 cup of juice.

Mix the syrup and the juice. 

Add 3 cups of water and mix.

Pour into your best bottle and add a tag. 

Keep your lemonade in the fridge.

We bought this purple juicer in Mexico but I broke on the first squeeze! I was too strong!

 

The finished lemonade. 

Five days later - the cress jungle!

Oscar 

I can't believe how much my cress has grown in only five days. I tried some this afternoon. It was horrible. It was really spicy like hot pepper. Never again, not even in my favourite egg sandwiches.

Talking of egg sandwiches would you like to see my chickens?  I'm in the garden taking photos on mum's ipad straight into the blog. It is so much easier than using a camera.

 

 

This is a picture of me in the plum tree. Can you see the basket of nasturtiums? These are edible flowers.

Avocados!

Since we have been home from Mexico Mum and Dad have become obsessed with eating guacamole. Guacamole is made from mashed up avocados. I don't like them that much though. The seeds are really big so I thought I'd try to plant one. 

You need a jam jar with a small opening and some cocktail sticks. I poked three sticks in the seed about half way down then used this to suspend the seed over water. I ran out of jam jars so used the tops of juice bottles to start some off. 

 Fill the jar up with water so the bottom of the seed sits in the water. Change the water every day.

After a few weeks I peeled the brown skin off the bottom of the seed. This seemed to work as the next day it started to grow a root.

I was really excited when the root started to show in the jar. Then the top started to crack and I could see a green shoot inside. I decided to plant it. I left half the seed out of the top of the soil.

This is an experiment. I have lots at different stages of growth in the kitchen.

Then I wanted to grow something else but needed a pot. I found some old dinosaurs that we found because we are clearing out for a boot sale and mum cut the tops off. I planted cress inside.

Back to school!

Oscar

We have been home for over a month now and we have gradually settled back into normal life. 

 We have had loads of tests at school that have been really boring.

This week at school though was really fun. The school celebrated its 150th birthday. Everyone had to dress up in Victorian clothes for a day. My teacher was dressed in a black cape and a black hat. He was a bit scary. A visitor called 'The Butler' came to talk to us about being a servant in Victorian times. He used a flint to make a fire. They had to do this every morning to make hot water. One of my friends got to dress up in a posh coat and he had a cane walking stick that had a diamond on the top of it. 

One day we went to the church next door and all the parents got to hear our new school anthem. I helped to act out a story. I was the foolish builder and got to wear sunglasses.

We wrote notes about ourselves to put in a time capsule. It was really special paper that never crumbles.

The best activity of the week was the magician. He was weird. He made one of the girls float in the air. I was amazed. We also got to eat special cakes with our new school logo on. You could eat the paper.

Canoeing!

Lex
Today we got up really early at 5 am to go and see canoe racing. It was the start of a four day race from San Ignacio to Belize City called The Ruta Maya. There were three men or women in a canoe. When the race started five canoes tipped and they kept on tipping. When the last team finally started to paddle everyone cheered and clapped. There were TV crews and radio hosts everywhere and a band played on drums.

After that we drove to Barton Creek Cave for our own canoeing trip. I got in a canoe with Dad and Elmer from the hotel. We had to manoeuvre the canoes through a tight opening to get into the cave.

When we entered I was surprised because the air was warmer than I expected but the water was freezing. We stopped and talked for five minutes while our eyes adjusted. The cave was used by Mayans for ceremonies that helped their dead get to the underworld quicker. As we paddled the guide used her flashlight to point out skulls and pots resting in ledges, untouched for thousands of years. Along the way we encountered stalactites, about 70.5 m from the roof towards the water.they were so close to the water that we had to duck down as far as we could go. It was pretty scary. We had to dodge in and out trying not to break our necks. It was like being in a maze. It was also scary when the torch died and it was really dark. This is us with Dora our guide.