Today, I completed yesterday’s first activity with the skinks and reptiles. First, I learnt a little about them, and something I learnt was the name “mokomoko” meaning small native New Zealand reptiles, such as skinks and geckos. For this task, I had to create a “mokomoko manor” or a “lizard lounge”. This means I basically had to recreate it’s habitat and environment.

To do this, I used Google Drawings and made an enclosure type of thing. I made my own branches, leaves and logs, etc, and added a rocky background like a rock wall for some extra climbing. When I was finished with the crafting and I felt pleased, I added some reptiles and wētā.

Please remember that in this enclosure, the tuataras are friends and they will not eat the wētā, skinks or geckos. These four type of creatures are friends, so none of these species will eat each other in my enclosure because they are all endangered. The only live food is the crickets/beetles or any other pests or intruders like flies and mosquitoes. They are black in my diagram. There should be enough supply of food with the fruits pile as well.

This is my diagram of an enclosure for these lizards and reptiles. I have made both a labeled version and an unlabeled version.

As a reptile, would you resist to eat your “friends” and would you rather live here or in the wild?

Today, I completed a very challenging task in another language that I did not understand. According to some examples and the English instructions, I had to create an infographic about my top five New Zealand endemic creatures. I used both Canva and Google Drawings to do this task.

My top five have been chosen because I have been learning about them throughout this summer holiday. I thought it would be really cool to include them in this task as this is the last week for this year’s Summer Learning Journey. These five creatures are the Kea, Wētā, Hoiho Yellow-eyed penguin, Tukutuku rakiurae Harlequin Gecko, and Pekapeka-tou-roa Long-tailed bat.

I recently learnt about the Kea and their cheeky behaviour and I had even made a video about them. I remember doing quite a few tasks with the Wētā, including making animations and sculpting a model. The Hoiho is one of my favourite animals that is cute and I also had researched and made a video about them. I made a comic style presentation on the Harlequin Gecko at the very start of the SLJ and it’s a very unique reptile. I chose the Long-tailed bat because in the task where I made a pick-a-path quiz, I remember this bat the most clearly and thought it would be nice to have something different from the rest.

This is my infographic on my top five endemic creatures of New Zealand.

What other endemic creatures from different countries other than New Zealand can you name?

Today, I continued my journey with the well known cheekiest, world’s only alpine parrot, native New Zealand endangered bird – the Keeeaa! The Kea is a really intelligent bird that can solve puzzles like a 4 year old human. They are also very cheeky, known for stealing and dismantling things by destroying. These curious birds lives in the South Island of New Zealand, usually in the alpine areas.

For this task, I created a container that a Kea cannot open or destroy. Since a Kea has the same IQ as a 4 year old human kid, I got an idea of using some child proof lock and turn it into Kea proof. My inspiration from a Bilberry + lutein Eye Health Blueberry gummy lollies jar, where the screw top lid had to be pushed down before turning to open it. The Kea proof design I made include 2 of these safety locks, where a human has to push down on both sides and turn in reverse directions. My design also includes being fully made of the strongest metal compound, preferably something to do with Graphene. This is an image of my design.

What do you consider “Kea proof”?

Today, I did this morning’s kick start activity with the local, one of a kind Kea! For those people who may not know, the Kea is a large bird found only in the South Island of New Zealand and is the WORLD’S ONLY alpine parrot.

To do this task, I became a “future Kea conservationists” and crafted a Kea conservation video using Google Vids. I chose to make a Google Vid instead of a poster because I kind of got the hang of making these videos and now I start to enjoy making them. The hardest part and the part that took me the longest was finding nice pictures and videos of real Kea flying about their cheeky business. This is my Kea conservation video.

There are so many endangered species of animals in New Zealand, and the Kea is one of them. What other native, endangered parrots in New Zealand can you name?

Today, the theme of the tasks of this day was magical horses, like unicorns. There are three types of magical horses. They are unicorns, alicorns, and pegasus. Unicorns are horses with horns, pegasus are horses with wings, and alicorns are horses with both.

For this task, I learnt a little more about these mythical creatures. After that, I compared the three of them using a template. I sorted the information and compare the three types, from having horns, wings, both or colour coats. It helped me clearly see what makes each magical horse different and what they have in common. This made the whole activity easier to understand and more interesting to complete. This is my work.

Which type of horse would you keep as a pet?

Today, I did the last activity of this week with alicorns and pegasus. Last time, I compared the alicorn, unicorn and pegasus altogether. This time, I had the option to draw either a cartoon alicorn or a cartoon pegasus. I chose to draw an alicorn with a step by step tutorial. I prefer to draw an alicorn because I wish to have magic, have a horn and still be able to fly like Rainbow Dash. This task reminds me of My Little Pony, and Rainbow Dash is my favourite character, being able to be a multicolour dash so fast. She is a pegasus, but I wish Rainbow Dash had a horn to be an alicorn, so I basically drew my vision of Rainbow Dash. This is my artwork, non-coloured and coloured.

What is your favoutite My Little Pony character and why?

Today, I completed the latest activity with dragons. Last task, I created a postcard stamp with dragon. This time, I used my postcard stamp when making a dragon postcard. I followed a template which included prompts for me to know where to place and edit elements. I chose to write my postcard about the Ladon which is a Greek dragon which protect the golden apples. I put the destination to a random Greek Orthodox Church that I found on Google Map. This is my postcard.

Where in the world would you like to send a postcard to?

Today, I did the kick start activity of the day. Like the name says, I had to research a few dragons, such a the Māori Taniwha, the Asian “Loong” Dragon, and the Komodo Dragon. After finding out about these dragons, I made a dragon postcard stamp. My designing included multiple dragons on one side and some flags of where some of the dragons come from on the other side. This is my dragon stamp.

How many cultural dragons can you name?

Today, I completed yesterday Step It Up activity being inspired by the Mountain Stone Wētā. For this task, apart from being inspired by the Mountain Stone Wētā, I was also inspired by Bigfoot and Yeti. After being inspired by these creatures from the extreme cold, I created my own extreme cold fluffy creature. My creature eats snow, ice and seafoods, and mainly drinks water to be so fat. It needs to be fat and furry to keep the insulation and the fur is like sheep and possum because the fur will need to be able to trap heat. I prompted AI to create a cow and slowly modified it with adding longer heat trapping fur and making it fatter. This is my snow cow.

What would you name this species of snow cow?

Today, I completed yesterday’s activity with the Mountain Stone Wētā. This wētā lives in the freezing mountains and can have it’s whole body frozen for weeks without being dead. Then, when the sun comes out and thaws it, the wētā can come back to life. How cool is that!

For this kick start activity, I compared the Mountain Stone Wētā with another animal that can live in extreme weather and temperatures. I chose to compare this wētā with the Long-eared Jerboa. I think this jerboa is almost the exact opposite of this wētā because my jerboa lives in hot environments. I really enjoyed this task learning about a new type of wētā that I didn’t know about and a new type of animal, the jerboa, that I never thought existed! This is my comparison chart.

What would you compare the Mountain Stone Wētā with?