Learning Circle

Learning Circle:

Today in class we had a learning circle. That is where we get into small groups and we shared what we had done so far for our passion projects. We got to share for three minutes, then we had one minute where the others in our group could talk and ask questions. It was really good, and Orla showed me a website that she says is really good. I had started to use a different site called Snapfish but when I went to show it to Lotte, Isis, and Orla it didn't show up so I might have to make it again. I arranged a mentor meeting for a week away. This weekend I am going to redo some things on my blog because I learnt some things I can do for it. I also want to do my website again because it doesn't look very good at the moment.  

Journal

Fourteenth Entry ~ 25/7

Our school holidays just finished. I did quite a bit in the holidays. I created a youtube channel so I can put the videos of how to make the things I make on there. I made three videos and put them on there. Click here to go to my youtube channel. My nanny finished with us so I can't use Lulu anymore which is really really annoying.

 

Journal:

Thirteenth Entry ~ 13/6

Yesterday I made Cinnamon Cookies. I did something wrong because you were supposed to be able to roll out the mixture, but I wasn't able to do that so I had to just make small balls with the mixture again. I had my second mentor meeting on Thursday and I decided I was going to create website because now days everyone uses the internet to find recipes for baking. I also decided that I am going to email Martin( Our school cook) and ask him if I can come and visit him to het some advice on things like, how to make the mixture be able to roll and what things can I change in a recipe before it won't work?Click here to see my website. I am currently creating videos of the baking process that I will put on my website and on my blog. Next weekend I want to bake another type of treat but I need to go to the supermarket again to get some more things. Some of the girls in my class tried the dog treats because I had them at school to show my mentor and they tried them because they are made out of things that humans would eat just with more sugar probably. They said they tasted good but a bit bland.

Journal

Twelfth Entry ~ 13/6

Last weekend I went to the supermarket with my mum and we bought five things there so I could start testing dog treats. I ended up spending $21.45 there. 
I decided that I would start testing dog treats because they are just easier to test and I just felt like doing it. I made Almond Honey Spheres and Oat Balls( I made up the names).  Nero loved both of them and ate every last crumb. Lulu ate both of them but she didn't want to eat crumbs of the floor so Nero eat it for her. Molly ate both of them in one gulp. Tiggy ate the Almond Honey Spheres but not the oat balls. I haven't heard from Sue what Poppy ate so I need to find that out. I ended up left with some Rye flour and some of the two different types of oats. from this experiment I have found that I will need to make the balls a bit smaller so the dogs can eat them more easier. 

Almond Honey Spheres:

Oat Balls:

 

Journal

Eleventh Entry ~ 4/6

Today I have created a list of all the things I am going to need to buy at the supermarket. I have put seven things on that list. Because the recipes I am using are German, I had to search up a lot of things to make sure we could get them at the supermarket here. I was allowed to use a few things from home because we had a lot of it and I only need a bit of it. Mum is going to take me to the supermarket today or tomorrow. After I have got all the things I need I will start testing. We have Monday off next week because it's Queens birthday so I have an extra day off school to test.                                                                                                        

Journal:

Tenth Entry! ~ 3/6

I was going to start testing last weekend but I stupidly left my recipes at school so I couldn't. I will start testing this weekend though. My mum and I have decided that it is to hard to create a budget yet, so what I going to do is just buy the things I need and write down how much they cost and everything like that, and then later on we will make a budget so it will be easier to make. I have organised a meeting with my mentor for Thursday next week, so that is really exciting. I am going to create three bags of food which I can give to Olivia for her dog, and I will give my brother two to give to his friends.

Journal

Ninth Entry ~ 23/5

In the weekend my books I got out from the library about baking for dog's and raw nutrition for dog's were due back so we went to the library and returned them but I wanted to look for more books and the baking for dog's book was really good and I am going to use some of those recipes in my book because they had a lot of really good recipes. I also found another big book about dogs but I only used a few pages out of that. The next day mum took me to her work and we photocopied all the pages I wanted out of the books, so now I have a lot of pages of information. Mum said that we don’t have to have an exact number for my budget but I need to find out a bit more about how much these things will cost before I make a budget. I am allowed to use my friend Olivia’s small dog for my experiment. Our friends have also said that I can use their old golden retriever and our other friends said I can also use their young golden retriever. I need to plan a mentor meeting because it is the fourth week so I can arrange a mentor meeting so that is good but I need to look at the list of things that Victoria gave me first.

Journal

Eighth Entry ~ 16/5

My mum is coming home tonight so am going to talk to her about making a budget, because I want to start testing things soon. My nanny is here this afternoon and I don't have music theory so I will be able to talk to her. My nanny Lisa said that she will try to take photos of all the things that Lulu eats for breakfast and dinner. Lisa has shown me a few photos of what Lulu eats already and it is really interesting seeing what she eats and compare it to what Nero eats and what is in his food. Yesterday while my brothers were at their friend's house my dad took me and Nero to Animates because he really stinks( they have a DIY dog wash there and Nero hated it), and he also needed some more dog food. There were so many different types of dog food there. I am going to talk to mum and try to make a budget tonight and over the week, but I will need to find out how much money all the everything will cost and how much I think I will be able to give back to her, so I we can figure out a good budget that will work.

Journal

Seventh Entry ~13/ 5 

Yesterday I found out that the website that Alice and I were using to create our books wasn't going to work because you couldn't put photos on, only on the front page, so that didn't work. Alice went through a bunch of different websites to try and find one that would work. She found one and sent me the link. We are using the photo book set up because it is a lot better than the recipe book one. I really want to start testing soon, but I need to wait until my mum gets home from where ever she is. I am going to quite busy soon but I will try to get some more done.

Journal

10/5 ~ Sixth Entry

I have been researching about how I could make a book,. My mum said she is going to give me a budget which I will workout with her and my mentor when I need to start buying things. One of my friends Alice has shown me a website where you can make recipe books, and then print them at a special place. It will be a lot cheaper to do this rather then get it properly published, and this will still look very good. Lulu has started eating fish heads and whole fish at a time. My nanny Lisa is going to send me photos of Lulu’s food that she gets and I will post them on my blog. I am going to start testing soon because I want lots of time to make the book and recipes. I am starting to get really excited for this. We have shared what we did in the holidays with everyone in our class and most people who were testing  things have started by now so I really want to start testing things soon because that will be really fun. I am still trying to find out how much of what things dogs need in their diet. Victoria is going to get her dad to try and find a recipe he used with his dog's when she was little so I can try that out.

Journal

4/5 ~

Yesterday I had my first mentor meeting. That was really good. I have got a list of things that would be good to do. Victoria said that maybe publishishing a book would be very expensive, so I am going to look into maybe I could make the book and go to a printing shop and get it printed there. I have asked the other girls at school today about whether anyone has a fussy dog, (because Lulu and Nero will eat almost anything, so it would be good to have a dog that is more particular about their food) and quite a few people said that their dog is fussy so I can always ask them if I need to. I think I am going alright at the moment, and I am getting really excited about doing this.

Journal

2/5 ~

Today I have found out that Zelle’s step dad, father is a vet and so I am going to try to contact him and see whether that will help me at all. I have also found out that the basic food groups for dogs are protein, vitamins, fat and water. I am in the process of finding out how much of each food group they need to eat per day of week but it it very hard to find out because when I type it into google it always comes up with how many scoops of dry dog food made by factories, which is not what I want. Tomorrow is my first mentor meeting which is exciting I am going to tell her what I have done so far, I will show her my blog, ask about the recipe she told me about, and if she thinks I can contact her father. I have come across a challenge that is that it is going to be really expensive to do all these tests, I am also going to discuss this with my mentor. I have an idea that I once I have figured out what recipes are going to be in the book, I could sell dog meals that I have created to give my parents some of the money back that I will owe them and once the recipe book is made I could also sell some copies of that. So far I think I am going alright, I will need to start testing on dog's soon so I will have time to create the book.

Journal

Third Entry 26/4 ~

Over the past two weeks I have been researching about how dog food is made and what goes in it. I have found out how most of the dog food is made in the factories, quite a few recipes for baking for dogs and found quite quite a few videos on raw dog food and homemade dog food. This is what I have found out about how dog food is made:

They start by putting mixing beef, chicken, lamb, fish, eggs, vegetables, carbohydrates such as barley wheat and rice, milk, and vitamins together,. Workers then weigh the ingredients, grind them in a mill, then combine everything in a mixer until they have an even and well blended powder. After that a machine called the extruder transforms the powder into bite sized pieces of pet food. It steam cooks the mixture and forces it through dies at high pressure, the die shapes it, as the continuous stream of shaped mixture exits the die a spinning knife cuts into pieces. Next a hot air dryer heats the pieces to a 149 degrees celsius for 25 minutes, to draw out the moisture, then cools them at room temperature. After that the pieces enter a revolving drum which sprays the mixture with fat and flavouring. The fat is designed to add food energy and the flavouring is to give the pieces an appetising taste and odour to dogs. They then get stored in silos for a while before they get packaged up and sent of to stores.

I have been to the library and have found one raw dog food book, and one baking for dog's book, I have read the baking book and I will read the raw dog food book but it has a lot of information that is really hard to read and understand. Next I am going to try and find out what dogs need in their diet and how much of it they need.

Journal

Second Entry ~ 7/4:

Today we found out who our mentors are. I got Issie’s mum, Victoria Knutson. I sent an email to her telling that she was my mentor, what I was doing and asking when we could met for a meeting soon. I am really happy and excited to have Victoria as my mentor.

I have found two eager test subjects. 

They are my dog Nero (Labrador):

                                                                     

My nanny’s dog Lulu (Boxer):

I have been given a list of things that might help me by someone from school, so over the holidays I will look at that and see if it will help me.

Journal 

First Entry ~ 23/3:

Today our passion project plan form had to be handed in. We went round in a circle and said what we were going to do for our project. Everyone either knew what they were going to do, or they were choosing between a few. I have decided that I am going to create a cookbook on meals for dogs. I got this idea from my nanny, because she feeds her dog Lulu raw meat and raw eggs almost every day for breakfast and dinner unless she is a rush. I am really excited for this. I have seen passion projects from other girls every year, for 4 years now, so I am really excited to finally be doing it myself.

Introduction

Hi, My name is Julia.

Here is a bit about me and what I like:

You may be wondering, What is this blog for? Well, This is for something that is called a Passion Project. For those of you who don't know a passion project is something that we do in year eight at Selwyn House School. We get just over half a year to research something that is our passion or something that we are really interesting. It could be cooking, reading writing, sewing, drawing, designing. We have to have something to show for it at the end. So you could write a book, design a room, create a product. I have decided to create a cookbook that has meals for dogs. I am going to use this blog as a way to show people what I am doing, to post my journal on, and to record information.