Day 2

Parliament House - Click to view Website

In the hall of Parliament House there is a lot of symbolism. Great poles of green marble symbolise the gum trees of Australia. Most of the foyer is marble all imported from countries all over the world. As we moved along the hall way we learnt that there are more than two and a half thousand clocks, reminding the politicians when to start question time. Of course we didn’t see all of Parliament House, there are more than four thousand rooms!

Parliament House has six passage ways joining the separate parts of the building together. These passages are made of glass.

Walking along one of these passages we came to the community room we were using for our mock question time. Some people got dressed up in black robes and others acted like representatives.

Then we saw the Senate and the House of Representatives. We learnt how a bill is passed. For a bill to be passed it has to pass first through the House of Representatives then through the Senate. If it is approved by both these houses it goes to the Governor General who stamps it and then it becomes a law. Parliament wasn’t sitting so we had both Houses to ourselves. As we left we saw a beautiful painting that had been made into a tapestry and we had to find the cockatoo. Then we had morning tea and left.

PARLIAMENT HOUSE

We walk into the first hall,

It was big but that wasn’t all,

We saw the two houses,

The green and the red,

We put on funny robes,

And this is what we said,

Quiet! and Order!

Mr Lucas was the recorder,

Our embarrassing moments are frozen on screen,

To be taken home and by our parents be seen,

My oh my! Camp was so fun,

I hope it’s not the only one!

Chelsea 6W

National Capital Planning Exhibition -Click to view their Website

In this amazing place you see how the Australian Capital Territory was designed. It was a competition and Mr Walter Burley Griffen from Chicago won the prize. You also see a movie on how Canberra has grown narrated by Noni Hazelhurst. We saw heaps of cool stuff and looked over Lake Burley Griffen.

Ben S 6W

Australian Institute of Sport - Click to view their Website

On our second day of camp we left to go to the A.I.S (Australian Institute of Sport) and we got a tour of the whole place. The A.I.S. is where athletes who are really good can train. Lots of Olympic athletes come to train there. We were shown around most of the place. They have a place to train for almost every sport. We saw boxing rings, volleyball and badminton courts. We also saw where they swim, it had cameras under the pool and along the sides so that the coaches can watch.

I thought the gymnastics room was the best, it had a foam pit about 10m deep.

Once our tour was finished we went to Sportex to have a go on all the different equipment and games. We had a go at rowing, basketball, golf, skiing and rock climbing.

Some people bought souvenirs at the shop like talking ducks, cricket balls, pens and more.

It was really hot that day everyone was dying to dive into the pool but everyone enjoyed it and learned a lot exercise training and Olympic sports.  

A poem about the A.I.S  The A.I.S trains good sport stars In swimming, gym and lifting bars They run, they jump and they throw things They all stand under the Olympic rings Kelly 6W

Click on the Pool to view the swimmer

Lake Burley Griffin at Scrivener Dam & Yarralumla

ScreenSounds - Click to view their Website

Around 6:30 on the 2nd day of the camp we drove to ScreenSounds on our bus. When we arrived the building it looked like a very tall and long building with an oldish and grand look to it. We walked through the entrance and into a big square room with marble floor. We were then directed to a hall right of the room, which went straight for 6 metres, turned left and went straight for 15 metres. To the right was a big maze-looking room, which was even bigger than the first one. We were given five minutes to look around the room before we were allowed in the cinema. There was this machine which depending on how fast you turned the lever the faster the movie went. On the left side of the room were old movies playing, movie making instruments and old artefacts. On the right side were old ads playing, costumes and more old artefacts. Once everybody was allowed in we watched an old record of Kylie Minogue singing her old hits.

The next thing we watched was some of the reactions to people when they were first being filmed. Since they didn’t know anything about moving pictures, they thought they were just having their picture taken. After that we were given different items, like frying pans with a spoon to make gun shots and paper being ruffled to make a fire sound, all for a soundless movie. The last thing we did in the cinema was seeing how TV ads changed along the years. We saw an Aeroplane Jelly ad and a car ad.

After we had to get out of the old fashioned cinema to look around at some of the olden things, for a longer period of time. I liked some of the old ads because they were hilarious and it was funny seeing some of the people getting dressed in the olden costumes. ScreenSounds was very interesting and I’m sure everybody liked it. Then we went back to the motel to have a good night sleep.

Taylor 6W