Year 8 Rowing Experience

On Tuesday and Thursday this week the year eights got the chance to go down to HPC and row on the Piako. It was a new experience for most of us. We all had a go on the Ergs the week before so hopping in the boat for the first time was new and a bit scary. The boat felt really different to the ergs. It was a lot more about technique instead of strength. When we went down on Tuesday it was quite easy but on Thursday the current was really strong so it was a lot harder. I definitely enjoyed the rowing experience but when I go to college I think I will stick to sports that are on land 😀.

My Riddle

My Bucket List for next year

My lego Character

My End of Year Quote

I choose this quote because it connects well to the way I feel about the year ending. I will be a little bit sad because I have been at this school for eight years. I am also happy because I have enjoyed school and I also look forward to the new opportunities that college will bring. I have a lot of happy memories from my time at school and I look forward to creating more.

My Writing

Thunder

The blankets are tucked up to my chin just the way I like them.

I am engulfed in darkness.

I think he is outside my house.

He flashes his bright eyes.

I am waiting for his powerful voice.

The tension is eating me up.

I can hear him now, he is moaning.

His moan turns to a shout which turns to a roar.

His powerful voice rolls on and on.

He is angry now, I can tell.

He is still there.

He does not want to leave.

He wants someone to let him inside where he is not meant to go.

He is angrier now and his eyes flash again.

He is about to boil over.

His voice booms and my ears are hurting.

His voice rips through the sky.

I can hear him knocking on my window.

He has gone quiet again. I think he is sad. I can hear his tears in the roof.

His eyes light up again.

This time he is not knocking, but lashing out on my window.

He is mad and he is not calming down at all.

He is shouting while running away, his voice is loud but it is fading.

He is going to go and find someone else to let him in.

He is gone completely now.

The storm has moved on.

Current Events

Donald Trumps private jet is three times the size of any normal private jet and every inch of the amazing aircraft is customised to Trumps high standards. The plane is run by Rolls Royce engines and the seat belts and taps are made out of 24 carat gold.  The plane has a bathroom with a shower and dining room and even a conference space. I found a tour of the plane on video and I thought the plane was amazing. I sure would love to have a private jet like that.

My Arts Festival World Cloud

Current Events

The Pen Pineapple Apple pen song, also known as PPAP, has gone viral. It is only forty five seconds long, making it the shortest song to make it into the billboard hot 100. The Japanese artist Piko-Taro even made it into the Guinness book of world record after his hit song was released. Justin Bieber was even part of endorsing the new catchy tune. Piko-Taro was shocked at the good turnout for his song because it only took a few hour to put together and it only costed $1500 to record.

My Writing

Parasailing

I am lifted high into the sky. I can see everything below me. People dot the shoreline of the island.

I look around and I see no clouds, I can only see the sun sitting proudly above the horizon. I am taking it all in and enjoying the peace and quiet while it lasts. Another small island appears in the distance. It is coming closer and I can make out a few buildings. I can see palm trees and people now. Down below me is the clear ocean. The beautiful coral shows through the water. Slowly the driver makes his way around the island. The boat slows down and I am slowly lowered towards the ocean. They warned me about this. The sea is coming closer and closer. My legs are dangling and my feet touch the water. The water comes up to my thighs and I am lifted up again. Relief fills me. For a moment I thought I was going to get completely dunked under the water. Treasure is coming into my view again. The island looks so beautiful from the sky: The palm trees stand gracefully, the sand is white,the water is clear and the sun reflects over the sea. I am slowly lowered down and the Fijian men are on the sand to help me land. My bare feet skim the soft and as I bend my knees for the landing. My harness is grabbed and they unclip me. My legs feel a little bit wobbly as I walk again. I look over and my family is sitting under the palm trees waiting for me. I look back at the big parachute. Parasailing was so fun.

Week 3 Goal Reflection

This week our goal was to use teamwork. We watched a video of good team work and bad teamwork. This week I used good teamwork with my athletics group when we were doing our rotations. we ended up at the sprints station and we had to run it by ourselves. I think we worked well together because we made sure everyone knew what to do. I enjoyed practising sprints and we ran the station well together. 

Week 2 reflection

This week we didn't have a goal but I still had a good week. This week there has been a few people away so it has been quite quiet.
Plus- My favourite part of the week was when we made our miniature gardens and my other favourite part was when we did the house team challenge. It was a famous faces quiz and my team got ten out of fifteen. Overall Weka came first and I was really happy with the results. This week I also found out I was on the year eight committee. I was really excited when I found out I couldn't wait to start organising it.

Minus-This week I was sick on Monday so I didn't really know what was going to be happening during the week which was annoying and I didn't know what work we had to get done but I have found out all that now.

Interesting  This week it was also Calf Club so we got to go out and see all of the animals. My favourite were the lambs because I thought they were the cutest.

The Marama Way

This is going to be my last term at Ngatea Primary School so this term I am going to make the most of the learning opportunities that we get. This Term I want to be a part of organising the year eight dinner which I am already apart of, and something else I want to do before I leave is to get into Thames Valley athletics again because it is my last chance. I would also love to have my language milestone complete and I am already five percent fluent so hopefully I improve.

Quick Write

Miniature Gardens

Miniature Gardens

Today in Marama the people who weren't doing calf club were making miniature gardens. I choose to do mine like a fairy garden and I collected some cool flowers and small plants from home. I also collected some pebbles, shells and some moss. I had a look around at home for some material and some cool paper just in case I wanted to use some of that. I had to look up some things on my computer to get some Ideas. After looking at the ideas I decided that I was going to do a Fairy garden.

When we started the gardens I got some sand from the sand pit and then I spread a layer of soil over the top of the sand. Yesterday I decided that I was going to put a tepee in the garden so had to make that out of some small sticks and some of the fabric that I brung. After I had made it I put the tepee at one end and then I made a pathway (using my shells) leading to the other end. I was pretty quick to put put my plants down the sides because I had some really cool ones so it wasn't to hard to choose which ones to use. After doing the plants I made a little well to go at the end of the pathway, I made it out of the little stones that I brought. The well was the hardest thing to make because it kept falling apart and I had to hot glue again and again. In the end I was really happy with the way mine turned out and I had a great time making it. 

Conference Day Reflection

Learning In the Making Conference day reflection

Breakout One:

In Breakout one I was presenting a workshop with Emma. 

It was a Marbling workshop for Moana. Me Emma had to order the paints online and they 

were there early enough for us to test them out which was good. The kids were a bit slow with the paints so they didnt really go so well. It was still a good workshop and The kids said they enjoyed it.

Breakout Two:

Me and Emma took another Marbling workshop in the second block. This one was much more successful because we figured out that you had faster withe the paints for it to work well. If you took to long the paints would create a layer on the top of the water, and the paint would stick to the skewer. I think we used our time more wisely in the second breakout because we had time for the kids to do two pieces of art each.

Breakout Three:

In breakout three I was in badminton with Mrs Heaven. My buddy was Alec which meant we were doing doubles. There was two courts and each game was three minutes. when you finished a game you would move to the left. We did count points but in the end we didn't really find out the winner which didnt matter. Me and Alec did alright and it was very fun little tournament.

Breakout Four:

For breakout four I was in a workshop with Miss Williams and we were making bouncy balls.

We had to mix PVA with a bit of water and in another bowl we mixed water and borax.

Then we tipped the PVA mix into the borax mixture which made the PVA go kind of rubbery. We took the flubber out of the water and we had to play with it so it would go kid of hard. if it got really soft we put it back in the water and it would go hard again. After it got hard enough

we tried to bounce it but it didn't really work. It was fun to make and I'm sure it 

just has't worked YET.

Current Events

A company in Washington has designed a drone that is capable of towing a person on a skim board. It pulls the person along at high speed and the person is able to do tricks and stwists while being pulled along. Unfortunentley for us the drone costs 40,000 dollars! It still sound like a lot of fun though. Here is a video of the drone being tested out.

Digital Art

Lately in class we have been doing P.A.T tests, and at the end of those test I sometimes have some free time so I have been doing some digital art. Here is some of the art I have done. I was kind of starting to do flowers but then they just became random things.

Goal Reflection

This week we had two goals. One of them was to keep trying, don't give up and support others:
‘Winning or losing does not define who we are.   Our attitude and how we hold ourselves does.’ I feel I achieved this goal during PE today. We were playing swamp ball and I was the last one standing in our team. I had to try and free my teammates. Unfortunately we lost but I didn't give up and I still kept trying.

Video

I found this video of a two year old solving a rubiks cube in 70 seconds! I probably couldn't even solve it in ten minutes.

My Dad

My Dad:

Current Events

Video

Usain Bolt was caught Mucking around before his Olympic run. He was having a few throws of a javelin and he impressed people with an amazing throw of 56 metres. Although the throw was not enough to qualify for the Olympics, it was an amazing throw for his first ever go at Javelin.

Daffodil Day Celebration

Daffodil Day

Today our school had a Daffodil Day Celebration. I was one of the people who organised the day. Me and the rest of the events team decided that that everyone would dress up as what they wanted to be when they are older. I dressed up as a black stick and I made a uniform from a black singlet and I put my name on the back using tape. The whole school met outside Moana to do a parade. Each syndicate went one by one and it was my job to judge the Moana students. Abby, Ayisha and I had to pick one student each to give best dressed to. I really enjoyed seeing all of the outfits and costumes.

Another thing I enjoyed about this morning was knowing that we were raising money for the

 Cancer society. Everyone had to bring a gold coin so that we could get lots of money to donate. It was cool that everyone was aware of cancer and how much we were helping sick people and their families. I have really enjoyed today so far and I'm sure the rest will be just as good.

Video

China has just opened the worlds largest glass bridge. The six metre wide bridge cost 3.4 million dollars to build and it is 300 metres above the ground. The bridge was paved with ninety nine panels of three layer glass. Here is the video of someone walking across it. I bet I would be scared!

GE Ignition

Today we worked on our GE Ignitions. My group is the Food miles group and we came up with lots of good questions. After the Session we had to answer some reflective questions. Here they are:

• What is it I hope I will come to understand more deeply through this inquiry?

I hope I will have more knowledge about local foods and imported foods. I also want to find out how we, as a community, can support the local food growers.

• What knowledge might I need to help move towards this understanding?

I will need to know anyone in the area who grows food. I will also need to learn about what kinds of foods get imported to New Zealand and what food we export.

• What is it I hope to be able to do more competently?  

I hope I will be able to convince people to Buy locally produced foods to support our growers. I also hope I will be able to Identify local food and New Zealand grown foods when I go to the supermarket.

• What learning powers will this inquiry help me practice and develop further?

I will need to be Curious so I can easily come up with questions to investigate. I will need to be able to Connect with experts who know about food miles. I think Being me is important throughout this project because I have to investigate what I am interested in so that I enjoy our GE and remember everything I have learnt. I haven't figured out a way to use the other learning powers but I'm sure I will use them throughout the project.

Current Events

NASA have just recently tested the worlds largest rocket. NASA tested the huge rocket out in the deserts of America. Generally it is hard for cameras to capture something so bright and hot but NASA had no problem because they used a new type of camera that was able to film the amazing moment of the worlds largest rocket being tested. The next test is going to be held in 2018! Here is the video of the huge rocket being tested.

My Poem

Swimming in the winter

The sky is grey as I step onto the sand.

I am wrapped in a warm towel that I don’t want to take off.

I dip the tip of my toe into the freezing water, It sends calm ripples out to sea.

My towel drops and I step deeper into the cold blue ocean .

Goose bumps appear on my skin as I keep on wading through the water.

The waves are small and they are all a deep blue colour.

I see a small wave building up in front of me and I decide to dive.

The coldness of the water surges through my body as I bring my head up and out.

I go deeper diving under the waves till there are no waves and I am floating in the ocean,

I am growing colder as I slowly swim back to the sand.

The warmth of my towel is calling me as I ride the waves ashore.

My lips are blue and I am shivering as the dry sand greets me.

I am finally wrapped up in my towel , warm again .

Current Events

Mosha (an Asian elephant) who lost her leg in a landmine accident was lucky enough to have a prosthetic leg made for her. She was seven months old when she lost her leg in the accident at the Myanmar Thailand Border. Mosha had been used as a logging elephant; using elephants for logging is banned in Thailand and India but Myanmar still uses them.The company that Mosha was working for was owned by the government who used 3,000 other elephants.

The Asian Elephant Foundation many elephants who work for logging companies get injured from landmines that are buried in remote forests, but Mosha was one of the lucky ones who can now stand on four limbs.

My Curiosities

Today during our middle block we were investigating our curiosities. There was lots of items placed on the tables to get our minds interested so we came up with lots of questions. The questions I came up with were kind of about organic diets so that was the topic I chose. I came up with a few more questions and they were:

• Is a vegetarian diet actually better than a normal diet?
• How do vegetarians get there protein? 
• What is the name of a full organic diet?
• Are organic fruit and vegetables better than non organic fruit and vege? 
• Is a paleo diet only fruit, vege and meat? 
• Do supermarket labels say if the food is organic or not? 
• If you are on a paleo diet can you take tablets to get all of the vitamins that you aren't getting? 
• How many diets are there?

I enjoyed this middle block and it was cool to know that I am actually interested in some different things to what I would normally choose. I am looking forward to investigating further.

Tic Tac Toe

Tic Tac Toe

This week we read a article about bedtimes and how they make a difference to how you learn. I chose to do some questions about the article and to state my opinion.

My questions:

• What bedtimes are recommended for 12 year olds?
• How many times do you have to sleep at a certain time for your body to keep it as a regular bedtime?

My opinion:

I think that kids at the age of seven should have a regular bedtime so that when they are older they get used to having a set bedtime. I also think that 7:30 to 8:30 is a good bedtime for kids at the age of seven. I think it is important to get enough sleep for your brain to be able function in the classroom.

My Art reflection

For our art we have been doing murals. First we had to Draw five symbols that we were going to put on our mural and then we had to do a draft of our mural in our art books. After we did our draft we had to check with the teacher and then we could start on our big copy. When I drew my up I added a few extra things because I felt that it needed more symbols. When I did the water colour I think the hardest parts were the stars and the black edging. I tried really hard to put meaning into my symbols. I added mount Taranaki because my mum was born there. I also added a farm because my dad has always lived there. I added the brick house on the farm because I have lived in the same house my whole life. There is five waves in the first row and they represent my family. I did thee second row because me and my family love to go to the beach. In the back ground I did a moon and twelve stars because I'm twelve years old. I also did a silver fern because I am from New Zealand. I added the sun because I think it looks really pretty when it is rising and when it sets. Over all I enjoyed creating my mural and I am happy with the way it turned out.

Our Goal This Week

Our goal this week is to choose our attitude. The teachers showed us a video which I quite liked. It just shows that it is really easy to change your attitude and when you choose a good one you have a much better day.

Current Events

One elderly woman from Australia accidentally made a costly mistake of donating 25,000 Australian dollars to the salvation army. She donated two pale printed cushions containing the money. She still has a little bit of money in the bank to pay her bills but the money in the pillows was to help her kids were financially unstable or if they desperately needed something. She had always kept a portion of her money out of the bank ever since the global economic crisis.