Litia @ Pt England School

New School, New experiences

2012-01-25T13:36:00.000+13:00

I just finished a 3 day I.C.T course at my new school, St. Cuthberts College. I loved it because I met lots of new people, including a girl named Kyana who is going to be in the same class as me. I am so lucky because now I've got my own MacBook Pro. It's so cool and has some funny new effects on Photo Booth.

At the course I learned about an application called Fireworks. It is similiar to Photoshop and heaps of fun. I even made this movie which shows Mumble the penguin(off Happy Feet) dancing. It's not that great but I had a lot of fun making it.

2011-12-24T10:30:00.000+13:00

This year, 2011, has been awesome. I have really enjoyed being in Room 17, especially because I have the most amazing group of friends. I am going to miss them so much, but hopefully I'll see them again. So I want to say thank you to all these girls and Merry Christmas!

Life Without a Netbook

2011-12-14T10:23:00.002+13:00

Now that Pt. England have netbooks it is so much easier to share our learning with the whole world. Before we had to write it up in our book, sometimes we would get to copy it on to the computer and then publish the piece on our blog. It might take about a week just to get one post on. Now we post all the time.

I have loved having a netbook for heaps of reasons, one of them being because we don’t have to keep asking the teacher what we’re doing. We can just go on to our class site and see. They can be used for so many things, like the dictionary, research for our e-Learning tasks and Tux Paint. Our netbooks have helped us be very independent.

Nearly everything is great, but there is one thing that I think could be improved. That is the Internet connection. Sometimes when the whole class is trying to get on to the google docs it gets a bit slow. If that was sharpened up, everything would be even faster.

Netbooks actually make learning fun, especially compared to last year. It use to be so boring just writing and writing, now it’s easy and fast to type everything. I can hardly imagine going back to pencils and paper.

Even though everything to do with our netbooks isn’t perfect, it is way better then going back to when it would take a week to get a post on our blogs. So please, please don’t take our netbooks away.

Outta This World

2011-12-09T16:10:00.004+13:00

The school wide inquiry for term 4 is Outta This World. We've been learning about all of the planets in our solar system, and for this e-Learning project we got to choose which planet to do it on. I chose Venus. First we had to come up with a reason to leave earth and find a new planet to live on. But no planet is perfect so we had to find two problems with them and find a solution. I hope you like my movie!

My Last Prizegiving

2011-12-09T10:20:00.001+13:00

This prizegiving was my last at Pt. England school, and it wasn't bad at all. I got a prize for excellence in movie production, being a school ambassador, team spirit for netball, being a presenter for the school news, getting high distinction in writing and I won 1st academic. When I got the prizes I got a lolly lei each time, but I also got two really awesome presents. For being a school ambassador I got a really cool purple laptop bag, and for being a school presenter I got some really cool headphones. I love them because they are so nice and soft. I had a great time at prizegiving and the next time I come back to one of these I will be sitting in the seats.

Extension Election

2011-12-07T14:29:00.000+13:00

With the recent election, the extension group were learning about all of the different parties. We chose one party to answer some questions about, like what kind of NZ are they keen on developing? As you can see I chose the NZ First party, and then made a billboard as if I was a candidate for this area. You probably already know that it was the National party and John Key who won the election, but I thought and hoped that Labour would win.

Fine Dining on Kawau

2011-11-29T12:35:00.001+13:00

I don’t think I had ever tasted bread quite like this in my whole life. Every morning the smell of Mr Coop’s, our chefs, bread made you want to take a detour on our run and get to the dining room. It was delicious.

Everyone was very well fed at camp, with breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and of course dessert. To my surprise I ate every meal. Doing all these activities really does make you hungry.

My favourite meal was the dinner we had on the first night. It was made up of some lamb, peas, potatoes and carrots. Plus it was the first time that we tasted Mr Coop’s heavenly bread. If only he was my chef.

Rafting Success

2011-11-22T12:11:00.001+13:00

Only one group had made a raft, that got out to the pontoon and back to the beach. So that made me think that this was going to be really difficult. Come on Bentzon.

We had 8 barrels, a bucket of rope and some thick sticks to make a raft. First we tied all the sticks together, and then we put the barrels on. Tieing these ropes was not like tieing your shoelaces. We pulled them so hard that water came out.

Being the smart people that we are, we tested our raft by flipping it over. Two of the barrels fell out. We just tied them back on, and with our fingers crossed, took it down to the water.All our hard work payed off when we got to the pontoon and back successfully.

Biggest Panic Ever

2011-11-22T09:51:00.001+13:00

One look at the sailing boats made me think,”this is way too complicated”. To help get me through this process, Serena and I sailed together. I was in charge of controlling the sail and Serena steered us. Fingers crossed we wouldn’t capsize.

I didn’t really know what I was doing, so every time the sail flung over to the other side Serena and I would scream and shout. It wasn’t that I didn’t listen to the instructions, it was just a bit confusing for me. This sport was probably something that I would do once for fun.

Challenge: Sail to the opposite side of the beach. My thoughts: WHY? We got closer and closer to where the bigger waves were. I was scared that our boat would tip, and I would get caught under it. Luckily Serena and I got to the other side and back without capsizing. I was so relieved!

First Day Nightmare

2011-11-21T10:43:00.001+13:00

As soon as the year 6's got to Camp Bentzon on Kawau island, it wasn’t time to swim, check out our cabins or play volleyball, we had to go on a massive tramp through the bushes. HELP!!

My legs were dying, and I felt like collapsing. So when we stopped to have a rest ,hopefully we were going back to the camp, but no. Apparently we were only a quarter of the way.

Finally we made it to the beach, where we got to eat and play. I ended up skimming rocks and eating oysters right from the shells.They were delicious! But what I didn’t realise, was that we had to walk back the way we came. Not my favourite part of camp.

Superhero Comic

2011-11-07T12:11:00.000+13:00

This movie shows pictures of three superheroes, Wonder Woman, Superman and Wolverine. the only way to kill Wolverine is to remove his head from his body. Supermans weakness is Kryptonite which comes from his planet Krypton. A weakness of Wonder Woman is if her silver bracelets are bonded together. Another problem that she has is if she gets shot it will kill her.

Ice Cream Comets

2011-11-03T09:37:00.004+13:00

Did you know that you can eat comets? Not the real ones, don’t be silly. Room’s 16 and 17 were lucky enough to get to make ice cream comets, using ice-cream for the ice, smashed biscuits for the rocks and a cone for the tail. I’m pretty sure the real ones orbiting space aren’t nearly as nice as the ones we had.

Everyone seemed to have the same thought that I did, can’t we eat them already! As some people crushed the biscuits with a rolling pin, my stomach was growling and getting very impatient. The icy goodness was beginning to get to hard to resist.

After a while it just felt like Miss Garden was teasing me. Then it was finally my turn, I got a scoop of freezing chocolate ice-cream and headed outside to Mr Sommerville. This was quite a messy job as we had melting ice-cream in our hands, plus a spoon full of crushed biscuits and sprinkles. Luckily I got the ice and rocks in to the tail before it fell apart.

Looking around while eating my comet, I realised how much of a mess we had made. The food that we were meant to be eating ended up all over our hands, on the ground and even in the suage drain. Hopefully I wouldn’t be the unfortunate person to have to clean it all up.

Our ice-cream comets were really messy but still delicious, and who knows, maybe next we’ll be making the Sun. I wonder what we would use for that?

Space Exploration

2011-10-30T13:00:00.000+13:00

Rugby World Cup Countries

2011-10-29T08:00:00.004+13:00

Term 3's inquiry was Keep Your Eye on the ball, which was about the Rugby World Cup that the All Blacks just won!!This movie shows information about two countries that were competing in the cup. Watch my movie to see which ones they are.

Space Quiz-Answers

2011-10-28T09:00:00.000+13:00

Here are the answers. Well done if you got them right!

The Giant Jumping Pillow

2011-10-27T10:25:00.007+13:00

I knew this holiday in Napier wasn’t going to be the best ever, but it definitely wasn’t the worst. Our campground was pretty cool, and my favourite part of it was that there was a massive jumping pillow. This gave my friends an idea which we were eager to try out.

Our army of four dashed over to the pillow, cautious not to trip and fall.Outside it was dark and wet. The plan was just to play on the pillow for a while, have a short swim and then head for the showers.You’ll find out soon that it wasn’t very well thought through.

Getting on was easy, but when I tried to run to the other side I slipped straight away. I was a little bit sore but still wanted to try it again. Soon everyone got in to it and we would gang up on one person, to take them down.

In all the fun there were some low lights. I don't exactly know what happened, but it seemed that everything on the ground had ended up on the pillow. So when I slipped over I got lots of stinging cuts on my feet, knees and elbows.Ouch!

Not only did we get heaps of cuts, but we had to run back to the cabin in our towels. It was embarrassing but all worth it because we had heaps of fun on the giant jumping pillow.

Space Quiz-Questions

2011-10-26T10:46:00.007+13:00

1.What are the four largest moons orbiting Jupiter?

2.What are the two official moons of Mars?

(Try and get the answers for these questions and I will have them in another post soon)

Bitterns

2011-10-05T09:54:00.007+13:00

My reading group have been reading a book called The Bittern. It is about a man getting the wetlands named after his last name. He gets this because when he was a young farmer everyone else drained their swamps to get more land, but this man thought ahead and didn't. He knew that there were lots of birds that for them, the wetlands were their home. So this is a presentation showing information about Bitterns which were native birds to New Zealand.

Scotland Can't Finish Off

2011-10-04T12:23:00.002+13:00

This was a game that at first I didn’t really care who won. My whole family got to go to the England and Scotland rugby game at Eden Park, which would determine who got in to the quarter finals. But Scotland had to win by at least eight points.

The Scotland fans went all out to support their team, wearing wigs, kilts and even beer cans! When Scotland had the lead there was a lot of teasing from the fans to the England coach, which I thought was pretty funny. Some people liked them so much that they got pictures with the supporters.

Not a single try was scored in the first half, so all of Scotland’s points were from penalties. Even though England got a lot of opportunities, Jonny Wilkinson just wasn’t very on to it that night. Scotland needed to win by eight points and nearly everyone was sure that they could do it in the second half.

The second half wasn’t very different to the first...... except that England got a try. Suddenly a sea of red and white flags rose to the air and there was loads cheering from the England supporters. There wasn’t much Scotland could do as there was only two minutes left.

Unfortunately, Scotland couldn’t come away with a win and lost 12-16. But I think they played a lot better compared to England.

Duffy books

2011-09-27T14:33:00.006+13:00

Pt. England is very lucky because a group of people called the Bucklands Beach Lions Club, gives us two free books every term. They raise money to buy the books and then we have a special Duffy hero assembly to get them and thank the people that gave them to us. For a special treat, at every assembly we have there is a kind of celebrity. This time we had Alison Quigan, who you probably know as Evon on Shortland Street. She told us about how she not only acts, but also directs, produces and writes. The two awesome books that I got are called EJ12: In The Dark and Accidentally Fabulous. Hopefully you can hear about them in my next podcasts. I would just like to say a massive thank you to the Bucklands Beach Lions Club.

How Was The Haka Invented?

2011-09-23T15:59:00.011+12:00

Room 17 have been finding out about the Haka, which is a maori war dance the New Zealand rugby team, do before every game. We got in to groups and each got given a part of the story to make a movie about. The shorter movie is my one. It is about Te Rauparaha, the man who invented the haka, trying to escape his enemies. Then he asks another tribes chief to hide him. Enjoy!

Australia Vs Ireland

2011-09-13T18:37:00.006+12:00

On the 17th of September the Australian Wallabies will take on Ireland at Eden park in Auckland. My prediction is that it will be a close game but I have a feeling that the Wallabies will win and the score will be 23-17.

Rugby World Cup:The Opening Ceremony

2011-09-09T19:38:00.006+12:00

I'm not a huge fan of playing rugby but I LOVE to watch it. Especially when it's the start of the Rugby World Cup 2011, there's a huge opening ceremony and our awesome All Blacks are playing. I am watching it right now and it is absolutely amazing, all of the lights and effects are so clever. We may be a small country but we can definitely put on an awesome show. My sister is so lucky she is actually at the game, but it is still awesome to watch from home. I'm sure the All Blacks are going to win so I just want to say GO ALL BLACKS!!!!

Rugby World Cup Kick Off

2011-09-08T12:33:00.004+12:00

Tomorrow, Friday 9th September, is the start of the Rugby World Cup 2011. There will be a massive celebration The first game is New Zealand Vs Tonga. It will start with New Zealand's Haka and Tonga's chant. Tonga's supporters are really full on and so is the teams defense, but I think the All Blacks can be powerful in both attack and defense. So my prediction is that the All Blacks will win 85-10.

Historical File-Band Aid

2011-08-31T10:25:00.011+12:00

I have been reading a story set in the future called Space Nuts At Light Speed by Simon Cooke. Just like in this story, I have written a historical file about an object we use on earth, that someone could read about in the future.

Band-Aids are used when people might fall over and get a little scrape.The Band-Aid was invented in 1920 by Earle Dickson, who's wife always got cuts and burns while cooking. Earle was an employee at Johnson & Johnson, when he passed his idea on to his employer he started to produce and market the Band-Aid. Earle Dickson had a successful career and became the vice-president of Johnson & Johnson, then retired in 1957.

In the future I don't think people will use band-aids, maybe by then someone would have invented a machine that you can just put your sore under and it will be okay.

What Happens to Your Food?

2011-08-30T13:59:00.003+12:00

In our yr 5 & 6 extension group, we have been finding out about kids on the other side of the world who don't have water that's clean or have no water at all. Soon we will be going to the museum to see the Aqua exhibit. It's purpose is to help people understand how important water is and that we need it. We have found out about a bottle, the life saver bottle, that if dirty water is put in to it, it will come out clean. Then we started thinking up our own ideas of how we could get clean water over to the people that need it. Finally we got in to groups, we each had a part of the digestive system that we had to animate. I got the small intestines, this is where the nutrients from your food goes. The other parts that people got were the mouth, oesophagus, stomach and small intestines. Then there is a little surprise at the end. Anyway, the whole point of doing this was to see a healthy persons digestive system, and soon we will be moving on to doing a, child's digestive system that has poor health and is malnourished.

I think our movie was quite good, it showed clearly all the parts of digestion, made people laugh and we even made a trailer to go with it

(that is the small part at the start). But I think there was still room for improvement, that was in our voiceovers. They were very well written, but unfortunately you couldn't really hear them. So on a scale from 1-10 I would give our movie a 8/10.

Term 1 & 2 Reflection

2011-08-30T08:27:00.003+12:00

This has taken me a while but here is my reflection of term 2 and some of term 1. It shows things I liked, disliked, was good for my learning and something I would like to change or improve on.

Plight of the Sea Turtle

2011-08-25T10:29:00.004+12:00

For reading my group, the Kiwis, have been looking at an article called,"Plight of the Sea Turtle",. This presentation shows the seven species of sea turtles and two facts about each one. The seven species are, the Kemp's ridley, the Green sea turtle,Flatback, Olive ridley, Loggerhead, Leatherback and Hawksbill.

Badminton Coaching

2011-08-24T12:37:00.006+12:00

“I hope we don’t have to try and hit the shuttle in to the bin this time”, I said nervously to Vivienne. Room 17 were on their way to the second badminton coaching sesion, and after last week I was positive that I didn’t have a future in the sport. This week we had a different coach, her name was Donna and she is ranked 20th in the world! Hopefully this session would go better than last week.

When I first heard that we were going to badminton I was quite relaxed and thought it would be easy. Clearly I was wrong. I don’t know how but nearly every time I tried to serve, the shuttle just ended up on the ground, and the times that I actually did hit the shuttle it hardly got a metre away or it just went in a completely different direction. Now I know badminton is way harder than it looks, maybe that’s just me.

Even though it was hard I still learnt quite a lot, like that the name of the thing you hit is called a shuttle and three different ways to hit the shuttle. There is the forehand,backhand and my favourite, the overhand. You use the forehand when the shuttle comes on the side that you are holding the racket in and just do a soft hit. Then there is the backhand, you use this hit when the shuttle is coming towards you on the opposite side you are holding the racket on. You have to take it across your body for this hit. Now finally my favourite, the overhand. This hit is when you have the racket behind you and then you bring your elbow forward and strike at it. It’s kind of like when you are playing volleyball and you smash it over the net.

When I was with my partner Ashleigh we were in quite a small space, and I managed to get pretty sweaty and tired. I didn’t realise how much running you have to do in badminton, or maybe we were just hitting it wonky? At the end I felt like a deflated balloon.

When I first came in to badminton I thought it would be easy and I was also a bit nervous. But I just had heaps of fun, learnt lots and I think I improved. As I said at the beginning, badminton is definitely not the sport for me, but I still had a good time and it was great fitness. Now I am really keen to go back to badminton again.

All Blacks

2011-08-08T10:41:00.002+12:00

This is a presentation showing information about the All Blacks.

Irish Rugby Team Web Page

2011-08-04T10:36:00.004+12:00

This is a Picasa slide-show about the Irish rugby team.

Will the RWC Tournament Benefit NZ?

2011-08-04T10:05:00.007+12:00

I believe that New Zealand hosting the Rugby World Cup 2011, will benefit our country in many ways. Firstly, we will obviously get money for NZ and that means we can help Christchurch to rebuild, we will get more money for the school, and businesses,especially pubs and bars, will be very successful. Another positive reason, is that this will help NZ socially. There are teams coming from all over the world, so they will have supporters with them. So maybe if they like it here they will come back again. Overall, if New Zealand wants to make the Rugby World Cup successful they have to," Keep Their Eye On The Ball!!".

Bigger, Better, Faster Stronger

2011-07-14T12:17:00.002+12:00

My Family Flag

2011-07-12T12:04:00.005+12:00

This flag represents my culture, hobbies, the love in my family and my extended family around the world.

We Need a Makeover

2011-07-12T09:14:00.006+12:00

The paragraph that is highlighted is the one that Starford marked. I got 9/12.

If you’ve looked outside at lunchtime and morning tea, you would have seen that there are hundreds of kids squashed, and bunched up on our small concrete areas. With the fields closed there is just not enough space for everyone to play. So Rm 17 have decided that we want a makeover on the boring courtyard between our class and the hall. We have surveyed people in the school and they think it is a great idea. Plus the courtyard is just a waste of space, and we do have proof of this. No one likes playing here, but we are determined to make sure they do.

With the fields closed during these cold winter months,the crowded conditions in the breeze and on our small concrete areas can end up with little kids scared and trampled over. If we can make our courtyard a place that more people want to play in, it will help with this problem and little kids can have their own playing area.

One of the main reasons that people don’t play in our courtyard is that it is just plain ugly. There’s grass growing around the fountain, the drain is muddy and blocked, the concrete is very uneven and the walls are dirty because people wipe their grubby hands on them It is just not an enticing and attractive place. Plus there is not very easy access on to the decks because of the annoying rails.

You may have realised that as kids get older you don’t see as many of us playing on the playground and running around. Normally a quiet place to relax, talk and be with your friends is all we need, we have found evidence of this through our surveys. If we renovated our courtyard this would be a great place for us older kids.

If we had a makeover on our courtyard, it wouldn’t just be good for Rm 17, but it would help with the rest of the school as well. PLEASE consider our solution.

HOLIDAYS!

2011-07-11T09:31:00.002+12:00

Yay! Finally, this is the last week of term 2. My sister, Tinei, is already on her holidays, because she gets a 3 week break. During the holidays my other sister, Alosina, has a netball tournament, so we are all going to Hamilton to watch her. We might be staying down there for one night, so we can do some sight-seeing.

Tail of the Gecko

2011-07-07T10:55:00.003+12:00

My reading group, the Kiwis, read an article called,"Tail of the Gecko", by Marlene Bennetts. We found out that the Gecko has a special built in safety device. If you would like to find out what it is check my wordle out,or read the story in a school journal, Part 3, Number 1, 2006.

Giving it A Shot

2011-06-28T10:10:00.005+12:00

(This is my story web)

My reading group, the kiwis, have been reading a story called "Giving it a Shot". It is about a girl named Lauren who is not a very talented girl, until a stupid sports day makes her realize that she is actually very good at shot put. If you would like to read the story, it is in a school journal part 3 number 1 2006.

Maths Strategy: Compensation

2011-06-27T12:22:00.004+12:00

My maths group, the stars have been learning about two strategies. Equal addition and compensation. First Miss Garden did a poster about equal addition. This poster, which I made, is about compensation, and it tells you when to use it and how to do it.

Partly Cloudy:Movie Review

2011-06-17T10:17:00.002+12:00

This film is set in the sky, where clouds make human and animal babies. After the clouds make the babies they wrap them up and give them to their stork that delivers the package. The storks deliver all sorts of things like cute puppies, kittens and human babies. But there is one grey cloud that doesn't make the most pleasant babies, and his poor stork hates delivering them. He has to deliver things like baby crocodiles that keep biting him, hedgehogs whos prickeles poke him all the time, and rams who keep hitting him while he's flying. Finally the stork can't take it anymore and leaves his cloud man for another one. The grey cloud is sad and very angry, but then he realizes that his stork wasn't leaving him he was just getting some protective gear to survive his horrible flights.
I rate this movie 10/10 because it is funny,and even though there is a problem it is a happy ending.

Extreme Makeover: Courtyard Edition

2011-06-14T12:34:00.003+12:00

Rm 17 has been given the opportunity to redesign the courtyard in front of our classroom. We were all separated in to groups to plan what we wanted in our courtyard, and my group is made up of Ashleigh, Chante and I. These are some of the ideas that we came up with:

Tables:
We chose to put round picnic tables in our design. My group liked this idea because we wouldn't be on the ground where people drop their food and stand all over it with their dirty feet, like we are on now with the deck. I think we need tables because we can sit with our friends in a nice little group and it won't be a really dirty place to eat. We found a table that is round, can fit 8 people and for four tables plus shipping is $2232. The website that I found the table on is called amazon.com.

Bigger Grass Area:
Having tables would be really cool, but it would be even better to have it on grass. I really want a bigger grass area to replace our deck because it would be nicer to run and play on, and because if we fell over it wouldn't hurt as much. My group are still researching prices and companies that will be able to give us what we want, so hopefully we can find the right people.

Basketball Hoop:
Having a basketball hoop would make our courtyard a very fun place to play and more people would want to play there. Ashleigh found a great hoop that is $297, and it also comes with a backboard. But Miss Garden suggested that we just paint the backboard on. The website that the hoop came from is called sports distributor.com.

A Podcast Coming soon!!

2011-06-08T11:40:00.005+12:00

Guess what? I have a new podcast for you, called No half measures, that has been recorded, taken photos for and is being edited right now. But there is something a little bit different about this podcast and lots of other peoples podcasts. We chose a part of our book that we wanted to animate. I picked a bit where the main character is stuck in a cage but then picks apart the wires and sets himself free and his new, and very special, friends. Does it sound interesting already? Well if it does make sure you keep your eyes peeled for the full podcast. I will have it on my blog soon, and if it's not there then go to the KPE blog.

Here is my animation.

We made it to the Courier!!

2011-06-08T08:23:00.003+12:00

I thought everyone did a great job at the conference, and so did some other people so we made it into the East & Bays Courier. Click the link to find out what they said about us.

Courier

Brave Men and Women

2011-06-02T14:09:00.005+12:00

If you were at Pt. England last year you would know that Rm 14 entered a movie into a competition that the museum holds, and won in a category. This year the extension group is doing the same thing. There were three categories that we had to choose from to be the topic of our movie. The options were "My Heritage,Your Heritage, Whos future?","Unique, Extinct, Isolated, Volcanic" and the one that I chose," Bravery, Heartbreak, Loss and Hope".

This movie is called Brave men and Women, and it shows how hard it was, not only for the men that went to war but also for their wives and kids. She isn't coping well and gets even harder at the end.

I hope you enjoy our movie!!

(If you would like to check out the two other groups movies click on these links)

Vivienne, Tyla-Marie

Brave men AND women from SchoolTV on Vimeo.

20 Hour Famine Sleepover

2011-05-27T19:03:00.003+12:00

Right now everyone is in the ICT lab at school. A bunch of year 5- 8 students from Pt. England School are doing the 20 hour famine. When you are our age you aren't aloud to do 40 hours. We are trying to support the people that are much more unfortunate than us, we are also doing it to see what it is like to go without food. I have joined the YELLOW team, and the celebrity team leader is Erin Simpson. Hopefully everyone succeeds!!

GO YELLOW!!!!!!!

WELLINGTON-Koru Lounge

2011-05-26T17:31:00.001+12:00

After our long day, sight-seeing, everyone was ready to have dinner. But it wasn’t just any dinner, it was dinner at the Wellington Koru lounge. We had been at the Koru lounge in Auckland that morning but we didn’t really have enough time to enjoy it because we had to board the plane. But when we got to the Wellington Koru lounge we still had another two hours until our flight.The room was packed with people in suits and laptops. Lots of people were looking at us because there weren’t many children there.

For my dinner I had rice with beef stew. It was really nice. But the dessert was even better. I had a little trifle, it had a little rasberry cake at the bottom with custard on the top. I also had a really nice louise slice. I can’t really explain it but, it was delicious.

WELLINGTON-Cable Car

2011-05-26T14:27:00.007+12:00

Just before we had to leave Wellington ,we got to go on the cable car. It was so fun. The view from the top was AMAZING!! You could see everything. The ferries leaving the doc, people playing soccer and the sea. We tried to take some pictures that looked like we were holding the city and like it was in a heart. I hoped that I could come back to Wellington with my family, and for a longer amount of time.

(P.S the picture of the clouds is the view from the plane going to Wellington)

WELLINGTON-Te Papa

2011-05-26T14:16:00.004+12:00

Te Papa museum was A-W-E-S-O-M-E! One of the highlights there for me was going on the high ride. It was so cool, you got to sit on these chairs and look at the big screen. The screen would show an activity you might be doing in New Zealand but it doesn't show anyones head so you feel like your the person doing it. For example there was a bit where you felt like you were in a truck going along a rocky road, your chair would be going up and down really fast. It was so fun. Check out these photos to see what else we got up to.

WELLINGTON-Presenting

2011-05-26T10:33:00.007+12:00

As we snuck around the back of Te Papa, butterflies fluttered around in my stomach. No one knew that we were coming to speak at this conference, they thought it was someone famous, but instead it was a bunch of kids coming to tell them about their school. Finally it was time to go onto the stage their was a huge round of applause as we walked on. My butterflies were flying around and round in loops. This was the moment.

Iran and New Zealand

2011-05-26T10:23:00.006+12:00

My reading group, the kiwis, have been reading a book called "A Country like Mine". It is about a little boy named Ali who lives in Iran. Our task was to do a Venn Diagram comparing my life in New Zealand to the people in Iran. After that we put our research into a Picasa slide-show.
Enjoy!

Redesigning My Netbook Bag

2011-05-25T10:01:00.005+12:00

Our task today was to use our imagination and the B.A.R key to redesign our netbook bag. I made the whole case bigger, I added wheels and a remote .But the remote can also be used for the two screens on the front of my new and improved bag. I also replaced the zip for a magnetic lock that is strong enough to hold your netbook in but also fine to open.

The whole point of making the bag bigger was so that you can put things like your charger or your mouse in. Adding the wheels obviously makes things a lot easier, because it would save you time by you not having to walk a long way to go and get it. Having the screens just makes life fun, by having a screen to watch any movies you want and the other for your favourite T.V programmes, everyone would want something like this. Our zips go too far around our case so they take forever to open, that's why the magnetic lock is good,it looks smart and is easy and fast to open.

Marble Track Challenge

2011-05-24T10:25:00.007+12:00

Plan:
First we will roll up 4 pieces of newspaper.Two will be going vertical, and the other two will go horizontal . The tape will be used on the table and the 3 bends. Vivienne will be in charge of the cello tape and how much to use, Marvin will be in charge of the paper and making the tubes and I will be in charge of the structure and which way the paper should go. Our aim is to make it strong and stable.

What we did:
Vivienne cut the cello tape into lots of little pieces so that we would have more, Marvin rolled up the paper into thin tubes so that they would be easier to fit into the other ones. I was the one that made sure Vivienne used the tape wisely and that Marvin used the paper well. Our track was very successful and got shown in front of our whole class.

On the Plane to Wellington

2011-05-19T13:57:00.017+12:00

On the morning of Thursday 18th of May I woke up at 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. I was extremely excited, because all of the ambassadors(Chante, Rita, Vivienne, Darius, Waata, Kingston and Crusader and I) were going to Wellington to present at Te Papa.

When we were boarding the plane, after our nice muffin and drink in the koru lounge, everyone was talking to their friends, luckily the pilot waited for us to get on. It took a while to get to our seats, because they were all the way at the back, but we got there. It was so cool that we got to use our netbooks on the plane so that kept us entertained for the ride.

Sorry I don't have a movie for you yet.

Super Swimming

2011-05-18T01:40:00.005+12:00

Swimming, not exactly my favourite sport. But I guess it’s better than staying at school and doing work, plus it’s good exercise. And, maybe we’ll get free time, I thought to myself. Swimming can be pretty fun.... sometimes.

I was sitting on the edge of the pool, with my legs lazily dangling off the edge, when suddenly Mr Marks, our instructor in the big pool said, “Alright,Litia it’s time to get in the pool”. With a splash I was in the water trying to get warm by jumping around a little bit, until I got used to it. With my goggles on, and a powerful push off the wall I was off down the side of the pool.

Yay, I thought to myself as I looked up and saw the end of the pool was so close. I didn’t realize that I hadn’t been swimming for ages,so I was panting and wanted to just flop down and float in the pool. But I had to go back to the end of the line, so with a huge push I was out of the water dripping, and exhausted.

“Go Vivienne,go”, I shouted as I walked back to our line. Sitting down I watched my friends swim as I cheered them on. Whenever one of them stopped halfway, I made sure I kept cheering them on till they got to the end. All of them swum really, really well.

At first I didn’t really want to go swimming, but in the end I actually liked it and was looking forward to the next sessions.

Gemma Finds A Kiwi

2011-05-11T19:16:00.004+12:00

My reading group the kiwis, have been reading an article called "Gemma Finds A Kiwi". It is about Gemma, a golden labrador, and his partner Tom Herbert track kiwi. When they find them Tom puts a small tracking device and a small radio transmitter. I made this slide show with some facts I found in the article.

Vote For The Best Introduction

2011-05-05T14:35:00.007+12:00

These are two introductions that are for my holiday highlight writing. But I don't know which one to use. My first introduction gets straight in to some action, my second one is my thoughts and what I felt. Which one hooks you in more? Please comment and vote below.

I screamed louder and louder as we started spinning faster and going up and down more and more. I was having an awesome time at the Easter show, even though it was raining, with my Aunties, my brother,Isara and my sister,Tinei.

All sorts of exciting thoughts were racing through my head as we arrived. I had been to the Easter show once before, with my Mum , and could still remember some things, like the awesome rides and the stinky farm animals, so I couldn’t wait to get in there again.

Playing with Picasa

2011-05-04T09:42:00.003+12:00

We have been playing around with a Google App called Picasa. We have learnt how to make new albums, upload photos and add captions to them. The photos get turned into a slideshow and then we learned how to embed them and put it on our blogs.

Artspace 17

2011-05-03T08:37:00.003+12:00

My name is Litia and this is my flag. It represents me and what I think of Pt. England School. First we sketched the Pt. England logo, a border and we had to choose a word to put in beside it. We had a choice of respect,hope and joy. I chose hope because I think everyone needs it if they are going through rough times. After we finished sketching our flag we coloured them in with pastel and painted the big background. Then we went over some of the lines with a black pastel or marker to make them stand out. Now all of our bright and beautiful artwork is up on the wall where everyone can see it.

All About Me

2011-04-14T09:27:00.002+12:00

This is my animation of my family, my hobby and my friend. I hope you enjoy it!

My Autobiography

2011-04-05T14:35:00.004+12:00

Litia's Digital Story from SchoolTV on Vimeo.

This is a movie that I made in extension, about my and Maia's, my best friends, family. It is an autobiography that Erin and Dr. Barrett from the USA helped me create.

ENJOY!

Gymnastics

2011-04-04T17:22:00.005+12:00

As some of you may know I used to do gymnastics. We had competitions very often and this was my first ever one. We had different routines for each apparatus. This is me doing my floor routine. Enjoy!

(It's a little bit fuzzy)

What's the Difference Between Sharks & Dolphins?

2011-03-31T11:00:00.004+13:00

Dolphins	Simalarities	Sharks
Dolphins are mammals	They both live in the water.	Sharks are a type of fish
Dolphins skeletons are made out of bone.	They don’t sleep.
Dolphins dorsal fins are curved at the top.	They are both vertebrates	Sharks dorsal fins are straight.
Dolphins have to come to the surface to breathe.	They have torpedo like bodies.	Sharks breathe through their gills.

Dolphins are mammals

Dolphins skeletons are made out of bone.

Dolphins dorsal fins are curved at the top.

They are both vertebrates

Sharks dorsal fins are straight.

Dolphins have to come to the surface to breathe.

They have torpedo like bodies.

Sharks breathe through their gills.

What Are Hieroglyphics?

2011-03-30T09:49:00.005+13:00

The words hieroglyphics is hard to say and harder to spell. It is made up of two Greek words meaning ‘sacred carving’. Hieroglyphics is a picture of an object like a tree, animal or weapon, to represent a word, syllable or sound.

These marks were found on temples and palaces in Egypt. The buildings were built thousands of years ago, and are still standing today.

In 1799 a large stone covered in hieroglyphics was found in Egypt. It was called the ‘Rosetta Stone’, the hieroglyphics were a decree done by priests to admire the crowning of a king. Underneath, the message was written in two other languages. In a language of Egypt and in Greek, this made it easier for a French Professor to work out the hieroglyphics.

Day 3 of Camp: Last day of camp and activities

2011-03-28T17:27:00.000+13:00

Waking up, sad that camp was almost over but excited to do the activities away from school, I got dressed and got my day pack ready. First up on the schedule for the day was Skate-land, and then the recreation centre. Unfortunately we were missing out on racket ball. I was just hoping that our other two activities would be cool.

My favourite activity for the day was the recreation centre. Our instructors name was Roy. We played lots of games like, octopus, ant hospital, dodge-ball, basketball, soccer and hockey. All of the games were really fun, and in some games instead of tagging people just with your hand we used pool noodles. The best game for me was ant hospital.

I had no idea how to play this game so I was really excited to learn about it. In this game there are four people in at a time. Everybody just runs around anywhere they want. But if you get tagged you have to put your hand on the place that you were tugged. That is the same when you get tagged the second time. Then on the third time you have to lie down on the ground and wait for someone to rescue you. Only two people can rescue you and then they have to drag you into one of the big black circles which are called the hospitals. It was so fun!

There was half an hour left to play some games. First we had to get into pairs and then sit opposite each other. You and your partner would have the same number but you would be in different teams. My team were the bands team. This is how the game worked. Roy would call out a couple of numbers, and if it was your number you and your partner would have to run to the end of the court and play either basketball,soccer or hockey. I played hockey and scored a point for my team. Then to finish our activity off we had a huge game of soccer with three balls.

I had an awesome time at camp, and it was even better to be a leader for my group. Now I can’t wait for the rest of the camps that I am going to go on during the rest of the year.

Day 2 of Camp: First day of activities

2011-03-28T17:26:00.000+13:00

“ Who Let the Dogs Out”, the music played loudly as the second day of the yr 5 & 6 camp, and the first day of activities began with some Jump Jam. My group, the Responsible Rockers ,were staying at school to do things like orienteering, camp cooking and kayaking. I was a little bit anxious about the orienteering because last year my partner and I got it completely wrong and we had to start all over again.

The Responsible Rockers all went to the Tusitala meeting room to learn how to do orienteering. I chose to work with Te Rina. Everyone looked at the screen as they walked in, where it said,”Orienteering, a game of Skill not Speed”, I thought that was very true. Mr J started talking about how to use the compass. It all started coming back to me, about which arrow you follow, where the compass needle always points, and how to use the compass rose. So then it just started getting really boring, sitting there when you already know how to use it.

Finally we got to have a practise. We got to the 3rd red card, put down the letter, and then turned the compass rose. But it pointed to the first card we were at. Checking over and over until Mr J
blew his huge sheep horn, to signal that our practise was over. I was really nervous that we were going to stuff it up in the real one now. Not twice in a row!

“ No it’s not that card it’s the other one”, “Who cares lets just go there”, Te Rina and I stood by the tree arguing over which way we were meant to go. Miss King came over to help us.The people that she was working with were already finished. As frustrating as it was, we had to start all over again. In the end we didn’t finish the whole thing, but I still had fun. The words were, “Be responsible and take charge”.

Day 1 of Camp: Swimarama!

2011-03-16T16:33:00.008+13:00

Finally it was my turn to swim. I jumped in to the pool and it felt like I was in a freezer. My first day at yr 5 & 6 camp for 2011 was spent at Swimarama. The exciting day started with swimming sports. I was really nervous as I was just about to start the heat for the freestyle. " Take your marks, GO!" Miss King shouted. Pushing off the wall, and kicking as hard as I could, I tried to hold my breath. Counting in my head, 1,2,3, breathe, I saw Ms Squires standing at the halfway mark. It felt like forever, but I finished the race and came.....1st!! I swam to the side of the pool and got handed a small blue card with a 1 on it as I hopped out.

Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

2011-03-15T11:52:00.004+13:00

Click on the link below to see where I got this picture from.
Japan Earthquake

On Friday a gigantic, 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan. It triggered a tsunami which caused lots of the destruction. Thousands of people are dead and others are homeless. Houses, cars, and boats are distributed everywhere like toys. The scene in Japan is absolutely horrific.

Because Japan always has lots of quakes,their buildings are built to withstand the regular tremors. The epi-centre was just off the coast of Japan. But it wasn’t the earthquake that did lots of the damage.

The earthquake caused a massive tsunami. Everything in it’s path was destroyed by the surging waves. A huge, 10 metre wall of water crashed over Japan, leaving it destroyed and engulfed by water. Debris floated on the surface and was carried out to sea.

As if the earthquake and tsunami weren’t already enough, fires had to be delt with. They blazed out of control. Bright orange flames burning people’s houses and places of work. What
a nightmare.

Like everyone else I hope that Japan will recover from this disaster.

Cricket

2011-03-09T12:47:00.005+13:00

The sun was shining, and I was really happy that it was because I love cricket. As room 17 walked on to the field, we saw a long line of wickets waiting for us. I was really excited!

Our first practise drill showed that I could hit the ball, I just couldn’t aim.We had to try and get the ball off the stump and in between the cones. My group was Ashleigh, Ahsin and Logan. Everyone got a turn at batting,fielding and being the wicket-keeper. It was lots of fun!

Finally we got to play a game. My team was fielding first, but I don’t really like being in the fielding team because I’m not the best catcher. One time the ball came my way, but when I looked up to catch the ball, the sun was really bright and I couldn’t see it, so it was really hard to see the ball. So unfortunately I didn't catch the ball.

First Glee rehearsal

2011-03-04T09:55:00.004+13:00

For the first time yesterday, glee rehearsals started after school. Our teacher is Miss Muliaumaseali’i. She always says that if you want to be in glee club you have to have the big”C”(confidence).We practised the fast version of our “Stop,Look and Listen” dance and we learnt the new, very slow, version. It was so much fun!

First of all we had to get into our lines and audition. I was really nervous. My whole line was split into two groups. Vivienne,Rita, Mele and I stood up ready to start dancing. Miss M told us not to look at her ,but to look at the pattern on the wall of the hall. We started doing our dance but I didn’t do it as well as I could have because I kept looking at Miss M. She let us try it again and this time I focused on the wall and what move came next. I got to sit back down again and watch the year 5’s audition.

Some people got sent to the other side of the hall and others, like me, just stayed where we were. The people that didn’t stay where they were first went out onto the field and practised the dance. We did the same thing in the hall over, and over again. One of the things we had to do was find a partner and do the dance. We were challenging each other and kind of practising being serious and not giggling in the middle of our dance. It was a good practice.

We have our first performance in front of the school in week 9 or 10 so we have to be ready.I had so much fun at our first glee rehearsal and I can’t wait till our next one!

Christchurch earthquake

2011-02-24T15:44:00.002+13:00

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/image.cfm?c_id=1&gal_cid=1&gallery_id=116916#7380473bx

Yesterday another devastating earthquake hit Christchurch, turning Tuesday 22nd February into New Zealands darkest day. Many died and others were badly injured. Everyone was traumatised and frightened by the disaster

Buildings all over the city crumbled to the ground and left debris everywhere. Beautiful old structures like the cathedral collapsed. Streets are trashed with rubble and you can hardly see the roads.

There are 75 confirmed deaths and 300 missing. The search and rescue teams main focus is rescueing the survivors that were trapped.This event is heart-breaking for everyone around the world.

Message for Christchurch

2011-02-24T15:25:00.003+13:00

Dear Christchurch
We are very sorry about the devastation that the earthquake has caused.This must be a difficult time for everyone in Christchurch.Remember to stay strong and never give up on hope.We’ll try our best to help you as much as we can. Our thoughts and prayers will be with you during this rough time.

Arohanui,Pt England School

New netbooks!

2011-02-16T10:30:00.007+13:00

I can’t wait until we get to take our netbooks home, because we can go on them at anytime and anyplace to do lots of very cool things. Our netbooks are going to help us to get ready for the future, by being able to use a computer because lots of our jobs will involve using them.

Everyone was ready and waiting for Mrs Burt to walk through the door, with all of our brand new netbooks. Lots of teachers helped us to set them up.We got lots of support from teachers that don't even come to this school, but they still helped all of us.

It was very frustrating at times when the internet didn’t work, and we had to go back to using plain old pencils and paper. We had to be patient and wait for a teacher to come and help us if we had problems. I thought it was intriguing how small our netbooks were, but they can still do most of the things that our big i-macs can do.

Holiday Highlight

2011-02-12T22:24:00.005+13:00

During the holidays I went to my Aunty’s batch. At the start of every year my family goes there. It is always so fun. One thing we always like to do is going to the waterhole. There are three that we go to the most. But my favourite is the Wekaweka one. That one is awesome! I like it because there is a rope swing hanging from a tree branch and you jump off of a big boulder, swing and then let go to drop in to the water. So I was so excited to be going there again.
“Yay, finally we are here”. As soon as we got to the waterhole I quickly put my stuff down and went straight to the rope swing. But I didn’t get on it right away. I was really, really nervous. Plus it wasn’t my first time though. It took me a long time to actually get on the rope. Then eventually I grabbed it,hopped up on to the huge boulder, and jumped. “aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”. “SPLASH!” I dropped in to the cold,but refreshing, water. I swam to the surface and climbed back up to the rope swing. It was so fun, I just had to do it again. My Grandad was telling me to do as many turns on the rope as I could before I had to drop. I could only do one and half.

After a couple more swings on the rope another family joined as at the waterhole. They had a really cute dog. He was really funny because when a person jumped into the water he quickly swam to them barking and trying to rescue them. It was really noisy.

When I got tired of the water I went and climbed over all of the rocks to see what my cousin,Connor, and brother, Isara, were doing. They were trying to catch eels. I remembered from the last time we came to this waterhole and someone found a dead possum floating on the water!YUCK! It looked like a hunter had shot it because it had a hole in it’s neck. So my older cousin,Jared, found a stick and started poking it to squeeze the blood out of it. Lots of eels came so he tried to grab them with his hand, but he didn’t get any.

Anyway, Connor was using a fishing rod and ham for his bait. Every time he got an eel they kept slipping out of the net. Connor kept getting the eels and putting them in mine and my sister’s face. We screamed so hard. So when the eels kept slipping out of the net Connor got a bag to put them in. He got a really big one and to kill it he was smacking it’s head against the rock. I thought that was pretty mean and so did my older cousin Jared so he told Connor to stop it. He did and amazingly the eel was still alive.

In the end they didn’t get any eels. It was so fun at the waterhole and I can’t wait till next time when we go back there.

HO-HO-HO MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

2010-12-17T18:14:00.003+13:00

Just a couple more days until THAT day. You know what I'm talking about, CHRISTMAS!! I can't wait. Just today we bought our Christmas tree and found all of our decorations to put on it. It was very fun decorating the tree. I hope all of you have one too. They make Christmas even more fun than it already is.

I hope you all have an awesome Christmas and a very, very happy new year. See you in 2011!

Prizegiving

2010-12-12T16:21:00.004+13:00

As some of you may know we had prizegiving on Thursday the 9th of December. It was awesome and the team 4 girls item was too. Some girls from Rm 15 were told to make an animation called night of my life because the song that we were doing our item to was called "Night of Your Life". I chose prizegiving as the night of my life. This is my animation.

Triathlon

2010-12-12T16:11:00.003+13:00

Finally after so much hard training it was time for the weetbix triathlon. I was super, super, super excited. A group of kids from Pt. England got to compete in this event, and I got to be one of them. Lots of people helped us with the triathlon and one of them was Hayley Palmer. That is her in the picture above. She won bronze at the commonwealth games for NZ. She is a swimmer so she helped everyone a lot with that.

In a triathlon you swim, bike and run. I thought the whole triathlon was pretty easy, but if I had to pick the hardest one it would have to have been the swimming.

At the weetbix triathlon there were three celebrities. They were Temepara George , Debbie Tanner and Cameron Brown.

Magellan

2010-12-12T16:03:00.002+13:00

2010-12-12T15:54:00.000+13:00

This is our entry in the Manaiakalani Film Festival.

Last term we were learning about Mighty Mariners and our group had to research Leif Erickson and present what we had found out. This is the movie we made about him.

Litia, Rita, Shoal and Vivienne. (Thanks also to Starford for the Eric the Red graphic.

Leif Erikson from KPE TV on Vimeo.

2010 Year 5 Reflection

2010-12-07T09:38:00.000+13:00

What have you enjoyed this year?

I really enjoyed camp because I thought it was pretty cool how on the first day we were out of the school grounds and we went to skateland, ten pin bowling and rock climbing. Then on the second day we stayed near school and did orienteering, kayaking and camp cooking.

What have you enjoyed learning the most?

I enjoyed learning about Mighty Mariners. I got to learn about lots of
interesting and brave people from very long ago. But what made this topic even more interesting was that there were still some mariners, like Jesse Martin and Jessica Watson, that weren’t from thousands of years ago. They were just from a couple of years ago so that was fun.

Which things would you have liked to have done more of?

I would have liked to have done a lot more art because I love to draw and paint. Plus I’m sure that everyone else would probably want to do more art as well.

Which things do you think you could have worked harder at?

I definitely could have worked a lot harder at my writing. This subject is one that lots of people struggle with and I want to get really good at it.

What were some of your best memories from this year?

My best memories are from our trips to One Tree hill and the Maritime Museum. Those trips were really fun because we got to learn more about our topic out of school and show what we had already learnt.

What goal or goals have you got set for next year?

My goal is to get much, much better at my writing so I can be the best.

Interschool Athletics

2010-12-02T17:07:00.005+13:00

“Take your marks, get set,BANG!,” It was the interschool athletics for 2010. All of the schools from around Glen Innes had gathered at Pt. England to compete against each other in events like high jump, shot put, discus, softball throw and of course running. I was competing in the 75m sprint and high jump. I was very nervous.

First we started with the 400m run. Four hundred metres is two laps around the field. Lucky I didn’t have to do it. On the running tracks every time someone from Pt. England sprinted pass I would cheer so hard for them.Then finally “ 9yr old girls for the 75m heats,” called Mr J on the loud speaker.I walked slowly down to the start of the tracks with Serena, who is another nine yr old. She is really fast.. My heart was beating really fast. “ Please get into the final, please get into the final,” I said over and over again in my head. Finally all of the nine yr old girls got up and sat behind the line at the start of the tracks. In the heats each school is given a lane that all of the kids use from that school. Pt. England people raced in lane 4. “Take your marks, get set,BANG!,”. I was off, sprinting as fast as I could. My heart was pounding as I raced past all of the Pt. Englanders.”Go Litia,” they all shouted. At the end of the race I ended up coming 2nd, but sadly in the finals I didn’t come anything.

Finally it was morning tea time but after it was time for high jump. I hoped that I would come something in this event. The problem was that I was in the relays and that was going on at the same time that I was doing high jump. But luckily it all worked out but I just had to keep going back and forth. In the U10 relays Pt. England came 2nd to Glen Innes primary. Then I went back to the high jump. The other person from Pt. England that was in the high jump was Huelo-ata. In the school athletics she came 1st and I came 2nd but at interschools Huelo-ata came 3rd, a girl from Glen Innes primary came 2nd and I came 1st!! I was extremely happy.

I had an awesome time at athletics getting to compete against other girls my age from around the Tamaki cluster. I can’t wait for next year.

Ext Year 5 Girls"Rewind"

2010-12-01T14:10:00.003+13:00

Recently we had the manaiakalani film festival. One of the amazing movies that was showed was one called "Rewind" from room 6 at St. Pius. It was a very clever movie that needed a lot of practice. They had to film and do everything in reverse! The extension group at Pt. England, with the inspiration from St. Pius, decided to make a "Rewind" movie of their own. We all got in to groups of 3 or 4 and had to choose one of our korero's and make a movie in reverse. My group was made up of Vivienne, Rita, Shoal and myself. We chose the korero Purua to Potae. Because we wear hats at our school this korero is very important.

Our movie was extremely easy compared to St. Pius. What makes it even more difficult is that you have to do it all in ONE take! We took ages just to make a 30 second movie and St. Pius's one was about 3 minutes. Rita and Vivienne, who are the main actors in our movie, look very funny in our movie because remember they are actually walking backwards.

Make sure you check out their blog and leave a comment. Just click on the link above.

Comonwealth minibeasts

2010-11-30T14:37:00.003+13:00

This term the school wide inquiry is Little Critters. In extension when the term started the commonwealth games were on, so we names of sports that were being played or competed in at the commonwealth games, in to a hat and then we picked one out of a hat. The one that you got was the one that you had to find a NZ athlete competing in it and or another athlete that was doing that sport and had won a medal. I picked out diving, which I thought was a very cool and interesting sport, and found a girl named Gabrielle Armstrong-Scott who is only a 14 yr old NZ girl from Wellington. And to make our movie relate to our topic we had to say" if my athlete was a minibeast it would be a.....," and say what it would be based on its habitat and lifestyle. Watch my movie to learn more about Gabrielle and what little critter I compared her to.

Classification

2010-11-22T10:11:00.008+13:00

Scientists have classified the animal kingdom in to groups based on different characteristics. Vertebrates and Invertebrates are the two main categories.

Vertebrates are animals with backbones,such as birds,reptiles,amphibians,fish and mammals. Humans count as mammals because we are warm-blooded,we have hair, we grow young inside our mothers and we suckle milk from them.

Invertebrates are animals with no backbone.They make up 97% of the animal kingdom and comprise of 7 groups.One of the groups are arthropods.They have an exoskeleton,a segmented body and jointed legs.Another group is the annelidas which are worms. One more is the molluscs which are soft-bodied invertebrates like snails and slugs.

Halloween with Teresa

2010-11-19T10:24:00.011+13:00

“Hi Teresa” I said excitedly as she walked into my house. We ran up the stairs while my dad kept talking to Teresa’s. I went outside to show her my dog Jess and my two rabbits Sandy and Coal.”This is my friend Teresa” I said to my dog.Jess is black and really cute. Once Teresa’s caregiver was gone we went back down stairs to the garage. Then she found Isara’s ripstik and she became addicted to it. She learnt how to ride it really fast.

Later on we drove to the Trunk or Treat that my Aunty To’a had organised for her church. But we got invited anyway Trunk or Treat was something that my aunty had made up. It was when people decorated the back of their cars and the children went around collecting lots of lollies. In one of the trunks this lady had a bowl of jelly with some fake spiders in it. The bowl had a sheet over it so we had to reach in and try to get a spider. I didn't get one I just got a big handful of red gunk on my hand. "Ooh, it was disgusting”. Some other cars had some cool things in them too.

I had so much fun at the Trunk or Treat, especially because Teresa was there, and I hope the next time she comes over to my house we will have as much fun as we did this time.

Netbooks

2010-11-19T10:18:00.000+13:00

Finally, after so much hard work from Mr and Mrs Burt, the netbooks have arrived. The lucky year 7’s got to be the first ones to use them. The year 5 extension group got to go into the hall and watch the room 19 and 20 students recieve their computers. They all looked very excited. All I was thinking about was when I would get one.

The netbooks are not just for Pt. England though they are for every yr 5-13 in the Tamaki cluster. And we even get free wireless internet. That means we could go to the park or the shops and still be able to work on our netbooks. Everyone that gets them will be very,very lucky.

The benefits of having these netbooks are being able to continue working at home and collaborate with others,we don’t have to wait to have a turn on the computer at school and we don’t have need much stationery.Plus it will just be really fun!

Dental Clinic Demolishing

2010-11-15T09:43:00.004+13:00

In preparation for the intermediate block, and with the completion of the new dental clinic, the old one was demolished. Before it was destroyed on Friday one of the builders were prising off the weatherboards with a crowbar to make it easier to destroy.

As the ginormous jaws came crashing down onto the building the windows shattered and beams splintered as it slowly collapsed. The predatory digger flattened the huge pile of rubble.

We all said our final goodbyes as the digger finished destroying the Old Dental Clinic.

Swimming at Pt. England

2010-11-11T09:43:00.017+13:00

Shivering and shuddering,I slowly put on my damp and clammy life jacket. I fidgeted for a while with my buckles trying to make it fit as snug as I could. The life jacket was still wet from the last group but I got used to it quickly.

Chris from Water Safety NZ,was going to teach us how to swim and what to do in difficult situations when your in the water. On Monday a pool,that was enclosed by a big white tent and a fence, magically appeared on the netball court next to Tusitala. Finally it was Rm 15’s turn. I couldn’t wait to get in.

As I walked slowly into the pool my teeth chattered and I got goose bumps all over my body. Screaming and squealing, I walked off of the platform that was under the water and made a big splash. Luckily the life jacket kept me above the surface.

“SSSH”, Chris tried to calm us down. He told the whole class to get into a huddle. A huddle is when you get into a group. Then we had lie down on our backs while holding on to the person next to you. Instead of timing us by counting Chris told us to sing the National Anthem.It was terrible!! Everybody sang out of tune and Miss Garden said that she could hear us all the way from her class. Chris gently spun our circle around while we kept singing hideously.

Immersion Assembly

2010-10-12T09:07:00.008+13:00

On a cold Monday morning the whole school gathered in the hall for the
start of term immersion assembly. Everybody sat down in their lines
waiting patiently for it to begin. All of the teachers were dressed up
as bugs like ants, spiders, bees and lots of other little creatures.
The topic for this term was Little Critters.

Suddenly
Mr Burt came crawling down the aisle dressed up as a mosquito. Then I
heard someone whispering in to a microphone. I didn’t realise that it
was Mr Burt doing it until he got up onto the stage because he had a
mask on. He was saying things to Mr J like “I’m going to suck your
blood”.

After
that all of the teams started performing their items. Out of all of the
performances my favourite was team 4. The teachers in team 4 were Ms
Squires, Miss King, Miss Va’afusuaga , Miss Garden and Mr Barks. They
were acting as a bee colony. Mr Barks was the Queen bee and the others
were worker bees. Ms Squires was feeding Mr Barks and Miss King and
Miss Va’afusuaga were dancing while Miss Garden swept the floor. The
funniest part for me was when Mr Barks pulled out babies from under his
skirt. They were just little teddy bears all wrapped up. One time Mr
Barks pulled out two babies and said that they were twins.

My
second favourite item was the team 3 one. It was called NZ’s Next Top
Little Critter. At first the music was going and the teachers were
walking and posing around the stage. Then Mrs Barks started saying
things like”I’m fabulous” and other things like that because she was a
lady bug. Then everybody started laughing when Mr Barks called out “I
love you” to her. After that the other teachers started saying lots of
interesting facts about themselves. When it was Miss MacKinlay’s turn
she said that they were actually called lady birds.

This
immersion assembly was really cool and I can’t wait to learn about some
more little critters.I hope this term will be as good as all of the other ones.

Canterbury Earthquake

2010-09-17T18:40:00.002+12:00

At 4 am on Saturday the 4thof September there was an unexpected earthquake that hit Canterbury. It reached 7.1 on the Richter scale which was about the same as the earthquake that happened in Haiti. In Christchurch there are lots of unstable buildings that just collapsed and left bricks lying on the ground everywhere.

Houses all over the city were badly damaged and many are uninhabitable at the moment. At least 100,000 homes were affected in this disaster and 450 will have to be demolished. Even though the main earthquake that happened on Saturday is over aftershocks are causing more trouble.

Ruptured pipes have caused many dangers as sewage pipes might mix with peoples drinking water and make them very sick. That is why everyone that has water has to boil it for three minutes before using it. Falling glass and rubble was and still is another danger during this time.

Cross Country

2010-08-29T18:05:00.000+12:00

!

!

I sat waiting anxiously on the hard court. My legs were covered with goose bumps as I shivered with cold. Everyone had their house colours on. I am in Takitimu so I was wearing a yellow T-shirt. It was cross country time for Pt. England. When one race started I cheered as herd as I could for my house. But I think I cheered the loudest for Teresa who was in the 10yr old girls race. After waiting for about ten minutes the 9yr old girls got called to get ready to race. Once the boys who were in front of us went out of the gate it was time for us to start. “ On your marks, get set” “BANG!!!” Mr Burt slammed his clappers together. All of the girls were cramped in a big bunch. I tried as hard as I could to get out of the group.Once we got around the field I started to pick up the pace as my legs got use to the squishy mud.

When we got to about halfway I felt like dropping to the ground. But I was determined not to stop. Sometimes my jog almost turned into a walk. I knew that I couldn’t come first in the race but I could definitely come second I just needed to make sure I could sprint near the end. The race was almost over so I felt like a balloon that had almost run out of air. But luckily I still had enough energy to sprint past Tauwhare. After I did that I knew I was going to come second. But then I saw another girl from the nine year olds who was in front of me. I sprinted past her and up to the finish line coming second.

I was happy about coming second but hopefully I can come second next year. The best part about this years cross country was that Takitimu won the house points.GO TAKITIMU!!!!!

My Second Netball Game

2010-08-26T09:32:00.006+12:00

It was the last netball game for the whole season.And only my second. Our opponents were Victoria Ave. They looked really good so I couldn’t wait to get on that court and beat them. My position for the first half was WA(wing attack)and in the second half it was GD(goal defence).But then we found out that we had to play the position that we were meant to play in the first half second and the second one first.

This game was majorly important because if we won our team would be the second best year five team in Auckland!! But it still means that Holy Cross comes first.

Everyone ran into the centre third as soon as the ref blew her whistle. My partner was really fast so she kept me busy inside and out of the shooting circle. When she tried to shoot I was defending her but I kept getting called for obstruction. By half time my team had only scored one goal while Victoria Ave had scored four. “If you don’t kick their butts I’ll kick yours” Ms Tito shouted at us. We quickly did our cheer and got into position.

Our little talk at half time seemed to really help because we kept getting goal after goal. It was amazing. I just knew we were going to win. At the end of the game the score was 12-4 to us. Yay!! So that made The Yr 5 Stars 2nd in Auckland.

Two New Pets in the House

2010-08-22T20:24:00.013+12:00

On Sunday my Dad,brother and sister left home at about nine o’clock in the morning to buy two baby rabbits. As soon as they got home I ran downstairs to see them. The two rabbits were both females. One was black so my sister named her Coal and the other rabbit was the colour of sand so her name is Sandy. They were so cute. Coal was four weeks old and Sandy was five weeks. The two rabbits are half sisters because they have the same Dad but different Mums. We already had a hutch for them. My Grandad
actually built it for them because a couple of weeks before we bought the rabbits my little brother called him and asked if he wanted to.

The lady that we bought the rabbits off gave us their birth certificates
and we also had to buy food,hay,the water bottle for them and nail
clippers.Coal and Sandy seemed alright with moving into a new home. We
cut up an apple and we grated some carrots to feed them with.

Sandy was very squirmy and when you hold her she keeps climbing up to your
shoulders. I don’t think she really likes being cuddled she just likes
sitting on your lap and she likes my sister,Alosina the best. But Coal
actually loves just being tucked up in your arms and she loves my other
sister Tinei. Now we have three pets in our house and they are all
girls. We have a dog and her name is Jess. When Jess saw the rabbits she
went crazy. We immediately got her out of the room. But she has calm
down. I hope she gets use to her new little room mates because they are
going to be living together for the rest of their lives.

Our Trip at the Maritime Museum

2010-08-22T11:16:00.001+12:00

“I can’t wait to go on the boat” I said excitedly to Vivienne.Rooms 15,18 and 14 were on a trip at the Maritime Museum to learn more about our topic, Mighty Mariners. I was having a great time so far and I knew that the boat was going to be awesome.

Although it was going to be the last thing to do on our trip we had a tour around the Maritime Museum. First up we were led into the museum by a gruff and grumpy man called Salty Sam. He bellowed orders throughout the whole tour ,”Don’t touch that”, Don’t talk” or “Don’t volunteer yourself if you don’t know what your volunteering for”. One of the the things that Salty Sam talked about on the tour was how Sir Peter Blake was murdered by pirates. It was so sad.

After we finished looking through the whole museum everyone came out to watch a cannon blow up. We all started counting down from ten, 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1” BOOM”. I was so suprised at what a big noise it made for such a little cannon.

After watching the awesome cannon we were going to watch a small movie. Entering the theatre room felt like we were actually at the movies,except for the part that we had to sit on hard wooden forms. There were three massive screens on the wall in the circular room. Suddenly the whole room darkened as the automatic doors started closing. Then I saw Ms Squires sneak in quickly before it was pitch black.

At the start of the movie it was about some polynesians having a farewell before going on a long journey. All of the people were dancing and singing. The men were loading food for their trip like pigs,chickens and fruit. Finally all the people boarded the boat and got ready to sail across the sea. Everyone was waving goodbye to them.

On the journey the people used fishing birds,pods of whales,stars,the sun,and the moon to navigate. Isn’t that amazing! I think it is so cool how people could use all of these things to find land. At the end of the movie the sailors were met by an elderly man who gave the little boy a beautiful taonga.

Finally it was time for the best part on the whole trip. The boat ride. But there was a change of plans. The wind was too rough and the small boat that we were meant to go on only had one engine, but I was happy that that happened because now we were going on a huge ferry!! I had already been on a ferry before. It is really fun,except at night once when I was on a ferry with my family, they were all asleep except my sister and I, it felt like we were going to tip over. When we got onto the ferry everybody sprinted up the steep and small stairs and ran outside. We were all going to Devonport. When we started moving I looked down at the nice white patterns that the engine was making with the waves.When the ferry ride was over I was sad that the trip had finished. Then we got on the bus and went back to school. I almost fell asleep and Vivienne tried to take pictures of me but then I deleted them.

The End

One of My Favourite Singers

2010-08-05T19:31:00.003+12:00

One of my favourite singers are Stan Walker. Stan Walker became famous because he won Australian idol. But Stan Walker is actually a New Zealander. My favourite song that Stan Walker has done so far is “I choose you”. It is really cool. Another one of my favourite songs by Stan Walker is “Stuck in a Box”. This song is by Stan Walker and Young Sid. I really like it. Stan Walker is a really good singer and I can’t wait to hear more of his songs.

My Favourite Netball player

2010-07-26T10:57:00.002+12:00

Recently the ANZ netball championship has been on. I absolutely love netball and my favourite team from the championship was the Mystics. The Mystics are the team for Auckland and my favourite player from that team is Althea Byfield. She is awesome on the netball court. She is normally GK (Goal Keep). Althea Byfield is really good at jumping for the ball to get an intercept which helps her team a lot. I really like Althea Byfield because she plays defense and I love playing defense to. That is probably why she is my favourite player.

Immersion Assembly for Term 3

2010-07-22T09:52:00.007+12:00

‘Do you know what the topic is called?” I asked Tauwhare as we walked into a hall full of kids gossiping and teachers dressed in the weirdest costumes. I knew what our topic was going to be about, it was about famous explorers, I just didn’t know it’s title. Once everyone settled down and stopped talking Mr Burt shouted “Tena koutou tamariki ma”.”Tena koe Mr Burt” everyone responded back. Immersion assembly for term 3 had started.

First Mr Burt told us about his awesome trip around America. It looked like he had a lot of fun. I wish I could go to America. But one thing that I think Mr Burt wouldn’t have liked was having to sleep on the ground in a hallway at his conference which is what he had to do. When Mr Burt told us about his adventure around America it was like he was an explorer. He had told us about this trip because our topic is Mighty Mariners.

As soon as Mr Burt was finished talking, all of the teams did there little items. My favourite was team 5. Ms Tito was pretending to be Jessica Watson who is a very young explorer. She circumnavigated the world solo when she was only sixteen!! She started in 2009 and finished in 2010. Ms Tito was really funny because she was using a strong Australian accent.

Immersion assembly was so cool and I can’t wait to learn about more mighty mariners.

Active Earth

2010-07-19T12:59:00.001+12:00