The Supercalafridgealasticespeallidocious Spy Fan

As you all will have noticed by now, in our year seven and eight extension crew, we've been having a lot of exciting learning and fun tasks.  In our latest session, approximately twenty of our students waltzed in to twenty four different items laid out across the floor.  We all sat down in our chairs, while being explained the task of replacing and adding items to  the random objects.

And to my surprise... I was given this fluffy fan.  Yes, boring indeed. But fortunately, I used my amazing imagination and came up with : THE SPY FAN.

Super Soaker

In extension we've had a quick activity we're we were to pick a toy and quickly photoshop it in to a picture of you. So here it is, TA DAAAAA!!

The Famous Mr.Teddy

He was my favourite toy in the world because he was so big and fluffy, and he had what I thought, was the most beautiful blue bow placed on his chubby neck.

I named him Mr. Teddy. Simple, of course. Although I was gifted with it at birth, I only gathered enough intelligence at three.

His black beady eyes would always stare into his empty pink plastic tea cup.  I used to sit for hours pouring invisible tea into our cups, sharing secrets intently as if he were my best friend.

One of my favourite memories of him was when I went over to my grandparent’s house and we (ALL) fell asleep watching CSI. I suddenly woke up after my Didi instructed me to go and get some tissue. I rose from my slumber and warily grabbed Mr. Teddy and switched on the corridor light.  Nothing. My eyes widened in the pitch black and squeezed Mr. Teddy even tighter. I quickly sprinted down to the bathroom, retrieved the tissues and almost tripped because of a loud high pitched squeak. I laughed and picked Mr . Teddy up..

Well actually, I guess he was my best friend at the time. Which I don’t find surprising because my dad said I was a very shy child until I turned nine.

Mr. Teddy made me feel happy all the time. He was always there smiling at me and making me feel better.  

Writing Sample

“Bears?! I didn’t know there were BEARS here !!?!?!!” shrieked little Anna, causing a huge rainbow of birds to rise and flap away. “Sssshh!! You  scare them,” Toby whispered angrily at Anna while pointing to the birds hurrying away.  “But look! BEARS!!!!” she shouted (even louder this time) pointing with her chubby little finger to an information sign about the Grizzly Bear.

Three year old Toby and eight year old Anna were being taken out for a visit to Grizzly Woods. Their parents had flown overseas for an important family meeting, while their Uncle Robert was to look after them.  Toby was excited by anything and everything and loved to run around, meanwhile Anna absolutely loved being outdoors and the excitement of being surrounded in huge trees. So Robert decided to take them out to Grizzly Woods.

Unfortunately, the kids thought it would be a great idea to race ahead of their Uncle at the first sight of an information sign. He eventually caught up, again lecturing them of the importance of staying near.  Then told them to hush because they could get kicked out of the park.  Anna again repeated the “big news” about BEARS while breaking off a branch and pretending to be slicing an enemy.

Little Toby’s face slowly dropped into a sad, shocked face.  So Rob quickly put him in his pram and gave Anna her backpack and said “Come on! Let’s go find a table to eat lunch.”  After another killer distance of walking, they found an old rugged picnic table.

Slowly Anna helped unpack the Jam sammies and fruit, while Uncle Rob tried to wake Toby and unlatch him from the pram.  Eventually the table was filled with creamy potato salad, sticky pork ribs, mussel chowder and an endless variety of sandwiches. “DARN IT!” Uncle Rob shouted smacking his sweaty hand against his forehead. “I forgot the plates!” He then looked at the two kids noticing they had already started eating and forgot all about it in a confusion of ribs, potatoes, and Just Juice.

“CRUNCH.” Toby lifted his head out of the mussel chowder and screamed.  There, standing on top of a squashed pram, was a pile of big brown fur, razor sharp teeth, and an evil look of hunger stuck in big black eyes.  “GRIZZLY BEAR!!!!!” Anna screamed while sprinting away. Rob quickly jumped out of his seat and grabbed Toby and tried to escape the deadly beast. “Annnaaaa!!!! WAAAIT!!!” the two boys shrieked. Rob tripped over a broken branch while dropping Toby. “Run Toby!!! RUN!!!” Little Toby, confused with all the commotion, stood up and tried to help Rob up.

“Slop.” A big fat blob of saliva dropped onto Rob’s head. He reluctantly turned over to a wide pair of jaws, ready to attack.  Toby screamed and Rob just closed his eyes, knowing it was time.  The animal slowly picked his prey up with one paw and raised the other with his claws extended.

“HEY YOU BIG FAT GRIZZLY BEAR!” a little voice screamed.  The grizzly turned around while dropping Rob to the ground. “No! Don’t Anna!” Uncle Rob yelled. “You want some of this?!” she continued holding up a big bowl of potato salad.  The grizzly bear started to waltz toward the 8 year old.  “NOOOOO!!!!!” Toby and Rob shrieked. She placed the bowl on the ground and ran away.  He picked up the bowl and demolished it as a whole. The 3 family members quickly ran off home.

Term 3 Reflection

Term 3 at Point England School for 2012 has been fun.  Fun, because as a Prefect I got to take part in cool things, as well as organise them.  For example : The Year 1-6 Disco, the intermediate social, the Olympics Day, Loud Shirt Day, and the Year 4 - 6 disco.  With school work, maths has been a bit challenging, but interesting at the same time.  I’ve learnt (or remembered in lots of cases) an immense amount of strategies, and have made a lot more sense of the equations.  Reading has been a lot easier with the StudyLadder activities, as well as the actual Reading Journals we receive. Writing has been really really fun.  Especially my group’s latest tasks : “What If.”  Where we write about the scenarios where we might be superheroes, or a billionaire, or being completely poor.  I actually can’t believe how fast this term has gone past.  But it has been a cool one.

Rugby Girls

“THUD!” You could literally hear the sound of Koru School’s heads hit the ground.  “Ooooo!” my class shouted.  It was a sunny Friday afternoon when the Pt England Intermediate rugby girls were playing against Koru School. And thanks to one of the Year 7 girls JayLee, Koru’s number 5 was limping off the field, clutching on to her rugby shorts.

Speedily ran JayLee back to her team to get ready for the team’s next run.  “CRUNCH.” Tina had tackled Number 10.  My class went silent for two seconds then started screaming, “YEAH!! WOOHOO!! SHOT TINA!! GO POINT ENGLAND!!!”

Unfortunately, our class had got their towards the end of the game and we had apparently missed out on a lot of things.  Including their 2 tries.  “HOOOOOOT.” the hooter thingy blasted loudly into the sideline’s ears.  We all looked annoyingly at Mr Jacobsen, shooting him dirty looks as he quietly put the hooter back.

We all stopped.  The hooter meant it was full time.  But it was a tie.  So the ref blew the whistle and the overtime started.  It was our ball.  Oshania tapped the ball and ran through Koru with a look of determination slapped across her face.  She quickly offloaded the ball to Stephanie who then ran at an accelerating speed but was then tackled, and dragged by the shirt off the field by Koru.

And as soon as Koru grabbed the ball, they were off.  To the finals that is.  Number 6 grabbed hold of the ball and sprinted down the sideline, then turned to a halt as she dumped the ball on the ground.  Her team all ran towards her in a bundle of hugs, cheering and hi-fives.

We had lost by a try.

Farewell Mrs Verry

Farewell to our dear Mrs Verry from Team 4 Pes on Vimeo.
Mrs Verry.  She is one of the greatest teacher/child supporter / school volunteer here at Pt England School.  She is very close to most if not all of the students.  Unfortunatley, she is now retiring.  So as a symbol of respect, a few of the many Samoan girls at school gathered together and were taught a siva Samoa by Mrs Tuala.

Being a Super Hero

Blazika.  That’s what they call me. I have the ability to shoot fire, and if necessary a spear would shoot out of my sleeve, grasping the criminal’s flesh and yanking the poor victim towards me.  I’m the 12 year old hero.

And when I’m called to the job. My school uniform dissolves into a yellow and black leather bodysuit.  I rise up into the air, while my steel spear is waiting in my right sleeve. My hair would evolve to fire and my eyes would change to a burning orange.

But my disguise has to be held secret, because of my teacher Sandy Lagitupu, also known as Sand Woman. She revealed her power to her us when our class took a trip to the beach.  One of the students screamed for help as he drowned in quicksand so she acted fast and lifted the sand from 20 feet away and the boy was saved.  From then on, our class has been silent around her.  She is the head of SuperHeroes incorporated.  But I refuse to work with their company, as they’ve made too many mistakes murdering innocent citizens.

But she’s not my biggest burden.  Black Ice is my arch enemy, but she goes as Blaze. I don’t know why, since heat is my power. Also known as Selena Smith.  And as a fire hero, I absolutely despised her being in the form of ice.  She would constantly freeze bankers of ASB, stealing millions of dollars, and just recently decided she would put out the Olympic Torch.

Now that was a mission.  “Blazika.  Blazika.  We have a problem” my right leather shoulder would buzz.  “What is it Coalin?” I replied in my bravest voice.  “Black Ice” he replied slowly.  My hair turned to fire, and my eyes lit orange.  “What now?!” I replied irritated.  “She’s planning on taking out the Olympic Torch.  I’ve already informed the Queen’s British agency.”  I stopped in awe of her evil plans.  I knew she was bad.   But I didn’t think she’d have the black heart to put the OLYMPIC TORCH out!!

I promise to continue further stories about Blazika , Black Ice, and Sand Woman.
For Black Ice's perspective of being a super hero click here.

Being a Billionaire

If I were to be a Billionaire,  I actually don’t think I’d be at school right now.  Well, I wouldn’t have to be because I’d be home schooled by my employed teacher Ben Carson, in my 2 story ensuite bedroom.  Which would include, a 50 inch Plasma screen TV, 2 king size beds, a never ending Zombie chew dispenser, a 5 inch statue of SpongeBob made of diamonds, a huge yellow trampoline, 2 elevators, and a diving board which would allow me to cannonball into my 30 acre pool.

And that’s just my bedroom. My house would be 5 stories high. I’d have 5 guest rooms,and 10 rooms for my when my family are visiting, 3 toilets, 3 bathrooms, an Ice Cream Parlour, a filming studio, and blue & green rooms (for filming purposes). I’ll have bought a nice little house for my parents and brothers down the road.  I’ll have a chauffeur, a personal chef and I’d own five of the Burger Kings around Auckland.

And during the summer, I’d ride down to Wendaholme beach.  I’d have bought that as well, but I’d be kind to people and let them enter with only a $20 dollars fee. (Adults 50)  After a vacation in one of Waiwera’s holiday homes, I’d fly to an Art School in France, buy that and a couple of 30 million dollar paintings and become a great legend and create a masterpiece as great as the Mona Lisa, or maybe even Sunflowers by Van Gogh.

Transport.  I’d own a private jet, a yellow Mercedes Benz, and 5 yellow buses.
But that’s if I was a Billionaire.

Animators Apprentice

As most of you might already know our school enters the I AM MAKING MOVIES competition the Auckland Museum runs.  This year they have arranged three animators from the studios of ‘BroTown’ to visit all the participating schools, and teach them the art of ‘Animation'. The three kind artists that taught us were ‘Maka, Nils and Ali.’  Ali was the one who started off the 3 hour session. We were first taught a brief lesson on the history of animation.  We played a little game of ‘Guess Who’ where you had to guess the silhouette of the character or cartoon.  We also learnt about Bertie The Dinosaur, the very first moving animation.  And also about Walt Disney, and when the Warner Brothers tied in to the timeline of animating.

Olympic Message

“The most important thing about the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part... just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle”.  Those are the  words of wisdom of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. He is the reason why the Modern Olympics are still running right now, and he is also the designer of the Olympic Flag.  I think this message is very inspiring and motivational towards others.

Personally, I think this is a very good message, and very encouraging to many athletes. The message conveys that you must learn from your mistakes, and keep on moving.  Your struggle leads to your success.  Pierre de Coubertin’s words have helped many athletes.  Even our very own Nicholas Willis conveys the Olympic message during an interview.

Olympic Update : Men's Rowing Pairs

Eric Murray and Hamish Bond have JUST won gold for New Zealand in Men's Rowing Pairs.  My family is SOOOOOOO happy, and I'm sure the rest of Aotearoa is too!  WOOHOO!! Another gold medal for the kiwis!! For a second there it looked like they weren't even trying! And yet they were a good 20 metres in front of the next boat.  Although France managed to hold them at second for the 1st 500 metres, New Zealand smashed back and it was all over.  With France in second and Great Britain in third.  This gives us 2 Golds, and 1 Bronze. All I really do care about though, is we won. And I've never been more proud to be a kiwi.

Olympic Update : Men's Archery - Individual Elimination

The arena is silent.  There is tension in the air, followed by the sound of an arrow whizzing towards the target...THUD! The arrow hits the bullseye gaining the archer the maximum ten points.  The crowd goes wild, applauding in appreciation of the great skill on display.  This is Men's Archery.  These are the individual elimination rounds, the knock out phase.  It's great for spectators to watch, but can you imagine the pressure on the archers?  The fate of their country's hope in their hands.  Well the bow in this case.  I've just witnessed 2 matches, both of them SO SO close.  The smallest movement while aiming, could cost you a medal.  The concentration in this sport is sooooo important.  The emotions on the face of the archer, you can almost see how much they want to win.  Right now I'm watching a match between Ukraine's Ruban  and France's Prevost.  The score is 26 - 25 to Ukraine.  We're now on to a different match between China's Dai X  and Australia's Taylor Worth.  At the moment Taylor Worth is leading at a score of 19 to 18.

Thank you Duffy Books in Homes!!

Earlier on this morning I received a package with my name and school address.  The package was small, square, and soft.  I carefully ripped it open, trying so hard not to wreck it.  As I slipped my hand in and felt the soft bubble wrap, I smiled and pulled the object out and found a book. I turned the package to have another look and saw it was from Duffy Books in Homes.

This wasn't just any book. This was BEN CARSON'S GIFTED HANDS!  I was so overwhelmed!! I saw a small letter, read as fast as I could and grabbed the bubble-wrapped book and and saw that Ben Carson himself had signed: 'Best Wishes, Ben Carson'.  I shrieked with excitement.  The reason I had received this book, was because earlier on this year I entered a writing competition about reading, and why and how it would help me in the future with want I want to do.  It turns out I was one of the five winners of the competition!!!  And now I have the honour of reading his journey to greatness.  Thank you SO SO SO MUCH DUFFY BOOKS IN HOMES!!!!!!!!

The Opening Ceremony

The Olympic Opening Ceremony was just absolutely AMAZING and I was so proud to scream "GO NEW ZEALAND!!!! THAT'S MY TEAM!!" as soon as Nick Willis waltzed in waving the flag big and proud.  Our New Zealand Olympic Team looked so professional if I do say so myself, as they walked in to the stadium.  With around 205 countries parading around the stadium, it was PACKED!  But the stadium was just SO HUGE, they were bound to fit.  It turns out that only 60 of the 85 athletes from NZ walked around representing us.  This just made me want to become a professional athlete for any sport at all!  Just to be part of that NZ Athlete Team, would be simply..AMAZING!!!!  Even to watch!  I don't really care which one comes first!

GO NEW ZEALAAAAAAAAND!!!! Woohoo!

The Olympics (so far..)

Well, the Olympics for 2012 is well under way and has so far run smoothly.  I'm lying on my couch right now watching the replays and highlights, and have noticed how concentrated everyone is, in every sport.  Archery is a sport where you can see the concentration very easily.

As well as the 85kg women's weightlifting, those are some STRONG concentrated ladies.  In this photo is Mingjuan Wang winning weightlifting gold for China in the 48kg section with a overall score of 205kgs !!  She has apparently been the World Champion in this weight category for FOUR YEARS!!

Then there's that game handball, which is WAY more than just bouncing a small ball over a line.  What's funny is that although it isn't a contact sport, there is a lot of physical movement in this sport.  The game I watched was between Croatia and Brazil.  And I was obviously going for Croatia. To my disappointment and Brazil's joy, we lost by ONE point!!!!! 23 - 24 was the result.


I plans to post/update my blog with the Olympic series.  GO NEW ZEALAND!!

London Olympics 2012

The first olympics began around 27,00 years ago.  Where only men could compete, and women weren’t even allowed to watch!  In 1896 where women were STILL not allowed to compete, but were able to watch.The 30th modern olympic games is about to take place in the city of London.  This is the third time they’ve hosted the olympics, the first time was in 1908 in which Dutch competitor in track and field, mother of 4, Fanny Blankers-Koen was officially named the first woman to win 4 gold medals in one game.  The Flying Housewife is what they called her.  Like Fanny, there are many other celebrities and record breakers in the olympics, and most of them are being expected to return to the games.

Samoa holiday

“Reka, wake up. We’re here.” I heard my father’s voice say. I opened my eyes sleepily to see my frizzy hair all over the place. I looked around the plane and everyone was standing up trying to get their bags out of the luggage storage. I put my tray back in, put my hair behind my ears, squashed down my 4 L&P cans and joined the long queue of passengers waiting to unload from one of Air New Zealand’s planes.

We were in Samoa, there to attend my Aunty Charlene’s wedding. ‘We’ is my dad, mum, older brother Tanielu, younger brother Justus and myself. I was sitting with my dad while my brothers and mother were a row to the right.

All of us on the plane heard the door open and the queue began moving. I was soon at the door and took one step out of the plane. “WHOOSH” an immense amount of heat rushed towards my face. Immediately, I started sweating, while taking my jacket off and trying to balance on a long steel staircase. Once I finally reached the ground I looked up and saw a sign reading : ‘Welcome to Samoa.’ We were here!

This was my first time in Samoa, along with my two brothers. It was around midnight so my family were a teensy weensy bit tired. But after me and my 4 cans of L&P, I was totally enthusiastically, excited about being here in Samoa. We walked through the arrival doors and saw a large crowd of people some holding signs, some holding suitcases, and some half asleep.

My brother spotted a sign reading my dad’s name. We quickly rolled and heaved our suitcases over to the man, then to his van. We hopped in and he took us to an Airport lodge. My dad began to speak to the man in Samoan. My little brother sat in awe getting as close as he could get to the window to see whatever he could. “Dog!” he shouted. “Yes, yes. Lots of dogs in Samoa.” the kind man said. I cringed. I’m a bit cautious around dogs. You see, I don’t really agree with dogs, or bugs, but mostly dogs.

We arrived at the lodge at around half past one, receiving a key to our room. Once we reached our room. We all took a turn through the showers. And once everyone went to sleep. I lied in my bed still fizzed out, not believing I was in the tropical (and VERY hot) island of Samoa. The next day we’d be leaving on a boat for Savaii.

I woke up to the sound of my mum telling us to get up. I woke up slowly, and then realised we were in Samoa. I shot out of bed and into the bathroom to get ready for the day. Before leaving, we had a nice big breakfast. We had bacon eggs and mushrooms. We packed our bags and waited for one of the workers to drop us off to the dock.

Maths Whizz Usage

The picture above is what my weekly usage is up to so far on Maths Whizz.  I am now up to 1 and a half hours.

Brown Brother by Joshua Iosefa

In room 21 we have been focusing on a poem called Brown Brother by Joshua Iosefa.  He is a prefect at Mt Roskill Grammar.  The prefects had to each give a speech, and Joshua's speech was obviously called: Brown Brother.  Campbell Live asked Joshua if he could repeat his speech, so they could remake it, and present it in front of the world.   I like this poem because it gives brown people reason, and encouragement.  I think I can kind of relate to this poem, obviously because I am brown, and because most of the things Joshua Iosefa said, was sad, but true. If you click on this link, it will take you to the website showing his speech Brown Brother.

On the Logs

The special place that I have chosen is the logs that used to be near the playground, which have now been taken down.  The reason I have chosen this place, is because this is where I first found some of my friends that I have today. Plus that was the place where we always used to go and sit down. The subject in this photo is my friend Selena, on the place that never had a name.  To us, it was ‘The Logs.’

In this painting, I have tried to portray the style of Vincent Van Gogh.  If you didn’t know, (which is very unlikely), his style of art is called Post - Impressionism. I tried to make my art have a relaxed atmosphere, with colours that don’t clash. I have used ‘Water Soluble Wax Pastels’ in this artwork to try and give a different effect to it.  The reason I have chosen Van Gogh is because I like his art very much. 

A Good Joke by Charles Frederick Goldie

Charles Frederick Goldie, is a very famous artist. Coming from a background of being born second of eight children, his passion for art was encouraged by his mother Maria Partington. Charles was born on the 20th of October 1870 in Auckland, New Zealand. He was educated at Auckland Grammar, and showed passion in art, and was soon winning prizes. In Extension, we have been focusing on his style of art, and have tried to each recreate one of his paintings. I have chosen ‘A Good Joke’  in which Te Aho te Rangi Wharepu (Chief of Ngati Mahuta Waikato) is the subject of.  From the period of time of trying to replicate the painting,  I realised how intricate and detailed his work is.   His artwork is VERY realistic, every single strand of hair is so life like. After attempting 'A Good Joke,' I am wanting to go and find out what different patterns and signs the moko means or represents.

Narrative Practice

You could never really see her big hazel eyes under those thick brown curls.  People often assumed that she didn’t like revealing her eyes.  As an only child, the only companion she ever had was her little puppy Oreo.  She walked it around town, through alleyways, and wherever else she would go. She had always been very tall, just like her dad.  However 12 year old Mitchie wasn’t as bright, or as bright as she wanted to be.  Like her mother, she was dyslexic and found it very hard without any special help or guidance, let alone an education.  Other than all that, she wasn’t very interactive with people that she wasn’t very familiar with.

“Just stay here” he managed to say. “But I don’t want to!!” Mitchie snapped back.  “Please. Just stay with Oreo, I’ll be back” he assured her.  He kissed her forehead, then ran off into the dark.   Mitchie’s big brown eyes glanced down to her old green worn out Chucks and said to herself, “He’ll be back.  He came back last time.”  She grabbed her dad’s backpack, and stood up, dusting off her denim jeans that were once blue.  She tied up her big brown curls and started to walk towards the house.

“Oreo!” she called.  A tiny little Canine sprinted out of the darkness and towards Mitchie.  She patted his wrinkly golden fur.  Mitchie picked him up and he wriggled his short stubby paws in her arms.  “Good boy.” she said in a baby voice.  She looked around carefully to make sure no one had heard her, but all there was to see was dull street light blinking over a worn out car and a stack of rubbish bags.  She turned back around fishing around her dad’s backpack for the house keys.

Out she pulled two golden keys and jammed the smaller one into the door.  The door slowly creaked open, and little Oreo sprinted in, dodging the ripped cardboard boxes in the corridor.  “Oy!” Mitchie shouted.  Oreo walked slowly back out the door and waited for Mitchie to walk in.  She patted the mutt and walked in the door.  She suddenly stopped at the entrance of the living room and dropped the backpack and covered her mouth with shaking hands.

Oreo ran through her shaking legs but he too stopped at the sight of the living room.  She dropped to the ground and began to cry.  In her tears, she decided there was no other choice but to get her father as fast as she could.  She wiped her tears away, and grabbed the backpack.  She hooked Oreo onto his leash, hopped on her scooter and the two of them began to search for her father.  As a piece of crumpled paper with an address the only guidance they had, Mitchie’s dyslexia was not helping.

Daisies

A static image is a most times are capturing in life.  There is no movement, There is no action. If it did have any motion, it would be a movie.  So therefore a static image is still. It is a picture, a painting, a sketching, a drawing, a photo, an image.

The picture above, is an example of a static image,  It's subject is a tiny daisy,  In this it doesn't look tiny at all. Infact, it looks quite large! It is a close up. The photographer has used a clever effect, where the background is been blurred out so the subject is much clearer and it's more focused on.  I think this is a very nice photo, because of the subject chosen and the clever use of effects.

Japanese Tech

It was a cold rainy Thursday when 30 of us Pt Englanders walked into the Sylvia Fausset Library led by Mr Ishibashi, a Japanese teacher.  We were at tech.  ‘We’ is the Year 8’s of Pt England School.  Every Thursday we walk down to Tamaki College for Technology.  On Tuesdays it’s the Year 7’s turn go down.

That Thursday, was the first rotation we had for the year. Our previous activity was Food Tech, with Mrs Heka.  Now we’re in Japanese, with Mr Ishibashi.  Around 30 people are in each group, there are 3 groups : Hard Materials (Wood,) Food, & Japanese. We rotate through the three groups through four terms.  I admit I was a bit happy to be in Japanese because we’d studied a little bit on it last year.

We walked into the library and saw shelves cubiholes,even boxes jammed with books, encyclopedias, and even MORE books. Mr Ishibashi led us around a line of shelves to where there were 6 tables and a whiteboard.  He instructed us to choose a seat, and sit down.  I sat with my friend Selena and Mr Ishibashi started talking.

He told us what his name was, and how to pronounce it. He told us interesting facts about Japan, and how exciting it was. He even said he was an extra in Tom Cruise’s movie : The Last Samuriai.  From the language of Japan, to the sport of Sumo-Wrestling.


To be continued...

Daniella Hulme & Pablo Piccasso

In Room 21 we have again been assigned to compare the differences between  two paintings, the ‘Weeping Woman’ by Pablo Picasso and ‘Lazy Day in Paradise’ by Daniella Hulme.  Picasso is very famous for his style ‘Cubism,’ and Daniella is famous for her ‘Modern Kiwi Flavour’ type style.

Most of Pablo Picasso’s paintings are judged as random and crazy pieces of art.  The first time I saw his work I thought they were so weird, but now that we’ve been going deeper into the study of his art, I understand much more.  I’ve learnt that when he’s around halfway through his piece of art, he would change the perspective of the subject.  His art is quite interesting.

Daniella Hulme is a Dutch woman who is married to a Samoan man.  In most if not all of her paintings, her subject is based in the Pacific Islands.  She uses vibrant and bright colours in lots of her paintings.  I’ve noticed in the painting that her subject isn’t realistic.  I think that’s just her style though.

Contrasting Art

In Room 21, we have all been assigned to complete a piece of writing, comparing the differences between the paintings 'La Musique' by Henri Matisse, and 'Sunflowers' by Vincent Van Gogh. Matisse's work is always very vibrant, and lively.  He likes using lots of detail and patterns. His style is called 'Le Fauves', which in English translates to 'Wild Beast.'  Van Gogh's life was very depressing, so depressing he cut his earlobe off!  His style of art has been named as "Post - impressionism' which obviously makes him a ‘Post impressionist.'

In Van Goghs painting 'Sunflowers', his painting only involves a few colours from a certain part of the colour wheel. For example, his painting of his bedroom.  He used light colours and a gave it a heavy textured look.  Vincent Van Gogh is adored by many.  The sad thing is he wasn’t known until he had passed, and for the time he was alive, he only sold one painting.  And all that he gained from that, was 1 thousand dollars! But his sister-in-law went around trying to sell his paintings.  And now what do you know, his paintings are worth more than 10 million!!!

What I have noticed about the painting ‘Sunflowers’, is that he uses lots of short and textured brushstrokes.  Somehow, he managed to use happy colours, to make the painting look a bit gloomy. Apparently he was trying to impress another artist.  As I mentioned before, he only used on part of the colour wheel.  His art is very mysterious.

Henri Matisse however, loved using bold and vibrant colours in his art.  There is a huge difference between the two paintings.  Obviously because they’re two different artists.  But then there’s the fact that there painting technique is different.  As Vincent Van Gogh uses short and textured brush strokes, and Matisse’s painting technique is very simple.  But he used lots of detail and patterns.

I think Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse are two VERY extraordinary artists, and their art will always be cherished

Music & Arts Glen Innes Centre

In the middle of last Term (Term 1), 9 of our students gathered around our teacher's desk, and she revealed a competition that was happening right here in GI.  It was the MAGIC competition.  Magic stands for Music & Arts Glen Innes Centre.  The competition was to show how MAGIC would make a difference for us.  So our class entered in our movie.  Just today, we just found out that our movie won. The picture above is what we received from Allen and Josephine from the Maungakiekie local board.

You can observe the video here.

My Mihi

Recently in Room 21, we were assigned to create and memorise a mihi. A mihi is a maori spoken speech about who you are, where you come from, and who your family is. After we presented our mihis to the class, we were given the other task of creating a digital mihi, the movie below is the result.

Camp Concert

“Next we have......... THE RESPECT CREW!!!” Mr Barks excitedlly announced. “YAAAY!!!!”, “WOOHOO!!”, “GO RESPECT CREW!!!!!” was all I managed to hear. Although it was our second night on our final year of camp, we still hadn’t had that much time to adjust to our group name. Sooo... while everyone was cheering for us, we actually didn’t realise that it was our turn to perform. We simply sat there waiting for an exciting performance, only to find that we were the ones actually performing.

Let me take you back a couple of days. We were at school. It was camp week. The hall was filled with anticipation, excitement, and big bundles of nerves. It was time for the camp concert. There were 12 long rows of crazy campers crammed into a small stuffy hall, all of them ready to perform.

Maybe not all of them. Well technically, three people weren’t ready. And don’t you go thinking it was me and one of my Respect Crew that wasn’t ready. It was the judges! They weren’t ready for the most awesome and exciting show of their life!

Our Respect Crew walked up the steps looking like the real deal. But unfortunately none of the realio dealios wanted to walk on stage first, so I got pushed forward. I walked on stage angrily, but still graciously hopping in to my rehearsed spot. Our chosen songs were ‘Hey Baby’ and ‘Stop, Drop and Roll’ - in that song the boys decided to catdaddy instead of the original choreographed moves.

Soon my crew was on and dancing, enjoying the camp concert atmosphere, and laughing at each other. The song transitioned in to ‘Hey Baby’, and our group were all jumping around clapping. We finished our performance with one of our members Jephte, thanking the audience. We walked off proud and happy, making sure the judges saw our thrilled faces.

After the Respectorz performed we got ready for the final judging. I looked up at my crew and they were all looking down and glum like it was the end of the world. 6th place was announced, it wasn’t us. 5th place was announced, it still wasn’t us. 4th went, 3rd went. My team all looked up and started smiling and crossing fingers and anything else they could.

“Finally, 1st place goes to..............THE RESPECT CREW!!!!!!!!” Mr Barks shouted! I looked at Lepa. Lepa looked at me. We looked at our crew, our crew looked at us. Then we all jumped up screaming and yelling, “WOOHOO!!!!” “YYYAAAAAAAAY!!!!!” “YEEEEESSSS!!!!!!”
We had won.

Scone making...with lemonade.

“No we’ll use the raisin one!” Tule pleaded. “But the method’s easier in this one!” Tyla defended. “But that one uses too much flour. The other groups need flour too!” Chanel pointed out. “Lets just use this one.” I said calmly...and loudly.

It was the 1st day of camp, and it was one of those times when you didn’t know if the sun wanted to sleep in or to give the rain the job. Anyway, I was a leader for ‘The Respect Crew.’ Today our first activity was cooking, well in this case baking. Scones that is. There were 5 of us in my cooking group : Oshania, Chanel, Tule, Tyla B, and of course myself.

We were all trying to find the best scone recipe ever (without raisins or sultanas of course.) Tyla found one that had lots of flour. Chanel and Tule had found one with raisins, so obviously we didn’t choose that one. But then Oshania and I, well, we found a recipe involving a can of lemonade. Yes, I said lemonade! (Well, typed anyway.)

Once we decided on the lemonade scones, we got to work and started mixing up the dough. Soon, my hands were white and covered in flour. Then we poured in the can of lemonade and the cream, and Chanel mixed it over and over. Not so long after, Tyla and I were sprinting down to the Hall Kitchen shrieking “OUR SCONES ARE BURNING!! OUR SCONES ARE BURNING!!” just to find that we were screaming lies.

In the end, we ate a scone each and gave the rest to afternoon tea for campers. And, not to be bragging or anything but, I think the lemonade scones were the best.

What am I? No seriously!

Recently we've been learning about careers and occupations. We've had to find out what some of the adults in our family were and wanted to be. So today in extension, we played a little game called 'What am I?', where the whole class got sticky notes slapped on their foreheads. We all had to participate and walk around asking different people what we were. I just found out that I was a Minister of Parliament.

Here's a few things I found out about wanting to be or being a Minister of Parliament.

-You have to be very careful, accidental comments can end up on the front page of the newspaper.

- Everything you say and do if you're in charge counts. You don't want any bad publicity.

-You have to keep studying and working hard so you can become a Member, or Minister of Parliament.

Little Miss Sunshine..

I am currently in the Yr 8 extension. At the moment we're focusing on The Pt England Way. Specifically, Respect. This is very important, as in our school, as we use Respect a lot in our topics and focuses. This year I'm looking forward to doing all sorts of cool things. Especially because it's my last year here at Pt England. Its kind of sad when I think about it, but it's exciting that I get to go out and do heaps of cool things in college. Arts and crafts and things is something I really really enjoy doing. That's why I've drawn a paintbrush and a pencil to represent my love how much art means to me. My culture also means a lot to me. I'm well-known as a Samoan, but I'm also a quarter Croatian. Many people don't know this, but it's true! My grandpa is full Croatian. So that technically makes me Croatian! Then there's food. As much fun eating is, I quite like cooking and making things for my family. I've already mastered the famous Mickey Mouse Pancakes, now I'm working on chocolate mousse. But I doubt that would turn out okay. I quite enjoy working with computers and editing movies and things like that. I like podcasting and posting blogs like the one you're reading right now! Next to the computer, I've drew a set of headphones because I like listening to music. Well not just listening to music, but dancing to it. In fact, me and a couple of friends created a small dance group a year ago. We only just dance around and make up sets to our favourite songs, but it's really fun to do. Now you know a bit about me. I'd love if you'd take the time to click on this link here, which will take you to the Flickr page this is on.

Netball

“Aaah!!!” I shrieked running away from the ball. It bounced and gave me a jolly good hard hit in the face. “Urgh.” I said in exhaustion and pain. I hadn’t played netball in AGES!! We were out in the scorching sun on the hard court at school, receiving netball lessons from or Instructor Liz. I don’t think I was the only one in my class in pain though.
It was a good thing that we were getting netball lessons. Well not for the boys, for me of course. I had to remind myself how and when to pass the ball. We learnt how to chest pass, pivot and well, play netball.

I got handed a bib with the letters ‘GK’, which of course is an abbreviation for Goal Keep. Thank goodness I was in that position because I was way to tired to be an attacker. My day just got better and better, as the sun got hotter and hotter. Not so long after, I almost passed out in the heat wave. We were allowed to have a little time to have some life saving water.

After having a shower under the drinking tap, I walked back to my awaiting class, making puddles for every step I took. Now that my socks were soaking wet, my shoes squeaked whenever I tried to jump pass or simply run around.

Netball was a big blast for me and I can’t wait for the season to start

Charts, Statistics, Favourites, and all those Mathmatic things

With a new year, new classes and new friends , we also have new numeracy topics. My new class (Room 21) have been studying pies. Well not that gooey, hot cheese, beefy kind of pie, but the counting, mathematical, statistics kind of pie. Technically it's actually called a Pie Chart, but a Big Ben pie sounds more appealing to me.

The past days we've been taking surveys about people's favourite things. After recording all the weird and quirky things about everyone, it was time to put all our research in to presentation. Our whole class went to a website called 'Create A Graph.com' and well, made a graph of course. I chose to make a chart about TV programmes in the form of a pie. As you can see the category "Other" has 13 likings. But technically that is not the most popular because each of the shows are different. So actually the most popular shows are Spongebob and Victorious.

Bye Bye Ala!!

During the 2012 holidays, I received some good news, some bad news, and a really bad sunburn. The good news was that the sunburn didn’t last long. Oh, and the fact that me and my friends were going to go swimming. The bad news well, was bad of course. The reason we were going to Swim-A-Rama, was because our lovely friend Ala was leaving Pt England, and attending Sylvia Park school.

Since my family’s very busy, I was left alone with my vicious cat until I heard the tooting of my friend’s flash car. I quickly ran out and hopped in the car. “Hi Ala!” I said quite happily and fastly. “Hey Reka! she said calmly and smoothly. We started chatting about Sylvia Park, Pt England, my sunburn, and heaps of other things. In between our big blob of chatting we stopped to get Sylvia, checked if Selena was home (found out she wasn’t), checked at her aunty’s (found out she was shopping.) and then sped off to Ala’s house.

When Selena arrived, we drove in the blistering sun to the beloved Swim-A-Rama Lagoon Pools. As soon as we got there, I took a run and cannonballed in to the pool. I couldn’t help but give my friends a big toothy grin. As soon as Selena and Sylvia helped me drag Ala in the pool, we started playing Marco Polo. We spent hours jumping and drowning in our laughter.

When we couldn’t laugh any more, I jumped on Sylvia’s shoulders and Ala on Selena’s. I wrestled Ala and only stopped when I realised Selena couldn't breathe underwater. Since Selena had almost drowned, we got out and had a little snack.

Well, not really a little snack. (Well not in Selena’s case anyway.) She finished half the Doritos, so I decided to generously bring out my sour cream and chives crackers. While she dove in to those, Sylvia was telling us a really funny story. We almost peed our togs when she had finished. I think Selena almost choked!!

Anyway, after that Ala’s little sister Maraina came with her mum, and some hot dogs for us to devour. Since we were full because of laughing so hard, I dived back in to the icy cold pool as they day was closing we said our big grand speeches (“Bye Ala”) and packed up our things.

We miss you Ala.