Australia!

At the end of last year my brother and I, Jordan flew over to Australia to spend some quality time with our family over there. We arrived at Melbourne's airport on the 21st December approximately 11:00pm. Waiting for us around the corner was our dad who we hadn't seen since January 2013. We ran up to him and gave him a massive hug. We had finally arrived.

So far staying in Aussie has been a blast. I enjoy spending time with my younger siblings, shopping, and just seeing new things around Melbourne. One of my favourite places we have gone to has been Adventure Park. Known as Victoria’s biggest water theme park. We have also gone to Sydney to be apart of my cousin’s daughters 1st birthday.

This week my brother and I are spending time with our grandma who is coming over from Mildura. We can’t wait to see her. Next week we our cousin Meliola is going to take us shopping and hopefully take us to her church. Then the following week we are coming back home to New Zealand.

So we have two weeks full of excitement and joy, then we will be in New Zealand starting school. That means we have to use the time we have now to make memories and have a lot of fun!

Netbook Reflection 2013

This is my third year using a netbook and I reckon my learning has gotten way better. Having it connected to the internet helps me a lot, because I have access to many more websites to help my learning and I can interact with friends during the weekends or holidays.

Having our netbooks connected to the internet have a positive and negative side.

POSITIVE- The positive side is that we can learn faster, better, and effectively with our netbooks. We also have access to share our learning with the world everyday. We can use Google to help us with our research, find interesting and new vocab and etc.

NEGATIVE- The negative side is that the internet can be slow at times and it may not work.

Other than that, having my netbook connected to the internet is an amazing way to learn.  

I have learnt many things from my teacher, friends, people from outside of school, and of course myself. My teacher Ms Lagitupu shows me more learning websites like Studyladder and Sum-dog. These websites are fun and help me learn faster. When I use Google docs it can help me with my spelling and find new words to make my story sound more effective.

Using learn, create and share is really important to us. Its part of what we do on our netbooks. We like to learn more about our subject on Google, Wikipedia, or other websites. We then put all our learning into a Google doc, Google presentation, Picasa, Vimeo, Flickr and many more. Then we share it with our family, friends, classmates, teachers, basically the whole world.

Prize Giving 2013

Prize giving last night was a blast. I personally enjoyed it and im sure everyone else did as well. You could tell by the look on everyone's face. People laughing, smiling and dancing brought a smile to our friends, family, parents and teachers face. It was amazing to see people receive prizes and see their items. The great thing with our items was that all of them were different. There was dancing, a bit of acting, and singing.

In the end of the night I received five awards. One, citizenship for room 21. Two, school service award. Three, podcaster of the year. Four, PENN producer of the year. And my favourite one, Dux. I was really shocked when I found out that I got Dux. There are way other smarter people than me that could have gotten the award. But, Mr Burt informed me that I got it not just because I am in extension, but because I did well in my school work. I’m happy that I got those awards, and I am also happy that I made my mum proud. I'd like to congratulate everyone that got a prize. Especially Shoal who got 3rd place academics and Rita who got 2nd place academics. Girl power!

My favourite item that performed would be the year 6 item. They did a dance to three songs. My favourite song was their skrillex song. It was pretty buzzy. My brother was in that dance and it was funny watching him. The year 6 students are great at dancing and I can’t wait to see what they have to offer next year.

This is my last prize giving here at Pt England. I’ll probably come next year to support my brother. Prize giving this year was awesome and its one I will never forget it.

Year 8 Camp (Ashleigh, Makayla, Shoal and Me)

Shoal(Day 1): We spent 5 hours on the bus. In those 5 hours, we took an unnecessary walk on a dam. The teachers lied to us and said that we were going on a short bush walk when we got to camp Keswick. It ended up being 3.2km long and very tiring.

Makayla(Day 2): On day 2 we went to the Agrodome to see a sheep show and to see some farm animals. We also went to see a geyser called Lady Knox and the thermal pools.

Ashleigh(Day 3):On day 3 we were going to swim in the blue lake. It was cold but after a while I got used to it. After that we went to the hot pools and swam again. At the hot pools they had a trampoline the we could jump on to get higher while jumping in the pool.

Jasmine(Day 4):Day 4 we went to the luge were we went up the gondola. Going up the gondola was a bit boring because of the long ride up but the view was full of nature. Once we arrived up top we waited to go down the luge. The luge ride was fun.

Vivienne(Overall): To be honest our camp was alright. It was basically bootcamp. Everyday we would walk or run through the forest and it was not fun. And to top it all of, it was raining. But hanging out with friends was good. My highlight was definitely the Agrodome and the Luge ride.

Our Nations Children Movie Competition

Last Friday some students from our school went into town for a launch of our promotional movie competition. When we arrived we saw red carpet, paparazzi, and even the director of 'Shrek' and 'Narnia', Andrew Adamson. It was awesome. Our movie was shown to people from Wespac and some people from the Waitangi National Trust. It was even shown to the Governor General, Sir Jerry Mateparae. After that we had lunch. During lunch time we had the chance to mix and mingle with people. I even had the chance to be interviewed by one news with Gabriel. I was nervous at first but then I didn't really mind at all.

The launch was awesome! Hopefully schools enter this competition and they get to experience all the cool things we experienced.  

Balloon Investigation

Attempt 1:

Attempt 2:

Attempt 3:

In term 2 the extension group did an investigation on how far a balloon can go on a straw. We were put into groups of 5 and planned out how we were going to do it. Our first attempt was a fail. As well as the second. But our third and final came out strong and ended up at the end. Although the time was slow, we were happy that the balloon finally made it to the end.

I wonder How Paper Is Formed?

In EXT we were to create an 'I Wonder' movie. My partner, Rita and I wondered how paper was formed. Here is our movie. Hope you enjoy!

Podcast - The Battle Begins

Vivienne & Brooklyn The Battle Begins from Team 5 PES on Vimeo.

Athletics 2013

Intro:

Athletics. We had athletics last week on Friday and it was awesome! All though the weather finished off with showers of rain and we didn’t get to finish off our relays, I still had fun. I enjoyed my time hanging out with my friends, trying my best in all the activities and seeing everyone with a happy and smiling face. Here is my highlight, lowlight and most interesting part of athletics.

Highlight:

My highlight of that day would be doing the sack race and tug-of-war with Jonty. Its always nice to try something different in athletics. Most people went all out, while the others like me just thought that, that activity was just to relax and play around. It was still fun to see everyone having a great time though. I also enjoyed hanging out with Mrs Tele’a who was the teacher for the year 8 girls. She gave us little treats that would help get our energy back up.

Lowlight:

My least favourite part of athletics was definitely sprints. Sprinting is not my favourite thing to do but I still gave it my all. In my first race I was pumped up and ready. I stood up and waited for my opponents to get ready as well. When all of a sudden “CLAP!!” I was not expecting the clapper to clap so early. But when it did, I realized I was still on the starting line and everyone was a head of me. I ran my hardest and catched up to some people. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough for me to qualify into the finals.

Interesting:

My most interesting part was watching the house relays. I cheered for my house colour, Matatua (Green). I looked at all of the racers and they were so focused. In the end of the race, Matatua (My House Colour) came 1st.

One Direction!!!

One direction. The best British boy band we have ever heard. The boy band consists of Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zyan (Zain) Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne. They are the world’s biggest boy band at the moment. They originally auditioned separately in the hit television ‘X Factor’ but was formed into a group by the one and only, Simon Cowell. They then got eliminated but continued to make music. They released their first song ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ and that became a massive hit.

Halloween- EXT

-Samhain (Sel-win)

-Harvest Festival

-Permeable

-Life or Death

-Prayers - Soul Cake

The year 7&8 extension class has researched more about the true meaning of Halloween. Here is one version of what Halloween is all about.

The Celtic Calendar has a light half and a dark half. The Celtic tribe would celebrate a harvest festival called Samhain (sel-win) near the beginning of the dark half. This was also near Halloween for us. People feared this festival because it was a matter of life or death. If the food they were harvesting wasn’t ready they would starve and die. When it was the harvest time, days would get shorter while nights were getting longer.

When it was time to change from light to dark, a veil that was in between life and death was thin. This made it easy for people from both worlds to permeable (easy to pass through).  

On May 13th pagans would celebrate a celebration called Lemuria. This was a time where Christians would convert pagans. Romans would go to graveyards and pour milk and offer soul cakes to the Christian souls. Now a days we get given or give out lollies as an offering.

They then changed the name of the day to All Saints Day or All Hallows Day. Not only did they change the name but they also changed the date to November 1st to drain the pagan Samhain. Because Samhain festival was before All Hallows Day people started calling Samhain, All Hallows Evening. This was shortened to All Hallows Eve, then Hallowe’en then finally to Halloween. On November 2nd they celebrated All Souls Day.

Life in Auckland vs Syria

Morning: Waking up to the smell of pancakes shot me out of bed. I walked to the kitchen with anticipation. My mum placed a plate of freshly made pancakes on the table, and I sat down with no time to waste. “Now this is what I call a good breakfast” I said with joy.

Awoken by the sound of a baby crying made me think, another exhausting day for me. I managed not to wake up the other 11 people in the room by carefully walking silently around on the cold, hard floor.

Day:

Hanging out with my friends in class always brings a smile to my face. Laughter, joy, happiness are all the emotions I feel when I’m with them. “Netbooks out class. Once you’re on, start your writing about your weekend” our teacher said. I took my netbook out and began my writing. It was the same day as usual. I stepped out of the abandoned building that I called home and looked around. Destruction was everywhere. The buildings on my street were all busted down and the sound of gunshots had everyone terrified. The pressure was on me though to look after my family and find the things we needed. It was hard, as everything here was scarce. Night: All snuggled up in my warm bed. I was stuffed. “Im not eating another hamburger until the next week or so” I said to myself. I had no more energy to do anything so I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. This wasn’t the life I was wanting. I wanted to be like other kids around the world. Play with my friends, play sports, learn, know that my family is safe, and sleep peacefully in a stable home. But that wasn’t going to happen. Anyway, I had to get back to my family. The only thing I found was a loaf of bread. Hopefully that was enough to keep us alive for another day.

Mihi

Kia Ora Tatou
Greetings to us all

kua hui mai nei
who have gathered here

ki tenei huihuinga

to this gathering

ki te mau mai

to bring 

i nga whakaaro pai.

the good thoughts.

Ka nui te koa

Great is the happiness

mo to koutou maia

for your strength

ki te haere mai

in coming

ki te awhina

to support/help

i nga kaupapa

the topics

e pa ana ki tenei hui

concerning this gathering

No reira tena koutou, tena koutou, tena ra tatou katoa

Therefore greetings once, greetings twice, greetings again to us all.

Halloween

-Trick or Treat

-Lollies

-Costume

-Pumpkins

-October 31

-Devils Birthday

-Death
-Dressing Up


Halloween. What is Halloween all about? Many people think that halloween is all about Trick or Treat, lollies, scary costumes, witches, or carving jack-o-lanterns. It could be. But to me, I think Halloween is all about remembering the Dead. The word Halloween is short for All Hallows Evening which can be known as Hallowe’en or All Hallows’ Eve. In extension we are learning about Halloween. So after all my research hopefully I can understand what the true meaning of Halloween is.

Day 3- Riverside Camp at Willow Park

I woke up to the sound of the bell. All I could hear was leaders yelling “GET UP! Everyone get up and go down stairs!” It took a while for everyone to come downstairs into the Rimu room. But once everyone was in the Rimu room we were told what today’s fitness was. The thought of climbing the stairs kept going through my mind, but luckily for us today wasn't the day. “Viv, Ata and Brooklyn. Can you get the Cyber Coach set up in the gym?” Mr Burt asked. We replied with a yes and ran to the gym. Everything was set up and soon everyone walked in ready to get warmed up for the day!

Time flew by quickly. We finished everything, fitness, breakfast, washing up and our duties. The first fun activity for today was playing with the Willow Park toys. I knew everyone was waiting for this part of camp. There are lots of exciting toys to play with like the scooters, bikes, green machines, but my favourite the quad bikes! Since there were a lot of teams we had to be paired up with another boys team. Our team, P.O.B, was paired with the O.D’s (Original Dude’s) led by Ryan and David. I’m sure everyone enjoyed their time playing on the Willow Park toys.

After playing on the toys we had dinner. Then we had concert practice. We had to practise really hard because we were performing tomorrow. I was sooo nervous because my team wasn't even half way there. They didn't know where to stand, the actions and even the words. My team worked hard till the end though and we ended up finishing everything. Im so proud of my team :)

Highlight for day 3 was definitely our Super Disco. Firstly, I would like to give a huge thank you to Mr & Mrs Samuel for the fabulous disco. Everything was superb! Lights, decorations and the funky music. Thank you! There was something different about this disco though. If you were tired of dancing you could play the game that was being played at the same time of the disco. In the beginning though, we were put into three teams. Smugglers, Buyers and The Cops. I was in the Buyers team!!! So for the smugglers to win they would have to find a buyer and sell their Diamond. The buyers are doing the exact thing except instead of selling the diamond they are trying to buy one. Then they would have to safely get back to their corners and that is one point.  The cops on the other hand have to try and catch a person with a diamond. If the cop catches someone and that person does not have a diamond, that cop would have to stay in jail for one minute. But, if the person did have a diamond, the cops would get one point and the person with the diamond had to stay in jail for a minute. This game is hard because you don’t know who is who. You may think someone is a buyer but they might actually be a cop. My team the Buyers came 1st. It was loads of fun!

The disco was finally over. It felt really short. Well, to me it did. I was just happy because I had lots of fun playing and dancing. Mr Burt gave us our next instructions which were TTB. Toilet, Teeth, Bed. We said our good nights and went off to our cabin. Each day was getting better and better! Day 4, here we come!!!

To Be Continued......

Day 2- Riverside Camp at Willow Park

Waking up in my cabin and seeing all my friends felt unreal. I couldn’t believe it was the holidays, and that I was spending the first week here at Willow Park with all of my friends. Anyway, we woke up and we had to do fitness! You didn’t know what to expect when it came to fitness. It could be a long run on the beach, cyber coach (Jump Jam) or even running up the stairs. In my case the only thing I wanted to do was cyber coach which was a lot like jump jam. Mr Burt decided to be nice and chose Cyber Coach.

Our first fun activity for day two was WATER GAMES!!! Peter came up with four water games for us to play. My favourite one was Protect Your President. In our teams we had to select a president and protect him/her. P.O.B’s (Princesses of Bel-Air) president was Khaia. The aim of the game was to wet the other teams president yet, keep your own president safe and dry. But there was one small problem, no one knew who was the president of each team. Well that was the aim of the game, but when I looked around, it looked like everyone was playing G.Y.O.B (Get Your Own Back) water styles though. So, I joined in with everyone and started throwing sponges at anyone I saw.

My highlight of day two though was Spotlight mixed with Capture the Flag. We were given glow sticks, we like to call them our life force. Our mission was to get to the other end where Jarred was. Once we were there, he would draw a mark on our hand and we had to go back and try and do it again. Sounds easy! But, on our way to Jarred there would be some obstacles known as the leaders with the torches. If they caught us we would have to give our life force (Glow Stick) to them and go back to the hospital, where the nurse will give us another life force (Glow Stick). It was easy for us to make it to the other side because we played at night and it was hard for the leaders to see. Ashleigh and I made it once and we were really happy. The hooter was blown and we went back into the Rimu room and tallied up the score. I can’t remember which girls and boys team won but all I know was that everyone had fun.

It was time for us to get ready for the TTB (Toilet Teeth Bed). Once everyone was finish it was lights off, and once my head hit that pillow, I was out. Being sooo tired made me be the first person to fall asleep in our cabin. I knew tomorrow was going to be another fun an exciting day for us!!!

R.I.P Ridgey!

At the age of 17 a friend of mine named Ridge Hilton died at Australia, Melbourne on Friday. It was a tragic day for everyone that knew him. He was a brother to everyone, he belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints, he was part of G.I Ward, but most of all, he was the type of friend that cared for everyone.

Ridge was found dead in his bedroom after part of his house was burned down. His family was out on holiday while he stayed back home with his friends. Ridge was from New Zealand but moved to Australia with his family about a year ago. His family said that Ridge was quite popular in Australia and found friends very quickly. They also said that Ridge was a talented boy. His dream was to become a rapper and he was very good at it.   

Ridge will never be forgotten. He will always continue to be in everyone's heart. R.I.P Ridgey!! A great friend is gone :(


Here is more information on Ridge's death.... LINK

Day 1- Riverside Camp at Willow Park!

It was the first week of the holidays and I was really excited. Why? Well, today was Camp! Monday 30th of October 2013. My brother and I packed the last few things into our bag and we were off to school.

As we said goodbye to our mum and entered into the car park with our gear, I saw my friend Brooklyn and he saw his friend Peh So. I placed my bag with all the other gear and joined my friend Brooklyn who was helping Mr Burt. Time flew by quickly. Next thing I know, I was sitting on the bus next to my friends, Huelo-Ata, Brooklyn, Ashleigh, Rita and Shoal. We were on our way to Willow Park!

We arrived at Willow Park. It felt good to be back for the third time. Everyone helped unpack the bus and trailers. After that we were put into teams. Talking about teams, Brooklyn and I were the year 8 team leaders for Girls 3. Our group consisted of Khaia, Paige, Heather, Sesalina, Amethyst and of course me and Brooklyn. We got to know the girls better and finally figured out our team name which was, P.O.B (Princesses of Bel Air).

We did loads of activities on day 1 but my highlight was definitely doing the Crunchie Hunt. The leaders hid Crunchie bars all over the field and our job was to try and find them all. Everyone did well but no one could beat our score of 21 Crunchie Bars!!! We kindly donated some to the less fortunate teams. That was a fun game not only because we won, but because we got the chance to EAT IT!!!!!

To Be Continued.....

S,R,V DLO Burj Khalifa Tower

INTRO:

This terms task was to create a DLO (Digital Learning Object) about an event in history or an era. We were formed into groups of three. My group consisted of Shoal, Rita and I. The event in history we decided to do was to create the Burj Khalifa tower which is known as the tallest tower in the world. Personally I thought that this was a great idea to do, not only because its the tallest tower in the world, but because I knew nothing about it and because everyone was doing there DLO about people. Our plan was to create a paper mache of the tower but that changed due to lack of time. So we thought the best way to show everyone the Burj Khalifa Tower was to do a timelapse of us making and painting it.

PMI:

Positives- Our end result for our tower movie is finished! I am really proud of it. Our purpose was to inform people about the Burj Khalifa tower and I think we achieved that really well. The positive things I think happened, was that we got lots of help from different teachers. They shared with us their ideas and it helped us a lot. We also worked together. Then our voice over. It had lots of expression, it was clear, and it had no silly noises in the background.

Negatives- Some things I think our group needs to work on is time management. If we had started sooner and if we didn’t play around, we could have finished earlier. We also should’ve downloaded the photos we took on the camera straight away because the next day when we went to check them out, we found out that they all been deleted by accident. We then had to change our idea.

Interesting- My most interesting part of our project was doing an animation with photos for our introduction. It looked really cool and I think it hooks our audience in. I also was interested with our facts and information about the tower. Thanks to Rita she found out lots of information about the Burj Khalifa tower and we all learnt more about it.  

FACTS:

The construction of it’s work started on the 21st of September 2004 and exterior was finished on the 1st of October 2009, but it only officially opened on the 4th of January 2010. The project of the Burj Khalifa tower was estimated to have costed just about over 1.5 billion US dollars. So much money was spent on this project, and it was all worth it because now there are several different compartments in this tower, earning more money then as to how much it costed to build it. The Burj Khalifa tower is well known around the whole world for it’s height obviously and it’s sight. The tower is a beautiful structure and my group and I have surely tried to capture it’s essence. We hope that this was an informative piece about The Burj Khalifa Tower.

CONCLUSION:

Making our DLO was a lot of fun yet extremely hard. We had to change our ideas three times just because of silly mistakes. Making the tower was lots of fun. It seemed easy to do but believe it or not the tower was really complicated to make. It had different shades of grey and it was curved. I’m just happy we finished our project with a decent movie.

Shoal, Viv, Rita from Team 5 PES on Vimeo.

Diamond Age (Where all the 3D Printing happens!)

Three lucky students from our school (Pt England) were fortunate enough to travel down to Henderson, to a place called Diamond Age. This place wasn't just an ordinary place. This place known as Diamond Age creates 3D models. That's not all though. It also creates parts to create another Rep Rap.

Mrs Nua, Makayla, Shoal and I walked into the building with no expectations. My first step into the building created goosebumps on my arm. I was so excited yet cold as the cold air blew on my face. I looked around and saw Miria. Miria is helping us get a 3D printer in our school. Anyway, next to her was a man with long grey hair and denim jeans. His name was Vik and he was our tour guide.

Vik showed us the process of making parts for a Rep Rap. Then he showed us what I like to call TOYS! But he likes to call them 3D models.  Vik was so kind and generous that he let us choose one to take back to school. I got a plastic tennis ball. Shoal got a plastic slingshot and Makayla got a plastic lemon squeezer. All these toys were made from the Rep Rap that Vik made.

Our workshop with Vik was so fun. I wanted to stay there for the whole day but we couldn't. My highlight on the workshop was definitely checking out the toys. The fact that that small machine called the Rep Rap created those things just blew me away. I hope we get the chance to go there but with the whole crew. I know that they would be blown away too. Diamond Age (Where all the 3D Printing happens!)