My Trip To Australia (I'm Living There)

It was a sad day for me as I boarded the plane. I was going to leave NZ, all my friends and my best school in the world so far (Pt England School). My eyes took a last look as the plane finally went up and surely we were more than 100 ft off the ground. We were going to Sydney, Australia because my Dad got a job there. I switched on a movie on the TV screen in front of me. It was awesome because there were different varieties of movies to choose from like e.g The Avengers and the new releases from 2012.

We were served food. I had a chicken smothered in a tangy tomato sauce with rice and veges. As I ate the food, this reminded me of the last day with my class having  a shared lunch. "Those were the good times" I said. I didn't know what I was going to do in Australia and what school I was going to go to. We approached our destination (Sydney,Australia) and the plane landed safely and then halted.

We departed from the plane. We were waiting in a long Que of people in front of us. As my family and I looked around, we saw our luggage and quickly grabbed it and put it on one of the trolleys. My uncle was waving at us to come. Our bags were put inside his big white van. We headed to our new home where my journey would begin.

Our Own Yr7/8 Mini Olympics

As the wild weather outside continued, our first Mini Olympic activity was just around the corner. "Put your shoes neatly in a line" said Mrs Flavell. The Yr 7/8 house captains hosted a Mini Olympics for Teams 4 and 5 so that our teachers could go to the Junior classes to analyse and see what they do for literacy. We assembled in the hall so that we could see who our leaders were and which activities we would be doing first. 

In our first activity, we were split up into two groups. One group had to either decorate a shell and the other had to put icing sugar onto 2 biscuits. Our group drew the Olympic rings on one of the shells and on the other shell, we wrote London 2012. I looked over my shoulder, only to see that the other group was more creative than us. Well to be fair, our group didn't want to do anything fancy."Time" said Mrs Flavell. We had finished our first activity and moved on to the second one. 

Our second rotation was with Mr Burt (our principal). We were doing relays. Our first challenge was to hold a tennis ball with our knees and jump to the finish line and drop the ball into the bucket without stopping. It was difficult because the ball kept on coming out. Nevertheless, our group finished and came 1st. We were awarded with 3 points. Our second activity was to try and score points by throwing 3 tennis balls into a bucket. Our group was doing really well. We kept getting 3 or 2 tennis balls in. Mr Burt said "Stop". We halted in our position and our group leader escorted us back to the hall so that we could watch PENN(Pt England News Network)

At the end of our session, we watched PENN (Our News Network) We counted all of our points in total and to my surprise, our group won! It was an awesome morning block. My definite highlight was when we were doing the relays. I hope we can do this again!

Making Right Decisions In Life (Smoking Not Our Future)

If you smoke, I want you to read this. Think of this as a wake up call to stop smoking. If you don’t believe me, our classroom (rm 21) have learnt all our information from the life education caravan. Our tutor who told us about making good decisions, is the life education teacher Lynn. Below are reasons why you should always make good choices.

Making good choices in life is very important because, everyone in this world decides their future, not others. To help you make the right decisions, you should always have supportive friends. If you don’t choose your friends carefully, you could be put under peer pressure, which could lead to you to doing things that you really don’t want to d e.g smoking. If you think smoking is still a very good thing to do, below are some consequences of smoking.

When you smoke, you breathe in the chemicals and they get attached to your lungs. If your lungs get smothered in the black stuff (tar) then you are putting your life on the line. It’s a risky attempt to keep on smoking because then, you can have problems with breathing and after a while you could lose your lungs.

Other reasons why people should stop smoking, is that it can damage your outside appearance. You can look very old even though you are young. It is also possible that if you smoke you are inhaling over 500 chemicals in that one smoke. Some of those chemicals are tar, tobacco and some other ones. If you love your legs and feet, you should stop smoking because you could lose them too! How are you going to walk if you don’t have legs? Think about it.

Please if you are reading this and you smoke, make a decision whether you are going to stop smoking or not. It’s mainly up to you because you have to make your own decisions. Think about the things that affects your body. It isn’t worth to keep on going because you won’t live much longer. We only live once in this lifetime and if we damage our bodies, we can’t just walk to the 2 dollar shop to repair ourselves! So please please it is very urgent for those of you who smoke to stop and think about the things that could affect your body. Make the right choice!

Rainbows End

(I am the one in  the front, my church friend is in the middle and my brother Abraham is at the back)

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”. My ears could hear echoing noises of people screaming when the fear fall went down in a blink of an eye. My body shivered in anticipation as I was waiting in the long queue full of people, ready to go on to the thriller ride, the fear fall. I gulped as the person who was in charge of the fear fall, sent me to a seat with my friend. If you don’t know already, My Aunty, some of my church friends and Brothers came along to NZ’s Premier Theme Park, Rainbows End. The lady instructed us to put on our seatbelts. She did a last inspection to see if our belts were tight enough. My body felt the machine going up. I opened my eyes and surely we were about more than 100 ft off the ground. “ZOOOOOOOOOOM”. The fear fall went straight down. I had no oxygen when we came down. My heart was beating faster and faster, until the fear fall stopped just metres of the ground. I let out a sigh of relief as we were finally of this daunting ride.

I walked off the fear fall dizzy. My attention was caught as I saw the scorpion karts racing. “WOW” I said. I stood in the que of people. After a minute or two I was finally on one of the karts.  The person in charge said “GO”. My car went zooming down the track. I was just behind this man who was leading the pack. My car was about to overtake him until he blocked my way. I adjusted my speed to the max , so that I could beat him. We went around the curve and up the track.The  final lap was coming to an end, and I won by an inch. We parked our cars in the driveway where the karts were meant to be parked. It was a good challenge for me because it really pushed me to GO FOR GOLD!

I ran past the log flume, and the invader and set foot onto the roller coaster with my big brother. Just like the fear fall, the inspector made a last check to check whether our seatbelts were on tight. The roller coaster went slowly as we approached to the track when it curves around. “YEAH” I said in amazement. The ride went faster than I expected. My mind was thinking that we were going to fall off as we were coming closer to the loop. “Here we go! The ride looped upside down then went to the curve then again went upside down 3 times. Yet again, my head was dizzy.

I walked around Rainbows End, and I was surprised to see the Journey to the centre of the earth. Rumor has it that this ride wasn’t like any other ride. You watch a movie and then you sit down and the chair moves. The movie started and then ended at the bit where the family went through an old mine. A lady came and gave us 3D glasses and told us to walk to the chairs. Again the movie started but was viewed on a bigger screen just like the Hoyts cinemas screen at sylvia park. She told us to hold the bars. The movie played and the chairs started to rattle backwards and forwards. It was like I was in the movie. The chair kept rocking backwards unexpectedly and then moved to the sides. I couldn’t stop laughing. As my chaired kept moving, it finally halted when the movie stopped. To be honest I thought that the journey to the centre of the earth ride was going to be boring. I was wrong. 

It was 5pm in the afternoon and the premier park was closing. All of the rides I went on during my time at Rainbows End was the Roller-coaster, Invader, Log Flume, Scorpion and Family Karts, Fear Fall, Master Motion(Journey to the centre of the earth) Bumper Boats and Cars, Goldrush and the Pirate Ship. My favourite rides would have to be the fear fall and the rollercoaster. I had a great time, and hopefully if I am lucky, I can go there again!

Cross Country

“BOOM” went the clappers. My year group (The 12 year old boys) were jogging lightly down our school field. It was a sunny Friday, and our school had our annual event, the school Cross Country. Many people predicted it to be a wet and ugly Friday. But no, the sun was shining beautifully and there were no clouds in sight.

As I came around the corner of the field, I entered the muddy reserve. “Holy Moly” I said in shock. My shoes were smothered in the gooey mud. The heavy mud caused my feet to drag along the grass because it was weighing me down. My legs started to ache and then I started to lag behind the pack of 6 people who were in front of me.

I started running into the bush walk, and to my surprise, I saw a colourful wig being worn by my friend Aidan. He was a couple of metres away from me, so I decided to catch his tail. I almost reached him, but he was gone and was nowhere to be seen. The mud caused me to slip. I looked up and saw that I had only just missed a tree that could have hit my head. Although my legs were aching, I was determined to make it to the finish line. I hacked the pain and ran the final lap of the track.

The finish line wasn't too far off from where I was running. I sprinted up our school field and then I crossed the playground. I could barely breath because my throat was parched. I ran up to where I saw our school students cheering us on. As I crossed the finish line, I let out a huge sigh of relief.

“Phew, I’m glad that’s over”! I said. I had a long drink and then I washed my shoes which were covered in mud. My highlight of the race was definitely running through the bush walk, even though I slipped. I was thankful that I almost placed in the top 8 but just fell short. My goal was that I would stop only once, and I actually accomplished that. It was a long day for me, but I felt like I could do it all again!

Animators Apprentice

On Thursday last week, our Yr 7/8 had the privilege to go and experience how people use to make animations back in the 1900s. Many people think that is was made on computer. Its hard to believe but animations were made from something they call, a zeotrope. The artists from the workshop are Ali, Maka and Nils. I knew our time with them was going to be awesome!

The first activity we got into, was learning how to split the lines in a drawing. To do this, you must find the middle of 2 lines, and split it by drawing a line in the middle the exact same way the other two lines are. Ali and Maka's artistic advice played along very well for us, because they gave us soe really helpful tips for us to do this activity well. 

We had a final activity in the animators workshop. Our group had to split the lines on the jelly fish, and then number the lines. We then took the paper and Ali and Maka gave us strips of paper numbered from one to six. After we did this, we could put features in our jelly fish, to make them look cool. We were then instructed to go to Maka so that we could put our work on the zoetrope and see out work looking like an animation. It was very cool for me, because I never knew that you could actually make an animation by hand. I am really looking forward to what we will be doing next week!

Usain Bolt

“I am now a living legend” proclaimed Usain Bolt. He basks in glory, as he defended his title
two Games in a row. His arch nemesis Justin Gatlin, came short in the finals, losing to the man in Jamaican colours, Usain Bolt. Many people look at him to be seemingly invincible. A very inspirational runner he is. The crowd adores his talent as some of the world records have been broken in the running events, by the ‘Lightning Bolt’.

Some people become legends for a legendary feat. In this case, Usain Bolt is a legend for his super speed. Many describe him as the best runner, and the best there ever will be. He is compared to Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan is the best basketball player ever, and he will always be the best.

In the 2012 Olympic games, Usain Bolt broke his Beijing Olympic record in the 100m sprints, and their Jamaican team broke the world record in the 400m relay. He raced in the 100m, 200m and the relay events.

The Olympic Message

Since the beginning of the Modern Olympic Games, the message has been: “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”. ( Baron Pierre De Coubertin)
                  
What the Olympic message is trying to say is, that people think that winning is the most important thing in life. In my opinion I think that the struggle is more important, because if you fail you can get back on your feet and strive forward as many times. Eventually all of your struggles in life will lead to success and triumph if you work hard to strive to succeed.

Many of the greatest athletes in the world have struggled in life and then excelled to become one of the greatest inspirations in the world. You may know Michael Jordan. He is the best basketball player who ever played the sport. He quotes in his inspirational speech “You may think that I would of made basketball look easy but my failure was my success and my pain was my motivation”. What Michael said really inspired me because when people put others down, they can advance to the next level of success because they can keep on developing on their weak areas in life.
 

I agree with the Olympic message because it is a really inspiring message. In parts of it, it that the olympics are not about winning but to take part. Athletes who strive for gold but don’t achieve their goal get really upset. It is good to aim high, but they should be proud of themselves for actually making it to the Olympic games to represent their country.

Cycling At 2012 London Olympics

As the fastest race course in olympic history began, team NZ were spotted in the bunch of cyclers getting ready to take off. The cyclers started pedaling down the track, and the turn was right around the corner. Many of the cyclers were speeding down the track, and then finally the leader of the pack was in sight. The cyclers came to the turn and ironically, the leader of the group fell off his bike! “Ohhhhhhhhhhhh” said the commentators. It was a tragedy for the cycler him because he about 20m in front of the cyclers.

The competitors raced around many of London’s phenomenal landmarks like The Mall and the buckingham palace. Colombian Rigoberto Uran was in front and just behind him was Alexander Vinokourov. Both of these riders were in front of the cyclers by 50m or so. They were both heading towards the finish line where Buckingham Palace was, and it was a thriller end. Colombian Rigoberto Uran looked to see who was behind him but then Alexander went the other way and sprinted to the finish line. It was a huge mistake from Rigoberto because he had this race for all money. Alexander crossed the finish line with excitement. He punched the air because he was filled with happy emotions.


Alexander won a gold medal for Kazakhstan and was congratulated by his teammates after the race. It was a very close race between Rigoberto and Alexander. Alexander was overwhelmed with joy because the smile on his face was as big as a straw being bent. It was a great race and I hope to see more of the cycling in the olympics this year!

Sweet Victory

1.The arena was filled with applause, as the soccer team won their game.


2.Many of the soccer players were overwhelmed with joy as the referee blew the whistle, and the game was over.

3.A lot of players from the team were stoked that they actually won.

4.Most of the team gathered together and celebrated their victory over their opponents.

5. You could see that the team were happy that they won, because of the expressions being shown on their face.

'Anaconda Choke'

1. With great difficulty the wrestler tries to lift his opponent off his back.

2. The exhausted wrestler is struggling to break out of the grapple.

3. The opponent is in perfect position to execute another grapple called the ‘Anaconda choke’.

4. With his veins popping out, it is obvious that the wrestler has been forced into a situation of having to tap out.

5. His opponent really has the grapple locked in tight, which could eventually lead to the other wrestler falling asleep.

The Focused Archer

                                                                        1. Full of concentration, the skilful archer raised his bow and arrow and aimed at his target.

2. As his heart almost stopped, his arms were as stiff as a tree trunk.

3. The archer took one last look at his target and soon after he released his arrow.

4. His eyes looked fearless as he aimed at the target in front of him.

5. With his eyes focussed at his target, he pulled back his right arm to determine how much speed and power his arrow would go.  

Olympics 2012

The video that we just saw was about the olympics. Not just about the summer Olympics but where the different events will be held in different venues in the majestic city. The Olympic games have been held in London 3 times which is the most games held in one country in history. London Park is where the sprints, relays, high jump and more events will be held. Some  other events will be held out of the city like the Triathlon, Tennis and the Marathon.

Many of the competitors will return to try and win medals for their countries like the man with lightning speed Usain Bolt. So far he holds the world record for the fastest time for the 100 and 200 metre sprints.Another great athlete is Michael Phelps. He is well known for the most medals won in a game. His talent is swimming and he will be back to show his skills at the Olympics in London and this time. Having won 8 gold medals in one game,  he hopes to make it 16 gold medals.

The reason why I really like the Olympics being held in London is because of the village. If you don’t know what that is, it is where the athletes from all around rest, train and eat. A true fact about the village, is that in the eating area, it can fit more than 500 people in it! It also has a gym
for the athletes to burn of the food they had just been eating. This building is a very large building.

My favourite athlete in this years Olympics would have to be the lighting bolt, Usain Bolt. The reason why I favour him in the racing events, is because he is going up against some of the fastest people in the world. Even though Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world, earlier on this year he competed in a race to see who gets into the olympics. It was a thriller because he just won by a second or more. Despite what happened though, I reckon he will be ready to defend his title for the fastest time on both the 100m and 200m sprints.

Do You Know What An Equestrian Is?

So far in writing, we have been given a word and find out what the word means, and to draw a picture to show you know what the word means. If you don't know what an equestrian is, it is someone who trains a horse, or someone who trains a horse. I hope you like my graphic.

Brown Brother

This term in our learning, we have been learning about Brown Brother. IF you don't know yet, a prefect called Joshua Iosefa from Mt Roskill College, made a speech about himself a.k.a Brown Brother. He appeared on Campbell live and did a remake of his speech. It got famous because of his friend who actually filmed Joshua and then uploaded it on youtube.


Joshua Iosefa states a really good point in his poem. He tells Pacific Islanders to change their mindset and to achieve in life. This phrase is effective because my dad tells me that I can succeed in life and in school. If you haven't seen his clip yet, this is the url:http://www.3news.co.nz/Mt-Roskill-Grammar-prefects-inspiring-speech/tabid/367/articleID/260423/Default.aspx

My Special Place - Art Alive

(I painted this by the way)

My special place is my house. The reason why it is special is because well let’s just say I have everything I need there. I have a bedroom, a PS3, my own dvd player, food and other things.  My brothers and I wrestle in our house when we are bored. My fridge is filled with drinks and cold food that I can heat up in the microwave. I have food stored in my cupboard and a living room with an LED 3D TV. My house is full of excitement and my home is full of love shown by my parents.

Daniella Hulme is the artist whose style I am going to use in my painting. She likes to use bright bold colours. In her artwork you can see that she paints her artwork from light to dark. She also uses tropical patterns in her artwork. Blue, red  and purple are the colours that are mostly used in her paintings. Her influence in doing tropical patterns comes from her husband who is a Samoan.

Charles Frederick Goldie

The painting that you are looking at is the artwork created by a man who I have been influenced in art , Charles Frederick Goldie. it is called the ‘A Noble Northern Chief Atama Paparangi. This painting was painted back in 1912. Only using oil, he used this material to create a magnificent painting on a blank canvas. A small caption in this piece of art that grabs my attention, is the way he uses he manages to make his artwork go from light to dark. The reason why I chose this painting is because of the detail in the painting which challenges me to try and fit these details into mine.  I think Goldie was trying to fit in maori patterns because the theme of his artwork is based on a maori chief. To me , it also shows respect to the maori culture.

So far this term in extension, our teacher Mrs Tele'a has given us a task. The task is to pick a picture that has been painted by oil by Charles F. Goldie, and to reproduce the painting using hyperstudio. This was for our art exhibition being held this week at our school this week. The times will be from 9am-7pm from Tuesday til Friday.  I knew that this task was going to be challenging because this drawing had to look 3D and had to have to look spectacular. If you don't know who Charles Frederick Goldie is, here a couple of facts about him:

i.Full name: Charles Frederick Goldie

ii.DOB:20 October 1870
iii.Birthplace: Auckland, NZ
iv.Family - siblings? 8 Parents ? David Goldie, Maria Partington Home? Auckland Spouse?Olive Ethelwyn Cooper
v.4 interesting facts about the artist
1. He met a chief called ‘Ngati Mahuta’ in 1901 and painted him
2. Charles Goldie met Olive in Australia
3.He is the second oldest in his family.

We had to really analyse the picture very carefully so that we could copy the painting properly. It was hard at times for me, because the way that Goldie managed to blend the forehead with the face is so effective. I just kept going and going, and after a few weeks, I finally finished the painting using hyperstudio. To be honest, I think I will give myself a 9/10 because of the amount of effort I put in this drawing. If you look closely at the hair and the feathers, I think I did a pretty good job. The reason why I think I did, is because the colours on the hair and the green shading on the feathers look amazing. After I have seen the patterns in his artwork, it has really inspired me to go and find out why maori patterns are real special to put into a painting and why are moko's are really important to be added into a painting.

Term 2 Reflection

This term has flew by so fast. It is already half way of the year! Anyway, this term has been a great term for me. I have new goals that I want to master next term, and my number one goal, is to work hard and to get into the top 3 academic spots. In this term, I am in a rugby team. We have had 5 games and have won 4 of them and lost 1.

Our theme for this term, was Art Alive. Art Alive is all about children learning about different artists and their style. One artist that I have learned a lot about is the one and only Henri Matisse. Did you know that he is one of the world's greatest painters? Another true fact is that he didn't like painting when he was a young lad. Before he became an artist, he was a assistant lawyer.

I am also in the extension taught  by our ICT teacher, Mrs Tele'a. In my class we are taught by the lovely, Mrs Lagitupu. She helps us learn new strategies in maths, helps us improve our writing and really pushes us to do our best. Finally all I have to say is that I hope that this year, I get into the top 3 academic spots. I know I can do it!

Narrative That Will Spook You........

Once upon a time there lived a girl named Cruz and a boy named Dakota. They were young. Dakota was 10 years old with short, shaggy, auburn brown coloured hair. Cruz was 7 years old and had long hair with a blondish colour. They lived in a house that was built by their father before he died. After he was gone, the family were left with only a sparse amount of money to live on.

Unfortunately, because they only had a mother to take care of them, they were living below the poverty line. On good days their mother could get odd jobs to buy them food, but on bad days they starved.  Their mother couldn’t take it anymore because she was starving. As sly as a fox, an evil witch approached from the shadows and decided to cast an evil spell on her. The evil witch brainwashed the mother to think that her children could be food.

One day Dakota and Cruz quietly creeped into their mother‘s room and overheard her yelling out her terrible ideas. “Lets run away so she can’t kill us” Cruz whispered. “Ok lets escape fast”  Dakota replied. But their mother overheard them and threatened them. “Quickly, run! yelled Dakota. Dakota and Cruz escaped through the front door and ran through an enchanted forest. Once they looked back they saw a glimpse of their mothers wicked smile. They dashed down the footpath, and reached a gate where they would hide.Their hearts were pumping and they were flashing things in their mind of what their mother might do to them.

The mother (a.k.a. the witch), was just about to cast a spell on them, but luckily Dakota found a rock and regretfully threw it at her forehead. Their mother was knocked out cold. She laid unconscious until she finally awoke. Her memory was erased but she could only remember her children. It was a sad ending but at least their mother wouldn’t plan to eat them ever again. Or would she....................................?

A Static Image

Do you know what a static image is? For any of you who don't know what it is, it is an image that lacks movement. What I am saying is that the photo or object doesn't move. It is as still as a statue. A static image can be on anything. Like the photo above, a rugby ball, on a rugby field. and on an inflatable object like a basketball ball. The photo above is a static image because it is still. This sign indicates that people have to use the crossing and the cars have to give way to the people who are crossing. In our school one of our korero's are to 'Use The Crossing'. The effect on this photo is that it uses simple shapes and simple colours. The camera shot looks to be like a close up shot. If people don't they could end up dead. Many of you reading this post have now learnt what a static image is! Now you can fell free to tell someone else what a static image is.