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!

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.

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.  

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.

Pablo Picasso and Daniella Hulme

Pablo Picasso has a very unique style when he paints. His style of art is called ‘Cubism’. He likes to look at things from different perspectives and angles. That is the reason why he is famous. However, many people think that his style is very unusual. I can agree with them, but on the other hand it is very interesting at the same time. Daniella Hulme is another artist with a very unique style. For example she loves to use tropical backgrounds and patterns in her artwork. That is one of the reasons why she is famous. Having being married to a Samoan, this is where her tropical influence comes from. I think that her paintings are very appealing.

Looking at Pablo Picasso’s painting of the ‘Weeping Woman’ you can see that he uses many different styles of lines and patterns in his background. The reason why this painting is very unique is because he contrasts the colours from bright to dark. That really impacts his artwork because it shows he can use many different varieties of colours. There is a mysterious part in his painting which is whether the character in the artwork is holding a handkerchief or not. Maybe this is why the painting is called ‘The Weeping Woman’.

Daniella Hulme is very passionate about using tropical patterns in her artwork. Her influence comes from her husband because he is a Samoan. I am a Samoan and I can say that her artwork is fantastic. You can see that she also loves to use bright and bold vivid colours. She also contrasts her colours very well. The impact in her painting ‘Lazy Woman In Paradise’ is that you can see where the light is shining. What I am trying to say is that she makes the colours go from dark to light. Daniella painted a fan or what Samoans call a ‘ili’ (pronunciation ‘eeee-lee’ ). In many of Daniella’s paintings she paints the same eyes and nose.

Both of these artists are very inspirational to me. Pablo and Daniella have similarities in their paintings. For example Pablo Picasso loves to contrast his colours in his artwork. Daniella also loves to contrast her colours in her artwork from bright to dark. He likes to use different patterns. Daniella Hulme on the other hand also likes to use patterns in her paintings. However these two artists have some differences in their paintings. Daniella Hulme uses more bright colours than Pablo Picasso. Maybe that is because he was painting a woman crying and the colours are suppose to be dark because the character is sad.

Many people can agree with me when I say that Pablo Picasso has a very unique style, because this is the first time that I have ever seen anyone mix up their artwork by looking at different views and painting the different angles. Daniella Hulme on the other hand is an artist who I think is always happy. I get this idea from her paintings. She likes to use very bright colours such as e.g pink, yellow, blue and orange. These colours make me feel happy! I have been influenced by these two artists and I hope that I can take what I have learnt with me and try to create an artwork using different patterns and colours!

                                     

Sea-Eagles Doge A Bullet!

!WARRIORS VS THE SEA-EAGLES!
As the whistle blew for the first half, the Vodafone Warriors kicked off for the first time for 2012. Manly had possession as they ran up the guts and straight into the Warriors defence line. After a few minutes, the Warriors found themselves in a good spot to strike first, but the pass was to high and the Warriors missed a golden opportunity. After regaining momentum, the sea eagles favourite son, came back to hurt them. With David Williams scoring in the corner, it lead the Warriors trailing by four. But yet again, David Williams raced down the track and kicked the ball, which found Daly Cherry Evans under the post. The Warriors were down by 16-0 with Steve Matai, scoring again and found them leading the Warriors.

Though the scoreboards weren’t looking too good, the Warriors winger Manu Vatuvei returned to hurt them after Shaun Johnson magical feet, stepped his way through the defence took down the so called “WOLFMAN” David Williams, and passed to Manu and in just a blink of an eye the Warriors were on the score board. Shaun Johnson’s twinkle toes, put the Warriors to 10 after a outstanding footwork which lead to a try. The Warriors left the field trailing by 16-10.

With the teams coming back for their break, the manly sea-eagles struck straight away with the man they call”T-REX” Tony Williams crossed over for his first try of the year. But yet again, the Warriors player”Lewis Brown” was off and Matt Ballin went a little far by holding him too long and then found the Warriors under the post through the so called “BEAST” Manu Vatuvei after Shaun Johnson’s Benji Marshall long pass. The Warriors found themselves only trailing by 20-22 after 69 minutes had gone. But yet again errors ran through the Warriors team after Kevin Locke couldn’t regather after the kick by the sea eagles which found Glenn Stewart over the line. This put the sea eagles to a 26-20 lead. The Warriors through everything at them but it was too late. Next week the Warriors will take on the Parramatta Eels and the Warriors will seek vengeance after a disappointing performance. But still....GO THE WARRIORS!!!!!

5th Win On Home Soil

Brrrrrrrrrr went the whistle! The moment of truth was about to decide whether NZ will retain the cup or will Fiji try to some how make a major upset. With Fiji leading the sets 4-3 (the sets is how many times Fiji has challenged NZ and won against NZ), NZ were sure to avenge themselves after losing to Fiji in the Semi-finals in 2007.

Confidence ran through the NZ team as they managed to uphold the Fijian attack. After awarding a penalty to NZ, they were quick to strike as Tomasi Cama, set up DJ Forbes after a lovely crossfield kick. NZ were already on the board leading by 5-0.

Again NZ were on attack. Frank Halai went bursting down the field with power as he fended off one, and then another, and in just a blink of an eye he found himself over the try line. That put NZ from 5 points to 10. After Tomasi Cama missed the opening try conversion, he put immense pressure on himself by helping NZ lead by a 12-0 advantage.

Try after try, Fiji were weak and soon found themselves trailing by 24-0. The last minute came and finally Fiji made up for their mistake by eventually scoring under the post. Even though they scored, it wasn’t enough losing to NZ 24-7.

As NZ were given their medals, DJ Forbes held the cup up. A definite highlight of the game was Frank Halai grabbing a double for NZ. It was a great night for the NZ team and to show how happy they were, the team performed a traditional haka. What a great 7’s weekend in the capital, Wellington. This week the competetion will be held in Las Vegas, in the USA. Let’s see if NZ can do it again. After all they are the CHAMPS!

And thank-you for this link http://www.google.co.nz/imgres?q=NZ+7%27s+winners&um=1&hl=en&safe=strict&client=ubuntu&sa=N&channel=cs&biw=1024&bih=514&tbm=isch&tbnid=i_q6mgTeE-MnXM:&imgrefurl=http://peter-petterson.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html&docid=cz41ve7dI76K4M&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZQxpHrK3BTIM5S0Ea3DzPITN13SwXGnVxdoQ8Uy4AgdeaREVxTKSsEcp_p11jal5ZMLq2Ku-JR2RjdxvPJe_rd8FJrG0xe60lLodLcpic0TBLuoHZ7KyfDwt_2mUPWjDscb2Pdfv8MVY/s1600/F5225BE8-C0B3-AD74-5780143701C8C336%252B%252Bnz%252Bwins%252Bsevens.jpg&w=502&h=268&ei=ltsyT_vxLMSgiQforPTtBA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=290&sig=115082903934689044367&page=12&tbnh=107&tbnw=201&start=139&ndsp=13&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:139&tx=100&ty=45for letting me use their picture.

To The Manaiakalani Trust-Thank You!

This year the Manaiakalani trust has helped us with things such as affording new multimedia machines for us, and also supporting us in getting our new learning device, Netbooks. With out their help this very exciting event wouldn't of happened. So to the Manaiakalani Trust, I would like to give you a ver big THANK-YOU for your support and for you hospitality to Pt England School. Thank-you because it means a lot.

My Vision Of Becoming A Yr 8

My plan is to become a good prefect, even when things are tough. To become a prefect my focus will have to be set on being a good role model, sticking and upholding the rules of the school. My vision of me being a technician is very high. But yet again, I will have to concentrate on being responsible, being reliable and making sure I finish a job off properly.

The Year Of The Netbooks

This year I have really loved having a Netbook to work on because it is more practical to work on netbooks than to use pen and paper.

As much as I have loved having a Netbook there are some things that I haven’t liked about netbooks. Sometimes there can be a long amount of time to wait for my netbook to be repaired. Another thing that I dislike about netbooks is because the internet sometimes loads slow and takes a long time to connect.

The advantages about having a netbook are that we can search things online and can work faster with our netbooks because we can go on our Wireless WI-FI (Wairehe and TLN) and work on our google docs. We never have to wait for any multi-media machines to be available because we have our netbooks.

The hardest thing to do on my netbook is actually nothing.
The greatest challenge for me is to keep my netbook safe for atleast 3 years.
From time to time I always try to finish my Term Tasks and being focused.
Most of the time I try finish my work so I dont have to stay in at lunch time.

If the netbook scheme failed and we had to go back on pen and paper, our work would be difficult because we have to write but with our netbooks, we don’t have to put our hands in pain because we can type.

Te Reo Maori-Mihi

In our class, we had a task to record a mihi or write a mihi in our Ter 3 tasks. There is a short recorded mihi below that you can listen too. Hope you enjoy! :)

Favourites Poem

I love the the scenery of mountains high as I roam down the path of the luge.
I love the feel of the wind rushing in my face, Dashing down, and when my brothers and I compete in a race, down a more phrases of my favourtie things.
I love watching the Feared and fierce Warrior games.

I like daffodils as they descend helicopter landing on the ground. I love the sound of the shouting comedians of “ SMASHED EM BRO”I like the fanta taste buds dancing on my tounge like a fruity burst!
Burgers and fries is as nice as chocolate and pies The colour green is like a sweet green goodie gundrop.
I love the time of the peaceful night indoors watching “MAN VS WILD”.It is like I am Bear Grills fighting pythons down in the Congo.

I love the sunset scene, it is big and beautififul.

Below is my movie of one of my favourties which is watching the VODAFONE WARRIORS games!!!!

Statistics- Finding out the the probabilities!!

This term, our 2 AWESOME teachers Mrs Nua and Ms Szymanik have helped us to figure out probability. In our maths class we are learning to show the possibles outcomes if we put things in a bag or basket. The picture on the left is an example of a way to figure out the outcomes.

Statistics

This is a photo of what we have been learning. We have been up to figuring out the possibilities of the outcomes, if we put things in a bucket. If you read this photo, you can see what the outcomes I figured out!!!

Science Roadshow

The most intriguing display that caught my attention, was the hydrogen experiment reaction. Did you know that the particles that build heat, are always on the loose and moving and moving until the the maximum of heat starts to grow? The coldest ever day recorded hit the central of otago, as for the hottest day occurred in Marlborough, Ranigora near the boundaries of Christchurch at the temperature of 42.6 Celsius!!!

The hydrogen experiment reaction was another big up for me because a metal piece covered and protected by a zinc covering, was pulverised by the blow torch and the highest temperature that was able to demolish through was 1540 Celsius!!!! The rust began to spread and was turned in to green and then to white when the zinc piece was cooled down!!!

An Awesome Picnic Day!!

After waiting for a few minutes in our school hall, we departed from the Building. As we approached closer to our destination,we were given instructions to line up in our classroom lines near the edge of the reserve.


Mr Burt finished explaining the rules, and we were free to play. Jephte and I decided to go for a walk on the beach. As I jumped down on to the beach, my feet sank in the sand dunes . I cautiously walked down the beach making sure that glass was not to be near my feet. Unaware of a rock full of oysters, I heavily thumped my foot on it. Thank God it didn’t slice through my skin, or it could of gotten ugly.


Anyway as I gazed at the sky, I noticed that the weather was changing. The sun vanished behind the clouds and the powerful force of the wind came. The waves rushed into shore and “SPLASH: I was in a wet condition.

Time flew by very quickly. it was 12:30!!!!!!!!! My stomach rumbled ,so I went to eat something. As I stared at the view, I thought to myself,”God sure did a magnificent job of creating the earth.

I tried to find a fun activity to play and then “Bingo! A competitive sport was Underway, T-Ball! I joined the batting side. Our team was determined to win. When I was up next to bat, I smacked the ball far enough for me to make a home run. As I dashed to t the third base, I collided with Miracle. The pressure was on. It wasn’t long before I picked my self up and raced quickly to home base. I made it!! We triumphed over TJ’s Team by a long shot! I was stunned because good players were on their side but we had mostly had non experienced people!

It wasn’t long before we had to go back to school. “Today was packed full of activities” I said. It was a day to Remember” I thought to my self. A definite highlight for me was obviously playing T-Ball. Hmmmmmm” I said, “I wonder what’s waiting for us next year at our annual picnic, I said. Well, we’ll just have to wait and see” THE END!!

Responsibility !!!!!!!!!

In this wacky term, our AWESOME teacher Mrs Nua, gave us a task to do. She said that we had to make a small snippet of one our Pt England School Values!!!!!!!!! Me and Kayde(My Buddy) decided to do this year's theme throughout this, RESPONSIBILITY!!! In this movie, it shows and reminds people of how, Responsibility is a very important value!!!!! Anyway, I hope you enjoy it(:

Huge Challenge.

As I stood face to face with the huge monster (the abseiling wall), I fainted in fear. As I nervously rose from my seat, I said “ I have to be as big as king kong to climb this thing. Unexpectedly, I was taking on this huge giant second which made me super scared!!!

I was next but my teeth were chattering and my hands and feet well they were as stiff as dog hair! This was a big challenge for me, because I had done a much smaller one at Totara Springs!


As I slowly paced myself up the steel bars, a confidence feeling came over me. After reaching the top, I was congratulated. With a confident boost,I slowly gripped my feet to the wall and walked down. In a flash of light, I made it to the bottom and conquered my fear!

I punched the air and felt proud of my self and said “Maybe I’ll do it again?