Friday, October 28, 2011

The Planets & Sun's Measurements

If you look at our sun, it looks pretty huge. But seeing that our topic this term is “Outta This World” and includes us learning about space, we have found out that our sun is actually quite tiny compared to the other sun’s out there in space. Finding this out was very overwhelming!

The largest sun out there is called VV Cephei and its diametre is 2, 644, 800, 000 km compared to our sun, who’s diametre is 1, 392, 000km! As well as learning about the sun and its measurements, I found out that the sun’s are actually big balls of gas, also known as stars.

I got this information from a strikingly informative YouTube clip. The clip contained facts about the sun’s diametre and also the diametre’s of the planets. Things I found out about the diametre of the planets were that Pluto’s diametre, which has the smallest diametre of planets, was 2306 km and the planet with the largest diametre is Saturn who’s diametre is 120, 536 km!

Learning about space, is without a doubt, extremely fascinating!

Tennis

Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova and Roger Federer are some of the biggest names in the sport-tennis. Tennis is a very competitive but enjoyable sport, so I think that we are very privileged to be learning how to play it.

We just had our first lesson and I found it very invigorating. Marcelle, our tutor, started off with some drills on the court. The drills were quite difficult. One drill included us bouncing the ball on the strings of the racket and then trying to bounce it on the side. It was sort of irritating because I couldn’t really do it.

Anyway, as we finished the drills we went on to playing a game. It was called King of the Court. It was a bit like a tennis rotation game. The rules were pretty much the same as tennis except for the rule that, if you lost you would become the king or queen of the court. The king or queen would stay on the court and play people until he or she lost and the person they lost to would then become king/queen.

Rugby is my favourite sport, but while learning tennis skills I slowly took a liking to the sport. It may be my second favourite sport but I think I still need a massive heap of help because, I still have a few things to work on!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Rugby World Cup Final-All Black's VS France

The tournament, semi finals, quarter finals had all passed, it was then time for the big one. The Rugby World Cup was about to come to a finish with the All Blacks playing France in the RWC Final!

It was the match that the world had been waiting for and it was finally here. There were shots on TV showing the 2 teams training out on the field, shots from the dressing rooms and shots showing the 2 teams walking down the corridor to the field with very determined and focussed looks on their faces. Suddenly the countdown began. The crowd full of thousands of French & All Black supporters joined in. “3, 2”...”1” they roared out with extreme gusto!

The All Blacks’s Piri Weepu kicked off, and the intense match began. The All Blacks and France making some big hits on each other, performing some tricky plays. Later on, a lineout was held near the All Black’s try line. My house full of All Black supporters, shouting out things like “come on All Black’s, the try line’s right there !”

I, however, was cheering for France. So when Tony Woodcock scored the first try in the final, I was a bit angry but my family members were going wild. Cheering and yelling out “Yeah All Blacks, Woo Hoo!” The All Black’s also celebrated, but the game wasn’t over yet. The French knew that they would have to up their game.


France did exactly that, because close to the end of the first half, the French captain Thierry Dusautoir, scored a try! Now it was time for me to "yahoo" and celebrate! The first half ended and it was now time for the 2nd half. the score was 8-7, with the All Blacks leading by just one point!! 20 minutes had passed the another 20 and then another 20. But the score was still 8-7!

The final extremely intense minutes were passing by and I was hoping one of the French team members would do a little drop kick into the goal post and France would win! There were so many butterflies, I felt as if my stomach was going to explode!

My hopes were put to an end though, because the All Blacks had won. But, I am a quite glad that NZ won. Monday, 23rd of October 2011, was certainly a day to remember!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Holidays

Term 3 has been quite an exceptional one. It was the sport season, the RWC cup season and all sorts of other things! This exceptional term is, unfortunately, coming to an end and the holidays are almost upon us. I have got to say, I'm not a big fan of the holidays. I enjoy coming to school, hanging out with friends, eating morning tea and lunch and sometimes enjoy what most students dread...Learning!! Anyway, what I'm really looking forward to is term 4. Its the last term of the year, then I'm off to college!