Sela @ Pt England School

Prize-giving 2011

2011-12-09T13:04:00.001+13:00

As I walked up the stairs, I was feeling so relieved that my striving to succeed throughout the year had earned me an award at prize-giving. I shook hands with Mrs Teleso and received my award. I gripped the trophy in my hands and walked over to join my friends who had also won an award. There was a camera moment, and as eager as I was to hop off the stage, I stayed and smiled a cheeky/happy smile! Winning Dux was such an awesome moment for me that I will cherish and never forget.

Interzone Athletics 2011

2011-12-01T10:55:00.001+13:00

My heart was pounding, butterflies fluttering in my stomach. I felt as nervous as a rat surrounded by a pack of rattlesnakes! Even though I was surrounded by my friends, I couldn’t help but feel as nervous as I did. With a mighty swing, I swung the discus out of my hand and I saw it soar over the grass.

As I saw it land, I got placed into first place! I was so overwhelmed! Unfortunately, my victory didn’t last long as I got bumped off into 2nd place, but that was alright because I still got to go and compete in the Interzone Athletics. As well as going to compete in discus, I also went for shot-put.

The Interzone Athletics was held just recently and it was an amazing experience. We arrived at Lloyds Elsmore Park (where the event was held) and came to see many schools there. Schools such as Sacred Heart, Sylvia Park, Bailey Road, Panmure District School and several others.

I didn’t feel that nervous before we arrived but as soon as I saw the bunch of schools there, nervous feelings began to overwhelm my body. Just noticing that I’d have lots of competition gave me a little chill down my spine, but as well as having that feeling, I also felt really up for it!

Miss Va’afusuaga explained the timetable to us and discus was the first event I was going to do. I walked over to the place where the discus throwing was held and on the way there, I met an old friend-Michelle! We had a little chat and I found out that I would be competing against her.

We were reminiscing about the times we had together back then, and before we knew it, it was our turns to have our throw. I walked up to the circle and took a couple of deep breathes. “1, 2, 3” I whispered under my breath and on the 4th count I swung my arm, just like I did at the school athletics, and let the discus glide out of my hand.

I saw it land and figured that I did pretty well. Many of the other girls had their turn and it ended. We didn’t find out our results, which was what I was wanting to find out. But we moved on to shot-put. I’m alright at shot-put, but I saw a few girls have their turns and said to myself “how am I going to win against these girls?” It was my turn and I felt even more nervous then I did before and with a mighty grunt, I shot the shot-put out of my hands. I reckon it didn’t land that far but still I was feeling pretty good.

The whole day went by so fast and the last event was the relays. I looked forward to these! Watching people race each other. Our school did really well and came first in nearly all of them. Like I said before, it was an awesome experience and I have just found out that I came 3rd in one of my events. It wasn’t enough to get me into the Auckland Athletics event but I’m still proud of myself.

Manaiakalani Film Festival 2011

2011-11-17T10:10:00.001+13:00

I was extremely nervous. As nervous as an aero-phobic person on a plane! I had practised my script so many times and now it was time for the ‘moment.’ I anxiously walked up the stairs, butterflies fluttering like crazy in my stomach. I took a deep breath and...”My name is Sela”. I started my script off. I finished it off and walked off the stage, feeling so relieved that I had gotten it over and done with.

The Maniakalani Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held every year at the Hoyts Cinema-Sylvia Park. We had entered a movie into the film festival and I had the privilege of presenting it to everybody. As flattering as this was, I didn’t really want to do it because as you might know, I am not a very confident person. But it was good that I did it because it helped my confidence to grow.

The way the film festival went worked was like this: There were 5 sessions. The 1st session was for the little kids, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th one were for the older kids. The last session though was for the parents and everyone else. You would’ve been in for a special treat if you went on the last session because you would see most of the movies instead of just some of them.

There were many movies screening on the big screen. Many of which were comedies. Our movie was like a documentary but with a few funny bits included. I was so embarrassed of one of the scenes in our movie! It had each of us girls whipping our hair and when it came to me whipping my hair, I’d look away. In fact, I looked away for the whole movie!

As soon as the movie ended, I looked back up with such a relieved feeling! Our movie was pretty cool, even with all the embarrassing moments. There were several movies, but only a few stood out for me. T-News, Tamaki College League Girls and Italy VS New Zealand were those few that stood out.

T-News was such a crack up movie, with Brody-Jack as Billy T James. Tamaki College League Girls movie was awesome! Showing Tamaki College’s girls League team making some massive hits on their opponents and Italy VS New Zealand was a very cute movie! The little kids from Panmure Bridge School challenging each other at things such as eating Weet Bix or spaghetti the fastest.

The Manaiakalani Film Festival was just so amazing! I think it really helped me to boost my confidence. Now, I just can’t wait ‘til next year’s film festival!

Brother's Prizegiving

2011-11-11T12:17:00.001+13:00

Its an event most people await. You have to get there in time to get a good seat and it has many awards. Do you know what I’m talking about? No, its not the Emmy’s but its quite close. Give up? Okay, its prize-giving!! It wasn’t my school prize-giving but it was my brothers.

The auditorium that the prize-giving was being held in, was pretty packed. But luckily, we got there in time and found us a good seat at the top. The view from the top was awesome, seeing that we could see everything from there!

Anyway, the prize-giving kicked off with a powhiri and soon after that, a few speeches were made. The Level 1 awards were given out and a musical item was then performed by Jamilla, who has an amazing voice! She sang ‘His Eye is on the Sparrow’.

Soon after, the Level 2 awards were handed out. People got awards such as merits in English and things like that. Sometimes when awards are given out, you get more then just the average certificate. Some people got books and trophies.

The Level 3 awards were also handed out and a while after that, the special awards were awarded. The special awards were awards such as Sportsman, Sportswomen and Dux. These awards cause so many nerve-racking moments because no one knows who’s going to get which award! I was extremely proud of my brother because, as well as getting a Level 2 award, he also got Dux!! I was also very happy because of the many lolly-lei’s he got.

I’ve gotta say, it was pretty hilarious watching all the people get up to go and congratulate their family and put lei’s and lei’s of lollies on them. The one person who’s family was extremely proud of them, was the head girl Helen. She got so many lolly-lei’s that her face was almost covered!

I’m sure that all those who got awards, their families were immensely proud of them. I know I was so proud of my brother! Now, I just can’t wait for our school prize-giving!!

Planets

2011-11-08T09:09:00.001+13:00

The universe...many things have not yet been discovered in it. Things such as: other living lifeforms or another planet we human beings are able to live on. I’m sure there are several other things we do not know about but the things we do know about the universe and our solar system are quite interesting.

The topic for this term is called “Outta This World” and has us focusing on planets and our solar system. To help us learn more about these, we performed a little experiment yesterday. It wasn’t really an experiment like the ones you see on TV with the test tubes and bunsen burners, it was more like a fun activity type of experiment.

The experiment we did had us studying the sizes of the planets. Seeing that we couldn’t just fly up into space and see the actual planets and their sizes, we had to use an alternative. I actually found it sort-a odd that the alternative we used were balloons! To find out the sizes of the planets we (obviously) had to blow the balloons up. What I found also kinda weird but funny, was that some of the balloons didn’t really need to be blown up, they just need a little huff & puff and that was it.

Pluto was one of those ‘planets’ that only needed a little huff & puff. As well as learning the sizes of the planets, we couldn’t help but learn some very informative facts too. Here are a few (facts) that I found to be quite fascinating: Earth is known to be unique because we are the only planet in the solar system that is known to have living life forms. It takes 365 days for the Earth to orbit the sun but we have day and night because as the Earth orbits the sun, we are also revolving. Jupiter’s red spot is known to be the most violent storm in the universe and is about 3-5 times bigger then Earth. Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet.

Even though our experiment turned out to be successful, there were a few things that went wrong like: we were supposed to do it outside but then we had to abort back inside because it started raining! My friends and I found that hilarious for some reason, anyway. One low-light for me was that, about halfway during the activity I had to leave. But I felt really relieved that I could stay for half of the lesson.

I really enjoyed doing the experiment yesterday and I think that space is an awesome topic to be studying and hopefully in the not to distant future, many of the unsolved mysteries of space will be solved so that we may perform more fascinating experiments!

The Planets & Sun's Measurements

2011-10-28T10:33:00.001+13:00

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

2011-10-28T10:32:00.000+13:00

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!

Rugby World Cup Final-All Black's VS France

2011-10-26T10:41:00.006+13:00

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!

Holidays

2011-10-06T10:00:00.003+13:00

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!

Term 3 Highlights

2011-09-29T10:46:00.005+13:00

Term 3 has been such an awesome experience for me. My top 3 highlights were going to tech, playing rugby and learning different kinds of sports.

At tech, we learn things such as: drawing techniques (graphics) to making alarms (electronics). Last week was our last week with Mr Dewan (science). Our new subject is hopefully cooking with Mrs Heka! Science was full of fascinating experiments and exciting practicals! I wish I could do it again.

During the past few weeks, we have been having sporting lessons. This term included us learning certain techniques for badminton and AFL (Australian Football League)/Kiwi Kick. Specky's, low marks, high marks and many more are just a few of the many techniques we learnt to do. Its quite fun.

Playing rugby was a major highlight for me! Tackling and fending people off is something I enjoy doing. When I play rugby, I feel as if I’m invincible. Although we didn’t win many games this season, I’m proud that we won at least one game. What was better was that we had won this game 95- 0!

Term 3 has certainly been a term to remember but I can't wait til next term!

England Presentation

2011-09-28T14:05:00.004+13:00

This presentation is to share what I have learnt about England.

Similes

2011-09-28T10:43:00.004+13:00

The baby is as cute as a puppy.
The baby is as smooth as silk.
The baby is as quiet as a church mouse.

The monkey is as jumpy as a kid hyped up on sugar.
The monkey is as hairy as a man’s legs.
The monkey is as addicted to banana’s like a kid is addicted to lollies.

The car is as filled up with gas as a balloon is with helium.
The car is as clean as a whistle.
The car is as speedy as Usain Bolt on the race track.

As brave as a lion.
As brave as someone confronting their fear of something.
As brave as someone risking their life to save another.

As smooth as a newly born baby’s bottom.
As smooth as moisturised skin.
As smooth as silk.

As soft as pillow fluff.
As soft as the inside of freshly made bread.
As soft as rabbits fur.

As happy as a teenage girl on a free shopping spree.
As happy as a person receiving their food in a restaurant.
As happy as Happy Feet going back to Antarctica.

As loud as kids from Room 21 chatting.
As loud as a wolf’s howls at night during the full moon.
As loud as a scream coming from a house of horror’s.

As warm as a person next to a heater during a cold winters day.
As warm as a tropical summer in the islands.
As warm as a hug.

As large as a swarm of bees surrounding pots of honey.
As large as a blue whale.
As large as the Empire State Building.

Tonga VS Canada

2011-09-16T10:08:00.004+12:00

After their expected but proud loss to the mighty All Blacks, the terrifying Tongan team-Ikale Tahi were up for their second game against the fearsome Canadians.

The game was about to start and the two rivals walk side by side onto the field with determined looks on their faces. The captains Finau Maka (Tonga) and Pat Riordan (Canada) head off to the coin toss, Tonga wins it and decides that they want to be kicked off to. The referee blows his whistle and the first crucial 40 minutes begin.

About 10-15 minutes into the game, Canada scores the first try and the score, disappointingly for Tonga, heads off to 7-0. The intense game carries on. Around about halftime, Siale Piutau (Tongan player) has a try set up for him, goes for it and scores a beauty. Tonga scores a try yet the tough Canadians were still leading 10-7.

The ref blows his whistle and halftime ends. Another crucial 40 minutes up on the clock. In that time, some impressive tries were scored by both the terrifying Tongans and their fearsome opponents the Canadians. Approximately 70 minutes into the game, the Tongans end up leading the Canadians 20-18. If they hold up their solid defence line, Tonga can win this.

Unfortunately the Canadians manage to execute a superb try and the score changes to 25-20 to the Canadians. You could feel the tension build up as the Tongans try with such might to score a try, the last minute's up and the extremely intense game finishes with Canada winning by just five points!!

Awesome performances were displayed by both teams.

RWC Paragraph Adjectives

2011-09-15T10:45:00.003+12:00

As part of our writing task, we had to come up with 3 paragraphs about the Rugby World Cup. Instead of the normal boring paragraphs, we had to use adjectives to make it sound more interesting.

Black Out Day

2011-09-09T10:13:00.005+12:00

The biggest sporting event ever to happen in New Zealand starts today! I expect that you all know what it is so I don't need to tell you...but I'll tell you anyway. Its the RUGBY WORLD CUP!!

The first game starts today and are between the All Blacks and Ikale Tahi! To support the All Blacks, we had the choice of coming in black, I chose to come in my school uniform and wear red & white socks to show my support for Tonga. I don't think it matters whether Tonga loses, all that matters is that they tried their best.

Silly Sports Day

2011-08-25T09:40:00.007+12:00

Tuesday 23rd August 2011 started out like any other day with writing and reading at the beginning of the day but, instead of having maths after morning tea we played 'Silly Sports.'

The way these 'silly sports' worked were, the 4 intermediate classes were given a 'silly sport' to start out with. The 4 silly sports were ball tiggy-with Mrs Lagitupu, the giant slingshot-with Ms Tito, 3 legged race-with Mr Harris and a sponge race-with Mrs Nua. After a certain amount of time at a silly sport we rotated on to the next activity.

Ball tiggy was the first silly sport that we got. Before we started the game, Mrs Lagitupu split us up into 4 teams-green, yellow, red and blue. The aim of the game was to try and tag the opposition without running with the ball or throwing it at them. So to win the game, co-operation and good communication skills were needed. It seemed that at the end of that activity, my team was really good at those 2 things because we had won !

The giant slingshot was our next rotation. The aim of the game was pretty simple-try and shoot the ball out of the slingshot into a hula hoop. One hula hoop was pink and whoever shot the ball into that hoop earned 100 points for their class. Many people tried but failed at getting the ball into that pink hoop. That was, until Helen had her go. Some friends and I cheered "go Helen !" When she was ready, she fired. All eager to see where it was going to land, everyone sat up. It was rolling towards the pink hoop, “WOOHOO !” everyone was cheering. Suddenly the ball missed the hoop by a just few inches! We all sat back down and had a little laugh at how excited we all were. But not all was lost as someone managed to score us 10 points before we left to the next 'silly sport.'

We went on to Mr Harris who was taking a 3 legged race challenge. It was like a 3 legged race and a tennis ball race at the same time. We had to pair up with someone, tie one of our legs together and race to the other side and back without dropping the tennis ball. My partner Tia and I had our turn, and just when we were about to cross the finish line, I dropped the ball ! Tia started hitting me and shouted "SELA MAN, WE WERE RIGHT THERE !!" and we both dropped to the ground laughing our heads off.

Then we rotated on to or 4th and final activity. Again, we were spilt up into 4 teams and each 2 buckets, 1 full of water and a sponge and the other one empty. The aim of the game was to let the sponge absorb up as much water as it could in the full bucket, and pass it along to your team members (who would be in a line behind you) and squeeze it into the empty bucket. The team who's bucket had the most water in it won. The red won...twice!

That Tuesday was such an awesome experience. I would sure love to do it again!

Year 7 & 8 Cross Country 2011

2011-08-19T12:58:00.004+12:00

Here's a little riddle: what do most people look forward to, is very competitive and is kinda like a battle of the fittest ?...Cross country !

Every year, we hold a cross country race. The way its usually set up is in age groups but this year it was a bit different. Instead of age groups, we just raced in years. For example all the Year 7 girls race each other, Year 7 boys race and so on.

Something that was also a bit different was the race course. Instead of just a run around the reserve and back to our field, we ran a race course that was 3.5km ! But luckily for the Year 7's, they only had to run 3km.

As soon as the Year 7 boys were out of sight, the Year 8 girls lined up along the starting line. Miss V explained the race course to us and we waited anxiously for Miss V to clap the clapper. "On your marks" she started "get set..." CLAP ! As soon as we heard the 'clap' we shot off like lightening bolts and tried to overtake each other.

We hadn't even gotten to halfway when we saw the boys catching up to us. Most of us girls started sprinting as soon as we saw the boys, but others were calm and collected and didn't even try to keep in front of the boys. Unfortunately, I was one of those girls. Taking our time, kind of just strolling through the bush.

For a while we started to just stroll along, but then we felt quite de-hydrated so we started to power-walk. A long while later, we saw our school poking through all the ferns and trees, so we started to walk faster. We had nearly gotten to the finished line when we were told by Mrs Lagitupu that we still had 1/2km to run. Puffed out, we went back to walking and finally got to the finish line.

I had known that I wasn't going to come first because I was competing against people like Etta and April. But my goal was to not come last and guess what ? I didn't !

Holiday Highlight

2011-08-09T09:32:00.000+12:00

Whether you’re a teacher or student, school always seems very busy and tiring. So when the holidays come, most people are excited. I, on the other hand, enjoy school and don’t really look forward to the school holidays.

Movies, shopping and sleep-overs fill some people’s holidays, but for others like me, holidays are filled with sleep, chores and even more sleep. However, during the holidays, I did go to the movies and saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. I found the last chapter of the Harry Potter series quite exhilarating.

Going to the movies was pretty peachy keen, but another cool thing we did was go over to my grandma’s place to celebrate her birthday. We had a big feast and consumed most of it and sang happy birthday to her. We could tell by her facial expressions that she really enjoyed it ! We also enjoyed it.

The holidays weren’t as bad as I thought they were going to be, but the holidays I’m really looking forward to are the end of year ones, because when these holidays approach us, my family and I get ready for our annual trip to Tonga ! Unfortunately, this isn’t for another term so I have to wait for a pretty long time.

France

2011-08-08T14:19:00.002+12:00

This term our topic 'Keep your eye on the Ball' is based around the Rugby World Cup (RWC). There are 20 countries playing and each person in our class was given a country to do research on. I got France and did a presentation about it. Here is my finished product.

Final Design

2011-07-20T10:49:00.001+12:00

I chose this design because:
it was more detailed then the other 2 signs and more clear to understand.

Evaluation:

* Does your sign meet all the specifications and requirements of the brief? If so, how?

* What is the purpose of your sign? Do you think your sign will help eliminate a problem in the school or street? If so, how?
The purpose of our sign is to stop littering. I think the sign will help eliminate a problem if people listen to it.
* What did you do well?
I think that we did the signs well, seeing that we didn’t manage our time well.
* What difficulties did you come across while making your sign?
Time management
* What can you do next time to improve your project?
Be more well prepared and organised and manage time better.

Design 2

2011-07-19T10:47:00.000+12:00

Plus:	Minus:	Interesting:
Its now got more colour	Its still quite plain	the words ‘Bin it’ are on a rubbish bin

Design 1

2011-07-18T10:41:00.001+12:00

Plus:	Minus:	Interesting:
you can read it. simple	It has no colour. messy layout. simple	black and white.

Brief Development: 1st Brief

2011-07-15T10:33:00.003+12:00

Conceptual Statement:
(What is the concept or idea behind your design brief? e.g “To produce a sign with a message that helps eliminate the issue of...”)

To produce a sign with a message that helps eliminate the issue of rubbish in the street.

Specifications:
(The measurable must haves ie. the things that are important to designing an effective sign e.g. sign must be easy to read etc...)

1.Big - good size
2.Bright
3.Readable
4.Outstanding
5.Clear message

Constraints:
(Musts that are beyond my control e.g. Must be completed by the end of the term)

1. due in week 7
2. must have a clear message about eliminating a problem

Resources:
(things I need to make the sign)
*Laminator
*Paper
*Pencils/Pens/Colours
*

*

Planning Log

2011-07-14T10:27:00.004+12:00

Planning Log

Keep a record of both what you intend to do and what you did over the course of the next 3 weeks as we work through the Technology Process.

	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7
What I plan to do	Brainstormed issues	Research questions Ideas more signs	Complete the signs
Materials I will need	Paper, pen, ideas	Google Docs Questions	Google Docs Questions
People/Sources I need to consult for more information.	peers, friends, yourself, teacher	Peers, friends, Year 7 7 & 8 kids	My partners
What did you find difficult and why?	To come up with 1 problem to focus on	To get the form done and sent	To get our design project thing done
What I will do next as a result of any difficulties.	Get more ideas for a good sign	Analyze the data, check the answers	Manage the time more better

STAKEHOLDERS

The Stakeholders are the people who have an effect on the production of your product

The Primary Stakeholder is your client ie. the person or community of people that your sign is going to be created for. eg. ….

Wider Community Stakeholders:	Key Stakeholders:	Primary Stakeholder:
Parents Visitors Care-givers Community	Students Year 7 & 8 students Teachers	Me year 7 & 8 students

ATTRIBUTES: These describe the physical (what it is like) and functional (what it will do) characteristics of a product. These characteristics are key or essential for the successful function of a product and should be re- evaluated at each stage of the design process.

With your sign in mind, complete the following attributes table:

Attribute	Method of Measurement	Specification
eg. Eye catching	sign will appeal (be noticed) by stakeholders	Sign must be clear, stand out and be creative
Size	Pretty big	Sign must be big enough for everyone to see
Colour	A bright/appealing colour	Green/White/Black/readable
Create awareness (e.g. clear message)	Stop littering	People should stop littering so our school can be clean
Durable/ Weather resistant	Laminate it	Laminate it so it’ll be waterproof
Ideal location (in the right area)	Somewhere readable	Probably in the street up on the wall

Designing a Sign

2011-07-13T10:16:00.004+12:00

Names of people in my group:
Aneisha
Helen
Sela

Your task is to design a sign that will clearly assist in eliminating a problem within our school.

- Make sure you are clear what the task is.
- Can you identify the key words in this task (highlight them and discuss it with a buddy)

Thinking about signs and signage (Make a list of all the signs you have seen ….. and the purpose of the sign )

Type of sign:	Purpose of the sign:
No smoking	Keep a smokefree area. No smoking inside
Give way	Traffic sign. Look out for traffic e.g cars/trains/buses
Slow down	Near a pedestrian crossing. Traffic Sign
No Alcohol	Keep an alcohol free zone. No drinking inside
No toys at school	Keep all toys and things at home.

Brainstorm some Ideas/ problems that we have around our school environment.

*Littering
*Gum
*Running
*Drama’s
*Rumours
*Respect
*Running
*Untidy shoes

ISSUE CHOICE AND JUSTIFICATION

You need to think and expand on your answers, one sentence is not sufficient.

What is your issue in our school? I think that a big problem we have around the school is littering.Our school is sometimes very messy and has rubbish littered on the fields and courts and Mr Malloy has to pick it up.

Who does it affect?
Mr Malloy, students, teachers

Why is it happening in our school?
Because people walk and eat, people are careless

When does it happen?
Before/after school, lunch time, morning tea

Where is it happening?
The Street, Around the whole school, Classrooms,

What needs to happen to prevent this issue?
More awareness talks, Signs, punish people who litter, monitors, more bins

Term 2 Highlights

2011-07-05T10:23:00.002+12:00

The holidays are nearing and the school term nearly over. I am quite sad that the term is ending because term 2 has been filled with some thrilling events and fascinating activities. Some of which were my job as being a barrister, being in the I AM Making Movies competition and playing rugby !

Being a barrister has given me some useful skills. Now, I know how to make a cappuccino, flat white, long black, short black, moccacino, and every kids favourite...hot chocolates ! These skills that I have developed will be very useful if, in the future, I want to become a professional barrister.

The I AM Making Movies competition was also a great experience. In this competition, we got to make our own movies. We based our movie on the history and heritage of New Zealand. It was an animation with a voice over. What was awesome about this competition, was that we won the award for “best creative storytelling” and we even won the “supreme” award ! Again, it was an awesome experience !

This term, has also been the start to our rugby season. So far, we have had about 3 games, against Bailey Road, St Josephs and Tamaki Intermediate. The total amount of the games we have won, are 1 ! Even though we haven’t won many games, we still have a chance because we have upcoming games against Viscount and Kedgley. Kedgley and Viscount are very good rugby teams, so we have to try extremely hard when we play against them !

Term 2 has had many fun things to do and join. I hope that term 3 can do the same !

Last Week of Tech: Term 2

2011-07-04T13:06:00.002+12:00

Science, Electronics, Wood Works, Graphics and Cooking are the 5 tech subjects we take over at Tamaki College.

Every Monday, we walk over to the college and take these subjects. We’ve been doing this since our intermediate started up last year. But, over the year(s) things have changed. Like, last year we didn’t have tech on Mondays, we had them on Thursdays and last year we didn’t take Electronics or Science.

This term, we were in Electronics with Mr Mulhotra. In Electronics, we were making simple circuits. The simple circuit we made was supposed to be like a sensor/alarm. The way it works is that, the piece of cardboard we made our circuit on, has a switch and if you step on it, its supposed to trigger a little speaker that will make a loud beeping noise. That way, it’ll tell if someone’s intruding.

But because we had finished making our simple circuits a few weeks back, we were just relaxing and made some posters. The posters we made were on how electricity can be dangerous. A few examples I came up with were:you shouldn’t leave something like a straightener on because it could over heat and cause a fire.

This week was our last week of being in Electronics. I really enjoyed. Our next class now is Science.

15's Aside Rugby Tournament

2011-07-01T14:35:00.002+12:00

Tuesday 14th of June 2011 was the date of our Year 7 & 8’s (boys and girls) 15 aside rugby tournament. We had been training hard for that day and it finally came !

We walked down to the Dunkirk reserve and started warming up. The girls had 2 games but the boys had 3. Our first game wasn’t until 11:40, so we had a long time to wait. During that time, we did some more training and warming up. During that time, the boys were busy playing their first game against Tamaki Intermediate.

About 1 ½ hours later, we had our first game. We were playing against Bailey Road. As we ran on to the field, we could hear our names being cheered for by the boys and our supporters. Even though I was so up for playing, I was also very nervous, but the cheers were very calming. We marched on to the field, ready and prepared. The ref blew his whistle and they kicked off to us.

We chased it. Tracey had the ball first, she did some pretty big hits but got tackled. Then I got the ball and had a pretty good run but also got tackled. In the ruck, Etta got the ball and she ran and fended and as she fended she ran ! She sprinted all the way to the try line and scored the first try of our 32-0 victory !

20 minutes isn’t a very long time, so our first 15’s aside rugby game was pretty quick. But, it didn’t matter, because we won it ! Still, we had one more game to go, so as we waited, we didn’t do much because we didn’t want to be tired, because playing against Tamaki Intermediate is a big job ! You need to be up and ready when you play against them.

Later on, we had our ‘Pt England vs Tamaki intermediate’ game. We ran on to the field and it was on. They kicked and we chased, we got the ball. Tamaki obviously wasn’t as easy to play as Bailey Road because Tamaki has some pretty big girls and it was quite hard to pass them. But we tried our hardest, and in the end we lost 5-7 !! We were so close.

I didn’t quite care that we lost, because on that day, we played very well and were able to win at least one game. Rugby is a very tough game...that’s why I enjoy playing it and am excited about our up-coming games !

The Japanese Vowels

2011-06-24T12:13:00.003+12:00

This term in Taoga time, we have been learning how to do mihi's in Maori. But as well as learning Maori, we are also learning Japanese ! So far, we have learnt how to greet each other, say good morning, good afternoon and good evening and count to 10. As part of our lessons, we had to create something to put on our blog that shows one thing we learnt. I chose to draw up the vowels ( A E I O U ) both in Japanese and English.

Soccer Tournament

2011-06-10T14:27:00.003+12:00

It was our first game out of three, Mr Harris said we were just here to have fun and learn on the way. But everyone was just SO nervous! It was our very first time playing soccer for the school...ever! The referee blew the whistle and the games had begun.

Pt England started up a girls and boys soccer team and on the 24th of May, the girls soccer team had their first tournament. It was down at Crossfield Park in Glendowie.

Ellerslie was the school we were playing against and to us, they seemed like professionals! Kicking the ball to each other and looking so co-ordinated, like little David Beckhams. There was this one girl in particular who was very good and kept on scoring their goals. On the other hand though, our team was kicking the ball anywhere and everywhere. Just trying to get the ball as far away from their goal as possible. But, in the end we lost to them. I’m not sure what the score was but we lost something nil.

Our game had finished and it was time for our 25 minute break. During our break, we observed the other schools play and as we were, Mr Harris was giving us a few tips. He told us not to bunch around each other like a group of bees, some people should be in the front and some in the back. Like in rugby, with the backs and forwards.

25 minutes had passed and now it was time for our next game ! Panmure District School was the next school we were playing. They were similar to us, weren't very co-ordinated and were kicking the ball anywhere. But we still lost to them, 1-0.

So we were on a losing streak. We had another 25 minute break and then it was time for our next game, this time against Church Hill Park School. We were about 15 minutes into the game and for the first time in the competition, we scored a goal ! We were all very overjoyed, jumping around, screaming with joy. But, the game wasn’t over yet. There were still about 10 more minutes left. We played hard until then and in the end, we won by 1 point !!

The day had ended and we came back to school with one victory. Still, it was better then nothing. Anyway, I think that we did pretty good seeing it was our first time playing soccer, I can’t wait until we have another game!

Immersion Rotation Week

2011-05-20T11:35:00.002+12:00

Imagination, Creativity, Discovery, Innovation and Practicality are 5 words our teachers thought they’d teach us more about since it was related to our topic. So we had an immersion rotation around our Team 5 classes (18, 19, 20, 21 & 22) and each teacher took a word and taught us more about what it meant.

Mrs Lagitupu took imagination. For imagination, she had us make a Zinger Pinger. A Zinger Pinger is an imaginary pet that requires lots of imagination. As well as a Zinger Pinger, we had to make an imaginary island and name it. Unfortunately, I am not the most imaginative person in our class so my Zinger Pinger looks like a human with horns and a tail. My island wasn’t any different either. From a birds eye view, it’s supposed to look like a happy face with houses, roads and buildings on it. I named it ‘De-Island.’

Creativity was taken by Ms Tito. We had to take our name and design/create it in a different way. There would be a competition for the person who had designed/created the best name. The prize would be a giant sling-shot. The plan is that the winner, will get to fire water balloons at their class and their teacher ! Many people made very creative designs like Raven and Moses.

Mrs Nua took us for discovery. She gave us a challenge that included these materials: An egg, some straws, popsicle sticks, rubber bands and tape. The objective of the challenge was to create a protective barrier around the egg so that when we drop it from a metre high above the ground, it won’t crack. My group and I weren’t really organised so when it was time to drop the eggs, we just started wrapping tape around it, sticking popsicle sticks in and tying rubber bands around it.

When it was time for us to drop our egg, we stood in front of Mrs Nua and held the egg a metre above the ground. “3” everybody started counting down “2, 1”, Helen dropped the egg. As it hit the ground Kezia, Helen & I waited for a few nerve-racking seconds and then...we saw the yolk slip out of the egg ! Our egg cracked ! We didn’t win the challenge, no one did except for Tanielu and Casey. But it didn’t matter because we had fun !

Mr Harris taught us more about innovation. I was there for a bit of the lesson but then I had to leave and do a job. But for the time I was there he did a little skit sort of thing to teach us about Innovation. He asked us a riddle, which, I think went a bit like this: How do you throw a ball without using a bat or anything and it will come right back to you? That’s not entirely right but the answer was you throw it up in the air and it comes back down to you.

Mr Barks was taking practicality. In his class he was showing us some scissors and hedge clippers and along with those items, was a story. His story was about his neighbour and how his neighbour would trim the weeds on the side of his footpath with scissors instead of using hedge slippers. Since he was teaching us about practicality, after his story he asked us whether his story was practical or impractical. After a few wrong answers, we finally got the answer right. It was impractical.

I had lots fun doing the immersion rotation so next term when we start learning about a new topic, I hope we do another immersion rotation !

My Zinger Pinger

2011-05-17T09:08:00.008+12:00

My Zinger Pinger is the best pet in the world because she’s very small and portable. When you go out, you can slip her into your pocket and go. Her name is Sheziah and her favourite things to do are running around like a crazy animal and kick around a rugby ball. She wears a normally black T-Shirt that changes colour depending on her mood. Her favourite colours are black, green and red.

‘De-Island’ is the name of the island she lives on. She lives in a haunted mansion filled with all kinds of creepy crawlies and ghosts ! But she doesn’t mind because she loves to be surprised by the bugs and ghosts in her house...and because she’s tough !

Honesty

2011-04-14T14:30:00.003+12:00

At Pt England School, we have 9 values. They are Service, Learning, Joy, Co-operation, respect, Honesty, Responsibilty, Hope and Caring. We had to pick one of the 9 values and make a short animation about it. The value that I chose was honesty. Hopefully you will enoy my movie!

My Friends

2011-04-08T10:55:00.003+12:00

Q:What do I like/dislike about my friends?

Helen, Kezia, Destiney and Paulitia are my closest friends, we have been best friends since we started school. What is cool about our friendship is that we’re all multi-cultured. Helen and Paulitia are both Samoan, Destiney’s Maori, Kezia’s a Cook Islander and I’m a Tongan.

I don’t think that there’s anything I dislike about my friends. But if there was one thing that I disliked about my friends, it would have to be the times when we all don’t get along with each other. But that hardly ever happens and if it does, it never lasts long. That’s what I like about my friends, if anything like this happens we can always get back along with each other just like that!

Sports and music are just some of the many things we all like. But even though we have many things in common, we all have our differences. Like the fact that, even thought we all like sports, we’re all into different kinds of sports. Tia and Helen like netball, Kezia and Destiney like touch and I like rugby! We’ve been friends for a really long time and unfortunately Destiney is going to Australia next week. We’ll all be very upset but she has confirmed that she’ll come back and visit us.
Once again, we have been friends for a long time and we’ll be friends for more years to come.

Welcome to PES

2011-03-25T12:32:00.004+13:00

The Pt England Way includes us Pt Englanders being courteous, being respectful, listening to the teacher, lining up, using our manners and, when we're outside, playing sensible games. This movie has little glimpses of Pt Englanders doing exactly that. The soundtrack is "Welcome to my World'' (by Elvis Presley) because we would like to welcome you to our awesome school! I hope you enjoy my movie!

Camp Take Charge

2011-03-23T09:52:00.003+13:00

Its been Camp Aratika and Camp Co-operation, but this time it was Camp Take Charge (or T.C for short). Our annual 3 day camp has just finished and it was just awesome seeing that it was the first ever Year 7 & 8 camp Pt England has ever had!

Before camp, we were split into 6 groups and each given two leaders. The groups were The Motivatorz, The Carerz, The Thinkerz, The Respectablez, The Responsiblez, and my group The Participatorz. My two leaders were Helen and Charm.

There were many fun activities we could do thanks to Rock Up. Rock Up is like a company/organisation that goes around Auckland with fun activities to do. Archery was one of the things they came with last year and it was pretty cool. But it couldn’t beat the The Dunker! The Dunker was, with out a doubt, everyones favourite. Everybody enjoyed it because the aim of the game was to throw a ball and hit the target. The target would then trigger the plank of wood that a person would be sitting on, to drop and they’d fall into the small pool of water. But this year there was a twist: the person who would be dunked had protectors to protect the dunkee against the dunkers. I guess my protectors were pretty good because it felt like a life time before I was dunked!

Mr Harris and Mr Barks held some cool games we could do. Mr Harris ran some games that the indigenous people of Australia would play. They had some unusual names like ‘Kai and Kaichee’ but they were still great fun! Mr Barks ran some games that required team work. Pouring water through a channel from a bucket to another bucket was just one them.

An item for the concert (on our last night) was something that our group had to put together. It had to be a total of 5 minutes long and had to include an MTV, our group item and a special item. Our group item was just a live performance in front of everybody. Our MTV was like our group item except it wasn’t live. Our special item was only a couple of people from the group performing something of their choice. Some people sang and some even danced!

The winners of camp were announced when camp finished and the winners of camp were The Thinkerz. The Participatorz (my group) came 4th. Although my group didn’t come first, I still had a great time at camp. Unfortunately I won’t be around for the next Year 7 & 8 camp because I’ll be off to college next year.

A Dark Day for Christchurch

2011-02-23T09:43:00.012+13:00

People trapped under crumbled buildings, dozens missing and dead bodies just littering the streets. These are just some of the major cases we’ve heard of since the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that hit Christchurch on Tuesday the 22nd at around about 12:51pm-most people were on their lunch break at the time.

This has been recorded as New Zealand’s worst natural disaster since 1931 when an earthquake measuring 7.8 hit the North Island city of Napier and destroyed most of it but also killed 256 people. The death toll for the 6.3 quake is 100+ and rising, its estimated to reach 200.

Many things were lost in this natural disaster including houses. It has been a massive struggle to collect water as their water system was dismantled and it has been a big challenge to find good accommodation and shelter. There has been a report that a lady has been very kind and had been able to give food to around 100 people.

Christchurch was home to many historic buildings, one of them being the famous Christchurch Cathedral. One of the Cathedrals towers were destroyed due to the devastating quake and about 22 people are believed to be trapped in that area of the Cathedral.

People from all around the world have sent their condolences even some very famous people like Barack Obama (the President of the United States) and the Queen of England. Some people have even come from places like Japan, Australia and America to help out.

My school has decided that they we will fundraise some money and then send some it down to Christchurch to help them buy some supplies and stuff that they desperately need. I pray that Christchurch will once again be able to move on from this, as they did in the 2010 earthquake and for the families that have lost their loved ones.

If you would like to see some shots of Christchurch before and after the earthquake, you can go to this website http://www.morefm.co.nz/Home/ChristchurchEarthquakeBeforeandAfterPhotos/tabid/2115/Default.aspx

Tech at Tamaki (2011)

2011-02-16T10:01:00.002+13:00

It wasn't going to be a new experience but it was going to be a better experience because this year when we were going down to Tamaki college for technology we going to be Year 8's!

Our first day of Tech at Tamaki was on Monday the 14th and our first activity was graphics with Miss Ferguson. Last year when we did graphics we found it was really fun even if your not an artist. Our project for graphics (this year) was to create a type of 'holder' or 'packaging' for a fast food i.e hot chips, a pizza slice, hot dogs or even a cup for a drink.

First we brainstormed a few fast food ideas and picked one of them. I picked a pizza slice. I fancy designing a triangular shaped box to put the slice in.

We also learnt about 'tone' but not the tone in music, the tone in art. To learn this we had to shade in some 3-D shapes, not just one shade but 3 different types of shading-Light, medium and hard. We drew a cube and the 3 faces of the cube that were showing were shaded in the 3 different shades.

Wood works, electronics, cooking and science are the other 4 activities in Tech. I've tried all of them except for science and electronics. We never had that last year so its new to both the Year 7's and Year 8's. There's a rotation and each group stays at an activity for about a couple of weeks, we then swap activities. But I think that because there's a bit more activities this year that we won't get a chance to try all of them.

Because there are a few more things to try out, I hope that I get a chance to do electronics and science. Like I said before, its not going to be a new experience but a way, way better experience!

My Holiday Highlight

2011-02-14T13:00:00.006+13:00

We usually make an effort to go every year and every year is better then the last. The main thing we do when we go is swimming. This trip I’m talking about is our annual visit to our relatives in Tonga.

I’m not a great fan of the holidays because there’s not much to do, but its the total opposite when I’m in Tonga! There’s always something to do like go swimming, cooking the umu, taking truck rides around town and even more swimming!

Since we were in Tonga and going to the beach was pretty much a habit, we had to take sunscreen to protect ourselves from the sun’s (harmful) blazing rays! Even though we did put on sunscreen, everyone still managed to get a tan. Even I did, but it doesn’t really show.

We went to a few beach/beach resorts but my favourites were called Keleti and Oholei. The sights of their beaches were just awesome! The white sand & the clear blue water, I loved running through the sand and diving into the nice cold sea!!Unfortunately our visit only lasted 3 weeks and then we had to come back to New Zealand.

I didn’t want to come back because if we did then there would have been nothing to do. That’s what the 1st week back was like until Mrs Burt rang up and asked me to come down to school and help with the netbooks. But that’s another story.I really enjoyed my holiday, (except for the part when we came back from Tonga and I had nothing to do) but I was very eager to come back to school and learn, be the first Year 8’s at Pt England School but the best of all: See all my friends!! (Thats my friends and I in the photo.)

Wishing You A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

2010-12-24T09:06:00.000+13:00

From Paulitia and Sela, we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year. We hope this year has been an awesome year for you and that 2011 will be better! We also hope that you have a safe holiday!

Market Day Reflection

2010-12-07T09:11:00.006+13:00

What did you enjoy most about Market Day?
We were sold out!
How well prepared was your group?
We weren’t that prepared because on the day of Market Day, we were still finishing posters and our stall.
How popular do you think your product was?
I think it was pretty popular because we were sold out.
What was your role in the group and how well did you fulfill your role?
My role was getting everything ready and I think I did well at getting everything ready because our stall was ready and our poster was finished in time for Market Day.
Under each of the following headings write anything that you would do differently or improvements you would make if you did it again.
If we did it again I would do the poster differently and manage the time more better because we had to come early in the morning to finish the poster and our stall off. (The poster was pretty plain.)
Your Product?
Fruity Caterpillars (-Fruit Kebabs)
Your Advertisement?
We filmed it but we didn’t edit it and put it on PENN. (Point England News Network)
Your stall set up?
Our stall was just a few desks, a board and some cloth. It looked alright.
Would you like to do this again, and why or why not?
I would like to do it again because from this first experience of a market day I got to see some of the different products and from this I can come up with more better products to use next time and I can work on getting our things ready in time.

Athletics Day

2010-11-25T12:08:00.008+13:00

Discus, Shotput and highjump were just a few of the sporting events held at our athletics day.

Held annually, our athletics day allows us to compete in our house colours against other house colours. The house colours are Takitimu-Yellow, Te Arawa-Red, Tainui-Blue and Matatua-Green.

On the day we got split up into our age groups and sent to a different event with a teacher. Since I’m 12 I obviously had to go with the 12 year old girls. Our first event was softball throwing. I’ve got some pretty strong arms that got me into 3rd place, but my arms aren’t as strong as my friend Helen! She got 1st place and got me knocked out (of 3rd place.)

Afterwards we moved on to shotput. (Someone who truly is an expert in the area of shotput is Valerie Adams, she’s won how many gold medals for New Zealand and I even got to meet her. But thats another story.) What you have to do in shotput is not to throw it or you could get disqualified. I had my turn and got 3rd place again but again I got knocked and this time it was by my cousin-Racheal!

Further on into the day we had our highjump and relays/races but the of one I had been waiting for was discus! Last year I made it into the Eastern Zone Athletics because of discus and I was hoping to make it into the Eastern Zone Athletics (again.) But again I came 3rd and again I got knocked out and again it was by Racheal!

Well, I was a bit bummed and sad but it didn’t matter because there’s always next year. What made this athletics special was that we had a new event-Javelin (which I wasn’t the best at) and it was my first athletics as a Year 7!

Metamorphosis Explanation

2010-11-22T12:02:00.006+13:00

Metamorphosis, a sort of life cycle certain animals and insects go through. This movie is about a caterpillar, one of the insects that go through these stages. This movie will show the main stages a caterpillar goes through as it goes through this process

Our First Net-Books Experience

2010-11-17T12:27:00.011+13:00

Lots of rich, flash schools like St Cuthberts or St Kentigens have their parents pay for net-books and get it as part of their stationary, but luckily for us (The Tamaki Cluster) we've had some very generous donors who have happily donated us some money...

We got them yesterday at 2:00pm and had a little trial with them, but today we have had a real experience with the net-books. As part of the experience we had to take a photo of ourselves, I'm not a really keen goer at having my photo taken but it was part of the procedure.

Fiafia Night

2010-10-29T09:44:00.007+13:00

We had practiced time and time again to get it nailed, now it had all lead up to the big night, our Fiafia night!! Like the Olympsifika (2008) we had cultural groups but this time there were a few more groups like the tech-tonic group, the hip hop group, a stomp group and even our own jump jam group.

I joined the Tongan group and we learnt the tau’olunga, a traditional Tongan dance. I had been taught a few years back how to do it, so I was pretty experienced.

On the night everybody was nervously waiting in their holding rooms. I was so nervous I couldn’t keep still, constantly thinking to myself, when are we going on? After a number of items past we finally were able to line up and we were off.

Walking through the crowded corridor was quite exciting but it also built up my nerves, it didn’t matter though because as soon as I got up on stage I was still nervous but I didn’t (really) show it. (It was cool because I got a few bucks but I gave it up to the school.)

The Fiafia night was a great way to express our cultural talent and see what talent the other cultures have, all in all it was an awesome experience!!

My Mum's Birthday

2010-09-16T12:06:00.007+12:00

There are a lot of special days during the year like anniversaries, weddings and of course Birthdays!! Thats exactly what my family are celebrating because today is my mum's birthday!!

My mum loves to watch crime/mystery DVD's so that’s exactly what my older brother bought her. My sister and I made her a home-made birthday card and we decorated it with pictures and colours and things.

On the 16th of September morning my siblings and I woke up to wish my mum (who had already woken up) a Happy Birthday. We got out of bed, got ready and then decided who was going to give what. I was going to give my mum her present (the DVD's), my sister was going to give her the card and my brothers were just going to give a kiss and a hug.

The smile on my mum’s face just said it all, how happy she was to receive her presents. I think that birthdays are really important because they celebrate the day of your birth, I just can’t wait now until my birthday!!

MI Test

2010-08-03T12:32:00.008+12:00

To see what were our strengths and what were our weaknesses we had to take an MI test. An MI test is when you have to answer some questions and at the end of the test a sort of pie graph will appear.

On this pie graph it will show 8 Smarts. Out of these 8 smarts it will show my strongest smarts which were- Intrapersonal (Myself Smart) Interpersonal (People Smart) and my weakest smarts which were- Visual/Spatial (Picture Smart) Linguistic (Word Smart).

From this I can now reflect on which of the smarts I need to improve on.

Graphics With Miss Ferguson

2010-07-29T10:33:00.015+12:00

Every Thursday we split up into 3 groups and then walk down to our local college-Tamaki College. The reason for this is beause we have Tech classes there. The 3 tech classes we have are cooking, hard materials and graphics. The class I'm in right now is graphics.

Right now we are focusing on volcanoes and so what we are having to do is make a little design to share some information with people who don't know anything about volcanoes. The pictures you see are just a few design ideas for what we can make. I just hope that the finished product comes out as good as I've planned it to be!!

Holiday Update

2010-07-13T11:30:00.004+12:00

On an average holiday basis I’d be lying in bed not doing anything because I would be too bored, but thanks to my cousins (who have come over from Tonga for a visit) I’m outside playing tag or playing hide and go seek with them at my grandma’s house.

During the holidays, my brother treated my sister, my cousin and I to a movie. We went and saw the last of the Shrek movies-Shrek Forever After. I would say that the movie was pretty good and funny!! My sister and cousin thought it was great but they still would have preferred the 3rd chapter of the Twilight series-Eclipse.

Despite all the playing and fun I’m having, I have to say that I kind of miss going to school 5 days a week and seeing my teacher and friends. I’m glad to say that next week school will be starting up in the third term of the year.

I’m quite excited about term 3 coming up because there are going to be a lot of exciting events happening-like the year 7 rugby girls team competing in their first Eastern Zone Tournament, we’re also putting together our first ever basketball team!! There’s also going to be a cultural festival event happening as well!! I’ve been given a hint that next term’s topic is going to be based on things from around the world (or something like that.)

I’ve got to say that these holiday’s have been quite alright and they weren’t the worst. But the holiday’s that I’m definitely looking forward to is the end of the year one, because then I might be going to Tonga!!

Thanks to http://art8amby.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/shrek-forever-after.jpg for the picture.

Volcano Animation

2010-06-30T09:56:00.003+12:00

This term we have been studying volcanoes. So to show what I have learnt about Mt Wellington I have created this animation to tell you some of the things I know.

Term 2's Ending

2010-06-28T21:11:00.002+12:00

Like stories, our school terms have endings and this term's ending is coming up in 2 days!!

This term our topic was on volcanoes and I have really enjoyed learning about how they are formed and how their eruptions occur. What I enjoyed the most about studying this topic was that we got to make our very own volcano!!

I'm kind of sad that the term is coming to its end and I won't be able to see my friends and my teacher everyday, but I'm also quite excited that the school holidays are coming up as well!!

But the good thing about the school holidays is that school will always start back up again in term 3!!

Disaster Day Preparation

2010-06-28T21:10:00.002+12:00

Our active earth is full of natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. Most of us don't know what to do when one of these disasters happen, so what our school has created is "Disaster Day".

On this day, there will be a pretend tsunami and we will be acting out what to do when a tsunami comes and we're at school. What we'll do is walk up to our neighbouring school-Ruapotaka because they're up on higher ground then we are. This day will be taking place tomorrow on the 24th of June and I hope a real tsunami doesn't happen!!

Acrostic Poem

2010-06-11T12:27:00.005+12:00

Sport not really my thing, but competitive I can be.

Endless talker, a motor mouth is me.

Like the weather, my mood can change.

Active and inquiring mind.

Pink is not my colour

Age appropriate for intermediate

Understanding friends problems I can do

Love to munch on chocolate

Iguanas and other animals I like

Nosy is sometimes me

Encouraging friends when support is needed.

Personal Shield Reflection

2010-06-11T11:50:00.003+12:00

Last term we had to create something that told everyone a little about ourselves, so we created personal shields. In these shields we had to include something about our culture, future, our hobbies and we also had to draw in our name.

We started off with picking our favourite shape, mine was a diamond. We then had to draw a draft for the real thing, then came the fun bit...making the actual shield!! In the shield we drew in 4 spaces that we were going to use for our drawings/symbols.

The Tongan flag represented my culture as I am Tongan. For my name I just drew it really big and coloured it in my 2 favourite colours-green and black.

For my future I drew a chef's hat and an apron because in the future I would like to become a chef but I also drew some musical instruments because I also want to be a musician or I could even become both.

In the space for my hobbies I drew some Rasta coloured (red, yellow and green) music notes, they represented that I like to listen to Jamaican music. I drew a few cooking utensils because I like to cook in my spare time, there were also a few shoes in the picture as well because sometimes shoe shopping is what I like to do.
Last of all I drew a big 'Z' right down the middle of my space as it represented that I like to sleep...a lot!!

Volcanic Facts

2010-05-21T14:35:00.006+12:00

The largest most active volcano in the world is Mauna Loa-it is located in Hawaii.
A fissure is the crack in the earths surface through which magma leaks through and starts a volcano. Molten rock is a liquid that when is erupted from a volcano turns into a solid.
The Ring of Fire is made up of volcanoes in the South Pacific.
These are just a few facts about volcanoes this movie will tell you a couple of more facts about volcanoes, hope you enjoy!!

Back to School

2010-04-16T23:29:00.009+12:00

In a couple of days school will be starting up again and again there will be early nights!!

My holidays haven't been the best, they've pretty much just included sleeping, playing games, and cleaning up. I think that the most exciting part of my holidays was going to the airport to pick up my auntie and uncle!! Normally that would be pretty boring for me because I get carsick.

So due to my holidays I have been looking forward to school since the third day of our break. But what I'm looking forward to the most is meeting up with my friends, teacher and getting to know and learn about our new topic.

Even though these holidays were boring it doesn't mean all the up coming holidays will be the same. After all I'm going to Tonga in the December holidays and my holidays there have always been a blast!!

The Dunker!!

2010-03-24T14:16:00.004+13:00

The teachers lead us down to the bottom field, us (the Year Seven's) not knowing what we were doing. This was supposed to be a surprise, and it was!! ROCK UP a group of people provided us with some interesting and awesome activities which included a log joust,an archery set and the best of all - a dunking tank!!

I was quietly trying to hide but unfortunately I got caught. As I was perched upon the wooden plank my hands began to sweat a little. My stomach was full of butterflies and as Ms Tito filmed me it made my butterflies worse!! "Ready, aim and fire" Geoff would yell out, as soon as he would say that little yellow balls would be aimed and then thrown at the black targets. Please someone just get me out already, I was saying to myself. Soon enough someone did, and it was kind of funny because the person who I had dunked got me dunked. It was an awesome experience and if they come back next year I'm certainly going to be first in line to be dunked!!!!

My Pt England Acrostic Poem

2010-03-10T10:42:00.006+13:00

Protection is guaranteed

There are friendly people here indeed

Encourage each other to do their best

No-one tries to fail a test

Growing minds is what we have here

Loosing against other schools is our fear

And here we strive to succeed

Not even one of us don't know how to read

Do as the teacher says so we won't be dead!!

This acrostic poem is just a little something to describe our school, but one of the sentences aren't true. I'm sure you can see which one of them are fake!! As you can also see all the end words had to rhyme, it was kind of hard trying to think of rhyming words but in the end it all seemed to work out. I would like to thank my group for helping me with this poem.

Tech At Tamaki College

2010-02-23T12:08:00.010+13:00

I was filled to the top of my head with excitement because today was the day of our very first time experiencing "Tech at Tamaki College"!!

We all gathered up in the courtyard and before we left Mrs Nua explained a few rules and we were off. We had finally arrived, had a little talk and we went our separate ways, prior to that moment we were parted into 3 groups, I was in group 2. My group was sent off to the hard materials department with Mr Grundy (-sir.)

There were 2 other activities which were cooking and graphics. I think that most people would've liked to be in the cooking department!! But in hard materials we weren't so lucky because we didn't do anything exciting, we just pretty much did nothing but listen to Sir talk about safety. Of course this was all for a good cause, because if he did all the talking today then there was no need for him to talk next week.

So all in all I think I had a pretty good first time experiencing what it was like to be a year seven doing tech!!!!

Back to school in the new year of 2010

2010-02-10T10:30:00.014+13:00

Pt England school hasn't changed except for the fact that it now has an intermediate!!!! What is so great about Pt England having an intermediate is that I am amongst the very first students of Pt England Intermediate and I don't have to go to another school.

We've got some new uniforms and even some new desks. The only thing that's missing is our classes, we're just in the rooms of 5 and 4 for now until our new classes are built.

I'm glad that we're back at school because now I can play with all of my friends. Its Like a whole new start because I've got a new teacher (Not really, I've had her before) who's name is Mrs Nua, and I'm in a new classroom (again, not really).

I look forward to the different kinds of activities we will get to do now that we're Year 7's. For example we will get to do Tech at Tamaki College and we will get to have better camps.

I can't wait until all that stuff happens!!!!

Students teaching Adults

2009-12-14T11:59:00.006+13:00

During 2009 I was a presenter to 100s of adults who came and visited our school.

But I didn't only present to visitors; I also presented to the T.V. programme "Close Up", a famous magazine (Idealogue) and even the prime minister!!!
There were 6 of us in our presenting group and we all had different subjects to talk about.
I talked about podcasting and this is what this movie will tell and show you about...

Camp Bentzon 2009 Rocked!!!

2009-11-23T14:19:00.006+13:00

One of my favourite things to do is go camping. That was what the year 6 students did.

For the last (about) 6 years Pt England has been sending their year 6 students of to Kawau Island. Its filled with tall spiky trees, wekas and even wallabies. There were even some very steep hills that we had to run on every morning. It was exhausting for everyone, but ever since Mr Jacobsen has been going nobody has ever beaten him on the run until now. He announced at breakfast that Jacob beat him every time we ran. That was quite amazing really that a student beat a teacher!!
Anyway the best thing I liked at camp (besides the activities) was the food. We had our own chef/cook, his name was Mr Coop and his son Steve helped him. I thought that he made the best dishes I'd ever tasted, I especially liked his bread that he made every morning at 4:00. DELICIOUS!!!

There were some awesome activities there like kayaking, ab-sailing, raft building, sailing, orienteering, confidence course-(con course) and I don't think this was an activity, but we got to bomb off the wharf. Well I didn't but my friends did, they said it was awesome!!

One of my favourite activities at camp was going on Mr Malloy's yacht. It was an awesome experience to be on a 40ft yacht. But the thing that made the ride fun and a bit dangerous was Nathaniel steering the boat. He made the yacht (nearly) tip over so much that every time that yacht hit something we could feel the water splash onto us. But I liked it anyway because I like to get wet.

Camp Bentzon (I think) has got to be one of the best camps I have ever been to!!!!

The Toy shop on Zip Zap Avenue!!!

2009-10-22T18:48:00.008+13:00

Pt England's time to shine is coming up soon. Their going to be performing "The Toy Shop on Zip Zap Avenue", our own school production.

There are a lot of rolls so that means a lot of practice is involved. I'm certain that everybody who's in the production can't wait until the 3 big nights. So I guess that's talking about me because I'm in the production.

So during this week the cast and crew have been pulled out of class now and then to have a blocking practice which is like the real thing but without the costumes, make-up and music. Tomorrow on Friday we're having another blocking practice but this time we're having it with the music. Its close to the real thing but then again there's no costumes or make-up.

I've been in 2 previous productions each with a different name and subject or topic. So I have a taste of what performing feels like. Sometimes I'm a confident person and sometimes I'm a nervous person. But I definitely know that I won't be nervous because I don't have any lead parts!!

With a bit more practice I know that The Toy Shop on Zip Zap Avenue is going to be a great hit at our school!!

Thanks to:http://actioncollector.com/images/UltimateSoldierSamples.jpg and http://www.teddybearexpert.com/images/teddy-bears.jpg for the photos

The Kerikeri Wordle

2009-09-16T14:22:00.008+12:00

This is another Wordle and this time its about my trip up North to Kerikeri. Again it shows the words I've used the least and the most and this time one of my biggest words is "got" which is quite embarrassing really because I should be using words like "brought or received" instead of "got"!! Also if you haven't noticed one of my least used words is "amazed". That's a shame because "amazing" is an interesting word. But hey you can always learn from your mistakes!!

My Trip to KeriKeri

2009-09-07T14:23:00.020+12:00

My mum is in the ASB Community Trust and they always have meetings. But what I dislike about going to these meetings is that sometimes the meetings are always a long way away.

I don't like long distant travel because I get car-sick and I feel really woozy and I just don't really like the feeling. Anyway besides the car-sick I really enjoyed the trip there and back. I saw lots of grass, cows, goats, a cute pony, trees, roads, cars and forests. I also saw some dead possums which was quite gross!

We stopped for an ice cream at Kawakawa and after about 4 hours we finally arrived. To be honest KeriKeri kind of reminded me of Otahuhu because there was lots of shops and they were on the sides of the road. There were shops that I'd never seen before like this shop called ''Shoe Style", and by the name of the shop I can easily tell that the shop sells shoes.

We stayed in a Motel called KeriKeri Court Motel. As soon as I got in I went straight to the fridge because I wanted to see if they had these little containers of milk that I like so much. Luckily for me they did. I drank nearly half of the supply that they had in the fridge , that's how much I like it!! My mum had run over to the receptionist to ask for a DVD player because my sister had brought along a few DVDs to watch. That was smart of her, it was smart of her because she knows that Motels and Hotels don't have Sky and so we watched some of her DVDs.

For dinner we had a barbecue and the grill for the meat was next to a pool so my sister and I were very keen to go for a swim. My parents weren't quite sure about it though because the weather was absolutely freezing. Well actually it was absolutely freezing to them. But finally I convinced them to let us go for a swim.

We got into the pool and boy did we judge it!! I was so cold I completely froze as if I was about to be pounced on by a hungry tiger or lion!! I soon started to move around and started to unfreeze. It didn't really feel so cold anymore. It got late so out we got from the pool and guess what...it was even colder when we stepped out of the pool. We soon got used to it and went in to eat our food with some other ASB Community Trust members.

The next day it so happened that we were in KeriKeri for Fathers Day so my dad decided he wanted to go and visit a store called the "Stone Store". This was a fascinating place it was also a very historic place full of many historic objects. I was so amazed to be looking at old fashioned clothing,some pipes and even old padlocks that still worked. One of the ladies escorted us into the gift shop where on these shelves were some old packaging for New Zealand products like Weet Bix, Chelsea's Sugar, Edmonds Custard. I also saw an old shopping bag for the "4 Square" shop. We had left the Stone Store with a bar of chocolate, a post card, a bowl and my dad bought himself some Kerikeri organic tea(manuka mint) which he is yet to taste.

And to pass the time we went to the farmers market where my dad also bought himself about 10
bags of KeriKeri natural oranges. I didn't want to buy anything because I was so tired and I just wanted to go to the car and have a nap.

When we left we had to go and pick my mum up from her meeting. After that I was so happy we were going home because I was feeling a bit home-sick. But there was 1 more place that my dad wanted to go to. It was Waitangi!! We didn't go to the exact spot where the ''Treaty of Waitangi'' or in Maori Te ''Tiriti o Waitangi" was signed. There was a lovely view though. I really enjoyed it!!

We then left and off we were for the long way home to Auckland all so tired and exhausted. I got car-sick on the way so I tried to get some sleep. When I woke up I found that we were in a Humongous-Ly long queue . It was like an enormous centipede. You couldn't even see the head. We then got to see why there was such a long queue, it turned out to be the traffic lights. They weren't working properly.

I was so bored that I again went to sleep. And this time when I woke up we were already on the drive way to our home sweet home!!! I was so very happy!!!

My Blog Wordle

2009-09-02T14:31:00.005+12:00

In extension Mrs. Burt showed us a website called Wordle. Wordle is a website that can show you a bunch of words and text that you have typed up and give you an idea of what visitors see when they visit your blog. Wordle also shows you what type of words you use the most and words that you use the least of. As you can see one of the words I've used the most is "New Zealand", and one of the words I've used the least is "built".

Yes Over and Done With!!!

2009-08-24T09:30:00.005+12:00

I was just so nervous when Mr. Burt was about to smack the starter blocks together and when he did, that was the signal for us to start. "Okay, ready, set" and as Mr. Burt was about to yell out go he smacked the starter blocks together and off the lot of us raced, like a flock of birds shooting off to a place with a warmer climate. Oh and because we were running out of time the 11 year old girls had to run with the 11 year old boys.

But luckily we weren't racing against each other. It'll just be the normal race but we'd be running with the boys.

But back to the race. My feet were as wobbly as jelly and my feet were always like this when I was nervous. SMACK went Mr Burt with the race starters (which were two blocks of wood that you smack together.) Like I said before we were like a flock of birds shooting off to a place with a warmer climate. We were told by the teachers to jog before we sprint so that we have more energy to sprint to the finish line. Not many of us did this because some of us were eager to win.

I was coming forth but unfortunately I stopped and Vaha and somebody else ran ahead of me. I wasn't really worried because if I didn't come first I didn't actually really mind. I didn't really mind because even though I didn't come first I still ran the whole race (with a few stops.)

So as I was still running and coming seventh place Destiney was coming first which wasn't quite of a surprise because she's someone who always comes first. But I was proud for her because she's my friend. She and a bunch of other people who came a place in the race are going into the inter-zones which I think is at Glenn Brae Primary.

Anyway I was near the finish when I stopped to wait for my friends so we could run with each other. So we did and we all run to the finish line. That was when I was really happy because even though I came eighth place I was so happy because I had gotten it over and done with!!!!

Even though Cross Country is over we've still got Athletics to go which I would love to do!!!!!!!

Hamish Campbell a Very Clever Person

2009-08-05T10:12:00.012+12:00

It was on the morning of the 5th of August that we had another one of those special video conferences. This time our special video conference was with a famous paleontologist and Geologist who's name was Hamish Campbell.

We have had a video conference with him before but that conference was based on chatting about our topic from last term which was about dinosaurs. This time our chat was about the Fiordland earthquake. Hamish explained to us a few interesting facts about earthquakes and about the earthquake that happened in Fiordland. Some of the facts that he shared with us were very hard to understand because we aren't experts on earthquakes (like Hamish), but luckily Hamish is a talented person who can take difficult words and make them sound easier to understand for children like us.

Anyway back to the facts. He told us that there are 2 different plates covering New Zealand called "the Australian plates" (which is on the left side of the New Zealand) and the other set of plates called "the Pacific plates" (which is obviously on the right side of new Zealand.) Another fact was that the Fiordland earthquake was named Dusky Sound and it measured up 7.6m on the Richter scale, it is said to be the largest earthquake in the world since the 2nd largest one 80 years ago. He also said that there was once an earthquake that hit a village in China called Tangshan and lasted for 15 seconds, unfortunately it only lasted a vast amount of seconds but killed over 200,000 people. It was a very sad tragedy.

What is also very sad is that Hamish told us that Joan Wiffen died. If you don't know who Joan Wiffien is well, she was the first person in New Zealand to find a fossilized part of a dinosaur. She is famous to the extension group because we did research on her when we were learning about dinosaurs. She is also well known to the rest of New Zealand because before she found the fossilized part of the dinosaur, it was thought that no species of the dinosaur had ever stomped around on the land we now know as Aotearoa-New Zealand. Thanks to her we now know that dinosaurs stomped around in our part of the land.

And thanks to Hamish Campbell, Diana-Grace and Te Papa museum for setting up another awesome video conference. Not most kids get to talk to a famous Geologist and paleontologist!!

I'm not bragging just saying that I met the Prime Minister

2009-07-20T14:05:00.015+12:00

My stomach was filled up to the top with butterflies as I was about to speak to the prime minister of New Zealand. It was on the last week of school before the school holidays and Mrs Tele'a, Mr Burt, Cruz, Tanielu, Leoden and I were at the Ruapotaka Marae. Nothing serious going on until I heard the sound of Kapa Haka students chanting and singing, (of course in Maori, it wouldn't be Powhiri without the chanting and singing-in Maori) at that moment I knew that something was happening. Then everybody stood up, so I stood up and I was trying to see what was happening. I then realised that it was the prime minister entering into the Marae.

Of course the prime minister came but he didn't come alone. He came with some members of the Maori party, the press(-the news), some members of the Ministry of Education-MOE and no famous person is complete without his security guards.

The reason for his coming was that he was coming to launch the Tamaki Transformation Project. The idea of this project was that the government is going to demolish our houses but rebuild after the demolish. What is going to happen is that the houses are going to be built but are going to be built closer together and this is called intensification. This means that the houses are going to be closer but it also means that there is going to be a big increase in the population of our community.

Anyway, as the powhiri was going on there were a couple of people that stood up and said a little speech and most of them were in Maori. After some people had said their speeches the prime minister even had a little speech to say and he even said it in Maori which was quite amazing really. What was quite amazing about this was that I didn't know that he could speak in Maori. His speech was actually quite funny as well because at the end of it he told everybody that he was still learning more from his tutor who was part of the Maori party.

As the powhiri was ending everybody was stepping out and into the dining room to have a little nibble. We saw the prime minister and introduced ourselves to him, he is very nice because he invited us to also have a little nibble. We had a little something to eat and then we sprang into action, Cruz set up the camera and Leoden helping him, Tanielu and I were getting ready to interview the prime minister. "OK ready standing by, rolling action" said Cruz. Off I started, "Hi there prime minister, we are very excited about the idea of transforming our community, thank you very much for supporting this idea. We have prepared a couple of questions to ask you about this." Question 1: "Did you know that it costs $5.20 per adult and $2.50 per child to get into our local pool? Well what can you do to make sure that the local people can afford the local facilities?" He gave me a very interesting reply and as he was replying I was focusing on keeping eye contact with him.

When he finished I replied back to him "interesting" and as I gave the microphone to Tanielu I had a look on my face which said "I think that came out wrong" and "was I meant to say that?" But I was just relieved to have my turn over and done with. In my hand I had an invitation to give the prime minister which invited him to our school. He looked at it and then said "Oh yes I'll definitely come, a promise is a promise". We then thanked him and then he walked off and we ran to Mrs Tele'a with faces that said "Yeah, he's coming".

I've got to say this is one of the best things that I've done in my life so far and what's even more better is that I am only 11yrs old!!

Dinosaur Exhibition

2009-06-26T12:07:00.005+12:00

24th of June. Every term our school has a topic about something. At Pt England every time we have a new topic we go on a special trip. This term our new topic was about dinosaurs.

Our special trip was to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. We went to the museum in a bus. As usual the children were all crowded on the bus chit chatting, playing a game called "that's mine". I nearly fell asleep but luckily I had my friends to keep me awake!

Finally we arrived at our destination (-museum), it was pretty stuffy in the bus but as soon as I got out of the bus there was a nice breeze that cooled me off. Then we all got separated into our groups. My sister, a couple of other people and I were all in my big brother Havea's group. It was a while before we went in because we were not the only school.

I hadn't been in the museum in a while but when I walked in I suddenly remembered what it all looked like and it was pretty amusing! It was then time for us to split up and go on to the different sections of the museum that were about the age of the dinosaurs. Our first activity was searching for different types of animal species such as the penguins, underwater creatures , birds and even some native New Zealand species like the kiwi or the tuatara.

The activity took about 1/2 an hour and when it finished we could go out and have our morning tea. It was a funny thing though, as we walked out of our part of the museum there was a red carpet. My friends and I were pretending that we were celebrities in Hollywood strutting down the red carpet.

After our morning tea we went to our second activity which was with a man called Paul in a lab. In this lab we looked at a real live bone of a now extinct bird called the "Moa". Paul explained a lot of interesting theories and facts about now extinct animals-dinosaurs and Moas. He then gave us a lecture about extinction and how long the dinosaurs roamed the earth. We then got to have some fun (as if the whole trip wasn't fun.) The fun was searching through sand and excavating fossils out of stones.

We then had our final activity which was looking at dinosaurs and answering questions from the board where the facts and information were. It got really hot and stuffy again so I took my jumper off and it made no difference. But apart from that it was a great experience to be in the midst of the museum again. It was then time to go back to school.

I can't wait until term 3 brings a new topic!!

Queens Birthday

2009-06-01T12:44:00.006+12:00

It is Monday the 1st of June and today is the Queen of England's birthday!!

On this special day all the schools in New Zealand have a day off school. I'm not really doing anything at home but typing this blog post up is keeping me busy by making my mind work just like it works at school.

An interesting little fact that I heard was that the Queen's birthday isn't actually her birthday, it's her dads! I'm not sure if this is true but if it is it's good to see that she is still remembering her dad and his birthday.

The Queen of England isn't only the Queen of England, she's also the Queen of New Zealand as well. I think that's partly the reason why we celebrate the birthday. I'm not sure of all the other countries that she's Queen of but I know that she is queen of a lot of places, (including us.)

I'd like to say to the Queen: "Happy Birthday!!" Even if isn't her birthday.

Movie Making

2009-05-14T10:11:00.005+12:00

Mrs Lagitupu arranged us into different groups.

She then gave us different subjects to film a movie on. I was in a group where we have to film CRE which stands for Christian Religious Education. We have to wait a while until my group can film because CRE is normally on a Friday so its tomorrow.

Before we start filming we have to do our planning which includes making a storyboard, making a script and having practises. It doesn't take a very long time to plan unless your making a very long movie. I've already started and finished making the storyboard now all I have to do is make the script and discuss which parts go to who.

I'm also part of a crew which helps all the groups who need it. In the crew I'm the person who checks the sound to see if its alright. I really am going to enjoy making movies but what I'm looking forward tomostly is watching the finished product!!

Mothers Day

2009-05-12T09:16:00.004+12:00

On Sunday the 10th of May we had a very special day for mothers.... It was Mothers day.

My sister, cousin and I all made our own Mothers day cards at school and at home. We also went to Pakuranga and bought some extras like chocolates for the cards. I tried to hide the gifts from my mum but she was suspicious.

When the special day came my sister and I woke up early and found out that mum was already awake. We then had a little discussion about who was going to give which gifts. Then we decided and finally gave the gifts. My mum was really surprised at what she got.

My mum was really happy, the last gift we gave our mum was a hug I'm sure she loved that. So now that Mothers day has gone past we've still got Fathers day to go!

Whats your Favourite Dinosaur ?

2009-05-05T10:13:00.006+12:00

My favourite dinosaur is the anklysaurus.

I like this dinosaur because of the armour its back.

I think that the anklysaurus is related to the triceratops because they're both, herbivores, big and they're both clever.

I read something that said that it was said that the ankysaurus had armour on its back, and also had a clubbed tail. This would have been good for hitting and protecting itself from big or small carnivores like Tyrannosaurs and the velociraptor.

I've never seen a real skeleton of any dinosaur before so I'd love to go to the museum and find one, But I'm not really familiar with the place.

Here's a question for you: what's your favourite dinosaur?

Dino Assembly

2009-04-28T09:19:00.005+12:00

Dinosaurs are really big lizard like animals that are now extinct.

On the first day of term 2, we had an amazing immersion assembly and learnt about our new topic which is 'Dino-Might'. (It's about dinosaurs)

Mr Burt and the teachers all dressed up in costumes and did little items about our topic. Team One had a really cool one about how dinosaurs are extinct but teacher's are'nt. Team Two did a cool rap and dance about dinosaurs. Team Three were dressed like scientists and pretended to search for dinosaur bones.

Mrs Nua from Team Four, talked about the section in the library where we could find books about dinosaurs. The number was 560. Then we watched a video clip of Team Four.

Some dinosaurs are herbivores (eat plants) and some are carnivores (meat eaters). They were all different shapes and sizes and now they are extinct. I'm really excited that we are going to be studying about dinosaurs and learning more about them.

Easter and the Easter Show

2009-04-14T18:04:00.003+12:00

Easter is very special and cool. Its special because that was the day that Jesus rose from the grave, and it's cool because we have so many lucky things to do and get.

There's the Royal Easter Show where there are some activities, great games and some cool competitions. If you won at any of these things you would win some awesome prizes!! I didn't go to the Easter show but I'm sure there was a ton or more than a ton of people that went to the show.

If you're a chocoholic then Easter would be your thing. We had a terrific day on Saturday. My aunty put out 3 Easter eggs for me, my sister and my cousin. She hid them and we had our own Easter egg hunt. I always found the first 2 and my sister found the last one. The best part was eating it.

Easter is full of love and chocolate!! I can't wait until the next Easter, next year in 2010.

Hong Kong Video Conference

2009-04-02T14:08:00.008+13:00

It was very awesome having another conference to do, especially the conference is from the other side of the world.

The extension group was lucky enough to have a conference with some people of Hong Kong!! We were discussing stuff about what they (Hong Kong) usually eat or what their favourite foods were. We were discussing this because it was part of the ROW (Rock Our World) topic project that we're doing. But we were also just doing this to just find more about their country.

Mrs Tele'a was setting everything up waiting for the other side to send an invite so we could get on with the conference. A few minutes later we received the invite and the show was on the road. There was a problem though, we could see them but they couldn't see us we could only hear them. So then we just decided to go on without them being able to see us.

It was very funny because while we were waiting for the invite , they were taking so long because they had been in their school assembly!! We found it hilarious.

Anyway it turned out that the conference taken a whole hour. But I actually really enjoyed it.

The Actual Race

2009-03-25T10:12:00.009+13:00

"It was the best thing I've done in my life" said Tanielu, "I know" replied Destiney.

About eleven lucky students from Pt England were at Stonefield because there was an AMAZING event happening and we were all included. The big event was the "ALL AMERICAN SOAP BOX DERBY RACE"

I was very lucky to be in the group of eleven people. In those eleven people were five drivers:Cruz , Shontal , Jacob , Tevita and Nathanial . Five pit crew members:Charm , Tanielu , Raven , Destiney and me Sela. Also one cheerleader: Mauina. We all signed up to be part of the team.

There were a lot of schools like Bailey Road, Sacred Heart, Churchill Park, Sommerville, Parnell, Kings, St Kentigens and us Pt England. All these schools did very well!!

Being in the pit crew was REALLY hard work, like I said before we had to change the weights, wipe the kart down and nearly break our backs trying to lift it on to the weighing machine.

We had about 14 or 16 races and we won them all. But finally it came down to the last race everybody talking and thinking about which team they wanted to win. Then they started, we were versing Sacred Heart. I couldn't hear anything but people cheering then came the final moment, which way was the flag going to point?

It was then said that we (Pt England) had lost. We were gutted for a moment but at least we had made it in to the nationals!! That was some very good news. Now we wait for an even bigger day to come.

Yr5 & Yr6 Camp Aratika

2009-03-23T09:14:00.005+13:00

On Wednesday the first day of camp for 2009 started. We all got separated into our separate groups and set off for our activities.

The different names of the groups were the Participators, True crew, Care crew, Responsibles, Thinkers and the Honest crew. I was in the Participators.

We did a lot of FUN activities, from orienteering to kayaking. My favourite activity was rock climbing because it really challenges you to get to the top and because I'm not really scared of heights. My other favourite activity was something I know I'm good at. This activity was kayaking. I like it also because its just something I enjoy doing.

The camp food was delicious, from baked beans on toast, to mince, vegetables and bread. Those cooks really know how to cook.

On the last day of our camp Aratika we all set of to Swim-a-Rama (in Panmure) so we could end our camp with a big SPLASH!!!

Thanks a lot to all the teachers and supporters because without them camp would have never happened!!

Soap Box Derby Experience

2009-03-17T10:27:00.003+13:00

I would consider myself lucky to be in the "Soap Box Derby".

I signed up to be part of the pit crew, I thought it would just be wiping down the kart but instead its wiping the kart down, having to pull the kart up the long steep hill, making sure that its properly balanced by changing the weights and a lot of other stuff.

This event is happening on Sunday the 22nd of March. We've already had our practice session last week on Wednesday and we've also had a session early in the morning because we were going to be on the early morning news programme Sunrise. It was a very COOL experience!!

There are a lot of members to be part of the PES Racing crew like drivers, constructors, pit crew and cheerleaders. If the drivers win the big race then they get to go to these other big races and the final race is in the USA (United States of America).

Its a really big prize so fingers crossed and hope we win!!

Music and Beats

2009-03-10T14:09:00.003+13:00

We had a music session yesterday and it was awesome!

We all had to go on the computer and open up gargeband and record a beat with the drumkit. Everybody was concentrating on making the right beat. I could hear beats going boom de boom de boom and da de da de da boom.

In gargeband we had to do 4 beats and make sure that it sounded correct and not all over the place. After doing that we had to duplicate the track until it reached 3 minutes and then listen to it.

I think doing this type of work is good to learn if your learning about music.

To me I think my track was OK but I think I could try harder!

Extension Learning

2009-03-04T14:09:00.009+13:00

Yesterday on Tuesday we all got big pieces of paper and we recorded on it a tally chart of peoples favourite foods. We divided our tally into 2 parts: favourite meals and favourite dessert. We went around questioning people.

We then tallied the answers all up and it seemed that the most popular choice was Burger King and ice cream. Mrs Tele'a gave us a copy each of the food pyramid and we had to do another tally chart.

But this one was to tally up the un/healthy food in both the meals and desserts, and it showed again that the food we like to eat are mostly fatty.

It was very interesting!!

Thanks to the Harold Website for this photo

Pt England Picnic

2009-03-03T09:52:00.005+13:00

Yea our school went on a FUN picnic at our local beach.

There we had lots of activities like singing, dancing and sports like kilikiti (a Samoan cricket game) normal cricket and lots of other fun activities. I loved playing kilikiti with my friends.

While I was playing I suddenly heard a blast of music and people dancing and singing every where. Some people are really good at dancing and singing.

Some people were also swimming. First the seniors went swimming (because the tide was in) then the middle school and the last group were the juniors. I'm sure they all had some fun!

I was really enjoying myself just sitting and talking to my friends after a game of kilikiti. I can't wait for the next picnic!

A "KIWI" VISIT

2009-02-23T14:18:00.001+13:00

It was a Friday and as normal we had assembly. But at this assembly we had a special visitor coming.

The visitors name was Keith and he worked for the rugby league team the Kiwis. His part for the team is like the media but the proper name is public relation (PR).

Oh he came to show us the ''Rugby League World Cup'' that the Kiwis won last year. The cup was as big as a classroom chair. But it wasn't really shiny, I guess it would be like that because it is quite old.

After assembly some of us got to stay behind and take photos of the cup. I was even lucky enough to get to take a photo with the cup. A lot of teachers especially Ms.Vaafusuaga
were eager to take photos.

It was an exciting assembly.

My Holidays (Last Year)

2009-02-13T14:12:00.002+13:00

This is my very first story that I've written in 2009 but the story is about my holiday that I went on last year.

In the holidays my whole family went to Tonga. It was AMAZING.
During our visit we went to a beautiful beach called "Keleti". There were some huge waves and the water was so clear that I could see the bottom. In the water were little fish that would bite you if went to close too their territory. Luckily I didn't get bitten.

Another thing was that my bigger cousin and brother lifted me up on their arms and SPLASH I went when I jumped off into the water.

While we were doing that my grandma and the adults were sitting on the sand having a picnic. They were watching us doing bombs. I bet they thought we were crazy.
Keleti has got to be the best beach I've been to in a long time!! Hope I go back next year (actually this year 2009).

Getting Ready

2008-11-10T14:17:00.000+13:00

The extension group of Pt England school was getting ready for a video conference with a man called Joshua Klein. He is a very FAMOUS man who trains crows to do very great stuff, But some of the things the crows do the research crew didn't teach the crows how to do it.
Joshua Klein is trying to tell the people that crows are very useful and intelligent. We got to know all this useful stuff by watching a talk show call "Ted Talks", it is for people who have been clever enough to research and observe living things (or not living things.)
Joshua has proved that crows are intelligent by building vending machines, putting it out where there are lots of crows. There are 4 stages of getting food, 1:There are peanuts and coins all scattered around the vending machine, 2:There are peanuts on the feeding tray then the crows just help themselves, 3:Then there are coins in the coin slot and the crows push the coin in with their beak then the final stage is where the crows just have to collect a coin then out in into the coin slot then a peanut comes out.
We have learnt this amazing information because we are going to have a video conference with him later on. I can't wait!!

Sports Rotation

2008-11-04T09:38:00.000+13:00

"OH MAN" Rm 15 said when we just lost our first game. We competed against Rm 18 at King Dodge. The senior school (team 4) were having a sports rotation of games.
They were yelling and shouting at us but we didn't really mind. Even though we lost, we still had some fun! Next we had to go into the hall and do some "Jump-a-riffic" jumping on the trampoline. Mrs Nua was in charge, In the hall we had to jump onto the tramp and flip onto the crash-mat , I was nervously waiting in line, I wanted to go and just sit down but Mrs Nua already called my name to go and jump. I just felt like my legs were stuck to the ground like wet cement, but when I started to run my legs loosened and started to feel like jelly, then I ran and sprung up into the air and went splat onto the crash-mat. I did a superman, but its just like a belly flop and not a flip at all. I was just glad my turn was over!!

Totara Springs Camp

2008-10-24T10:04:00.000+13:00

I was so nervous when we finally arrived at Totara Springs. It was a magnificent place to be.
Everyday we had some devotions and we learnt about God. I really liked it. We played a lot of fun games, one of my favourite games were Get Your Own Back (GYOB). It was a game where the kids had to catch the leaders and put some naughty things on them, like 2 month year old sausages and rice, ice, jelly and flour. I can tell you that it was very messy and stinky. Even if you had a shower you would have had to wash yourself very thoroughly, I know this because Ms Georgie Burt had a shower and she still smelt like sausages.
At camp it was my groups turn to go on the hyderslide. It was very nerve racking because I'd never been on a hyderslide in a very long time. I was so nervous that I had to go with somebody else. When it was my turn I dipped my feet into the water and it was warm (that was pretty good because I was actually pretty cold!) Anyway we finally went off and we went swam splashed and swirled around the slide. I almost thought that I was going to fall out but luckily I didn't. It was so RADICAL!!
I really want to go back to the place.

Our Term 4 Topic

2008-10-21T09:55:00.000+13:00

http://www.usfijitimes.org/story/newspaper_ReduceReuseRecycle_20080726234412.jpg
http://www.freefoto.com/images/11/29/11_29_16---Rubbish-Skip_web.jpg
Well this term we have been studying a topic which is called "GO FOR GREEN". It is about saving the environment from all the littering, dumping and also the nasty landfills that are trashing all the rubbish into the ground and letting it decompose there. But this is not at all helping the environment because all it is doing is rotting in the ground and some of the things are toxic so it can provide a nasty thing in the ground called lechate and that is not a good thing at all. I think that in the future some people can do somethings to prevent and reduce these dreadful things that are occurring.
But anyway I really like our topic for this term and I would really really like to learn all about the 3R's which are Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. We can reduce smoke by trying not to burn so much and have cleaner burning factories and furnaces. We can reuse recyclable plastic bags, toys, containers and other stuff and that way we won't have to throw away that much stuff. Finally recycling, it is sort of the same as reuse so there's nothing to say really.

Nadia Comaneci

2008-08-26T10:27:00.000+12:00

www.virginmedia.com
Nadia Comaneci is a famous gymnastics coach and here is a story to tell you how she became such a gymnastics success.
Well before she lived in the USA she used to live in Onesti Romania. When she was a child she was like a jumping machine and she even broke 4 of her family's couches. One day at her school she acted with a friend like a gymnast, luckily for her Bella a gymnastics coach saw her and asked her if she wanted to become a gymnast. He took her for a little training course to see if she was good enough, they had to run a 15 metre sprint and walk on the balance beam. If they were to scared Bella would send them home.
But luckily for Nadia she was filled with courage and strength, so she stood on the beam and made it in to the team. She trained everyday except for Sunday. One day as she went to her very first competition she was nervous. As the competition finished she was placed 14th, her coach said never to finish 14th and gave her a doll. Also after that she never came 14th again.
Then her biggest moment came when she was chosen to represent Romania (again) in the Olympics. She accepted that and went the Olympics.When she went up to perform her routine she noticed a HUMONGOUS audience,she started getting butterflies in her stomach but she was filled with determination to win a gold medal. As she finished on the score board appeared a 1 the crowd was silent but then they found out that it was actually 10!!The crowd went WILD . Nadia cheered for joy as she had scored a perfect 10, no one had done that in years.
When Nadia was older she defected from Romania and escaped to the USA and married Bart Conner.So after all that she became a coach but not a normal rugby coach a gymnastics coach. So that is how she became such a gymnastics success.

Olympic Medals

2008-08-26T10:09:00.000+12:00

We've still got 9 medals and the Olympics has come to an end. We've got 2 golds 1 silver and 5 bronze I'd say that's alright. At least we came sixteenth on the medal tally board. At least we tried our hardest. I'd love to win a medal especially a gold or a silver!! sometimes I'd like to think that golds represent happiness, silver a good mood and bronze an alright attitude.

Olympic Athletes

2008-08-21T10:05:00.000+12:00

Well so far we've got 3 gold medals, 1 silver and 5 bronze, In total that would be nine. I would say thats Awesome. We are such a small nation and yet we've won that much medals. Even though it might seem small it might be a big amount to other people.
My favourite sports person at the olympics right now is Valerie Vili. She's a fantastic shotputter and I'd also love to meet her. She's so tough and she's a really good at representing New Zealand.
Some other athletes that I like are the the rowing twins Georgina and Caroline ever-swindell. Their fantastic at rowing and winning for NZ, they've always encourage each other and have never given up on winning medals for NZ even though their really exhausted.
I'd really love to meet all the NZ athletes!!

Rock Our World

2008-08-21T09:36:00.000+12:00

In the extension group we were working on a project called ROW which stands for "Rock Our World". We've put on flickr pages on flickr, we've also done presentations on it at extension class.I really enjoyed working on it.
When we were working on the project we even got to listen to the sound of the sun. It was loud or even louder then loud it was like a ENORMOUS thunder cloud.I didn't even know that the sun made sounds because it is so far away from us on earth.We made flickr pages on the sun as well.
So ever since we started on that project I've learn't heaps about the sun and lots of other things.

Cross Country Practise

2008-08-11T10:18:00.000+12:00

"PUFF PUFF" as I ran around the track.I puffed continuously.
Team 4 (seniors) was having our cross country training,we have to run a really long tiring track.We always(or at least) have to do 2 laps .
As I'm running I normaly can't feel my legs because its so cold that my legs get numb.I sort of jog and sprint at the start because I just want to get the 2 laps done and over with.
Before we start though we have to be told a time, for example as we're going to start the teachers says "Ok 15 secs and your time is 11:40".
At the end of it all I'm totally exhausted.
My goal for the actual cross country is to just try my best.

Term 3 Immersion Assembly

2008-07-28T10:20:00.000+12:00

Wow is that Valerie Adams,Oh no its just Mrs.Tele'a dressed up in clothes like Valeries. Oh and is that Michal Jordan the legendary basketball player oh no its just Ms.Squires dressed up aswell.
Teacher after teacher all dressed up in wacky "champions" clothes.
Our topic for this term is "We Are The Champions".I think that we are learning this topic because the Beijing olympics are coming up and so since the olympics are coming up Beatrice,Valerie,Georgina and Caroline better get training,But if you don't know who they are then here you go:Beatrice is a discus thrower,Valerie is a shot put thrower,Georgina and Caroline who are both twin sisters they do rowing together.
The immersion assembly for the topic was really entertaining,funny and entertaining.There were skits showing off and somemore skits.The topic for this term is really tempting for some people to learn and master sports.I really should try hard to learn and master sport.

MOTAT

2008-07-03T09:48:00.000+12:00

We walked through the door and saw Jean Batten and Richard Pearse displays. We saw Jean Batten's medals, pictures and articles about her. But what astonished me the most about Richard Pearse was his plane. At first I thought it was piece of junk but soon I found out that it was an aircraft, "WOW" I said. I mean it looked all rusty and looked like the oldest bicycle alive. It had wings made out of out of wood and metal. It almost looked like a slide with a ladder at the back and the wings also looked like a playground with stick people on it.

The senior school was at MOTAT because our topic was "UP UP AND AWAY".

My favourite place at MOTAT was the Hands On Area. It was like a playground heaven for little kids. There were heaps of amazing things that I liked at the Hands On Area like the earthquake cafe, spinner and the big kalidescope.

Another thing that we did was the tram ride. The tram ride was like an olden day train. It went slow but had a few stops in the middle which was quite annoying. The tram ride led us to MOTAT 2.

MOTAT 2 was filled with heaps and heaps of planes from bomber war planes to luxury transport planes .We had an instructor called Frazer who showed us around and told us the names of the planes.

It was a really fun day and after that I was exhausted.

Power Hang Glider Narrative

2008-06-16T10:30:00.000+12:00

"Jump". I leapt onto the monkey bars on the playground. Suddenly I fell off because I heard a strange noise that I had never heard before. I quickly went to check it out. The noise had led me to the reserve where finally I found out that it was a POWER HANG GLIDER. I saw the glider take off. It went soaring through the skies, doing loop the loops. A while later it was still doing astonishing tricks when putt putt putt......
"That noise doesn't sound right" I said to my friend. Next I saw it come down. "AAAAHHHH" someone screamed. "I'm going to go and get some help" I announced. The glider WAS going to crash. The wires and strings got caught around the goalpost and the propeller made it spin round and round. But then it fell off and landed in the bush. The whole school went to see if he was dead or alive. Mr Burt made his way through the crowd and discoverd he was still alive but injured. He called the amubulance so they came and took him. "Lucky he's alive " I said.

Camp

2008-04-01T10:05:00.000+13:00

A few weeks ago we had a year 5 and 6 camp. We did lots of amazing and exciting activities from orienteering to swimming at Swim-a-Rama.
My best activity I loved was rock climbing. We first climbed the house which was for starters but we could go on any other one after the house. I almost made it to the top of the house but there was no more room for me to go.
On camp we also slept in tents which was a bit weird for me because I'd never slept in a tent before. I could hardly go to sleep because my sleeping bag was so hot and stuffy. I just couldn't go to sleep. I nearly stayed up the whole night because I had had enough sleep.
In the morning we had to wake up at 6:30 and go for a early morning jog around the field. It was tiring. I could hardly speak.
For me camp was the best school activity ever in my primary life.