Yes Over and Done With!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!