Year 8 Camp

                                 
Wow! what an amazing experience. On the 4th of December 2012, the year 8’s at Point England School attended the Ngaruawahia camp. We were all stoked!

There were a lot of activities planned for us, but the activity that I enjoyed most was the flying fox. At first, I was terrified because of the leeches and eels, but after a while, I managed to kick in.

As I went on the flying fox slightly near the end, I just had to let go. Falling off the cyc flying fox, I swam as fast as I could to reach the end. Once turn had come to an end, I decided that I wanted to take more turns.

As the day finished, it was time to have dinner. We all had an amazing experience.

Year 8 Enjoyment

On Tuesday the 4th of December, the year 8’s at Point England School are heading off to camp at Ngaruawahia. From my point of view, I think that it won't be exciting because of the weather that we year 8’s have to put up with.

One more day to go, and all of us are going to Ngaruawahia!

Major Flood

A major flood has occurred in Venice, a city in Italy. People have been evacuating out of their houses because of the rising water. 

The stormy seas and heavy rain have flooded this city. During the week, the inundation is the 6th highest level since records began being kept 150 years ago.

Koro's Dream

The story is about, Koro and his dream.  The beginning of the story tells us about Koro, and how he was heading back to the East Coast. Koro had rang his son to tell him about the news, and when he was told, the son was anxious on the phone when he heard the shocking news. Koro says that its about time that things go back to the way they were.

Malala Stands Tall

Over a week ago a girl named Malala was shot in the head, by the Taliban, for her role in campaigning for education for girls in her country. Though this disastrous shot went through the 15 year old girls head she managed to survive. Due to the damage caused to the head, her parents say, it was a miracle for their daughter to survive a dangerous gunshot.

Nearly a week after the gunshot, Malala was taken to the United Kingdom (UK) hospital and stayed there recovering from her injury. Even though she got shot in the head, where the brain is, she is still strong while in recovery. Out of all girls in Pakistan that wanted to be educated but couldn’t because of the Taliban, Malala was the bravest of them all.

Malala still stands tall even though she is injured.

Manaiakalani Film Festival

                                                         

Practice, practice and more practice was all I could say as Hosannah  and I were both chosen to present for our class at the Manaiakalani Film Festival 2012.  It was my first time ever to be presenting in front of thousands of people (not all at once of course), so I was determined to nail my lines.

After all the practice, it was time to present. At times, I would shiver because I was afraid that I would muck up.........................not only that, but I had stage fright. As I looked towards the stage, presenters were doing their things, while I was thinking of how things would be.

After all this time, it was our turn to present. Walking up onto the stage,  I looked towards the audience, but guess what..................................well, I couldn’t see anyone because of the light. The spotlight shone upon Hosannah and I so all we could see was PITCH BLACK.

Finally, after all the hard work, we managed to kick in. We finished presenting in front of thousands of people, so all we had to do was sit back, relax and enjoy all of the shows. It was an amazing experience for both of us.

NIght At The Amusement Park

On a dark boring night, some friends and I decided that we were going to go to the Amusement park in town, to try out the Ferris wheel. Arriving to the park of amusement rides, I was so excited.

Walking into the park from a long distance away, I spotted the Ferris Wheel and this time, it was glowing. As we were walking towards the ride, a lot of people were in the line so we waited. FInally, it was now our turn. Off we go!
During the ride, we were so excited.........................until the Ferris Wheel stopped. We were all freaked out! When it broke down the glowing lights turned off, and thats when we got even scared. We were screaming for help, but for some reason no one heard us, probably because they couldn’t hear us. I was so terrified, that I cried. “Arrhhhhh, can anybody help us,” screamed Lisa.

While crying, I thought about my other friends hoping that they were alright, so I looked down and searched for my friends. While looking down, I saw one of my mates right down the bottom where the ground was, so I called out to her and said, “Mary get out of your seat and go find someone to help us,” but she didn’t hear me.” I screamed out again and this time, she heard me. Mary got out of her seat and went to go look for someone. There I see Mary coming back with a man, so I said to myself, “we are saved.” I didn’t need to worry anymore.

The Ferris Wheel started again, and everybody then noticed that everything was alright.

Stomach Churning

On a hot sunny Monday, me and some friends set off to go to Rainbows End. We were all excited to go on the ride for our first times.

We arrived to the Rainbows End, and not that much people were there, so we all hopped out of the car and went to the counter to pay ourselves in. Just walking through the gate I was amazed to see all of the fantastic rides, but one stand out ride was spotted, and that was the roller coaster. I was so excited!

My friends and I were eager to take a turn, so we went in line and waited till it was our turn. Finally, we were going on, but unfortunately we had to go with only one partner, so I went with Oshania. “Yay,” I said as we were going to sit down. “Buckle up guys,”said the person incharge of the roller coaster. “Off we go,” said Oshania.

We were enjoying ourselves, screaming out woohooo, until....................the roller coaster  stopped. “Arhhh,” I screamed, help help help we’re stuck up top. Oshania and I were so scared, that we thought that this was our last time together as friends. We were still wondering how to get out of the big problem, but we thought that no one would hear us because we were so high up. “Uggh,” worried Oshania. Don’t worry just think of a way to get us out of this mess. “Do you have your phone on you,” asked Oshania, “Umh, oh yes I do, why,” i’ll try to get a signal so that I can call Alisha to tell the man that we’re stuck, because she’s down there waiting for us.” I replied, “Ok.” “I hope this works,” said Naomi,  “just believe in me,” replied Oshania.

“Yes, I’ve got signal,” said Oshania. “Well hurry up and ring,” said Naomi.
“It’s ringing, it’s ringing,” said Oshania. “Hello,” said Alisha. “Alisha, please tell the man down there that we’re stuck on the roller coaster it just stopped”. “Yah I know, it stopped because on of the wires blew up, the electrician is fixing the wire right now..............don’t worry, you’re gonna be alright.”said Alisha. “Thank God,” said Oshania.

Finally, the roller coaster started again, and we both reached our destination safely.

The Photo

It’s Saturday,
I’m so happy,
Gonna get up,
Gonna get myself ready.

It’s a big day
I’m gonna walk down that aisle
Holding some flowers
Being the best flowergirl of them all.

It’s time to take a photo
Show a big smile,
Look pretty for the camera.

Big nice hair,
Nice dress too
Taking the photo
1, 2, 3 cheese!

Thank you Chanel.

Harmful Second Hand Smoking

Second hand smoking is really bad for people, especially around kids. You may not know this, but second hand smoking causes death in kids.  Children around the world suffer from second hand smoking because of the children’s senses of smells, which means that kids could sniff up the air of the stinky smoke.

I think that we should make the right choices, of not smoking around kids or even simply, QUIT. Smoking not our future!

Dangers Of Smoking

Smoking is really bad for people. In my argument I will be talking about the chances of people catching a disease and the influences of second hand smoking.

Heart disease and lung cancer are caused by smoking, and those kind of diseases are very dangerous to the human body. Stroke, is very painful and dangerous. It means that the brain has lost functioning due to the disturbance in the blood supply to the brain.

There are chances of people dying when smoking. You are 2 to 4 times more likely to get heart disease, and 2 to 4 times more likely to have a stroke.

Smoking shouldn’t be done around children because they could get sick from it and they could be influenced to smoke.  Second hand smoking can cause chest infections, glue ear, childhood asthma and death in kids. I have found that parents who smoke around their children will influence them to pick up the habit themselves.

I have shown that smoking can harm your body and smoking around children can influence them to start smoking themselves.

London Olympics

For the last couple of weeks, competitors all around the world have travelled all the way to London, to compete in the Olympics. The Olympics have been on for the past two weeks and it is now finished.

During the whole week at the Olympics, there were two stand out athletes that inspired me and their names were Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt. Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake, became my favourite athletes, because I thought that they were very competitive in the sprints.

Yohan Blake has won two silver medals and one gold medal, and Usain Bolt has won three gold medals at the London Olympics. Through all the other sprints that they have been competing in, at some other events, Usain Bolt has won thirty eight medals and Yohan blake has won twenty medals for their country. Blake and Bolt represented Jamaica at the Olympics. They represented their country very well and they also knew what they wanted to accomplish.

Jamaica is very proud of Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. The country is very excited that they will be bringing medals back to Jamaica.

Thank you Kevin

Wow Another Gold Medal

Wow another gold medal. Through this whole entire week I have received four gold medals from Mr Harris. I know that I am working very hard and I am going for gold. I am achieving my goals.

Two Gold Medals

I have earned two gold medals this week because I have been working really hard. I am very proud of myself, because I know that I'm learning a lot and that I'm always updating my work on my blog.  I am finishing my work off properly, and I am going for gold.

What Makes A Good Athlete

What makes a good athlete? Well my opinion would be, that a good athlete takes natural ability and hard work. To be a good athlete takes dedication, determination and desire, as well as ‘good’ genes.

Take Jesse Owens as an example. He broke the world record when he competed in the Olympics in 1936, but how did he become a champion? Jesse Owens was spotted by a coach while playing at the school playground. Even though there were a lot of kids playing there, Jesse Owens was a standout. This coach’s name was Charles Riley. Because Charles Riley spotted Owens, he took him onto the tracks and trained him until he got older, then he competed in the Olympics because Riley had faith in him!

There are a lot of champions around! All of them I believe have worked hard and used their own natural abilities. Champions have faith in themselves, know what they want to achieve and have people who believe in them. Champions never give up!

Gold Medal

I have gotten a gold medal for the first time, and am very proud of myself. I received this gold medal, because of all the tasks that I'm finishing off. I'm finishing my work off properly and I am taking charge of my learning.

Go for gold!

Jesse Owens Still Stands Tall

Many athletes have claimed greatness but even among these Jesse Owens stands tall. He was an athlete that beat all of the odds and he even went against Hitler, by taking part in the Olympics in 1936. Hitler didn’t want dark people to compete. Jesse Owens was a strong man who knew what he wanted to do. He knew what he wanted to accomplish and set out to do just that.


As Jesse Owens was young, he was always taking ill. Even though he took ill, he rose above sickness, and throughout his young days suffering sickness, he became one of the world’s great Olympians.


Attending school, his name wasn’t Jesse at all. It was J.C but one of his teachers couldn’t understand what he was saying, due to his accent, so she called him Jesse and it stuck. Jesse Owens would go wild on the playground, always getting into something but then, a high track coach spotted him in the distance and set Owens on the tracks.


Owens knew that his future Olympic successes was with his coach, Charles Riley. According to Jesse Owens, his coach changed his life and America’s history for all time.

Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell

Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell are both my inspirations because, they were great rowers. The Evers-Swindell sisters were very fit! They would practice and practice when they had time to.

Competing in the Athens Olympics in 2004 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the sisters won New Zealand’s first gold medals. Georgina and Caroline achieved such a VICTORY!  

When I saw that the sisters had won gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, I decided that I wanted to be just like them.


Thank You Jay'lee

When Do We Go For Gold

When do we go for gold? We go for gold when we are wanting to achieve something.
There are a lot of things that we could go for gold for, like school work, cross country and many more. Going for gold is like achieving your goal, or even winning the Olympic Games.

We can go for gold anytime.

Giving it all you got
Oath (keeping a promise to your parents)
Leads you to be a better person
Determined to win


Thank you Kevin.

The Fantastic Art Gallery

During the term, we have been learning about artist and their paintings as a part of our topic, “Art Alive”. We have all been learning about  different artists and there was one person that I based my painting on, and that was, Vincent Van Gogh.

Because “Art Alive” is our topic for this term, some teachers helped create an art gallery inside our school hall. As a display for the art gallery, the whole of Pt England School designed paintings and sketches using one of the artist style.

As we all finished our magnificent paintings, it was time to hang it into the art gallery. As soon as all the paintings were done, class by class entered the gallery and looked around at all the beautiful sketches and paintings.

Now it was time for my class to go! Walking to the school hall, I couldn’t be bothered waiting out the door, but just had to. As soon as Mr Harris said, “alright guys come on in,” I ran with excitement and saw all these shining pictures, as if I was in heaven. Just seeing all of these pictures, I said to myself, “we made a great improvement”.

All the pictures looked really nice, so I would encourage all of the parents that have children coming to Pt England School, to take some time to check out your children’s paintings and sketches in our school hall.

The Right Time To Swear

Room 19 students at Pt England School have been reading an article about, “When Is It The Right Time To Swear”? I will be telling you a little bit about the bad influence that shouldn’t be said around children.

I think that it is never the right time to swear, because it is said to be using bad language. It should probably be illegal to swear because of all the children around. Even though we know that it is not the appropriate language to use, then why use it?

Swearing is not the best language to use around kids because, it is found to be disturbing and unforgettable. Swearing is very easy for little kids to memorise, so we should never use the bad language.

Swearing in public should never be the right time to profanity. I think that if you swore in public and someone heard you, they wouldn't want to here that kind of language.


I think that it is never the right time to swear.




Thank You Dakota.

Netball (Writing Sample)

"Finally" I said! The winter season for netball is now here. Enthusiastically jumping up and down waiting to play.

Well it wasn't that long ago when one day it had come, to be having a fine winter sport played..............and it was my favourite sport that I loved to play, netball. I waited not so long to play this sport, and now this was the day.

The bell went, school has finished, so I ran out of my class as fast as I could and went to the hall to get ready for our first school netball game. Running into the hall, we girls lined up into our teams and listened to what the sports coordinator had to say, and then got dressed into our uniforms. All the teams had a little train before their game, remembering the skills that we were all taught by our wonderful coaches.

Arriving to the courts, it was pouring down with rain, but no fear. The game was still on! The team that we were going to face was Saint Mary's. Luckily the game hadn't started, so at the courts we had a little more practise before the big game. The hooter went on so it was time for us to play. On the first quarter our team got the shot in, and then it went on and on.

We had a great game! I was so caught up in the moment that we did really well. The whistle blew, that meant that it was all over. The final score was five all. We were all so proud that we didn't lose and also because we all worked as a team. Team means (together everyone achieves more).  

Humans On Mars Report

      Out of the Netherlands, a new Space Venture is planning on putting four humans on Mars for the rest of their lives.
      They announced their plan in mid 2012. To make their plan work, they said that in in 2016 they would send a communication satellite and a supply mission. In 2018 a planetary rover would be sent to Mars and in 2020 settlement components will be sent to Mars.
      The people that were involved were the Dutch Entrepreneur and companies from around the world.
  Humans on Mars sounds exciting!

Solar Planes The Next Big Thing

A solar powered plane flew from Switzerland to Morocco, recently. The engineers were trying to build a plane that uses no fuel, but the sun’s light as power or energy. The people that were involved, were plane engineers, the pilots of the plane and the CEO of ‘Solar Pulse’.


‘Solar Pulse’ is the company that made the plane, They wanted to build these planes, so that by 2014 they could fly these around the world with no fuel.


These solar aeroplanes, could be the next big thing.

Food Technology

This year we year 8’s have been going to technology, as a part of our learning. I have been in food tech, and I have been learning how to cook. Instead of thinking about food, one of the things that I’ve learnt about cooking, is how to rub in all the ingredients together. It is really easy, and we call it the rubbing method.




Thank you Kevin for checking my work.

Wild Ferocious Beast

There lived an old, mighty hunter who taught his children, his ways of searching for his preys. As he gathered his children together, he told them about what he would use to hunt them down. As their uncle told them about their dads life as a hunter, they wanted to be just like him.

Their uncle told them that their dad would hunt for food, for the hungry clan. Tracking and finding a herd of mammoths. Before his kids were even born, he would track the mammoths by small groups.

As it came to the sad part of the story, their uncle  told them that their dad got killed in a hunt from a “bull” mammoth. The kids started to sulk because they didn’t get to see their father again. His son got so angry that he wanted to kill a mammoth himself.

The boy went out to hunt for mammoths and battled them, as well as killing them. He dragged the meat of the mammoth for his family’s feast and brought back the bones of this ferocious beast. They made a flute out of the mammoths bones, and played the beautiful flute in memory of their beloved dad.

Thank you Kevin for checking my work.

Rugby...What A Bummer!

I admit I was jealous, but what happened at the game wasn't entirely my fault. There was a girl right next to me that was going for the Sharks but I was going for the Melbourne Storm. I actually didn't want to sit next to someone that was going for the team that I wasn't going for, but these were the only seats available.

I was resigned to the fact that I was in an alien ocean full of predators, so I gave a polite smile at the girl next to me supporting the Sharks. As the game went on I was cheering for the Storm. "Come on guys, you can do this!" as loud as I could. Trying to be louder than the other half of the crowd saying, "Go Sharks"! 

It was almost full time! The Melbourne Storm had the ball, but then it slipped out of Kearn's hand. The Sharks got the ball and kicked it into touch. The Sharks won. 

After the game we walked out of the stadium with pretend happy faces because my team had lost. 

Thank You Mr Wright, from Oakland University, for checking my work and for helping me with
my voice over.

Art Alive

This Term we are learning about Art Alive. Because our theme is about art we have been rotating into different classes, based on our theme. We have been learning about different artist and their styles that they do.

The whole year 7 and 8 classes have been painting and drawing in the artist’s style. So far we have finished all paintings and have brought back a thing or two about their styles and the way that they paint. They painted in strokes and in different other ways.

One of the paintings that I liked was a sunflower that we did with Mrs Nua. I liked the strokes in this painting. This sunflower was by Vincent Van Gogh! I liked it and  this is a picture of my sunflower.






Thank You Jaylee.

Yesterday the year 7 and 8 girls had a fine day of football at Madills Farm in Kohimarama. We played against 4 teams and the first team we challenged was Stanhope. They were really hard in places but we beat them by one point.

Wow, at the last minute Kaloni got the goal so we won our first game. The second team to challenge was Baradene! They were really hard but guess what............we drew the game. During this game, there was a lot of running around trying to get the ball for our team, we were all hoping to get a goal before the other team would, but luckily, we drew the game.

We played other schools, and the last team to challenge was Kohimarama. Unfortunately we lost by one point. The Point England team tried their hardest to get a goal but we didn’t. Because we had lost we found out that we came 3rd in our pool and out of the ten teams, we came 5th.

The girls have improved more this year in the sports than last year.  We enjoyed ourselves, and that was all that mattered.






Thank You Dakota.

Cardiac Arrest (Alexander Dale Oen)

Our class has been learning about a man, Alexander Dale Oen, who has died from a cardiac arrest. He was a great Norwegian swimmer. It was very unusual, because he was only 26 years old. Alexander was a fit man. A cardiac arrest is a abrupt cessation of heartbeat.  It means when something is wrong with your heart. You get a cardiac arrest from the abrupt loss of heart function. Many people die from cardiac arrest.


Thank You Athena.

Breakfast - Which One For Me?

Is breakfast your most important meal of the day? Nutritionists say that it should be, because it sets you up for the day by refuelling your body after a good nights sleep. Having a healthy breakfast which is low in fat and high in energy will keep me going for the day. For breakfast I have, three 'Weet-bix', a cup of milk and two teaspoons of sugar with a freshly sliced banana on top.

Choosing the right food for breakfast, can be easy if you know what sort of food to eat to help keep your energy levels high. Food and drinks, like smoothies made with fruit, juice or milk will give you lots of energy.

Even though bacon and eggs are really tasty, it is really high in fat. Eating bacon and eggs for breakfast will make you feel full, but later in the day it will make you feel lazy because of the high fat content. I think that bacon and eggs is not a good choice for breakfast all the time, but you can have it as a treat.

I have learnt a lot about healthy food, and making the right choices of food to eat for breakfast. It is good to have breakfast to start you up for the day.

Thank you Vanila.

Camp Highlights

Camp was great! We did a lot of activities, and my favorite activity was the Amazing race. The Amazing Race was amazing! We made sling shots, and after we had made them we took turns on them. All we had to do was, try shoot our thing that we made out of sticky tape and newspaper. We shot it on a bucket with points on it!

Wow I was so stunned as I aimed our groups sling shot and it hit the 100 points twice. What a shot I said! Every time it hit the bucket, I was filled with excitement! It was a great improvement.

After we had finished playing with the sling shots it was time to do the real Amazing Race. Mr Bark’s gave each group a map, so that we could find the things that we needed. As he gave it to us, he said that we had 19 minutes to find the things and, also to bring it back.

When we got the stuff, we had to return to Mr Barks and tried to create a fire to cook an egg on it. To cook the egg we had to get a tin, wood, matches and an egg. First we had to make a fire, using the wood and matches. As the fire raised, we put the tin over it and scooped some butter to put onto the tin. When the butter melted we cracked the egg and waited for it to cook. As it was on the tin, we waited for to cook.

Finally, it was cooked! When we were finished, Mr Barks sliced our egg and we got to eat it. I had a lot of fun doing the Amazing Race. Hopefully I could do it for our next camp.

Click on the link to see our camp photos.

Thank you Athena for checking my work.

Ben Carson Acrostic Poem

Bus to Manukau,
Enjoyed the wait, not!
Nice

Cool
Awesome
Rich
Sarcasm
Outrageous
Neat

Thank You Athena for helping me check my work!

CyberSmart

CyberSmart is about being safe when we are online.

There are consequences, if you are not on the right thing. That means you are not being Cybersmart.

When you are CyberSmart, you can search for things using the Internet, and you can bookmark things for you to go on some other day.

Duffy Theatre

During a cold rainy day, we all went to the hall for a nice, entertaining Duffy Show. Introducing themselves to us, we all said hi back to them. The show was about to start! It finally started. There were a lot of Scenes, and my best one was when it was Emmy’s birthday. There were a lot of characters and the best character of all, was Scruffy.

The show was hilarious and funny! It was so fun. Hopefully they come next time.

Netball With Liz

On Thursday, we were going to play Netball, but it was so hot that I was burning with flames. Hot, hot, hot, is all I could moan about. Dripping sweat falling from my face, downwards.

Lining up to play Netball, we all got ready to go to the courts. Waiting not so patiently, I said to myself, sweat, sweat, sweat yuck! I wandered when will the sun cool down.

Arriving to the netball courts, we met a coach named Liz. She was our tutor for netball! Liz taught us some skills and drills on how to play this sport! After that it was time to play four corners.

Four corners, was kind of like netball, but it’s just that the hoops were dots. We got in to teams and played for the rest of our session. When this had finished we headed back to the classroom for morning tea.

I enjoy my time playing netball! It was a lot of fun, that I can not wait to go to another session with Liz

Health+me=?

This term, in maths, we are learning about statistics. As part of our learning, we are examining data related to our health. The first part of our examination we collected data (information) about the food we ate for one week (2/2 to 9/2).

The graph (or chart) shows how much I ate from 6 major food groups.