Creative Writing

We had to write about either being shot at war or helping someone who had been shot. This is what I came up with.

I walk to the front line. Crawling further into the action. Bullets fly past me. The guy next to me falls to the ground in agony. It's like slow motion, I hear screams of pain and the bang of bullets. As I put my head down and trudge forward, the only sound I hear it a loud bang. It's the only sound I hear and it isn't a good one. I drop to the ground in a mix of blood, sweat and pure agony. i grab my stomach, gasping for breath. I feel like giving up. Death surrounds me like a dark blanket but I won't let it bring me down. I try shouting but I can't even hear my own voice. I start  rolling. Down down down i roll until I feel bloody cold water surrounding me. Someone comes down beside me and half carry, half drags me back to the tents. Immediately someone tends to my wound. I feel the bandage wrap tightly around my body. Just when I can't breath any longer, air is filled into my lungs. Mumbling is all around me and I can see dark figures, but my body weakens and I can't move. Medics try to keep me going but I have to give in. Again darkness sweeps over me like a dark blanket. But this time, it doesn't go away. My last thoughts are of my family, and the people who were once my friends. Hopefully I can go and see them now. As I feel my soul rising, I am proud of what I have attempted to try and save my country.

Energy

This term our topic is energy. There are different forms of energy. Light, electricity, chemical and many more. But the one type of energy we have mainly been working on is sound. Sound is vibrations moving through the air. It moves like a ripple effect. It vibrates the air around it, then that air around that and so on. We did heaps of cool experiments with Mr Marquands awesome speaker, like freqency/pitch. One of the things we have learnt is how fast sound travels. Did you know that sound travels 332 metres per second? Light can travel 7 times around the world in 1 second! That explains why lightning always comes before thunder, because light (obviously) travels faster than sound. I wonder why light travels faster than sound? Then there is conservation of energy. Which is when energy can't be created or destroyed, but just changed into different forms. For example, in a hydro dam, the still water is potential energy, then when it goes down its called kinetic energy and then it changes into magnetic energy and then changes into electricity which changes into light, heat, or sound etc. It's pretty interesting learning about sound. I can't wait to do another experiment around it!

Athletics Day

Me (left), Breanna (middle), Amy (right).

On the 30th October 2013, children aged 8-13 at Te Pahu School, had athletics day. Paterangi also joined us. Athletics was held at Te Pahu School, and the reason we hold this event is so we can keep fit, learn about competion and get a feel of what its like at the Olmpics.
We had activities like discuss, shotput, sprints (100 metres), hurdles, high jump and long jump.

My favorite is long jump. I usually jump off my right foot but on the day, for some reason, I kept jumping off my left foot. When I finally did jump off my right foot, I didn't do a very good jump. I guess I found out that I'm better on my left foot. I came second in long jump. I was really happy and proud. :D

High jump isn't my favorite. In fact, before I even started this year, I hated it. Last year I couldn't even jump 1 metre. Then this year, in practise, I jumped 1.12 metres. But on the day, I went to jump 1.10 metres and failed. I also failed the next 2 go's, which meant I was out. I was so gutted because I knew that I could've made it if I had had a couple more go's. I ended up coming second. Again. For the rest of the activities I came 4th.

My legs were killing me the next day. Next time, I want to train harder and do better in all activities. Can't wait till next year!

Pirongia Lodge Report

After an exhausting day on Friday, the first week of term 4, Te Pahu School, Pirongia School and parent helpers can now step back and watch all of the plants we planted grow around the outdoor classroom at Pirongia Forest Park Lodge.
We spent a couple of weeks writing to businesses around Hamilton for donations to buy native plants or most prefferably native plants. After we had gathered the plants (Pirongia also was involved) we all went to the Pirongia Lodge to plant them around the outdoor classroom, which is a place where kids can go to learn about the outdoors. So we had to plant plants. Sounds easy right?

But there was still some clearing to do. We left the boys to clear the brambles and we found some spots to plant the native plants such as flax, teatree, rimu and other plants. We all enjoyed getting our hands a bit dirty and having lots of fun.
At the end of the day, some people rolled down the big hill. We even managed to get Mr Marquand to roll down tto. It was a big laugh and an awesome way to finish the day.

I can't wait to go back in about 20 years and say "I planted those plant's." :)

Ag Day Report

On Wednesday 16th October, Lambs were baaing, calfs were mooing and goats were, well goats were making their noises too. All this was because of Te Pahu School's Ag Day. Kids had the choice of bringing a calf, lamb or goat to ag day. Before the day, they had to train it to lead, come when its called and for goats, go around an obstacle corse. They also had to learn what their animal was allergic to and keep it clean. There were kids that didn't bring an animal though. And on the day they had the choice of doing clay modelling, T-Shirt making, photography, or cupcake decorating. But leading up to ag day, they had to do a home challenge and create at least one of these things: A multi-media canvas, design a model of the tree stump, design a working sandpit toy, create a portable garden or biuld a birhouse. However, on the day a few room 7 students were chosen to help run the event. I talked to Kayla Moulder who built a birdhouse. I asked her if the outcome was what she wanted. She replied with 'No. I thought I would come last but I came second." Then she added, "It looked better in my imagination." She was chosen as a runner for the intermediate lambs. She said that she kind of enjoyed it because she got to watch the lambs but the bad thing was that she had to run back and forward and back and forward and so on. Overall, I think it was a good day and even though it rained a little, everyone still had a great time. Now some people will take their animals to group day, where they will compete against other schools. Good Luck for those that do!

Statistic Project

Last term we have been working on a statistic project. We had to imagine that the world was shrunk down to 100 people. We each got a topic to work on and somehow in an effective way, show the results. For example, How many people would have food, What ages they would be, What languages would there be. Kayla and I got geography. We had to see what countries people came from. We got a sheet of paper saying what countries they did come from, and then we had to figure out a way to present it. Mr Marquand showed us some examples. Then we had to go away and figure out one of our own. We decided to do it on a map and put pictures on how many people in that country in it. This is what we came up with.

HOLIDAYS!!! - Rainbow Springs

It is now the first week of term 4! We just got back from holidays! In the holidays, my family and I, went to Rainbow Springs. We were all excited, mainly because we couldn't wait to go on the Big Splash! Walking around Rainbow Springs was pretty cool. We got to see heaps of animals. We went to the bird show which was pretty cool because we got to have birds fly over our head. It was funny when we got to the bit where there were 2 swans. They tried to bite you. Dad almost got bitten when he put his foot out for them to bite and then it went to bite his leg. When we finally got to the big splash, we didn't have to wait long in line. It was pretty cool because it kind of tells you about how we came to be. It started with the dinosaurs, then the Maori part, then the European part, then it was time to go down the fall. It was sooo much fun! After 2 family runs, my sister Deegan and I went down a couple more times. We always posed for the camera. My favourite photo is one of our family ones because my sister Andie has very funny facials. Rainbow Springs was a highlight of my holidays. I hope we can go there again sometime!