My Mihi

Kia Ora Tatou

Greetings to us all

Kua hui mai nei

Who have gathered here

Ki tenei kura

To this school

Ki te kawe mai

To bring

I te aroha

The love

Ka nui te koa

Great is the happiness

Mo to koutou manawanui

For your dedication

Ki te aro mai

In attending

Ki korerorero

To discuss

I nga mihi

The work

E pa ana ki tenei kura

Concerning this school

Athletics Day 2013!

“Run run” I said as our house colour was running for gold in our school relay. On Friday the 8th of november, our school had our athletics day. We had all the sports you could name, Javelin, triple jump, high jump, sprints, everything. It was the perfect day for athletics. We have four houses, Te Arawa, Mataatua, Takitimu, and my house, the one and only TAINUI!

The school was split up into groups. The groups were year 7 girls, year 7 boys, year 8 girls, year 8 boys and so on. From there we would go to different sports and rotate around those sports. My group (Year 8 boys) went to discus first. I was very nervous.

As all the boys started to take their turns each, I started to get more scared as it got closer to my turn. “Crusader, you're up” I was scared for my life. I was my first go at something for the day. I put all the nervous thoughts behind me and I spun the discus as hard as I could. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a placing.

It was the last activity of the day. SPRINTS! I was happy that it was going to be all over, but I was also happy because this was my favourite sport. One by one, the lines started to cut down. It was my turn to race. ‘BANG’ we were off. I came 4th in my race.

The last race was the best because it was everyone in our group for one big muck around race. My friend and I had our own personal race. ‘BANG’ We were off for our last race at Pt. England. I wasn’t really fair because I was thrashing him so I waited up for him. It was a rainy day and we both slided at the end.

It was the best athletics day ever and I had so much fun.

Rainforest Narrative

I was immediately astounded by the majestic scenery that I was surrounded by. The rainforest was filled with exotic plants and draping leaves could be seen everywhere. The humidity took over me, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from exploring  more of this amazing rainforest.

As I was struggling trying to get past these enormous leaves, I spotted a snake that really terrified me. “What was I going to do?” I asked to myself. I was thinking of what to do, and as I was, the snake started to get closer and closer to me. I couldn’t focus because it was so humid.

Just when I was going to give up, I saw a piece of thick branch. I grabbed it and tested it to see if it was strong enough. Fortunately it was. Searching through my backpack, I saw a knife that I packed. I quickly carved the piece of branch into a stick with a sharp end. It was time to test it out.

I was scared for my life, until, I saw a guy that looked like he had a good build. “Hey, hey” I yelled. “Come and help me, there’s an anaconda coming to kill me” He quickly ran over. We fought the snake together. I felt a bit of relief as we were fighting. It was so difficult.

With my sharp stick, I stabbed the snake once and that was enough to stun the snake. We slowly started break him up one by one. “HAAAAA” My partner stabbed him with all his might, and we got through it.

It was a wonderful experience and me and my partner James were best friends forever.

Adventure Quest Worlds

Adventure Quest, is an online game which is very popular with teenage kids around the globe. When you create an account you start off with level 1. There is maximum of xp that you have to reach and when you reach that you can move a level up. The higher your level is, the stronger your character becomes. You can challenge other people online that are the same rank and level as you. I like this game because you can duel other friends and it also gives me a good challenge.

The Rainforest

I was immediately astounded by the majestic scenery that I was surrounded by. The rainforest was filled with exotic plants and draping leaves could be seen everywhere. The humidity took over me, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from exploring  more of this amazing rainforest.

As I was struggling trying to get past these enormous leaves, I spotted a snake that really terrified me. “What was I going to do?” I asked to myself. I was thinking of what to do, and as I was, the snake started to get closer and closer to me. I couldn’t focus because it was so humid.

Just when I was going to give up, I saw a piece of thick branch. I grabbed it and tested it to see if it was strong enough. Fortunately it was. Searching through my backpack, I saw a knife that I packed. I quickly carved the piece of branch into a stick with a sharp end. It was time to test it out.

I was scared for my life, until, I saw a guy that looked like he had a good build. “Hey, hey” I yelled. “Come and help me, there’s an anaconda coming to kill me” He quickly ran over. We fought the snake together. I felt a bit of relief as we were fighting. It was so difficult.

With my sharp stick, I stabbed the snake once and that was enough to stun the snake. We slowly started break him up one by one. “HAAAAA” My partner stabbed him with all his might, and we got through it.

It was a wonderful experience and me and my partner James were best friends forever.

What do I Think About Halloween?

<---- This is our groups pictionary about halloween.

Halloween is nothing more than knocking on random doors and getting a bunch of lollies. I  think that halloween is about the Devils birthday and the creation of evil characters.. I don’t celebrate halloween because my parents don’t want me to. It’s time to find out what halloween is really about?

After we wrote down what we thought of halloween, our teacher gave us time to research about what halloween was really about. This is what I found out. 

The origin of dressing up on halloween day also came from people back in the day. On halloween, people would think that bodies from the dead would rise from their graves and start roaming around the earth. So children and adults would dress up in ghosts and witches as a form of camouflage to blend in with the dead.

The origin of trick or treat came from catholics. On all souls day (November 2nd) the priest would ask the church to pray for the people that are in the purgatory. That is a place that is in between heaven and hell, and if you pray for them, then that gives them a chance to go to heaven. Back then, people would go to houses and ask for soul cakes, and in return, they would pray for the people in the purgatory.

Before halloween they would celebrate a day could Lemuria. On that day, people would pour roman milk on graves to stop them from rising and roaming on the earth. It would also block them from trying to enter the earth. 

Jack-O-Lanterns were actually not lighted up in pumpkins, they were lighted up in turnips. When Jack died, he got sent to hell. But he was so bad that the devil didn't want him to stay there. So the devil sent him back to earth and with Jack was a flick of fire. Jack used that and put it in a turnip, and he uses it to roam around at night.

D.L.O Reflection!!

911 James Crusader Starford from Team 5 PES on Vimeo.

Positive - In the past week, we got the task of creating a D.L.O about an event in history. The event in history that my group and I picked was the Twin Towers (9/11) terrorist attack on the USA. One of the good things in our movie was that we used more animation in this movie than in any of our other movies. Our animation in the background made the news report more interesting to watch. We also got the movie finished in time. We showed lots of different perspectives, from the perspective of Osama to the military and also news reporters. There was also a bit of humour in it. I think that our movie was quite entertaining because our audience liked it. We used some interesting angles and shots in our movie.

Minus - Something that was bad about our movie was that we didn’t finish our planning and that really was a struggle because we only had one day to finish it. We also didn’t show how it affected New York and the world and I think we could have conveyed that a whole lot better. The information that we found out could've been shown with more detail in our movie. Our animations also could’ve been more detailed as well.

Interesting - Something that was interesting to our audience was the news reporters part. People also found the Osama Bin Laden part interesting as well. We had the same two characters play the part of the terrorists and then the part of the American military.

This is our movie. Comment down below what you think of it.