45 Minute Inquiry- Curling

Curling is a sport where you use Slide stones- Granite stones you play on a field of ice and you use broomsticks to sweep the Granite stone into the your target. You have two teams each are four players each target has four rings in it. You get 8 stones for each team. 

The equipment you need for this sport is a curling broom, type of shoes, Granite stones, Curling pants ( optional so you can sweep better ) Stopwatch and gloves or mittens so you're hands don't get cold. 

Curling was discovered in 16th Century, February 1541 in the medieval times in Scotland ( Dunblane ) 

A whole game is 40 minutes, each team gets two 60 second time outs if you want and you have a certain amount of time to think of a plan. 

Girls College orientation

Girls College Orientation

On Thursday the year 8 girls, got a tour around Girls College which there motto is Pergo et Perago ( I go on and finish )  to see what it would be like when you first arrive on the actual day. We all bused there, it was raining pretty hard we all meet up in the old gym and the speeches started from there. We got some speeches from The Deputy principle: Mrs Ferguson and Adriana Bird ( Head Girl ). We then got split up into groups and got a tour from some Yr 9s
Some of the highlights was that  there was a swimming pool and I love to swim, Next year i'm going to try do as much sports as I can.

Bow Hunting Koi Carp

Last Saturday Mrs Mills went to Huntly to bow hunt for koi carp. She was hunting them because they are a pest. They eat native fish and their eggs. They pollute the water by stirring up the mud and it kills native trees. Koi carp can grow up to 80cm and can weigh up to 10kg.

Mrs Mills went bow hunting last weekend because the koi carp were spawning (breeding) and they come into the shallows to do this.

Bow hunting is a sport that requires a bow and arrow. You also need a line attached to the arrow so you can retrieve the fish and arrow. You do not need a license in NZ to bow hunt. It has been around since the Victorian era.

Mrs Mills caught 6 koi carp. She didn’t throw them back into the water because you can receive a fine.  She left them on the side of the lake and they were taken by some fishermen.

Which Button would I choose and why?

I would choose the green button which gives me the ability to shape-shift into any non extinct animal.
If I had this power I would use it to be able to fly or to swim, and I could shape shift into any animal I want. I would most likely shape shift into a Leopard or a Tiger because they are big animals and would most likely win a fight ( If I was in one. )

Tennis

This morning we went out to play some tennis as our summer sport. We learn't how to serve and how to hit the tennis ball properly. Something that was hard was I was hitting it to hard and I was hitting it up on a higher angle. Today I improved on my angle skills,
We all had partners, mine was Angel. We play little mini games but changed the rules, we made it who ever gets 3 points first wins, we had to serve under arm and we had faults and double faults.
Me and Angel did pretty good we won most of our games ( Against Boys and Girls )

Beyond the Story

Race to the Finish

April 15 2013 was the day that it happened, it changed my life, My name is Samantha Wallis and this is my story.

My heart was pumping in my chest as I turned around the corner to face almost a 210 metre track that lead to my destination... the finish line. I moved my palm up to my forehead and wiped the excess sweat that was making it’s way to my nose and down to my upper lip. I ignored the pain in my stomach that was craving me to stop and sit down, I straightened my position and ran professionally as the cheers and chants filled my ears, the positive comments that persuaded me to carry on. As I made it nearly to the finish line my cheeks were rosy and my legs were beginning to feel like sticks. About 190 metres away from the ending line that’s when it happened.

The ground beneath me started to rumble and shake making me unstable, a ringing noise had now taken over my hearing giving me a headache. In a blink of an eye this massive wave of fire smacked me making me fly all the way to the ground coming in contact with the solid gravel that didn’t quite soften my landing in an instant it went dead silent I curled up into a ball to try block the objects that were getting thrown at me bits and pieces of the ground and buildings scraped against me but I only held on tighter.

After it was done I stumbled trying to get up, I opened my eyes took a while to adjust what was happening and then examined what was around me. Adults shaking uncontrollably with panic written all over their faces. Smoke rising to the air and deep red liquid on the cobblestone dripping from the wounded runners and the watchers.The screams and shouting from the horrified people as they found their family members. Ambulances and police with their fluoro highvise rushing to grab all the injured racers and spectators who were laying on the ground hurrying them to the hospital.

Something that caught my eye was my leg that had now got a big hole through the middle of it. I screamed in fright as I continued staring at my now demented leg that use to be whole. My hands shaking with every move I did. “Help” I screamed with panic in my voice waving my hand in the air to make it more noticeable. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a blurry figure running out to get me.

By Grace.

Life Education blog post

Life Education 2013

What did you learn?

I learn't about Delaying the Decision and waiting till your brain has stopped developing to the age of 25 I will use this when i'm in a bad situation i've got the Reach wits to help get away from the bad problems that I might be stuck in. 

How will you use this new learning?

To help people make good decisions. 

How could you help someone else?

I could inform then about how bad they are and use the reach wits to try help them get out of that situation.

G - Greater 

I - Impact 

B - On brain 

G - Greater 

A - Addiction 

P - Potential

F- Faster 

A - Absorption 

R- Rate

M - Memory 

R - Reason 

J - Judgement 

M - Mechanical Skills
I - Intellect

C - Concentration  

E - Emotion 

R - Reason 

E - Excuse 

A -  Assertive 

C - Change the subject 

H - Humor 

W - Walk away 

I - Ignore

T - Tell someone or Toughen up 

S - Say No 

Attitude Blog post

On Tuesday 5 November we had the chance to have this man named Dave who talked to us about being our self. 

He said that everyone is different and that being different is ok.  He told us some really funny story's from his childhood about how one day he was riding his bike down a steep hill and his wheel fell off and he landed face first, a year later one of his friends said " Hey do you remember when you fell off your bike?" His friend "Yeah" He said " Oh I loosened your wheel" His mate said. He told us lots of funny story's like that. 

In the end he told us to take this personality quiz and this was the results. 

12 Hour Relay

On Friday 1st November we had a special event happen. It was the 12 Hour relay, it is when you run from 7am- 7pm so that's 12 hours straight of running. Each house had a team made up of at least 40 kids and it was a competition to see who could do the most laps. Each lap you did you got a point for your house. The other remaining kids that didn't get into the team got to do other activities such as the fun Run/ Walk and the Top town activities and a Talent show.

I was one of the kids who prepare food for each competitor, I heated up all the food such as pies, sausage rolls and me and a group of people made ham buns for over 500 kids. During the day me and my friend had to clean up the food technology room to make sure it was nice and clean.

At the end of the day I went to watch the talent show to see kids from our school perform it involved dancing, singing, musical instruments and much more it was a really fun day!

Homework- Alcohol Island

Life Education- Addiction

M- Memory
R- Reason
J- Judgement
M- Mechanical skills
I- Intellect
C-Concentration
E- Emotions

Addiction is when a person has to take a drug to feel normal

Life Ed- Project 1

Beyond the Shadows

Aims Games 2013

Last week we got the chance to participate in the Aims Games 2013 where schools from around New Zealand and a few from Australia and Rarotonga take part in different sporting events such as hockey, netball, rugby, Indoor bowls and so much more!

I got the chance to play hockey we had two games each day on Monday and Tuesday we won all of our games. Then we moved on to one game a day where we can't afford to lose

Monday: we played Pinehurst we won 6/0 later on that day we played Murrys bay winning 2/1

Tuesday: we played Whakatane winning 3/0 and later on that day we played Dior where we won 1/0 

Wednesday: St Cuthburts losing to them 5/0 

Thursday: John paul college winning 2/1 

Friday: We were playing off for 5 and 6 against Kamo losing 4/0 

Overall we came 6 out of 27 teams making us stay the same as last year 

One of the family

On Wednesday 11 September we were lucky enough to attend the Norm Hewitt SPCA assembly. Where he talked to us ( whole school ) about Animal cruelty and a little bit about his life. He told us about the 5 freedoms that a animal should have which includes providing shelter, food & water, exercise, love and vet care. 

Norm lived in Pironghia when he was 7 years old he wanted to be cowboy he loved anything indian, cowboy he had two Pearl handled silver cap guns that he had all the time. When he was about 9 he started to love the all blacks.

When Norm was little he had a horse named Tommy a cat named Fluffy and 2 dogs named Storm & Trixie. After he talked about his life he handed out some gifts to the people who answered the questions correctly he then showed us a slideshow to finish off the assembly 

Fact: Treat animals like your family

 

Floor Planner

Homework- Design a school 

Spreadsheet

Setting Writing

Setting Writing 

WALT: describe the setting of a story using ‘show’ not ‘tell’

SC:

- to use descriptive language to help the reader visualise the setting

- to use language that activates the readers’ senses e.g smell and sound

- to use similes and metaphors to describe the setting

- to use interesting vocab to describe the setting

As soon as the teams set foot on the blue turf. Encouragement filled the air making the children grin wide with happiness. They jumped into their position nervousness coming over there body, the referee blew his black whistle and the game had started teammates started running after the little solid ball their sticks swung fiercely hitting the opponents. Sweat dripping down their rosy cheeks from all the hard work. The smell of the fast food wafted up their noses making their mouths water as they carried on playing.   

1.

Hockey turf

2.

Blue turf, Positions, referee, little solid ball, stick, sweat dripping, rosy cheeks   

3.

- to use descriptive language to help the reader visualise the setting

- to use language that activates the readers’ senses e.g smell and sound

- to use similes and metaphors to describe the setting

- to use interesting vocab to describe the setting

4.

You did a really good job, I really enjoyed reading it and I could visualise it. you only needed to add a metaphor or a simile but even without one it was still very good how you described it :)

- Caitlin

Basic Facts

Girls Self Defense Lesson

On Monday we were given the opportunity to participate in the girls' self defense program. It was when all of the year 8 girls' get one whole day and a bit off to get taught what to do in a bad situation such as getting harassed, kidnapped or threatened.
We learned how to do certain kicks like ballerina kick, forward kick, stomper and the backwards kick.We also learned how to do punches like the forward punch and the hammer punch these are very useful!
Ali ( Our self defense teacher ) told us different story's about girls getting harassed by older men and how they got out of those bad situations as well.
We got to do different games and other little activities such as making little nicknames for ourselves we had to use a strong word to show that you were confident and brave, my nickname was Gutsy Gracie!
In the end of the lesson we all got a certificate to say that we all made it through the course and with that we got a girls' self defense poster and it shows all the things you can do to a man if you get in a awful state.
It shows the different moves to each area on a male that you can do as well such as for the eyes you can poke or gouge or you could shin kick or you could break his fingers so you can get away.

Dangerous Decibels

Today in the 2nd block we had a session about Decibels and how we can get permanent hearing loss instantly! We did a lot of activities with the lady and it was very interesting to see what it safe and what can cause instant hearing loss. Something that I learn't is that if the decibels is 85 and under it is safe anything over 90-120 you should be starting to worry about your hearing and if it's over 130+ it can cause instant hearing loss. One thing i'm going to change is that whenever i'm listening to music on my Ipod i'm going to turn the volume down so I don't damage my hearing! Did you know that a bird can grow back there ear cells unlike people like us. 

- Grace

Homework Basic Fact

Every night we have to do a 3 minute Basic facts test ( Out of 100 )  to help us improve our timetables. We record our results on a document and it makes a graph for us.

Homework PowToon

This is a little movie that we had to do for homework on a website called PowToon. This little clip is from the book Bridge to Terbithia

A Most Triumphant Tale

On Thursday 5th July the class and I went to Bay court to see our friends take part in the Most Triumphant Tale written by Carol Storey and Jessica Ross who had been working hard this past week. At 10:50 we set off to make our way to Bay Court we all had to wait in line for quite a while till we got to go in. At about 11:15 they opened the doors, everyone cheered as they went on in. As the show started one by one the characters came out doing singing, dancing or acting.

My favorite part was when the boy choir and the supremes were singing because they supremes had to wear pink wigs and a pink sparkly dress and the boys choir was wearing suits and ties.
My favorite part was when one of the boys from Labyrinth was talking about what they should do and the drummer from the band was behind him pretending to slow run and doing funny moves behind him.
The lighting was done from a few kids from our class they did a really good job because they didn't know anything about working the lights.

The main characters in the show was:
Labyrinth, Jimi Hendrix, One Dimension, Mowtown & Diana Ross and the Supremes, Mozart (1780), woodstock (1969), Starman and Paul McArtney

Overall I loved the production because I loved the singing, dancing and the acting. If they had to do this again they could put more acting because they had lots of songs and dancing.

How to video

How to video
How to make a Paper crane!

Diaster writing

Plane Crash

It was 1971, I had just hoped onto the gigantic plane that was waiting to take off into the clear blue sky. I heaved my gear into the little cupboard above my head, making sure it was secure so that it doesn’t come flying out. I glanced up looking for my seat as I strolled down the little isle I found my number. I let out a big sigh as I sat down onto the comfy seat. I stared out into the sky it began to smaller and smaller as I soon drifted into a long snooze. I woke up to a big bang that startled everyone, the plane started to shake and rattle. The plane suddenly went down my stomach was turning I let out a big gasp as it kept drifting down and down. My face started to get pale like I was a living zombie. I began to question myself Am I going to die? What if i’m the only survivor? my thoughts got interrupted by the amount of screaming at crying that was happening around me! I called out to the people how was controlling the plane (The pilots)  “Help us!”  I screamed frantically “ We can’t the plane has lost control we are going to have to get you guys to jump off the plane!” I was horrified I never thought I would have to do this. I ripped open the window (Which was connected to the wall) The impact of the wind made me stumble back, my black shiny hair was blowing in my face making me not be able to see that well. I glimpsed at the land below us and we were not that far from hitting the water. I took one last look at everyone and dived off the plane into the glistening clear water. “Splash” I crashed into the deep water. My arms flapped around as I gasped for air

To be continued..... 

Cemetery Investigation.

Today we went to the cemetery in Grace road during class. And I saw someone who died in 1937 who was aged ten. I thought this was really sad and I wanted to know how they died. We all had to try find the youngest and the oldest person who got buried in the graveyard. We saw someone who was aged ten and another person who was aged 90. The latest gravestone that I found was buried in 2012 and the oldest one that I found 1914. I didn't know that you had to wash your hands after before you leave the cemetery. I learn't that it's a tradition that you do in New Zealand

The person I would like to investigate on is Herbet Charles Josiah who was accidentally killed. 

Camp Graphs

Monday 20 May 

WALT: Create data displays using appropriate tools on the computer

Success criteria 

- Title 

- Spaces between graphs 

- Labels of x and y axis 

- Whole numbers on the y axis 

- Key 

Do you think I have achieved this success criteria?

Camp Happenings

Camp Happenings.

The funniest happening on camp was

When one of our activity’s was Rafting we put the raft in the water with everyone on it and it flipped over while we were trying to make it go. Catherine fell in and she swam back because she said she was part cat.

The biggest challenge on camp was

When I had to overcome my fear of heights of walking across the Beam which is really high above the ground. Firstly we had to climb up a ladder, Once we got ourselves up there we then had to walk across a wooden log, then lean and jump off.  

The scariest happening on camp was

When it was nighttime and Felila attempted to do a backflip and she landed on her neck she had to stay on the tramp for 45 minutes until the ambulance came and took her off to hospital. We were all surprised when she came to camp the next day.

The most exhausting moment was

When we were doing clash of the camp and I had to do the running/ Stamina part of it and it’s where I had to run up a very steep hill. It was a race so I couldn’t walk otherwise I would lose it for my team. In the end I came 4th out of 8 people.

The most embarrassing moment was

Was when I was doing rafting and we were up to the part where we go through the rapids and and tried to swim and I got my foot stuck in between a rock and I fell and landed on my face.

The most dangerous moment was

Was when we had just done paintball and we were on top of a really steep hill and Mr Hart said “ You have 3 seconds to run before I hit you with a paintball bullet” We all sprinted down the hill and we all nearly tripped over.

3 things I learnt

1. That you have to sleep in clothes when you sleep overnight.

2. That you should never do backflips at night.

3. How to make a bivouac.

2 things I was surprised about.

Was how cold it is at night.

Was that I did the high ropes when i’m really afraid of heights.

I question I still have

Why didn't I get shot more when I was playing Paintball.

Maths: Tally charts and Frequency tables.

Maths.










1. The most favorite breakfast was Toast and Spaghetti
2. The least favorite was the Weetbix
3. Only 11 people liked Toast and Eggs
4. Toast and Spread was the 2 least liked Breakfast
5. Only 7 people liked the Ricies.

Maths Reflection.

This term in maths I learn't how to times 2x2 digit numbers. Using Khans academy to help me understand it. I found two ways to do this problem they were Algorithm and the box method which was much easier for me to learn. 

Homework

Homework

S4. Care for younger children: Organize a series of games or activities for

younger siblings or neighbors or teach them a dance or an instrument

Last week on Tuesday morning I went to Levin east school with my mums friend who happens to be a teacher. And I helped her take care if 6-7 years olds with their maths and computer work. It was a really fun day and I hope I can do that again!

-From Gracie 

Homework

Homework.  G4. Give of your time: Visit an elderly person at least eight times over two terms.

When I travelled down to Palmerston north I went to visit my Grandpa who has currently got cancer and has not much long to live. Over the past week and a bit I went and saw my grandpa and socialized with him. On the wedding day he came to my uncle's wedding.Me and my family all got a photo with him. 

From Grace.

Homework

Homework. 

P5. Compete in a sport for an entire season

My sport that I have chosen to play for a entire season is hockey. I have currently just trialled and made it into the A-Team i'm really delighted that I have made it. Being in the A-team is a awesome experience as you get to participate in the 2013 Aim's games you get involved in tournaments and you get to travel to verse different teams you learn new skills and I try to improve every time I play . I am going to enjoy being in the highest team and I hope we do well in the future season. 

-Grace (: 

Homework

Homework 

P6. Walk or run around the Waikareao Estuary (or another negotiated walkway

on this site:) four times with a family member

Most days after school me,my mum and my dad usually go for a walk. I suggested the Waikareao Estuary as I could get fit and also do my homework as well. Because my mum is trying to lose weight I thought that walking this track would be a good idea. We usually do this walk 2 times a week depending on what we have on. After 4 times of walking that track I have finally completed part of my homework. I am really proud of myself and I hope I can keep walking as well. 

Water Cycle

I learn’t more about the water cycle

I learn’t a lot about how the hot air and cold air form

I also learn’t more about what condense means 

One of the benefits of having a partner is that you can bounce ideas off each other

Another benefit is that you can work faster together

A difficulty that I overcame was I had a bit of trouble understanding the difference between Condense and Evaporate. 

Homework

Homework

E1. Learn an instrument or craft or join a dance school/team during the year.

This year I decided that I wanted to learn a instrument in my case it was the guitar since you could play most songs on that instrument. My dad decided that he was going to get me lessons with Jacob who teaches people from Beginners to advanced. Every wednesday I go with my guitar and he teaches me, the lessons go for about 30 minutes. 

Here is a photo of me practicing the guitar (: - From Grace 

My First Post

In my first month at school we have done a Rimu house round robin. The sports we played were Volleyball,  Softball, Touch rugby and Cricket. We have been doing a lot of fitness through that month such as doing Zumba, Kenpo and quite a lot of running. In Rimu house hui we elected our house leaders and we learn't our first Rimu chant. Here it is.
Leader: Attention!!
Leader: Sound off

29, 30, 41, 42.

Don't wait, don't hesitate, the battle has begun,
Computate and dominate, RIMU are number 1,
We got it together,
We're moving to the top,
Rimus Red Army, impossible to stop.

Strawberry Shortcake, Banana Split
We think your house plays like-
Shift it to the left,
Shift to the right,
Stand up RIMU Fight! Fight! Fight!