Beach Adventurer!!!

The sun was beaming down on us. Lucky the weather was good, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to go. If an aeroplane was flying above us, We would’ve been mistaken for a huge army of red ants. I looked up and saw a stunning scenery before me. The sun was making the water glisten, It looked beautiful. It was Friday the 24th, and the whole school was walking to the beach. It was Picnic day!

“Here, Let’s sit over here! Toreka said. Looking over, I saw her laying out her miniature mat out. I heard Seini-Mino ask her: “Are you sure we can all fit on it?”. “Well umm...Let’s just try to!” Toreka replied. As we put our bags down on the mat, Seini-Mino suggested “Should we play kicks?” “Ok!” I replied back enthusiastically.

Catching the ball, It was my turn to kick. Holding the ball in my hands, I gave it my full concentration. Counting down, 3, 2, 1...Kick!! I said to myself. The ball flew off into the distance. “LENA!!!” Mino screamed. “Woops?” I replied sympathetically. Suddenly I heard a grumble. Was it the clouds? No, Was it a dog? No, It was...my stomach. I just realised that I was craving for food.

Grabbing my lunch from my bag, I viciously ripped the packet off, and shoved the bar into my mouth. Adding to that I grabbed my drink and squeezed the cordial into my mouth. Feeling the yummy goodness slide down my throat was a great feeling. “Ahhh, that’s better!” I said. Then Mino, Toreka and I made our way back to the field to play kicks.

“ Aidan give it back!!!” I whined. “Nah, You have to play rugby with us!!” He replied. Mino, Toreka and I had a little conversation, then we came to a verdict. “Fine!” Mino screamed. As we made our way to play with the boys, I looked up, and saw that dark grey clouds were blanketing the sky.

My heart was pumping, My legs were aching, but I had to keep going. The try line was in sight, and I was nearly there. “Almost there, Keep going, and....TRY!!!” Falling to the ground, my heart was pumping but I was also relieved. I had gotten a try, It felt so good. Glancing to the left I saw Mr Harris packing up the poles. I knew we had to go.

While we were packing up our stuff, I was dying for a drink. For the first time in my life I think my tongue was dry. Then Mino saved me, She had a drink in her bag, and she was willing to share. I gulped down as much as I could drink, “Ahh” I breathed a sigh of relief.

I didn’t want that day to end. It was a good day to spend time with your Family and Friends. My highlight of the day was spending time with my big brother Sam before he went to Australia. This day was great, to bad this is my last year here at Pt England.

These are a few of my favourite things!!!

All I need to say about this photo is: Me. This photo shows symbols that explain me. The first symbol shows that I love fashion. When I go out with my family or friends. People would explain my fashion sense as a person who loves to wear anything that is Vintage. Performing is also 1 of my hobbies. Singing is a creative way of expressing how you feel. Dancing is also a creative way to express yourself with movement. Me and my big brother Sam both share a love for dancing. The symbol on the bottom left corner shows that I also have a love for sports. My favourite sports are Netball, Volleyball, touch and multiple other sports. Cameras are great. Why I hear you ask? Well it stores all of your important memories on it. Thanks to modern technology, we can do more things with cameras like uploading the photos onto the computer just by a click of a button.

So there you have it. I have told you 4 things that represent me. If you are interested in reading more you can click on this link and this will take you to my flickr page: These are a few of my favourite things!

Treaty of Waitangi

Once upon a time New Zealand was an uninhabited Island. Then the Maori arrived from Hawaiki. Later the traders, whalers, sealers and missionaries arrived. By the 1800’s there was a lot of lawlessness. There was conflict between the British settlers and the Maori, so to help this problem, the British set up a treaty to keep peace between these two people.

What are the main ideas of the treaty, I hear you ask? Well they were about the 3 P’s which stand for: Protection, Partnership and Participation. Protection meant that the British would help the Maori protect their land and their people. Partnership meant that the British would keep peace with the Maori. Last but not least, Participation meant that they would let the Maori participate in sports and other worldwide things.

Last week Room 21 watched a re-enactment of what really happened in the days leading up to the signing of the treaty of Waitangi. This is what I learnt from the movie:

“These people are filthy savages” James Busby whispered. It was February 1840 and James Busby was waiting outside of William Hobson’s room. William Hobson was the British Governor at the time, but unfortunately he was sick. James needed to see him urgently because it was a few days before the signing of the treaty. They hadn’t started the draft yet and only few chiefs supported the treaty, one of them named Hone Heke. He married the daughter of a legendary chief. Adding to that problem, if they hadn’t started the English version of the treaty, how could they finish the Maori version in time?

It’s the 4th of February 1840 and the British are rushing to draft the treaty. The scene was set in a little cottage in Waitangi. Arguments were forming, on what to write in the treaty. They would have to work it out soon, or they would let down The Queen Her Majesty.

It’s the 6th of February and the Treaty is being set up in front of James Busby’s house. Crowd’s of Maori and Pakeha were rolling in quickly. Amongst those people was Hone Heke. He was trying to persuade his people that the Treaty was good for them, and their land. The Maori looked up to see William Hobson, James Busby, Henry Williams and many other correspondents standing before them.

While William Hobson was reading the Treaty, Henry Williams was translating it for the Maori people. Who is Henry Williams I hear you ask? Well he is a missionary that arrived to Aotearoa to spread the word of God. While he was here, he became fluent in Maori. Back to the story, When William Hobson was finished, Hone Heke’s uncle Te Kemera Kaiteke stood up proudly, walked over to William Hobson and punched the table. He disagreed with the treaty and didn’t want to sign.

That is all we watched. By the end of the year, about 540 chiefs all over New Zealand signed the treaty and to this day we live under the treaty. Actually us, Pt Englanders go by the treaty at school. Protection means that we protect each other from bad stuff happening to one another. Partnership means that we have a good work relationship with other peers. Also if we get partnered up with different people, we try to work together nicely. Participation means to let people participate in games and sports.

So the treaty plays a big part in our everyday lives. We should be thankful that the treaty was signed.

Seeya Ala...

These holidays were pretty cool. Not the BEST holidays I’ve had though. What was my holiday highlight? Well, Ala was leaving our school so Sylvia, Toreka, Ala and I went down to Swimarama so we could spend time with Ala before she left. Here’s my highlight of the holidays.

As we walked into the pools, the strong stench of chlorine filled my nostrils. We walked carefully over to the shady side of the pool. We lay our clothes out neatly and collapsed onto the grass. We were trying to get a tan under the trees at Swimarama.

Jumping into the pool I nearly froze because of the freezing water. I came up gasping for air. I came up and saw Toreka laughing at me because of my facials, as I emerged out of the water. Ignoring her I dove down to the bottom of the pool, I couldn’t resist opening my eyes and the chlorine stung my eyeballs. I heard a grumble in my tummy so I came up out of the water, and made my way out to grab a quick snack.

We were all sitting under the tree having a quick snack, and we were gossiping as girls do. I was stuffing my face with Doritos and Sour cream and chive crackers. Sylvia told a funny as joke which made me laugh so hard that I started choking, but did the girls notice??? I don’t think so. So when I could breath again I stood up and stormed away from the girls and jumped straight into the pool.

It was competition time! We were all in the pool, so we decided to have a competition. Ala got on my shoulders and Toreka got on Sylvia’s shoulders. Ala and Toreka were shoving and pushing each other, While me and Sylvia were trying to balance. We have no idea who won since both of our teams cheated. Oh well, That’s not our fault...Or is it??

At the end of the day we packed up our belongings and made our way to Ala’s car. While we were there we took Vain photos of ourselves near the basin…. Oh wait let me rephrase that: TOREKA was taking vain photos of ALA. My highlight of the day is spending time with my Besties. My lowlight of the day was saying goodbye to Ala.

It's pretty different not having Ala attend our school anymore. We have all known each other ever since year 2 and an important friend of ours is gone. Miss you Ala banana. Don't miss me too much!

Pie chart...Mmmm Pie.

During Maths in Room 21, we have been studying Statistics. We asked questions and tallied up our answers to our most FAVOURITE things in Room 21. According to my evidence, Carls Jnr topped the food chain, racking in a whopping 11 votes. McDonalds isn't to far behind having 8 votes. Wendys though have only racked in 1 vote, alongside Other. Hope you enjoyed my PIE chart...mmmm Pie.

My plan for Year 8

I will do my best to become a prefect next year because they are the leaders of the school. The qualities I need to achieve this goal is I need to show everyone that I am a good leader, I can be responsible and I need to be reliable. I also want to strive to get better at Maths, which means I’m going to have to try harder to memorise the good strategies that I am taught.

The year of the Netbook

This year I have really enjoyed having a Netbook because you have easy wireless Internet access at home, which is great because since you have Internet you can easily access your Docs and any other learning facility on the net. Another thing is that you can work on a shared doc with your partner and you don’t have to be in the same place! Furthermore having a Netbook has helped me become a better blogger, because I have posted more blogs this year than any other year!

As much as I have loved having a Netbook there are some things that I haven’t liked. For example, When your at home the Internet connections sometimes don’t work as well as you’d hoped it would, which has bothered most of us. Secondly there are little captions that come up like: Major upgrade! or Wrong password, And the wrong password caption is annoying especially if another person is on your Netbook, It will reveal your password to them.

An advantage is that you can finish your overdue tasks off at home other than coming to school the next day and having to finish it off at lunchtime. Also at home you can go onto Maths Whizz and get ahead in your Maths.

Well from time to time It is hard to resist the temptations of the Internet like Games and other things but I sometimes am careful of what site I am on. I think I have been cyber smart because I am always aware of what site I am on and if it is a sensible site to be on.

It would be an absolute DISASTER to go back to pen and paper! Pen and paper isn’t that bad but It does make your hands sore from writing. With typing it is easier and much more efficient. Plus it is tidier to type because I must admit my hand writing is nasty so it would be better for me to stick to typing. It also help because If we were to go back to pen and paper: what if we needed to do research? We would have to take turns on the Multi Media machines.