Category: Hanga | Create

WAL about decimals.

The point of a decimal check is so that my teacher (Miss Kemp) will know how much I know about decimals and what I need to learn. I didn’t realize we had to screenshot our results from the ARB’s tests for all of them so I had to redo some.

We are learning about the New Zealand lesser short-tailed bat and the long-tailed bat A.K.A the pekapeka.

In New Zealand there are two types of bat the lesser short-tailed bat and long-tailed bat.  The greater short-tailed pekapeka (the third species) was last spotted in the 1960’s and is presumed extinct. The pekapeka is an extremely unique and incredible animal but sadly they are dying out and this can only be solved if we work together and stop this amazing creature from dying out.

New Zealand lesser short-tailed bat.

 

WALT about the techniques of pop art. This includes ben-day dots, bright colors as well as lines and patterns. The most challenging part about this was using the Sharpie to outline as it was to thick (that’s why I have black lips).

As you can see I am no Leonardo Da Vinci.

 

• Demonstrate willingness to accept challenges, learn new skills and strategies, and extend their abilities in movement-related activities. 

WILLIAM PIKE BIKE RIDE

On Friday the 8th of April Room 8 biked 48 KILOMETRES!!!! 48! We biked from Karoro School to Kumara and frankly, IT WAS EXHAUSTING! We started not long before 9:00 am To start the bike ride we crossed Main South Road, the train tracks, the road on the other side, that big hill and onto the cycle trail where we headed South. If anyone saw us they would have thought we were migrating. I can understand why. We were a big group of kids, parents/older sister (there was only one) and two teachers. All equipped with back packs and enough water to bathe an elephant. 

 

We biked to Watsons Creek with Thomas at the front (I may or may not have fallen off my bike into some flax ((Luckily no one saw apart from Charlotte and Ms Kemp)) ). Then we biked past Mill Creek and stopped at the Gladstone shelter for a quick water break and an opportunity for everyone to catch up. Around there somewhere I saw a bunch of beautiful rivers and creeks where I slowed down considerably to marvel at them before being told to hurry up. New River/Camerons was the last place we passed before we got to Taramakau. As I said before, anyone passing by would have been extremely confused as to why a bunch of kids and bikes were parked up right by the road in the middle of a school day.

 

Going on the bridge was really fun but when we got to the end everyone was on the other side of the road! That was my turn to be confused. But there was actually a cool down hill bit where we went UNDER the bridge and up out the other side! By the time we arrived at the start of the track we would take to Kumara I was feeling… not great. I had done that part of the track before so I knew what we were in for. The start was okay through a beautiful, cold forest but then we had huge fields in the middle of the sun we had to bike the length of. TWO FIELDS. I may have forgotten to mention that I was at the back the whole time. Oops. Well, anyways I stopped to read a sign about trams where Ms Kemp proceeded to inform me that I needed to keep moving. I retaliated with ‘Whats the point of signs if I’m not allowed to read it?’ so I was able to read the extremely informational piece on trams. At the back Karmi was not enjoying the ride much so Ms Kemp told her we (being me and Danica) were taking her for a ride on the weekend. We were thinking Christchurch would be a good ride. She was a bit reluctant at first but then I promised her an ice cream (it was originally an ice block but Ms Kemp said it wasn’t enough). 

 

The best part was riding over the bridge which was SUPER high up. We also saw some trees arranged in some sort of primitive message on the bank. After years of hard biking (it felt like it anyway) we arrived at our destination where we unfortunately only stopped for around half an hour.

I went to the loos with Emma, Lucy and Casey where we fought over the fancy loos and I climbed through a bike stand thinking it was playground equipment. Back at the playground where we had set up camp I shoveled as much food as I could fit in my mouth and then we were off! Going back was a lot harder than getting there and I wanted to give up. A lot. Somehow I made it back to school. What happened on the way back was a blur but it involved me nearly falling off a bridge and into a pretty river because I was distracted and Danica bike checking Ms Kemp.

 

All in all it was enjoyable but I will never do it again. And now for my quote. Actually, I’m going to mix it up and put in TWO quotes.

 

You can’t be sad while riding a bicycle– Unknown

 

HAHA UNKNOWN! YOU ARE WRONG! VERY WRONG!!!! This first one might apply to some people but not to me. Or this bike ride. Bikes are fun to ride on but when you have a ride as long as that you can’t not have some… unsavoury moments with the wind making tears fall out of you eyes and cuts on your fingers from the brakes, not to mention the aching pain in every part of your body. 

 

Life is like riding a bicycle– Einstein

 

Much better. You cry, you scream, you yell, you want it over, you cry again, you do more screaming yet somehow you enjoy it. But that doesn’t mean you want to do it again. The reason I put in two quotes was because it helps me to explain what the bike ride was like and how I felt about it. Also I like proving people wrong (even if they’re unknown).

WALT: Write for an audience. The challenge in writing poems is editing. Once you have poured your heart out and written down your most intimate thoughts (that’s the way I look at it) it is hard to find fault with it.

 

Forgotten

 

No bombs.

No guns.

Nothing but peace.

That is what it was.

 

No crying babies on the street.

No mothers screaming for her children.

Just happiness.

That is what it was.

 

Men in suits,

With pretty words,

Hiding the truth.

That is what it is.

 

Pain, fear, grief.

Home a meaningless word.

Shut out at the border,

Clawing frantically at metal fences tall as mountains,

Our chance at freedom… gone.

That is what it is.

 

Yelling, Fighting.

‘Please, please-’

A single bullet can change a life.

 

Out all alone,

In this big world.

Forgotten.

 

This poem was written for the Marsden Valley Education Centre competiton. The competition is being held for the Ukraine. Children could enter a painting of a sunflower (the Ukraine national flower) and/or a poem about refugees. While writing I tried to imagine the child in the story was around my age who was just numb. No life. They weren’t a bright, happy kid. They were a shell. Telling their story as if it were facts that didn’t affect them.

 

WALT: Write for an audience. The challenge in writing poems which I definitely struggled with while writing this poem was editing. Once you have poured your heart out and written down your most intimate thoughts (that’s the way I look at it) it is hard to find fault with it.

Turangawaewae

 

Tōuarangi pounding on the roof,

Keeping me up at night. 

Out the window,

Water drips down from kiwikiwi skies.

 

Kakariki bush, 

Thick and dense.

Pollen floods my nose, 

As birds wheko.

A rough moana,

 

Pounds shifting shores.

Salty, surly, splendid.

Grey and blue and green.

 

A town filled with people,

Who have lived and loved and lost.

They know their home,

This is their place in the world.

 

They say “home is where the heart is”

And that is true.

You love it with a passion; 

the way tamariki love to play,

because that is where you belong.

 

This is my poem that I wrote for world poetry day. It is about turangawaewae; the place where you belong. At school we had a competition where EVERYONE had to enter the school wide poetry challenge. And in my class I was one of two winners.