Te Tuhi Trip.

Today, Tuesday, my class and I were lucky enough to go on a trip to 'Te Tuhi'. Te Tuhi is an art studio/gallery. We arrived and hopped out of the bus. We were greeted by a beautiful, sharp, well maintained building. As we we entered, I was rushed by the smell of fresh coffee beans.

Future Aspriations.

Mr Samuels was the first guest to talk about his career. Also, his previous career. He was one of the presenters for What Now! New Zealand's no.1 kids show. He gave us a saying, ‘To Miharo Hoki’ which means, ‘you are amazing’ in english.

The next person was Paula, which is actually pronounced as ‘Bola’. He’s really funny, he told us a story about how he loved to swim when he was around our age. One day he made it into the interzones, the reason he won all of his games is because while his other competitor were getting tired they slowed down, but Paula was tall. So he used his height to his advantage. While the people to his side slowed down, he put his legs on the ground and started kicking from the ground. When he tried that at the interzones, he completely failed. The water was too deep for him to touch the ground, he took in too much water and passed out. The lifegaurd took him out, and resuscitated him. His friends looked at him for a while.......’Shame!’ the all yelled. When he got back to school.

Thank you letter.

Dear Mr & Mrs Samuels,

I would like to say a huge thank you for taking the time to help out with the Yr 8 camp. It was the best week ever! With a little help from you ;) It was pretty awesome.My favorite activity is inevitable, it was Kayaking! I loved how you took us on a Tiki Tour around the River.  Me and Tyla were racing.

All the Yr 8’s enjoyed your company. It would have been boring without you’s to be honest. Your lovely personalities lightened up my day. Thank You's so much!

From Porscha.

Reasons why there should be school/class rules.

The reason there should be school/class rules is because it would be chaotic without any. Having rules keeps students tamed, instead of being out of control. Like chewing gum for instance, most children are too lazy to walk to the rubbish bin, so they either stick it under their desks or throw it onto the ground.

Wearing shoes in the classroom would be a big issue for cleaners. Sometimes after morning tea students bring dirty and wet shoes into the class. Which stains the carpet. If there was no in discipline our school would go down the drain. Teachers wouldn't come into school to teach, because their student are being disrespectful and misbehaving.

Last Immersion Assembly

At the beginning of every Term my school (Pt England) have what’s called an Immersion Assembly. It’s where the whole school gets together to share some items related to the topic that term.

This Term, our topic is “Art Attack”. The reason this is the topic is because it’s something different. We have teams in our school, they represent the different age groups. So Team 1 would be for the 5 & 6 yr old's. etc.

Team 1’s item was about how this term, they are going down to the local beach. It’s literally down the road from my school. The reason they’re going to the beach is because they’re going to make individual paintings of the beach.

Team 2’s was a movie, about colors! It was also about mixing colors together. For example, Red and Blue makes....Purple. It was really cool. Team 3’s items every Term are always my favorite. Mrs Barks illustrates what her group is going to do. She introduced 4 different artists.

Team 4 was the same as team 3, Team 5’s was awesome! They made paintings of Mr Burt, Mr Jacobsen and Mrs Jarman. It was cool because it was like an actual painted photo.

My Weekend.

‘Arrrrrrgh!!’ she exclaimed. She clenched onto my hand as if the world was ending.

‘Drive faster!’ she demanded. At this point my hand was turning purple. I had the job of writing down how far apart the contractions were with my spare hand.

We parked up, I ran to the boot and grabbed all the bags, then we power walked to the elevator.

My mother pushed number 9, as we were in the lift I felt the floor being soaked in some type of liquid, then I realised my auntie had broken one of her waters.

She was panicking, my mum told her there’s no need to worry. ‘It’s perfectly normal’ my mum said softly. Once we reached the top she had another contraction, she walked like a penguin to the corridor, she then leant on the wall and relaxed.

Her partner asked the receptionist what room ‘Tegan Webster’ was in. ‘Last room on your right’ she replied. ‘Thank you’ he said. When we arrived at the room, there was a huge bath filling up. It had to be 101 Fahrenheit as it could be too hot for the baby.   

Cross Country Writing

I woke up and wondered what I would come in Cross Country. I swiftly jumped out of bed, slipped my uniform on, and made myself some toast. I put my green clothes into my bag and said my goodbyes.

Last week on Thursday, my school (Pt England) had Cross Country. It started at 1pm. The whole school had to meet at the netball courts next to the outside toilets. When we arrived, we were put into age groups, from Yr 1 - Yr 8 boys & girls. I was put into the Yr 8 Girls Group.

When the Yr 1 boys were called up to go and race, I was so excited for them. Mrs Nua had announced that the Yr 8 Girls would be last to race. Asena and I kept ourselves occupied by taking action photo’s of people already running.

The Yr 1 - 5’s had a different course to run, it was much shorter. The seniors course was 3 km, and the Juniors had to run half of that. ‘Yr 8’s, Yr 8 Girls?’ Mrs Nua exclaimed. All the Yr 8 girls stood up, and it looked pretty cool because we were wearing our house colours. It was kind of like a rainbow.

‘Ready, Set’ Mr Burt said aloud. ‘Bang’ went the little pistol. It sounded like more of a ‘Pop’ to me. Kaycee and I sprinted to the goal post and before we had reached the end of it, we stopped for breath. I counted 100 strides before I rested, waited for 10 seconds, then started running again.

After completing one lap of the course, I had to run through it once more. At this point I felt like pulling a sickie. My throat was dry, my feet were killing me and my face was dripping with sweat.

I had finished my last lap around the reserve, just before I entered the gates, I saw Mr Barks and Mr Sommerville cheering. I was pumped enough to run the rest of the way, but I decided to just walk, because I knew I wouldn’t get a prize. I let Cheyanne and Anamei overtake me. I saw Serenity at the finish line yelling my name, “Go Porscha! Go Porscha!.” She yelled. I jogged past the finish line and hugged Serenity, I walked to the tap and washed my feet. The bell went, I walked to class then left school and went home.

Sela :)

Spectacular!
Extra Ordinary!
Loving!
Awesome!

Letter to John Key

Dear John Key,

My name is Porscha, I attend Point England School. I'm writing this letter to you because I’m not impressed with the way the Ocean is being treated. Over 1 billion plastic bags are used in New Zealand each year.

I propose that we ban plastic bags, because it’s killing the sea life. Six countries have already banned Plastic Bags.

When plastic bags are thrown into the water, fish & birds think it’s food. By the time they realised it’s not food, they’ve already choked & died.

That is just one of the many reasons I want plastic bags to be banned.

Plastic bags being banned from New Zealand wouldn’t only be environmentally safe, but safer for children as well. It can prevent sea pollution from getting worse and sea life won’t be in danger.

This is also a good idea because, it’ll keep the image of New Zealand being a clean and green country.

For a start, we should increase the price of plastic bags, so hardly anybody will buy them. Then, by 2015 plastic bags will be banned. By then there will already be paper bags. Please ban plastic bags.

Yours sincerely

Porscha

Pt England School

Argument Writing.

Children should do some form of exercise everyday’. Today my writing is based on why children should exercise every day. Firstly, exercising every day is essential because it can prevent children from getting obese. 1 in 9 children are obese in New Zealand, by 2020 5 in 9 children will be overweight.

Porscha - Term 3 Sample Writing.

The reason its important to stay healthy, is because you could catch harmful diseases. Like, Measles, Rashes, Chicken Pox. etc. Doctors seriously recommend going straight to the doctor for Medication, if you have a sore throat. If not treated in time, you will be diagnosed with ‘Rheumatic Fever’, which leads to Heart Damage. For instance, showering daily is essential, because you have to be healthy. When you fall over, you’ll notice that the graze is clean & Cherry Red. That means its clean, it still doesn’t matter, you still have to cover it up, if you don’t, it could get infected.

Life Education.

This term for 4 weeks, we ( Class 2 ) were given the opportunity to participate in an exciting activity. It’s called the ‘Life Education Caravan’. This Terms topic was about ‘Alcohol & Drugs’, and what the consequences would be if you were to take them.

First, we watched a brief video of people that have been affected by drugs. Zeb, started doing drugs when he found out that glue gave you a ‘buzz’. He then started sniffing glue, which gave him all sorts of rashes. Zeb had the potential to be an All black, but that all changed when he decided to do drugs. ‘I wasn’t being affected, my family was’ Zeb said. His mum couldn’t accept the fact that Zeb had been doing drugs. So, she kicked him out. Zeb went to live on the streets.

Jason was another victim of addiction, he was a Straight-A Student. Until his friends invited him to a party, when he arrived, his friends offered him a drink. ‘Why not’ Jason replied. Later on that night, his friends introduced him to drugs. From that day forward, Jason became a Drug Addict. Jason had overdosed at 25 years old.

Rita’s story was a bit different. The only reason she took drugs was because she wanted to fit in. She saw her friends taking drugs, so she copied them. Not long after she started, she was addicted. Rita was arrested, she was sentenced to 5 months in prison. When Rita got out, she decided that she wanted to be a teacher. All of her application forms were rejected. ‘Just think about the consequences before you do drugs’ Rita pleaded.

When you put alcohol into your body, its ends up in the stomach. The stomach can remove liquid very frequently. Alcohol is already a liquid, so this isn’t a problem. It then goes down into the small intestines, which leads to the liver. The liver can process one bottle of alcohol every hour. Once everything is dissolved, the alcohol travels through the bloodstream, then into the brain.                 

This is my wordplosion.

Rugby 7's in Samoa. :)

Samoa is located in the continent of Oceania. There are hundreds of islands in Oceania. Samoa is the 9th most populous island in Oceania, with a total of 187, 275. The capital of Samoa is Apia, along with Upolu. Apia is also the biggest city in Samoa. In Samoa there are more males than females.

The citizens of Samoa speak Samoan, and the culture is Samoan. They often speak English. Samoa’s favourite sport to play is Rugby 7’s. Their famous team is Manu Samoa. They're also competing in the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Their last game was against Australia, and Samoa lost. They came 4th. Samoa is one of the top ten best countries in the world for Rugby 7’s.

Immersion Assembly.

If you didn't already know, an Immersion Assembly is when an entire school meets in a certain place. After that every team, from Team 1 - Team 5, perform their acts representing our topic for this term. Our topic this term is “Game On!” As the Commonwealth Games are coming up, this is the perfect topic.

“Give it up for Team 1!” Mr Jacobsen yelled. Team 1 had a movie about people representing lots of different countries in the Commonwealth Games. The countries were, Fiji, USA, Canada, Samoa. Queen Elizabeth made an exclusive video, telling all of the countries to never give up, and always try your hardest.

Team 2 had prepared a video for us, their movie was about sports in the Commonwealth Games. My favourite part was when Mrs She & Ms Eddie were boxing, then Ms She KO’d Ms Eddie. Team 4 had a movie about a possible new sport in the Commonwealth Games.....Mash Potato Sculpting. The countries competing in this sport were, Rarotonga, Canada, Jamaica, Scotland and India. The referee blew the whistle and off they went. Rarotonga created some type of retarded snowman. But Jamaica on the other hand, made an astounding snowman, with a nose and everything. Jamaica had won by a mile.

Commonwealth Games.

5 Facts that I already know about the Commonwealth Games:

1	71 countries compete in the Commonwealth games.
2	There are 17 sports.
3	The Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, UK this year.
4	The first Commonwealth Games were held in 1930.
5	It happens every 4 years.

Useful links:

http://www.glasgow2014.com/sites/default/files/attached-files/Glasgow%202014%20Factsheet.pdf

http://www.gameonscotland.org/glasgow2014/

http://www.hie.co.uk/regional-information/2014/100-facts-about-the-games.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2290636/Commonwealth-Games-2014--Facts-Figures.html

10 new facts that I found out about the Commonwealth Games: (include a link to the site where you found your information. Your information needs to be in your own words)

1	Scotland hosted the Commonwealth Games twice in the past. (1970,1986)
2	Queen Elizabeth is the Queen of 16 of the 71 countries competing
3	In the original Commonwealth Games in 1930, only 400 athletes from 11 countries took part.
4	The first Commonwealth Games was held in Hamilton, Canada.
5	3000 balls will be used across six sports in the Commonwealth Games.
6	In 2015 the Youth Commonwealth Games will be held in Samoa.
7	The Commonwealth Games are also known as The British Empire Games.
8	Commonwealth Games are 11 days long.
9	Glasgow won the right to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games in 2007.
10	Australia leads the way with an astounding, 803 gold medals.

Future Aspirations.

Today, the yr 7 & 8’s of Pt England School were lucky enough to experience an eye opening spoken word item. A group of people came to our school to tell us about their past aspirations, from when they were children. One of which was Andrew Patterson. He’s like the host, and the coordinator of the programme. You might of heard of him, he works at the radio station. He told us about how he became a radio host. “I was twelve, my class had gone on a trip to a radio station, when I had arrived I knew I wanted to be a radio host.” Andrew explained. He told us to follow our dreams, and to not let anyone put you down.

Our inspirational first guest to talk was Jason Sharma. He's a maths teacher at Tamaki College. This is his first year teaching maths. Mr Sharma believes that, if your not having fun while you're learning, you're not really learning. I believe that too. He’s Indian - Samoan. Mr Sharma is from a small town called, Manurewa. He told us that following your friends isn't always the right thing to do. When he went to college, all of his friends were really sporty. Mr Sharma would much rather solve number problems, then be tackled by huge rugby players. Jason drove himself to become a maths teacher. He's currently teaching Maths at Tamaki College.

Second up, was Constable Faireka. Constable Faireka doesn't go on police chases, or drug busts. Infact,  he is a police officer that puts together annual get together's for the community. This year a couple of Police Men and Women put together a programme called “Kids Safety Day”. It was at the Pt England Reserve. Kids Safety Day is a day filled with fun. If you have a bike with a flat tyre, you can take it there, so the volunteers can pump it up for you. Constable Faireka is from the Island of Rarotonga.

Echolocation :)

Dolphins have their own special way of hunting for food. It’s called ‘Echolocation’. As it is so dark under water, dolphins can not use sight as one of their senses. This is where echolocation comes in handy. Echolocation is when a dolphin makes a sound, and then the sound reflects off an object. It gets sent back to the dolphin. Dolphins can detect how far away this object is.

Dolphins aren't the only mammals that use echolocation. Bats for instance, use echolocation as it is essential for them. Bats are nocturnal, which means they sleep through the day and come out at night to hunt for food. No animal can see in complete darkness.  Bats send out small signals to find their food.

Lorde. :)

New Zealand has a well known Singer - Songwriter. Ella O'Connor, also known as her stage name “Lorde”. At the age of 17, she wrote a breakthrough song, “Royals”. This song sent her to the grammy’s, in America!! She had been nominated the “Best pop soloist of the year”. And believe or not, Lorde won the Award! One of the pop artists she was competing with was, Katy Perry. She also won the award for “Song Of The Year”. She has definitely put us Kiwi’s on the map.

Acrostic Poem ;*

Awkward.

Special.

Exciting.

Nosy.

Amazing.

All of these words describe Asena's wacky personality.

Difining Words.

How to play netball.

How to play netball.

Netball is by far my favourite sport, of all time. To play this game, you have to have a lot of skill and patience. There are three thirds. That’s where seven position have there own place. Centre is the only position that is allowed to run in to those three thirds. On both ends of the court, there are Semicircles, that's the only place “Centre” isn’t allowed.

Guitar (explanation)

Sound travels through the air and water. It is the fastest known “thing” in the world. Sound is a vibration, made up of the air molecules surrounding you. Music is the best type of sound. To make music, we use musical instruments. One of the most well known instruments, is the guitar.

There are 6 strings and 12 notes on a guitar. Its kind of pear shaped. On each side of the guitar, there are curves. These curves are there to fit comfortably into the shape of your leg. The other curve is for your arm, so whenever your arm gets tired you can just rest your arm while you're strumming.

When you pick a string on your guitar, you’ll notice that it sounds a bit shaky. Thats because the sound reflects off of the hood of the guitar, and causes a vibration. Also known as, echoes.

Every guitar has a neck. Thats where the metal strings belong. If you place your finger on a fret you’ll notice that the pitch has just changed. The pitch gets higher every time you move your finger up, when you move it down, the pitch will obviously go lower.

I’ve been playing guitar for as long as I can remember. I know how to play about 20+ songs. My dad taught me how to play. He never really told me how the sound is made. So now I can go home and brag about how I knew this before him.

Article Summary.

I’ve recently read an article about “SONAR”. Sonar stands for, sound navigation and ranging. Sonar is a type of machine used underwater to find lost objects such as, shipwrecks. The machine sends out a sound wave, when the sound wave hits the object, it reflects off of it. Sonar can detect how far the object is by sensing how long it took for the sound wave to get back to them. Although, there are negatives to this machine. Sonar can interfere with Marine life. This is also known as, sound pollution. All animals have a unique way of communicating. Whales communicate with what we know as, "whale songs". This is their own type of sonar. It helps them hunt for food, as the ocean is so dark, you can't see a thing. The reason our sonar interferes with the whales sonar, is because its really loud. And whales have really sensitive hearing. This causes whales to swim up to the surface to quickly, which causes decompression. Decompression can cause internal bleeding and hearing loss. When the whales run out of air, they pass out. Then, the whales float to shore.

Immersion Assembly.

“Give it up for....Team 1!” Mr Burt yelled. A movie started playing on the projector. The movie was about how Zookeepers keep their animals safe, compared to how us humans keep ourselves safe. At the zoo, there’s these awesome magnetic doors. So everytime someone was to walk in, someone can turn off the magnetic force. Then turn it back on, to keep the animals safe.“Put your hands together for....Team 2!” Team 2’s item was based on “flight”. Ms Eddie was dressed up as an olden day kind of plane. Their item was basically about, “I like to move it, move it.” It was also about how planes fly. And how they work. It was team 3’s turn. They had put together an item about colors. This item was by far my favourite. It was about how colors work. And how they travel. It was really cool! Team 4 was up next. This item was pretty interesting. It was about flotation, positive and negative. They had 3 objects. Team 4 was asking which one would float, and which one would sink. There was a paper clip, a brick and a rock. The paper clip would sink. I think. And the brick as well. But the rock would float. Team 5’s item was most annoyingest item ever! It was a video about sound. All team 5 teachers were in a movie playing different types of instruments.

Paper Experiment.

Science experiment:

Question: What will happen to the sound if I change the shape of a piece of paper? (e.g. from a flat shape to a funnel shape) There was no change between the flat piece of paper and the funnel. Because, there were ways for the sound to be heard clearly. Like hollow pieces.

Links to research about Sound:

http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/robotzoo/guide/bats_and_echoes.htm

Hypothesis: (What do you think will happen?) e.g. I think that….

When you put the funnel to one side you would only be able to hear that side.

Materials needed:

Paper, tape  and a couple of tissues.

Experiment (procedure):

e.g. Step 1 - First hold a flat piece of paper against your ear. Block your other ear with your hand. Get your partner to speak to you. What is the sound like? Sounds normal. Can you hear clearly? Yes

Step 2 - Next, roll the piece of paper into a funnel shape. Put the funnel against your ear. Face the funnel towards your partner and listen to them speak. What does it sound like? It sounds . Can you hear clearly? Yes

Step 3 - Next, face the funnel to the side while your partner is speaking. What was different about this? It sounded like my partner was far away. I could hear all the background noise.

Step 4 - After that, fill your funnel with tissue or cotton. Did this make a difference? Yes, it did. It sounded like something was blocking my partner.

Step 5 - Next, roll your piece of paper up to make a cylinder like shape. What difference did this make? No difference really. It just sounded like I was tunnel.

Data (What happened?)

	Shape/object/materials	Results:
1	flat piece of paper	It could've been clearer.  But it didn't really make a difference.
2	funnel facing to the front towards partner	It sounder really clear. But there was a bit of echo.
3	funnel facing to the other side	It sounded like my partner was really far away.
4	cotton ball blocking funnel	It sounded....blurry??
5	rolled up piece of paper (facing to the front)	It was really loud, and I could hear all the background noise.
6	rolled up piece of paper (facing to the side)	I could hear loud and clear.

Observations: My first experiment was with the flat piece of paper.

I rolled up my piece of paper into a funnel shape, and taped it. I asked Porscha to speak to me, and it sounded like I was inside of a tunnel.

Conclusion: My hypothesis was wrong. I could hear both sides. Besides all the background noise, I could hear my partner really clearly.

Straw oboe

Science experiment:

Question: What will happen to the sound if I cut the straw shorter and blow through it?

Links to research about Sound:

http://www.universetoday.com/61166/what-is-sound/

http://www.sciencekidsathome.com/science_topics/what_is_sound.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oElbMctAVlY&safe=active

Hypothesis: (What do you think will happen?) e.g. I think that….The sound will go up. It’ll go a little bit higher every time I cut the straw shorter.

Materials needed: A straw and scissors.

Experiment (procedure):

e.g. Step 1 - Crease straw on one end.

Step 2 - Cut creased straw into triangle shape. Blow air into the cut end.

Step 3 - Listen to the sound it makes. Record it.

Step 4 - Cut straw shorter.

Step 5 - Blow on cut end. Listen and Record.

Data (What happened?)

15cm:	Made a sound.
10cm:	The sound was higher.
5cm:	The pitch was even higher.

Observations: At first, it didn’t make a sound, but then I gently blew on it, and it straight away made a sound. For every piece of straw I cut off, the pitch got higher, and squeakier. It sounded exactly like a birthday party horn. Even though there were two materials needed, it was pretty complex.

Conclusion:

My hypothesis was right because the sound went a little bit higher every time I cut the straw shorter.