Pick A Path

At school for writing one of our focuses has been Pick a Path writing. This is when we wrote a story and the reader can pick the path of the storyline. I have focused on making it visually appealing so the page looks exciting.

My Travel Guide To Christchurch

By Anna

Want a trip to a fun packed and diverse city? Well then get reading because whether your interests lie in history or playing on a fun filled playground you will always have a great time in Christchurch.
Here are my top things to do if you are heading there and if you aren’t I can guarantee you will want to after you have read this.

Transport

London has double decker buses but Christchurch has Trams. Trams are an excellent way to get around the city,with 17 stops around the centre of Christchurch you can get on and off whenever you please. Sick of waiting for your bus to arrive? Christchurch tramways guarantee a maximum of 15 minutes waiting time so you can count on being punctual. Don’t worry about a slow tedious journey because you also get a free commentary of Christchurch City as you get from A to B. All of this comes under a price of $25 for adults and it’s free for kids.

Entertainment

Every city has a museum,but Christchurch’s is second to none. The museum has things to do for all ages. For the younger ones the museum has a discovery centre and with just $2 entree fee you can enjoy lots of interactive activities. Discovery is based on the wonders of our animals and as well as heaps of fun it also poses a learning side. For the older years Christchurch museum has a range of exhibits such as the Paua house and the indoor Christchurch streets. This is where you can walk around the Christchurch streets that they have built in the museum. This gives you a great idea of what Christchurch would have been like. The museum also has lots of special exhibits that come and go. This offers a variety of options to interest all ages.

Kids Entertainment

In my experience with playgrounds Christchurch's Margaret Mahy playground is my NO.1. The playground is a new addition to Christchurch and it definitely has all the mod cons of the playground world! Such as a eight metre long spiraling slide with an awesome spider web climb to the top. Don't forget the three metre wide slide,so you can race all your friends…. and parents forget the long wait for your kids as the play because along the side of the playground there is pop up cafes,smoothie bars and ice cream stands.

Food and Shopping

People use recycled bottles to make boats but Christchurch has taken recycling to another level. The Re:Start city mall is made out of vibrantly coloured shipping containers! The Re:Start mall has a range of shops from wood fired pizzas to designer clothes shopping. The Re:Start city mall has things for all ages and has things for all people's interests. The Re:Start mall is easy walking distance from the tram stop so don't worry about parking.

Now you know all the top spots in Christchurch and there still is plenty more!

Anna’s Quick Guide to a Successful Camp Cook

By Anna

If you want to become an expert in camp food cooking,pay attention because by the time you have finished reading this your mind will be so bursting with information that it will be spilling out your ears(not literally).

So imagine, you are going on camp for 4 days and 3 nights and in your groups of 4-5 you had to come up with a menu for that period of time. This means that you have to cook 3 breakfasts,3 lunches and 3 dinners with a budget of $30 per person. This is the situation that we found ourselves in when we went on our camp to Omakau. I was in a group of 5 people which meant we had a budget of $150.

Looking back we probably were a little too serious about saving money and cutting costs. Now at this you might ask,why? Why didn’t we spend all of our budget? Now this is where our logic came in! We were allowed on one day to buy our lunch in town,this meant that we had to save enough money for 5 of us to buy lunch in the most expensive part of Christchurch!

Steps For Planning:

1. Talk with your group and discuss what food you like or dislike. Also discuss any allergies that might affect your menu.
2. Create a graph that shows what you will be eating and who will be cooking it. (Make sure your graph is easy to read)
3. Source any recipes(if you need) so that you can work out the quantities
4. Create a list of the ingredients that you are going to buy and price them out.
5. Add up the money you will be spending and compare it to your budget. You might find that you have to change some of the things you are buying so you are not overspending

My Top 3 Tips:

1. When you are deciding what to eat make sure that you keep in the back of your mind that you are not going on a 10 day tramp and need to pack lightly. Mrs Hannah kindly reminded us that we can eat like kings as long as it is within our budget.
2. It depends how confident your cooks are but we found it helpful when we had a assistant to help us out. This is helpful for things like setting the table for eating later on.
3. Have some basic kitchen rules for all groups to follow. Sometimes it can get a bit hectic in the kitchen so it is important to clean up after yourself.

If you follow all of those steps you will be able to have a successful camp cook! It is also helpful to check out your camp's facilities because who wants to get to camp and discover they don’t have an oven! Good luck and happy cooking,you will be creating masterchef dishes in no time!

Speeches

In term 3 we had our speeches and this year the teachers decided to add a presentation. This meant that we had to create a presentation that we could talk to,we could chose any topic and we only had five weeks. This meant that we had to do some serious self managing! I choose the subject of dreams and after the continuous stages of planning and editing I moved on to my presentation. I did this on Google slides and because of the short time frame it was a bit of a rushed job.

Next time I would probably have a different topic and work on making my speech funny and entertaining. i would also have more images on my presentation because it is more entertaining than words. 

I have recorded my speech on screencastify and here it is:

Book Review

The Suitcase Kid

This book by Jacqueline Wilson is a book that I have just started reading. I first picked the book because I have read the start before and really liked it. So far Andy(the main character) is feeling angry and left out because her pearents have split up. They are currently living in separate houses with different partners that all have children. Andy doesn't like the children or the Step-parents. All she wants is to live back in there cottage as one big family. 

Quote of the week

This week Brooklyn and I have been on team time. Team time is were we do some activities and sing a song at the start of school. We had to chose a quote and this is what we choose:

Matariki

At school we have been focusing on Matariki. I have been particularly interested in the myths and legends. This is one of the Maori myths:At school we have been focusing on Matariki. I have been particularly interested in the myths and legends. This is one of the Maori myths:

The Power of Positivity

Our focus in Team East is The Power Of Positivity. So far we have done a series of dramas and looked at how your body language affects people differently.

When I thought of positivity before we looked at the topic I thought that being positive was tied in with being nice. For example, giving someone a lollipop but as we have created scenes on how people can feel uncomfortable or unhappy I have changed my theory.

I know that for a fact everyone has shown bad body language or done something to offend somebody. They may have not meant to do it on purpose or done it just to hurt a person's feelings. It can be done discretely or it can be blatantly obvious. However you do it and whenever you do this it hurts another person's feelings and can make their life miserable.

After we had focused on this this topic for a week I have a new theory on being positive. If someone asked what it is to be positive I would say that being positive goes from smiling and having no negative thoughts. If you do have negative thoughts don't voice it,I mean why do people say negative things? After thinking about this the only answer I can come up with is,to make people feel bad which is horrible.

What I sometimes think to myself is:

-If you be positive to other people they will be positive back.

Clubs

On Fridays at school we have started club day afternoons. This is where we chose a club run by the teachers or parents to do for the afternoon. I chose scrapbooking because I like doing it in my own time and if I did it as a club I would be able to give and receive constructive feedback. I would also be able to expand on other people's ideas to make it your own and have more great resources to use.

When I turned up I was amazed to see how many people had chose this club. We all filed into the classroom like a mouse to cheese and sat down on the mat in front of Mrs Kennedy(the teacher that was running the club). She explained how to put a photo onto coloured paper making sure that you were colour coding and choosing some set colours so you are not over crowding your page. Then she sent us off to make either a card or a photo book.

Holly,Piper,Kate,Phoebe and I wanted to do a best friends photo book, so we got Mrs Kennedy's fancy camera and went outside to take photos. We focused on doing creative and good quality photos. Because I am definitely not photogenic I made sure I was taking most of the photos. After we had taken 70 photos we loaded them all onto Mrs Kennedy's computer and went through the process of deleting the ones we don’t like. 

As I was looking at the photos I decided to do a photo book one separately so I could keep it. Soon we were packing up everyone's mess. I am really looking forward to the next club day because we will be photoshopping our photos!!!!!!!!

ANZAC

At school we have been focusing on ANZAC. We got to chose a topic to work on and create a digital presentation on it. I chose to do The Frontline as a topic and I decided to do an explain everything and a Kahoot on it. I can't put the Kahoot on here because you need my password, but here is my explain everything(You have to watch it on a computer because it will not show up on a Ipad)):

Quote of the week

This quote made me laugh!!!!!!
Here is the link if you can't see it-Click This If You Want To See The quote

Cross Country

As I climbed into Rhianna's car on a cold,cloudy Wednesday I had two things on my mind:

1. I have approximately one and a half hours to break my leg.

2.Mother Nature please,please RAIN!!!!!

I was heading to the Domain to do Cross Country. As you can probably tell I am not very fond of it. 

By the time we had got to the domain I hadn't managed to break my leg and it almost looked like it was going to be a warm day!!! We got seated by the signs but that didn't last long because the juniors had started to race. We all raced to the finish line like bees to honey to cheer them on. Time was disappearing but the nervous brick in my stomach was not disappearing any time soon. 

After I had stuffed down a sausage the very organised Mrs Sutherland hearded us like sheep to where we were supposed to sit. I tried to calm my nerves but the fact it was boiling hot and we had to run 3km in a race wasn't really helping. Before I new it we were lining up, doing stretches and we were off.

We started with a lap of the rugby field. I was running with Derrin because she has the same pace as me. After a lap or so we were puffing ten to a second. We jogged into the forest and I was relieved to find that it was shady. We came out of the forest and we were hit by searing heat. We ran another 500m and then we sprinted like kids coming out of school to the finish line.

Even though I was exhausted I looked around for Haylley. She was just starting to do the last lap of the field so Holly P and I started to run with her(it probably wasn't a good thing to do on my part because I didn't have a drink). 

Overall I am very proud of myself and I am so glad I don't have to do it again.  

Mt Richardson

It had started out as a pretty warm day. We had just started to climb Mt Richardson with the school and apart from a few ups it had been really easy. Brooklyn,Haylley and I had been chatting away. Soon we were up to a steep part and we stopped talking. Unlucky this steep part went on and on and on. It was the kind of grinding steep part,when you almost have to pull your legs up. This went on for what seemed like an hour,but I probably was shorter than that. 

Once we had got to the top of that hill we stopped for morning tea. Happily we flopped down and decided how much we were going to eat. The hardest part for me was trying not to eat all my food. Soon we had recharged our batteries and we were raring to go. I started to walk with Emma which was good because we talked a bit and we didn't really notice how fast time was passing by. 

Soon I got to a part that I knew was close to the top. We grunted up the last bit and then before we knew it we were at a the very windy top of Mt Richardson. It was cold. The wind was howling around us and it almost seemed like it was going to pick us up and carry us down the mountain. 

We found a spot out of the wind and put lots of clothes on. I ate everything,but I left some food for afterwards. After a long wait we were put in a line and we numbered off. I was in the back so when we set of I started to run to the front. It was quite a long way from the back to the front,but I did make it. I loved going down,because we had a good pace and we were all chatting away(and I didn't fall over). 

Soon we were sprinting out of the track and rolling down the hill!!!!!

Book Review

The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley

By Colin Thompson & Amy Lissiat

This book had the same author has Norman and Brenda,so that is why we decided to read it.

The front cover had a picture of a slightly dirty,purple mouse holding a piece of cheese and a human doll. My prediction was that Riley(which I assumed was the mouse) found a doll and had a happy life because he had company.

The book started by explaining how humans want to live forever and nothing pleases them. Whenever they have blonde hair they want it to be brown and vise versa. I found the sentences really  humorous and cleaver. Then it explained how Riley(the mouse) lived a happy life and didn't need much to make him happy. That was basically the storyline the whole way through,but it never got boring. The author always had a great way to make it entertaining and funny. 

At the end of the book like the last one it said,

"Release your inner Riley"

I would highly recommend this book  

Quote of the week

When I saw this quote it cracked me up,so I have made it the quote of the week.
Here is the link to the quote is you can't see it-Click On This If You Want To See The Quote

St Margaret's College

MmOn Monday 9th Mum and I went to the opening of St Margaret's College in Mums attempt to find me a high school. As you can probably to tell I wasn't to keen about going to St Margaret's,but I went anyway. 

We got there half an hour earlier so we went into the on school cafe(maybe this wasn't so bad after all) and looked at their uniform. I thought the uniform looked quite good because it wasn't a set uniform,but they had a formal uniform as well. 

Once we got out of the cafe and walked in the gates we were meet by some friendly children from the    junior school and they directed us to the senior school. I was given a bag with the information about the school. Then we meet our tour guide,her name was Abigail and she was very nice.

We started of in one of the newest buildings. She showed us the dance flours which were massive and the speech and drama rooms. I found this very interesting because I didn't know that St Margaret's had all these great facilities. Next she showed us the science rooms. Something I noticed about the rooms is how they were modern and new,but they weren't big modern learning classes. I meet one of the general science teachers Mr Atkins,which happened to be Miss Hannas(my teacher) science teacher when she was at high school!

Next we went and saw the technology rooms which had all the gadgets,but were a good size. I loved looking at what the students had made because it was all so creative and you could tell that they put a lot of effort into it. From there Abigail showed us the gym,the basketball courts,the pool and the outdoor netball,tennis and hockey courts.

She briefly showed us the art and music rooms,because we had to go and see the principle talk. I found it really interesting. The head girl spoke really well for the size she was(I mean I was taller than her and that's something). 

Afterwards we went to the boarding school and I was impressed with the facilities. They had different houses for different year groups. After all this we went and got a hot chocolate from the cafe. I really want to go,but it costs to much!!!!!

Reading Review

At school in literacy time I am working on writing a review(along with some other people) on a picture book. Here is my first one:

Norman and Brenda

By Colin Thompson and Amy Lissiat

When I first looked at the cover the first thing I noticed were how dirty they were. At the top of the book it said ‘The anti-heroes,anti-heroes’. My interpretation of this was they both accidentally became heroes.

When we looked at the title page there was a picture of them both holding hands and Norman wearing a wedding veil! So then I thought that they were going to get married.

The first pages were of how depressing there lives were and how they always felt like they were left behind and there lives hadn’t started yet. They went through stages where they had animals or went on blind dates. I was waiting for the time were they would meet and like each other.

The author was very good at writing funny and clever sentences. The pictures were kind of cartoons and a bit odd,but when you looked closely you could see little clues that could generate a lot of discussion. Finally Brenda climbed up a ladder to see if the world looked better from above and fell on Norman. They ended up getting married,but at the end of the book the author wrote this:

It goes to show that even if you spend a lot of your life washing up at parties or talking to goldfish,somewhere in the world there is someone just for you.

You simply have to be in the right place at the right time.

For me this was my favourite part because it summed up the story and gave it a moral.

To sum this book up I would say it is a great read for someone who takes there time to read and think about what the author is saying. I really enjoyed how clever the author was with the sentences,making it engaging and funny. At the end of the book It had a sentence saying "The Normans and Brenda's never start wars". After a lot of discussion we couldn't come up with a good reason. Your just gonna have to read it and interpret it yourself.

Maths

For maths in term one we became experts in one area in measurement. Then we shared our learning with others in a explain-everything. I became an expert in mass and here is my explain everything:

Quote of the week

Sorry I haven't been posting quotes as much as I would like to(because it is the holidays),but here is one that I had to think about to get it. I would like to see how you interpret this quote so please comment.(:

Rotary BBQ

It was looking out to be a warm and sunny day. "Great for a BBQ" I thought as Brooklyn and I drove into Rangiora.

We were both doing the Rotary BBQ in front of New World for our community service as it is part of the William Pike challenge. We got there at 9:50am as we were going to start at 10:15. No one was there so Brooklyn and I sat down and waited and waited and waited,until it was 10:20. So far no one had shown up and we were staring to get suspicious so I went into New World and asked. I was met by a nice lady that said the Rotary Club was supposed to come,but they were not here.

So we had a lovely time driving back home!!!!!

The End

Quote of the week

Sorry I haven't been putting quotes up every week,but it has been a busy time. This quote caught my eye because it just reminded me not to give up and get downhearted about your efort.

Mt Oxford

"So we can't have far to go"stated Brooklyn confidently.

Brooklyn,her Dad(Greg),my Mum and I were climbing Mt Oxford for the William Pike challenge. We had been going for around 1 hour-40mins and it had been easy going except for the odd steep climb that lasted for a maximum of 5mins. Somehow I doubted Brooklyn's comment because according to people it is the hardest Mountain in our district.

I looked at the map and tried to interpret how far it would be to the top. It didn't look that far(it was) and I began to doubt myself,but I didn't have much time to ponder my thoughts as we were off at Brooklyn's ridiculously fast pace. We Greg talked most of the way until.............................................

WE GOT TO A REALLY,REALLY STEEP PART. I mean it.

It was the kind of steep that made you feel like you were going to fall off the mountain and plummet down to your death,but at that point I didn't really care if I fell of the mountain(in fact I would rather fall of the mountain instead of tackling this any more). We continued on and on in an eerie silence(except for all the huffing and puffing). The ground was covered with rocks and roots(slippery) so we had to choose our footing carefully. At points the bush looked like it was thinning and you thought that you were reaching the end of this treacherous climb,but no,we just kept going and going.

Then,something amazing happened. WE REACHED THE TOP(of the climb).

We were totally exhausted,so we stopped for a very long break. We were out in the open and we just had to get to the summit. We set off and then out of the mist mum pointed out the top and........it was a very,very long and steep way away. After a very,very long time we got to the last climb.

We started already exhausted and puffing. Just as you thought that it might be the top there was another steep climb and it just went on and on. Then I heard a whoop(from Brooklyn) I practically ran to the top. I could not believe that I had actually made it to the top.

After some food we started the fall walk down. I slipped a couple (a couple means 100) of times because it was really hard to get good footing. Somehow going down seemed to whiz by and it wasn't soon before we were sprinting walking causally to the car.

My advice for this walk is to:

Don't do it,okay,okay I will have to think of something really smart and brainy.

DO NOT GIVE UP

Brooklyn and I at the start

Climbing up one of the easiest hill

Statue of Liberty's on the top Mt Oxford

Still got heaps of energy(not) at the top

Our wind shelter on the summit

Trying to take a photo,but Brooklyn and I just can't stop laughing

Rakahuri Rage

Well Brooklyn and I did it and I would like to say we did it in style,but I highly doubt that.

It was starting out to be a very,very hot day and we were going to do a six hour bike ride. Brooklyn and I were in a team of two for the race and I have a slight suspect that lots of people thought that we couldn't do it. After a quite long and boring race briefing everyone that was starting first went to the starting line and I am sad to say that was me. I wouldn't of minded starting,but the people that started first had to do an extra 2.5 kilometres to even it out. I was beside Rhianna and Mr Read for the start and I have to say that Rhianna nearly started dominos with the riders because somehow she managed to topple over at a stand still. Luckily I managed to stop myself before I smashed into Mr Read. After a very long anxious wait,we started.

Starting was one of the hardest bits because everyone was so close to each other and everyone was so slow. We went up not the stop bank and I was trying to keep a steady pace. After what seemed like a click of a finger we were on to the single track, my favourite!!! I was really enjoying the single track and then the rest of the track seemed to be a breeze. Soon I was finishing my lap in a pretty good time,tagging Brooklyn and resting. After I had eaten and drunk heaps it wasn't very long before Brooklyn was back,narrowly missing my bike because she was going so fast and tagging me.

The second lap was better than the first,but I really had to push at the last part because I was so tired. One of the best parts would have to be the R&R at the end of the lap. I grabbed a chocolate biscuit and a roll. I started to eat my roll first,but I had to scratch that idea because the biscuit was melting like the chocolate palace in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. I had so much chocolate on my hands that it looked like I had finaly got a tan,but sadly it wasn't to last. I was given a baby wipe and it was wiped of my hands in a hurry because someone had spotted Brooklyn.

And soon I was of on another lap. Now I better explain the track so you can get a good picture in
your head. First you had to go along a grass track. The grass was around about one inch long and I know it may not sound hard,but there you are wrong. It was like the grass didn't want you to move
and it stuck to tyres making it impossible to move fast. Then you went on to the stop-bank and down onto the single track. The single track was by far the best because:
1.It weaved around in tight corners making it more interesting
2.It had lots of humps and bumps. My favourite would have to be the three judder bars.
3.IT WAS IN THE SHADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The single track lasted till around the half way mark. The rest was not very exciting,except for the biggest hill were you had to go down and thankfully not up. The last part was coming of the stop-bank and onto the grass that clung to your wheels. So that was the whole track and it probably sounded short,but it was around 8 killometres long.

The rest of the laps went well,but I was definatly tiring. I managed to do good times for all of my laps considering the searing heat. On my last lap I must of got an extra boost of energy because I did one of my fastest times. I ended up doing six laps in total which I am very proud of.

About a day after the Rage someone came to me with the question of, "Will you do it again in a two and why did you do it in a two when you could of had faster times?". I have been pondering on this question for a while now and I finally have an answer. "Of corse I would do it again in a two because I enjoyed it, I not only enjoyed the biking, I also enjoyed the sense of achievement at the end". This was the best thing I have done in a while,so expect me next time.

Waiata

In the morning we do a song. This is a song we have been getting good at:

NZ Readaloud

Our task for this week was to come up with a rhetorical question based on the book. We looked at advertising on the web to come up with ideas. Here is mine:

Mass

For maths we are doing measurement. Haylley and I made a pic collage estimating the mass of objects. Then we worked out the mass of the objects that we could work out.

Treaty of Waitangi

This year of corse we had to cover the very important topic of "The Treaty Of Waitangi". I wasn't very excited about this because we do it every year and it gets a bit boring,but this year was probably the best yet. Our project was to find a topic that you were interested in and after some research create some hexagons on your topic. The best thing about the hexagons is that they were small so you didn't have to have lots of writing, but you could have as many hexagons as you wanted so you could write heaps of information if you wanted. I wasn't sure on what topic I would cover so Mrs Hanna helped me out by giving me a book that is written for kids on the Treaty of Waitangi. After reading a few chapters I decided to cover Abel Tasmen and his adventures to New Zealand. I am proud of both my hexagons,but the one I am most proud of is the second one because I put some illustrations in(drawing is not one of my strong points).

Quote of the week

This was on my momentum page:
"If people aren't laughing at your dreams,your dreams aren't big enough"

Fun Run

It was a cold frosty morning and some people were still cosyed up in there beds. Right now I was eveing these people. I was about to start the Kiapoi to Rangiora fun run for my William Pike challenge. Everyone was going through a warm up and then the guy who was talking handed the starting horn over to another man. He blew the horn and we were off!!! I ran the first 4 kilometres and then did a run and walk to half way(6 kilometres). I was felling pretty good considering,but my legs were starting to hurt. It was starting to get quite hot so I was trying to find ways to entertain myself. First I tried looking at the veiw,but there was nothing good to look at(except people who like to look at grass and trees). Then I tried singing,but there were two problems to that. One, I was to out of breath to sing and two, I am a terrible singer so it was painful to listen to(and a bit embarrassing when someone passed you).
After all this I came to the last drink station turned a corner and found myself on a very busy road. I had about 2-3 kilometres to go and I new were to go so it wasn't that hard,well except for the part were someone tooted at my and I got such a fright that I nearly fell over!!! I finally got to the part were I could see the end and I sprinted.
At the start I was thinking that the name"Fun Run" isn't very good because running is not FUN,but after I had done it I realised that one of the reasons they give this name is because afterwards I actually realised that I did have fun finishing. The best part for me would have to be the seance of achievement at the end.

St. Johns

In St. John's I am completing my hobbie badge. To do this I need to start a hobbie (I am going to do baking) and I need to record what I did. My goal is to try to do something perfectly. I need to make a poster about my hobbie. I am looking forward to completing my first badge. 

Hobby

I started my new hobby on Wednesday! I am proud to be an official St john member. I found it really fun and the teacher was very funny. I can't wait till next time!!!!

William Pike Challenge

On this page I will be writing about:

• My new hobby
• Climbing either Mt Thomas or Mt Grey
• 20 hours of community service
• 10km run

My piece of advice I have been given is:

GET IT DONE. DON'T LEAVE IT TO THE LAST TERM.

Wish me luck!!!!

Hawdon Hut

As I got out of the mini bus I didn't actually think I would make it to the hut. The mini bus ride had been short considering the length of the trip. Soon we had divided out the supplies and we were on our way. We had about a five minute walk till we were at our first river crossing. William Pike explained how to safely cross a river. Soon Brooklyn,Derrin,Rhianna and I were struggling across the river our hands stuck in awkward positions under our packs, but thankfully we made it over and we were tramping over the river bed with soaking wet shoes in the searing heat. We wlked down a bush track for about 2 hours, but I can tell you it didn't fell like that it felt more like 1000000 hours. So we walked along in the heat complying about how long it was talking when we heard cries of "Lunch,Lunch" up ahead. It turned out to be a fulse alarm and we ended up bum-sliding down the hill for nothing!!!We got out of the trees and started walking on a scorching hot river bed and finally to

my relief we stopped for lunch. The second half of the walk was better than the first mainly because
everyone had got use to our packs and Brooklyn and I were deep in conversation. The only bad thing about the second half was that we had all run out of water a the people who hadn't weren't so keen to share it. So we are walking along in the scorching heat with heavy pack and we have no water,a very ideal situation(not). Our little group of Brooklyn,William Pike and I got to a fork and one ay had yellow triangles and one looked more worn than the other so basically we had lost our way!!! Thankfully we heard the other group and went down the right path and didn't get lost. After a swim in a river and a couple of crossings we were all ready to sit down at the hut. We had just started a conversation when I heard whoops of joy, so assuming that people had got to the hut we sprinted and found the welcoming sight of Hawdon hut!!! We rested,unpacked and swam before we gobbled up some yummy freeze dried meals. After that we went boulder hopping which was probably the worst part for me because I fell over and got wet and sore. We listened to William Pikes story and then went
into a very deep sleep. I can't really remember much about the walk out,but I can remember how cold I was(obviously the porridge didn't work on warming me up). When we got back to the mini bus I gobbled up a bun and then we went to cave stream. We had to put on our thermals in the heat and I can tell you that we didn't care about the safety briefing, we just wanted to get into the cave so we could cool down. The cave was the best, from the swimming to the rock formations.We were all pretty tired to get home so we were all quite tired but after our ice cream stop we were all refuelled to do some singing. We sang just about all the way to school. Overall I thought the trip was really fun. I can't wait for the next trip.

Swimming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Packing

Ohhh, do not talk to me about packing and repacking and repacking!!! I hated it. It was pure agony(well maybe it was not that bad,but still). I may be smiling in this photo, but believe me I was not felling like that inside.

CHALLENGES

On this page I will blog about all my crazy adventures in the William Pike challenge. The first challenge is the Hawdon hut and Cave stream. I am really looking forward to this because we are doing so much cool stuff in just two days. We all have food groups and this means that in your group you have to supply breakfast and snacks for your group. Lucky me, I am on supplying breakfast(which is porridge). I will have to make it for breakfast some time in the weekend to see if I have got the quantities right!!!I also have to pack (Boo) this isn't my favourite activity!!!

Swimming

This week was the first week for swimming lessons. We have a great teacher and because of that I have been learning lots of new tips. The lesson that I enjoyed the most would have to be the 200 metre swim without stopping. I enjoyed this because it was a challenge for me. So far the water in the pool has been warm and the worst part is always getting out! My goal for next time is to focus on making my freestyle arms long. I am looking forward to the next swimming lesson.

Juggling With Mandarins

In our class we have started a program called NZ read aloud. In NZ read aloud classes sign up to read a book. We read a number of pages each week and then we have to complete an activity set by a teacher based on the book. We are reading Juggling With Mandarins by VM Jones. So far the book as been both exciting and interesting. The book uses lots of metaphors which makes you create a picture in your head. The activities we have done so far are word clouds on caracters. In this activity we wrote down lots of words describing a caracter(I chose the dad) and turned it into a shape related to the book. Here is a link to mine-My Character Montage. The next activity was a Alphabet Summery. This meant we had to come up with a word that had a connection to the story for every letter of the alphabet. This is mine-Alphabet Summary. I can't wait till we read some more.

Quote of the week

I like this quote because when I first saw this I thought of how there are different types of courage and we all have it but show it in different ways.

Grand opening day

This is my piece of writing that we wrote about the book that we are reading(Juggling with mandarins). In the book there's a opening day of the new mega centre. Our topic we were given is Grand opening day. This is my writing:

Ever since that fight that one fight with that mean old man everything has changed.it's just like someone has come and tipped the world upside down making it change,probably forever and it is all that darn big dome shaped buildings fault. I know I probably sound stupid,mad even for a kid,but it all started when that silly old man invested thousands and thousands of dollars for a pretty big mega centre. At first I was excited like a horse getting sugar,but that sugar was snatched away and the paddock that the horse lived in was taken away. I was the horse. I was the one that lived in those old,ugly,derelict houses that got wiped out and turned into a big gym. I was the one that lived in those houses that no one cared about and when they knocked down our house no one spared a thought for those people and what gets me the most is why didn't anyone think,

"Where are these people going to live?".

I remember the day like Christmas, not in a good way though. It was the argueing,the shouting that woke me from my slumber. I remember the bulky man with the big shoulders shouting at my father and my father,my small,skinny, father shouting back"you can't take our house". Over all of this the one thing I remembered the most was the man ignoring my father's pleas,handing him a slip of paper and saying "Your house will be knocked down at two o'clock today, so you have four hours to get your most wanted possessions and get out".

I was so angry at that man,the man that started the fight,the man that gave the all clear to knock down OUR house. I was angry at the people that cheered when they knocked down the first house,the people who watched transfixed for the whole day and the people that left my poor,struggling family living under the bridge,but I didn't have to be angry anymore because I had a plan....

Anna