Camp Marsden

 About two weeks ago the year 8’s went to Marsden Bay Christian Camp. We had 4 days of amazing fun but we all knew it would eventually have to come to an end. Over the days we spent at Camp we were spoiled with lots of activities such as Volleyball, Archery, the flying fox, the water slide, kayaking, fire pit cooking challenge, Frisbee golf, Waiwera, and last but not least the confidences course.

Overall I mostly enjoyed everything at camp, but the best parts would probably have to be hanging out with my friends and doing things with the whole of the year 8’s. Everything at camp was enjoyable because basically all of the activities were in groups.

The least favorite day of mine was probably day 1. After a long drive from Auckland we finally arrived at Langs beach where we would go for a nice walk that Ms. Squires kindly planned. Unfortunately to due to the weather that didn’t happened, the track was very slippery, causing a lot of slips and tumbles. But in the end it was quite fun.

Tangled Pattern

Coming together, to make a tangled art was our first task that was given. The whole idea of making this piece of art was to get Whanau Panuba (classes 1 & 5) to collaborate and work together as a team. This tangled art was split into separate pieces. Everyone was given their own piece of the puzzle, to design, color and complete.

A tangled pattern is 62 separate pieces of paper that are woven together. Each piece with a different design, with its own meaning. It's repeatedly woven under over under over. Its a piece of artwork that has no beginning and no end, kind of like a circle.

Creating your art piece first starts out with planning. Before you decide on what you are going to create, you must research. To me planning was one of the main steps that most definitely wasn’t rushed.

Once you've done a bit of research and made a final decision on your design, draw your pattern onto a draft paper. When you're happy with your draft copy,  do the same but  onto your final piece of paper. A good thing to keep in mind is different/unique patterns look better, but are much more harder to draw, so sometimes it’s good to keep it simple.

And finally the fun part! When it comes to coloring make sure to use nice bold colors that stand out, it makes a big difference. Also outlining your patterns before filling them in make it much more easier.

After filling your patterns in with colors, make sure to label each piece so when it comes to putting everything together you know where each pattern goes. Finally after all that hard work its now time to put everything together.

My Avatar

In our classroom ( Whanau Panuba, Classes 1 & 5) have a self management levelling board. On our board we have to choose between 3 levels, depending on how well we're able to manage ourselves and stay on task. Level 1 - I need help managing myself. Level 2 - I'm able to manage myself but can get off task and Level 3 - I am able to manage myself inside and outside the classroom.

We not only had to recreate our avatar but we also had to incorporate our house colour in some way. As yu can obviously see I'm in Taki-Timu. I've leveled myself at level 3, because I know I'm able to stay on task without the teacher reminding me, and I'm able to work efficiently with anyone. 

Term 4 Day 1

Although I started term 4 off a little late, so far so good, As I walked into my class, to me it was totally different. It seemed like everything had changed, yet again. After finding out that Class 1 and Class 5 had merged to make one big class, I realized that we no longer would have just 2 but 3 teachers. 

This big change is not only a good way to start off the term but is also a good way to end a good year. Hopefully everyone adapt to this big change and is able to get along. Fingers crossed this term turns out as planned.                          

Storyline Festival

Last week, on Thursday the Year 6, 7 & 8 extension group went to the Storyline's festival which was pretty awesome. Out of all four authors I really enjoyed listening to Paula Green and Juliette Mclver. 

 I liked listening to these two authors because they interacted with the audience well. The way Juliette presented her stories were really funny, interesting, and creative. Paula Green was more of the bubbly type, she liked to rhyme a lot in her stories, she was more out there. 

If I were to share my story's with other kids I'd present it to them in a song or either act it out. Mostly because kids like music, and that's what I mostly enjoyed at last years Storyline Festival. I'd also really interact, and get the audience involved. 

These two authors really did inspire me not only to have my own style but to also explore and take all opportunity's I get. 

Last year at the Storyline's Festival I think it was more enjoyable because the authors were more interesting because they all presented in a different way. They all had there own style. A big thanks to all four authors, I'm sure everyone really enjoyed listening to your stories, keep doing what your doing!

Storyline Tours

This week on Thursday the Year 5 to year 8 students from Pt.England School are traveling to the Manukau Vodafone Events Centre for the Auckland Story-line's Tour. The authors will be talking about their experiences and telling us the story's they have to tell.

If not many of you know Paula Green, she is an New Zealand author who lives in West Auckland. Her style of writing is poetry, and always writes about animals, the weather and the seasons.

Catherine Mayo or mostly known as Cath Mayo was born in a Catholic Maternity hospital, Auckland. She not only is an author and a Violin maker but is also a Musician, and is in a band called Gentle Annie.

Jill MacGregor  lives in the Kapati Coast, and spent two years living in Tonga as a VSA. Most of her books are Pacific non-fiction stories. She has written most of her books on true events that she experienced.

Juliette Malcavier is a children's author who always loved writing as a child. She grew up in Wellington and went to Victoria University where see got a linguistics degree and then a diploma on teaching English. Jill always wanted to write a children's novel and once she finally did she thought it was so fun she thought she could actually have a shot at it.

Three-Sided Football

During the past few weeks in class for inquiry we were given't the task to research a unique sport that no one had ever heard of and present it to the class. Gloria and I researched a sport called Three-Sided Football. We decided to make a movie explaining the rules. The movie had to also teach/explain to others the sport so that they could go off and also teach others. We worked with some other kids in our class to produce this. Hopefully you like it and enjoy!