My Friend Jay'lee

My friend Jay’lee is a very unique person. She has many talents that include, singing, she can harmonise really well!! She is a really good dancer, and she is amazing at sports, rugby is her favourite, well from what I see, and she plays for the Auckland Netball Rep. Team. Jay’lee has got many different qualities about her, and that is one reason why I am friends with her, apart from her very friendly and outgoing personality.

Thanks Jay’lee for being a great friend, you are like a sister to me :)

2012 Reflection

This year 2012, was one of the best yet hard years for me at Pt England School. It was the year where responsibility had fallen upon me. I hadn’t really thought much about it , and discovering everything an intermediate student goes through made it difficult for me to (A) Understand everything that is going on around me. (B) Take responsibility for my actions, and (C) Keep my head in the right spaces. I admit that some of my thoughts and actions weren’t the best that  they could have been, but I have really worked hard to make up for my mistakes. There were many many things that helped me through my hardships in this year of full responsibility, for myself, and my actions, such as sports outings, even though I am not good at it. My school softball team came first in the eastern zone tournament, so that was a good accomplishment. My favourite thing of all that happened this year, was greeting visitors. I absolutely love being able to communicate with people through my school, it makes me so happy, and to think that it helps my school, fellow students, and teachers, makes me feel even happier, and gives myself a sense of achievement and nothing could ever beat that feeling. Though sometimes I thought that everything was getting a bit too much for me, and I lash out, but having so much support and friends around me, it makes everything that little bit easier to cope with everything, and I never want to leave Pt England School..... !!! :)

Blue Light Disco

“WOOHOO” My brother and sister exclaimed as they ran through the door. My sister was really really excited to go to the blue light disco, run by the police. It was only 5 o’clock, and I was still in my towel, because I had just spent 2 hours on my hair!!! Though I was really excited anyway! :) I was waiting for the clock to hit 5:50 so that we could go to the disco already!

Once I was finally ready, I was literally pushed into the door, so that my brother could get out. Thats the hard part of having younger siblings.

When we got to school, all my friends were there. I was super happy! Jay’lee and I went to pay for our tickets to get into the disco.

Fist pumping into the hall, there was very loud music, and fluorescent lights everywhere I looked, I knew that tonight would be a great night!!!

All was smoothly, and I was having a great night with my friends. But then one of my favourite song came on, and that was when it got even better. I was dancing away to cat daddy, even though I wasn't very good at it.

Well there was much more to say about this, but I really don't think I have the words to say it all. But I thank PES and all of the prefects for one of the best nights ever. :)

Poem Ko Tokelau

............Ko Tokelau........

Where I am from, I can hear the birds rustling in the trees.

Where I am from, I feel the rough sand rubbing in between my toes.

Where I am from, I hear the sound of the waves crashing against the sand.

Where I am from, the sound of water lapping against the vaka, soothing.

Where I am from, I feel the warmth of the sun against my skin.

Where I am from, as I swim, I feel the slime of the fish as they swiftly swim past me.

Where I am from, the sweet smell of my aunt's famous foods fill each nostril, the best smells ever.

Where I am, I taste freshly cooked taro and chopsuey.

Where I am from, I hear the sweet sound of the laughter and song from the elders.

Where I am from, I smell my aunty as I hug her.

Memories now of the old perfume she poured onto herself daily.

Where I am from, I see the games played by children, and hear the laughter that follows.

Where I am from, I feel the sting of the volleyball as I serve in a ‘friendly’ game.

Where I am from, I see the families daily prayers, a sign of faith and respect.

Where I am from, I feel Love, and only love.

Where I am from, is Tokelau.....

-- Chante Filipo --

Chia Pet

Two weeks ago, in Extension, we had the challenge of re-searching about a toy. In order to do this, we had to pick a number, from 1-20 and what ever toy we got, we had to re-search and present it to the class. I had the Chia pet. 

This is what I had said in my presentation.

The Chia pet is basically a gardening pot shaped into an animal, with the back front or side open for soil and chia seeds. The chia seeds grow in a few weeks and form the hair or fur of the shaped animal/ cartoon character. It is usually made of clay, stone, or wood.

It got its name because of the Chia seeds, which originated from America. They grow in the northern regions of Mexico. They were made in Mexico but now are a produce of China.

Goldie

Last Term the extension class had the opportunity to recreate a Charles Goldie Painting, this is the painting that I copied.

This Artwork was my inspiration by the famous New Zealand artist Charles Frederick Goldie. He was very famous for painting the Maori back in the 1900’s. His artwork was motivated by the thought of the Maori being extinct, though later on the numbers of  Maori had skyrocketed. He also painted the Maori because of their taonga, like their Moko

The actual painting is called ‘ A Noble Relic, Of a Noble Race’, by Charles Frederick Goldie. It was painted in the year 1910, and today would be 102 years old. Charles Goldie has painted this oil on canvas and has set his painting in a Maori Whare. Te Wharekauri Tahuna was the subject of Goldies painting as he was the Chief of Ngati Manawa.

In the reproduction of this artwork, I had struggled with the moko and the shading. The Moko was very hard to draw, as there was a lot of detail to put towards my final product. This also made me want to research more about the Moko and why people get it.

I hope you enjoy my artwork! Chante-Aria Filipo

Barn

Drip drop, drip drop. Amy shivered at the thought of having to spend the night in a house like this. Cold, damp and frightening at every single look. She was starting to regret her decision, to spend the night in the derelict barn, “Stupid Dare” she mumbled, mind you, isn’t halloween supposed to be scary? Well she didn’t have time to procrastinate, it was time to get settled in.

As soon as she had finished she walked around glaring at her watch, stepping to the beat of the seconds hand. “C’mon c’mon c’mon” she whispered to herself, “ they need to see me here” Amy sighed “Hurry up Sophia” a few minutes later she heard a man shouting outside, she looked out of the shafts in the wall, and she could see a silhouette of a man in a coat, holding a young boy by his collar. The boy looked pretty tall, and quite thin. “ Oh I hope he’s alright “ Amy said as she lay down on the squab, but then, the shouting grew louder, and louder, and louder, until....

The door flew open, and with it a gust of wind. Soon the old man was clearly angry, still holding the young boy by his collar. Amy leaped off the old mattress and pounced on her bag, packing it rapidly. As she was packing, she could hear shouting, and then a loud thud, with a clutter straight afterwards. The young girl, was confused by things she had been told to do in this kind of situation, but everything changed at that moment, when she saw the shadow creeping up towards the door of the little room she had just managed to crawl into. Now there was nowhere to go, and she couldn’t get any help. Her heart was thumping like a loud snare drum...... boom boom boom.......

The door flew open, and with a huge gasp, Amy was picked up by her arm. “LET ME GO” She shouted, but the end of her high pitched voice, was muffled by the old mans humongous hand. Throwing her legs about, and trying to remove the hand that was now blocking her nose Amy was determined to get free.

It was too late, Amy was now on her knees, in a dark room trying to get her hands free. They were really tight and she didn’t know if there was really any point in trying to untie herself, so she shuffled to the back of the room, she sat underneath the window, that she had not long before thought of jumping out of, though she learnt the hard way, that it is pretty hard to get out of when your legs are tied. So with that she pressed her face against her knees, and cried. “Don’t worry” she heard a voice, a boys one. Amy looked around the room, and saw the boy she had seen just before she hide away in fright. “Hi” She said not to sure on how to reply to a confidence booster that had failed to do its job in this time of a near death experience.

Suddenly I heard the faint sound of police sirens in the distance, getting closer and closer. Thank goodness this ordeal is nearly over.













  
              
          

BUSH

“Ahh the sweet smell of summer. Its great. Don’t you think Bradley?” Amy exclaimed, she had created a little bit of crush towards Bradley, though he didn’t catch on very well. Though But being a 12 year old boy, I don’t think he really knew what to do except play, and annoy people. Bradley hadn’t been listening, he was too busy playing with little Tommy singing Twinkle Twinkle, because that was the only song Tommy knew. The only other boy on this camping trip.

Tommy was only seven years old, and was the youngest boy in the family, he had quite liked hanging out with my best friend Amy whose only 11, and insisted that I let him come with us. I was the eldest. I turned 12 a month before bradley did, so it was my responsibility to keep everyone safe, as well as Bradley, even though I didn’t like to admit that he was much stronger than I was, but I was deffinately the most mature out of us.

My thoughts on how to beat Bradley at things were interrupted by little Tommy. He was talking to a tree. “ Hello there Mr tree, have I seen you before?” he asked poking at the tree like my cat Fluffy when she doesn’t want to eat. “Tommy come on” I grabbed him by the hand and led him to the river where the others were.

“Chante” Bradley called out to me. “Here we go again” I sighed.  is probably going to show me something ‘amazing’ that I have to see, because its just too good to miss, but to my surprise he was looking at the river very cautiously, he made it seem like it was going to gobble him up or something. “Yeah, what's up” I asked him anxiously, “ Haven't we past this already?” Hmm I hadn’t remembered passing this before, but it could just be me. “umm, I am not too sure, but its getting dark, maybe we should just set camp up over here, just until the morning.”

Beach Narrative

“Its soo hot!!” I exclaimed, wiping the beads of sweat from my forehead. “Come into the water then” Sammy called out “Its not that cold” I sat up looking at her with a sarcastic look on my  I face “Suure it isn’t” I was the only girl not in the water, I’m not much of a fan of sea-water swimming, I don’t know why, I just shrugged and closed my eyes again.

“FOUL” I was woken by the sound of boys calling “Ref, thats a foul” followed by a splash. One of the holiday programme leaders had kicked the ball so far away and it landed in the water. “I will get it” My brother Lee said, “No your not its too deep for you!!” I replied, But of course my little brothers ego wasn’t going to be broken by his big sister telling him off in front of all his friends. Surprisingly he was doing pretty well and so I let him do what he wanted to do.

Again this relaxing nap was being interfered by BOYS!!! Though this time it wasn’t over a stupid kick, it was my brother! He was calling out for help because he was drowning!!! At first I couldn’t find him, but once I had heard his girly screech it was easy to find him.
I threw my towel onto the grass and ran to go and help my brother. I called out to all of the leaders to help me, but by the time they had come my head was submerging and emerging out of the water. My brother had floated quite far away in such a short time, but I finally got to him. I lifted him above the water, and let him gulp in some air. I was struggling to keep his head above the water. Eventually we were close enough to the shore that I could let him walk by himself.

I was really tired from carrying Lee back to shore, everyone was happy that Lee was safe, except for Lee. He wanted to get the ball, but it was long gone, and I told him to listen to me next time.

Well we all had a very exciting day, I know I did. As for Lee, he promised that he will listen when I tell him not to do things around water. He also said that he wasn’t going to swim in the sea again, but we all know that won’t last long. It will only be until next time!!!

Narrative

My feet were sinking as I stood motionless, trying not to reveal myself, even though I was already surrounded by bush. The pounding of my heart, was thankfully muffled by the sound of the howling wind, sweeping the tops of the trees. Drenched to the bone. I shivered at each march the Red Coats made, as they approached the only land left, that was not under their control.

A visit from Inspiration

Inspiration. It comes in many forms, words, people, films, books, but today, my thoughts on inspiration have changed drastically. All it took was a visit from a young man, standing up to all those who create and believe in stereotypes. Joshua Iosefo. A young polynesian boy who has changed my thoughts, and prospect of the world that we live in. It made me think twice about how my family, friends and I are judged. Though I am not a brown Samoan, it still hits hard.


‘Brown Brother’ The poem that would change the way we think and feel. It deffinately changed me. My prospect of the world, was that there were good guys, and bad guys, and I did understand that, but I always thought that if it happened to me, it would always be someone elses fault. That all changed a few weeks ago.


My class had been watching a movie of Joshua speaking at his school, Mt Roskill Grammar. He was doing his prefect speech. We observed and then had to write a bit about our thoughts on his speech. A few days later, there were comments on our blogs from Joshua’s Mum. She had read some of the students blogs from our class. We exchanged a few messages, and eventually we asked if Joshua would be able to come and visit us. A message was sent back to us. The answer was YES. We were so happy with this reply that we had to organise a date.


That is how this day came about. Questions were asked, and excellent answers were given. I asked one question, and I think that the answer that was given, was better then any explanation I have heard in my life. I am so appreciative of what Joshua and his whanau have done for us. We have all been very privileged with this visit and I have had a very thoughtful message sent to me. I have learnt a lot. For example If want to be a lawyer, then I can be a lawyer, all I have to do is to keep going even if no one thinks that I can. There is nothing that I can’t do.

A big thanks to Joshua and his Family, I have learnt a lot and I can’t wait to hear more from you. Joshua, you have been very inspirational, and you have an amazing gift, I can't wait to see more of your gift. Now I know that I can follow my dreams, and I will use my gift.

Olympic Day

A surge of excitement flowed through my body, as I waltzed out the door with a piece of toast in my hand. Today was the day, that I try my best at sports........ for the entire day!!! I was kind of looking forward to this Olympic rotation day, but the thought of running around the WHOLE time.......... now that was crazy. Despite this I was keen to see how well I would take it.

Once I was at school, I wasn’t really nervous until I had to go to class and get ready to line up for our procession of countries. I was in Uganda and I had never ever heard of this country until I it was written on my hand. Even though I had never heard of this country I, like many others who hadn’t heard of their countries, still cheered and chanted as we were showing the other teams/countries what we were made of. The sound of laughter and calling, and sportsmanship echoed in the empty halls of the school. This was when I knew that the day would get a whole lot better.

Though I had never heard of my country I was happy to be a part of it. My team was very energetic and we had a very cool leader, Pesi. I was very glad to have a female leader, and the best part of it was that we only had one leader, so it I wasn’t getting confused. She was a great leader and the first place she led us to was the street. We were going to play Hand Ball against Kenya. (That was my favorite activity)

“GO UGANDA” My team was shouting out. We were trying to rally out the Kenyans with the chanting. They were winning so far with the chants, we were ahead in the real game, the one that counts. Uganda won the first, out of many rounds, and when it was my turn, my stomach turned and I wasn’t as ready as I had hoped. The ball was served. My sweaty palm went to hit the ball, it all felt slow like I was in slow motion. I felt like I was going to miss, but to my relief, I had hit it back to the opposition. I let out a sigh, and nodded to my partner, and just then, a load of confidence pumped through my body. But then I saw the the tiny, bright yellow ball bounce towards my partner...................... ‘Slap’ She had hit the ball and our opponents had missed it causing them to make it out. “YYYYEEEEAAAAHHHH” We had won!!!!!! “Go Uganda”, my words were jumbled from the bouncing of my feet. I had made my team proud and I was very happy with my partner. This was my highlight of the day.

After a long time of winning, tying, and losing the rest of our games, the end of the day had come. It was a very weird day, I had actually enjoyed doing sports even though my legs were aching like crazy, and I wanted to do it again. If we do I would really enjoy it, but I would like to be in a country that I have heard of......... :) But overall I loved this activity and I can’t wait to do it again........... GO UGANDA!!!

Tommy Kapai Wilson

This is a presentation I wrote with my two buddies. Tommy Wilson had come to our school to talk to us about his journey to becoming an author. My class was assigned a new project. This was to create a presentation of Mr Wilson's Childhood and steps to fame. I have created this with Jarna and Ashleigh, my two classmates. I hop that you enjoy.

Pt England Social

“YAY”  I said to my friend Tanisha. I was going to my first ever Pt England Social. I was jumping all over the place, because I knew that soon

I could dance and everything. Tanisha was going to drop me off to the social because I was all ready to go. But once we got there I felt really underdressed. So I untied my hair and put it to the side. There....... Now I was ready.

I met up with a few of my friends and I saw how different they looked. They were so pretty....... But I decided to go to see my cousin Crusader to see if he looked 'Skuxx' (what they say when they think they are cool). On the way inside I noticed that no one had come according to the theme and also that I was in a line FULL of boys and it was no surprise that the teachers said "finally a girl" I did feel a bit uncomfortable but I knew that they were all my friends.

When I walked in the hall I could see the fluorescent lights complimented nicely with the decoration around the room...... and everyones colourful hats. Plus the balloons and streamers added a very party-like feel. This was a very nice moodsetter.

I was sitting for a while, but then finally Shoal and Rita came through. When I saw Shoal I hadn't even noticed that it was her. She was so pretty, and looked very nice. I knew that by the time I had said that she would be dancing already and sure enough she was. She was so hyped up it made me feel hyped up...... and that contagious feeling went around the room and everyone was happy.

There was so many things going on. There was dougie comps, catdaddy comps, and circles. I was a part of the circle. When we started our circle it was a bit small but gradually grew bigger. Everyone was showing off their dance moves but some people got a bit scared........ I knew I was, until I finally got in and did my best move I had...... (That I could think of) And I think that that was what made my night even better......

I had so much fun jumping around until my feet ached, laughing until my tummy hurt, and dancing till I could dance no more. This what I think the social should be like, and I hope its even better next time.

Neil Armstrong

August 25th 2012, a day of tragedy as american citizens mourn the loss of their American Hero. Neil Armstrong, one of the greats in astronomy passed away at the age of 82, due to complications after heart surgery. Even though he was reluctant to be a public celebrity, America still thought of him as a hero. He  helped in the ‘Cold War Era’ to win the race against the Soviets, in being the first to land on the Moon.

Neil Armstrong did exactly that. Not only was he the first to land on the moon, but three years before that, he had his first space mission with NASA. He was the commander of the Gemini 8 and was one of the first American civilians in space. I think that this was a life changing decision for him, that would turn out to be a HISTORY change for mankind, as his next space mission wasn’t very far.

Animation Workshop Part 1

Just an ordinary Thursday I thought, but I had forgotten that I had an Animation Apprentice Workshop. Everyone else in extension remembered apart from me, and I was very confused. Though once my confusion had worn, I remembered and knew that I would have a great afternoon.

I was waiting and waiting in class, and then the clock struck 12............ ”FINALLY”! I said happily. I was so excited about this class as I wanted to know a little bit more about animating. So I was off to the Tusitala and as soon as I got into my seat, with my pencil and rubber ready to get drawing.

Smoking

Smoking is very addictive, and has thousands of harmful chemicals, that can lead to many illnesses. Some of these include Cancer, Obstructive lung diseases like emphysema which causes people to have a short amount of breath. There is also Coronary heart disease which is the leading death problem in the United States. This is such a disgusting habit and a lot of people die every year from it.

This addiction can not only kill you but it also consumes a LOT of your pay. A person who is addicted to cigarettes, goes through 1-1 and a half packs of smokes a DAY which are $14- $15. This means that you spend up to $105 a WEEK. Don’t you think that this is a huge waste of money?

Smoking is not only addictive, a waste of money or a leading cause to death, it also deteriorates your body. It has such a disgusting smell causing smelly breath, and no one wants to be around someone that has smelly breath. Not only does it make you smell, but your teeth go all rotten and yellow, and so does your fingers. This habit really makes you sick and a LOT of New Zealanders die every year because of smoking.

A lot of smokers start when they are in their teens. Some people would think that they smoke because of family problems, bullying, and many more reasons that are not true. But the main reason teenagers start is to look cool. Many teenagers always think of the moment, not the future. They have got no idea about what can happen when they smoke. Wanting to be cool doesn’t mean you have to start slowly killing yourself to impress people?


Smoking is so disgusting and is a really big problem for New Zealanders and people need to think about the consequence of this. Yes not all smokers will die from heart disease or cancer, but it definitely increases your chances. I am very aware that I too could start smoking but I promised myself that I would do everything in my will to never start smoking.

Valerie Adams.

Link for the Picture.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/road-to-london/6282554/Road-to-London-begins-for-Valerie-Adams

Valerie Adams, New Zealand’s shot put champion, was unable to hold back her tears as she was being interviewed. Following her final throw, she had the realisation,that her wishes of becoming the World Shot Put Champion for the second time,were now ruined. A woman named Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus had taken Valerie’s place, beating her personal best of 21.34metres. This was a very emotional evening for her. Valerie had worked tirelessly and despite her disappointment, she was proud of her achievements even though she got silver.  

        Written By Chante, Vivienne and Ashleigh.

Precious McKenzie

Precious McKenzie is a famous New Zealand weightlifter who was originally born in South Africa. He has won 4 Gold Medals at the commonwealth games for New Zealand but had also competed in the Olympic games for England winning many Gold Medals in the Bantamweight category.

At the age of three, Precious McKenzie had suffered chest complications due to fever, and was pronounced incurable. He eventually managed to survive, and his mother celebrated this by baptizing him Precious One.

That same year a traumatizing tragedy had hit the McKenzie family yet again. Precious’ Father had been killed by a Crocodile in the Limpopo River. This lead to Precious’s Mother having a drinking problem, and forced to give up her children.

Precious and his sister were fostered out by their mother and were treated very very cruelly. They were both victims of a woman who was witch-like and treated them with such neglect that the two children had suffered so many injuries and also were subject to malnutrition. Both of them grew no taller then 4ft10.

Precious and his sister had forgiven their foster mother, even though they had treated the children badly. Precious had said and I quote

“She was a woman who treated us so badly, she was the real devil…but my sister and I have forgiven her. No matter who it is, you have to forgive eventually.”

Precious had then been through so much and his athletic abilities had finally been recognised. He was seen by Franklin, a Father at the Catholic Mission, this led to Precious starting gymnastics and being trained by Father Franklin which helped himself have the courage to start a career of weightlifting. He competed in the Bantamweight category.

In the 1960's Precious had decided to immagrate to England in search of non-discriminatory oppertunities. By this time, Precious was married to a local coloured woman name Elissabeth, and was a father to two beautiful children, Vanessa and Sandra. He went ahead of his family to North Hampton, where he was confronted with news that had made Precious regret his decision. He was to work for five years before he would be able to represent his country in the Olympics. He was always thinking of moving back to South Africa but his wife and his children were encouraging him to stick it out and keep on going, even though they would be living in a one roomed flat where precious would be working in a factory.

Precious continued to train and compete and was attracting international responses, which led to him competing in the common wealth games and earning gold medals for New Zealand, also winning gold medals in the olympics, for England.
After all he had gone through, precious was finally recognised for his true abilities and not discriminated against because fo his colour. This man is really inspiring and is a real role model for children and adults all around the world.

Matisse and Picasso

Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse were both famous artists of the same era. Henri Matisse was born on December 31, 1869, and Pablo Picasso was born on October 25,1881. This essay will compare and contrast, the two very wonderful paintings, ‘The Weeping Woman’ by Pablo Picasso and ‘Woman with a hat’ by Henri Matisse.

In examining these two paintings very closely and one could say that there are a lot of similarities between the two, but there are also many differences. Although the subject of both paintings are portraits of women, the themes are different. For example, in the painting Weeping Woman, there is a lot of suffering and sadness that is felt through the painting. Picasso has mainly analogous colours, such as green yellow and orange. Picasso has also used some complimentary colours, to help convey a sad and a sort of suffering emotion. Whereas Matisse has put a lot of different and unrealistic colours together. He also hasn’t portrayed a sense of emotion that can be felt through the painting.

If one was to look at the two paintings, they would see that the lines between them are so different. Matisse has very defined shapes through using different colours. He has only 1 view point, which makes his painting more realistic. Then there is Picasso. His outlines and colours are very bold and clear to see. Picasso’s painting doesn’t look very realistic, and he has more then 1 view point, which is very weird, but unique and respectful, in my opinion.

Well I hope that you have enjoyed my writing and maybe you could comment, and tell me about what you know and I could add it into a post of mine. Thank you again!!!

Show Not Tell

“Tag you're in” my friend shouted, we were having so much fun that we were oblivious to the fact that the sky was getting dimmer and the clouds swelling up getting ready to weep. We were getting cold and wanted to go back to the house, but we were too late, Suddenly it started pouring down with bucket loads of water. I was getting soaked and by the time we got into the house, my feet were numb.

Starry Night

Starry night by Vincet Van Gogh, was painted in 1989. If you look closely you will see that he has used small brush strokes which makes the painting look really detailed. Vincent Van Gogh has added depth to his painting by creating a trail of wind and also adding a city below the stars.

Abundance

Daniella Hulme’s painting ‘Abundance’ reflects her husbands Samoan culture. She creates depth in her paintings by using contrasting bright and dark tones with shading. Her lines are bold and clearly seen, and she uses floral patterns to show the type of pacifica, that draws attention to the painting. A sense of happiness, is portrayed through the incorporation of the bright and vibrant colours used.  

Mihi Mihi

This is my Mihi telling you a little bit about me and my Family. I hope you enjoy!!!

Postive Footprints.

This is my movie about leaving a positive footprint online. I hope you enjoy my movie and maybe even learn something from it. ENJOY!!!!!

Here is our group movie about how to be smart and legal online. 

Show Not Tell

This is another one of my Show Not Tell writing pieces. I hope you enjoy!

Running up the stairs to the highest floor, I was ready to zoom down that twisting and turning tunnel. I sat waiting for that light to shine green, I was ready to slide into that swirling water. GO the light flashed, and I was off sliding rapidly through the cold cold water. In the dark tunnel you could hear nothing but the echo sound of yourself yelling WOOOOHHHOOOO! Finally sending a huge splash in the catching pool, I was ready to go up again!

The Amazing Race.

“Run Mubba Run!!!”I yelled. My partner Mubbashira (Mubz or Mubba for short) was taking a long time to run with me to find the first clue! We were in the Amazing Race Pt England and I was ready to win!

At the start of the activity, team respect was off to the big marquee to get ready for our fourth activity on our first day. I was so excited! While we were waiting for Mr Barks to come and explain what we had to do, I was wondering what we were to do with the equipment placed in front of us. There was a long bit of string, some newspaper, a stick that looked like a Y, and also some tyre rubber. Do you know what we were going to try make?Mr barks came in with a slingshot, and told us about how we were going to make them. At that moment, I was a bit nervous about the challenge.

Suddenly we were quickly cutting and there was some people from my group, Mubba, Vivienne, Mary L, and Jay’lee, putting together our missiles that we were going to use to hit the buckets of points.

When we had finished making the slingshots, we were off to shoot our newspaper balls out of it. Vivienne was the first one to get our groups some points. She got 100 points for our group..... “ GO VIVIENNE” everyone was shouting!!! She was the best aimer out of all of us!

We got a lot of points and I thought that that was the end of our activity...... I was wrong! We had two more challenges. Our second Challenge, was a quest to find, the signs that were on the map, given to us by Mr Barks and Mrs Lagitupu. It was fun but I was running most of the time because Mubba was taking for long to run with me. I told her to catch up with me later and just when I told her that she started walking “MUBBA” I was so tired!

The third and last challenge we had was making a hobo stove, with the equipment we gathered. It was just a little bit hard but we got there in the end. Even though my team was a bit angry with me because I accidently knocked our egg off the stove, I thought that we did pretty well.

I loved the amazing race and I can’t wait until next years camp.

The exciting and first day of camp!!!!!

The exciting and first day of camp!!!!!

YAY CAMP. Today was the first day of camp, and it was so so so exciting!!! I was really looking forward to it and knew this would be a very amazing adventure.

At camp we always do fun activities and I always enjoy them. Team Respect (my team) followed our leaders Cruz and Mino, to our first activity for the day. It was pretty weird for us, though it was fun in a kind of way. This was box fit. As you can see the name ‘box fit’ has something to do with boxing of course. Skills to help us keep fit and as usual it was DEFINITELY tiring!!! I don’t know if I really want to do this activity again. (Shows how fit I am)

A bit later we met up with Ms Squires and would be setting up our tents ALONE. Luckily I had a bit of practice in class... well actually everyone had a bit of practice, so we were all speeding through it. I was in a group with Jay’lee, Mubba, Vivienne, Mary L and Mino. We put up about 3-4 tents.

Well I can NOT wait until tomorrow!!! Bring it on.

Dr Ben Carson

On Tuesday the 6th of march, some Pt England students, had the opportunity to see Dr Ben Carson and hear his life story. It was very interesting. This is a report like piece of writing my buddies and I have written.

Dr Ben Carson was born in Detroit Michigan, America. He was raised by his mother who only had a third grade education and was married at the age of thirteen. Sadly when Benjamin was only 8 years old, his parents divorced and Ben’s mother Sonya, was left to raise the boys alone. She had 2-3 jobs at a time, to help provide things for them.

Dummy Dummy Dummy, that is what Ben’s 5th grade classmates would always call him, and because of this, he had a violent and uncontrollable temper. When their mother found out that her sons grades were plummeting, she was determined to help change her children’s lives by giving them a limited t.v watching time and make them read two books from the library, and write a review on it. But, because of Sonya’s poor education she could hardly read a thing, though she would try to give them a tick and make it look like she had read and marked their writing.

A few weeks later, Ben shocked his whole class by identifying a black shiny rock, it was called an obsidian. He remembered reading about it in a book. At that moment, he realised he wasn’t stupid. He was hungry for more knowledge. For this he needed to control his temper. A year later Ben was at the top of his class,  and it was all thanks to his mother, who pushed him to his limits. Now Ben Carson is a neurosurgeon and is trying to help other children, who have the disadvantage of living in a poor community, like he did when he was young.

Extension Who am I?

In extension on Wednesday, we were able to play a game called "Who am I?" or "What am I?" We all had to go up to the front and Mrs Tele'a put a sticker on our forehead. We had to guess what the word was on our stickers. It was super cool. As you can see I was a Principal, and I have just researched about what people  need to do to become a principal.

Firstly to become a principal you have to pass a Bachelor's Degree.  This is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that can last for four years, but can range anywhere from three to six years. Then of course you have had to obtain a teaching license and gain experience as a teacher.  You next have to attend graduate school and earn a master's or doctoral degrees, and obtain a School Administrator License. This is all part of becoming a teacher.

School picnic.

‘Beep beep beep’, my alarm clock went off. Today was just an ordinary Friday, with softball training at 8 am. There is nothing special about today I thought, so I kept getting on with my morning. Then it hit me. I had totally forgotten, until I was about half way down the road, that the picnic was on today!

Looking up at the sky, I said aloud “It won’t be sunny today will it?” I didn’t know that the forecast would change after training was over, and I was in class.

“Okay c’mon room 20, time to line up! We have to get ready for the picnic” Ms Squires said to us.  I had just sat down and my feet were aching. At least I knew that the picnic definitely was on, and that FINALLY I would be able to sit down in the hall, while Mr Burt told us the drill and said a Karakia. Before long we would be off in a flash.

I think that we are such a lucky school, not only because we have the awesome support of parents and teachers, but also that it only takes about 5 minutes to walk to the Pt England Reserve! How cool is that? Of course when we got there we would ALL talk, even the teachers!!! Mr Burt had told us where we could and could not play. In a matter of time, we were all off to our class areas. It was cool seeing red t-shirts speeding to get to a good spot to play in.

I was amazed when I stood up, because our beach had just finished getting renovated, so more people would come to it. I thought that it looked great! There was a big balcony like thing, with stairs going down from each side, AND there was even a big big rock that was placed in the middle of the shore. It was fake, but it looked really realistic. I thought that it was real! But to my surprise it was man made!!! It was built from concrete, with chicken netting forming the frame underneath, to hold it up. “Why was it placed there?” I asked myself. I found out that it was there, because people had put new sand on the beach and didn’t want it to be dragged out to sea. They put this big massive rock there to stop the tide from stealing our new sand!!! It is a pretty cool idea if you ask me!

I didn’t really want to play any sports so I decided to sit by my bags and watch the little kids swimming about. I was sitting with one of my friends Rita. We kept laughing and then we heard this AWFUL NOISE!!!!! It was someone playing the guitar. That someone was Gabriel. He was funny because he was acting like a little short rock star. He gave me that guitar and I started playing a song that my dad had taught me. I think I was playing it right, and I must have been, because Rita was making up lyrics to the tune. It was awesome.

Well a few hours passed and I was really relaxed just talking, and chasing people(I know right, how can I be relaxed by that? I am weird that’s why) and playing the guitar. I have always enjoyed the picnic and this year was the best EVER. I was just sad that I would only have one more picnic left (that is next year)  until the annual Pt England picnics at the reserve, will just be the best memories of my life!!!! Anyway all and all, this picnic was the best and I can’t wait until next year.

Me,Myself and I

This is a digital collage that I created on comic life, in extension. It is about my beliefs, cultures and symbols that I think represent me.

The first symbol (which are the flags) represent my cultures and where my family comes from.

The second picture represents what I think is true!!!
"Loyalty it's what we live by.........Respect, It's what we die for"

The third picture represents my religious beliefs. I am a catholic and all of my fathers family are catholic too. My baptism name is Lucia.

Also the last symbol is FAMILY. I love my family even though at times I feel like yelling at them!!! Being the eldest is super annoying! I have two sisters that I don't get to see much, in fact the last time I saw them was last year July. And then there is my brother. Four years old and cheeky as. He is such a monkey, actually they all are.

Oops I nearly forgot, if you have a Flickr account, you can see my photo there as well!!!
Just click HERE

I hope you enjoy!!!!!!!

This is a presentation of my personal goals for this year, and the most thing I was proud of last year.

Cyber-smart Part one.

This week for writing, we watched a clip about Cyber safety. I have written about her feelings from doing this. Next week I will inform people about being Cyber-smart. But until next week this is Part 1 of  

Cyber-Safety!!!

“OH NO” Cindy has just made the biggest mistake of her life. Posting a private picture on the internet, disregarding the dangers, of who can take and share this photo. She thinks that she can put it on a page where settings are private, but are they?

“Today I’ll delete that  photo, Luckily only no-one saw it except for my friends”! So she ran to get her laptop to delete that “Private photo”.......... But unbeknownst to her, people were taking the photo and using it as if it was there own. She tried and tried to delete it on every page she saw BUT once you post it you can’t take it back.

Writing Excersise.

Today we had to write about being at the beach on a cold day, BUT we could NOT say the word cold or anything that relates to being cold!!! This excersise was called SHOW NOT TELL.

It was a cloudy day at the beach. The sky, grey as can be, was turning more dim by the minute. As soon as I put my foot in the water, shivers ran up my spine and my body was covered in goosebumps. “This was not the best day to be at the beach” I muttered to myself.

My Christmas In Rotorua

I was in Rotorua with my dad and his Family though most of them have moved to Australia. My dad is an actor and is doing theatre work at the blue baths, So I decided that I wanted to have Chistmas with my dad here in Rotorua. The very smelly but amazing place.

Christmas was fun we had the traditional go to church for midnight mass, then open ONE present and one present only. It was awesome because I got a pair of sandels that I was looking at the day before!

There was only four of us that Christmas #sad life!!! My two big sisters Nifo and Sinta, also my big brother Taofia. We were all invited to our other families houses but decided to stay at home and make our own lunch so we did!!!

We all made a dish. I made a paster dish and my siblings made meat dishes and things like that.

Though this is a brief and short post about my Christmas it was VERY VERY FUN. THANKS DAD!!!!!

Well the end of year six has passed, and some of my friends are going to a different school this year but I forgot to say goodbye, so I would like to say a big and huge goodbye. We will all miss you and wish you all the best with your journey in life. You will both be in our hearts forever and are both very special to us in different ways. Hope to see ya'll soon!!!     Loads of Hugs Chante. <3

Poem about me.

I am a Lawyer,
This is my aspiration in life.

I am a Role model,
My younger siblings look up to me.

I am a daughter, to two very wonderful and talented people.
I try my best to make them proud.

I am a Samoan, and Tokelauan Girl,
I love both my cultures. They are very special to me and my family.

I am a Dancer, Productions for Santerelli, is what I used to do.

I am a friend,
I help my friends and classmates, also students from my school,
that need help in any sort of way.