Design and Make a Marble Track

This morning Miss Ouano told us that we are having a challenge, I felt really nervous because I might get it wrong.
We had to use 6 pieces of news paper and 1 meter of cello tape to make a tunnel. we had to make a tunnel, and it had to turn once.

We rolled two pieces paper into a tube and cut one hole into the paper, and stick it into another tube. My group went for my idea. my idea was to cut a hole in the middle of a paper tube.

I felt sad that my group didn't finish doing the tunnel, but we went pretty good. We were nearly going to finish our tunnel.

Next time we will do the challenge,we will plan the marble slide and then build it.

Presenting in Wellington

“Oh no come on Kingston get your stuff! ” I said to myself. As soon as I was up I went straight to put my uniform on and make my lunch.

On the 19th of May the Pt England Ambassadors went to Wellington and I am one of them. As soon as I got to school I went straight to the office to get my jacket and netbook. As all the ambassadors arrived to school, Mr and Mrs Burt made sure we were all at school and ready to go.

Stopping at the airport made my friends and I happy because we were all really desperate to go on the plane. As soon as the plane departed from the airport my ears started to hurt badly, but as much as I wanted to cry I just put up with it. Anyway on the plane my friends and I logged onto our netbooks and played a game called Burger Space.

“OK troops off the plane now” Mr Burt instructed to us. Soon we were trying to find a cab to take us to the Te Papa Museum, then suddenly we found one. After we had finished exploring the Museum we got ready to go and present our presentation. Before that we had a practice.

Minutes later everybody was in the hall waiting for us to present. I was a bit nervous because there were a lot of people but I still went on and did my job. After we had finished I thought that we had done a good job. We also got to go on our netbooks.

At the end of the day we had explored lots of places in Wellington and done heaps of stuff. We even had lunch at this place. To top everything off at the end of the day we went to a place called the Koru Lounge. It is a place where lots of rich people go and we went in. Everybody in there were surprised to see us in there, so we were lucky.

Suddenly the day started to end and we were just getting ready to go back to Auckland. At the end of the day I had lots of fun and had a good experience.

Swimming Lessons

Swimming, not exactly my favourite sport. But I guess it’s better than staying at school and doing work, plus it’s good exercise. And, maybe we’ll get free time, I thought to myself. Swimming can be pretty fun.... sometimes.

I was sitting on the edge of the pool, with my legs lazily dangling off the edge, when suddenly Mr Marks, our instructor in the big pool said, “Alright,Litia it’s time to get in the pool”. With a splash I was in the water trying to get warm by jumping around a little bit, until I got used to it. With my goggles on, and a powerful push off the wall I was off down the side of the pool.


Yay, I thought to myself as I looked up and saw the end of the pool was so close. I didn’t realize that I hadn’t been swimming for ages,so I was panting and wanted to just flop down and float in the pool. But I had to go back to the end of the line, so with a huge push I was out of the water dripping, and exhausted.


“Go Vivienne,go”, I shouted as I walked back to our line. Sitting down I watched my friends swim as I cheered them on. Whenever one of them stopped halfway, I made sure I kept cheering them on till they got to the end. All of them swum really, really well.


At first I didn’t really want to go swimming, but in the end I actually liked it and was looking forward to the next sessions.

Technology Challenge

When Miss Ouano explained to us that we all will be doing a technology challenge , I was really excited.Also she said that we had to be in a group of three.

The challenge was to make something out of six pieces of new paper that would start from the table and finish on the floor like a bridge. Oh we had to use a small marble to roll it down your bridge , we had to have a curve bit on our bridge as well.


As me , Caroline and Vanessa started thinking about what we were going to do for our challenge, we all came up with different ideas. My idea was to make pipe, I had the same idea as Vanessa. Caroline’s idea was to make a cylinder shape pole and it was fantastic, so we went with her idea.

I felt that my group did a really good job because we all worked together and we never wasted any time. Also we all had something we could do ,we never frighted over anything and we didn’t care that it was ugly. We didn’t care if we lost at least we got the job done and had lots of fun.

If we had chance to do it again I wouldn’t make any changes . Because I liked the way it was before, if we made a new one it will be more harder. It is better to make the same one you made before so you can finish early so it will be easy and you will already know what your going to do .

Vote For The Best Introduction

Can you decide which of the two introductions are the best. Then comment down on the white box and tell me which is the best.

I was munching away on my popcorn at the Sylvia Park cinemas then Boom!! Lighting struck down from the Hammer of Thor and blasted the destroyer. But it was like an Immortal so the Destroyer recovers from the attack and fires back.


I used sign language to tell my mum to pass the lollies please She passed the mix of the lollies we got from the lollie part at the cinemas.

Swimming Time

Mr Marks led us to the YMCA Lagoonfor our swimming lessons, as I got more excited, I was definitely hoping that I was in the large pools. Sure enough, I was. I went zooming past as Mr Marks said “go Starford”

It was my turn to get in. My teeth were chattering as I slid into the chlorinated pool, and cold water stung me all over, I was FREEZING!

As I pushed of the wall I went glidding through the water, looking stragiht up at the roof. I golped some water and I started to cough. Finally I reached the end and me and my friends were glad we made it.

“Yay” I said to my friends, we moved on to freetime and we started playing some wrestling im the pool. Mr Marks told us It was time to get out and get changed

Vote For The Best Introduction

Starford has written three introductions. The first 2 introductions try to hook you in with some action, the last one is tries to get the audience interested by saying what he was thinking or feeling. Please vote for which introduction paragraph hooks you in the most by commenting below.

Have you seen Fast and Furious 5? Well myfamily and I went to the Hoyt's Cinemas in Sylvia Park for the Easter holidays,and it was AMAZING!!!!
As the movie started (Fast And Furious 5) I was nervously waiting for my Dad and my brothers to hurry up and bring the pop corn, ice cream and drinks, because I was really hungry! And guess what we were in the X-TREME screen at Sylvia park.

I never imagined that Fast And Furious 5 (the movie), was going to be better the part 1,2,3,4 but unexpectedly it was awesome. One of the best movie I have ever seen! It was definitely a highlight of my Easter Holiday.

Vote For The Best Introduction

These are two introductions that are for my holiday highlight writing. But I don't know which one to use. My first introduction gets straight in to some action, my second one is my thoughts and what I felt. Which one hooks you in more? Please comment and vote below.

I screamed louder and louder as we started spinning faster and going up and down more and more. I was having an awesome time at the Easter show, even though it was raining, with my Aunties, my brother,Isara and my sister,Tinei.


All sorts of exciting thoughts were racing through my head as we arrived. I had been to the Easter show once before, with my Mum , and could still remember some things, like the awesome rides and the stinky farm animals, so I couldn’t wait to get in there again.

Room 17 Have Been Having Swimming Lessons

All About Room 17

 

You can find out some more about the children in Room 17. Listen carefully to what they think is special about their families. Then take a look at what they like to do in their spare time.

Around The Bays

Yesterday there was a marathon around the the bays in Mission Bay , Around the bays is when people run 8ks for fitness. Abundance of people were there and I didn’t know anyone apart from Lorenzo! I looked at the clock and we had ten minutes left and I was nervous.
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, BOOM!!! The cannon shot out gun powder and off we went. We ran with excitement in us! Suddenly I stumbled over the rocks on the ground and I got back up and kept running. Me and Lorenzo looked straight ahead and saw the first water station “Yaaaaay” We had a couple of drinks.
We’re over the bridge and finished our drinks, me and Lorenzo hit halfway and we started to fell tired and we really wanted some water. So I sped up to see if I could see some water and I did. “Lorenzo I found some water!” I shouted out, But it was cold juice even better!! After that We got to Mission Bay and we went though a shortcut in the sand.... “I'll run in the water” I said,so I ran through and my shoes were soaking.
Finally me and Lorenzo were close. We were really puffed out! Some kids tried to bet me but I just gassed it at the end and they got beaten and my time was 47 minutes.

Toasted Sandwiches

On Wednesday me and Michael and Roman and Wiremu made Toasted Sandwiches with ham and cheese in bread.First we buttered the bread.Then I put cheese and ham on my sandwich. I put my sandwich a plate then I took at to Mrs Mitchell and she put it in the hot toaster. When the sandwiches were toasted we took them out and cut them half.

Who were the Spartans?

Spartan boys were been taken away by their family left as seven years old. They were trained only for war. They had no luxuries, and left their hair long. They became as police men and became soldiers

The Spartan men were trained only fighting and that's all, either for their city or anyone else who would pay them. The other work was done by slaves captured by spartan soldiers and they were called Helots.

The women of Sparta feasted and celebrated when a son who won a battle. But if their sons were defeated, they could be killed by their mothers in shame.

What Are Hieroglyphics?

The word Hieroglyphics is a hard word to say,but it is even harder to spell.The word are made up with 2 Greek words meaning sacred carving.They usually show pictures of trees,animals or a weapon that represent words syllables and sounds.


The name of the marks was mostly found in temples and palaces in Egypt.All the building that were built thousands of years ago,still stand tall today.


In 1799 a Hieroglyphics stone called the Rosetta stone was discovered.They used it to find out how to work out sounds.It was a decree carved by the priest to remember the crowning of a King and copied it underneath. It had 3 types of translations so they could easily find out the secret language and read more.

The Coast Of Japans Double Disasters.

A Huge tsunami engulfed the coast of Japan.Houses were torn down, Japan was annihilated and and we can not do any thing about it. A earthquake had formed a tsunami which that tsunami had covered the coast of Japan!
That is a double disaster! A lot of people were missing and the people can not find most of them. A lot of people were evacuated out of there homes.
But sadly, for the people that have died we wish you the best.


A massive 8.9/9.0 magnitude hit the Pacific Ocean nearby northeastern japan at about 2:46pm in the middle of winter.The Japanese people had known it was coming because of their phones started to shake but they did not know that this earthquake was going to big.

That Earthquake had caused blackout,fires and tsunami’s.The Buildings didn't fall down from that earthquake because they had built the buildings to be earthquake proof.The Large Earthquake had triggered a tsunami warning to all the Pacific Islands.The disasters from the earthquake has been put on the news all over the W-O-R-L-D!!It was that bad it was a State Of Emergency!!!When you watch it on the news it is a terrible sight for the Japanese people that are living on the coast Japan. A gigantic earthquake had stroke the people of Japan.It was winter there in Japan.

Holiday Highlight

It was a lucky night where me and my family and I in Australia got to go to a restaurant in the gold cost.We had to walk and it was a very long way to get there and while we were walking we saw some large Crabs it was freaky because they were moving there mouths in a sideways motion. But finally we arrived at the restaurant that my Auntie

When we had arrived the place looked awesome because there were mini hot balloons that you get to sit in. Me and my family ordered some ribs and a all you can eat pancakes. First I had a pancake with melted butter it was okay but not sweet enough so I was going to have another but my dad insisted I have some ribs so I had a couple of ribs then dug back into the pancakes.



My second pancake was with butter and golden maple syrup the butter melted in my mouth then the golden syrup dripped out of my mouth. My third pancake had topping of ice cream and syrup. I was going to have another but my dad said “to only have one more and you only get a half pancake” “Okay” I said.


After all of those delicacy's we had we all had sore stomachs and was completely full of food. That night I slept great. That was a trip to remember.

WaterSafe Pools2Schools Programme

On Sunday December 19th 2010, there I was in the Sunday Star Times - along with Chris and Kids from Pt England School. Check out the article here:

WATER-WISE: Starford Toa in the portable pool at Auckland's Pt England School, where pupils are getting water education.

If schools can't get their students to a pool, why not bring the pool to the school?

It sounds far-fetched, but that's exactly what WaterSafe Pools2Schools programme is doing in Auckland.

Chief executive Sandy Harrop says schools face a lot of barriers when it comes to giving their students an aquatic education.

"These barriers are identified by schools as support for teachers and the cost of pool entry, tuition, transport [and] time out of school," she says.

Pools2Schools breaks down all those barriers by bringing the pool – and all that goes with it – to the school.

The programme was trialled at Papakura's Red Hill Primary school last year using a 10m by 5m vinyl portable pool borrowed from Premier Exhibitions.

Deputy principal Charlotte Castle said that when the school started working with WaterSafe, it realised a lot of its students didn't even know how to float. Now, thanks to $95,000 of KiwiSport funding, Pools2Schools has its own portable pool, water filter system, heat pump, scaffolding, marquee, security fencing and trailer.

It also comes with WaterSafe Auckland's aquatic education facilitator Chris Burton, who teaches the students and the teachers. Burton says Pools2Schools is not just about teaching kids how to swim 200m – a goal set out in the national curriculum.

"That's not necessarily going to help you in a rip," he says. "It's about building a knowledge base and decision making."

Decisions such as when to signal for help, how to fit a life jacket and how to duck-dive under big waves.

For the past seven weeks the covered pool has been at east Auckland's Pt England School. When the Sunday Star-Times visited, Year 5 students were learning how to use their hands like ice-cream scoops and how to stay warm and float in the water.

"I feel like a safer swimmer," 10-year-old Crusader Faletagoai says. "I didn't know how to do it properly before." Classmate Prince Scanlan says he's going to show his three and six-year-old sisters what he's learnt in the pool this term. Teacher Helen Squires says the students have also enjoyed lunchtime classes in the pool with Water Polo NZ, Surf Lifesaving and Olympic swimmer Hayley Palmer. Fellow teacher Jody Wild says her Year 1 students have "come along in leaps and bounds".

Goint To Mrs Slade

When the second bell goes I go to Miss Slade’s class and sit where I sit last time. When it time for us to start she said to open our net book so we can start. The First thing we do is write about the weekend. Who finish early can draw and wait till Miss Slade tells us to finish what we are on and be ready to draw are picture to put on our folder so it can be petty. I did are flower picture and put my name at the top.

Taking Charge

This year Pt England School is all about being Responsible and Taking Charge.
Room 17 has made a movie to show some of the ways we take charge.

Our New Netbooks

I can’t wait until we get to take our netbooks home, because we can go on them at anytime and anyplace to do lots of very cool things. Our netbooks are going to help us to get ready for the future, by being able to use a computer because lots of our jobs will involve using them.

Everyone was ready and waiting for Mrs Burt to walk through the door, with all of our brand new netbooks. Lots of teachers helped us to set them up.We got lots of support from teachers that don't even come to this school, but they still helped all of us.

It was very frustrating at times when the internet didn’t work, and we had to go back to using plain old pencils and paper. We had to be patient and wait for a teacher to come and help us if we had problems. I thought it was intriguing how small our netbooks were, but they can still do most of the things that our big i-macs can do.