Crash Landing

This is fresh news that I have just heard  right this very minute at 7:47pm 30/9/10. There was a crash landing near Blenheim at an airport called Woodbourne. There were 46 passengers on board but none were injured. Someones mother was on board and they wrote that the plane tried to land in Nelson airport several times. It was going to Nelson from Wellington but was diverted to Blenheim. The plane suffered nose-wheel failure which means that the front wheel collapsed when they had landed. No one was injured. The plane is still on the runway and is being inspected by engineers

Baby Shower!

As you know from a previous blog that my mum is having a baby. Most woman have baby showers when they are pregnant, and so is my mum. My Grandma, me and my mum's friend are organizing a wonderful baby shower for my mum. She already knows because she needed to tell us what date to have it. Baby showers are exciting but kids aren't usually allowed to come and it's mostly for woman. The colour theme for the baby shower is green and white. Putting together a baby shower is quite hard for me because I'm a kid. But with the help of the adults it's been quite easy. I have finished doing the banner for the shower and I have also done a poem (check it out in another blog post called Babies are absolutely cute ). There is a lot of organizing involved and it sort of helps me with being responsible. I can't wait for the baby shower!

Rugby Excitement!

Have I ever told you how much I love Rugby? I don't love to the point that I want to play it (although I did at one stage just once) but I really love it. The reasons I love it are:
The excitement of the game, when my team wins (you obviously know what team that is), when you don't know what's going to happen next, when the ref gets squashed in between the players and especially when the team I support (again I bet you know who that is) gets beaten and when the play that team again they smash them!

But now the excitement is stronger because...THE RUGBY WORLD CUP IS SOON GOING TO BE HERE!!!!!!. As you should know (come on rugby world cups is something you should know about) the Rugby World Cup is NEXT YEAR and it is here in NEW ZEALAND. 2 reasons to be doubly excited. No wait I think there is another reason to be excited...The Springboks Might win the World Cup! (that's just a might be. I know they lost a lot in the Tri-Nations I blame it on the booing)

This blog post is just another post to take out my excitement on something. And remember until next year and we find out who is the new best rugby team in the world (I hope it doesn't change). For now THE SPRINGBOKS ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD.

Big Words

Hi.

I am now going to try and put up some really hard and big words on my blog and tell you what the meaning is and how to pronounce the word. Your First word is:
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
(New-mono-ultra-micro-scopic-sil-i-co-volcano-cone-e-o-sis)
Meaning:
Lung disease through breathing in silica dust.

My Great Grandma is truly Great!

My Great Grandma lives in South Africa. She is my only Great Grandparent and I love her a lot! She is full of love for all of her Great Grand children and Grand children and Children and I think she is also a Great Great Grandma (I think). I call my Great Grandma Mama. She is old an wrinkly and has really soft cheeks like a baby and when she picks her arms up the skin hangs down from under her arms and that is reallllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyy soft. She is also about my height which is 1 meter and 40cm. When she talks in a very firm but sweet voice. And when she tells me off her voice changes completely. Her voice is just firm and stern not sweet.

Okay she might tell me off sometimes but her cooking is great. She makes this egg with chili powder and other spices and it is more than delicious. You might think that spoils the egg but hey I like spice... I'm an Indian forgive me if I like a little spice. Just joking.
Now my Great Grandma can speak heaps of languages not all fluently but she can speak them. here is the list of them:
Urdu, Hindi, Zulu, English and I forgot the rest.
Overall I'm really glad I still have one of my great grandparents left and I absolutely love her!

Invincible Blue...aah Not Really

"Okay now if you want to sign up for hockey come with me" said Miss Davies. 'Should I go? Should I not?' I was thinking. Maybe It would be good to try something new, I thought. So I went along with all the people who wanted to do hockey.

The next few weeks were filled with practices, and every Wednesday instead of doing senior sport we practiced hockey. I really enjoyed weaving in and out of the cones with the hockey stick and the ball, although it was hard to control the ball. I also really liked the drill where we had to go through the cones but at the end there was someone trying to get the ball of you.
The Monday comes before the big day...Winter Field Day. The whole class was buzzing with excitement. Towards the end of the day there were some dreadful news over the loudspeaker "Excuse me classes the Winter Field Day has been postponed to next Tuesday. Sorry Winter Field Day has been postponed to Tuesday". There was a lot of "Awwww's" and I myself was so disappointed, but it was not like it was canceled.It was postponed because the fields were to wet to play on. Next Monday over the loud speaker we hear worse news "Excuse me classes the Winter Field Day has been canceled. The Winter Field Day has been canceled". Now there was even louder awwwwing then last week. I was really sad. I  really wanted to show the other schools that our school was great.
But we were in for some good news. Thanks to our brilliant Year 5 & 6 teachers and our wonderful prinicipal there was a Sports Exchange between Sunnyvale, Pomaria and our School. When the day arrived I was so excited because I was really confident that we would do well. I know that the meaning of invincible is along the lines of unbeatable. But Summerland Blue wasn't we won 2 out of 3 games but that was okay because The last game was against Summerland Yellow. But we were all from the same school so it didn't really matter. The day was really fun and thank you to all the teachers who helped to put it together!

Babies are Absolutley Cute!

Sometimes when I'm somewhere my mum's not I start to tingle with excitement because at anytime from now till 12th November my could give birth to my brother or sister. We don't really know what the baby is because when my mum went for a scan the baby wasn't showing the places we need to see in order to know what gender it is. But we just decided if we get any baby stuff the colours will be yellow or orange or the colours that can be for both boys and girls.
Now the point I wrote this blog post is because I'm so excited! Have you ever had a new baby in your house? They smell nice and they are so soft and cute and they have chubby cheeks and I just wrote this blog so I can take out my excitement on something. I like babies and they are really cute. My sisters were born when I was to little to change diapers so now that I'm older I have to do this ghastly sickening job. If you have changed a diaper please tell me what its like. I need to know what I'm up against. No don't do that I bet it's too gross to write about and anyway I was just joking. I would like to finish this blog post with a poem I wrote for my mums baby shower:
Babies Galore
I Want More
Gladly Our Mum
Has One In Her Tum
Please Come Quick
Although You Might Get Sick
All Over Mums Clothes
We Love Your Little Nose
Although We Can't See You
Please Come Fast
So You Can Last
Forever In Our Memories

Table for 4?

As I said in a previous blog post I dropped my Grandma off and then I made a lovely dinner. In class at the beginning of the year we started a different type of homework. We had homework we had to complete before the 30th of November. There were 5 sections in the homework and they were:
Giving, Service in School and Community, Physical Activity and the Outdoors, Academic Excellence and Excellence in the Arts.
I did an activity from the Giving Section. I had to prepare 3 three course meals for my family. I did my first 3 course meal which I based on Italian food. Apart from the Garlic Bread (which I think isn't Italian) The rest was Italian. I had Garlic Bread for my Entree, Pasta Bake for the Main and Palline di Cioccolato which is chocolate balls with nuts in them. The Pasta Bake flavour was 3 cheeses and I had pieces of chicken and chicken bacon in it. The Palline di Cioccolato had walnuts and almonds. I had to take photos of me doing everything as evidence. I plan to do the next 2 meals based on doing roasts and Mexican food. AAAAARIBAH!

On the First Day of Holidays

On Saturday the day after Friday and the day before Sunday I was at the Salvation Army on View Road because my dad had helped this man named Adrian Pritchard to write this book called 180 degrees and they were having the launch there. This man was a criminal one of the most wanted people in New Zealand. He was also high on drugs and things like that. He was really into rock music and he went to Amercia to see if he could become a rockstar. The book is about how Jesus changed his life and now he is a really good man. But there are consequences to his actions and he was diagnosed with Hepititis C which is some disease that eats away at your liver or something like that. He also can't leave the country and he's blind in one eye. If you know anybody that is on drugs or anything I would reccomend this book. It can truly change their life.
If Adrian can do it then they can do it to!

Grandparents. Aren't they Wonderful?

Don't you just love Grandparents? They're always spoiling you and giving you things. Well my Grandma is really something good. I really love her a lot and she is really funny. My Grandfather passed away so it's just her and my uncle. On Tuesday we went to the movies and we watched Despicable Me. Such a funny movie. The 3 little girls are really cute. Just like me and my sisters. There is three of us (and one on the way...due in November!). And you know what we got when we were in the movies we got a large coke and a large popcorn... but we had to share. But sharing is caring (bet you've heard that on before). When the movie finished my grandma was going to take us shopping if my mum wasn't there but she was so we couldn't go shopping. But my really little sister begged and begged to go to McDonalds to get an ice-cream and so we went to Lincoln Road McDonalds  even though there was one in the mall but the mall was to busy. We went and got our ice-creams and then we went home. We were supposed to drop my Grandma of but we wanted her to stay so she stayed. When we got home I wanted to play tennis  outside but my middle sister had itchy bites that really hurt so she couldn't play and my little sister knew how to play tennis but she couldn't hit the ball to me so it kept dropping somewhere else most of the time. But luckily my Grandma was there to play and we had a really good game until she had to go in to drink her tea.Then night came we had dinner but we didn't have to worry about clothes because my Grandma always kept some clothes at my house. We got to sleep together and she usually tells me funny stories but she was knocked out absolutely tired. I couldn't get to sleep and I kept on going
"Grandma are you awake?". Then she would say
"Mmmmph" and I would try and go back to sleep. I finally got back to sleep but only had 9 hours of precious rest. I woke up at about 9:00am and my Dad, Mum and middle sister were gone. My mum had dropped my dad off at work and my sister went along to. My mum had an appointment with her Midwife so she wouldn't be back till about 11 or so. So the house was left to me my grandma and my little sister. We woke up brushed our teeth and changed and then went down to have some French Toast. I made the french toast and had maple syrup on top. After breakfast we just lazed around and my grandma told me about how when they were little the treacle truck with drive past and all of them would run after the truck because the treacle used to leak and they would lick it but not my grandma. She didn't like treacle she just liked running after the truck!
They also used to do that with the sugarcane truck. They would run after the sugarcane that would poke out of the truck and they would grab it and chew it.

A little bit earlier than lunchtime my mum came home and we had a visit from one of our friends. The lady that visited had 3 sons but she only brought 2 of them because he was little and at kindy. We played outside with our soccer ball and we were poking a snail to see if it would come out but it didn't so we killed it. I know you must be thinking cruel but it wasn't much use to us after that so what were we supposed to do? Put it back in the bush? Naaaa! After they left we had to take my grandma back. That same night I was cooking something but you read the blog about that lovely dinner. Those 2 days were really fun and I really enjoyed spending time with my grandma!

End Game

“Hey look there’s the Sky Tower!” Yay we were finally in the city. We were going to The Capital E Theatre, to watch a production called End Game. When we finally got to the theatre we had to wait. A few of the senior classes were with us. Only a few because the other half were going to come but later on. “Okay kids stand and up and walk quietly into the theatre.” As we walked into the theatre there was a room that we passed called the crying room. Was drama so touching that people actually cried? Naah! Who cares about crying right now, I was getting shoved in through the door and down the steep stairs that led to my seat. There was also this guy called Abhishek who was sitting on seat 13 and guess what that day was it was Friday the 13th!(check out his blog page http://www.7teencrew-abhishek.blogspot.com) .The seats were the type of seats where you had to pull the seat down and sit on it properly otherwise it would flip up. I took my seat and the lights went out and a big booming voice was heard “Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls may you please take your seats. We would like quiet in the theatre and if you have any cellphones on would you please put them off. Thank You and enjoy the show” The first scene was about a boy named Alex and his mum. They were going through their daily routine which mainly consisted of going on facebook and playing computer games. Then they get the bad news that Alex’s grandfather is very sick and is in hospital. When Alex and his mum get there Alex plugs his laptop in and the his mum gets worried that he might have pulled out his grandfathers life preserver machine but he didn’t cause there happened to be 2 more plug points. So his mum went and pushed the plug in to charge her blackberry and they got sucked into Alex’s computer game. It was a daring and courageous story about how they had to go on a quest and all the while there was a life gauge which represented his grandfathers life. If they did not complete the quest before the gauge ran out Alex’s grandfather would die. But you know most stories have a happy ending and they get back in time. Overall if I had to rate this production on a scale from 1-10 I would give it a 7. 

Discovery Time In Anawhata Pod!

Discovery Time in Anawhata is very fun. You may be wandering what discovery time is. Well every Friday all of Anawhata pod go to room 20 and then we sit down with the teachers and they give us a topic our Discovery Time is based on. Our latest Discovery Time was based on meeting deadlines. Each class had a sheet with must do’s and can do’s. We had to complete the must do’s in the time given and if we had finished them before morning tea we could do the can do’s. We do a range of activities. Last time we did a hand lily, wooly sheep, 3D shapes and some other things. I like doing Discovery Time because it helps me with different things, like being creative and the things we base them on. As well as that they are also very fun activities. My favourite Discovery Time was based on perseverance and I did a pom pom. It took really long to make but it was worth it as it turned out to look awesome! Over all Discovery Time is a really fun way to help us kids learn great values that will help us later on in life!

iClean

“Emergency emergency!” said Miss Davies “quickly pack the class up the whole pod is coming in the classroom.”. The class rushed to push everything to the side. There was the sound of tables screeching on the floor and we were done.
There was  a man called Stuart Hale on Skype and he had an urgent message. “Anawhata I want to make your mission to make Summerland Primary a better looking school.” Well thats where the mission started.
We first had to type up questions we had abut the iClean day. After that we went out and took photos around the school of problems. Then we were offered a variety of jobs such as cleaning the gardens near the staffroom, cleaning the sand pit, cleaning the courts and a whole lot of other places. We then had to choose a job and then write an action plan. Our group did the Staffroom Gardens.
Our group was called Wasabi. We even made up a chant. It went something like this "One taste of us will burn your tounge we are team number one! Wasabi! Wasabi! WAAAAAASABAY!". 
On Friday the 20th of August it was iClean day and we were ready to make the school look mean! Part of the staffroom garden job is clear the leaves, weed the garden, take out the moss in between the cobblestones,scrub the cobblestones and scrub the benches. The day was awesome and more importantly the school looked awesome. When Mr Stuart Hale came with the Apple Bus Tour people he came to see us and was very impressed. He couldn't even find a piece of rubbish around the school! Well done to the Anawhata Crew! (which includes me!)

University on Wheels

I was so excited because today was the day I learnt even more about one of my life long dreams...Forensic Science! We were going to be taught by a lady named Elaine.

She first showed us a slideshow labeled the Crime Scene Basics. It had a little bit about the words we use when we are investigating like instead of saying “I think the person that did this is... and his partner is...” She told us to say something like this “The suspect is ... and his accomplice is...” 
Then we had our first challenge. Trying to remember 20 items and we were only allowed to look at them for 30 seconds. She then took that slide of and we had to try and write down as many of the items as we could remember.
My favourite part out of this whole thing was the 2 investigations we did. The first crime was the case of the stolen ginormous  cookie. We had to use the clues, information about a few of the suspects and witnesses statements. It was sort of hard because some witnesses saw things differently and there was no sign of any cookie crumbs. But we did find out who the criminal was. It was this boy named Otis.
The second case was a bit more serious. It was about a stolen computer chip. That case was a whole lot easier for the group I was working with. Most of the clues made sense instead of one witness saying “and he was wearing yellow clothes” and another saying  “he was wearing all red”.But I think that is sort of what the whole purpose was to make things a little bit hard. In the end there was a clue that really stood out. When someone was looking at the computer chip through a microscope there were little bits of denim and white crystals. That made it really clear because there was a coffee  guy and some Cowboy guy had coffee with him. In the end it happened to be Cowboy Paul and Coffee Cart Doug working together. Overall that whole experience was awesome! 

Marae Trip

We went to a Marae at the beginning of the year. I didn't get to write about so now I am going to.

Going to the Marae was really fun. I learnt a lot about Maori people and Maori culture. My favourite part about going to the Marae was the story telling. We heard stories about Kupe and the octopus finding Aotearoa, Maui and how he caught the giant stingray that was the North Island of New Zealand and the story about the 2 brothers who were building the Marae and how the Whale which they were going to eat, kept going back and forth.

 But before we could go to the Marae there had to be a lot of learning involved. We learnt a lot of song and dance. My favourite song was an action song. It was called Te Whenua o Raumati which means Summerland or Land of the Summer. The Marae we went to was called Hoani Waititi Marae. The first thing we did was get into our lines. Then Mr. Morris led us onto the grass in front of the whare nui. Then one of the elderly women called to us and Mr. Morris replied. We had to walk really slowly. At one point we had to stop but only for a few seconds. When we finally got to the whare nui we had to take our shoes off before entering. When we got inside we listened to two men from the tangata whenua speak and then we had two people on our behalf talk. After Mr. Cross spoke we sang Ka Waiata on of our songs. Then Mr. Morris spoke and we the sang Te Whenua o Raumati. 

After that we had Morning Tea. We were only allowed to go on the field next to the grass we entered on because the field we entered on is Tapu which is sacred. After that we played  a game called  Nga Whitu which is seven in Maori. In the Marae it was a little bit warm because some of us were sitting on mattresses. The game was where you had to slap your thighs then do some actions in the middle then end with a slap on your thighs. But you have to do seven actions and each time it gets harder. That took quite a long time because we had to teach the the little kids and then we had a battle between parents and kids. Then after that there was a battle between the biggies and the littlies. We then had our lunch. After lunch was STORY TIME!!!!!!!! The stories were really cool.We also got put into 3 groups. There were 3 stories and a colouring sheet for each. I enjoyed the one about Kupe. 

A lot of work was put into this and I think we all did really well.

The English Language... Very Interesting

On the 3 of August I went to University on Wheels. We were in the prefabs. The man who was teaching us was named Russell Greenwood. He told us about great things in history. He told us about how the english language originated from the Anglo Saxon language but a whole lot of other languages contributed words. Since we had to do a little time traveling we also learnt heaps of history. We learnt that in Athens, Greece if you were a lady, a slave or under 18 you were not considered as a citizen. We learnt a lot. We also got to handle some ancient artifacts. Some were recreations and some were real from real ancient times. We got to hold a wax holder or something like that and there were smoke mark’s around the side to show it had been used. Russell said it was probably used by a salve because the clay that was used to make it was of low value and it would not have been used by a king or someone of royalty. There was also a cup or bowl that had an owl which is a symbol of wisdom and olive tree leaves. It’s colours was mostly black and brown. Overall this was a very good experience and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to expand their vocab,learn a bit of history about the english language and handle some ancient artifacts. 

Classroom Makeover

On the 29th of June we got to measure things in our classroom. We did this because we were going to change our classroom around. We needed to know the measurements of everything so that we knew if it would fit or not. We had to work with people we don’t normally work with. I was working with Ezrah. Before we started Miss. Davies gave us a short briefing about measurement. We learnt that 

100cm = 1meter and 1000mm = 1meter. We also learnt that 1cm = 10mm . 

When we had finished doing that we had to this worksheet which asked us to measure something but we had to estimate it first. Some of us hadn’t finished the sheet but still we moved on to Perimeter and Area. To work out the area of a shape without using a grid is to use your ruler and measure the width and then the length you then times the length and then width and then you get the answer.
We also learnt  how to find the area and  perimeter of a compound shape. You first have to split the shape into the shapes it could be and then measure the area of each shape and then put those answers together and then you get the answer.
We learnt that the Perimeter of a shape is the outside of it and that the Area is the space inside it. I think the only bad thing was when it started raining and we couldn’t go outside and measure the netball courts and other things outside. You maybe thinking that you're classroom looks cool. Well our class looks even more awesome! 

Annie's Hard Knock Life

The whole of Anawhata crew were sitting in room 17, when we started talking about the production we had recently seen called End Game. Miss Hughes then started to talk about how Henderson Intermediate was putting on a production called Annie. I had watched the movie but hadn't seen people do it right in front of my eyes.

Now a few weeks later, here we are sitting on the bus on the way to Henderson Intermediate to watch Annie. When Miss Hughes and the other teachers started to talk about it at that assembly I didn't take the teachers seriously. When we got into the theatre it was mostly silent, apart from the occasional exclamation of wonder at how the actor could have done such great acting and after every scene we all clapped.
My favourite song was the one called NYC or something like that. I really enjoyed going there and I think it was a great experience. I wish I could watch it over and over again, but I may get bored of sitting for so long over and over again. There are many different versions of Annie but I really enjoyed this one. Well done to the students of Henderson Intermediate. Great Show!

Cool Blog. About What?

Hi there my name is Atarah. I live in Auckland New Zealand but was born in Durban South Africa. I enjoy being in the classroom learning but hey sometimes it's good to get out. I like reading, writing, maths and especially SPORT because I can get fit doing it.

On this blog I will be writing about my learning and things that are important to me. I like watching rugby so I will probably be writing about that. My favourite team is the Springboks as you can see from the name of my blog. Here you can read about my adventures at home and at school learning. I really like hanging out with my friends and family and playing sport.

I have lots of family in South Africa so I might write about going back to SA to visit them. My dad also travels around New Zealand as he is a preacher so that might also be on my list to write about on my blog. But the thing I will be writing about most is my learning. One of the things my teacher always tells our class is that we are learning all the time.

So I hope you will get to know a lot about the learning in my class and the fun adventures I have at home.
Hope you enjoy the blog!!!

Weekend Excitement

I wake up feeling really cold. My toes and fingers feel numb. I remember where I am. I'm in Tauranga. I was staying at the Bennets Motor Inn. My dad was preaching at a mens Christian event named Promise Keepers.

I was so tired so I just lied in. I was tired from the traveling we did on Saturday. We were going to church and when I finally woke up I remembered that the Boks had played the Aussies! I so hoped that they would win this game after all the disappointment they went through.

I had a feeling they took their anger out on the Australians but I wasn't sure so I asked my dad. He said he only watched the first half and they were losing 28-24. Well not a great start but I hoped I had Bok intuition. I endured the whole day anxiously waiting to get back home to Auckland so I could access the internet.

We got home really late as we had to go to this guy who sold us our new van. When we got back to our house it was 7:37. I had to have a shower first and then have dinner. I had two slices of toast and runny egg in between.

Now to get back to the subject of excitement. I sat on the couch eating ice-cream and watching NCIS. You know I want to be a forensic scientist or if I change my mind I want to act on CSI: Miami and my last resort is to be a famous singer or actor!

Anyway I was eating ice-cream and watching NCIS. I was watching a bit were Abby (one of the actors) was complaining to Gibbs (he was sort of like the boss) about the power being out and how she couldn't run a dialysis, and then I realised I have power. A laptop needs power and I need a laptop. I burst out saying  to my dad,
"Is mum's laptop downstairs!"

I took a quick glance around.
There it was on the floor. I picked it up and flung it on my lap (but didn't break it). I quickly went onto the nz herald website. I clicked on the Sports category. Nine Try Come Back was the headline.


"DAD THEY WON!!!!! Nine tries 44-31!!!!!!!" I was beyond ecstatic.

Now you may be wondering if I have got my taste for rugby back. Well I sure do have it back buddy.
So now I think the Springboks will definitely get their revenge on the All Blacks. Sorry All Blacks get ready to get whipped!

Rugby... So Disappointing!

Rugby. What has it got to do with learning? Well I'll tell you what. I learnt never to trust the team you are supporting to win unless you can clearly see that they are winning. It sort of was like this with the Springboks. I honestly thought they could win but no. The All Blacks had some nifty tricks up their sleeves. If you have watched or heard of the game I think that the definite highlight of the game must have been the 2 TRIES THE ALL BLACKS SCORED IN THE LAST 3 MINUTES!!! In my opinion the second to last try they scored was a forward pass. Well to tell you how devastated I was I will tell you about that morning.

I wake up my heart racing. My eyes lit with excitement. I had realised what had happened in the early hours of the morning. The Springboks had played the All Blacks. I was absolutely ecstatic because there was a chance that the Springboks could have won.

I checked on the internet. Big mistake. As I read an article about the game the world seemed to crumble under my feet. My tummy tied in a knot and my hands clenched into fists. My eyes filled with tears. I allowed one tear to fall and that was it. Absolute devastation. Anguish, dolefulness, despondency call it whatever you want but one thing was for sure I had now sort of lost my taste for rugby.

I was hoping to wear my Bok shirt that day. I was also hoping that I would go out today and meet some very sad looking All Black supporters. They should be the ones feeling what I was feeling. From a team who won every single game in the Tri-Nations except one to a team who lost every single game is so shocking for the Springboks. But don't worry All Blacks we'll get our revenge in the World Cup. And even better. We'll get revenge here in New Zealand!! (Hopefully)