Cinderella, kind of.

Cinderella

"Cinders!".

"What?' I yelled up the stairs.

"Shine my shoes"my step brother Eric yelled.

"And my boots" Eric's twin brother James added.

"Coming" I called. My name's Cinders, I don't know what my real name is. I've lived with my step brothers and father all my life since my mother died and left me with them.

'Hurry up" the twins called.

"I'm coming, I'm coming" I replied and charged up the stairs. I reached top to find my step brothers in a flurry. Eric was running around ransacking all the closets in the house and James was sat on the floor staring at a picture of a super cute girl. "Oh".

"What?" James snapped.

"You in love" I replied mockingly.

"Yes" he moaned.

"Cinders, what should I wear?" Eric asked me.

"Wear to what?" I replied confused.

"What ball?"

"The princesses" he told me.

"Your black suit, Eric" I called as he hurried out the room to find something to else to wear. "Come on James. go get dressed" I said.

"Ok " he replied dreamily.

I headed back down to the kitchen and started to scrub the twins shoes.  'Dum de de. dum de de" I hummed to myself. I finished scrubbing their shoes and started to prepare afternoon tea.

"CINDERS!" a voice shouted from up stairs. I didn't dare reply because I knew it would result in a punishment of no doubt whipping. I charged up to my step fathers office and knocked on the door. "Come in" a deep voice said. I opened the door and was greeted with a stern stare from my step father. My step father was a tall, burly man with a mop of curly brown hair and a sharp neat suit.

By Emma

Room 11 MOTEC fun!!

Every Tuesday Room 11 hops on a bus and drives to MOTEC (Motueka Technology Education Centre).  MOTEC is in a building at Parklyns school with five rooms to learn different technology skills. 
At the start of the year room 11 got split up into two different groups one in the cooking room and one in the hard materials room there we learnt how to cook and to work with hard materials.

  Nearing the end of the term the cooking group moved on to making Taonga's (a treasure for us or someone else to show identity or something special).  To make it we had to do a few planning pages to find out what we were going to make it of, who it was going to be for and what design we  wanted it to look like.  We had three choices of what we could make it out of, they were acrylic, resin or timber.  
After planning we had to make a final drawing that fitted to our plan of what we wanted it to look like and to be made of, then make a model out of cardboard.  Then comes the making part. 

If we're making our Taonga from resin we have to make a mould from a plastic sheet to pour the resin and hardener into.  Then if we want to, we can embed things in the resin by pouring a little resin into the bottom and waiting for it to partially dry before placing an object(s) on it and covering it over with more resin.  Also you can colour it by mixing coloured dye with the resin.    Then you sand the edges to make sure it is smooth and the right shape. 

If you are using acrylic you can either cut out your shape or Thermoform it which is when you soften the acrylic and bend it into shape.  Then you sand the edges. 

If you're using timber first you have to draw your pattern onto it and cut it out and drill any necessary holes.  Next you have to sand it down with a very fine sandpaper to ensure the smoothness and roundness of the edges. If you want your timber to shine you have to use a special oil on the timber. 

To finish, we have to add on any necessary accessories to our Taonga and evaluate the project.  Then comes the moment of truth, whether we give it away or use it ourselves we should always keep it as a treasure and pass it on through generations more.

By Macgregor Jones

Optimist nationals

On the 20th-25th of March I, Macgregor, went to the optimist nationals which was 5 days long but due to weather two days were blown out (too windy to race).  An optimist is a class of yacht that is usually used to learn to sail but because they have become so popular they are now a boat that is raced internationally.   I was in green fleet which is the fleet for people who haven't done many races outside of there area.  

Day one consisted of one race as it got too windy to race.  I came 11th Out of 50 boats which I was happy with as I had only been racing optimists for one season and they were my conditions :). 

Day two was blown out :( which gave us the chance to visit Wellington city including the national library and visiting the colosil squid and Macano display in Te Papa :).

Day three we had 4 races to make sure we got a series in.  I got a 14th, 15th, 19th, and a 30th which left me in 16th place overall and 14th in NZ :).

One of the sailing rules of racing is that once you've raced and completed 5 races your worst score does not count in your final score/placing.  

On Sunday (day 4) we had an early start with our briefing at 9:00am and first start at 9:35 which was very early compared to other days that had a 10:35 start!!!.  I placed a 16th, 26th, and a 46th which left me in 19th place overall and 17th in NZ :).  I got the 46th place because someone did not follow the rules and made me capsize :(.  At least I didn't come last!!

Day 4 (Monday) was the last day and it was very windy....PERFECT!!.......NO SAILING, it must have been to windy!!!  I biked as fast as I could to the yacht club to find there was no sailing :(.  At least I got left in 19th place overall and 17th in NZ (yes there were to French!!) and that's where I stayed :).

By Macgregor Jones :)

Me (Macgregor) sailing my optimist (water tight) at the optimist nationals
in Worser Bay Wellington.

Astronomy

In our Science class recently we have been learning lots about the Earth and its surrounding atmosphere.

This week we have been working on understanding how the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun affect our tides. In our groups, we were given the task of making models to explain this process and why we have high/low, spring and neap tides.

Here are some photos of us making our models and we are in the process of making videos to explain the models... keep your eyes peeled to see them.

Basketball - Nelson Giants

Last week on Wednesday we had Sam come in from the Nelson Giants Basketball team to take us for some miniball skills out on the courts.
He taught us how to control the ball and we played a cool game where you had to try and hit another person's ball out of the square.
Here are a few pictures:

Cross Country

Cross Country


As the chatter of children died down the first race made their way over to Mr Mac to do his fun warm up routine. Today was the day of the cross country and the whole had gathered over at Aranui park. As the races carried on the children from the older section were discussing what place they thought they would come in their race. The year 7 boys headed of before the year 7 girls and we all started to do warm up stretches and when our race was called we headed over to Mr Mac and did even more stretches then we walked over to the start line where Mr Taylor reminded us of how many laps we were doing and a quick run though of where we were to run. On your marks, get set, HONK,and we were off running and jumping over the little ditch that's filled with native plants. Then it was across a small field and up though a patch of trees and over a small fence and through some more trees and over a little a small stream and onto the path that goes around the park then back across the field and that again 3 times and on the last loop into the finishing tent. The person who finished first was Rosie Neal then in second place was Lulu McCann then in third it was Gina Hill. The house that won for the house competition was yellow then red in second and blue and green in third and fourth. It was a fun and tiring event but it was an absolutely amazing event.


By Emma.

Assembly

Ka pai koutou!

You did an amazing job at our assembly today! I am extremely proud of you all.

Here is a wee snippet of your performance.

Have a lovely weekend!

Diary Writing

During our ANZAC week last week the children were completing journal activities, one group working on researching the Arras tunnels built under 'No Man's Land' in the First World War and the other researching and writing responses to the affects the war had on New Zealand Nurses.

Below are some diary entries that our students had to write from the perspective of a nurse during such a time. I was very impressed with the vocabulary that was coming out in their writing, very descriptive and informative.

Dear Diary,

I woke up with the sound of thick choppy waves crashing against the side of the boat. I got changed into my nurses uniform and put on my headdress then head to the hospital room where thousands of wounded soldiers are. It was a ghastly place to be. Convoys and convoys of dead and injured soldiers. All the nurses were dirty and there was ruby red blood all over the floor.
Most of the men had frost bite as well as been shot or stabbed. So far, today has been frantic. Boats and boats came towards the hospital...

By Megan


Dear Diary,

Today started off like any other day. I woke up to crying and untangled myself from my lumpy blankets to go and wake the brave soldier that was my first patient, Vincent Neal. Vincent Neal was having his poor arm amputated because of frost bite. I smell blood, I hear screaming. I am scared as I see bloody bandages beside every table.

By Georgia


Dear Diary,

Today was a very hot day and all I could smell was blood and guts. The only thing I could hear were the cries of grown men having their limbs amputated. But now I shall note the true horrors. The first arrivals started flowing in, many bullet wounds had to be stitched and limbs had to be cut off. Tomorrow I will be lucky because we are due to have a quiet day... hopefully!

By Lochie


Dear Diary,

Today I woke up early in the morning, I stretched my stiff feet out of my boney bed. The rock of the ship made it hard to walk down the long windy corridor. I find my way to the bunks where the poor, injured men were getting lifted through on their bloody stretchers. It is mind blowing how many men were being lifted through the doors.
My next job was to comfort all the poor men who had shell shock.

By Emmie


The second task was to write a job description for the tunnelers who went to help in the First World War. Here are some examples of what the children came up with:

New Zealand Tunneling Company

To do this job will require you to mine under 'no man's land' and under the German trenches and pack the end of your tunnel with explosives to try and blow up a hole in the enemy trenches.

- Work well under pressure. This job requires you to be able to work and the pressure of time to finish your job before the Germans.
- Have worked in situations of danger before, be able to handle dangerous situations without panicking and risking other people's lives in you team.
- You need to know how to set up explosives.
- You must be able to use a pick axe and a shovel correctly - if you cannot use these you will need to learn very quickly.
- Be able to hand working in the ground for long hours every day.
- You must be strong and tough so that you can shift the rock that you mine.
- You must be good at quick first air, must be able to bandage the wounded quickly to stop blood while waiting for the carrier to arrive.

By Emma

Jump Jam!

Welcome back to Term Two everyone!

As a part of our fitness routine for our morning sessions we are partaking in school wide Jump Jam dancing. The kids have ABSOLUTELY loved it so I thought I would capture them in all their glory.

Enjoy!

Memoir Writing.

Room 11 are back from camp and are starting a new writing activity. We are learning to show not tell by writing memoirs about a certain memory we can remember from the past. Some of our memoirs we have written so far are to do with waking up on a school morning and what we do on a Saturday morning. It's been fun to write and and mess around with my memories, even some that I'd forgotten about. Here are the opinions of some other students.

" It sounded easy but it's actually kind of hard because you have to make it really detailed." - Eleanor.

" It's fun because you can write about your own memory and nobody will have the same thing as you." - Elysia.

"They're much easier than writing an autobiography because you can write about your memory and you can detail it more easily." - Brynn.

Some people were worried about being able to describe their memory properly but when you're the one that had the memory, it's easier than you think.
Attached to the blog are some of our classes memoirs. We hope you enjoy reading them and feel like you're literally in the memory.

By Gina.