Rocket Pencil

There was once a little boy named Jack, he loved inventing stuff. One day Jack was really mad, he was thinking to himself

“I wish I knew how to make a rocket ship then I can fly to the moon anytime I want”.

Than a thought came to him, not a thought of running away an inventing thought. He said to himself “what if I invented something that can fly to the moon?”

So he looked around his room,

“what can I use? what can I use”? He looked at his sharpener

“nope” than he looked at his pencil and said in his head

“rocket pencil” then screamed out “ROCKET PENCIL!”

His parents ran into to his room and said

“Honey, what’s wrong?”

Jack said to his parents,

“It’s nothing, just leave me alone please”

Than his parents left the room quietly, once they left Jack went and put his draw in front of the door so his parents wouldn’t walk in while he was inventing.

Before Jack invented his ‘Rocket Pencil’ he made a bigger pencil by himself it was larger than him but smaller than the house, he added some bits and pieces to it and made a rocket pencil. At first Jack was too scared to go on his rocket pencil so he went off the rocket pencil entered into his bathroom and started splashing water on his face, Jack exit the bathroom and went back onto the rocket pencil he tied himself to his seat, held onto the seat pole and launched. Jack couldn’t believe that his invention worked and flew all the way to the moon.

He arrived to the moon and then put his helmet on and just sat there thinking... he flew back to earth, and sat in his room, he knew that he made a big invention but he had no more ideas for what to invent so he just kept thinking. But nothing came to him, so he just left his room went downstairs and ate, but he was giving more thoughts to his next invention...

TO BE CONTINUED...

Gravity - Which Hit The Ground First?

 

(The link to the photo above: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_(toy))

Yesterday my partner and I conducted an investigation about gravity using certain objects like:

• Marble
• Rubber
• Flat Paper
• Crumpled Paper
• Feather
• Paper Clip
• Pencil
• Ping Pong Ball

We used these objects (names above) to see which hit the ground first. But before we went straight into it we had to predict which of the objects we think will hit the ground first. So we grabbed two objects, leveled them to see if its on an equal height then dropped them both at the same time to see what results we’ll get.

The table below shows my results:

Object Dropped		Which hit the ground first?	Which actually hit the ground first?
Marble	Ping pong ball	Marble	Marble
Rubber	Paper Clip	Rubber	Rubber
Marble	Pencil	Marble	Same time
Flat Paper	Feather	Flat Paper	Paper
Crumbled Paper	Feather	Crumpled Paper	Crumpled Paper
Feather	Paper Clip	Paper Clip	Paper Clip

A Night of Many Cultures

It was Thursday night, and the students in the Maori group were getting ready for Cultural Festival by wearing the traditional Maori clothes, the girls wore black skirts and black tops with a piupiu around their waist and the boys wore black shorts and no shirt but they did wear the piupiu.

The Cultural Festival started off with me doing the Karanga for the National Anthem and the rest of the school singing the Pasifica song to welcome and thank the people for attending this special occasion. After the Maori group finish doing the haka, the poi and the haere mai etc, the chinese group started. The girls in the Chinese group wore a red dress and the boys wore black shorts and tops with a vest.

The Chinese group ended and it was time for the Samoan group, the Samoan group had alot of supporters in the audience. The girls in the Samoan group wore pule tasi’s and the boys wore a lavalava with banana leaves around their neck. After the Samoan group it was halftime.

During halftime I was putting my costume on because right after it was the Tongan group. Halftime was up and I was on my way to the stage with Frankie and the rest of the Tongan group, we got up on stage and already had people screaming and supporting us, my brothers were supporting me by making funny faces at me and trying to copy the Tau'olunga (dance) I was doing.  While Frankie and I were doing our Tau’olunga (dance) alot of people came up on stage to put money on us. After us it was the Tongan boys’ turn. They did a dance to the song ‘Toli Lou Siale’  and the girls did a dance to the song ‘Tamaiki ‘O Loto Neiafu’. The boys of the Tongan group wore a skirt (kinda like a grass skirt) called manafao with a white singlet and a kahoa (necklace). The girls in the Tongan group wore the tapa.

After the Tongan group was the Filipino group. The girls wore a flowery skirt.  After the Filipino group ended it was the Hip Hop group the boys and the girls in the Hip Hop group all wore the same clothes but different coloured suspenders. After all the Cultural groups finished, Miss Bullot  announced the winner of the hamper and that was Mrs Oldham.

Social Science - Humanities

Feeding In

How can Priests, Teachers, Mediators and Caritas help the homeless?

People who are homeless may need help with shelter, food and warmth. Caritas can help people with these things by donating  money to the homeless to buy those things. Teachers can help those who have no education and can pay with the money the people of Caritas donated to them. Mediators can help people  solve their problem if they have had any in the past. Priests can help the homeless by healing them if they are  ill.

Initiating Thinking

Who helps those who can not help themselves?

• Priests
• Teachers
• Mediators
• Caritas

Group Discussions - Reporting

Priests	Teachers	Mediators	Caritas
Priests can help bless people if they are unwell and can not help themselves or other people.	Teachers can help people with learning and can find other helpers if you need it.	Mediators can help people who can’t solve their problems solve their problems.	Caritas can help people who are homeless to find shelter, food and water etc when or if they need it.

(What do they do to help those in need? - examples need to understand) caritas.org.nz 

Caritas are well working people who support the homeless people around the world to find shelter,food and warmth. They do this by fundraising money for those in need. e.g; Unicef does the same for the people in need by making a commercial on t.v. 

Here is a link to ONE of the UNICEF commercials

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLNUsS2hLBM

Reflection:

Is it important to help others?

Yes it is!

Why?

Because helping others is a nice thing to do and doing unselfish things is good because we have alot and they don’t, which means us as loving and caring people giving things to the people in need. It will also make you feel better because when you go to bed at night or when you are having an exam, you won't have a hard time sleeping or thinking because you will know that you have helped someone in need.  This can also change you and make you a better person.

Science - Fizz and Foam

W.A.L.T:  Observe and report on the chemical reaction that occur when combining substance together.

Today we used test tubes and beakers. We used two of the test tubes and pour lemon juice in one tube and malt vinegar in another one. We had a table that has citric acids, tartaric acids, baking soda, chalks and cordial (raro) to mix with our ingredients.

We took our glass beakers and plastic spoon to the table with all the dry ingredients and took a spoonful of one ingredient and mixed it with one of the acid liquids. (eg; citric acid and lemon juice).

Hypothesis: (Prediction)

• Baking Soda + Malt Vinegar = The baking soda and malt vinegar together created  bubbles = Reaction
• Tartaric Acid + Lemon Juice = The tartaric acid and lemon juice together created fizzing bubbles = Reaction
• Citric Acid + Malt Vinegar = The two combine together will make bubbles = Reaction
• Raro + Lemon Juice = These two products mixed together will make no reaction, but a nice smell and  a sweet and sour taste =  No Reaction
• Chalk + Malt Vinegar = These products together will make a mushy and disgusting look but a nice wine smell.
• Raro + Citric Acid + Malt Vinegar = The two dry ingredients and the vinegar together will make yucky look of bubbles but a nice smell.  Also when you put a finger tip of the products together, it feels like it is pinching your tongue.
• Malt Vinegar + Citric Acid + Chalk = This combine together will make fizzing bubbles and make it look mushy. It also tastes like vinegar.

Modification Of School Hours!

I agree that modifying the Year 7 and 8's starting time ten minutes earlier (8:30 am) rather than the current time (8:45 am) would be a wonderful idea.

First of all, if these changes take place. we will have extra time for learning. However, if we keep the usual time (8:45 am) the amount of work we are currently doing is not enough. It would be great if we were able to complete more assignments in that extra time. This will be great for the teachers because those teachers who come to school at 8:30 am this will probably encourage them to start opening their classes at 8:10 am or 8:20 am.

Secondly, for those who wake up late and arrive at school late, changing the school hour could possibly motivate them to wake up earlier and aim to arrive at school earlier as well. If they get into the habit of getting to school on time, then it will help to prepare them for college. Which brings me to my next point.

It is important for us as Year 7 and 8 students to prepare ourselves as much as we can before we enter college. a Starting school at a similar time, will support and strengthen our time management skills and help us to achieve high standards of work and meet the challenges we will face at college. Also because we use google apps, we don’t have to wait for our teacher to tell us what to do, we can access our learning on the google site.

In conclusion, like I said our starting time should be changed because it will give us more time to finish assignments and will also prepare us for college. But before going to college you have to hit the national standard.

TROUBLEMAKER!

It was the 19th of July and my family were stressed about what to wear to my little cousin’s birthday, which was to be held on the following day.  This was especially my brothers. I’d expected my brothers’ (I have three), to be excited about the party but instead they were getting all angry because most of the clothes they had, according to them, were old and had been seen by  all the people who were also going to the party.  

“Stop stressing about your clothes”, I told my brothers’ “It’s not like there is gonna be girls there”.” It’s a family thing” I shouted!  Almost immediately after making that comment - simultaneously from the mouth of  my brothers’ came the words... 
“Mind your own business!”
 I turned to face all three of them and gave them the meanest, evil eyes I could make..... and ran out of the room to my parents as fast as I could!   From experience I knew that this was a safe move, they would never and I mean never come after me when I go to mum and dad. 

A short time later while sitting in the lounge with my mum, I strained my ears towards the direction of the conversation. The voices of my brothers was joined in by my cousin. My brothers were asking my cousin if they could wear some of his clothes (because they were new clothes). I told my mum and she growled them in Tongan. Behind the safety of my mother’s back I giggled and smirked silently. 

On the morning of the birthday.  I went up to my brothers and apologised  for being a troublemaker on Friday night.  They said that it was alright, because they were being meanies too.

The party was being held at the Rock Climbing Warehouse.  When we arrived I ran straight to the Adventureland Park.  Unfortunately my brother and I got kicked off the park because we were too old and too big for it. It was only then that I noticed the sign that said ‘Ten years and under only’!

My eyes very quickly noticed boxes of pizza being carried to the eating area. I was so enthusiastic about the climbing that I decided to not eat at that time and shouted to my aunt and uncle, “Save me some food please”! After a while went and got 4 pieces of pizza. Two hawaiian and two meat lovers. But as soon as I’d finished,  I climbed up the skateboarding rock climbing which turned out to be the wrong thing to do.  Moments later I jumped back down I ran to a bin and vomited.

What a day!