Mathletics poster

  

Here is my Mathletics poster 2014

Market day letter

Greta Russell

303 Riverslea Road

Hastings

4122

Principal Mark Gifkins

Parkvale School

Howard Street

Hastings

4122

Dear Mr Gifkins,

I am writing to tell you how much I enjoyed Market day. I loved seeing Nga Rakau Nui competing and trying to get other people buy their product.

Speaking as a student, I think we should have a Market day like that every year. Since I am a year 6 I won’t be at Parkvale next year but I think that it would be awesome to have other kids experience the fun of Market day.

It is a great learning experience and brings kids to work with other kids. Also, it lets kids work with their buddy class and actually have something to work and look forward to for the end of the year. We should definitely do something like it each year.

Thanks, Greta

The best part of me

My eyes are the best part of me.

I can not imagine not seeing through my eyes as I have always been able too see through them. They are brown and green and they help me see the world. Some people may call them bug eyes or almond shaped but I think they define my face. Complete it. My eyes are the window too my soul. Framed by long dark lashes.

There are a lot of colours to describe my eyes. For example: hazel, poo colour even, if you want or just plain green and brown. My Grandad is chinese so they have a slight asianic slant that makes me look exotic. My eyes reflect my emotions. I can be happy, sad, angry, sneaky, excited… and my eyes always show what I feel.  

When I’m meeting people for the first time the first thing they see and say is “ Wow what beautiful big eyes you have.” People comment on my eyes all the time. I love my eyes and I know that they are unique too me and thats why I love them!   :)  

                                      

20x20 maths

This is my box. It holds 8 rows by 8 rows so it can hold 64 blocks altogether.   

Image Writing

It was a beautiful ordinary morning. The sun was shining, birds singing their unique songs and only a slight breeze was blowing. A man by the name of Tom was sailing along peacefully in the lagoon with not one thought in his head. You see whenever he sailed all the thoughts were cleared and all Tom thought about was what he was having for lunch and how many fish he could catch.

As Tom was sailing he started to get bored just sitting there thinking, so he leaned back, still paddling the little boat, closed his eyes and started too hum a song he knew. Before he knew it he woke up too find that he had stopped paddling. Tom felt strange. Almost as if he was getting sucked in too something. Like you feel when you put clothes or your finger near the vacuum and it tries too suck you in. Anyway that’s what Tom felt right now. He realised that the lagoon was getting sucked in like a plughole from the bath. All the water was disappearing and being replaced with grass and trees.

Tom was amazed!

“How did this happen?” He wondered too himself.

The Rainbow Hot Air Balloon

Lion vs Warthog

             

“Come on kids, move along. Sheesh kids are hard.” Oh I’m Boris by the way and if  you’re wondering yes I am a warthog. This is my story of how I defended my    family against the king of the jungle. Being the dad of the family means that I have to watch out for danger pretty much 24/7. Right now I am trying too move my kids to a new protected spot. Us warthogs quite like too live in holes in the ground so...oh there she (my mate) goes again rubbing against a tree trunk. Well at least there is no patch of sand for her too roll in and hold the piglets and I up, but I know she will probably find a patch as she always does.

Living in the savanna can be hard sometimes, especially now that my mate and I have piglets. There are predators and trying too find suitable holes too live in, trying too find food since we are vegetarians, all sorts of things. Also warthogs are not the most beautiful or graceful animals on earth but we sure do love our familys so we would do pretty much anything too protect them.

“Come on honey, we better get a move on. Our piglets are easy prey.” I say too my mate.

Of course though, she didn’t hear as she was too busy itching the soft spot on her rump against a tree trunk. While she was busy, I made sure all our baby warthogs were sleeping together and then looked around too get used too my surroundings. There wasn’t much too look at really as we lived in the savanna. Plain dry grass went for km’s and km’s all the way too the horizon and only a few trees were dotted here and there. Big rocks was where the lions slept and had their young and the leopards spied from up in the trees as they are actually big cats and cats love trees. Giraffes ambled around slowly on their long legs, extending their necks too reach the juicy leaves up top. Rhinos and other fellow warthogs have mud baths in the waterhole. The whole entire savanna is like one big family. Sort of. Apart from the leopards and lions that sometimes like too have us warthogs for a meal, we all get along.

“No, seriously honey.” I say too my mate. “ I smell a predator near and I don’t like it with our piglets being so young and small.”

Hearing that she stopped scratching her rump on the tree and looked around too see if she could see the approaching predator. All of a sudden the antelope stopped grazing. Their ears twitched as their heads lifted up to try and catch the scent on the wind. I heard the warning call from the Zebras as the started too turn and run away across the savanna. I started too call to our piglets and wake them up from their sleep. The tension in the air was getting stronger. I felt like the predator was very close but I couldn’t see it. It was probably a leopard or a lion as they are warthog’s top predators. You never know though. The ground felt like it was shaking like an earthquake as the antelope galloped past with two lions sprinting after them.

Oh no a lion, I thought too myself as I hurried along behind the 4 piglets. We were in the long yellow grass and I really hoped we would find a hole soon otherwise we were definitely dead. My mate was in front of the piglets, leading the way as we ran through the grass.

“Boris, over there.” She called too me. “ There’s a hole about 30 metres away!”

I answered back. “Ok, take the piglets into it.”

I turned around too check behind me and something sandy coloured moved. We were being stalked. I started too nudge the babies with my nose too make them walk faster. My heart was pounding, my legs shaking as we came nearer too the hole. Then it struck me. We weren’t going too make it in time. One of us was going too be killed. Be brave, I told myself. If I was going too die, it would be for my family. I spun around and pawed the ground. The lion turned and locked eyes with me. I let out a snort for effect. Then I charged, a wild look in my eye. The last thing I heard before I clashed heads was the cry of my family. Then everything happened in seconds. Boom. I tasted blood in my mouth and everything went black.

My future was decided right then.

Figure eight knot video

Production!

This year we did a school production. Nga Rakau Nui (which is the yr 4/5/6) worked hard, learnt lines and suffered long boring days in the hall practising.
It is called Journey Through The Legends, as you can probably see from the banner hanging up above the stage. I'm in the linking script which come on in between legends. This is my classroom Rm 10 and 7 at the end of their legend. The legend was about Maui fishing up the North island of Aotearoa, NZ.

Production diary

28/8/14

Dear Diary,

The reason why I haven’t written an entry for the past few days is because we have been so busy! Every single day was spent in the hall having dress rehearsals. Yesterday, which was a Wednesday, we had a full dress rehearsal. That rehearsal was too all the teachers and little kids of the school. It went great. Then last night was one of our actual performances too a paying audience. That was perfect as well. I was nervous but it was the excited type of nervous. Nothing really went wrong and we have too do it all over again tonight. I can’t wait!!!

Fictitious Character-The tooth fairy

In glittering turquoise wings, she darts and flutters through the sky. She leaves a trail of fairy dust behind her as she leaves the human world. Glitter floats around in the air, while creatures beyond your imagination, fly around playing tag. The tooth fairy lives up in the sky where the clouds are pink and blue and everyone is happy.

As the tooth fairy flies through the sky her turquoise dress shimmers in the sunlight. Her wings ripple and flutter as she goes by. She wears a beautiful silver tiara with jewels every colour of the rainbow. The tooth fairy’s long, golden hair is normally swept up in a bun behind her tiara.

The tooth fairy is a sweet and loving person. Her heart is kind, never thinking of a mean thought. Her people often describe her as a responsible and well mannered young lady. Every night, when all the girls and boys are asleep, the tooth fairy loves to visit the human world.

Everyone who knows the tooth fairy loves spending time with her as she is sweet and enjoyable. The tooth fairy is often seen soaring and frolicking with other magical creatures.

Reading - Bacteria

Synthesis Title- Bacteria

Prior Knowledge - what I already know	New Information - what I read in the text	Synthesis - my new understanding is
Bacteria is invisible. Bacteria is a type of germ. Bacteria is purple and green. Bacteria can make you sick if you don’t wash your hands. Bacteria can spread.	There is millions of different types of bacteria in the world. We have thousands of bacteria all through us. Pigs and humans have similar bacteria.	There is millions of different types of bacteria and they are invisible. We have thousands of bacteria germs all through us. Pigs and humans have similar bacteria and it can spread quickly.

Sophia's Birthday

Sophia’s Birthday

Have you ever been too Inflatable World? Its pretty fun, isn’t it. Bree, Ella, Emma, Georgia M, Rosemary, Tiana, Kyrah, Kyra, Jess, Sophia’s little sister Ruby and me, were all there for Sophia’s party. Sophia’s mum, Kylie, had booked a party room. The room was really cool with a long white table in the middle. The first thing I saw was…party food! Lots of it too. I handed Sophia her present and the we all ran down the stairs like a stampede. Running, jumping, sliding, climbing and laughing was all we did for the next hour.

Then it was cake time. We all ran back up the stairs and sat down at the table. Kylie handed out coke’s and then we sang happy birthday really loudly too Sophia. Sophia had a really awesome cake. It was the sort of cake with a big hard chocolate outside and the cake on the inside. You had too smash the chocolate too get too the cake. She smashed the hammer down onto the cake and as chocolate and hammer met, the chocolate cracked into big chunks. We all helped ourselves too the food and cake before running back out for another half of an hour.

It was sadly time too go at 5:00pm but I had an awesome time. I wasn’t too sad though because we were going out for tea with my Gran and Poppa! After looking at a few restaurants we finally settled on a Thai restaurant.

It smelled delicious. Mini waterfalls and artwork was everywhere. We ordered heaps of yummy thai food like…squid, Satay chicken, rice, kebabs, lots of lemon marinated fish too. I didn’t really feel like eating though because I was still full from the party food. When we finally got home, I just collapsed on my bed and fell asleep.

The End

Freshwater eels

Freshwater eels

Most people are scared of eels but they are actually gentle giants, apart from the bit when one of those pieces of bread you're feeding them are your fingers! There are two main types of eel - the shortfin and the longfin.

Eels can be found throughout New Zealand. They live mainly in dirty rivers, inland lakes and streams. Eels are great at climbing and have made their way well inland in most rivers, even those with natural barriers. Elvers (young eels) swimming up a river will climb up waterfalls and even dams by leaving the water and wriggling over damp areas. An eel can climb a waterfall for about 20 metres, before they let go and drop down.

Eels migrate up streams, as elvers, to find suitable adult habitat. After many years (15-30 years for short fins and 25 years for long fins) the eels migrate too the Pacific Ocean too breed and then die. Eels are mainly nocturnal and prefer habitats with lots of weeds too hide in and trees hanging over the water. That sort of cover.

Eels eat live food. Small eels living on the bottom of the river will feed on insect larvae, worms and water snails. When they get bigger they start feeding on fish. They will also eat fresh-water crayfish and even small birds like ducklings.

Eels may look weird but they are awesome creatures. We could learn a lot more about eels so look after them.  

Dialouge of a cloudy lesson

Way up in the sky where the air is thin, a little boy by the name of Harry and his Grandpa were on a trip together. Harrys Grandpa wanted too show him something amazing. “Wow, this is awesome.” says Harry.

Grandpa says, “Yes, but look at this.”

He then puts a case that is golden like the colour of the last rays of the sun at sunset, down onto the floor. He open’s it. “Hey what’s that?” the little boy asks.

“Just watch little one,” Grandpa says.

Grandpa takes a deep breath and blows strongly through the circle. A huge white cloud comes out the other side. The little boy is amazed.“You try Harry,” the old man says. Harry says “Ok!”

Harry stands on his tip toes too reach the circle. He takes a breath and a tiny cloud comes out the other side the size of a snail. “ Oh, I can’t do it.” Harry says sadly. “Hmm,” Is all Grandpa can say.

“Here boy, you need too do it like this,” Grandpa says.

With those words he takes a huge breath and blows his hardest back out.

“Do it like that and you will succeed.” Grandpa says.

Harry turns around and tries to copy his Grandpa. Nothing comes out the other side. Harry starts getting frustrated so he tries again and on his second attempt he bends the metal cloud stick. It didn’t work and so now even more frustrated he gives it a go one more time and completely snaps the stick and falls too the ground in a heap.

“Oh no! Are you ok?” Grandpa calls out rushing over.

“Yeah I’m fine but I’m sorry I broke your cloud stick,” Harry says sadly. “Hang on, I think I can fix it.”

Harry starts pulling the crushed circle in every direction trying too get it back too normal. Since the cloud stick was broken, the huge cloud that Grandpa blew out the first time, was now shrinking. “Grandpa I’m really sorry,” Harry starts. “Wait a minute.”

He shuts one eye and looks through the wonky circle. The shrinking cloud looks like the circle. That gives Harry an idea. He starts bending the circle again and this time it is the shape of a star. “Here Grandpa, try blowing out through this,” Harry says.

“Um ok, it could work.” Grandpa tells Harry.

He turns around and blows through the star shaped hole. The cloud comes out as a normal cloud then slowly turns into a star.“Wow thanks boy, it’s awesome,” Grandpa says full of delight. “Do another shape.”

“Ok!”Harry says happily.

He fiddles with it and gives it back too his Grandpa. This time it is the shape of a bunny. Grandpa blows into the hole and sure enough a cute little bunny comes out the other side too sit in the sky next too the star. Grandpa makes the last shape a shape of a heart. He decides too give it too Harry too try and blow the shape.

Harry blows and a heart comes out.“Yay it worked!” Harry says.

“Well done lad, well done.” Grandpa says softly.

Grandpa wraps Harry up in a big bear hug and they sit there happily, watching their clouds float around.

THE END

Matariki Cooking

Last week Kauri hub had there Matariki day. I learnt heaps of new things and even a new recipe. One of the activities that I did after morning-tea was cooking with Donna and Justin. That was my favourite workshop of the day. In my cooking group was Sophia, Ryan, Brodie, Sam, Flynn and me. I was with Justin and we cooked Maori fried bread. The recipe too make them was:

Maori fried bread

5 cups of flour

5 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of sugar

Sprinkle of salt

After we had cooked it on the stove in lots of oil, the fun part came up. Eating!!! The fillings to put in the fried bread were golden syrup, jam and real butter. They were delicious. The best thing was we got too have as many as we want. I only had three though.

Donna and Justin let us go early because we finished cooking about half an hour before the lunch bell so Mrs Lou let us outside too play handball on the courts for a while. I had decided too save a fried bread for Mrs Roil. I walked around holding onto the bread in a napkin for 25 minutes and it started going cold. I really wanted too give it too Mrs Roil but my tummy was hungry so in the end I ate it instead!

Matariki day was really interesting and I had lots of new experiences. On behalf of Room 10 I would like to thank Mrs Hardacker for organising this day for us. It was a great idea.

Stain Glass Window Maths

The Last Herrick Secret

My story is called The Last Herrick Secret. When I was drawing this picture I was trying too get through too the audience that this book was set in the bush and it is dark, gloomy and mysterious. This book can get a bit scary at times so who is this book for?

The book is mainly set in the bush so I decided too put the bush on my title page. All the vines and flies, I think makes the title seem more mysterious.

The Last Herrick Secret is my title. This is the second and the last book in the series so that is why it is called The Last Herrick Secret. My title is in the middle top of the front page of the book. I thought it would jump out at the reader because it was in the middle. On the front page the title is right next too the tree’s leaves and vines so I thought it would be cool if the vines came twisting onto the words of the title.  

I think I have attracted the audience with the title. For one, it is cool looking with all the vines and flies everywhere, and two, the title sounds cool. The word secret really grabs your attention. The Last Herrick Secret is very entertaining and I recommend it too anyone over the age of 8.

Bunny Hutch

Space Padlet

Kauri Tree Art

Room 10, 11 and 12 have been doing this kauri tree art as a hub.
Here is my drawing and photo of my tree!

Synopsis about Poppa's Present

Poppa’s Present

By Adrienne Frater

This book is set at Poppa’s house. Poppa is turning 70 so they are throwing a party for him.  The family is also trying to decide who will buy the present for Poppa and what they are going to get him. Sam gets picked and he goes off and tries to decide what to get him. It takes one whole week for Sam to decide but finally he has the perfect thing. If you want to find out what Sam got Poppa then read the book!

A strength of this book would be that I found exciting is that when Sam bought Poppa the gift he didn’t tell the reader what he had bought Poppa. The reader only found out at the end when Poppa actually unwrapped the present. I think that made the book more exciting to read, and it made you really want too keep reading. A weakness of this book is that when he opened the present and got out the leatherman he didn’t look that happy so I thought he could at least show smile and say thank you.

I can understand how Poppa felt when he opened the present and got the leatherman. He wasn’t smiling because he didn’t know what it was and didn’t really want it.    

Tuatara

Tuatara

The Tuatara is famous because it is the only survivor of an ancient group of reptiles that roamed the earth at the same time as the dinosaurs. It hasn’t changed much in over 225 million years!

Tuatara live on special islands to protect them from predators like cats, rats, stoats, ferrets, wild dogs and weasels. Tuatara are found in NZ native bush on the islands. They sometimes shares burrows with birds and other small animals. They are cold blooded so don't mind the cold but like to bask in warm places.

Tuatara eat a lot of things so this is just a little bit of what they eat. They eat flies, cicadas, caterpillars, worms, geckos, skinks, small fish, raw liver, steak, meal worms, grasshoppers and newborn mice. Tuatara don’t eat like us, instead of moving their jaw up and down like humans they move their jaw side to side grinding the food they're eating.  

Tuatara are reptiles, but they’re not lizards. They are native to New Zealand so that means they are only found in NZ. Some people call them a living fossil.Tuatara were around with the dinosaurs and the word Tuatara is a maori word meaning spiny back and guess why. They are called spiny back because the Tuatara have a spiny back. Adult Tuatara are between 30 and 75cm long, and weigh between 250 and 1,200 grams. Males are much larger than females.

Tuatara were around with the dinosaurs and so that is why they are called a living

fossil.

By Greta:)

Sir Edmund hillary

I am a famous explorer. I was the first ever to climb Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.

I was born on the 20th of July 1919 in Auckland, New Zealand. I died (age 88) not long ago in 2008 Jan 11 in the Auckland city hospital. I had three children who are now grown up and their names are Peter Hillary, Sarah Hillary and Belinda Hillary.

I describe myself as a lonely child, short and always had my nose buried in books but by my late teens I grew and become the tallest in my class. Then during a school trip to Mt Ruapehu I discovered my love and talent for climbing.

I took on my first climb at the age of 20, I climbed Mt Ollivier. Then I started to set my   sights on the tallest mountain, Mt Everest. I decided to go for it. So I gathered up all the best climbers and got permission, then we started climbing. As the climb went on    higher and higher, days and months more climbers had to stop and drop out.  Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (my climbing partner) and me carried on and on, higher and higher. After the final push we made it too the top of the 8, 849 m Mt Everest at 11:30 am on May 29th 1953.

I am now on the five dollar note so that everyone will remember me.

My eldest son Peter hillary followed me in my footsteps and climbed Mt Everest twice himself. In amongst other adventures I joined with famous astronaut Neil Armstrong and together we journeyed to the North Pole and then climbed Mt Vinson, Antarctica's highest peak. Once in my eighties I no longer climbed as I was too old. I then raised money for charities and became a fundraiser.

I was a famous explorer. I was well known for my many mountains that I climbed. I was the most famous New Zealander of all time. A living legend.   

  

A moment in time

I heard Pipi panting as we walked along in the sand.

I heard another dog bark from across the beach.

I saw the dog straining on it’s leash.

I saw the deep paw marks it made in the sand as it came closer.

I felt Pipi starting to strain on her leash as well.

I felt her starting to shake and yelp.

I wondered if the dog would bite Pipi straight away.

I wondered if they would fight when they sniffed noses.

All about me!

Road sign with a hidden message

Athletics day

Here I am doing the 100metre sprint. I came second to Bree. I was proud of myself but man is that running stuff tiring!:)

It was a bit of a funny day going hot and then cloudy and cold. As you can see in the photo it is cloudy and cold but still on with the show. It was athletics day and there was 6 events that we had to do. We all had to do at least 4 out of the 6. The 6 events were high jump, long jump, 100metre sprint, 200metre run, 50metre hurdles and softball throw. I was planning on doing long jump, 100metre sprint, 200metre run and 50metre hurdles missing out softball throw and high jump but in the end I ended up doing all 6 and personally I think I did pretty good at my level of sport.

Here I am failing but giving it a try at high jump.

Mathletics

We did mathletics and I reckon I did ok. EVERY line had to be measured and your design had to be in the exact middle of the page. The judges are very fussy! Mathletics was challenging for me and I didn't l,ike it that much but everyone had to have a design so I thought oh why not you have to give diffferent things a go and you never know you might be really good at it:)

Here is my design and I know it won't win but I feel good for trying:)

Tuatara debate

Tuatara should not be cloned because it is the natural life cycle of death and life for animals and it should not be interrupted by humans and technology. We shouldn’t clone them because then if the experiment went wrong then the tuatara could turn out like some weird animal not the tuatara.

Tuatara should be cloned because it could save them from extinction. If we don’t clone them then they would be lost forever. If tuatara were cloned they would be able to stay with us forever. If we cloned them then maybe tourists from around the world would want to come and see the cloned tuatara and meet the scientists who did it. Also if they stayed with us longer than we could learn heaps more about them that we didn’t even know before.    

Yacht reflection

My class rm19 went yachting at Pandora pond and gee it was a blast!

I felt awesome trying something new and working and talking with my classmates. The first time we went yachting I went with Maggie and she was great to go with. I felt confident and comfortable with her. When I got in the yacht for the first time I felt so nervous and not very confident.

I found out that I was pretty relaxed and calm when put under pressure. Also I had a habit of talking myself through things. Isn’t that a good thing though?

It was nothing like I expected. I thought it was going to be really hard and scary. No it was nothing like that it was fun and exciting. 7/10 is what I would put myself at.

If I had a chance to go back to Pandora pond to go yachting guess what I would say……..a big fat YES!!!!!

Here is me and my mate Poppy smiling for the camera! Well at least one of us is smiling the other is a lovely action shot of Poppy’s head! (HaHa)