Being lost in a book!

Out of all the books in the library, this one peculiar shaped book, gold tipped pages, sturdy snake patterned spine, caught my eyes. The book lured me in, hooking me in like a fish on a line. It was casually waiting for me on the dusty bookshelf. Almost as if a magnet was pulling me in, but little did I know what the book had in store for me, what trouble it was going to behold upon me. I just couldn’t resist the alluring sight.

Atlas, the book was in my grasp. Running my fingers down the rugged cover, I examined the neat ink, black but distinct handwriting. After my fingers lifted off the cover, the writing vanished in a flash. Staring in awe, I noticed a glimpse of the title appear, shining brightly and then fading into nothing.  At that very moment, I relieved myself of that thought and gradually began to open the book. When the cover hit the wooden table, brisk wind rushed heavily towards my face enthralling me even more. Turning the page over, I braced myself for the next wind blast, instead I was greeted with words. The words wore the same writing form as the cover title had, but slimmer and this time golden. I skimmed through the entire book, going on a short but informative adventure. I then stopped on a tale that I had known very well. A story of adventure and mischief. The tale of Little Red Riding hood.

I read aloud the tale to myself. “Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village near the forest.  Whenever she went out, the little girl wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood”. As I continued to read, the book began to glow. Being the curious girl I am, I read more of the tale to see the output. “One morning, Little Red Riding Hood asked her mother if…..”. Before I could finish the sentence, the pages began to flip violently, I stood shaking, confused about the situation. The book then shook intensively, creating a small whirlpool which then grew larger and larger. I turned to run, when what felt like a hook, clutched onto my collar, pulling me unwillingly to the whirl pool. SWOOSH!. I found myself spiraling like a human tornado, stopping unexpectedly in mid air. Moments later, I sunk rapidly downwards, unable to catch my breath. It felt  like one of those dreams where you fall off a cliff, but you never meet the ground. I spoke too soon, I shot down to the earth like a bullet, crashing into rose bushes. I thought that I would have been pricked all over my body, but I thought wrong. I stood in the bush perfectly unharmed, that was when I had realised, I was stuck in a fairy tale, not an ordinary fairy tale, but the tale of Little Red Riding hood. Right now, I was the one in the red cloak.

Looking at the red silky riding cloak, I thought of the times I wanted to wear it and to think I was, at this very moment. I also thought of the wolf, of how big his ears were, it’s triangular shaped ears. Of how big his eyes were, bulging almond eyes, that stalks it’s prey all day long. Of how big his teeth were, razor sharp with a hint of blood in between. My thoughts were interrupted by a female voice, a voice almost robot like, which left me cringing with confusion. “Attention. You know the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Play the part, later on regaining yours back. Good luck!”.

“Play the part….. and later regain mine back. Ohhhh play Little Red Riding hood, finishing the story and I get to be myself again, and go back to the real world. I got all of that out of a sentence with eight words,” I proposed aloud. I began my quest to fulfill the story, but with my own twist.

After walking a long distance without knowing where to actually go, I finally admitted that I was lost. From the distance, I saw a large crowd of trees. I remembered in the story that Grandma’s house was in the woods so I made my way there. As I stood in front of the woods, the tree branches waved at me. All of a sudden, a basket of goods appeared, I instantly knew the purpose of it. My red riding hood instincts kicked in, though I knew they were for Grandma, I couldn’t resist the delicious aroma, “One couldn’t hurt”. So I took a sweet and carried on with the journey. I eventually knew, that I would come nose to snout with the big bad wolf. In a matter of seconds, after entering the woods, a fury presence arrived.

“Oh how could I accompany you, madam,” Mr Wolf belowed.

“Not necessary, Mr.Wolf, for I know your sinister plan of……..actually, would you sincerely make a stop at grandma’s house. She lives at the edge of the woods, quite dangerous, but she’s there all alone,” I say this with a disturbed face, then taking a peek at the wolf who was caught up in my words, licking his lips. I then smirked quickly, going back to my sad phase. “I must meet up with you there, and thank you for the unexpected visit. Oh Mr. Wolf, please go instantly!,” I cry.

“Certainly, little red. I will take care of poor, poor grandma,” Mr.Wolf said.  As the wolf disappeared into the west area of the forest, I went east, where grandma actually lived.

On the way I sang one of the folk songs, “I knew the path clearly, the light mostly good. The woods being trees and the trees being wood,  I have no fear nor no one should”.  Once again, my thoughts failed me, I had indeed every right to be frightened. The trees were dancing horrendously, the wind teasing me, pushing me back and forward. As I regain my balance, I felt eyes shoot at me, turning around I see Mr. Wolf on his two hind legs stalking me. I make a run for it not knowing that the wolf had already made his way to grandma’s. Unaware of the wolf’s where abouts, I rushed down the path to Grandma’s house passing alarming creatures but none were intimidating so I shrugged my shoulder, not caring at all. As I came closer to  grandma's, the wooden door was wide open and I knew what that meant. I mean, who wouldn’t?.

I was getting tired of the tale, so I decided to play along. The wolf’s plan was quite obvious, but I acted as if it weren’t. Rolling my eyes, I entered Grandma’s house, “Oh, grandma!,” I called out, “Are you there?”.  The wolf replied instead, giving a utterly horrible impression of Grandma, “In..the bed darling”.  I entered her bedroom, where the foolish wolf lay in bed, with Grandma’s pink spotted bonnet and white night gown. For all I knew, Grandma worked the outfit better. Looking at Mr. Wolf, I snickered and coughed, trying to remember the words that Little Red riding hood had once spoken at this moment.

“Ohh…..oh grandma. What big ears you have,” I said as I edged closer to the bed.

“The better to hear you with, my dear,” replied the wolf.

“But grandma, what big eyes you have,” I said.

“The better to see you with, my dear,” replied the wolf.

“But grandma, what big teeth you have,” I said pretending to quiver.  

“The better to eat you with, my dear," roared the wolf and he leapt out of the bed and began to chase me. I ran outside to where I knew the woodsman would spot me.

“Help!, Help!,” I cried. The woodsman spotted me and charged at the wolf, grabbing him with one hand. The wolf then spat out poor grandma, who was frazzled by the whole experience but was still in one piece. I ran over to grandma, comforting her and said “I’m sorry grandma, I’ll never speak to strangers or linger in the forest ever again. Here, I brought some treats for you!”. As I handed the basket to grandma, everything stood still. Grandma suddenly glowed horrifically, the woodsman glowing too!. Soon I was glowing aswell and I began to levitate. I then shot up into the sky like a rocket, floating in mid air. After a long period of time, I started spiralling swiftly, shot upwards once again and stumbled out of the book. I was out.

Without any hesitation, I slammed the book shut. Something brushed on my hand as I did this, it was red and silky. I ran to the nearest computer, admiring the person in the mirror. Lying on my back was Red Riding Hood’s cloak, I was astonished!. I finally figured out how the book worked. “When you read a tale you get transported into the fairy tale, to get out you need to play the role of one of the characters and as a token for completing the story, you receive a souvenir from the character you play,” I whispered to myself. This book was very special and I knew it from the start. As I continued to admire the cloak, from the peek of my eye, I could see the book suddenly glowing. I ran quickly to see what it was, a story in the book was glowing. I opened the book, once again greeted with heavy wind. The title of the story glowed, The Three Little Pigs. I looked around the library to see if anyone was here and I started to read the first sentence of the book before saying. “Time for another adventure”.

 

Waita_Matariki Stars

One of New Zealands most known legends involving the stars, is Matariki. The Matariki stars are not constellations but are cluster of stars. There are 7 stars which are also known as the seven sisters. The names of the sisters/stars are Waiti, Waita, Waipuna-a-rangi, Tupu-a-nuku, Tupu-a-rangi, Uru-a-rangi, and the biggest sister/star being Matariki. 

As a class task for Matariki, Mrs.Tofa gave us various stars and we had to choose one star.  Then put in photos of things that reflect the meaning of the star. For instance, I chose the star Waita. Waita is the star that represents the ocean and food sources within it. Which is why in the photo below I had inserted various photos of seafood and wave symbols.  Our stars are going to be printed our and displaed aroud our classrooms.

Fun fact: In Maori legends, Waita is also a twin. The other twin being Waiti.

Farewell Miss.Ogram

Today is Miss.Ogram's last day at Glenbrae school, she spent 5 weeks at Glenbrae school in room 7, to teach us. She gave us cupcakes and individual cards as a token of appreciation and in return we showered her with cards and a bunch of beautiful flowers. We are very sad about her leaving and wish her the best at uni. Here is my letter that I had written to Miss.Ogram.

Hi Miss Ogram, Room 7 will miss you dearly, miss your teaching, your presence in our class, our fitness routines and well you!. You have been and are a stunning teacher, I just wish you can stay longer. You have helped me alot in all my curriculum areas including Maths, Reading, P.E and Writing. Your interesting teaching techniques have been very useful, one other thing I will miss the most!. Room 7 will never be the same without you around, and I hope you don’t get sad reading my Beautiful letter to you. On behalf of all of the room 7 students, we are extremely grateful and blessed that we had the opportunity to be taught for 5 weeks by an amazing, humble and talented teacher.  I hope you return to gbs or keep in touch with Mrs.Tofa. I wish you all the best for the future!.

-”I thank you for your part in my journey” and mine in yours <3

To the 26th member of Room 7 2017 <3

I hope to see you soon x and we love You very much

Rotational Symmetry! 🔄🔺

Today for maths, our geometry groups were focusing on Rotational symmetry. All 3 groups had worked on a independent activity, maths game and with Miss. Ogram. Basically, Rotational symmetry is how many times a shape matches into place in one rotation. An easier way to find out how much times a shape fits into place is to see if each side of the shape are equal. So if an equilateral square were being rotated once, it would fit 4 times into place because there are 4 equal sides.

 Our independent work was on Symmetry Artists where we had to create a piece of art work with symmetry. For me it was quite fun creating my artwork, I used very simple colours and all the shapes provided. 

Fundraising💸 Quotes

For the next few months, the seniors are going to be fundraising for camp. We will have to plan various fundraisers in order to get the money for camp. This inspired me to pull out some of my favourite fundraising quotes that helps me keep my patients at all times, working together and just the fun of giving to people.


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Camp letter

Friday 2 June 2017

To whom this may concern,

My name is Luisa, and I attend Glenbrae school, presently, I am a year 8 student. Glenbrae school may be a small one, but along with it comes lovely, athletic and active students. At glenbrae school we learn constantly to rise to the highest standards, we have rangimarie rules and we are also a mixture of pacific cultures.

The year 7 and 8’s at my school are planning a camp to Russell.  The students are very excited about this trip, they want to experience a lot more things, bond with each other and for some, it would be their first time camping or going out of Auckland. I know for sure it would be a first for me, which is why I want this camp to succeed.

We are searching for sponsors for our camp, and we are currently fundraising to make this camp possible. Glenbrae school is not the wealthiest school in Auckland, which is why we would appreciate all the support you can offer to us. Having sponsors will give us a higher chance of getting the accurate amount of money needed for camp.

This camp is an extensive part of our learning, where our students get to extend their learning on the history of New Zealand visually, our survival skills escalate and where we learn how to work efficiently as a team. Personally, camp for me will expand my relations with everyone, test my skills in group activities and enhance my knowledge on New Zealand history.

If you are willing to sponsor Glenbrae school, these are the resources we would need to ensure that our camp is a success. Whether it is money,  food donations or anything relevant to camp, we will be extremely pleased and grateful.

Please acknowledge my request

Sincerely yours,

Luisa

Narrative planning template

Title: Needs to grab readers attention and give an idea of what the story is about.	Imagination is everything The story is about a little boy, who doesn’t imagine but is just plain, and dull. He isn’t like all children, who have imaginary friends, knows how to describe things clearly with creativity. His friends plan to take him to a wonderful, creative and crazy place!. This place is at Ambury farm. The little boy(Riley), thinks that it is just an ordinary farm with cows, goats, chickens, roosters,etc. But no, the farm is abnormal, with talking animals, leprechauns. You can even stand on the water, and the electric fences create popcorn, anything the boys imagine, everything comes true.
Orientation: How will your story start? Where? When? Who?	Riley is at home being is boring self, as his friends are in the backyard playing games and being giddy. They see that Riley is no fun and dull, so they seek an interesting plan to change his emotions, from dull to euphoric. They want Riley to be more imaginative and creative.
Beginning Event: What events are going to take place? What problem are your characters going to face?	His friends take him to Ambury farm, where they stand in front of the farm sign. Written in big handwriting, a quote stood still, “Imagination is everything”. They roam around the farm, yet everything seems still ordinary. Until they reach the meadow part of the farm, where the sheep, bulls, cows and sheep lived. They journeyed through the meadow admiring the view, when they spotted an area on the field which was a different grass colour from the rest of the grass. They all stepped on the odd grass, and a powerful wind washed over the whole farm. This leads to the animals talking, leprechauns, having the ability to walk on the water, practically anything you can imagine. But Riley’s thoughts, were all dark, turning the white fluffy sheep into a black sheep, the friendly leprechauns into feisty ones, and the great summer weather into a rainy, gloomy atmosphere.   The problem is, when the boys give up trying to help Riley, Riley couldn’t exit with them. A force field kept him in. The boy’s start to wonder why he couldn’t leave, for they had done it before. Riley's thoughts, dark and gloomy, spread throughout the farm, making matters for him worse. Riley just couldn’t escape!!.
Resolution: How will your characters solve the problem?	The boys come to realise that the problem is Riley. He wasn’t imaginative enough, that he wasn’t able to leave. They looked at the Ambury farm sign, at the very bottom in miniature handwriting, there was a little note, “ Come in with gloominess leave with joy”. That’s when it clicked. They did some imagining exercises with Riley. Step by step, Riley started to brighten up. The atmosphere of the farm, enlivened. Everything turned back to it’s abnormal peculiar self. They then learn that it’s better to have a balance of emotions, even if dullness is one of them.
Ending: How will the story finish? Where will the characters end up?	Billy and his friends enjoyed their happy and bemused days together. Everything was bright, heavenly and joyous. That was till they met a boy, as dim as Riley had been. They look at each other sighing, it was up to them to  boost his imagination to a whole new level. The end sentence might go like this, “Oh no…..here we go again”.  BAM! finished!.

Auckland Girls Open day visit

The college I want to attend is Auckland Girls Grammar school, one of the greatest colleges in Auckland. Auckland Girls held a Open day for the girls who are planning to attend the school. I attended the Aggs Open day. 

I was nervous at first, going to the college I desperately want to go to!. My mum, my  little brothers and I, were greeted at the entrance of the Auditorium and were given a tour guide. My tour guides name was Rosetta, who was actually good friends with my older sister. She was very cordial, friendly and lovely. According to Rosetta, my sister(Maryanne) was very known, she also said that I would fit in just right. I was very pleased with the remark.

Our tour started at the Auckland Girls Library/study area, where we saw loads of Aggs students(mainly year 13's). Rosetta had explained the different sections in the library, one where the year 9's go to read silently, a silent study area and the area with all the books. The furniture in the library were very beautiful, I loved the sight of everything in there. We then journeyed through A, and B block, where we met some of the school deans and watched girls learn in their classes. When we were introduced, the girls would say, "are you Maryanne's sister", this made me very proud and acknowledged. It was quite over whelming because some teachers and students already knew me.

Throughout our tour, we got go into classes such as their food tech and science classes and do some hand on activities. In their food tech class, the students has fresh baked food awaiting the visitors on a serving a table. The food they cooked were delicious. In one of their science classes, the students has prepared some activities for us to do. Two experiments included dry ice, one where we froze a flower in the water with dr ince in it, and we were given the opportunity to break the frozen flower. the other experiment was also interesting, the girls placed dry in a large bowl filled with water and detergent, which then created a large bubble on top. The next experiment was my favourite, in a large tube there was liquid detergent. One of the girls gave me a cup filled with some sort of liquid and I poured it into the tube. The tube then bubbled up and foam came bursting out of the tube. I watched in awe as we exited the room. The girls were brilliant.

Later on, we visited more classes including Ms.Peter's class and the music classroom, where I discussed with the music teacher about considering taking music classes. She was indeed very pleased and listed the different instrument lessons that were available. Everything sounded spectacular!.

Afterwards, passed C block and made our way to the room where the principal was having the principal talks. Unfortunately she wasn't able to make it, so we got the next best thing, one of the deans of the school. She explained to our parents about transportation from home to school, the different language, sport options and the compulsory subjects we year 9's would have to take. Sadly we had to leave, so we made our way back to the auditorium.

Before we left, I met the 2 other Aggs Prefects, and the deupty head girl. One of the questions I asked them questions were, "How do you become prefect or head girl?. One prefect answered, "Just be social. Don't wag, have perfect attendance. And just be involved in a lot of curricular subjects!". I was very inspired and more eager to be involved in school!. We left afterwards and said our goodbye's to the girls.

Going to my very first open day was a wonderful experience!. I got to see what it is like in college, and because of this, I am looking forward to going college. I had met some awesome people. What an experience!.