Tamaki Regeneration visit

Today, two people who work for the Tamaki regeneration company visited my class to talk to us about their jobs and the houses being constructed in our community. Sarah and Glen told us loads of information about the new houses. I Learnt that the new houses have double glazed windows which prevent condensation. Also, that the houses were estimated to last about 100 years. Another fact I learnt was that the houses are indeed earthquake resistant and are insulated. The houses are more warmer than the old state house's due to the high quality insulation pads installed.

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!.

Financial Literacy- Earning/Saving money💸

Today, we were visited by our financial literacy tutors, Adam and Matt. We are going to be having them for a hour for four days, each morning to teach us about....well financial literacy!.

Matt, who we had tutor us last year, refreshed our memories on how to save money, earn, how to invest more money and how to reduce our expenses. We talked in our house groups about these topics and did some individual activities. Matt and Adam gave us various worksheets, some about the ways we can earn money, like doing chores, holding fundraisers, fun runs, paper runs, etc. We were also given worksheets about reducing expenses at an young age such as making home made lunch, spend less money on lollies, etc.

At the end of our session, we were quizzed by both Matt and Adam. The outcome was a success. Tomorrow, Matt and Adam are going to be coming back, but teaching us about a different topic, which I am looking forward too!.

Sign language with Tom

Today, we received a very special visitor. Tom from Deaf Aotearoa, visited Room 7 to teach us sign language.

At first we hadn't known that Tom was deaf, when we did find out he was, it was quite hard. We tried our hardest to read his lips, but we still managed to find out what he was saying. The first part of sign language he taught us was how to sign the alphabet using 2 hands. We repeated the alphabet 2 times so we get used to the hand movements. Then we had to learn how to sign our names and these phrases "You name what?", and "My name is". We practiced for about 5 minutes, and within those 5 minutes I had nailed both lines and my name.

Later on we moved to learning how to sign colours. We repeated the signs 4 times to assure that we had the signs of the colours nailed. The colours we learned were the rainbow colours, pink, black and white.

Afterwards, taught us how to sign numbers, from 1 to 10. It was not the same finger movements we all knew. From the numbers 6 to 10 it was different but we all got the hang of it once we went over the signs a couple of times. During our number lesson we also learnt how to sign "rocket".

The next subject Tom taught us, was how to sign animals!. Some animals he showed us using pictures and  then signing the animals. Other animals, he wrote the name down and we had to guess the sign. It was so fun!, we learnt how to sign various of animals including Penguins, Lion, Snake, Monkey, Giraffe, etc. At the same time we learnt how to say 'What's you favourite animal", in sign language.

We then moved onto the next subject which was gender and family including man, woman, girl boy, sister, brother, baby, mum and dad. For me, learning the signs to these words were much harder to remember!.

Before Tom left, he spoke confidently "Before I leave, does anybody have questions", everyone was surprised that he could talk because through out the whole session he hadn't spoken a word. So we all assumed he couldn't speak, but according to Tom, he had lots of practice!. We asked our questions to him about being able to talk, the amount of time it took him to learn sign language, etc. As Tom was leaving we signed "good bye" and he signed back!.

At the end of day, everyone in class felt proud to know that they knew how to sign certain words. I then realized how hard it is for those who are deaf, how much time it takes for them to be fluent at sign language too!. I admire those who don't have the ability to hear and use sign language, because they're very skilled!. My friends and I are practicing everyday, so that once day we will be fluent at sign language.

Birthday surprise!💫💫

Today, my best friends held a mini birthday party for me, because well it's my birthday. They had my favourite food(Pizza), Drinks(Definitely not fizzy ;) ), cupcakes and a cake too!. All of which tasted amazing. I was very thankful that my friends set up the "party" for me. We took photos, listened to music and the girls planned something. This something was about me being caked, which means cake being smooched on my face. Which was exactly what happened. That was our tradition. Even though I had cake on my face, it did take very delicious.

 I just want to say thank you to Aaliyahna, Maara and Cherise, and all those who wished me Happy Birthday. I had a very fun day!.

My Holiday

In the holidays, all I did was stay home, watch movies and do work. Once in awhile we would go out to do laundry or to my brothers rugby games.

I’d say that the only fun thing I had done in the holidays was watch movies and my episodes. I watched G.I Joe Retaliation, Boss Baby, Don’t hang up and Beauty and the Beast. My favourite movie that I had watched was Don’t hang up. The movie is about a bunch of kids who took pranking to a whole new level. They pranked a lady and told her that there was an intruder in her house and that her daughter was in danger. Little did the boys know, that this was going to lead the woman to kill her own daughter because the woman had mistaken the daughter for the intruder. The woman had killed herself afterwards. The rest of the movie was about the husband getting revenge on the boys that caused his wife and daughter to die. It was such a scary movie, that I wouldn’t really recommend anyone to watch it and if you do be super prepared.

Also in the holidays, we went to church. We celebrated Easter and received several easter eggs. We got even more easter eggs from my aunty, uncle and my parents. I had a very chocolaty day. I was practically on a sugar rush. I had an awesome day on Easter.

One of the important things I did in the holidays was homework. Room 7 were assigned homework to do to keep our minds occupied and so we don’t slack off. The homework we got, came with points, so every task we finished we were given points. Afterwards we have to add our points up, and for the person who gets the most points receives a prize. I worked very hard so I can get a prize(Including the sushi!).  

I just had your normal typical holiday. It wasn’t fun nor was it boring, it was in between. I hope the next holidays are funner.

Healthy shared lunch-H.H

Last year, Glenbrae school hosted a Healthy shared lunch. Each classes were assigned a specific dish to make, Room 7 had to make healthy sandwiches.

Mrs.Tofa and Miss.Stone had provided the ingredients for us to make the sandwiches. There were different stations in our class, the bread and butter station, tuna/cheese station, vegetable station, cutting station and the station where they had to place the sandwiches inside the containers.

The process of making the sandwiches were very fun. I was in the tuna station, where I had to place the Tuna onto the bread. I’ve got to admit, it was quite tempting to eat, but I managed to keep my hunger under control. Who am I kidding!, I did eat some tuna and cheese, I just couldn’t resist. As the tuna ran out, I left my station to peak at the other stations.

At the vegetable station, they were doing a great job slicing the vegetables. Yes, I ate some and it was delicious. I helped a little before I had to returned my station to start on the batches of bread but this time using cheese, for those who were vegetarians.  Later on, we combined the ingredients together to make a whole healthy sandwich. We started to plate the sandwiches and add a few finishing touches.  

Afterwards, we took the sandwiches down to the hall where the other classes had set their food on the tables. There were pumpkin soup, vegetables and hummus, chicken wraps and fruit kebabs. All had the right amount of servings for the whole school. Everyone settled down, as it was time for the blessing of the food. Moments after, class by class stood up to go get their food. It was all delicious and the best part was that it was all healthy!.

My favourite part about the healthy shared lunch, was making the sandwiches as a class. Everyone worked together, happily and we made divine sandwiches!. This is my most exciting time, I've had at school!.

Grace Joel Cultural Performances

After weeks of practice for our cultural groups and even days of practise for some, we put those practises to use and made our way to the Grace Joel rest home. The reason for this was because we wanted to give thanks to those who took their time off to come to Glenbrae school to offer us breakfast. So in return we wanted to show our appreciation by performing cultural items for them.

First off we had the boys in the Kapahaka group perform a fierce haka which was very entertaining to watch. The boys did an awesome job and really out doesn't themselves. As the boys finished off their haka the girls and the remaining of the boys in the Kapahaka group walked in and sung their waiatas. They sung Te aroha and Purei nei.  Their singing was loud and graceful, I had enjoyed their singing.

After the Kapahaka groups performances, it was time for the Tongan group to perform. The Tongan girls performed first, doing a Ta'o lunga to the song Tevita Latai maumi. I was quite nervous performing in front of everyone but I managed to finish the dance off. Our costumes looked beautiful and elegant, though our Ta'u valas were quite tight. After our Tongan dance the Tongan boys took over and danced. They were very energetic and entertaining.

Next up was the Samoan Sasa group. Their costumes were very bright and beautiful. Their Sasa was very in sync and most of the time in unison too. I had enjoyed their performance also, they were also entertaining aswell!!.

Last but not least we had the Cook Island girls perform their slow dance and their fast beat dance. During their performance, we had a couple of the boys from our school stand up and dance along with girls aswell as a co-worker at Grace Joel. The girls were dressed beautifully in black and orange and they're dancing was exquisite too!.

My highlight of today's event was when the owner of Grace Joel's rest home asked individuals from each group questions about the dance. It was funny and gave us the chance to explain the meanings of our dances. I had fun today and the Grace Joel staff said that they would really love us to come back another time.

Our Glenbrae Kids visit

Today, Room 7 had visited Glen Brae Kids. For those of you who don't know what Glenbrae Kids is, it is Glenbrae school's very own Early childhood centre.

We started off our visit with a warm welcoming, we sang Toro mai to the kids and moved onto playing with the kids. It was quite over whelming looking upon the little children, their cute faces made me sigh in awe. I was finally partnered up with a little girl, called Fusion*(I'm not exactly sure about the spelling of her name).

We played outside in the GBK (GlenBrae Kids)  playground with the other children and my peers. I read Nursery Rhymes to Fusion and sang songs with her, we sang Humpty Dumpty, Mary had a little lamb and Twinkle twinkle little stars. I enjoyed our singing lesson ;).

Later on, we adventured through out the rest of the park. There were loads of fun park activities like the Tyre swing, large bamboo xylophone, a mini pirate ship, a sand pit, and a hut with a slide coming down from it, all of which we played on.

Finally, we made our way inside to play more games. I wanted Fusion to have more fun, so I decided to play dress up with her. I put on a mini yellow grass skirt, a white feather like scarf and a smaller version of a cartwheel hat, with a white thin laced bow on the front. To finish off my fabulous look, I grabbed a safari themed hand bag. Fusion went with a simple look, a tiara fit for a princess and a lovely white and beige laced ribbon. She also grabbed a light pink handbag. I reckoned Fusion and I looked exquisite. Other had dressed up too!. Fusion and I went pretend shopping for about 10/15 until we were called back to go back to school. Everyone said by to their cute partners and headed for the door.

I had a great time playing with Fusion and all the other kids. I enjoyed playing in their playground aswell!. I hope we get to come back soon because it was very fun.

Waipuna Wedding✨

Twas a beautiful day at the Waipuna Hotel, a beautiful scenery and a beautiful bride and groom. In the Waipuna garden was a isle made of tapa cloth and chairs covered in white fabric, sat on by the groom and bride's family.

At the end of the isle was the Groom, Dario, dressed in his navy blue tux, handsome as always. In walked the best man and the groomsmen. Soon the brides maids (Sandra’s 4 sisters)and her maid of honor(her best friend) also walked in. Their elegant navy blue dresses matched Dario’s tux. The cute little flower girls walked in throwing the rose petals on the isle and took a seat in the front row. Later on the alluring bride walked down the aisle hand in hand with her father. Phones were pulled out and flashed continuously at the bride. Sandra looked stunning in her slim white laced dress, with her brunette hair pinned up. My Aunty had never looked so dazzling.

When Sandra reached Dario, the marriage ceremony started, and all I could think of was of how happy I was for my Aunty. The marriage conductor started with the opening statement, then to the reading and carried onto the vows. Dario and Sandra’s vows were very heart touching and very emotional, (yes I cried). "Do you Dario, take Sandra to be your lawfully wedded wife, promising to love and cherish, through joy and sorrow, sickness and health, and whatever challenges you may face, for as long as you both shall live?" , “I do”. They exchanged rings later on and placed it on their fingers, one at a time. As soon as the conductor spoke the words “You may kiss the bride”, they kissed and cheers of excitement shot out of our families mouths. Before they continued on with the rest of the wedding events, the bride and the groom had to sign their marriage licence.

As soon as that was finished, Dario and Sandra walked around to their family members to greet them and to take photos too. Finally Sandra  approached my family and I and we congratulated her and her husband. It has been a while since we’ve seen each other and a wedding was such a great way to reunite our families. Dario and Sandra arranged for a family photo in front of the river. The view was dazzling but my eyes couldn’t break off Sandra.

Later on we were ordered to go to the Restaurant for the after party and the traditional ceremonies. Everything in the restaurant was colour coordinated, it matched the groomsmen and bridesmaids outfits. The party started off with speeches from the parents of the groom and bride. Later we moved onto the prayers for the food. Speaking of food, the entree, main and dessert were very delicious and fancy. We were offered drinks and given chips and nuggets for the little kids. There was a bar at the far end of the restaurant where we were allowed to order drinks (soft drinks)in see through glass cups. I would continuously go back and forward just to get a drink and pretend as if I was taking shots ;).

We moved on to the traditional part of the party which was the ceremony of the cake, and the money offering (Ta’olunga’s). The ceremony of the cake is when you offer 4 or 5 small cakes to the family members of the bride and groom. In this case the cakes were given to the bride's parents and the groom's parents too. The other 3 cakes were given to the their close friends. Moments after the ceremony, my older sister who was saying a speech at that time introduced my other sister (Maryanne), who had to dance for everybody. Money was thrown at her (literally somebody threw money at her), but she continued to dance elegantly. Sandra stood up and danced along with her, grinning and holding her hand to her heart. At the end of the dance, my sister donated all the money to the married couple (there was a lot of money!). Afterwards there were other performances from the groom’s family who were Samoan, more performances from the bride’s family and a performance from the bride herself. All dances were entertaining.

It was getting late, so us little kids (pff little?) had to go home and sleep for church. We said our goodbyes to Sandra, Dario and to Sandra’s sisters (my other aunties). We were very tired but we wanted to stay. I enjoyed my day at the wedding, surprisingly it was the first wedding reception I've ever been to!. The first and the best so far. I can’t wait for my wedding and my other 12 sibling’s weddings too, yes 12 weddings!! (well that depends on if they get married at all), that ought to keep me busy over the years.

Water Fun Day- Friday

Another year, another successful Water fun day. Every year Glenbrae school holds 7 different fun water involved activities. This year’s Water Fun Day was more exciting, competitive and fun. Obviously, as you can tell by the name “Water Fun Day”, the day was all about having fun with water.

Room 7 once again, came face to face with the famous Glenbrae water slide. We had to fill a cup with water and slide down, the slippery and soapy slide and fill our house bins. The twist to the activity, was that that the cups had a hole at the very bottom of the cup (doesn’t sound so easy now, does it). Some of the students reached the end of the slide with no water remaining in their cup, others had a few drops of water left but like a ticking time bomb, the water’s life span ran out of time. As I watched the other students in front of me dive onto the slide, I was eager but also nervous to slide in front of everybody on the slide. I stepped back, steadying myself as if I was in a race and as the person in front of me returned to the line, I pulled the trigger in my leg and shot at the slide. By the looks on everybody’s wet faces, I could tell they were having a blast and so was I.

The bell rang for our next activity, which as I call it Soldier crawling (Odd right, I think not). This is because we had to fill a cup with water, and crawl under rows of chairs, to then empty the water into our house bins. I found this the most challenging obstacle on that day, for I had to do  a lot of arm work. I also found that the more strength I put in into crawling, left me exhausted as I got up to run to the bins.

Our other activities were, the Over and under obstacle, Zig zag , Partner walk and Walk the plank. All of which, were very fun and exciting. Glenbrae school did something very different that day, which our school had never done before. We had a water balloon fight. One water balloon was given per student, which meant one lucky person was in for a surprise. I myself was targeted by four different people, who knew themselves that some girls and i were planning to water bomb them. But the smart people they are, got me before I got them (Well played).

To add to the fun day I had, Mrs. Tofa broke the great news to us about the water fun day house results. In fourth place, was Nikau. In third, Kowhai and in 2nd place Rata. Yes, that’s right the mighty Kauri house, took 1st place. This was very relieving and satisfying. At that moment, I wanted to gloat and relish, but as an leader I had no choice but to stay humble. Though gloating seemed better ;)(Kidding). It was an exquisite day and I had loads of fun with my friends, peers and the teachers.

Wood Tech-Term 4

Today we had our 3rd lesson in Wood tech with Mr. Grunde. For wood tech we were making a necklace. To make a metallic necklace, there is several steps, like tracing your design, cutting out the design, sanding and filing also. But today I had already completed 2 steps and now I am up to filing my design. My design is a skull with two bones sticking out a each corner.

It was very difficult cutting it out because there were a lot of curves. Then after I finished cutting it out, Mr. Grunde had poured in the liquid metal into my casket. It took about 10 minutes to set and I was off filing my piece of work. Filing is when you correct the shape of something. At the end of the day I still had some work to do, like continue filing and sanding the necklace piece so that it looks polished and shiny.

I had a fun time at today's tech lesson. I was astonished at how many steps I had managed to complete.

http://www.woodtechtooling.com/Lenox/LenoxBandSawBlades.html

Term 4 Kiwi can

First Kiwi Can lesson of the term was very exciting. We now have a new topic as well as a theme. Our new topic is For our school and our theme is Respect. 

In today's lesson I learnt about values that we apply at home and school. Like perseverance, fairness, appreciation, resilience, courage, active listening and integrity. We used all of those values during our energizer and activity.

For our energizer we played a game called call values, where we learnt about more values such as caring, honesty and telling the truth. The aim of the game is when Mr. Numia calls a value out, you have to run to the cone with that value on it without getting tagged by the taggers. The game was very tricky, tiring and fun.

For our activity, we were split into 5 groups and were given 1 special value, that we had to act out. My group was given the value Perseverance. Perseverance means, never give up and try your best.

Kiwi Can week 2🌍🌼

This week for Kiwi can we had a change up with our Kiwi can leaders. Miss.Tuia and Mr.Numia were away due to family matters. Instead we had Mr. Afutoto or Mr. A.

Instead of our usual routine sitting in a circle, we sat in four lines. Mr.A talked to us about our theme which is Re silence. Re-silence means coping with challenges, never giving up and bouncing back from challenges. Later on we had our Energizer. The game we played was Rock, Paper, Scissors. I did not enjoy the game because I always went out but that was only me.

After our Energizer, Mr. A talked to us about our Topic which is Goal Setting. The meaning Goal to me is something I want to improve on whether it is a short term goal or a long term goal. We talked about action goals which is a plan that you commit to, to achieve. We didn't have time for our activity so we went into two rounds of GKQ's(General Knowledge Questions).

After our rounds of GKQ's, we ended our session on a high note. We finished up with our goodbye song, I guess that's what we call it. I enjoyed today's session because it was very different from what we usually do in Kiwi Can.

Manaikalani Visitors

Yesterday(Friday), in the middle block Miss.Stones friends or Manaiklani teachers visited Glen brae school. They first visited our school to see how we learn with our devices. During that time we were working on our Music Inquiry. So it was really easy to explain our Inquiry projects for we learnt so much on it. Some of the visitors were amazed at our netbooks because there are netbooks in our class that are really small. Another grouped explained their careers and where they teach at. Other were admired at our learning tools and how we learnt on them. Then Miss. Stone came and we were very excited because Miss.Stone usually doesn't come on Fridays(She has to go University). Soon almost all of them had left, except for Miss.Stone and one person. Her name was Mrs.D, she is a Health/P.E teacher at Tamaki College for the year 9's. She watched us play Ball Tiggy and Volleyball for fitness. Miss. Stone had played with us too, but like some of us we tried our best. Then as fitness finished Mrs.D left and Miss. Stone left to University.

It was such an pleasure to meet all those nice people. One day I would like to become a Manaikalani teacher in training too well it really depends doesn't it.

Intergalactic Space Trip

Today for maths we were focusing on Decimals. Decimals are similar to fractions. I know how to add, multiply, subtract and find the value of decimal numbers. Our problem was about adding and subtracting decimals. Here is our Maths problem. You can try to solve this Maths problem.

Shine a Light 2016

Last year we were visited by some unique people who performed a amazing show to us. Where we participated in their play and had to do dances.

Today we were visited by the same company who performed for us last year. Except this time the whole theme was different. The performance was about a girl called Rose who was getting bad remarks from her magic mirror. She believed what he magic mirror was saying and started doubting herself. But her friend Richard gave her a magic lamp which makes everything from your imagination disappear.

I really enjoyed how they acted and sang catchy songs. I also liked it when the actors made us participate in their dance moves. Their show was really amazing. Some say the best they've ever seen.

Music Inquiry-The Cup song

Tomorrow is our day to perform our musically involved performance. Right now I am very nervous to perform in front of the class. As you might know reading my recent post about our Music Inquiry my group(Courtney, Dora and Angelica) are performing the cup song. A song with a lot of beats. We only have till Morning Tea tomorrow to practise our item. After our performance, Mele and her group is going to perform their performance the next day.

Hope us good luck for our performance.

Cup-Song lyrics