Muriwhenua Tribes - All About Northlands Tribes.

The Story Of Ahipara.

Earlier this week my class started a project on either a storybook or animation using google slides. I chose to do the animation. The area my school is in is the North Island of New Zealand. Because of this we used the tales of the towns and created a story about them. I chose the place where our school is, Ahipara. I hope you like it as this took me a while to make and animate. During this, I learnt a few things about animating and structuring a story. I found it easy to create the story and hard to find images of Ninety Mile Beach (Where the story is set).

Google Docs Ninja Challenge

Lately, in class, we were asked to do the Google Docs Ninja Challenge. I found it pretty easy apart from a few parts where I needed some help. I learnt new things like inserting equations and things like that. I also learnt that Google is a very tricky thing to master.

About me 2018

Lately, my class and I have been creating posts about anything we would like, so I created an About Me post. Enjoy.

Camp 2018 At The Glorious Farm In Whangaruru!

Soo... How's it been? This is a post about a class camp we went on. If you have any questions, please ask! Hope you like this. (It's kinda long by the way).

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! This week (week one), the class made infographics about something of their choice, and I thought I would make one about Halloween. I hope you like this and have learnt something new from this. Did you learn something new about Halloween by reading this? Tell me what you think.

Lost In Desperation - The Play

Last term (term three), everybody in my class created their own original play. Mine is about a family of two - mother and daughter. The daughter goes through the pain of being abducted, and the mother feels emotional grief and depression. I hope you enjoy, it took me a while to make, but I'm proud of it and I hope it's not too sad.

Lost In Desperation - An Original Play

Characters:            

Narrator

Police(man/woman)     

Mother

Harper (Daughter)

    

Opening Scene: (Audience can see a wall, the inside of the house on one side and on the other the outside. A telephone is on a small table and waiting to be used.) Mother is inside and the daughter is about to leave. The narrator is in a hiding spot where no one can see them. (But still able to be heard loudly).

Mother (Looks worried.): Take care, Harper. Be back by dusk.

Harper: Will do. Bye, mother. (Waves hand excitedly)

Scene: Harper leaves, (Skipping gleefully).

Narrator: Little Harper left and time passed slowly. But she never came home.

Scene: Mother leaves scene then goes back after five seconds +. Goes to telephone then dials 111. As doing so Narrator speaks.

Narrator: It was well past dusk, and Harper’s mother needed the police’s help.

Mother (Shaky voice): Can I please have the police?

Police (Not on the scene) (Distant): Yes, what’s wrong?

Mother: M- My daughter is missing.

Police (Not on the scene) (Distant): For how long has she been missing?

Mother: She was supposed to come home at dusk.

Police (Not on the scene) (Distant): You have to wait 24 hours before you call the police.

Mother: What do you mean I have to wait 24 hours?  

Police (Not on the scene) (Distant): I mean, you have to wait 24 hours before you tell us.

Mother: Hmph. Fine. I’ll call back in 24 hours.

Scene: Mother hangs up, puts the telephone back, then leaves the room. No one goes onto the scene.

Narrator:  24 hours pass and Harper still hasn’t come home. Her mother feels horrible after letting her only daughter go out by herself. She has already called the police and they are meeting to talk.

Scene: Mother and policeman/woman stand outside the house.

Mother (Shaky):  Come in. Please.

PoliceMan\Woman (Dips head): Thank you.

Scene: Police walk in first then the mother walks in. They stand in the middle of the “room”.

PoliceMan/Woman: I’ll try my best to find her…

Mother: You have to, I don’t know what I could do without Harper.

Scene: Mother’s phone beeps as the text comes in. She looks at it then gasps. She looks at Police nervously then reads it out.

Mother:  Listen: “I’m not giving your daughter back until I’m found.”  (wipes eye)

Policeman/woman: Oh dear. (Sarcastic) Fantastic.

Mother: Yup. This means you have to work extra hard.

Policeman/woman: I will. Thank you, but I must start searching.

Mother: Okay...

Scene: Police leaves from the side with the fake wall. Mother leaves scene from the other way.

Narrator: Weeks had passed but finally little Harper was found. The police (man/woman) meet with the two at their home. But Harper was unusually quiet and showed various signs of injuries.

Scene: Mother walks in from one side of the scene. Police and daughter walk in from the other side. The daughter is quiet and stares blankly at something near. She also has visible injuries (Arm in cast etc.) Police has papers with him/her.

Policeman/woman: Here’s your daughter, miss. She’s umm… She needs to - I’ll tell you after.

Mother (Hugging daughter enthusiastically): I’m so happy you’re back Harper. I was worried sick. Where were you taken? Who took you? What have they done to you!?

Daughter/Harper (Stares blankly at mother’s body, still in hugging pose): Things. (Quiet)

Policeman/woman (Interruptive): As I was saying before, your daughter needs to be taken into intensive care. She has developed serious injuries from her captor. I’m sorry.

Scene: Harper nods slightly, mother hugs Harper tight again then releases.

Mother: Okay. I’ll have that sorted as soon as possible.

Policeman/woman (Handing papers to mother): Here’s some information about her injuries and other important info.

Mother (Takes papers and scans them): Thank you. You can go now.

Policeman/woman: Right.

Scene: Police leaves. Mother looks at daughter worried.

Mother (Taking Harper’s hand): We are going to the hospital now. Are you okay?

Harper (Quiet): For now, mum.

Scene: Mother and daughter leave scene. Narrator speaks.

Narrator: Harper was extremely ill from her injuries. Her mother was also ill with depression and anxiety. Days after Harper was submitted to the hospital she died in her sleep from reasons still unknown. Hearing the news, her mother fell into a deeper illness. Not even therapy could help her. She died too, all by herself… And that is the end of their story.      

(THE END. ALL CAST GO ON SCENE AND BOW.)

The 5 R's Towards Zero Waste.

This week we have been working on a small project around the concept of Zero Waste. I had to create a DLO about the five R's: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and... Rot? Yup. It was fun and quite easy honestly. What I personally enjoyed about this was summarising the website information we used (From the teacher), and making it into short sentences that describe it well-ish... Heh. Heh. Enjoy.

Garden Quote.

After finishing the garden meme, I had to work on a quote based on gardens. After seeing a quote similar to this one I decided to change it up and eventually made up this quote. I hope you like it as much as I do. Enjoy!

Garden Meme.

Recently I have created a meme, based around gardens. At school, we have been learning more about gardens, as at the beginning of the year we built a school garden. As part of the learning, I created a meme based on gardens. It took me a while to find the right picture for this meme but I like it, so hopefully, you do. Enjoy!

Book Review.

Over the past two weeks, our class has been reviewing a book they have read. My book review is about a spooky book called Shadow House. There are many other books in this series, but I have only been able to read the first book. Enjoy!

Ten Of My Favourite Books

A few weeks before this was posted, the class created a Google slide of their ten favourite books. Some of these books may interest you as much as they interested me too. Enjoy.

Flash Fiction

A flash fiction is a series of events. It starts with the present, the character has a flashback of the past and that continues for usually a paragraph, then back to the present for the end of the story. This is my version of that. Enjoy.

Trigger

     I didn't have to pull the trigger. Or at least I thought so. Those vows would have sealed my fate into dangerous territory if I didn’t. As I waited for my time to go, my heart pumped with dread of the feeling of being engaged to a man that could be just as bad as the last, my heart continued pumping blood through my shaking body.

     Beautiful chains of daisies hung alongside the columns of marble framing the garden are raised around me. Sweet music started playing as my best friend took my hand while we walked down the aisle. Jake’s face gleamed as I finally stepped in front of him. His hair was slightly dishevelled like he couldn’t help but run his fingers through it.

     “I d...” I collapsed. Down to the ground in tears I went, bringing down a vase of pink roses with me. I could clearly remember my last wedding as if it was yesterday.

     There was a bouquet of roses in my hands. An emerald green trail from my dress flowing behind me. A secret weapon hiding in between the roses. I could taste the feeling of terror on my tongue. It all finished the moment he said: “I do”. I grabbed the gun and whispered into his ear as the audience gasped. “I can’t be the hit man’s dog any longer” It ended in silence as I backed away. I held the gun to his head... And pulled the trigger.

     My head was finally free of the misery, but I struggled to get up, I had to grasp the officiant’s hand to pull myself into a crouch. I hurried to clean up the roses, apologizing to everyone as I got up. “Back with the wedding then?” The officiant requested, and I nodded in return.

     “Do you, June, take Jake to be your lawfully wedded husband?” For a moment I hesitated, dramatic music playing in my mind. “No…”

     Again I apologized before spinning around. Gathering my dress, I ran as fast as I could away, the trail of my dress rippling as it flowed behind me. In addition, I knocked over another vase of roses and sent them flying as a huge crash sounded behind me.

Speeches! Lately at school we have been writing speeches and I'd like you to read it.

Over the past two weeks room 3 has been writing speeches to persuade the audience. My chosen topic is: Is The Plastic Problem Really That Bad? Enjoy.

Is The Plastic Problem Really That Bad?

Looking around, you see everyday objects that you use, Right? As you already know, most of those objects are made of plastic. And we all know by now plastic is slowly killing the environment, so why are we still using these objects?

Polymer chains, which are turned into plastic, can be made from a variety of things; mostly carbon and hydrogen, and sometimes oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, chlorine, fluorine, or silicon. Most of these things are drilled from beneath the surface of the earth. Once it’s made, plastic is turned into the things you see around you.

Fifty per cent of plastic is made for single use, like a plastic bag. Plastic bags are usually tossed into your trash can once they have completed their mission of delivering the groceries in, while others are left abandoned on the ground.

The plastic that is taken by the local garbage truck is either taken to a recycling centre or taken to a landfill.  When taken to a recycling plant, the plastic is shredded into small pieces, washed thoroughly, then heated and turned back into the plastic we use. On the other, bad hand, the plastic that is taken to landfills are dumped into a large hole in the ground and left there to rot.

As clouds close over the landfills, they fill with water, and that water eventually turns into a toxic bath that leaks everywhere. The toxic chemicals from the plastic items in the landfills meet with the fresh water and, mingle. The chemicals and water create a toxic slush that easily leaks into the dirt, and contaminates all water sources around it until there are no water sources around the landfill to contaminate. Farmer's herds and crops fall ill with diseases leaving farmers desperate for some of their produce to survive.

Plastics that find their way to the ocean stay there for a long time, like in 1992, when a cargo ship heading to Hong Kong unexpectedly crashed, spilling 28,000 bath toys into the ocean. It’s been thirty years since that incident and even now bath toys are still showing up on beaches.

Aside from that, plastic straws won’t be completely destroyed for about 500 years, while plastic bags can last up to 1000 years before they are completely gone. While in the ocean, plastic waste breaks apart into microplastics, smaller pieces of plastic that fish easily eat.  The microplastics stay in a creature's digestive system, causing its brain to think it’s full, which leads to the creature dying of starvation.

On average 100,000 marine creatures a year die from plastic entanglement and these are the ones found. Approximately 1 million seabirds also die from plastic. Did I mention that there are gigantic garbage patches bigger than Texas floating in ocean regions, like the great Pacific garbage patch? Many sea creatures and sea birds take plastic from the patches and eat them.

This leads to my final conclusion, the plastic problem really is that bad, and at the moment we should be turning off the tap to the factories that make plastic and use alternatives… It's time to act, our future depends on it, so what do you say, will you go plastic free?

Please share your thoughts about my speech below. Thank you for reading. :)

Why Do Tigers Have Stripes? Is an explanation made a while ago to explain why tigers have stripes.

While creating this explanation I learnt all the reasons why they have stripes and how they survive with them. Enjoy!

Why Do Tigers Have Stripes?

Tigers stripes are distinctive, different and unique. There are no two tigers who will ever have the same amount, pattern or placing of stripes, each tiger has its own special set to distinguish them from other tigers. Just like humans fingerprints - no two people have the same prints, each one is individual.

      At first, a baby tiger would look as if it has more stripes than colouring. But as it ages the stripes spread further apart because everything is expanded at the same time. Tiger colouring can range from black and white to blue and white to orange and cinnamon.

      Stripes help Tigers camouflage in the wilderness. The stripes look like shadows through thick foliage and long grass. They help break the outline of the tiger up causing prey to not recognise their predator around them. Tigers look like shadows because of their stripes, helping them survive and hide from predators and prey.

      Poachers kill tigers for the fortune that belongs to their fur. A single tiger skin can cost up to 70,000 dollars. Which means people would get a lot of money from the sale of their catch. Tigers are so glorious that anyone would die to have a striped rug made of Tiger fur.

      There are many factors as to why Tigers have stripes, scientifically and in the case of survival. Tigers are very beautiful creatures that belong on Earth, and not as a rug. Because of their stripes, they do survive easily, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn't help them.

             By Holly.

Can you think of any other reasons why Tigers are killed? Write your thoughts down in the comments below!

In class, we made info-graphics about Zero Waste. We had to explain what plastic is doing to the environment. This is my info-graphic, I hope you enjoy my simplistic blog.