Saturday, November 29, 2008

COMMENTS APPRECIATED

Hullo! Just thought I'd mention commenting on my blog. I don't get too many comments - for those of you who do, or have, thankyou - but looking at my full Clustrmap is very inspiring when I see how many of you have viewed my blog. I would love to receive a comment from you! My guestbook still operates, accessed from the Archive. Signing that would be fine or just a quick comment through Blogger would be much appreciated. But thank you for looking at my blog!

2009

My time at Intermediate is coming to a close. I've posted lots on this blog of just about everything that has happened at Intermediate school. Next year I'm starting college and obviously won't have as much time to post. I don't plan to put as much up here but I think a post once a month about how Year 9's going would be reasonable. Intermediate has been so much fun but I am so looking forward to college. I like the idea of going from class to class.
Thanks to all who have been watching my blog - please do in the following year. Recently my Clustrmap updated but it's now almost as full as my old one! You may have noticed that now when reading my blog you have to click "Older Posts" but I realised this blog takes a lot less time to load this way.
I still welcome comments: you can imagine how exciting it is to hear from people you don't know, as well as people you do know!

YEAR 8 FORMAL

On Thursday there is a formal for the Year 8's at my school. It's going to be a really fun night! My dress is blue. My team has to bring sweet / savoury food. I'm excited!

My mum sewed me a dress from this pattern.

SRA

Sometimes we do SRA at school. We are on levels and I started on Gold, but moved up to Brown during the year. You take a card of your level and read the story and answer the questions, then you mark it.

These graphs show my scores throughout the year.

DRUG STUDY

For health, we did a study on drugs. I researched the effects of cannabis. Cannabis can be inhaled or smoked and can cause red eyes, a dry mouth, euphoria, increased appreciation of colours and patterns, art or music and lack of co-ordination and concentration. My friends and I acted out some of the effects of cannabis for the class and they guessed which effect it was. We also did skits on saying no to drugs. A valuable lesson was learnt.

Friday, November 28, 2008

ARTS FESTIVAL

My school is holding an Arts Festival next week and all the Art groups are in it. I'm playing in the orchestra, singing in the choir and performing in Kapa Haka. There are two performances with a break in between and I am going to busk (for the first time!) with my two other friends because we all play the flute. I'm doing a duet on "That Sounds So Beautiful" and a duet on "My Favourite Things" and we are all playing "Chanson Serbe" and we all have solos. My solo is called "Meadow-Sweet." I'm really looking forward to it!

RESPONDING TO READING

Our task this term is Responding To Reading. We do various activities related to the 8 Multiple Intelligences on a book. I am doing the 39 Clues. Has anyone read it? It's excellent. Log on to the website: http://www.the39clues.com/
The second book is released really soon and webcasts were made (one for each country, I think) asking questions to the author. Yes, I was in it. Yes, I asked what Amy and Dan's mother had to do with the book. Yes, it was exciting!!!!!!
Anyway, I'm enjoying the tasks because they're all very different: Spatial, Bodily Kinasthetic, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Naturalist, Linguistic, Musical and Logical.

Friday, November 21, 2008

TERM 4 - INVENTIONS

Yep, this term's focus is Inventions. We have watched a lot of Youtube clips on Inventions and have even had a competition for the tallest tower made with restricted resources. That was a lot of fun! We are currently working through a big management plan each, using pictures and words to explainn the ideas we've come up with during the times we've looked at the Thinker's Keys. We covered the BAR (Bigger, Add, Repalce) Key, Disadvantages Key and the Combination Key. Now, individually or in pairs (I'm working with my friend) we are to invent something for the Inventors Fair with the pssibility of selling it within the school. Now that we have an idea, it is getting to be quite enjoyable, because, after all, that's all we really need, isn't it? - An idea. We are going to make a "thing" that wil hold your recipe book for you while you bake or cook. It is double sided so on the other side you can clip up recipes on paper with the provided clip. This forms a triangle and the middle of it can be used as storage space (e.g, eggs that need to be kept out of the sun!). It will be on wheels and hopefully extendable ones so that the height of our contraption can change. Oh, and it should have a handle for easy transportation. Maybe in time it will have an added scale!



This is my friend and I's invention...


Click on the picture to enlarge it!

SCHOOL TALENT QUESTS

This year at my school there were the annual talent quests: Singing, Instrumental and Dancing. I decided to audition for the Instrumental and Dancing. I got into one of them...



I spent quite a few weeks preparing for the school Dancing Talent Quest, which was, as it happened, yesterday. I have done Irish Dancing for 4 years and love it so much so I choreographed an Irish dance to enter with, inspired by a clip on Youtube.



It went rather well (not perfectly, but the dance itself was good) and I got 3rd = . My friend's pair got the other half doing jazz. It was one of the highlights of my year!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

ROCKCLIMBING

An awesome day! The voicethread says it all. (But I'll put the text up anyway!)

Rockclimbimg was one of the best school trips I've ever had! I love it so much, love the challenge, and am reasonably good at it too. My goal is to become a professional rock climber. First, we started on the Climb Zone walls. Throughout the course of the day I climbed to the top of all these walls, and had a lot of fun. I even got up the fish wall, something I've never done before because of the immense arm strength required to pull yourself up using the ropes. Unfortunately, I exhausted myself so that I couldn't do the rope, but that means there's something that I haven't been up! I went up the Indiana Jones wall too, and, although you can't go right to the roof, I got to the second highest box. (Funnily enough, I got a little bit scared!)
It was very hard, hot, sweaty, thirsty work so I bought a juicy iceblock and a delicious icecream cookie. Plus my lunch. Once refreshed, we swapped over so we got a lesson on belaying. My friend and I belayed each other on the House Wall and it was really fun. When belaying, you must keep your eyes on the climber the whole time, keep two hands on the rope and keep the rope tight. When you are climbing, first you must untangle the rope, then clip yourself onto the carabiner and ask your belayer if they are ready.
Towards the end I thought that it was time to try some harder partner-belayed walls so I attempted, and completed, my very first overhang! I was so proud! I got to the top of another wall and then, just to see how far I'd get, I tried the back wall. It had a big overhang, rounded, daunting, followed by another just as hard overhang, before a long straight stretch to the top. While my firend belayed, I tried and tried again (sqillions of times, actually) and would swing right back in the harness and... fly! With my arm outstretched and my mind on gripping the hold that I so desperately needed, time and time again I tried. My other friend (and both my friends were very supportive, thanks guys) held my feet and pushed me up until I found a handhold that was easy to grip. I slowly but surely pulled myself up, and over the second overhang. I fell off so many times but I kept at it. I was asked if I wanted to come down, but I knew I had to keep going, so I said, "Once more". And, would you believe it, I made it! At times I would just hang there, my fear growing by the second, but then I would find the strength I needed and pull myself up one more rock. It took a while, but eventually I got to the very top and I was soooooo happy! It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life! A real achievement.

ATHLETICS DAY

Check this out!

LITERATURE CIRCLES

Wow! I haven't already posted about Literacy, or anything close to! So I thought that I'd better, as I have a Literature Circles Reflection from Term 2! Here it is:

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

COOL TOOLS FOR SCHOOL

Here is an excellent wiki that summarizes briefly all the Web 2.0 tools I've found, and some more. If you would like to delve into Web 2.0 more, I recommend taking a look at this wiki.

http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/