Week 2 Term 2

Hey guys,
This week has been a hectic week,
During Monday, we had the typical Monday morning assembly. It wasn't as boring or as long as usual, so that was good. My favourite part of Monday was when we got to try lacrosse. I have never tried to play this sport so it was a cool experience. Lacrosse is played with a stick, with a 'head' on the top of the stick. You play with a ball. The ball is held in the stick as you run around the field passing to your teammates trying to score. I found some parts of this a bit hard to do but other than that it was fun.
On Tuesday in science, we made bath bombs with citric acid, lavender scents, food colouring and baking soda. We had to do this very carefully as we didn't want the citric acid and food colouring to neutralise and if that happened, the bath bomb wouldn't work. There were about five different colours and we were allowed to put as many colours as we wanted. I made mine like a rainbow. After science, I went over to the food room because my friends class had their cafe and I asked if she had any leftover food and she gave me a massive cupcake with marshmallow on the top. It was delicious. I played volleyball at lunchtime and it was our classes first game and we won by 20 points. Tuesday was also Mrs Crowes birthday, she doesn't like people finding out, so we decided to sing her happy birthday before the end of the day.
Wednesday was a finishing off day for some of us. We had the chance to catch up with writing, maths and anything else we needed to have done. We had our second lot of jump jam for the term and It was fun. I made a few mistakes, but I just laughed it off and kept going with the song.
On a Thursday I am usually only in class for the last block as in the first block, I have symphonic band, then Jazz band. Today at the band we practised our songs for the concert next week. We are playing with Matamata Intermediate and Cambridge middle school. At the concert, there will be symphonic band, junior band, drum line and choir. All three schools will join for two days to practise, then a concert on the Thursday night. School signing is always a fun time for me. Caitlin and I always have a good time. We also had our first RI assembly for the year. The message was about how sometimes sorry can be deceiving.
On Friday, it was our last lesson of science and we got to make sherbert. We used citric acid, icing sugar, and food colouring. I found this really fun to make because it was like the bath bombs it it nuetralised it wouldnt have worked. My sherbert is really sour but its also really yum. We had another game of volleyball today and won again by 20 points. I think that this year our class will do quite well at volleyball.
Well thats it for this week guys,
see you next time.

Week 1 Term 2

Hey, guys so wow its term two! Last term went so fast, especially for an eleven-week term.

On Monday, we had a powhiri for the new Japanese teacher, Etsko, and a new teacher in room six, Miss McLaughlin. The powhiri was an excellent start to the term. I'm glad it wasn't an assembly as the assembly would have been long. We also got told about science fair which is happening later this term.

During Tuesday, I did some more maths. I did to find unknown angles (including parrell lines). This is where you have an angle, and you find the angle opposite to it. While I was away, the school had a speaker, Mike King, came to talk to us about his story and going through depression and anxiety. While I wasn't there, I asked some people who were there about what they thought. Most of them said that he was an excellent speaker and amusing, but he didn't have a message as such. Tuesday mornings are always tech arts and our tech art that we are doing at the moment is science. We did P.H testing and the P.H table. I found out a lot about this as I had never actually known/heard of P.H testing. This is where you have a piece of paper blue or red and you dip it into acid if it stays the same colour then it is dipped into the same type of acid that the paper was soaked in. If it turns a different colour, then it means it is dipped into different acid to what the paper has been soaked in.

Wednesday I was away sick, so I'm not to sure what everyone did.

On Thursday, I had my first block of band for the term. We have started learning new songs for the band camp in a few weeks. We have been practising for a while now and I'm quite excited for this activity. Jazz band we are still practising the same songs. I don't mind when we do this as it allows us to practise more and get things better. During lunchtime this day I trialled for the Belmont netball team. This exchange happens every year with Belmont Intermediate in Auckland. I think I did my best but you never know what happens.

On Friday I was relived as I had made it throgh my first week back at school! Friday was a normal day maths in the morning before us year 8's went to french with Mrs Shaw. We did a little recall test I scored 11 1/2 out of 20 so I was pretty happy about that. I need to keep practising my french as later this year I am going to Noumea a French speaking country. During Friday sport time I had another trial for Belmont netball. I think I trialled pretty hard and did my best Im not to sure if I got in yet though so Im quite nervous to find out.

Well guys thats it for this week.
See you soon.

Week 10 Term 1

Hey guys

So I missed out on writing week 10 blog post so I am going to do that now.

Week 10 was alright it was mostly just a catch-up week as we only had two days the week after before camp. So during week 10 we did maths. At the moment, we are doing geometry, angles, and shapes. During this time, I did interior and exterior angles of a triangle. I find these quite fun but when we are given only 1 or 2 angles and we have to find the rest that's usually when I get confused and stuck. Exterior angles are when there is a triangle with a line on the outside and that is where the exterior angle is. Interior angles are angles inside the triangle.

We also have been doing descriptive writing. This is where we had to write about a 15 min time at a place. We then went through and highlighted ll the to-be verbs (boring verbs) this was surprising to me as I only had a few. To be verbs are words such as is, have, sounds, like feels and more. This writing is quite fun and I enjoy it. This is my piece I wrote it is not completely edited but I am still quite proud.

Matarangi

L.I To write descriptively by using precise/specific nouns and verbs to describe a place.

Hot sand blends through my feet, sea breeze tingles down my spine, sea spray splashes my face, and seagulls chirp in my ear. The hot sun beams on the sparkling sea below. The boats in the distance as still as a statue. The foam above from a plane slowly disappears. People trotting past on their afternoon jog, sweat pouring down their faces, but pure happiness with their effort. Towels lined up all down the line. Surfboards in the sand, and the bright smile on everyone's faces brings joy to the beach. Cold turqoise waves crash down on surfers below. The salty  spray lands everywhere, although the disgusting taste makes you want to vomit, it brings happiness to the people near. The roaring of tractors dragging their boats out of the water, getting stuck in the wet sand and laughing all the way down the road is there all afternoon. Green slimy moss rocks crowd the surface edge of the beach. Joy spreads across childrens faces. As the beach clears out the sounds of tractors seagulls and laughter dies down to a still. The boats in the distance have gone and the surfboards and towels have disappeared. The tide is near full and the sun is now gone the only thing left is the glistening moon. In the distance the lights of coromandel sparkle over the dark sea. Everything and everyone is gone, the peacefulness is gold.

Week 8/9 Term 1

Hey guys so over the past two weeks we have had short weeks because of easter so I am just going to do a blog post for both weeks in one!

During week 8 we were writing an explanation of the water cycle, I found it alright to write about, but some parts I did get really confused on. The water cycle includes precipitation, run-offs, condensation and evaporation.

Mrs Crowe also found some sites to help us with our writing. I think these help, but I did learn not to just use those sites as they can be not all correct. These sites are Hemmingway and Grammarly. Grammarly helps with correcting your grammar and punctuation, whereas Hemmingway helps you find which sentences are hard to read very hard to read and so on.

Also during the week of week eight, I participated in Wims touch. It was a very fun day and everyone enjoyed it. The boys won their competition and the girls got third. I was really happy with how I played, and even more excited when I scored a try.

Last but not least week nine was only a three day week so not much went on apart from summer games on Thursday. It was an extremely fun afternoon, and I think that everyone gave it their best. We haven't found out results yet but hopefully PUNIU win!

Also, in science, we were looking at the Periodic table and we even had a mini quiz on it. We had to find the chemical and write it down then set it out as if it was an atom. This was fun and hard!

Well, that's it for now see you next week!
Bye

Week 7 Term 1

Salut,

This week the year eights had their first french lesson for the year! It was really fun and I remembered a lot more than I thought. We had a worksheet about our family and our family photos. We then revised on how to introduce ourselves in French by saying our name, our age, where we are from and what languages we speak. I remembered most of mine but I did get stuck on some of the words. This year I am going to be going to Noumea (a french speaking country) to learn more about their language and culture.

The Makuhari students have been here for nearly two weeks and their stay is coming to an end. They have done a lot of things while they have been here in New Zealand, like going to Waitomo caves, Kiwi house and horse riding. They have also done a lot more with their host families. Today (Friday) we had a farewell assembly for them, they were given a soft plush toy kiwi to take back to their hometown.

For, the last few weeks I have been trialing for the Waikato Intermediate and Middle schools Touch competition. (WIMS) After a lot of lunchtimes practicing and getting everything almost correct, they chose the team. I was quite excited as I made it into the team. The competition is on Tuesday, I am so happy that I got chosen and get to participate.

In Maths lately, we have been doing Integers and Number properties.I think that I have been doing really well in this and I am trying to push myself more in my maths as my start of year stanine wasn't the best so I really want to improve it.

Next term I will be competing in the Junior Tough Guy and Gal challenge. I think this will be really fun and I can't wait for it to happen.

That's all for this week guys. Hope you have a good week. 

Bye

Week 6 Term 1

Hi everyone, this week we have had a lot of cool things going on at TAI, on Tuesday we had boating, Thursday we found out our head students for 2016 and the Makahari Students from Japan came over. Boating on Tuesday was really fun, we learnt about how to scuba fall out of a boat, how to save someone and what emergency communication supplies you would need. When you scuba fall you sit on the side of the boat hold on to the top of you life jacket (while its on you) then fall on your back into the water. When you save someone you have your foot on the rope and throw the buoy into the water and the person puts it on then you pull the rope towards you while your foot stays on the rope. On Thursday we found out who our head students would be for 2016, this was a very long process and I was very nervous as I was one of the participants, but in the end it came down to four of them Amy, Raiha, Cheng-Yu and Matthew. I was really happy for Amy as she is one of my best friends! Thursday was also a very exciting time for some as their Makahari High School Students came to New Zealand to stay for two weeks with there host family. Today (Friday) We had four Japanese students in our class, they are very cool and understand alot more english than I thought. In wood I have nearly finished my speaker which I am really excited about as I can't wait to use it.

Week 5 Term 1

Hey guys so this week has been very busy. On Monday a few selected students went to Cambridge to compete in WIMS swimming, this was a sucsessful day and everyone did really well. On Tuesday it was the first of AUTUMN! On wednesday we had our last lesson in Japanese with Mika, as on Saturday she left New Zealand to go back to her hometown in Japan. On Thursday we had our very first student assembly, it was a funny, and exciting experiance. The theme was to introduce ourselves to the school, and to do this we held a fashion parade. The House Captains were dressed in swimwear and the Class Councillors were dressed in usual dresses and stuff. It was really fun and at the end they had Mr and Mrs Student Council, I won Mrs Student Council and Will from room 13 won Mr Student council. On Friday we had school swimming. It was a very fun day and everyone tried their best. During the day we were told the points from different races and the placings of all the houses. At the end of the day Waipa was winning, Puniu was second, Waikato third, and Mangapiko fourth. Today (Monday) we found out the overall winner of Swimming Sports 2016,
4th- Mangapiko, 4 points
3rd-Waikato, 6 + Bonus Point
2nd- Waipa, 8 points
And first the overall Champion PUNIU, 10 points.
Thats it for this week! see you next week.