Goodbye 2010 Hello 2011

Already Christmas is coming up and I am so excited. Its the holidays and in 6 weeks it will be my last year at Muritai School. Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Lucy

THis is my last post as next year I will have a new blog!

What's up At School?

This term is term 4, the last term before I am a year 8. We are doing "New" as our Inquiry topic, Athletics for sport, Year 8 portfolios for art, Poetry during Literacy and lots more. The year eights are preparing for Abel Tasman and the year sevens will be going to Mount Holsworth. Term four is the busiset term by far, with portfolios, reports, Leavers Assembly, the formal, Abel Tasman, EOTC week AND Mount Holsworth. Already we are 5 weeks into this 10 week term and progressing towards a well earned 6 week holiday at the end of it.

Sea Memories

Feet sinking into the hot, soft sand
I let my carry bag drop from my hand
I sprint down to the water leaving my jandals behind me
Oh how happy I am, down here by the sea

Waves lapped at my feet like a puppy
Eyes closed, toes curling in and out, I am happy
Ears filling with the squawking of gulls overhead
The smell of salt is different, so unlike my bed

The light breeze breathes my hair across my face
The air held it airbourne with a beautiful grace
I dived into the cold blue water
But I don’t feel it
I feel I’m its daughter

Back on land drying off in the trees
beneath the fronds so no body sees
Theses memories I will treasure
and like a floating feather
they will remind me
of my days at the sea

By Lucy Bird

Term Evaluation

Lucy Rose Bird
Muritai School,
Muritai Rd,
Eastbourne

Dear Mum and Dad,
We have had such a busy year this year and term three has added to it greatly. This term has probably been the busiest, with Production, speeches, Life Education, NIWA Science Fair, ICAS tests and much more.
The start of the term seems like ages ago, but when you think about it eight weeks isn’t such a long time. We have managed to fit so much in. Our inquiry focus for this term was ‘ The Power of the Word’. We discussed a lot of powerful word actions, such as swearing, which insults you should take seriously and how different powerful words impact on different people. Then we had speeches. I did mine on ‘ Be happy with what you’ve got’. The Life Education bus came, and we studied ‘ Between the Shadows” in three sessions. It was about the effect of drugs and the Web of Addiction. We also have done a lot of big sporting events. There was a trip to the Indoor Sports centre in the Hutt and we did a mini soccer tournament. I was proud of myself because I scored a goal and I was one of the only ones in my team to score. Something else I was proud of was Production. I got a speaking role. It was my last production at Muritai so I was glad I got a part I have also been doing technicraft at Wanuiomata. I am making a bag at sewing and used the sewing machine for the first time (with not such a great effect). I have improved so much in my writing. We have not only been doing narrative writing, but giving effective feedback. My short story was called “ Freezer adventure”. I am particularly pleased with getting an ICAS writing Distinction It shows that my writing really is improving!I am really excited with the work I have completed this term.
Next term, I hope to achieve the following goals:
Use more linking and improve my handwriting style
Use more descriptive language and decrease waffle in my writing
Read from a wider range of books
Use the dictionary and thesaurus more often
I hope the achieving of these goals will help me next year in the preparation for high school.
I believe that this year has really got me ready for next year and all the leadership roles available. I hope that next year will have the same effect as this year and high school won’t seem the challenge it seems now.

Lots of Love
Lucy

Speeches

This term we are doing our speeches on something persuasive. We had two weeks to write it and perfect it before we had to hand it in yesterday. Even if we weren't doing our speech on that day.My speech is on being happy with what you've got and I am performing it on Monday.

The Spook House- By Lucy Bird

As I trudged towards the rusted iron gates, a dull light in the house flicked on. It cast a shadowy, gloomy glow across the garden. The leafless trees whispered and rustled in the light breeze. A giant furry spider scuttled across the cracked, stone path. The white, shiny full moon sat on the roof of the house. Silhouettes of bats made shadows on the ground as they passed in front of the moon. The night had been crystal clear when I left my house, but now the sky was beginning to fog up.The air around me was collecting the mist feeding off the moon. Suddenly, I heard a loud, wretched SCREEH from behind me. I spun around to see and hear the gate swinging back and forth slowly in the light breeze, scraping the ground. The air smelt musty and old. My nostrils recoiled as I got nearer to the house. I admit that I was frightened. I normally was not one to be scared, but this house could make anyone jump out of their skin! The sky was brewing up a storm, grey clouds were covering up the moon and a breeze swept by and ruffled my shirt. I’d reached the door. Just walking up the path had seemed like an eternity. I rapped a short, shaky knock at the door. It creepily swung open by itself. I stepped inside...

The Power of The Word

Term Two Evaluation

Wow. Term two has gone so fast. Even though it’s nearly the beginning of term three, it feels like the middle of term one. Cross Country, Carter Observatory, portfolios, Young Leaders Day, Explanation writing are just some of the many things we have managed to cram into this term.

For our inquiry topic this term, we have been doing science fairs. We chose a topic and completed a science fair on it. I did my science fair on Ginger Beer and Can you make it better for you? I have recently found out that I got into the top twenty in the senior school. This means that next term I will be going to Victoria University for the NIEWA science exhibition. I am very excited about this, and proud.

This term we have been studying the method of a quality explanation. We looked at nouns, verbs, technical vocabulary and punctuation. I have produced three explanations (Matariki, Ginger Beer and a made up appliance, The Celeporter) and I am proud of all of them.

Next term, I want to work on speaking with confidence as we have speeches next term. I also want to work on thinking more laterally or “outside the box” as some people might call it.

Overall, this term has been fantastic. We have been loaded with so much work and excitement that I haven’t really had time to think of anything else. If this term was great, Term three will be even better!

Harmony

Check out this cool drawing website! http://mrdoob.com/projects/harmony/You can test out different styles and create your own. These are some of my favourite pictures.

2010 Science Fair

This year we are doing Science Fairs. For my science fair, I am seeing if you can make ginger beer a lot healthier by using something else instead of sugar. I am going to substitute the sugar with artificial sweetners, fake sugars and honey. I hope my science fair turns out really well and that I will be successful and achieve making sugar free ginger beer.

ME!!

Check out this cool wordle I created at Technicraft! If you want to make your own go to http://www.wordle.net/

My wordle is about who I am and what I like to do.

Easter!!!

Happy Easter everybody!

Hope you enjoy the holiday!

From Lucy :)

Technicraft

For Technicraft I am doing ICT. At ICT we update, our blogs, take photos and post them on our blog, and heaps of other cool stuff. So far I have put 2 posts on ( including this one) and made my self the really cool voki. We have had only 2 lessons but I am looking forward to more.

Today I took some photos of what I do at lunchtime and here they are. My friend in the photo is Annie Brodie, someone in my Technicraft group and who I play with at lunchtime.

Lex Benson Cooper Art

This Term, for our art, we have been studying Lex Benson Cooper. He is an famous New Zealand artist.

We painted a picture that was like something he would create. This is how we made them:

First we printed of some eigthties wallpaper and chose the one we wanted..Then we painted over them with the colors we wanted. We looked at the shading and texture to get it just right. To paint the Still Life, we traced what we saw, not what we thought we saw on a piece of nice paper. We then traced it onto the painting so we didn't have to rub out the outline if we drew it wrong. Then we painted the shape. We had to be really careful to bring out the shape and make it 3-D. When the painting was finished, we thought up a good name for it. I called mine, A Burst of Flame.

Here is my finished product.

The Arrival

Today we went to Wellington.

First we went to the film archive. We watched a DVD about New Zealand History. It contained things like old kiwi adds, clips about famous people (Kate Sheppard, Whina Cooper) and much more. After this we went to the park to have some lunch and a play. Then we went to the St James Theatre to watch The Arrival. We had to wait a while for the show to start but is didn't matter! THe show was amazinng! The backgrounds were sort of sketched and the other props were just as beautiful!The actors were amazing and all in all the show was fantastic. Some parts I didn't get/ were hard to understand but it was still cool.

I reccomend it to anyone over 10, especially immagrants!

The Arrival

On Friday the 12th of March, Years 7 and 8 are going to The Arrival By Shaun Tan. The Arrival is a sophisticated picture book with beautiful pictures. It follows the life of several characters as they leave their homes and journey to places unknown. It ties in nicely with our Standing Strong unit. At school we are writing sentences to describe every picture and it is very hard! It is part of The Wellington Arts festival.

We also will be traveling to the National Archives to view archive footage of Parihaka and famous kiwi pioneers.

Zone

On Tuesday, Muritai set off for the southern zone at huia pool. I came 3rd in the 2 lengths freestyle and 3rd in the 1 length freestyle.

Muritai did really well against the other schools.

Swimming Sports 2010

Today we did swimming sports. There were 5 heats.1 length Freestyle, 1 length Backstroke,1 length Breathstroke,1 length Butterfly and 2 lengths Freestyle. I participated in 2 lengths freestyle, 1 length freestyle and 1 length breathstroke. I came 1st in my heat for breath stroke and 3rd in the final. For the 2 freestyle's I came 4th. Room 23 came 2nd in the Class Relay and Sanson came 2nd in the House Relay. On Tuesday I'm going to the zone.

2010!

2010! My first year at intermediate. I can’t believe I’m a year seven already.

This year, I want to get better at my Maths- Percentages and Decimals. I want to be able to unicycle really well by the end of the year. I hope to do lots of gardening. I am looking forward to Croquet and Netball.

Being a year 7 means more opportunities. I’d like to try lots of new things, but still improve on some others. For example, I want to get better at my Maths. To do this i will try really hard when we come to it in maths.
I also want to be able to unicycle really well. I will achieve this by trying to get a unicycle every day even for just a couple of minutes and practice.I would like to new things by signing my name up to everything I’m interested in, and trying it out.

I hope this year will be a good one and I’m looking forward to it!

School Is Back!

School is back and I'm in Room23!
Being across the road is great because there are lots of fun things like Technicaft, Gardening, a really cool play area, and LOTS more.
My Teacher is Mr Eames but for now we have Mrs Mills Smith.