Amazing Alliteration

Slippery slimy snakes swimming through the salty sea.

By Ben

My Sister's Keeper - Molly's Book Trailer

Blood Money

Koru Games - Girls Touch

On Tuesday to Thursday (16 - 18/9/14) we took part in the first ever Koru Games. First we went by car to the Lincoln Event Centre for the opening ceremony. Later that day we bussed to Prebbleton Reserve to play our first two games. Our first game was against CHCH South who we bet 3 - 2. We then played Clearview and drew 2 all. We were then finished for the day and bussed home.


The next day ( Wednesday ) we bussed straight to Prebbleton Reserve for our 9:00 game. When we arrived at 9:02 the games had already begun so we sprinted to our field as fast as we could. This game was against St Martins and we won 3 - 1. Our next game was against Prebbleton which we won 4 - 0. This meant that we were coming 1st so we had to play the team coming second which was CHCH South, whoever won this game would go straight through to the final the next day. Sadly we lost this game but at least we would have another chance tomorrow.


Our last day (Thursday) was our last chance to get into the final. To do this we had to vs Clearview, which again we tragically lost. We watched the final (CHCH South vs Clearview) later that day. It was a very close game and went into over time. In the end CHCH South won, which was kind of good because we have bet them before!

At the closing ceremony we were presented with the bronze medal. We are very proud of ourselves and had a lot of fun doing it!

By Georgia G and Molly B

Chronic Teenage Tears

'A Blog Of A Chronically ill Adolescent' is a blog that is, well, different. Nancy M is a teenager of 18, suffering with health issues and is going through a journey of transitioning from a child to an adult.


The thing I like about this blog is how Nancy is honest and says the truth about what it's like to have; Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, Gastroparesis, Chronic Pain and more. It's the way Nancy handles these things and the way she writes. It's really nice reading her blog on wet and rainy day with a hot chocolate in hand.


Nancy wants the world to have more of a recognition for Ehlers Danlos Syndrome because she thinks there is a way to prevent it and it can ruin your life at home and at school. She is helping others and she is helping herself.

Go and read it!

www.chronicteenagetears.blogspot.co.nz


Anja ;)

Writing Seed

We started planning a new piece of writing together today. We used the below video as a seed and started planning together.
Watch the video and tell us what it makes you think of.

A Day Never To Forget

Walking down the bare streets of Christchurch, the white chairs catch my eye. I walk over there. There are 185 chairs to represent the people that lost their lives in the CTV building. I have a flashback to that day. I remember hearing people screaming, buildings tumbling down and the rubble as it hits the ground. People had lost their loved ones, Christchurch is like a war zone.

I go and sit in the wheelchair. I appear in Christchurch before anything had happened. Buildings were back up. “Was I in the future or past?” I thought to myself. As I roamed the streets, I saw a man in a wheelchair.” This looks like the wheelchair I sat on,” I thought to myself

I decided to follow him. Walking and walking down the quiet Christchurch streets. He turns into the CTV building. I glare at the calendar. The date was 22nd of Febuary 2011.

The time was 12:20, I knew I only had 30 minutes to save 185 people. I ran upstairs to try and find the fire alarm, trying not to get seen by the workers. Finally I found the alarm. There was a sledgehammer beside it. I smashed the box open and the alarm suddenly went off. I felt like a hero. I looked around, no one was moving, everyone was still like a statue. Could they hear me? I was starting to panic. I glanced back at the clock. It wasn’t far away. I decided to run, I only had 1 minute left until it struck.

The Game I'll never Forget

My heart rate and adrenalin went up as quick as a lightning bolt. At that very moment I knew I had scored and we had won the game.
It was so exciting. My first try of the Koru Games which I will never forget.

Finn

How to make Ice Cream

How to make ice cream with yummy lollies

At the shop

Step 1. Get a cup from the cup stack

Step 2. Go to the ice cream selection and chose one or two of your favourite ice creams.

Step 3. Pull on the handle to get the ice cream out and into your cup.

Step 4. Go to the lolly area and chose some.

Step 5. Use the tongs to pick out some lollies. Then put them into your cup with ice cream in it.

Step 6. Take your cup with ice cream and lollies to the checkout. They will weigh it and see how much money you will have to pay.

How to make ice cream at home

Materials

• One teaspoon of sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 drops vanilla extract
• Measuring cups and spoons
• 1 locking sandwich bag
• 1 locking quart-size bag
• 2 cups of ice
• 1/2 cup of rock salt
• One sheet of newspaper
• Metal coffee can with lid
• Inclined plane (ramp, slanted board, table)

Step 1.Put one teaspoon of sugar, 1/4 cup milk, and 2 drops of vanilla extract in the locking sandwich bag.

Step 2.Seal the sandwich bag. From the outside of the sandwich bag, squish the bag repeatedly to mix the contents.

Step 3. Put 2 cups of ice, 1/2 cup of salt, and the sandwich bag in the quart-size locking bag.

Step 4. Wrap the quart-size bag in a sheet of newspaper and place it in the metal can. Place the lid on the can.

Step 5. Roll the cans up and down the inclined plane to mix up the milk, sugar, and vanilla further. Continue rolling until the mixture hardens. The time required for the mixture to harden will vary depending on the temperature of the surroundings.

Netball Tournament

We hop on the bus all buzzing with excitement as we head off to the Lincoln Netball courts for the yr ⅞ rugby and netball tournament. We look around at our netball opponents. We all look at each other thinking, “How are they so tall?”  We all carried on focusing on the positive.

All of us started stretching to prepare for our games. The first team we versed was from a very large school and had a lot of confident netball players which was a real disadvantage for us but we played our best but sadly we did not come out on top.

All of us played with honesty and integrity only sometimes getting annoyed at the refs. Personally I think we finished extremely well seeing that one of our defence players fell ill at the 5th game.

Written by Alice & Brooke

Vicious vikings vanquished vast vampires

Writing

Alliteration

      Cobras catch cats counting cars.

Handy Helpers

This terms focus has been helping in the hard times.

A few groups of people in the senior room have been going off to different locations to lend a hand. For example; the girls who went to the SPCA on Friday last week.

Those girls (the year 7’s) went to fed some lambs and clean out a pig pen but when they got there it was much more than that.

When they walk in the door of the education room a friendly little dog came to greet them. The education manager (Richard) invited them in and they got to view a slideshow showing why the animals were there and a few interesting stories about some very special animals.

Once it was finished they got to go and look at some of the animals. There was some extremely loud dogs and some very cheeky rabbits. Now for the work. The pig pen was small and easy enough to clean. Just a bit of chucking the hay into the shelter.

The real challenge was the lamb. Once out of its pen it wa and the work was as easy as chucking some hay into the shelter. Now for the real work. Once the lamb was out of its pen it was off like a rocket and needed 5 minutes of cornering and chasing before it was in the stables like a good lamb. It glugged down its milk and was running up and down as soon as it was finished. We got a good photo and we were back in the education room to learn a bit more about animals before we left.

Big thanks to Lucy’s mother and grandad Anne Cochrane and Lindsay Nicoll.

Darkness

Darkness

Salt water rushes over my face. Adrenaline starts to pump in my cool blood. I dive into a dark, deep hole that is ready to consume me. I thrust my arms to pull me down. Down into this hole. Down into this hole alone.

As I swim my flippers rub against my feet blistering them. Nothing I’m not used to. I start thinking to myself, What if there is some undiscovered creature down here and I don’t come up to see tomorrow. It is unlikely, but still possible.

Something flashes in front of my face and I feel a spark of fear rise inside of me. I examine my surroundings, there is something different… something that makes things lighter but at the same time it is making it darker, scarier and more horrifying. The light starts dimming, leaving me in the dark. I feel almost comfortable with the sickening light gone. What was it? Will I ever know? Probably not.  

I start to feel dizzy like the I’m in a room that is spinning. My lungs start demanding for air. There is no choice but to go up. Feeling the water between my fingers as I travel up. I break through the surface and gasp in the air. The hot, humid air. My brain starts to function again after the deprivation of air. 

After a few daunting moments, while I am hovering in the water, I teleport back to my comforting bed, warm, soft and smelling like soap. I’m out of that blood curdling nightmare. But i’ll be back. I’m always back.

Picture Me Gone - Book Review

Picture Me Gone

Meg Rosoff

What dragged me into this book was how the scene was set. I have always liked mystery books but this one wasn’t necessarily as good as I was expecting. I was expecting this book to be about Mila going off in New York and using her gift to track down the man they wanted. I don’t think the blurb matched the book because the blurb was all about Mila’s gift and in the book it wasn’t all about her gift. There actually wasn’t much at all about her gift at all.

When Mila and Gil (her father) plan to make a trip to see Matthew (Gil’s friend) over in New York things don’t go to plan. Matthew goes missing. Mila is eager to find out where Matthew has gone.

My favourite part in this book was when Mila met a guy called Jake that gives her clues that she wasn’t expecting.

This author was very good at raising suspense but I wouldn’t probably read any more of this author’s books because I’ve read more interesting books than Picture Me Gone. I didn’t think the explicit language didn’t need to be there I give this book a star rating of 3 and a half stars out of 5 because I’d rather have had a different ending because it felt like the author was sick of writing the book and just wanted to finish it. This isn’t her first book but her other book - How I live now has won awards so I might have a look into that book.  

I  would recommend this book for 12+ because of  the inappropriate language that is in the book.

Libby

Mail Box

This term we added a new feature to our class room it is called the MAIL BOX. We use it if we have any question about puberty which we write then Simon answers it for us. It is pretty useful (for Simon) because Simon doesn't always get people running up to him always asking him questions.

Springson's Kapahaka Performance

Cultural Festival

On Friday night our Kapahaka group performed for the first time ever at the Christchurch Cultural Festival. They were very nervous but stepped up to the challenge and did Springston very proud.
I've been so impressed by the hard work that these children have put in and they bring a smile to my face everytime they sing.

Sports at Lincoln High

Today we had a second sport session at Lincoln High. We started with a quick game of basketball and then some high school students took us for touch rugby.
We are very lucky to be able to use the facilities at Lincoln High and I have noticed everyone willing to give it a go. The coaches were fantastic. They were encouraging to everyone and they helped build a team spirit.

Thanks to Karen and Kahu for this opportunity.

Martial Arts

        Martial Arts Tournament

I was on my way to training and I remembered that my sensei said she had something to tell me. The bus stopped and I said thank you to the bus driver as I got off. When I got off I sprinted to my training to see what my sensei had to say to me.

As I entered my training area my sensei said to go to her. When I went over I was worried, because I didn't know if it was bad news. She told me that she had chosen me out of my whole group to compete in a tournament. She said the tournament had 50 people competing in it. My sensei said that if I wanted, she would help me train for it, but she warned me that the training will be hard. I said, “Yes please! When do we start?” She said now.

I found the training was hard but I was excited. First I had to do a test for how high I could kick. Then I was tested on how many punches I could do in a minute and more. I had two days to train. I thought it was going to be fun but once we started it got really hard, but it was worth it. After two days I was ready, I reckoned I had a chance of winning. I went to the tournament and it took 20 minutes to get to where the tournament was held.

I arrived and the tournament was starting. The first person I was versing was taller than me, but I was not afraid. I jumped up and did a kick and hit him in the face. I said, “ I won I can't believe it”. I was up to my fifth match and I kept winning, I couldn’t believe it. I was up to the last fight and I was versing a hard opponent. He was taller and  stronger but I thought I could win. He threw a kick and punch and I threw an uppercut and a side kick. I ducked his kick and his punch. My kick hit him and my punch did to, and I managed to win. The prize was 100 dollars and a trophy, my sensa said to me “what are you going to do with the money”. I said, “I'm going to give 50 to the martial arts training and keep 50 for me”. Until next year!

Sevao