HOLIDAYS AHHH

Right now, I am so exited for the holidays! I can't wait 'til Christmas and New Year! For Christmas we should be having my great Aunt over. I hope I can get a chameleon for Christmas but I doubt I will actually get it : /. My family has this tradition where we put our pillowcases out on Christmas Eve aswell as our stockings.

But I LOVE New Years! We go out to the Wairarapa Coast and stay at my Dad's cousins farm called Green Tops. There are loads of hills which are great to climb and a river which we swim in A LOT.
This year we are having the Bazalo's and the Davis's coming too.

After New Years we come back on the 2nd then head of to Mahia Beach on about the 5th. Mahia is my favourite place in the entire world. It is a peninsula with different types of beaches all around. This time my best friend Tahli who lives in Australia is coming for a WHOLE 10 DAYS!!! I am so excited. Also, all my cousins from my Dad's side come up apart fom the ones who live in Germany. There are 22 of that usually come up. But the best thing is, all of us get along really well. Especially me and my cousin Finn.

I really hope you all have holidays that you enjoy just as much as I do, AND GOOD LUCK FOR NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aisling :)

Hightlights!

OPC Camp

In Term 1 we went to OCP camp in Tongariro. It was loads of fun and I really enjoyed doing all the challenges.

Dodgeball

Rm 11 and Rm 12 play Dodgeball against each other. There is great competition between the two classes.

Production

In the production I played Argon. I really liked being a super cool agent and I wish I could do it again.

Retreat

At the year 8 retreat we played lots of great games and reflected on our year and started talking about college next year.

Book Club thing ya

In term 2 we did book clubs and our group got crackers on the second week. We read the book Wind Singer.

Mission Fair

Our group did a fun zone and everybody loved our candyfloss and slushies!

 

COLLEGE LIKE YA

OMG. COLLEGE. Scary. I don't want to leave yet! It's so fun here! First of all, you basically know everyone, and you can be with everyone! I can't believe how fast time has gone. It feels like only a few weeks ago since I arrived here in NZ from Kuwait. Barely anything has changed yet as the years went by, I seemed to think that the year 8's were getting smaller and smaller. And then suddenly I'm one! Sadly, this has been the fastest year I have ever had in my life, and I don't feel like I've made the most of it.

There are many things I am looking forward to though, and that is making new friends. I am exited to meet people and have an almost fresh start (meaning that I'm not going to ditch all my friends from here at St. Ben's). I really want to do netball and basketball, so I can get my skills up on both of these sports. I am REALLY glad that I am doing Art for a full year option, because I will be able to a lot more Art than usual.

I am also really excited about doing the sciences. I am looking forward to chemistry and biology mostly. I'm quite worried about the amount of HOMEWORK I'm going to get, because I have A LOT on after school everyday, and I am hoping I will be able to finish it all because it seems like a challenge. I am hoping I will be able to achieve more responsibility in looking after my belongings because sometimes I can be a a bit irresponsible.

Overall, I really don't know how to feel, but what happens, happens, so I am really excited either way. But I am really going to miss everybody and especially everyone who isn't going to the same college as me. I will also miss playing basketball on the courts(even though I suck :D), playing dodgeball, and being around all my friends.

My Speech

Speeches! ARGH! Yesterday I did my speech. Not as great as I had hoped it would be, but I think it went alright. My topic was on the worlds dumbest inventions. I think that most of the audience took in at least some of my speech and I spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. I talked about each invention and who invented them. I really hope my  s p e e c h    w  a  s  n  ' t    t o     L     O     N     G.

To be honest, I wasn't really nervous at all. But when I made a mistake I'd get a surge of butterflies. I enjoyed many other speeches such as Veronica's, Frankie's and Kelsey's. Their ones were particularly enjoyable. I can wait for the rest of the speeches today and tomorrow and good luck to everyone who hasn't done their speech yet.

Harry Potter Series!!!!

Hey guys, I'm reading the Harry Potter series at the moment and I am LOVING them. I can see why they were a best-seller. These books are written by J.K. Rowling and there are seven in the series. They are caller Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

At the moment I am reading the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I am enjoying the whole concept of the books especially all the magic. I love reading the spells and finding out what they do. If you love fantasy and magic, then these are the perfect books for you.

In the book J.K. Rowling adds in a lot of magical creatures that I've heard of in other books and places such as the unicorn, grindelow, and thestral, so it is a really good feeling when you read something that you've already heard of but doesn't exist.

My favourite books so far have definitely been the Chamber of Secrets, the Prisoner of Askaban and the Goblet of Fire. These books especially are full of action, magical creatures and spells.

My two favourite characters are Luna Lovegood and Remeus Lupin. Luna Lovegood is a dreamy student at Hogwarts with wispy hair and blue eyes. She's always seen reading the magazine called The Quibbler and is in Ravenclaw House. I love the strange humour that is to do with her. My other favourite character is Remeus Lupin. He is the Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher in the third book and is a were-wolf. I love the whole concept about him being a were-wolf and it add lots of action into the book.

I really hope - if you haven't read the book- that you will read these books and love them as much as I do.

Who is your favourite character and why??? Please comment

- AISLING :)

Speeches like ya

The speech competition is coming up and I'm really exited. It will be great to get up in front of everyone and talk about the worlds dumbest inventions. to be honest, I don't really get nervous at all, unless its an exam. I don't know if I'll be able to finish writing it this week since I am really busy with my exams. I hope I will be able to finish it this weekend and start practicing it.

The main problem I have when giving a speech is putting the end letters of words in. I don't usually pronounce the 't's or the 'd's. So that is my main prospect that I need to work on. I also want to say good luck to everyone and I hope it all goes well.

:) hehe

Auckland My Aunties 50th

My holidays were great. I went up to Auckland for my aunties 50th birthday. I got to see my cousins and my friends Emma and Checca who live up there. We stayed at their neighbours house who had a massive sitting room and big, glass, double doors all around the room. They live right above the beach where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed.

My Aunties 50th was so much fun! There was karaoke and we had a delicious dinner and dessert. I got to see a lot of my family and family friends and we didn't  go home until about 1 in the morning. Some other people didn't go home until 4 o'clock in the morning! It was a great night and I really enjoyed it.
                         

PRODUCTION

Production was so fun! My main highlights were the Omega scene and the Chair Dance. They were both really fun to do because it were parts that I could really show my character. Next time I think that you should not have microphones offstage because we had a lot of trouble with that. I thought that I did really well on the singing part. I did a lot better than the practices. I thought the production was really fun and wish I was going to be doing it next time.

Reading Challenges

Words, words, words, words. I love reading! But sadly I haven't been able to read much because I have been really busy. But because I've been so determined to get some reading done I have been reading until nearly 11:00 at night. Still, so far I have completed the Classics challenge, the Recommended challenge and have started the Series challenge. I am reading the Harry Potter books for the first time and am really enjoying them, they are my Series challenge. I am going to aim to finish the Series and Blind Pick challenge. For the Recommended challenge AND my Classics challenge I read the William book by Ritchmal Crompton.

JELLYFISH DANCE

For my research project I wanted to be different and do something that no other person in the class would do, so I chose jellyfish. My first option was plankton but it didn't have much information on them sadly. As it turns out, I'm glad I selected jellyfish because they are really fascinating. This blog post is my own choice option and I'm going to inform and show you a little info on how these gelatinous blobs actually MOVE.

You would be surprised to find out that a jellyfishes tentacles actually have nothing to do with the way they move. Jellyfish move though the water using jet-propulsion or floating on ocean currents. Jet-propulsion is a form of movement. Here is a quick video which will give you an example of jet-propulsion:  

What is happening in this video is,nt actually as complex as it looks. What you are seeing is the jellyfish squeezing it's body so that it can push jets of water from the bottom of its body to keep it moving. (I heard this from another site) You may understand this better if you cup you hand, as you were holding a small ball, then close your fingers. I will post some other cool videos and pictures of jellyfish on Friday.

I hope you have all been enjoying you projects and learning more about them and becoming fascinated at things you would never have guessed about them. 

BASKETBALL!!!

I can really say Basketball is my one and only favourite sport because I play Netball and enjoy that a lot too. But I started Basketball last year and grew to love, love, love it! I played Miniball for two years in Year 4 and 5 before I started Basketball, but it turns out. the two sports are really different.

I may not be the best at Basketball, but that doesn't mean I don't love it! It is one of those sports where you are cheering on the sidelines for your team the whole way because it's so fast and exhilarating and leaves you still in the zone and excited  at the end. It's funny because there is always SOMEONE on a team that thinks they're are the best player in the world and try to show off. I like watching them because it actually makes the game interesting. I am on the bench regularly (as you might be able to tell) but it seems every week I'm getting more game time, so that must mean I am improving.

There isn't something that makes the sport fun because the everyone watching just gets this vibe and you're  into the game by the first second. The benefits you gain from Basketball is:
1. You learn a new sport.
2. You have another way of doing fitness.
3. You get to know some people that you normally talk to better.
4. It helps your reactions get faster.
5. It gives you something to look forward to every week.
6. It's just great FUN!

Skills that I have learned are dribbling, defending, shooting from the 3 pointer line and dodging. Thanks to my Netball shooting I am pretty good at shooting already, and can get most of my shots in. The only thing is that you have to shoot a lot faster than in Netball.

I think everyone should give Basketball a go, because you will probably learn to love it just like I did when I started playing.

Argon, Chairs, Tainted Love and more Chairs YEEAAHHH

OMG! I love the production so much and look forward to it every year! And it has  FINALLY come! This year our production is called Agents of S.P.A.C.E standing for Special Protection Against Certain Evil.

I was lucky enough to get the main role of the agent Argon, which I share with Sam V and means we have to learn MILLIONS of lines. She/he is full of herself, determined and loves her job. Argon is an agent from the society S.P.A.C.E. She is trying to track down Neon the villain with her comrades Steelian (a cyborg) and Jameson.  is going on a massive crime spree for Jutonian Tech to heal her sick cat.   I was really happy when I found out I was going to be Argon for the production.
The dances I am in are Take a Chance on Me by ABBA and Tainted Love by Soft Cell.

Take a Chance on Me 

Take a Chance on Me is a chair dance. In this dance I have to beg the Chief for a 'chance' to take lead on a big investigation. This song is really cheesy and it is really fun spinning around the room on a twirly chair but after a while you get dizzy and there seem to be more chairs then there were at the beginning... But anyway... We are about a minute into the song but it is actually quite hard  to get the timing and it is really difficult to actually spin and 'swoosh' at the moment. But it's going pretty well I think. 

Tainted Love

Tainted Love is my FAVOURITE dance. Its got simple moves that are really effective and fun to do. (I'm not the best dancer in the world so that's the main reason why I like it so much.) It's the last dance of the production and is in the scene where Argon is captured and they find out they are siblings.

A way I could help myself is practice, practice, practice of my lines. And I think it would be good just to get together with Katerina and practice the last scene.



BYE!    :)

HEAL THE WORLD

Some songs have no meaning at all, just about boyfriends and girlfriends and don't really mean anything. But then there are the songs where an artist has really put effort and thought into what they are writing and create something deep and nice. The song I have have picked is 'Heal the World' by Michael Jackson.

We have done Heal the World a lot for prayers. It talks about bad happening around the world and how we can help with it. I like this song because it has a nice soft tune with fits with the words. 

I chose this song because its deep and easy to understand and has a lot of meaning.

Egypt Topic

This term our topic has been Ancient Egypt. We have been learning about the gods, the tombs, the pharaohs etc. For me, I think Egypt week was the easiest way for me to learn the most because people added an activity to go with their information. My favourite activity so far has been building a Lego pyramid. We were so close to winning but RIGHT at the end half of our tower collapsed. Samantha, Maddy and I all screamed,"NOOO!!" it was so funny. 

We also had to make a double page spread a few weeks ago and I based mine on the underworld. That's also what I did my activity on with Claire, Sylvia and Abby. For our activity we did six mini games to play, and six quick questions based on the twelve hour challenges Ra the main god had to come across. The only problem we had was that some people took a while to register what we were doing. 

I think this topic has been A LOT of fun and hopefully I will be doing some more about it in college.

Gymnastics at Nairnville

For the past 6 weeks we have been going to Nairnville Recreation Centre to do Gymnastics. I haven't had any Gymnastic experience apart from my trampoline which I do tumbling on (e.g. flips, handsprings, handstands, walk overs etc.)

They had 3 different stations, usually beam, tumble mat, and fun teacher station. my favourite part of it all was the tumble mat. We learned these routines which we were marked out of 10 for. My friend Maddy and I got a 7 and a 1/2. My other favourite part was the slide into the squishy soccer balls! It was the best part of it ALL! Woohoo! I FINALLY did a back turn on the beam last week! It took me a million tries but a managed a little weak one just as the buzzer went to go to the next station! Sadly Gymnastics is over now so no more doing flips on to the squishy mat.

But I'm looking forward to doing a sport next week!

Bye!

Fr Doug- JOY

On Wednesday, Father Doug came to visit. He told us that we were Gods greatest treasures and to always put others first. He asked us a question,"If there was two pieces of pizza, would you take the bigger piece or would you leave for your younger sibling?" It was a hard question, obviously I would want to take the biggest piece.

Fr Doug said a way to remember about it was JOY
J = Jesus
O = Others
Y = You

He said that you have to put Jesus first always, then others, then yourself last. I thought it was a good discussion, and that whenever I hear the word Joy I will think of this which will be a good way to remember it.  I think that I will always remember this because it was a good lesson and I have found it sticking in my mind.

Book Groups:Wind Singer

For book groups my group(Samantha, Catherine R, Elizabeth and Katerina) read the book Wind Singer by William Nicholson. Wind Singer is about a girl called Kestrel Hath who lives in a community where exams are everything, your rank, your housing and your clothes. Kestrel HATES exams and when she dares to rebel her family gets the biggest punishment yet.

I think our group went really well, we never ran out of things to talk about or went off topic. But sometimes we had difficulties with the food. I think that the book dragged on a little and that some of it was a bit too descriptive. But I think I gained the skill of working with others and keeping things fair with one another.

The Bungle in the Jungle

Cover of The Bungle in the Jungle

We all had a book when we were younger that we loved sooo much that we would ask our parents to read it to us EVERY night. I had so many favourites it was really hard for me to pick the best one! My favourites were The very hungry Caterpillar, The Little Red Hen, Brown Bear Barney, Commotion in the Ocean and  The Bungle in the Jungle. I thought, "which one!" but in the end I chose the most wacky one, and also the one that had the longest craze. The Bungle in the Jungle.

The person who wrote The Bungle in the Jungle was called John Bush. He wrote the book like a poem, having four-lined stanzas. He rhymed the lines having an AABB pattern. For example:

" I've an upside-down tortoise which, as you know,

  Can magic whatever we wish to be so.

  Swapping our  looks would be easy to do!

  Ostrich, my friend, may I swap with you? "

This book is about a baboon who gathers all the animals in the Savannah that want to swap their looks with another animal. They all gather together and start wishing to a magic turtle to swap looks with each other. But sadly, no one wants to swap with poor warthog. Baboon thinks everyone will be happy with their looks so he frees the turtle. All the animals are eager to see their looks so all run down to the water edge to look at their reflection. They all cry out, "What have we done!" obviously horrified and what they had done. The warthog, still looking his normal self, said, "I think a warthog looks perfect this way." and for another four summers the animals looked for the lost upside-down tortoise.

My favourite parts of the book are all its illustrations. The colourful mis-matched animals always got me excited. I would always snuggle down next to my dad as he read the story aloud to me almost every night.

What was your favourite book when you were younger?

Chasing the Valley Trilogy Review

In the country of Taladia in a small town called Rourton, lives Danika Glynn. Taladia is constantly being bombed by the Kings deadly alchemy bombs destroying homes and killing people. Danika's family were some of the people to be killed. But there are tales of a Safe Haven, a place where no bombs can fall because of its magnetic force protecting it.

Danika joins crew of refugees who also seek the Valley, but when Danika accidentally destroys one of the Kings bi-planes Danika becomes one of the most wanted fugitives in Taladia. With the Kings hunters on their trail, a mysterious boy called Lukas, and Danika struggling with her developing proclivity,(magically ability) she and her crew must always be on the move.

I really enjoyed this book, it's the first book of the trilogy. It is one of those book that you can never put down, and I mean NEVER. If you like fantasy, distopian future and/or adventure/killing then THIS is the book for you. I recon that its a cross between Percy Jackson and the Hunger Games.

So if you're looking for a good book to read then I definitely recommend you check this book out.

Mission Fair!

Last week on Thursday it was the Mission Fair. Sadly, when I looked out the window it was raining. Our stall was called the Sponge Run (exclamation mark). We had so many things selling, snow cones, candy floss, lolly jar guessing and throwing the sponge at the cans (we didn't know what else to do with the sponges). We were really successful and earned about $147.00!

The lolly guessing was a great success and in total we had about 60 guesses. Ms Bolger and Mrs Taylor won them. I'm a year 8 so I wont be doing it next year, but what I would do differently is I would probably get the news about our stall a bit more.

My Trampoline!!!!

I LOVE my trampoline so much, I practically LIVE on it. I go on there everyday, no exaggeration. I love because of how BIG it is, plenty of room to do handsprings, flips, walk overs, handstands, back bends and ariels. I can do all of those apart from the ariel, but I am so close to doing it!(*cough cough*). In the summer we sometimes sleep on it with a tarpaulin over us so we don't get wet with dew.

When Ashling comes over she tries and fails to teach me new tricks, but I just can't do a backflip or  back handsprings! Soz Ashy :).

Do you know any new tricks that aren't in the text that I could try?

Statistics Test

Last week we did our statistics test, full of pie graphs, histograms, mean, median, mode and range, and bar graphs. I did really well and managed to get 100%. When I did the test at the beginning of the year I only got about 82% so I've improved greatly. I still think I need to work on my histograms because I tend to get them mixed up with bar graphs, but I'm going to try train myself into getting those small differences between them worked out. 

I definitely think that recapping on the pie graphs really helped me to get a higher score in the test. When I first did the test I had forgotten the procedure to work out the percentage and angle. I'm really proud of my score and am hoping that all my stats will stay locked in my brain to be remembered for college.

What do YOU think of Camp?????

All the year 8's went to Camp last week at the Outdoor Pursuits Centre in Tongariro. It was so much FUN! we did loads of activities and outdoor stuff such as High Ropes, Compass Orienteering, Abseiling, Caving, Flying Fox, Water Caving, Kayaking, Canoeing, Overnight Campout and Stretcher Making. The most challenging for me was Abseiling because there was this GIANT drop towards the side of the face the rock and it took a lot of courage to jump down.


I found Kayaking really easy because I had done it many times before. I expected all the buildings to be more far away from each other and I did not expect it to be so pretty. My proudest moment was definitely when I came out of the water cave through this tiny hole.

My favourite moment was when I went Rock Climbing on the High Ropes. I had the fastest time of 38 seconds. WE got to do two different courses.

I really enjoyed camp and I'm looking forward to using the skills I learnt there at other camps.

Swimming at Kilbernie

Every Tuesday we go swimming at Kilbirnie pool. Since we are intermediate we get other opportunities to do more advanced activities that aren't just swimming laps. There are 4 different advanced swimming activities, they are Kayaking, Snorkelling, Diving and Water Safety.

The group I am in is Diving. We have a really scary yet funny (I wouldn't really call it humour though what he says) diving instructor called James who really pushes you to do your best. He said "If you trip and fall and crack your head open and brains are spilling everywhere then I will laugh at you because you didn't listen to the safety rules." His Scottish accent also makes him even more scary. He's making us work on a whole lot of different dives like the pike, the tuck jump, the straight jump, the straight jump and tuck jump backwards (so scary!) and the head first dive. The head first dive is the one I find hardest.

The dive that I am improving on most is the tuck jump backwards. The first few times I tried I kept looking down so that my whole body tipped and whacked my forearms really hard on the water. I also kept forgetting to tuck so James threatened he'd make me jump off the ten metre, and wow did I do it a lot better the next time. In the next sessions I am going to try work hard on all my dives and try to follow every tip our instructor gives us so that my dive is perfect.!.

CAMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Camp camp camp camp camp camp camp. That's all that has been on my mind for ages! I'm really looking forward to all the fun activities we will do and not having to get into your pajamas EVERY night! Though I just can't help myself getting worried that I'm going to forget to bring something REALLY important. I've got all the gear I need (so I'm told) so I guess all I need to do is pack it (and find it.)
My training has been going really well, I've been adding an activity each week so that I'm building up my strength every week. It's amazing how sore your muscles get though. I've been doing LOTS of dishes and sweeping of floors though I still need to do a bathroom!!

Though I'm very positive that I'm going to have lots of fun and be able to do all the activities without struggling.