Hard Materials technology

Our day at HBHS- 'Scratch' coding

More myth story-telling from Room 10

Legend of the dragon- by Zane Boden

Legend has it there was once no wind or other elements, just fire breathing volcanos and hard molten rock. But deep down in an extinct volcano lay one egg, passed down from the gods and watched over by Dexter, a demigod who took the form of a dragon.

One day the egg cracked and out came a baby dragon. Dexter was meant to teach him in the way of the gods, but instead he saw Dexter get struck by lightning and then turn to stone.

The small dragon could breath fire but he didn't know what to use it for, as there was no-one to instruct him, so he started to play with it. The volcano he was in was the perfect place to practice, and he got better at playing with fire.  But he became bored because he was a boy dragon and wanted to set things alight.

He came up with a cunning plan.  As his wings were now huge he thought if he flapped them really fast he could blow out the fires of the other volcanoes. He tried his hardest and soon he had done it.  The light on earth faded to the bottom, and he did that to every volcano and sent wind throughout the lands. The fresh air helped the plants and trees grow. He liked his new life.

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How the devil came to be- Autumn Bates
Long, long, ago there was a world above The Earth which was run by the gods of the golden gates. Nathaniel was the youngest brother of three. He was always the one to be left out of things and was never included. One day he was strolling around on the clouds when he tripped and fell right through into the empty underworld. Nathaniel looked around trying to find something to communicate with to get help. He found a recently deceased body lying in a corner. He walked over to the body and crouched beside it.  As he touched it’s forehead it began to glow and so did Nathaniel’s finger-nails. He felt a sudden connection with this body. He backed away from it to look at other things lying around. As he was roaming in the darkness, he felt the presence of someone following him.  Nathaniel turned around only to see the face of the body. It was slowly hovering beside Nathaniel, but he looked harmless.

Nathaniel started feeling ill, he fell to his knees and held his aching stomach. He grew unnaturally long finger-nails, his shirt was lifted off heavenly as a pentagram was scratched onto his chest. Standing up, and looking down at his chest, he saw the sign and touched it. A bright yellow aura exploded around the cave and then surrounded him.   

He started to feel more powerful here than he was up in the sky being a God. He wanted to stay here and rule this earth. He needed to find a way to communicate with his brothers up in the Heavens. Nathaniel tried finding ways to get back up to see his brothers.  He was curious and wondered if anyone missed him.  

Nathaniel had an idea. He crouched down and leapt up into the air with his hands placed straight on his side,  flying through the top of the cave all the way into the Heavens. He called his brothers over to tell them what he wanted to be and to do. They all thought he was joking as he couldn’t be taken seriously. They all laughed at him and walked away.

Nathaniel stomped his foot and flew back down to his cave. Nathaniel was furious, his blood started to boil as his face turned red, not only his face but his entire body went blood red. Nathaniel started to grow horns on the top of his head and a tail. He started to feel less compassionate and more wicked. He wanted to be opposite to his brothers.

Instead of being a ‘God’, Nathaniel decided to be a ‘Devil’.

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Phosphorius Beta ...Daniel McNeill

Many many years ago, there lived in the heavens a god of fire, Phosphorius Beta. He loved to see the world in flames and lava, but the other gods disagreed with this. They thought the way he was treating their planet was unacceptable, so they decided to do something about this. They joined together into one huge sentient being, a lush rainforest.

The two beings clashed together with a ‘crack’ and a ‘boom’, both gods knowing this was a battle of life and death. The forest swung vines at Beta and wrapped him so he’d be completely useless and couldn't fight back.  Beta became enraged and got even hotter than ever, burning straight through the vines and punching forest right in the mouth, causing him to fall over.  

With his last little bit of energy the forest threw his hands in the air and smacked down on Beta, cracking him into a thousand different pieces, and spreading him  all over the globe as volcanoes and lava.

Slowly over centuries, the forest regenerated the health he had lost in battle until he had enough strength to fulfill his destiny and create the world as we know it now.  With all his might he exploded, spreading trees, shrubs and grasses all over the earth.

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How the unicorn was named-  Holly Parsons-van Dam

One day Greg the horse was invited to a party. It was 4 pm and he had two hours to get ready. First he put his party hat on, then went to his fur dresses. He dyed his fur white with a purple mane. When he got home it was 5:30. He cut his hooves and painted them purple.

At 5:50 he drove to Alex’s.  Everyone was wearing party hats and different colours. They were playing ‘Pin the tail on the donkey’. but when Greg took his hat off to play his friends put glue around his hat.

Later, Greg said they should all try to fly. Everybody at the party cut out wings and coloured them in. Greg made his wings purple. He jumped off the roof.  Flapping his cardboard wings, he started to rise up. “Oh my goodness, I’m flying!!” Greg exclaimed. He came back down to land and his friends started clapping.

Since Greg couldn’t take off his party hat he just ignored it. The trend caught on, and nearly everyone glued hats to their heads. Greg still had to dye his fur every day but he came up with a name for his creation.  He got his friends to pick one letter from the alphabet. They chose U, I, N, C, O, N, and R. He rearranged the letters and came up with: Unicorn.

And thats the story of how Unicorns came to be.

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Have you ever wondered why rain and the sun makes rainbows?  Well, here is why… by Manreet Kaur

There is a world above the world that we have now- it is a world on the clouds where everyone lives happily. The people there are human but they have wings on their backs which allow them to fly and bounce around on the clouds.   

There on the clouds is a palace where all the gods of the sky live. There two sisters, Goddesses, one named Aqua with her black hair and blue wings like the ocean, and the other sister named Shine who has long blond hair and beautiful wings that are gold and sparkle in the sun. Aqua is the goddess of the rain and Shine is the goddess of the sun. Aqua loves her older sister Shine and Shine loves Aqua just as much. The two sisters are different from the others sisters- whenever they are together they make colourful rainbows.  Both of them wished that they could stay together forever but unfortunately they couldn't.

One day the goddess of all the goddesses, the goddess of the whole sky, asked Shine to come to her room to have an important talk, The goddess ordered Shine to get married to the god of storms, Grey. Shine didn’t have the strength to say no, so she had no choice but to put aside her feelings and say yes .

Aqua was sitting on Shine’s bed as she walked in. Aqua stood up and asked “Why did the goddess ask you to go to her room?”  Tears rolled down Shine’s eyes and Aqua ran over to her looking worried and asked “What's wrong, what happened?” In between sobs Shine replied, “I’m getting married.”

“What?” cried Aqua in horror.  “Does that mean you're leaving the palace? Does that mean you are leaving me?”

“Yes” said Shine, crying harder than before.

On the day of Grey and Shine’s wedding everyone was so happy and busy getting ready that no one noticed how sad Aqua and Shine were. When the wedding was over Aqua and Shine hugged, trying not to cry, and Shine sat in the carriage with Grey and rode off into the clouds. After they were out of sight every one went to their houses and all the gods went into the palace. Aqua walked into her room and started crying, thinking about how she could stay in the palace without her older sister.

A few days later Shine came back to visit. Everyone in the kingdom went to the golden gates and Aqua stood at the very front of the crowd.  As soon as she saw her sister’s carriage she started jumping up and down in excitement.  Finally when the carriage was parked in front of the gates, Shine and Aqua hugged, making the most beautiful rainbow ever, with them standing in the middle of it.

So whenever Shine, the goddess of the sun  and Aqua, the goddess of rain, meet they make the most beautiful and colorful rainbows.

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Why the Grass is Green (and borrowing ideas in a ‘friendly’ way)- Hannah Perry-Purchas

There once lived a family called the Greens. The Greens had a small house at the very top of a hill. The hill was covered in long green grass. In the family there was Rachel Green, Monica Green, Ross Green, and their parents, Joey and Phoebe. Where they lived wasn't far from town. And their family lived nearby.

One day Rachel, Monica and Phoebe decided to go for a walk to see their Grandad, Chandler. They said goodbye to the others and started walking down the hill. As they got to the bottom of the hill, they stood on the blue grass. None of them knew why this grass was blue, but their grass was green. But they didn't think anything of it, that was just the way it is. When they got closer to Chandler’s house, the grass became green again.

When they got to their Grandad’s house they all sat down to have lunch. Then Monica finally asked the question that everyone wanted to know the answer to. “Why is the grass green?” She asked out loud.

“Well…” her Grandad began. “The first people that ever walked on the earth were called Adam Green and Steve Green. They were known as Adam and Steve. They had to decide how the world would look. What the colour of the sky was going to be, what colour fire would be and what colour the grass was. They decided that fire would be the ‘hot’ colours; red, orange and yellow. They didn’t know what colour the sky would be, so they went on to the grass. 

"But they also wanted to be remembered. So they decided to colour the grass after them. And they made the grass green. But as more and more people were brought onto the earth, they discovered the Blue family. They still hadn’t decided the colour of the sky, but the ‘Blue’ family said that they wanted to be remembered as well. So after years of arguing they said that blue could be the colour of the sky, and green could be the colour of the grass. And this rule would remain the same for all their ancestors. And that is why the grass is green. But sometimes, like in our village, ‘Blues’ decide to come down from the sky, so their grass is blue.”

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How Hawke’s Bay was formed..... James Heffernan

Once there was a time where the entire North Island was flat, with a straight coastline all the way from Cape Reinga to Wellington. The ground was covered in a blanket of grass blades, and the animals ran freely across the blank island. The ancestors of all New Zealand animals, Bat, Beetle and Kiwi, populated the island living off the fish from the coast.

But one day after a tremendous storm, Kiwi flew and caught a massive flounder with rainbow scales. She slowly carried it back to the shore, where Bat and Beetle waited. She fell exhausted to the ground as Bat used his sharpest claw to slice up the Rainbow Fish.

Kiwi squawked in disagreement as Bat dissected it. Beetle asked Kiwi why he was upset and Kiwi told them the fish was a miracle of life, and they should cherish it. Her hungry companions ignored her reasoning, and ate the flounder.

Sun rose in an orange haze that reflected through the ocean all the way to the shore like a path. Beetle, Bat and Kiwi woke to feel the ground rumbling beneath them. Beetle screeched and dug deep into the golden sand. A massive rainbow fin slowly emerged from the water. Eventually a rainbow fish the size of five hundred whales stared at Bat and Kiwi. The sky suddenly grew dark as the rainbow fish rose and blocked out the morning sun. Bravely, Bat asked the giant fish what it wanted. It answered, “I want my son back”. Kiwi immediately realised what had happened. She accused her companions then fled inland.

Giant Fish shouted and shook in rage.  Again the ground rumbled. In fear, Bat stood frozen  on the sand. The rainbow fish’s long tail began to swing left and right as it gathered momentum. Bat turned and ran as fast as he possibly could. Giant fish opened his jaw as the beach became too shallow to swim, and snapped, swallowing Bat and Beetle. Satisfied, it turned and swam away. Left in it’s trail was a massive bite mark, what is now the coast of the Hawke’s Bay region.

These are our Room 10 contestants for Food Technology's MasterChef competition

Here are some examples of our myth writing. Enjoy...

            How the Seven Continents Drifted Apart- Ali Gray

There was once a King named Asin who ruled Asia, the biggest continent on the planet.  He had six sons. His eldest one was Arthur, the second and third eldest Nathan and Seamus followed by Antar, Euro and the youngest Austra. One day their Father wanted to talk to them. He called them into the garden.

”As you all know I rule the seven continents, but ever since your Mother passed away I can’t handle them on my own.  So I have decided that you have reached the age of maturity for them to be handed over to you.

“ I have given you the continent that starts with the first letter of your name. Arthur, I have given you Africa, the second largest after mine. Nathan will have North America and Seamus you will have South America. Antar will have Antarctica.  Euro, I have chosen for you Europe and, Austra, it’s my pleasure to give you Australasia the last continent. I’m very proud of all of you and I’m sure you will accomplish great things”.

The years passed by. One day the king went to all of the continents to see his sons but none of  them were there doing their duties.  Later that same day the King was handed a letter. He opened it quickly, hoping it was from one of his six sons. It was from someone with the initials ‘AE’ telling him that if he wanted his sons back. He was going to have to come and see him at the highest mountain near the underworld. Unknown to him AE, the king’s brother, had been busy planning his escape from the underworld to get his revenge on being sent there as a child.

The King travelled as fast as he could to this destination where, hopefully, he would find his sons were unharmed.

He travelled up the mountain and finally reached the top to see a big blue chair facing the opposite way. An icy voice broke the cold dead silence, “I have been waiting for your appearance ……..brother.”

“Asama?   Is that really you? Where are my sons? “

“Oh they are fine, just a little tied up “

The King looked up, shocked to see his sons hanging from a thin rope over a pool filled with bubbling lava. It took a moment for the king to wake up from his living nightmare.

“Why have you done this?” demanded the king. His voice was weak after what he had just looked upon.

“I did it because you have  something that belongs to me”

“I don’t know what your talking about”.

“ Fine, say bye bye to your sons, Asin “

Asama dropped Asin son’s into the pool of lava.

“Since you killed my son’s I have nothing that can make me more sad”  

Asama smiled with joy.  “That’s the only thing I wanted from you, to make you unhappy like you did my whole life. Now you see how it feels.  You have always been cruel to me and I took away the things that matters to you the most”.

Asama ran back to the underworld and was never seen again.

Asin never was the same after his sons died.  The only way Asin could be happy is if he let go of his sons and their continents. As the continents drifted apart Asin became more happy because he knew it was for the best. Till this day the continents are still apart from each other.

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The Story of the Apple Tree- Georgia Thompson

A very long time ago a lonely planet circled its sun. It had water and plants but the Gods wouldn’t allow these to be eaten and the people were starving.

High above them lived Bob, the god of food. He wouldn't share any of his food with the humans.  But after all he had eaten his tummy couldn’t keep all the food in his stomach, and he needed to go the toilet so bad.  He went behind a cloud but something strange happened. A small apple seed dropped through the cloud and fell down to earth into the rich black soil.

Jeffery, who watered the plants everyday, saw the seed on the ground so he planted it and watched it grow.  As he watched the tiny seed became a big apple tree and as it sprouted it became covered in apples and leaves

Jeffrey couldn’t believe his eyes- the humans finally had food on their earth but they needed a way to get the apples off the tree because all the ladders were broken.

Then a man decided to sit under it to read his book.  Not long after an apple dropped on his head and became the first food for the humans to eat.  It was also the first time gravity appeared.
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How people and creatures were made- By Emily Watt

It used to be when there was only dirt, mud, water and the sun. There were no people or living creatures. One day the sun had gone in and the dark gloomy clouds rose above the land and it began to rain. But this wasn’t any normal rain. This rain was tan coloured and the drops were as big as grape fruit,

The rain landed like blobs and stayed like that for a few days.  Later, the water started to grow. It grew higher and wider until it was many feet tall. Suddenly the top of the raindrops started forming into a face, the  middle started forming into a body and the bottom started forming into legs and feet.

Suddenly, the people opened their eyes and looked around. It was quiet. One of them said “What am I?” Everyone looked at him and replied “We don’t Know.” A bright light shone up above in the sky and it came closer and closer to the people.

It reached the ground and everyone was staring at it. It was another human, but this time it was a god- a god of the land. His name was Elaminy. He was tall and had a big, white, bushy beard and a huge smile on his face. Elaminy walked up to a small hill and looked over all of the people. He opened his mouth and Yelled out “I AM YOUR GOD. I WAS THE ONE WHO CREATED YOU. YOU ARE HUMANS AND YOU WILL MAKE MORE HUMANS TO GO ALL AROUND THE WORLD”

Everyone cheered and began to make houses out of the resources that they had. As God Elaminy looked across everyone, he smiled and thought to himself, ‘I’ve done it. I have created humans.’
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How the grand canyon came to be - Peter Frankum

Many lives of man ago there was a god called Jonah. He was a huge god, over 2000 feet tall. His job was to landscape the earth and form it to make the hills and lakes. He walked from continent to continent using his power to make it cold or hot or tropical.  After many years of doing this though, he was tired and exhausted so he dropped off for a nap.

It was dark when Jonah woke.  Hearing noise from the west, he yelled “Who’s there?”

It went silent.  Then, out jumped a huge snake! It chased him over the continents.  Jonah became tired and sleepy but kept running. He looked behind to check if  the snake was still following him and tripped over what is known now as Lake Mead.  Face planting into the ground, ripping his skin from his face and scratching the bone from the outside of his eyeballs. he made a massive indent into the ground.  This is now called the grand canyon. Stunned, he lay there until the earth around him rose and made mountains before awaking.  He had major brain fractures and walked for miles, dragging his feet, before finding water. Walking into the ocean he fell to his knees before dying.

_________________________________________________________________________________    HOW THE FIRST RIVER WAS MADE - Megan Tait

Once there was a land with two enormous mountains, Ali and Autumn. They were madly in love and together they ruled the land. All of the humans looked up to them like they were gods.

They had been together for as long as anyone could remember until one day Ali’s stepmother Edna came to visit. She was very excited to visit Ali as she had not seen her in a long time. Ali invited her to stay with them as long as she wanted because they had a lot to catch up on. It was getting late so they all decided to go to sleep.

In the morning when Ali woke up she could hear someone crying. She looked around but couldn't see anyone but out of the corner of her eyes she caught a glimpse of her stepmothers shiny silver scarf. She went to see what was wrong. Edna explained everything to her, how her husband was leaving her and how she thought that she would never be happy again.

When Ali left Edna said to herself that if she couldn't be happy then no one could. She went back to where everyone was having lunch and while everyone was eating she couldn’t stop staring at Ali and Autumn because they were so happy, and she hated happy people.

That night when everyone was asleep Edna started working on a plan. She decided that she would seperate Ali and Autumn so that they couldn’t be happy anymore. She went over to Ali and started to pull on her arm. It was hard work and she didn’t get very far, but she kept pulling and eventually she got them far enough away from each other so that they couldn’t see each other anymore.

When they woke up they realised something was different.  Looking around they couldn’t see each other anymore. Autumn screamed and started to panic. What if something bad had happened to Ali?  Ali was really sad because she had been with Autumn for her whole life and she couldn’t even think about what it would be like to live without him.

She started to cry. She cried all day and all night. She cried for a month and then a year and over time all of her tears turned into stream and as she cried more and more the stream started to turn into a river that that flowed all the way to the coast and out to sea.  

She cried for centuries and when the people got sick of all the water that kept flooding their houses they went to Edna and begged her to put them back together. Edna was sick of the crying as well because it was stopping her from sleeping so that night she went back to Ali and pulled her backed to Autumn.

It was really quiet in the morning when everyone woke up. This was unusual for the villages so they looked around to see why, and then they saw Ali and Autumn back together and happy again.

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How the Sun Came to Be - Brody Lucas

It was dark as always, and there sat Yi in a damp and gloomy cave. He was a fire breathing acid farting butterfly. He thought to himself, ‘What if there was a way that I could create a form of light, something that would provide me with light?’  Then came the big idea.  If this source of light was in the sky then everyone could enjoy it. He started to deliberate, and after a while he remembered  that he could breathe fire.

What Yi did next was remarkable.  He flew high into the sky and put all his might and power into breathing one huge ball of fire. Ferocious flames burst out of his mouth and rocketed right out of the earths atmosphere.  The ball went further and further, all the way into space, and then it stopped so Yi went back into his cave. Yi’s stomach hit the ground for a second when he noticed the bright ray of light dazzling through the cave’s holes. He stepped out and saw the rays of the fire ball glaring down onto him.

He stood staring at his creation, which he decided to call the sun. He named it this as it represented a bright future for the earth.

Without the legendary actions of Yi you would not be reading this story today, and it is safe to say that Yi will never be forgotten.   
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    Why the sky is blue- Anna Young.

Many years ago a little girl was born. Blue was no ordinary child, because she had blue hair. She never liked to see people upset or sad so she would always try to put a smile on their faces. One day she was told by her mother that she had powers,as she was able to control the weather. She could also control other peoples feelings too.  

As she grew up people were mean to her so she became more and more sad, and that caused the weather to always be stormy and cold, until one day the town realised that the weather depended on her mood. Everyone decided to be nicer to her. She started to be happier and the days became warmer and sunnier. She loved her life and never wanted to lose what she had.

Then one day, she died. However, she died a very happy death. As her spirits rose up and out of her, the blueness of her hair went with her spirits. And even today if the sun is out, the sky will be blue but if Blue is upset, the sky will be grey and sometimes she will cry, and that means it will rain.

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I hope you enjoyed these examples of the students' myth writing. There are many more and they will be published shortly.

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What some teachers get to do...!

Just in case no-one looks familiar, this is not my class, Room 10! I had the pleasure of leading a group of Year 7 students from my EOTC elective class to Sunrise Hut last week.  Although the day was fine we encountered snowfall on the way up to the hut and the last third of the tramp was through fresh snow.  The kids were great and for many this was their first experience of tramping, so having snow added to the occasion.

Technology PicCollages for groups GG (wood and plastics) and HH (food)

We used Actively Learn to summarise stories. Students had to identify key parts of the text and draw these into frames, similar to a graphic novel but without text.

In class we have been reading stories on Actively Learn. Mr. Birnie assigned me a story called The Elephants Nose. Here is my drawing and summary.

In the beginning, elephants had short, stubbed noses. One time, the elephant went over to the crocodiles lake and was drinking from it. The crocodile was furious, so he went over and grabbed the elephants short nose and tugged. He tugged and tugged and tugged. By the end, the elephant's nose extended. It was a long trunk, crocodile just pulled it's nose and made it longer. That is how the elephant got it's long nose, its trunk.             Autumn

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This is a story about The Elephant's Nose, and we had to draw a picture summery on our reading. Each frame of the picture shows an important part of the story

1.   how the elephants nose was short
2.   he was off for a drink of water from the dried up pond and a crocodile was there and the elephant said go away go to your pond but he refused
3.   so they had a fight and the crocodile
4.   the crocodile made the elephants nose longer by biting the end of it
5.   one day a toad was on its back getting across the river also the crocodile was shaking the toad off its back. because he was getting tired of taking the toad across the river
6.    they came across the elephant and got mad and squirted the crocodile and toad with lots of mud and they left the elephant alone from then.       Jack
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I read a story called the lottery by Shirley Jackson and it was about a small village that had an old tradition called 'the lottery'. Some of the other villages around had stopped the tradition but this village kept on going. All the families met in the village center and they were called out one by one to take a sheet of paper out of a black box. All of the sheets of paper were blank except for one, which had a huge dot on it. The person with the dot on their paper got stoned to death.  It's not explained why this happened.

1. A small village in the mountains

2. Mr summers waits on the stage for everyone to collect their paper
3. Tessie Hutchinson gets the black dot paper
4. The kids go to get their stones
5. Tessie gets scared and cries
6. the villages surround her and she is shouting that its not right
7. Old man Warner and the other villagers walk up to kill her
8. Tessie is dead on the ground with stones around while she is holding her sheet........

Daniel

Room 10 drum assessments- listen at your peril!!

Kid President's ideas on how to change the world!! Anybody out there listening?

He has many interesting Youtube clips-  search under 'kid president' or 'soulpancake'

Mufti Day- Getting into the 'swing of things' to celebrate the school's 40th Anniversary. Groovy, brother.

Grace, Zane and Maddy- almost unrecognisable!

Media Studies group HH Scary Movie by Georgia, Holly & Ali

                                              Click here to watch a scary movie!!!!

Tech group HH Scary Movie, by Paula, Emily, Megan & Hannah

                                        Click here to watch the most frightening th... aaghhh!!     

Paper Crane animation- Sadako and the Thousand Cranes

On Wednesday to mark an historic, change-making event in history we listened to the story of Sadako Sasaki.  She was born in Hiroshima two years before the atomic bomb was dropped on her city on 6th August, 1945, in an attempt by the Americans to end the war.  Although she and her family survived without any apparent injury, 12 years later she developed leukemia from the bomb's radiation.  She began making paper cranes, hoping to fold 1000 of these and get her wish - to be healthy again - granted.  She made 644 before dying.  Her classmates then made the rest. There is a statue of Sadako in the Hiroshima Peace Park and every year on August 6th, she and all the other victims are remembered.

ChangeMakers- moments that define history and who we are

Our Term 3 Inquiry topic is 'Change Makers- If not me, then who?

An inspirational leader and speaker, Martin Luther King Jr altered forever the hopes and dreams of a nation,

In New Zealand, we have had our own Change Makers, from the historically very well-known such as
Kate Sheppard, Sir Ernest Rutherford, and Sir Edmund Hillary to our civil rights leaders such as Dame Whina Cooper.  Click here for a short commentary from Witi Ihimaera.

Student examples of Persuasive Writing.

We are learning how to introduce a point of view and structure an argument around it to persuade others. These are some examples, on a variety of topics.

Imagine that you wake up in the morning and you have to go to school. You put on the same uniform that you were wearing yesterday. You open the door to your class  and you see  people all around you all wearing the same exact outfit as you. That is what everyday is in a school that has uniforms.

Many kids in public schools are against having uniforms in school. I also agree because I think that uniforms, don’t allow you to express yourself as freely as you want, and it is boring wearing them over and over again.

Normally when you go home from school you sit down and do your homework. Not for kids that have uniforms! They have to go home, get changed, hand there dirty uniform to their parents, so that they can wash it and then do their homework. This takes time away from your homework.

One reason why we shouldn’t have uniforms is because they are annoying for both the children that have to wear them and their parents. Everyday when you get home your parents have to wash them so that you can wear a clean uniform the next day. Your mum or dad might have better things to do than wash your clothes every afternoon. Also your parents have to purchase your uniforms. Usually  the uniforms aren’t cheap, but your parents  have to buy them anyway  even if you are going to leave the school in one year.  On top of that  you have other clothes that you could wear. When you are wearing the same dirty clothes over and over again you have nice clean clothes in your closet that you can’t wear to school. All of those clothes that you just got for christmas and your  birthday you can not wear to school because your school has  uniforms.

This is why we should not have uniform. First of all they cost so much, when you can spend that money on more useful things.

So that is why I think we should not have uniforms. Uniforms don’t allow students to express themselves and they are boring. All of these are reasons why I strongly believe that school shouldn’t require students to wear uniforms. I really think that uniforms will just cause more problems for student and their parents. So would you want your school to have uniforms or not?  

Your Sincerely,

Manreet Kaur
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We should be allowed to bring scooters to school.

I think the rule telling us not to bring scooters to school is unnecessary because for many people that is their only form of transport other than walking. Most parents have to go to work fairly early, leaving their children to find their own way to school whether it be by walking, bus, bike or by a random stranger in a car offering candy, but because of this ‘no scooters’ rule for some people the choices are limited. Most kids at the age of 7-10 will only get a scooter to show it off at school, so when they find out you can’t bring scooters to school how do you think they feel?

Without scooters many kids are left having to walk a great distance to school that they could cover in less than half the time it would have taken to walk. If the teacher hates it so much because kids keep turning up late then why not let them scooter to school so that they might get there earlier? 

Also scootering can be great exercise for kids as it works the leg muscles for every second you are standing on the scooter and every time you push.

Many Parents concern themselves that their child is going to have a major injury that could cost them their life.  This is not the case should the Parent or School Principal make the rule that you must wear protective gear in order to keep safe. The reason most children get injured is because they do not feel that they need to wear any protective gear.

I hope that you can see where i’m getting at with this as I believe that this rule is completely unnecessary. Thank you for listening.

Zac.D

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    It starts with beards and do you know where it will  end? We will have all our precious freedoms stripped from  us. We can’t do one damn thing without someone reporting us to someone else.

     Beards are a remnant of a better time when you went to school and you knew you were in for a good time.We don’t have to take it.We CAN say enough ,enough injustice. When you are old and grey you can look back on this day and say we grew a  beard. A beard for New Zealand, the best country there ever was and ever will be.ٞ

     But we can’t be the best we can be without beards. In this day and age we are in a changing environment where individualism is everything and yet schools are holding us back from expressing ourselves, they are trying to merge us to all be the same clones of what they want not who WE are. I remember in kindergarten they told us we could be whatever we wanted, be different, be unique and whoever you really are.

    But not according to  schools. Schools are holding us back. So I say let it grow, let that big bad beard hang from your  chin.

Mitchell

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Dear Mr Ellis
We would like to have healthy food in the canteen for lunches

Over the past 6 terms, I have noticed that the food we are being sold in the canteen at lunchtimes are not very healthy.

I have given this matter a lot of thought and have spoken to several classmates and even Mr Ward. We would like to advise you of the following points:-

1. There would be less people that would be fat at school

2. The queue in the lunchtime area would be less as people would not have to eat as 
much

3. There would be less fat/oil/greasy food in the children

4. Children would be healthier, the sports teams would be better and the school would   do well in Super 6 competitions

5. If we ate healthy, one day we may (very slightly may) be able to beat Mr Ward at  
some sort of sport

6. There would be less people going to the dentist as there would be less sugar in 
what we eat

7. Children would not get sick very often as the healthy food would keep them from  
getting sick

In summary, I have thought of an alternative diet plan that the children of our school should be served and would like to advise you of what I have currently thought of for food that could be served at lunchtimes and that are healthy.

Cold foods:- Sandwiches made with granary or brown bread with lettuce, tomatoes with ham, various fruits, corn, carrot sticks, bean salads

Hot foods :- Poached egg on toast, oven chips cooked without fat, jacket potatoes with cheese.

Please may I come and speak with you to see if any of my ideas could be followed through and make us healthier.

From Dylan