A summer day to remember! 🌤

It was a Saturday Morning and I was awoken by the devastatingly bright light shining from the sun
shining into my face. If the sun hadn't woken me up I would've still been dead asleep by midday.
But as I woke up, the rest of the household was also awake. I clicked and remembered that it was
Saturday which meant we were getting ready to head off to a beach trip my whole extended family
had planned. I was certainly happy about what was in stock for that day since the past weeks had
been sizzling and so hot. Going to the beach was perfect.

Quickly but carefully I packed my bags with a couple of change and toiletries making sure I had
everything I needed in my bag. Sunscreen was the one thing I certainly needed and was a must on
my list. I didn't want to burn in the sun.

As soon as everyone finished packing their things we all headed into the car ready for a long trip
to Brown's Bay which is in North Shore. It takes about an hour and a half to make it there. As we drove
we stopped at the Bakery to have breakfast. Bakery isn't really a breakfast we are known for
eating everyday, it just seemed that it was a faster access to a breakfast that would keep us full for
quite a long ride.

For me the long ride was definitely not one of my favourite rides. It was long and with the weather
being really hot, it didn't make anything better especially with all our bags packed into the car barely
giving us space to move our arms! Although there would've been no other way we could make it to the
beach where the water could cool us down. Like they say, "Difficult roads can lead to a beautiful
destination" in this case the beautiful destination is the beach.

Finally as we made it to the beach, we took the bags out of the car and carried them over to our
family who had already made it there before us. We laid out our mats and put out chairs and put out
canopies which became very useful during the day. My dad and my uncles went straight on with
cooking the BBQ which everyone was keen about. The adults all prepared food and it smelt delicious.
When the adults finished preparing food and the children got bored of playing in the sand, our family
gathered together and had a feast. But first, we said our food grace in our language and ate the
scrumptious food.

As we finished eating, we waited a little while to digest our food before we swam. Swimming was fun
but I most definitely enjoyed spending time under the sun with my family and having time to interact
with them.

Auckland Zoo!

The sun's rays flashed into my eyes as I woke up. My dad and mum were purposely yelling at me to wake up. I was so confused… I got up and walked to my parents but as I walked I stumbled across the calendar and realised that it was Thursday which meant it was time for our family to go to the zoo.

Half asleep during the ride, my eyes finally caught a glimpse of destination and I was filled with excitement. Willing to explore the amazements of the zoo, I hopped out of the car and ran to the entrance of the zoo.

We purchased our entry tickets and received a guide map from the kind staff members. The Otter Enclosure was the first area we decided to gaze and admire the otters at the enclosure. When we looked into the enclosure, we found otters sleeping beside the rivers. In my opinion I thought that the otters were unbearably cute for their own good.

Our next stop was the sumatran tiger enclosure. The enclosure was surrounded by sound-proof glass that was very strong so that we don't draw too much attention to the sumatran tigers. When we went there, we could only see two tigers and unfortunately they were both taking a nap. The tigers were really big sumatran tigers that were imported from Indonesia so  I thought that it was pretty interesting to know.

As time exceeded, we walked to an enclosure that was filled with different types of birds especially native birds such as, pukekos, fantails, kererus, parakeets, banded-rails, bell birds, brown kiwis, grey teal, kukupu, moreporks, dotterels, tuis, shags and takahes. The birds whistled and tweeted their way around the enclosure. The enclosure was filled with trees that were the bird's natural habitat. I thought that it was splendid to look at because of the amazing colours of the different birds.

This was probably my least favourite part of the day but we went past some reptiles. There were plenty of skinks and geckos but there were also tuataras, bearded dragons, special snakes (called scheltopusik), toitures and even alligators. Although they were kind of fascinating I still found it terrifying to look at especially the alligators.

Besides where the reptiles were, there was the invertebrates. Which was creatures like spiders, wetas and native spiders. The spider that I freaked out most about was adean-stripe knee tarantula. I had never seen a tarantula so big and I don't like spiders in general so I got pretty scared.

Subsequently it was time to see another one of the cat species. We stumbled across where the leopards were. Thankfully they were awake and we were able to take some great photos. They were really big and had different black spots on this over their bright yellow with an orange tinge coat.

Following that we went to where the elephants were because a special elephant entertainment or show was on at the time we went there. There were a couple of zoo staff members there feeding the elephants while another zoo staff member talked us through what was happening. The elephants had names and one was named, Angie and one was Belma.

When the show had ended, we were super hungry and there was conveniently stores next to us so we made the decision of buying food for us to devour. My sister and I ordered $4 chips to share between the two of us. We waited at the benches for our food, it took quite a long time but it was worth the wait because when it arrived my sister and I feasted on it and it was delicious.  

It was almost time to go but we stopped to look at the zebras and giraffes. This was probably my favourite because the giraffes were so tall and I think that I like the colour of giraffes and their patterns.

It was finally time to go home and our family was all so exhausted from such a fun day at the Auckland Zoo.

Event Cinemas!

I was lying on my bed gazing at videos on YouTube, so close to falling asleep despite it being my 10th time sleeping that day.

It was such a dull and plain Friday evening and we were filled with an unexplainable amount of boredom. No matter how many times I tried, there still seemed to be nothing to do that day. However my fabulous parents decided that we should go to the movies. I was excited but the fact that I was still in bed and already relaxed it made me have the intention of not getting up to get ready but my parents did have that intention so obviously I had to get up.

After slowly getting changed into more fitting clothes, I walked step by step to the Lounge to see what the hassle was about between my siblings and my parents. They were talking about what movie to watch. I was standing there thinking, Just pick a movie, it can't be that hard! I walked to the computer where they were checking the online website of the movie cinema and surprisingly making the decision about which movie to watch turned out to be more of a challenge but eventually, my mum, sister, brother and I made the final decision to watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and for my dad and my other brother to watch the Fate of The Furious.

We had to make good use of every second of the day because no time to waste so we instantly left the house and got into our car. As we were driving to the Movies we picked up our brother from the Auckland University as it wasn't too far from the Cinemas. The amount of cars and people in the city was uncanny, there were so many cars driving. So my dad dropped us off on the side of the road while the cars were barely progressing in the flow of the speed. We crossed the road and I was running thinking, "I'm dead" several times in my head. I was terrified...

Meanwhile my Dad was finding a space for our car to be parked in, so my mum, brothers and I went into the Movie building to buy the tickets and food, in my opinion the greatest part about the movies. We bought 4 large popcorn buckets to share between the six of us and six large drinks. My parents could probably tell by the look of our faces that we were screaming, "MOOORREE" in our heads but it would never happen. When we were all set to watch the movie we headed off to the cinema full of excitement.

The movie we were watching was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and it was hilarious and a very adventurous movie. I loved the movie and the plot. I really do recommend it for families and kids over 10 years of age. The movie was so cool I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. My favourite character from the movie was probably Baby Groot because he was adorable.

When the movie finished and we left the Cinemas our parents asked us if we wanted to eat Burger King. We answered sounding innocent saying, "Well yeah, if you want" but inside we were dying to eat Burger King and besides our mum was too tired to cook something for us. I ate a BK chicken burger with Medium Fries and Medium Coke. I was so satisfied with what I ate. When we all finished eating we drove back home, all feeling tired as if we went around the world without getting any sleep.  

Despite the fact that the aftermath was my whole family being extremely exhausted, I had an awesome day at the Movies and I am glad that I did at least one fun thing in the holidays.
WALHT: recall my day at the Movies.

I can't wait to work on my new wood project!

It was a really cold and windy day when the Year 7 students from Room 8 went to Mr. Nair's class.

Feeling very anxious and nervous I walked into the room and immediately I could smell wood and craftworks. The room was filled with tables that looked as if they were splattered with paint. I chose to sit at the back with my loyal friend, Mana.

Our teacher's name is Mr. Nair and he kindly introduced himself and went straight to asking us questions about Technology and how it impacts on our lives. It was nerve-wracking for me and I felt only a tiny bit of confidence. The first question he asked was, "What is Technology?" Everyone was stone-faced and very quiet. We answered and said the Technology involves Laptops, Computers, and Electricity.

Afterward, we started a discussion about what we were going to work on for the next 9 weeks of Technicraft. Mr. Nair said that we were going to make wood cartoon characters of our choice but we will be adding screws to it so that it is able to move around. I was so excited and couldn't think about which cartoon character to choose, there were so many characters in my head, Batman, Sponge Bob, Wonder Woman and so much more.

Finally, it was time to go back to school. I enjoyed my time at Technicraft and I am really looking forward to my next Materials Tech.

WALHT: recall my day at Technicraft ensuring I add detail to my main ideas and use a range of topic and sophisticated vocabulary to maintain audience interest.

Do you know anything about solids, liquids and gases?

It was a clear and sunny day when Room 8 went to Pakuranga Intermediate to attend our weekly classes. As usual the Year 7's took Science class with our clever and intelligent teacher, Miss Gawith.

To start of the lesson, Miss Gawith gave us a worksheet to test our science knowledge. The questions that were on the sheet were related to solids, liquids and gases. To answer some of the questions, we needed to know about evaporation and condensation.

After we finished the test, we were given chromebooks to participate in activity websites and test our knowledge of science interactively. We played quiz games that asked questions about how a solid turns to a liquid and how a liquid turns to a gas. I enjoyed the games and so did the rest of the class.

Sadly, it was time to leave. I had a ton of fun at tech and I hope that we learn more about solid, liquids and gases next week.

WAHLT: recall my day at Technicraft.

Mmm, salted caramel flavoured ice cream is delicious!

Brainstorm:

Have you ever celebrated your uncle's birthday with him?

On November the 13th my parents, siblings and I went to my aunt's house to celebrate my uncle's 45th birthday. We went there in my mum's car. It was a sunny and cloudy day and I was really excited to celebrate my uncle's birthday with my family.

When we got there, I said Hello to everyone and then I went to the garage to help my aunty. My aunty was using her garage as a school for my cousin's young toddlers. My aunty and my cousins replaced the floor with carpet and painted the walls with words and letters. I helped her place all the children's book on a bookshelf. My sister arranged the tables with colourful chairs around it. The place looked better after we cleaned it up.

When we finished cleaning up , we had chicken drumsticks, fried rice, sweet and sour, taro  for dinner and some cold refreshing Pepsi to quench our thirst. The food was delicious and my favourite part of the meal was the soft tender chicken drumsticks.

After we we have digested our food, I helped my sister and my cousin wash the dishes. It was very boring and hard to do because I was really nervous about dropping the dishes as they were very slippery.

Later on, when we finished washing the dishes, we went to the living room to watch  the slideshows of old family photos and video clips. While we were watching the slideshows. I started reminiscing about the past.

Soon, it was time for my uncle to blow out his birthday candles and serve the dessert. Then we sang the "Happy Birthday" happily and said, "Hip Hip Hooray!" Then we had dessert. My sister and I served the ice cream to the adults first and then the children. We had, salted caramel, strawberry ripple, cappuccino coffee and groovy gumdrops flavoured ice-cream. We also had some delicious carrot cake. Finally, when the adults were all served my sister and I could eat the ice cream. I had the salted caramel flavoured ice-cream and it was marvelous because it had a perfect ratio of sweetness and saltiness in the ice cream.

Eventually, we had to go home. I had an awesome day at my aunt's house. My favourite part was watching the old family slideshows because it gave us so many special memories.

Learning Intention: We are learning to understand and use descriptive language in our writing. 

Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I use appropriate adjectives to describe my uncle's 45th birthday. 

Mmm....that orange was so juicy!

On Sunday, my dad and I went for a walk around Panmure. The weather was cloudy and it 5 o'clock at night. We went for a walk so we could build up our fitness level and have some fresh air. 

First we walked on Benghazi Rd. It was full of different schools and houses. There was Sommerville special school and Tamaki Primary. 

Then we walked around the Dunkirk field. We walked past the deep blue ocean and it was very beautiful. I saw a fish that jumped out of the ocean. It was really cool! I also felt butterflies in my stomach because I did not want to fall in. 


Later on, we walked down Tripoli Rd and there were lots of cars and I tried not to breathe in the gas because I knew it was bad for me. I also saw some flowers and leaves and I couldn't stop looking at them. So my dad told me to pull up my socks and keep up the pace because it was getting dark. 

Finally we made it to Benghazi Rd where our car was. We stopped at my nana's house to say, "Hello!" I ate an orange and drank some cold, refreshing water to cool myself down. 

After a while, we went back home. I went straight to sleep because I was as tired as a sloth. I had a great time with my dad. My favourite part was looking at the flowers because they were so beautiful and colourful. 

Learning Intention: We are learning to understand and use descriptive language in our writing. 
Success Criteria: I know I can do this when I use similes and metaphors to describe the day I went for a walk with my dad in Panmure.