Storylines Festival: Authors

Juliette MacIver

Juliette MacIver is a author from Wellington, New Zealand who is a mother of four and a children's book author. Julliette writes children's picture books, but does not illustrate. When I researched Juliette properly, I noticed that she wrote the books, Marmaduke Duck and the Marmalade Jam, Marmaduke Duck and the Bernadette Bear and Marmaduke Duck on the Wide Blue Seas, the books that automatically pop into my mind when I think of picture books. 

Catherine Mayo

Catherine Mayo was born and living in Auckland. Cath studied at Auckland University studying history and philosophy. She was born in Catholic Maternity Hospital in Auckland and was named after St Catherine. Her writing inspration was from Barbara Leonie Picard's retelling of The Odyssey. 

Paula Green

Paula Green lives in West Auckland with her partner, artist Michael Hight, her two daughters and their pets, three cats and two springer spaniels. She regularly visits schools from year 0-13 through the New Zealand Book Council. She also privately runs NZ Poetry Box which is a blog for students, parents and teachers from year 0-8. When she is not writing, she loves walking, biking, swimming, boogie boarding, reading, cookng, watching movies, listening to music and visiting new places.

Jill MacGregor

Jill MacGregor was born in Dunedin but currently lives in Kapiti Coast, home of Kapiti ice-creams. She spent two years teaching in Tonga and since then, she travelled around the Pacific experiencing the village life. Most of her school journals about the Pacific are based on her travels and experiences. 

After my experience last year, I think that the Storylines Festival will be interesting, funny and full of information.  I am looking forward to all the authors but the person I am looking forward to the most is Jill MacGregor. I would like to hear of her times in the islands and of her books that she wrote about the islands. Also Catherine Mayo, I would like to hear her. After research I found she is really into ancient Greece. 

Ki-O-Rahi Research Writing

Ki-O-Rahi is a traditional Maori game that is popular all over New Zealand and is also known in other countries, mainly Europe, France. The game was created in The Legend of Rahi and Patupaiarehe where Rahi’s wife, Patupaiarehe was abducted and taken far away. Rahi had to find her and when he did, Rahi’s tribe and the tribe that abducted Patupaiarehe created Ki-O-Rahi to play instead of going to war.  The game is still going and there are tournaments for adults and children.

There are seven players on each team. There are two types of Ki-O-Rahi, there is the tackle and the non-tackle. Professional adults play tackle in competitions but normally children just play non-tackle with tags. The game is played on a circular field with no outs, the purpose of the game is to hit the te tupu and to defend it by blocking the other team from hitting it with the ball. There are no positions, but there are rules, no more than five people can enter the circle around the te tupu.

If you didn’t know, there is a legend behind this game, it is a story from back in the olden days. The words used in Ki-O Rahi are connected to the story. The story is about Patupairehe stealing Rahi’s wife Tiarakurapakiwai, then Rahi trys to save her. As soon as Rahi rescued his wife, they decided to make peace and they made up the game Ki-O-Rahi. Pou represents the 7 stars of Matariki. Te Tupu represents the rock where Rahi was trapped, Ara represents the pathway of silver ferns.

Weekly Quiz Article - Robin Williams

Robin Williams was an actor, film producer and comedian loved by millions. He was born on 21 July 1951 and sadly died recently on August 11 2014. He starred in many films, my favourites being R.V and Good Morning Vietnam. The stand up comedian was 63 years of age when he died and he was married to his third wife, Susan Schneider. Susan and Robin meet in 2009 while Robin was recovering from his heart surgery and married in 2011.

Williams had three children.  Two of them, Zelda and Cody were to Robin's second wife, Marsha Garces and the oldest Zachary Williams was son to Robin's first wife, Valerie Velardi.  The whole world was very sad at his death but also celebrated his happy and funny life.

Astria Countdown to Impact Week 2 Day 1

This morning, we started the Astria Countdown to Impact Game that we started last week Monday at Extension again. We started again because last week's version had bugs attached so they got rid of the bugs so we could actually finish the game. I was glad to start again because after a few practices, I finally understood the game properly. It was really good but some parts, I found confusing and didn't realize what the better thing to do was until I had completed it, incorrectly.

After only one session, I have almost completed it. If you read my older post from last week Monday, you will see the objective of the game and some more details about it, here is some main points of the game. You are chosen to be the Alpha Leader and have to save the planet, Astria from a Asteroid that is getting closer and closer to the planet. There are three solutions to saving the planet and you have to discover different information and figure out what solution is the most credible and which solution is the right one that will save Astria and everyone in it from annihilation. Once you have researched everything, you present yourself and your information to the city council, but I only have 99 days to start with and they get lower and lower the longer you take. At the end of today I have only 39 days left.

Today, I got up to the part where I have already been to the council and they have agreed with me that the solution that I picked was the right one. They gave me some money to finish upgrading the spaceship so Aoen, my helper can help me fire it toward the Asteroid. I was upgrading my spaceship when everything started to fail, I couldn't click on anything only the back button. It seemed like a sign to put it away and leave for the next day, even though I had only been on for 30 minutes. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to finish it and save Astria and finish the awesome game INGAME created.

Algebra Week 4 Possum Poles

Possum Poles

1.  

a) Click Here to view the tables

b) Tables

c) Tables

2.

a) Tables

b) Priya

c) 7 minutes. He will get to 20m at 7min because Priya climbs another 7m and lands at 21m.

Kahurangi Kapa Haka/Dance Group Performance

Earlier this week, some performers came from a company in Hastings, Wellington called Kahurangi Maori Dance Group came to our school to perform for us. The Company specialises in Kapa Haka and they travel all over the world, performing and teaching people about the Maori Culture. There were five people who came, Jordan, Lucky, Aroha, Hera and Zoe.

Our class went in the middle block with all the other intermediate classes and some other Yr 5 classes. The show started with Zoe talking about the Maori beginning before the rest of them came out, danced and sang with their powerful voices. Not only did they have great formation and actions, their facial expressions really did top off the dance. There were smiles, pukana and side glances from all of the dancers, which was really good.

After the first dance, they all introduced themselves and talked about Taonga and what a Taonga is to them. Then they went down the line, telling us what a Taonga is to them. Jordan started off with, “A Taonga to me would be….. Food!” and Lucky ended with, “A Taonga to be would have to be this necklace,” and held up a greenstone from around his neck.

I enjoyed the show but that wasn’t all, all of the Senior Kapa Haka students got to workshop with the Kahurangi people where we learnt I simple song with the poi, how to stand properly and we even had a go at Titi Torea which are the double short sticks. Even though, we were pretty good, it was nothing compared to their precision and accuracy during the performance.

The show and workshop were great and I enjoyed both of them. I think the thing that made it GREAT was their jokes, they were awesome performers and they were also very humorous. The main comedian was Aroha and after the introduction, he talked the most, he introduced most things and explained Maori tradition. I hope the group could maybe come back some time and teach us more about the Maori culture and their traditions.

Diving Writing

She climbed up the ladder to the platform before looking down, the water was so still, it was like glass. Looking at the crowd, they were all so still watching her as she turned around. Her feet were on the edge of the springboard. She took a deep breath in, and out. The diver leaped into the air to make her fall longer before falling towards the blue water. Twisting and somersaulting, she finally emerged into the water with precision.

Astria Countdown to Impact

This morning in Extension, we had the chance to play a game made by Stephen Knightly from INGAME. The game is called Astria Countdown to Impact and the objective of the game is to save Astria from an Asteroid which will destroy the planet and everyone living on it. You are selected to be the Alpha Leader and you have to find out information then use the information that you get to destroy the Asteriod and save the planet.

We got to work in partners because I think and they agree that we work better together. You have 99 days to start with and the days get lower and lower so it is sort of a time trial too. At the end of our time today, we had 72 days left. We found lots of clues to the solution and lots of information. When you find information, you get credits and you use the credits to upgrade your spaceship which you will use to destroy the asteriod when the time comes.

I really enjoyed playing it and I would recommend it to others because it is challenging but fun at the same time. It is not like most games when you click on a button, it does it itself, you have to do things your way which I think is really cool. More posts will come this week when we play more of it so you can find out how we are going saving the planet!

Hope, Annliz, Ana Valerie Adams Movie

This is a movie that I made with Annliz, Hope. It is a movie about the shot-put champion, Valerie Adams. I hope you enjoy it.

Netball Tournament

The whistle blew and the game began. I was center and everyone was calling my name, “Ana, Pass the ball, I’m open!” I found someone who was open and threw them the ball. She leaped into the air and grabbed the ball. Our team was very focused and before long, the ball had been threw up into the air on down through the hoop. We had the first goal of the game which was great because after that, our team repeated that over and over again until the end of the game. Our final score for our first game of the day was….. 23-0 to Pt England!!

We took that game as a practise because it was so easy. Our coach told us that the next games will probably be nothing like that so we would have to use all the skills we had to win as many games as we could. The second game was an easy win as well, we won 12-0 and that gave us the energy to play our hardest in the following game. We didn’t know then, but the team that we played against were the undefeated team until the finals and they actually came second so losing 8-6 was a very good achievement for us.

One more game was played before the semi final where we were playing against Baradene. We lost that game so the placing that we were playing for was 3rd and 4th. Baradene was playing for 1st and 2nd in the final against Bailey Road School team 1 and we were playing against Bailey Road School team 2. Our team had a tiring and fun day but we managed to come home with 4th place. Even though I was very tired at the end of the day, I had a great day and hopefully we can compete again next year.

Ki-O-Rahi Complex Sentences and Paragraph

Sentences:

1. The Player accelerated around the centre, threw the ball and hit Te Tupu with skill.

2. The player hit te tupu with strength

3. The Player sprinted around before diving towards the Pawero, she had hit Te Tupu.

Paragraph: The shrill of the whistle blew and the player kicked the ball. She manouvered around the cones, hitting each one and she went, someone was calling her name so she threw a powerful pass toward them. The Player sprinted around before diving towards the Pawero, she had hit Te Tupu.  

Weekly Quiz Article - Usain Bolt

Usain Bolt is an Olympic Sprinter from Jamaica who is mostly known as the fasted person in the world. He is the first man to hold both the 100 metres and 200 metres world records since fully automatic time measurements became the law in 1977. He has won awards like Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year, BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year, Best International Athlete ESPY Award, Best Track and Field Athlete ESPY Award during his sports courier.

Usain St. Leo Bolt is his full name, he was born in Sherwood Content, Jamaica on August 21 1986. The 27 year old is brother to Sadiki and Sherine Bolt, when he was younger, his parents, Wellesley and Jennifer Bolt owned the local grocery store. Usain spent most of his time playing cricket and football in the street with his brother. He started sprinting in Primary and went on from there to where he is now.

Weekly Quiz Article - Stan Walker

Stan Walker is a recording artist, actor and in 2013, a judge on X Factor NZ. Stan Walker won Australian Idol in 2009 where he started his music career. Later on, he signed a contract with Sony Music Australia.

Stan is an Australian-New Zealander and he grew up in Melbourne, Australia. He around the world and in one of his concerts, he opened for Beyonce and got to meet her! Since Australian Idol, he has won five music awards.

Diving

The diver was balanced on the edge of the platform, her toes were on the very edge of the springboard.

He looked down at the water as still as glass while walking up to the platform when he steadily balanced.

The crowd was quiet with anticipation and the judges were waiting, the diver was finding it hard to balance.

She walked up to the edge of the platform, focused, ready to concentrate and balanced