For week 9 of term 4 the year 8’s went on a 5 day Dunedin camp. We stayed in the scout camp just out of central Dunedin. We had opportunities to do a range of different things like a wild life cruise, seeing the albatross colony and going to the museum and butterfly sanctuary.

Mr Redmond drove our van group in which I had 3 of my friends, ( Daisy, Tui and Mali). We stayed with our van group the whole time and did all our activities with them. My favourite activities was the wildlife cruise. We went on a small boat and made our way around the harbor. We saw a whole lot of cool animals like sea lions, Maui dolphins, albatross and shags. I felt a little sea sick but I still learnt new things and had fun.

I was in a cabin with Evie, Kelsi and Paige. We had lots of fun exploring the camp and hanging in our cabins. Me, Daisy and Tui went to the swimming hole. It was cold but really fun although we only went for a quick dip.

Overall I really enjoyed the camp and thought is was a great learning opportunities for us. I used the rise values resilience because even when I found it hard I still bounced back and gave it another go.

This week was the last week of term. Every matariki we have a school disco to help fund raise for the year 8 formal. There seniors can help out at the junior and middle school discos.

This week I was mostly doing disco preparing like sorting lollies and coloring and stringing stars. On Wednesday we had the actual disco and it was really fun. I was helping sell glow sticks for half of the junior disco (year 0-3) but I ended up mostly fixing kids light up battens.  At the middle school disco ( year 4-6) I helped sell food. It was really busy and intense.

This week something I found hard was making kids dance because it turns out kids are ‘too old’ and ‘too cool’ to dance. Overall I really enjoyed this week.

This year we have started a new math program in our school curriculum called Oxford Math. It has involved doing pretests and post tests before and after every topic.

We have been working on converting fractions into percentages and decimals using the old school division way. Last term we covered and worked on the topics prime numbers and prime factorization, whole numbers and highest common factors and how to find the  factors of a number. We also learned about polygons, circles and the different types of surveys.

This new program is called Oxford Math. We have had to do pretests and post tests before and after every topic to see how far you’ve come after learning about it. I like doing the post tests because they tell me how much I know about that topic and if it’s one of my stronger areas or not. Our tests are set by Mr Redmond to see what level we are. The levels are below, on and above. We have books we work in that have problems and questions inside for us to answer. Sometimes we use our exercise books so Mr Redmond can teach us different ways of doing problem solving.

I like this program because it is more structured and it tells me how well I am doing. Overall I think it works with the way I learn but it is also a step up from last year.

For action stations we have been making friendship bracelets. We learnt how to do the four knot and interrupted it in all the bracelets.  Each week we learnt a new bracelet type. My favourite was the Chevron one even though it drove me insane. The other bracelets we did were called the Spiral ladder and the line pattern. I found it easy but the Chevron was definitely the hardest. I showered resilience because I didn’t give up even though it was hard.

For literacy we were learning about timelines and how to set them out. We made them about something in war. I made sure that my timeline was easy to read.

For the past few weeks we have been working on a story. We set a goal for our writing as we progressed and made it longer. My goal was to work on my punctuation. I put all my speech marks in the right place and I used my capital letters and full stops in the right places.  An example is in the sentence “I love you” I muttered. I think I did well and basically got there. Next time will work on my paragraphs and when to change to the next one.  Here is my story.

A warning siren thudded in my ears, the panicked yells sound from people outside as they sprint to their homes. I ran to my room to find my partner Zoe running towards me.

“ We need to get to the attic” we both said in panicked voices.`

I grabbed what I could from the cupboard which turned out to be a can of expired baked beans and some smashed up oreos. The sirens got louder and louder as we shakily climbed the old borer-eaten ladder. I passed up the food and hoisted myself onto the dusty attic floor. It was not the nicest place to stay but it would have to do. We huddled on the filthy mattress, holding each other’s sweaty hands. 

“Hopefully the water doesn’t get too high.” Zoe said quietly.   

An hour goes by of talking. I can start to hear the water sloshing around the walls below us. I could feel the cold air coming from the cracks on the floor. If the water rose any further we would probably have to swim to the roof. I wonder when….

“Xanthe” Zoe shook me fiercely. 

“Wake up! The waters got dangerously high, we need to get to the roof.” She said panicked.

The mattress was now damp and cold. The water must have got in.

We heaved open the heavy trap door to find muddy, grassy water filling our drenched house. I reached out to hug her, just in case she or I didn’t make it. 

“I love you” I muttered. She just hugged me harder. If anything happened down there I would never forgive myself. 

I plunged into the ice cold water, I could hardly make out the pictures on the wall and where the doorway was. I heard a splash behind me. I quickly swam to the kitchen doorway. My baggy clothes dragged me down but I kept going. Down the hallway and to the front entrance. I wrenched open the door and was flung into the flowing street, gasping for air. The current tried to pull me towards the main street. The words I love you kept pounding in my head, don’t give up now my brain said. I threw myself onto my roof, shaking from the cold. My weak arms could barely hold me up. I crouched on the edge of the roof, trying desperately not to fall in again. She wasn’t surfacing, please, please be alright. 

Tears ran down my wet face, I took a small breath and jumped into the water, through the old doorway but stopped in my tracks. My heart skipped a beat. This could not be happening. She helplessly sank the last few centimeters to the floor. I reached forward to pull her up to the surface, her pale skin resurfaced from the mucky water. I heaved her limp body onto the roof guttering, shuddering from the cold and weak from the weight I hauled myself up making a loud rattling thud. 

I hovered over her, my hands reached out to her chest. My mind was saying ‘30 then two breaths ….30 then two breaths’ as my numb hands pushed against her sternum, the rhythm pounded in my ears 1..2..3..4..5 …, like an ongoing drum. My lips touched hers and I forced my breath down her seized up throat. But she just lay there, her cold icey skin glowing in the misty rain. I screamed into the night but I was drowned out by a rumbling clap of thunder. I couldn’t face it, she wasn’t dead, she couldn’t be. Tears poured onto her soggy clothes, creating an ongoing shower.

The year 8 girls have been doing a program on self defence for the past three weeks. Over three weeks we have done five sessions and each session was learning new stuff and then reviewing old techniques. Linda taught us things like how to be safe and use your body and voice to protect yourself in dangerous situations. We learned that one of the most important things to do is make noises like back off, stop touching me and get away from me. We also learnt how to kick and punch. My favourite movie was when someone had grabbed you on the shoulders you would step forward and knee them in the groin. She taught us that we had to go crazy and punch, kick and bite to make a big scene.

I think that this course is really beneficial because it teaches us how to stop ourselves getting into big trouble and to protect ourselves from sexual abuse and harm.

This week was week 6 in Tangaroa. I helped out with the junior triathlon to encourage the juniors and help them when they’re running and swimming. For tech I had Ms Shrimpton since I am doing sewing this term. I enjoyed starting my bag design, I am doing a turtle and around it will say “Keep The Sea Plastic Free. Me and Tui are doing an applique turtle and vivid words. My challenge this week was swimming sports., I tried everything and I found it hard. In backstroke I swallowed half the pool but I am proud of myself for giving it a go. Next week I am going to work on not getting as out of breath with my freestyle.

This week was a normal old week. I surprised myself when I got 60/60 in my seven times table test. One highlight of my week was having my first student council meeting . It went well, we talked about what we would be involved in and token box rewards. For tech I did sewing and we started designing and cutting out of bags. For my design I am doing a turtle and my bag says “Keep the sea plastic free”. Overall this week was fun and interesting

This was my third week in Tangaroa.  There were some ups and downs but overall it was a good week but my brain was still not awake properly when it came to math and literacy.

We went back to our normal timetable which I enjoyed lots because we got to learn about exponents and how to time then. I also enjoyed tech because we started to plan our sewing bags and I want to do one about saving our ocean.

There were not challenges this week and apart from remembering Road Patrol and Office Duty.