City Of Ember

City of Ember a book on an underground city call Ember, hence the name. 

Figuring out a way out of ember wasn't an easy thing to do, there was alot of challenges along the way.

We watched the movie as well but in most experiences the book is better than the movie and in this instance that is true.

In my opinion City Of Ember was a really interesting and was intense in some parts, but overall is an adventures, mouth opening book, I recommend reading.

Lakes High School

I can't wait to go to high school next year!

Yesterday (Wednesday 11th September) a group of year 8 from Mokoia Intermediate discovered what it was like as a students day at Rotorua Lakes High School.

We had year 12 students showing 8 groups around their school doing...

Art

Art for me was quite interesting, Usually I don't really like art but we did something different that I really enjoyed... printing. Copied a design on to plastic whilst mixing colors then printed it onto a wet piece of paper.

Cooking
We melted plastic into different shapes - fish, christmas trees, moons and heaps more.e then put melted chocolate into those shapes and put them in the freezer, Everyone really liked cooking, I didn't mind it.

Gym
Next year I am definitely doing advanced p.e it was so cool, we played a game called pirates which incorporated jumping, climbing, running and crawling. 

Maths
I can't wait to do maths next year, we are going to get a good challenge which is good for me because I love maths. 

Science
Dried ice hurts when you keep it on your skin for ages. (personal experience) Blowing up a dears lung with a hole in the side looks hard and Teina had to experience what it was like by blowing into a tube that was put inside the lung and blowing as hard as she could,

Language
Next year I am definitely choosing one of my options as french, I loved it, learning french would be a good experience and having been to France and learn french with everyone surrounding you talking in french was amazing, therefore now that I am back in a country where most people speak English I would like to carry on learning french.

So over all it was a great day, I'm probably going to get lost next year if I choose Lakes High as my high school, but from what I have seen it is going to be a great year next year.

  

speeches

Our school does speeches every year. We had to choose a topic and then write a speech about our topic. My topic was about swimming and how swimming is the best sport for you. The two best speeches in our class were about whats in fast food, and why Finn hates cockroaches.


The speech that surprised me - hayden's with the speech topic of New Zealand, The enthusiasm, culture and comedy was such a good speech. Everyone should be really proud of themselves as it takes a lot of effort to get in front of a group of people and speak.

Devon sports exchange

Whistle blows, the exchange is now under way with Devon intermediate.
On the 2nd September 2013 Devon intermediate traveled up to Rotorua with the erg to take back the Richard Thomson trophy.
They settled in with there hosties the night before and then we welcomed Devon in with a powerful powhiri.

By then everyone was ready to play and show who was the better sports teams...

Mokoia had won 3 games by the time my team - Netball year 8 A team played. We warmed up as usual and had some bonding time before our game...

Yay, everyone is cheering and congratulating us as we walk up to the devon team to say well done or good game.
We had won the game, the one game we were determined to win.

After we congratulated the other team I run down to the rugby and soccer to see how mokoia was going. Soccer was winning. Rugby- well lets just say they were getting wasted, but it was an awesome game to watch as devon scored 2 tri's in less then 15 minutes between them both.

Devon had an awesome rugby team.

Over all the Devon sports exchange was a great experience. I met lots of people and we won 6 out of 7 games so we were chuffed.

Stormbreaker

Exhilarating, Breath taking, Exciting some of the feelings that Alex Rider felt as he in-barked on his adventurous journey in the wake of  his uncles death... all in the book Storm Breaker by Anthony Horowitz. 

Alex Rider was living with his uncle and his housekeeper when the police arrived at their house early in the morning with some bad news... his uncle has been in a car accident only that it wasn't the car crash that caused the death of his uncle... Alex rider abscond to find out what actually happened to his uncle - Ian Rider.

The part where Alex held his breath and dived into the cold, icy watery tunnel  to find out what was on the other side, he had my heart pumping and my brain thinking "will he be able to hold his breath?" will he survive the cold water?" Read book to find out if he will survive...

I recommend this heart pumping, adventures book to anyone who loves an exhilarating, breath taking adventure book with lots of villains and people you think u can trust but turn there back an leave you hanging on the edge of your death.

Character Poem - Character from the book 'Gone'

I am smart yet scared

I wonder if I could ever get through life and campus

I hear Monica historically laughing at me as a fall down the stars

I see my room being messed up by the filthy Monica.

I want Monica to leave me alone

I am smart yet scared

I pretend I am okay and not being bullied

I feel sad and lonely

I imagine touching a warm, soft bed

I worry that Monica and her crew will be awaiting me.

I cry as I slowly reach for my bag as the bruises on my shoulder start to ache

I am smart yet scared

I understand that I am not safe out here in the big world

I say “you will be okay, that’s what mom would say”

I dream about having friends and being popular.

I try and make friends but it never happens

I hope I can see mom and dad soon

I am smart yet scared

Inter-house General Knowledge Quiz

Mokoia Intermediate have houses groups, they are all named after mountains.... Tarawera, matawhaura, whakapongakau and the best house Ngongotaha.

We have different house competitions during the year from academics to sports games, we have just completed our General Knowledge Quiz.

Ngongotaha didn't do to well in our class but hopefully we have done really well in the other classes.

Here is our grave that shows our results for each house.

Report- Mine Craft

Mine craft, another universe, and a game where people get addicted to building houses, and building another planet.

Mine craft is an addictive game, instead of kids outside and having social games there inside playing on mine craft. People are also grieving other people’s houses, setting them on fire and most of all destroying other student’s property. 

This game involves maths and looking after other people’s property, therefore you do learn something, but I still agree that mine craft isn't a good program.

There is a lot of things you could do on mine craft eg. Building houses, digging underground and a whole lot more, in some cases kids think it is really fun and exciting, but in my case it is boring.

Over all mine craft is a addictive game where people grieve other peoples creations, courses anger and frustration and shouldn't be in a students curriculum. 

Viscosity

My power point on Viscosity.

Tomato Sauce.pptx

Procedural Writing

Procedural writing is a type of writing that P4 is learning this year, But to be more precise we are learning directional writing - What makes good Instructional writing ? ...

Detail - 90 degrees left and take a large step forward.
1 instruction per step - step 1, turn around step 2, take 3 steps forward
Appropriate verbs - run, jump, slide.
Descriptive words - big, little.
Consider audience that you are writing instruction to - kids, adults.
precise language -  numbers

P4 went outside and discovered how hard an precise you actually have to be. 

Respect

Respect - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMNgSipjEPg

Paper plane

Sorry for the view but here is the airplane results. 

Paper plane day :)

On the 9 of May 2013, p4 had a paper plane day, this day had to incorporate the normal day subjects we do at school, E.g. Maths, reading, writing, science. 

For reading/writing we had to do back round research on what makes a paper plane fly. I found out that the paper plane needs to balance out 4 forces in order to make it fly. Those forces are Drag, Gravity, thrust and lift.

• Thrust is what makes the plane go forward (The controllers throw )
• Lift comes when the air below the plane wing is pushing up harder then the air above it is pushing down, the difference in pressure is what enables the plane to fly.
•  Drag, planes have a lot of drag and resistance.
• Gravity, If u keep the weight of the plane to a minimum the gravity of the plane lasts longer.

 What you will need: a4 piece of paper.

Instructions on how to make a plane:

1. Fold the A4 piece of paper in half long ways.
2. open the A4 piece of paper and on one end fold the corners towards the middle where the cress was from step 1.
3. Fold down the point triangle that you have made have made through the middle of your cress line 
4. Fold the corners down similar to what we did in step 2 but leaving a start line about 2 inches long. the corners have to meet in the middle.
5. Where the corners meet in the middle of the paper fold the small triangle up towards the 2 inches long line at the top of the paper.
6. Turn the paper over and fold in half long ways.
7. fold the wing in half and the straiten out again.
8. Fold the second wing and follow step seven.

 Congratulations you have made a paper plane
Maisie

Science

Wow, I never knew making lava lamps can be so scientific.

Our class went to the school science lab on a quest to make a lava lamp, We split into 10 groups of 2 or 3 and came up with a question and hypothesis.

My group of Brock and Tommy wanted to find out if the amount of food coloring differs the outcome of the lava lamp.

Our hypothesis was that it doesn't make a difference to the outcome of the lava lamp.

We found out that it does make a difference and that 6 drops of blue food coloring does differ the outcome.

The hatchet - Journal Entry

The bit that I will always will remember from the book 'Hatchet' :

Brian wanted to give up so bad, he lay on a rock, he lay there hoping he wouldn't wake up in the morning.
He was depressed and wanted to die...

Morning came, brain looked at the dried blood from the night before, hew new he shouldn't of done that and he decided to be a new person, a brave, wanting to survive person. A person who never gave up and kept trying.

That was the start of the new Brian.

The hatchet

Very powerful, very, very powerful this book made our teacher cry. This book is about a 13 year old boy, living in the bush after his plane crashed and pilot dieing almost 3 months before he was found. He goes through depression and changes into a new, strong, brave man and learns to think for himself and make important discussions that make him survive.  

Norm Hewitt

Inspirational speech - Norm Hewitt

Norm Hewitt, ex - all black and spokes person for s.p.c.a, with a very inspirational speech he came to Mokoia Intermediate and talked to us about family violence and how if u bully people you are most likely to bully animals. We also leant to stand up for your self.