CHRISTMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!! AND STUFF

CHRISTMAS TIME IS GOING TO BE FUN!!

After the 25th my family and a lot of people from my church are going to go to camp, somewhere, for a week, I think. When we get back from the camp, after a few days, we're going to fly to Auckland and have a lot of fun... without any internet.
We don't really have any family traditions. We just do whatever we want in the holidays whenever something isn't planned.
ANYWAY I hope you guys have a shmazzingational Christmas and a really really really awesome holiday.

I HOPE TO SEE SOME OF YOU NEXT YEAR!!!

On Wednesday...

It was a wonderful day. The sun was shining and I could hear the faeries whispering to me then I saw her but not just me, everyone could see her. I warned them. "Don't meddle with things that don't exist." Yet they communicated with her normally. They broke the rules. Who knows what's going to happen now. Hopefully nothing, but if the worst comes then we must be prepared.

But I warn you don't meddle with things that don't exist.
*cough* *cough* Anna.

Fireworks

I think New Zealand should celebrate with fireworks on Labour Day instead of Guy Fawkes day.

Everyone would have time to watch the fireworks on Labour day but if we set off fireworks on a normal day (like the 5th of November) usually some people are busy and have things to do. Also we could use the fireworks to celebrate that we're not working or use them to signify that we don't need to go to work or school. Labour day is a day that everyone likes, so if Labour Day were celebrated with fireworks then some people would buy tons of fireworks because they're so happy they have a day off.

I used to think Guy Fawkes was on the 4th of July but apparently it's not so... Katy Perry lied to me...

Did you think that Guy Fawkes was on the 4th of July because Katy Perry told you in her song Firework?

Interesting Things

An interesting thing I did in the holidays was going to the Fisherman's Table with a few friends from my church. The bathrooms were creepy and Joanna got a plate of pickles. My brother's friend surrounded my brother's area where he was eating with peas that he claimed to be disgusting.

Something interesting I did at school was helping out with the spring fair in the kids zone stall with the face painting, tattoos, hairspray and clay painting. I painted a few kids faces and did something in the tattoo stall. My sister, Joanna and I had to leave at one so we could make it to basketball but we spent five minutes finding Joanna and another 5-10 minutes standing around waiting for Phoebe and Mackenzie to play some tombola.

Did you guys do your advertising for the spring fair?

Big Fat Shaggy Monkey

Big Fat Shaggy Monkey is a monkey for our jungle that I made with Sophia. We used black and a brownish purple paper for the body, black paper for the head and we coloured its face in with jovie (is that how you spell it?) We cut a roughly 2cm strip of black paper and cut it along the side so it kind of looks like a comb and stuck it on to the monkey, layering it. We also cut a piece of brownish purple paper to fit the tummy fur. I guess we based it on Henri Rousseau's 'Apes in the Orange Grove' where the apes are half hidden and some of them are holding oranges and all of the apes are very hairy and shaggy.

Is your animal hairy? If it isn't, do you think it would look alright if it was?

Current Obsession!!!

Right now I don't really have a current obsession but what I was obsessed with before was The Mortal Instruments, a book series written by Cassandra Clare. I would read some at night and just tell Esme the next day,  if she wanted to read it I probably ruined the whole series for her.
(I'm sorry Esme!) The thing I found great about the books (and still find great) was that there was so much suspense, mystery and adventure in it that it never gave me time to put the book down and stop reading. There was also some bits in the book that would make you laugh, smile or smirk. So you should read at least the first book if you haven't and there is also a movie, how exciting.

Have you ever read anything that you thought was so great you couldn't help telling people about it? If you have then what was it?

Medieval Minecraft Tavern

In the Medieval Times or the Middle Ages the tavern was an inn and a bar that served drinks sometimes known as the "Drinking House."

The exterior

Lily, Esme, Sophia and I built this tavern next to the town square. I did the exterior designs, Esme did the downstairs drinking area, Lily did the upstairs rooms with Sophia who also did the stable behind the tavern. There are three floors and there are enough beds for ten people apart from that there aren't any super interesting features.

Did your building turn out the way you wanted it?

A Medieval Reflection

We are finishing our medieval times topic this week and so we shall reflect on the kinds of wonderful things that we did.

I have learnt a lot of things about the medieval times like the plague that wiped around a third of their population and about the Crusades when the Pope thought that God would be happy if they destroyed their enemies. About the rankings in the fuedal system and all the different types of people like the peasants and the lords, also we learnt about the castles, the buildings,the villages and the farms.

The activities that helped me remember what I learned were the group reading discussions and making powerpoints. In the group discussions we got to read a piece of information and digest it slowly by talking with the other members of the group and making the powerpoints helped me to read a lot of information and sum it up into something that is easy to read and understand.

Learning about the medieval times has been fun especially with the involvement of minecraft and some trying-to-be-funny videos. So... thank you for choosing this topic it was really interesting.

Electives! Yahooooo!

For term two I chose band. For term three I chose sport.
Now I shall reflect on those electives.

In term two the band elective was made up of girls ... and Ross (the teacher.)
We renamed it 'The Queens' and every week or every two weeks we would learn a new song.
List of the songs:  You've been a friend to me by Bryan Adams
                              We will rock you by Queen
                              Price tag by Jessie J
It was really fun since our teacher didn't get mad even if we were so wildly off key that everyone just stops.

For sport the first three weeks has been turbo touch. It's like touch rugby except you can pass forward and all these other different rules. For the first week it was just learning how to play. The second week was having a few games. The third week was tournament week, I was in a team with Nicole, Stephanie, Anthony, James, William and Oliver.

I think the electives programme is worthwhile.
Students get to have fun with others that have the same interest and it's something to look forward to on a Friday. Of course some people don't always get to do what the want to do.

Overall electives is Fun. (With a capital F.)

Mt Cook Tech

Every Monday, the year seven's and eight's go to Mt Cook for Tech.
This week we finished our messenger bags in sewing which means week four our group will move on to cooking. I have learnt how to unpick the thread if you make a mistake in your sewing and how to refill the bobbin when it's empty so nothing to major. We used a lot of what we learnt in year seven to make what we make in year eight.
My favourite Tech class so far is sewing because we made something that we can take out into the world and use. Also I didn't feel pressured when I started sewing because if you make a mistake it won't totally destroy whatever you're making.

Thee Old Medieval Times

Since we didn't learn that much about the medieval times last term we kept learning about it this term. We have been learning about life back then like the ranks of the society, knights and peasants.

In the medieval times the King had the highest rank then the Barons who were at the same power level as the bishops. After the Barons it was the Knights/Lords, then came the merchants, priests and  craftsmen and finally the peasants or serfs.
Knights or Lords rule over a small village or area, they live in manor houses and the peasants that live in that area farm the land for them. Lords/knights have to be chivalrous which means polite and courteous especially to women.
Peasants or serfs were the workers that took care of the crops, the animals and helped to keep the village in good shape. Some peasants had to ask their lord's permission to leave and some were free peasants who could leave anytime they wanted to.

I would also like to learn about King and what he did most of the time and possibly, if there were any, the robbers and thieves back then.

There are probably a lot of ways to make learning about this fun but I just can't think of any.
Maybe we could be assigned different ranks and have to be a peasant/lord/baron/king for the day?
(It wouldn't be much fun for the peasants though right?)

The Dairy Queens

Esme, Alyssa, Caitlin, Stephanie and I were reading the book Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock for our book group and we all found it an interesting book which was also great and fun to read.

Some things that went well for our book group was that we all had something to say, even if it was just 'I think she's kind of stupid, I mean, why didn't she.....' Also everyone got along and agreed with each other or disagreed with each other in a good way.
Things I would do differently next time is to take turns speaking because at the beginning of the session we all just say our thoughts at the exact same time. I sometimes even resulted to putting my hand up.

What did I learn from this experience?
Well, I learnt that Dairy Queen was a very great book. I also learned that listening to different people's ideas about a book can also change how I see it and how it never hurts to talk about a book and how stupid the characters are.

My Artwork

I did not paint a pipe when we were
doing art, I painted a picture of a
pipe! hahaha. I'm just kidding.


The writing says "this is not a pipe"

I enjoyed painting it and it took me a while to blend the colours together. I think it's a good painting even if the pipe is a little bit of centre

Stuff at School

For our tasks this week we've got to write a reflection on anything we've been learning or working on recently at school but I'm not sure I can think of anything. I know some people will be like "Come on you do tons of things at school I'm sure you can think of one," but I think that's just it. I can't think of one, because I've got lots of things to choose from but the following is the things that I found really enjoyable this week.

For most of this term we have been learning about light and colour for science. I've learnt a lot of useful things that I can apply to things I do and things that are really interesting like what light does when it hits and goes through different things, concave and convex lenses and things about the eye.

I'm not exactly sure if we can type about what we learn in electives but I'm going to because I learnt some awesome things about keyboards (thanks Anastasia,) things about teamwork when your in a band and how to multitask playing an instrument and singing. I think we have an awesome electives teacher (Ross) because whenever we learn new songs he's very patient and let's us learn it partly by ourselves.

My Progress in Painting

At school, for the subject art, we have been practising painting. Recently I have painted Rene Magritte's "This is not a Pipe" and a painting based on Rene Magritte's "This is not a Pipe" called "This is not a Pear."
After these two experiences I am better at mixing and blending colours and controlling the thickness of the line but I still need to work on painting a clean line. I could also work on blending a bit more because sometimes the colour isn't very clean but it might just be because of the previous colours on the paintbrush. So I think I have gotten better at painting in some ways and I know my paintings aren't perfect but I still enjoy painting them.

My Pipe Painting

Today I painted a pipe that was originally painted by Rene Magritte. It was a pretty good pipe not beautiful but pretty good. The thing I really liked about my painting was the writing at the bottom in French "this is not a pipe" because I fit it in easily and it's neat except for the really big fat "I."
To make my painting more like the original one I would definitely move my pipe more into the middle of the page and I think I could work on my blending as well, it took me a while to get the right shade of light brown.

BASIC FACTS KNOWLEDGE

Every Friday we have a basic facts test of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division all mixed up in one test. My aim is to get a faster time in these tests while getting 100% to do this I could make sure I know all my times tables well, that way I wouldn't have to actually stop and think. Little mistakes can ruin result on your test so first I'm going to try to take my time and get 100% before I try to improve my time.
To improve my problem solving I could search up math problems on the internet and practice problem solving.

THE St Mary's Open Day

I arrived at St Mary's in Stephanie's car and because we were nearly late we hurried to the hall where everyone was. There we heard wonderful speeches from the principal and the head girls of the school about St Mary's being a welcoming, happy, fun and exciting college for us all next year. We had groups of around 12-15 and we were given a tour of the school by one of the year thirteen girls and because the school was so big and there were lots of people at the open day our group gradually diminished to just six people.

I got a lot out of the experience, I got to meet some really nice students and teachers and I learnt a bit about the school. Now I see St Mary's as a place where I would like to go next year because of the kind and awesome people who seem like they are all friends and because everyone looked like they were really enjoying themselves at St Mary's and that they were all just one big family.
I wasn't expecting the place to be so GIGANTIC and there were LOTS of stairs but I guess that's good because the students would get a lot of exercise just from running to their next class but everything else was really awesome.

St Mary's Open Day

On the 22nd of May some of the year 8 girls from St Benedict's, including me, are going to St Mary's college to see if it is the right college for us to go to next year.

What I'm hoping to get out of the experience is that I can check out the school and totally convince myself that St Mary's is an awesome school that I should definitely go to next year and meet some new people. I can make the day go well by being friendly and listening to whoever is guiding us.

Something I Did In The Holidays

The pacing intensified as I looked up at the clock ticking away. Each second the worry burrowing deeper but our street remained empty apart from the already parked cars. A strange humming whistled through my ears but it was just the vacuum cleaner. They'll come I thought before it's too late.
My sister, Katherine, stood by the couch calm because this wasn't about her "It's time," she breathed. "Hurry."

As the group of us, Sophia, Caitlin, Nicole, Alyssa, Anna and I walked towards Reading Cinemas which loomed over our heads casting shadows on the ground. The building was dimly lit up in some areas and as we casually walked toward the escalator up to the cinema we saw Bethany and
Emily (I think it was) and stopped to say hi. Betting that the ones who ran up the stairs would get to the top before the ones that took the escalator, I ran up the stairs in excitement to see at the top that it wasn't that crowded. After paying for our tickets for Scary Movie 5 we hung out by the railing that stopped us from plummeting down towards the first floor when suddenly Nicole dropped her bouncy ball on the unsuspecting teenagers in the food court below us. Nicole, Anna and I gestured for the teenagers to throw the ball back up to us but instead he threw it in the bin after missing three times.

"Oh wow look at that!" Alyssa exclaimed. "There is a fish with its head stuck in the filter!" We all crowded round to look and indeed there was a fish head first stuck in the filter of the aquarium by the food court.
One of the cleaners or a security guard came round to us and asked "What are you girls up to?"
"Nothing," we all said.
"But there's a fish with it's head stuck in the filter," Nicole commented.
"Really," the woman said astonished, she came round to look and said. "Nah it just likes the bubbles."
We realised one of the teenagers that threw Nicole's ball into the bin had come to go to the toilet.
"That was really mean," Nicole said as he passed us and we all stared at him (like we planned to) accusingly .
"It wasn't me," he told us holding his hands up like someone was about to shoot him. "It was the others."

The gigantic screen brightened to life  and we watched the ads talking quietly about the movies that looked fun to watch. The movie was really funny it was more than that it was hilarious but I did get scared at one point when the ghost popped up from the security tape with pale greyish skin and dark hair framing its face and covering its eyes. One very memorable moment was when Anna started to laugh uncontrollably while the little girl shook her head making her hair swish around her shoulders "I wouldn't go in there if I were you." I grew very suspicious and anxious about what was going to happen so I shook Anna's shoulder and asked her what was going to happen. She sighed patted my hand and told me to keep watching by the time I turned back to the screen she was laughing again. Finally the door opened to reveal a fat lady sitting on the toilet, we were probably the most annoying and the loudest people in the cinema.

The Statistics Unit

Our first maths subject of the year was statistics.

We took a test at the start of the topic and at the end of the topic, with the teachers wanting everyone to improve their scores on the second test. The area of statistics I think I improved in was the pie graphs, especially learning how to turn information into pie graphs and how to draw pie graphs absolutely accurately. I also learnt about different types of graphs and how to use them. I still need to work on looking at the information correctly before I put down the answer or turn it into a graph because little things like that could mess up a big thing. What helped me learn effectively was listening carefully and learning from the mistakes I did in practice questions so that I could look back and see what I did wrong then fix it.

YEAR 8 CAMP!!!

The year 8's are back and we're better than ever.

So last week we went to OPC camp (Outdoor Pursuits Centre) and came back on Friday 15th of March. During my time at OPC, we did so much stuff but some of the things I found a bit challenging (scary.) Especially the first cave we went through while caving and now everyone is probably like, "that cave wasn't scary and we had tons of room to move about," that's what I think now too but before I went in the cave it looked small, dark and full of water. I managed with help from the adults, Caitlin R. and Nicole. Another thing I was like "Oh my gosh" on was the wobbly bridge on the high ropes, it was really high and when your on something wobbly and your shaking the wobbly thing shakes too. I was paralysed for a moment but my friends kept encouraging me and I shuffled across that wobbly bridge.

My favourite moment was kayaking on Lake Taupo, not the tiring movement of rowing but the fun ride when the waves would push up the front of the kayak and the kayak would splash back down into the water or just letting the waves could push you around it was really fun and quite relaxing when your not scared of capsizing. I was really proud when I made it through the first cave. While I was crawling through, the water was up to my chest when I was on my hands and knees I found it really cold and I was afraid that my head torch would go out because it wasn't waterproof but the tunnel widened out eventually and I'm really proud I didn't chicken out.

I found the flying fox really easy, I loved the sensation of flying through the air and there was an  amazing view of the scenery and the river running through the valley. Camp was kind of what I expected. It was fun,exciting, challenging and scary iin some ways but it was really fun. What I didn't expect was how the camp was set out but that didn't really matter.


I think all the Year 8's had a fantastic time!

Comic Drawing

Before I made up a superhero for school, I hadn't really done any comic drawing before. Now I like comic drawing, I like putting my ideas onto a piece of paper and deciding who this cartoon character is. I think I have improved in my comic drawing including learning lots of different ways to draw, like how to draw different expressions onto the cartoon peoples faces and sketching lightly onto the piece of paper so it's easy to rub out. I have trouble sketching lightly, I had a habit of having to define which line was the correct one that was actually part of the picture, so I would clearly mark that line by making the line darker and obviously making it harder to rub out. So I think that is what I need to work on.

This is one of the sketches for my three panel comic. Lots of other people have done really cool things but I see this sketch my best out of my three panel comic.

INTRODUCING...ME

Hi, my name is Christine, I was born in Taiwan and came to New Zealand when I was three. I like to read, draw, dance (ballet), hang out with friends and have fun. I have got a younger sister, a older brother and four goldfish who don't eat much. Some of my friends call me Tini (tee-nee) because I'm small and others call me Chris because apparently 'it makes more sense.' I like dogs better than cats and I don't fear heights I just don't like them.