Quick Write 5/4/21

It seems that the stars have been blossoming around me for a long time. All of the warmth that twas once there has now left my body. Yet, I couldn't be happier. Out here in the fresh air, the deep night of inky blackness surrounding me. Would I get away with it? I wonder... After all, the police are bound to be looking for me, the runaway child, who had fled from the city, the past...

I can see it. Living out here in the lonely countryside, my handcrafted house opposite the riverbanks which are swarmed with wise willow trees. All of a sudden all the peace and tranquillity around me was gone as the cars blare across the countryside, their sirens colliding in an urgent blue and red. How did they find me here? No, I did not do anything wrong. Though I did run from everything and everyone I had once known.

Right now I can think of only two options. Give up my escape, turn myself in, or... Or I could take the plunge, dive into the ice cold of the river. I have limited time to make my choice. I descent into the water slowly, but all the same the frigid water shocks me. I drift down the river as it is my only option to not be seen. Yes, I do suppose my friends and family will be worried about me, but that is no longer my life. Besides it is too late to stop now...

Preview of Disaster story

 Recently in class we have been writing fiction stories based on natural disasters. Here is the first paragraph from my story. I hope you enjoy this blog post :)

The Destructive Disaster By Tara Morgan

It was another ordinary day at school. Our teacher, Nic (as usual)

was rambling on about how we needed to find a science project to test.

I remember  thinking that everyone was probably just waiting for the

bell to ring for lunch (though it was only 11.15), because it’s not like

anyone was paying attention. Morgan was trying to fit her legs into her jersey,

Mackenzie was strumming a ukulele in the corner, Kaelyn was trying to type on her chromebook

with her toes and I was almost asleep on my desk. Nic kept on talking…

soon it was 11.16 … 11.17 … 18 minutes past. Luna  had started barking,

I fell off my chair from the sudden noise. “Tara!” Nic had yelled,

but she didn’t have time to say ‘pay attention’ and ‘geology rock cycles are important’

because then the rumbling started. The deafening, guttural, piercing sound

that came from the depths of the earth!

Topic task: Create a sales pitch for house

Sales pitch for house:

Looking for the keys to your dream home? Well this rustic house has an amazing potential

and could be the one for you.  Surrounded by rural bush this house is sitting on lovely farmland.

It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms that comes along with a gorgeous view over the countryside. 

Although it may be old this house is very strong and very earthquake proof and

has an extra space in the attic for more storage.  The cost of this house is…. But can be

negotiated to a further detail with the new owners. Could this be your next house?

Why not come and check it out at ………. 

We hope to see you there.

( This is not an actual sales pitch).

Artefacts v.s Antiques

An artefact is an object made by humans and is important because it is of historical interest. They are likely to be observed by scientific investigation. Examples of artefacts include stone tools, pottery vessels, metal objects such as weapons, and items of personal adornment such as buttons, jewellery and clothing. Although you may think artefacts are mainly in museums there are found in family homes. On the other hand, antiques are old objects that are similar to family heirlooms, for example clocks, wooden chests, Jewellery and many many more. Antiques and artefacts are quite similar, but in my own opinion antiques are more important because they are of more sentimental value.

Fictional story about a pet

Goodbye Old Boy 

Everyone wants a pet dog. The minute someone comes home with a little bundle of fluff

the humans are all over it. Then exactly 8 years later you're taken to the shelter. I don’t understand, I thought we were family. Just you and me forever… “Yeah that's a big

fairytale buddy” you might as well say. Things were better when us hounds were just

wolves. Yeah I said it, life was better before I ever met you.

I wish I could just forget all about you. The day you came to pick me up at the shelter you even had a little collar with my new name printed on it - Jasper it was. All those times you said that we were best friends. I remember you saying once that it was you and me against the world. What happened to the old you, the real you. I don’t know but here I am back at that same shelter once again ready to find a new home.

When the time came to say goodbye to me you said exactly this “don’t worry old boy, they are gonna find you the best home in the world”. Well actually no. Nobody wanted  an 8 year old dog. Everyone wants the newborn puppies just like how you wanted me.  

Eventually I did find a home though. A young girl who worked at the shelter took one look at me and suddenly I had found a forever home. Man’s best friend - well girls best friend. I’ll never forget the times we had together though and I hope that you don’t either. If you ever see me though again out here in this big world then I hope you recognise me on spot and it makes you want to cry seeing how happy we are together knowing that you were the one that let me go…

My Favourite time in Lockdown

My favourite time in lockdown was probably the day we took our dog Shadow,  for a big run. He was very
excited and energetic and was able to keep up with our bikes easily. Since we are now in lockdown we
don’t  go to the bush track anymore, we just bike from home to the new garage where we sometimes get
supplies like flour or butter when we need it. So we biked down the big hill from our house, down the
verge of the main road to the lake where we let shadow have a swim before going up to the shop.
After we had our supplies we biked down the road again through corners and back up our annoyingly
steep hill to home where it was now starting to rain.

Quick Write

The helicopter is not far from the shore now and we wade into the water yelling and screaming for all we are worth. On the island behind us there are the words “SOS” written in kelp and a blazing fire, but all the same it is still a lucky chance they would find us. We have been here on the island more than three months after the plane crash, and all that time we have been living off the wild fruit that grows here and the streams that flow across the island. If anyone had come here they would also see in the jungle a hut that me and my dad made. We also made the fire on the beach from the empty coke bottles in the plane using them like how people use magnifying glasses and paper. As my mother leaps from the rescue helicopter and throws her arm around me I know it’s time to go home, but i’ll miss this place.

Camp Reflection

                                                         On Lake Brunner School's
2019 camp the middle and senior classes - Kotuku and Te Kinga went on a three day snow camp to Arthurs Pass Education centre and Cheeseman ski field. On the first day  after Lake Brunner school arrived we got settled into camp and then played a few outdoor, teamwork games. After that we went on a short walk to see the winding road and learnt a little bit about the history in the area as we have been learning about maori history at school. On the second day it was pretty much rain and wind as we ate breakfast and we considered not going to Cheeseman for the wind would be stronger up there. In decision though we decided to go after lunch when it was a bit calmer and until then we played board games and cards. We didn't go skiing that day, but instead played in the snow some of us making igloos which was pretty cool. The next day after breakfast we got into our skiing gear and went outside to ready to start skiing, the weather had changed then and the day was clear and blue skied making the snow look even more crispy white. Some of us had lessons on the small slope while the other more experienced skiers went up the tbar. Overall I mainly liked when we went skiing.

Science Pendulum Art

Title: Pendulum Art               By: Bridget, Tara, Mary & Elsie 

Aim/Hypothesis: We thought that it would look like how it looked on the video. We also thought that it would be easy and we would get it first try.

Method: First we got 2 chairs and then we put a 1 meter ruler and tied it  to the 2 chairs after that we got some string and a paper cup and tied that to the 1 meter ruler so it would hang down in the middle. We put a hole in the bottom of the cup so the paint would come out then we mixed pink and blue in the cup with someone holding a piece of paper at the bottom of the cup so the paint wouldn't come out. We had some newspaper at the bottom of the the good paper that we were going to use. After that then we swung the cup on to the paper and it turned out like this.  

     

Results:  On our first attempt the cup was a foot away from the ground.  It was quite messy and unorganised, the string was every and didn’t end up like the ones in the videos. Once we let go of the string to let it swing and do it’s thing, it just ended up doing blotches of polka dots.  It wasn’t flowing properly and it ended up looking like a mess. Our second attempt was a little bit better, but wasn’t what we wanted. It had the same problem as our last attempt, polka dot blotches and no improvement. For our third attempt we decided to change the pendulum by sticking a pencil through the cup and adding a bigger hole.  We secured the string to the ruler and it seemed to work wonders. We aced it at the third attempt. 

Conclusion: Overall in the end it turned looking pretty cool. It took a couple of tries to get it right but we got it in the end and it worked.  Next time to make it successful we should do the same process as third attempt, but make the hole slightly smaller.  

Mining West Coast History

Work Interviews

Recently we have been having work interviews in class. Today we interviewed Jarred (Zak and Camerons dad) who is now a fire fighter at the local fire station in Moana. We found it interesting how he worked for the Air Force. He also told us he worked for a kids show (Bumble and friends) pressing a button in a little box to make a puppet fishes eyes blink,- we found that funny. We also interviewed Alice who is on the school board of trustees, Rebecca a farmer that also worked with horses and Shirley our school principal who's different work has taken her overseas.

Fair Trade Poem

Recently at school we've been learning about fair trade and how they help kids near our age. We got some fair trade sacks and decided to print our poems on them with Indian ink. I think what we did is better than a decorated poster because it is more relevant to do it on sacks of their own. Bridget and I thought we would do an a acrostic poem, including a small picture below.  Here is what the sack we printed reads and also a picture of us while we're doing our work:

Free to play all day                Treating them fairly                           

An equal life like us              Respecting their hard work

It can help them today          A lot better conditions

Rarely being paid                 Donating helps them more

                                             Every dollar helps

Rain

The Story Of Shirley And Her Car

It was just an ordinary day when Shirley drove to school. Little did she know her life was about to change forever- or should I say it would change her cars life forever. Anyway there Shirley was, driving her old 2004 manual Mazda 6 station wagon to school. A bridge was near and a group of birds were gathered there. Shirley beeped and luckily the birds flew away just in time but the man behind her thought she was beeping at him and bounced against Shirley's car. Breaking the barrier of the bridge Shirley and her car flopped into the lake. Thankfully Shirley is a really good swimmer so holding her breath for the one hour it took for the crane and the tow truck to arrive wasn't a problem - not. In the end Shirley did make it to school, she was eight hours late though. So instead of going to an empty office Shirley went to get lunch even though by then it was 9 P.M.

Waiuta Information Report

Waiuta’s Reef of Gold    

By Tara

Nestled south beside Reefton, Waiuta is now a small ghost town that was long ago used for mining gold. Many lived there until 1951 when the village became a historic site. It was home to enormous tanks and mining reefs.

    

Town History

Near the town the Birthday Reef of gold was discovered on the 9th of November 1905 by four prospectors exploring the upper reaches of Blackwater Stream. Someone bought the reef for $500, then after proving it valuable they sold onto London-based Gold Fields Company for 30,000 pounds. The money was worth it as the mine was dug to 900 meters deep over the next 45 years resulting in 750,000 ounces of gold.

Mining Rock

The owners of the reef basically cut out masses of rock to then be loaded through tunnels and brought to the surface. Timber props came in handy for stopping the tunnels from crashing down. Most land around the mine was cleared for timber costing them thousands to make the tunnel more sturdy.

Waiuta Life

As years passed Waiuta became famous for its sports teams which drew people from far away causing the town to get bigger. Their main sport was rugby and Waiutas team ongoingly did well in local games. Because of Waiutas location down the road, the tiny block of houses had to become independent in case of lack of food. As the 1930s settled in the town then had 600 people living there.

Later Years

At the end of the road on the 9th of July 1951 when the mine was used for ventilation and pumping water the cave  collapsed and could no longer reduce water and gas. The company decided that rebuilding the mine would be too expensive so all was abandoned and nobody lived there.

kiwi recount

After a 40 minute car trip into the heart of Paparoa Range; our class Ruma C emerged through the car door to reveal a two metre high predator free fence, with a Kiwi Sanctuary logo dead centre.

Leading us through the gate, our expert Joe gestured us into a miniature compartment decorated with pictures, signs and short descriptions of her volunteer job. Handling the precious Kiwi feathers and a rough, but smooth egg shell; Joe spoke with genuine love and integrity of the beautiful Kiwi; telling many facts about habitat loss, egg laying and territorial calls.

After our quick chat, we walked with purpose downhill across a creek while Joe scuttled threw the immense gorse to give a health check on one of her Great Spotted Kiwi.

As we waited for Joe to come back with the kiwi, we began exploring their habitat inside the sanctuary. After a few hopeful moments later, we saw Joe walking calmly towards us with something squirming inside a blue bag. As she reached the bottom of the hill she sat down on the damp, mossy grass, rummaged her hands gently inside the bag and out revealed a gorgeous kiwi. Cradling the soft, beautiful creature in her arms, the kiwi squirmed but Joe held him gently as she weighed the bird to check it’s health.

Personal comment: I thought it was very kind of Joe to rescue and save these kiwi’s from stoats and other predators. Making them homes where they would be safe and healthy.

scratch creation Hansel and Gretel

weekly reflection week 8

This week was good because I almost finished scratch and done at least twenty minutes of khan academy each day. I also think i have managed my time well when not being told what to do and when to do it. Next week I will try finish all my over due tasks and maybe a few must dos.

Rapunzel - Description - point in time one sentence

No one dared enter this garden

Nobody ever approached the garden with its prickles climbing up the stone wall including a burning smell coming from a courtyard beyond.

this is my Rapunzel - Description - point in time sentence

Dairy Farm Report