Category: Hanga | Create

This year our teachers have introduced Oxford Maths into our school curriculum. I have found it easier but also a big of a change to get around with it.

So far I have been studying Whole Numbers, Decimals, Fractions, Percentages, Factors(HCF), Prime numbers, Data sources, and Polygons. I would say that Fractions, Percentages, and Decimals are probably the ones I like the most. But Data sources are definitely the ones I need to work on.

Decimals are easy because they are part of a family with percentages, and fractions because you can convert them with each other to get different answers that all mean the same thing. However data sources are difficult because you have to calculate the amount of people, sources, and data for your survey. The sources are confusing but they make sense when you get to  know them.

In my own opinion, I would rather study Fractions, Decimals, Percentages, and Polygons because I think they suit me best and I’m quite confident with my answers. Maths with Oxford made maths easier to cope with and easier to work with rather than my teacher.

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For Action Stations, I did Friendship Bracelets with Talei. I found it really fun because each week we learn a new one. My favourite bracelet was the Chevron style one because it looked really good with the colours I had and it was easy. My least favourite one was the spiral pattern because it was really plain and boring but the plus side, it was really easy. The rise values I showed were Success and Integrity because I succeeded in making the bracelets and Integrity because I got on with making the bracelets without doing anything else. I also found that helping the other juniors was fun, because I like interacting with little kids to make them happy!

For Literacy we had to do a layout of any facts and I decided to do mine about dogs. If the facts are really boring, don’t ask I was being lazy

For the past few weeks, we have been doing story writing. So far I have written two stories, one called ‘Rochfords Library’ and the other ‘Lost Kids’.

I was running far trying to save her. She vanished into a purple and black portal with ghosts circling the rims of it. My fate was crying out loud along with the shuttering wind. I could barely see anymore because my tears filled my gloomy heartbroken face and my squinted eyes. I was in the playground when it happened. Zampthia was gone. She was my sister who was only 6 years old with black poofy hair, and green beady eyes. I guess being a big brother was hard but it was harder watching your sister fade away into some sort of spirits portal.

 Mother and Father came rushing over like a race car. They immediately asked what happened in fear. My face was dripping in salty tears and it was difficult to talk. “She’s gone,” I cried. Mother burst into tears while my Father cluelessly asked “Who’s gone?”. “ZAMPTHIA!” I yelled in distress. His face turned pale as he brought his hand to his heart. Missy and Margaret came running over from the house. “Why is everyone crying?” Missy asked. Missy was only 9 but had a sassy attitude. She had dark brown hair with light brown eyes. She seemed to not care that much about things to get attention. “Oh good lord Jay” Margaret said. Margaret was 15 and was dressed like she was from the 90’s even though we’re in the 2000’s. She had Blonde luscious hair and bright blue ocean eyes. “Twelve year olds from London, always doing dangerous stuff”. Margaret yelped. “FOR LORD’S SAKE THIS IS NOT A JOKE!” Everyone stared at me confused of what’s going on. “ZAMPTHIA IS GONE OKAY. SHE GOT SUCKED INTO A PORTAL WITH GHOSTS AROUND IT!” I yelled anxiously. “I’M SERIOUS!”. 

For the rest of the day, everyone was either crying or looking like they were about to cry. Everyone was still confused about the whole situation of the portal and stuff, but didn’t know what to do about it. Mother was on the phone to a funeral service about the situation, but they thought it was some sort of prank. Father on the other hand was watching the daily cricket while shouting his opinion on who should win. Missy was on her bed crying while writing in her so-called pink fluffy diary that makes noises at random times. Margaret was sitting at her white dutchess desk doing homework while sulking and getting phone notifications every minute. Meanwhile I was in the kitchen making quesadillas at like 4:00 pm because I had completely forgotten about what just happened in the park.

A few hours later, it was dinner time and nobody talked or looked up from their small plates of mash potato, dried over cooked peas, and lamb. Everyone was trying to focus on their food that looked a little bit like it came from a prison because Mother could barely focus on preparing the food. Margaret looked up and gasped for a breath almost starting a sentence but then quickly regretted her decision and looked back down at her food. Missy started breaking into small tears that slowly grew louder and more aggressive. “Why did she have to-” Missy sniffled hard “Go.” Missy said quietly while trying to gasp for breath. Everyone at the table was silent and didn’t respond to Missy because they were ashamed. “WELL IF NONE OF YOU ARE GOING TO RESPOND THEN SCREW THIS FAMILY I’M DONE AND WON’T COME BACK TILL’ I GET A REASON!” Missy yelled at the top of her lungs. Then she stood up from her chair and stomped loudly out the room.

After Missy had left, Mother and Father didn’t even hesitate to go get her because they were still trying to figure out what happened. Missy left the house and started stomping off to the exact same park Zampthia got lost in. I looked out the window in awe and realised it might happen to her as well. I looked at Margaret with shock and so did she. We ran out the front door past the neighbors who had seemed to be watering their garden at like 7:32 pm. We ran round the corner and Missy was sitting on the edge sulking her tiny salty tears out. I ran to her and grabbed her by the arm and dragged her to Margaret. I stood in front of Missy and yelled “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING! THAT’S THE PARK WERE ZAMPTHIA GOT SUCKED INTO A PORTAL!”. She looked up at me and started crying louder. “WELL I DON’T CARE. I WILL RISK MY LIFE TO SEE ZAMPTHIA!” Missy yelledwhile tears started faintly going away as her face went red and her voice got angrier. She ran back to the playground and stood in the middle of the park. “COME AND GET ME! I WANT TO  DIEEEEEE!” Missy screamed. I sprinted to get her but she juked me and started running back home while tears splattered everywhere leaving a puddle.

When I finally got to the house with Margaret slowly dragging behind me, Missy was looking at me through her bedroom window. I looked at her and saw that she looked happier than before. She put a note to the window that said  ‘I only want a reason’ in her messy handwriting. Then she let out a creepy smile from her big yapper mouth with her pink unicorn lip gloss. She left the room in a flash like a cheetah. As I walked up the path to the front door, I hesitated for a second and thought about Zampthia. “Is everything alright Jay?” said Margaret. Tears started flowing down my cheek like a waterfall. “No…” I said faintly. Margaret looked confused but also flushed. “It’s alright Jay, we can fix this because if you think about it, she might not be dead!” Margaret said loudly. “Not helping Mars” I said sarcastically. “I’m serious Jay, what if she’s alive but she’s just stuck in the land of the dead” Margaret said enthusiastically. “Still not helping Mars” I said again without actually realising what she said.” alright then don’t listen to me, that’s fine with me. I  guess I’ll go and retrieve her myself” Margaret said sadly.

The next day, I woke up with a smile on my face for some weird reason. I could still remember what happened the other day but I was happy. I felt like I was hallucinating in thin air. I rolled over to the side of my bed and realised I rolled too far. My face hurts, my heart hurts, my brain hurts, and my mouth hurts from smiling so much. “WAKE UP JAY YOU HAVE YOUR FIRST DAY AT HIGH SCHOOL TODAY!” Mother screamed as she walked into my messy room. “5 more minutes!” I yelped then slowly started snoring. “GET UP YOU LAZY CHILD” She screamed for the second time. I kept rolling across my bedroom floor until I bonked my head on my desk and pain filled my brain. As soon as I got my clothes on I rushed to the kitchen to make breakfast. Mother had already made breakfast  for me but I was so focused on stuffing different chip packets in my small bag. “Goodbye Mother see you after school, I’m late for my bus!” I yelled as I grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and sprinted off into the wilderness of highschool.

This week was pretty fun because we did a lot of things for tech and assemblers etc.

For tech we made riceballs and mine tasted really yum because I put cucumber and carrot in mine.  For our assembly, we did a flash mob which is were some people start doing something like singing or dancing and then more and more people join in. Our class did a flash mob that nobody else knew about. For literacy we just wrote story’s which was chill.

Overall I thought that the highlight of my week was doing the flash mob because it was fun having a break from sitting in assembly and that your not the only one dancing because everyone else was.

Lately we’ve been doing self defence with Linda. We had 5 sessions with her and each session we learned a new strategy for keeping ourselves safe. She taught us that we are strong and should have confidence in ourselves. When in dangerous situations while getting assaulted we go straight for the groin, because it’s the most sensitive part of the man body and they will likely fall to the ground and when they fall to the ground, that’s when you run.  We’ve learned how to protect ourselves in lots of ways like strangling, grabbed by the arm, grabbed by the shoulder e.g. Self defence is very important for young girls around 10-18 because that’s mainly a man’s target because, they think we’re just a girl and aren’t capable of anything. Linda was a great teacher and had lots of ways to make us laugh.

For Theatre sports we played some games called ‘What are you doing, Hot Seat, and 1 2 switch’. Me, Daisy, Zita, Paige, and Pip performed a play for the rest of the drama class. The name of our play was called the race, it was about animals having a swimming race to mark the Emperor’s birthday. I was the Commentator and the Rat. I had fun at action stations because I was with my friends and having fun.

This week  was difficult and busy. I think I managed it pretty well though. For  tech we made little bread rolls. We had to make the dough with our hands. We got to  style  them however we wanted and baked them. On my first piece I made a spiral and on my second one I  made it filled with cheese, but the cheese exploded! Overall I think this week was fine but not the best.

This week I had lots of activities on. I had ukulele, Kapa Haka, and helping Nigel’s students with maths. For ukulele, We played Enemy, by imagine dragons, and the chicken dance song! :0 For Kapa Haka, we learned a new song. I really enjoyed the song but I forgot how the melody goes. When helping Nigel’s students, we got put with a kid and helped them read out the question for  the test. I had fun teaching kids how to do maths because it gives opportunities to bond with them. Overall I didn’t face any challenges this week apart from doing place value with decimals in maths! Other than that it was a pretty good week.