Spectacular Surreal Surfing

 

Hey people,

This is one of the last, maybe even the last, blog post that I will be doing at Marshland School. The end of the year is approaching along with CHRISTMAS, how exciting! Many people in my class are excited for high school, ready to leave Marshland and begin a new journey. I on the other hand isn't. I mean I am really excited to go to Marian College (my high school next year), but all the same, I have had a lovely two years at Marshland, bonded really well with both students and teachers, and I just, don't want to leave! Anyway, I hope you all had a fantastic week.

I'm sure you all would have had a highlight from the week that has just flown by, mine was surfing. On Thursday Toroa hub went to summer and had surfing/boogie boarding lessons, it was so much fun and a great day. They taught us how to surf and boogie board, and helped us when out on the water (my it was cold, but with the help of spring suits [3/4 wetsuits {well some brought their own full lengthen ones}] we were relatively warm. 

We got split up into groups and some went surfing first, others boogie boarding, some even waited their turn whilst playing on the beach or having a snack. I went surfing first, then had a break for morning tea and lunch, and then went back to boogie board. Thanks to some parent help we got loads of photos, some even of teachers who tried to surf and boogie board as well. 

Anyway here are some photos of me and my group, they vary from surfing to boogie boarding, to playing around on the beach! Look below:

Thanks for reading and I hope this interested (maybe even entertained) but DO NOT show anyone else those photos of me, I'm reluctant enough to post them on my blog (I can always take them off you know)... !D

Have you been surfing or boogie boarding before? 

If so how was it? Did you like it?

If the answer is no would you give it a go?

See ya later;

Soph   :D

Incredibly Interesting Inside Out

 

Hey people, me again, 

Hope you have had a great week, the weather's been a bit hit or miss so I hope you stayed warm and dry (or didn't overheat)!

Over the past week, with films aside and almost completed, we have been looking into Inside Out and Edward Scissor-Hands. We had to watch the films and then decide which one we wanted to do for our essay. We were allowed to start writing it and take notes during our own time and then had 1.25 hours at school to complete it and hand it in. 

I decided to do Inside Out because I found it easier to write about, I had loads of ideas and really enjoyed the movie when I was younger. We had to choose two themes and write about how they are key to the film. I chose to write about the themes Sadness and Growth/Change. I new they were super important and were displayed in copious ways.

Here is my essay:

Hope you found this interesting and hopefully learnt something!

Have you ever written an essay?

If so what was it about?

How would you rate Inside Out out of 10 and why?

Catch ya later;

Soph  :D

Spectacular Special Speeches

 

Hey, yet again people,

I'm not sure if you're aware, but over the past several weeks Toroa has been working on speeches. Yes, speeches, the thing where you get up (voluntarily) and speak in front of several people, apart from the fact that this was not optional!

I don't know if you know that public speaking is something I fear a lot. I know it may sound stupid but honestly, I hate it! We had to write our speech (at least 3 minutes long) and present it to the class (around 30 people). Sounds fine right? Well not for me, that is why I chose my topic to be; "The Power of a Positive Mindset".

The time approached and I was so scared and worried; "What if I messed up? What if people made fun of me?". But this was silly; the whole purpose of my speech was to be positive so I tried my best to be. When it did come to the time of me doing I shook all over, from head to toe. But I went for it and tried my best. Surprisingly every really liked it and I got 10/10! This was one of the best achievements I had ever accomplished. 

Although Mr. Shaw then had to select a handful of people to do it again, in front of the whole hub, I was one of them. Pressure built up yet again, but when it came to doing it, I knew I had one shot at this and tried (yet again) my hardest.  

The reward was (I think) best speech won $60, or something like that. And the top two from each year group went through to the Belfast competition. Now I didn't get through but I was so glad I did do the speech in front of the hub (it was optional). My speech was all about being positive, including how I used to have anxiety, etcetera. 

This time 2 years ago I couldn't tell even my closest friends about it! So anyway here is my speech:  

Hope you learnt something!

Have you ever done a speech?

What was it about?

Were you nervous like me, or did you just take it in your stride?

See ya later;

Soph   :D

Wonderful Windy Wellington

Hey again people, hope your week is going well!

Last week we (the Student Leaders) got the amazing opportunity to go to Wellington for the day, it was such an awesome experience. I had never, ever, gone to the North Island, or even flown domestically before, so everything was new for me!

We went to several different places; first of all, Christchurch Airport, then Wellington Airport, Weta Workshops, outside Parliament, had lunch on the waterfront, Te Papa, then back to Wellington, then Christchurch Airport. It was such a fun day! We all learnt so much, not only about leadership but other things too! 

Now don't tell anyone (sshhh), but here's the upcoming article about it written by Zara Dick, Sophia Turnbull, and I:

Now I'm sure you'll want to see some photos! Now I can't show you all as there is too ma- or can I...

Here's a quick collage I made (couldn't quite fit all the photos):

Here is also an example of one of the sculptures:

I hope you learnt something! And thanks for reading!

What do you know about leadership?

Have you ever been to Wellington?

If so what was your favourite part?

See ya later;

Soph   :D

Wonderfully Wicked Wearable Arts

 

Hey people,

Hope all is well and you are enjoying your extra long weekend!

As you may know from my previous posts, over the past term we have been working on our Wearable Arts pieces for inquiry. This has been such a cool experience, my friends at Chisnallwood did it last year and told me all about it (I may have been a tiny bit jealous)!

We had to get into groups of no more than six and select an issue we wanted to be showcased in our art piece that was to do with the theme. This year's theme was issues in our ocean. As you should be aware our ocean is extremely important to our planet, without it we probably wouldn't be alive.

My group selected Seismic Testing as our issue as it is a very big one that goes quite unnoticed (don't tell anyone but I didn't even know what it was either)! If you don't know, Seismic Testing is when a boat sails out to somewhere in the sea they put buoys and this device thing in the water, they then let off big bangs. This is done to detect any oils or gases in the ocean, and also the ground level. Whilst this is useful it also disturbs, injures, deafens, and kills sea animals from hundreds of miles around, it is even loud enough to kill a human!

Anyway, we had to write a speech, rap, poem, etc to be spoken in the background while the model walked and music played. I took charge of this, here is the poem I wrote about Seismic Testing:

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T-GYYvUC83uccMygTuxkaH5yCRy-A-cJ3720NuEvJz8/edit?usp=sharing

Of course, that doesn't really bother you, what you want to see is our outfit; The Sound of Seismic:

This took us a while to do but it was finally done! Our outfit was made up of the following elements; a hat, salt dough (the fish and boat on the hat [which isn't that easy to see]), plastic and bread bags (for the lines that represent the fish and the boat "talking", fabric and belt (for the dress which represented the ocean), wire and a holla hoop (to make/hold the skirt together), and a trampoline net (for the skirt, which represented the silence and deaths of sea animals).

I hope you learnt a lot from this post!

What was your favourite wearable art?

Have you made them before?

What are you doing for your inquiry?

See ya later;

Soph    :D

Puzzling Probability

 

Hey people, 

Hope you had another great week! Just a quick post today but I really wanted to show you all Zara and I's probability report!

Over the past wee while in maths we have been looking into probability. We were given the task to pick something that we could experiment with and then report. We could either do this in pairs or individually, I did mine with Zara. 

Our report was on Murphy's Law, at the time I had no idea what that was. It basically means like according to Murphy's Law the worst thing will always go wrong (there is a better definition in the report below). Both of us actually struggled quite a bit coming up with an idea, the classic one was to butter some toast and see which way it would land when it was dropped. Murphy's Law would say face down. We did our own version of that, we had a folded piece of paper and put glue on one side.

Here is the report, our results were quite shocking really:

Thank you for taking your time and reading this!

Have you made a report like this?

If so what was it about?

Have you learnt anything new?

See ya later;

Soph   :D

Fabulous Fantastic First Friday & Formerly For Fun Fourth!

Hey everyone, 

Hope you had a great holiday and are excited and motivated for this coming and final term of the year (the best term). Fabulous Fantastic First Friday & Formerly For Fun Fourth! That is just my way of saying Fabulous First Week For The Fourth Term (I just wanted to only use [f's at the start] alliteration).

Anyway, I was going to give you a log today about what I did this week:

Monday: 

• Maths
• More probability work on our investigation (I may blog this once done)
• Spelling
• Reading Recovery Buddy
• Over the last few weeks, I have been helping my little buddy Karlee with her reading, spelling, and writing.
• Literacy
• We continued working on our film scripts (I will blog this once completed)
• Inquiry
• We continued working on our Wearable Arts piece, the show will be held in week 3 (I will blog this once done also)

Tuesday

• Maths
• More probability work on our investigation (I may blog this once done)
• Spelling
• Reading Recovery Buddy
• Literacy
• We continued working on our film scripts (I will blog this once completed)
• Athletics Practice
• We are practicing in the run-up to Athletics for next week on Friday (well in this time I sorted through the recycling bins pulling out all the rubbish [with help from a few good friends]

Wednesday

• Technology
• I am currently learning and working with Digital Technologies (the last cycle of the term)
• Personality Quiz
• After that whilst the other group went to Technology we took a survey and found out 25 traits in order from 1-25 for us. My top 5 (in order) were; Honesty, Love, Perseverance, Curiosity, &  Gratitude. 

Thursday

• Orthodontist Appointment
• I wasn't at school in the morning as I had an appointment although I was back in time for:
• Reading Recovery Buddy
• ICAS Writing
• I missed Literacy as I missed ICAS in the morning.
• Athletics Practice

Friday

• Tickets
• Zara and I counted the tickets and did the weekly draw for who won the ice blocks. If you don't know these tickets are points for each house.
• Cultural Live Stream
• It was the cultural day when everyone dresses up in their culture, some people made presentations and talked about their country (we watched through the TV because alert level 2 restricts the whole school from gathering.
• Maths
• We just finished off some work for only 15 mins before:
• Kiwi Buddies
• We all have one (some 2) buddy(s) that we help, read to, they read to us, or play with them for 30-45 mins.
• Inquiry

I hope you enjoyed reading about my week. Please leave any feedback or questions in the comment below.

What did you do last week?

Have you taken a survey?

If so what were your top 5 character traits?

See ya later;

Soph    :D