Friday, August 24, 2012

Treacherous Race

“Bang!” The clappers slammed and everyone was off. Jogging a steady pace I was passing people one by one. Once I got further up ahead a lot of kids were behind me.

Mud started to splatter on my legs then I heard squelching as I ran across the gross, gooey grass. I looked down at my shoes and they were soaked with dirt and water. It was a struggle to run across the mud as it felt like I was running on ice.

Once I passed the bridge the track looked treacherous. “So many steps,” I thought to myself I was gasping for breath as I carried on running. Determination and perseverance made me finish the track.

“Yes,” I shouted as I had finally completed the track. With aching muscles I saw Brooklyn fall so I went over to help her. “Are you alright?” I asked her, “No my leg hurts,” she replied in agony. While still helping Brooklyn she said she was alright to carry on by herself.

With a burst of speed I passed the finish line with pride. Walking to the water fountains I was so glad that I completed the course. I saw my friends and they look exhausted. I was happy with myself and thought I did good for my last year.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Bro Town Animators



Last week on Thursday the extension group got the chance to meet the Bro Town animators Ali, Maka and Nils. These three men showed us what a Zoetrope is. A Zoetrope is what they used to make animations back in the old days.


They also taught us how to find the middle in between two lines. And that's how we made our jellyfish animations, at the end of the session they gave us a pack so that we can make our own animations. Hope you enjoy my movie!!!

Smoking Kills

Teenagers start smoking because they think that it’s cool or maybe it is because other people do it and they feel left out. But if you smoke it is very difficult to stop.

What happens to your health when you smoke? There are many consequences of smoking that are dangerous. Inside every cigarette there are 4000 different types of chemicals 200 of them cause cancer. Smoking can also cause heart problems, all of these things has a high chance of dying.

The consequences of smoking are that you could get wrinkly skin, yellowed teeth, stained fingers, and a disgusting breath. You get these awful things by the cause of smoking and there are many many more of these consequences.

Smoking is also a huge waste of money smokers spend $14-$15 per packet. Every week smokers spend $150, so every year they spend around $5110, if they stop smoking they could save $5110 every year.

So why do people start smoking in the first place? People usually start smoking because they see their friends smoke and they think it’s cool so they want to start. They also get influenced by their family because maybe all of their family members smoke and they want to be just like them. Or maybe they get pressured by peers and they can’t take and start.

Smoking kills. Which path do you want to take?

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Gold for Our Champion Valerie Adams

This morning Valerie Adams has won gold for shot put. Many of you are thinking no she got silver, well you’re wrong. The reason why Valerie has the gold medal is because the Belarus woman was stripped of her gold medal because she tested positive for drugs. The president of the New Zealand Olympic Committee Mike Stanley has described Valerie Adams gold medal as 'justice served'. The drug that she was tested positive was methanol.


Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Running Animation

This week in room 20 we have all been learning how to animate people running. This is my finished animation of a person running. Enjoy!!!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Valerie Adams

With a valiant attempt Valerie Adams threw a distance of 20.10m in the shot put. In her build up to the Olympics she had worked tirelessly for the gold she was desperate to win. However this was not to be. Coach of Valerie Adams Jean-Pierre Eggar was proud of her achievements unfortunately she had only just come second place.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Precious McKenzie

Precious McKenzie is a well known New Zealand weightlifter but he wasn’t originally from here. In 1936 in Red Cross hospital in Durban South Africa was where he was born. Unfortunately when he was born he had a chest condition. Luckily he survived it and that’s how he got his name ‘Precious One’.

In his early childhood his father Joseph was killed by a crocodile. After he had died his mother Christina started drinking heavily so Precious and his sister got put up to foster care. Life in foster care was horrible, where his foster mothers were evil and treated them very poorly. The foster mothers malnourished them and that caused their growth to stop at 4ft10.

Later on in life he had been practicing gymnastics and his dream was to be in the circus. He wanted to be in the circus but got turned down because they said his skin colour was wrong. When he got rejected by the circus he tried a different sport, which is weightlifting. McKenzie went to try out for the South African weightlifting team and sadly didn’t get selected for the team.

Precious McKenzie moved to England and he hoped that he didn’t get treated the same as he did in South Africa. Once he got settled in England he tried out for their Olympic weightlifting team, without a doubt he made it in the team.

After he competed in the olympics for England he got emigrated to New Zealand in 1970’s. He became very well known for weightlifting here in NZ because he won gold medals in the commonwealth games. Precious McKenzie still lives here in New Zealand and is aged 75.