My Favourite Time Of The Year!

It is so close to Christmas! I love Christmas. It is obviously one of my favorite times of the year. Not only do I get the excitement of getting, I also get the excitement of giving.

I have realized a lot that people barely ever think about baby Jesus during Christmas time. Most of you know the story but don't really think about it during christmas time. The story of Mary and Joseph riding into  Bethlehem and give birth to a child called Jesus. The kings and three shepherds join them in a stable. Have you ever wondered about the star/angel at the top of the tree? It represents the star/angel in the sky that led the shepherds to the stable.

That star is one of the reasons that we have christmas lights. The person who invented the coloured ones must have just wanted to be crazy. Christmas lights must mean it is a time of celebration. I love going around just before christmas and looking at all of the lights. At home, we don't go crazy, but we have a lot of lights.

The christmas tree is a symbol of life. It is representing Jesus' birth. I love putting up the tree before christmas. It makes me excited for christmas. I love it!

Are you Nervous or Excited?

For myself, I am both nervous and excited for college. I am going to the best college in the world... St Pats. St pats has been open for 129 years; it is the oldest school is NZ.

The achievements I would like to get at St pats is to finish all my work on time and at a good quality. Easier said than done. When you go to college each class gives you a lot of homework (as most of you know). I sometimes struggle with the amount of tasks that we get at St Bens! I can still get through it though.

One of the best things that I am looking forward to is seeing my relatives everyday. Unlike most people, my relatives don't annoy  me. I will see my cousin, Suki (you will know her as Mrs Green.) I am also looking forward to school sports as I have never played a school sport for a school team.

Work will be on of my main struggles just like the majority of you. I can't wait for college but I am still nervous because the teachers hand you over a ton of work and say, "this all needs to be finished by tomorrow." I will stress out. I hope I will be able to finish all of the work.

Earlier this year we had St Pats entrance exams. I hope I did well, I haven't got my results back. After I finished, I sat down with all of my classmates and then, embarrassingly, my dad called. Everyone started shouting so that my dad could hear (the exam had finished, so it didn't disturb anyone.) After he ended the call I face-palmed myself.

College is both exciting and nervous. I hope that all of you will be able to cope with it, and for the year 7s, that you will be a good leader of the school. Are you more nervous or excited for next year?

                                             

I WILL beat Xara in the speech competition

My most recent blog post was that my speech topic was about bullying. The day before speeches started I changed my speech topic and re-wrote it. My new topic was ... 'Why I will Xara at the speech competition.'

On Monday, I had memorised it but I could have improved on it a bit. Luckily I wasn't on Monday. On Tuesday I was prepared but that doesn't mean I didn't want more time to practise. I also wasn't on Tuesday. Wednesday was my time to shine. I went right after Xara because I thought it would go with the theme of my topic.

I personally think that I did well; after day of practising, it was worth it. I stood up there with my heart beating. I was so nervous that I actually gagged but I didn't end up vomiting. After I got into the speech I was less nervous. when I ended my speech I was so relieved.

Everyone says that I did really well... some even said that I did better than Xara. Xara still did really well and I am not sure whether she was actually worse than I was; right now I am just happy the it is finished.

The Best Book In The WORLD

The Maze Runner the most EPIC book I have read. I know some of you might disagree, but I think it is the best.

I will not spoil too much of the book, but I will tell you the main idea. The main idea of the book is the that a man gets sent up to 'the glade' and the only thing he remembers is his name. He has to try to get to the other side of the maze with creatures trying to kill him. If you want to know what happens, you have to read the book.

Sorry that this is a small blog post, I can't really say much without spoiling the story. :(

Bullying is NOT okay!

From the title, you probably know what my speech is about. This year my speech is about bullying.

I am slightly nervous but also very excited. Bullying is a big issue, so I thought it would be a good idea for a speech topic. I feel prepared and I think that I will do well. I was shocked at how hard the judges scored one the speeches. Last year, I got a few fives and a few sixes... I calculated the scores up and the judges had added it up wrong! In that case I second... Xara came first.

This year I was thinking of doing a speech about why I should beat Xara in the speeches. I thought it would be funny. I thought again and went for a real problem which needs to be spoken up for. I have been bullied before, so I know what it feels like and what people need to do about it. 

For speeches, everyone will always be nervous... even John Key gets nervous when he speaks in public. Here are 3 tips for a good speech.

 (1) Avoid mumbling. People often never understand a mumbling person 

(2) Notice if you are swaying, if you are, try to control yourself, if not then keep up the good work. (3) Speak loud and clear. Judges/People will understand and give you better marks

Overall, speeches can be nerve racking and also exciting. If you don't get to the finals or don't win, be proud that you did your best. 

Venus is closer then Mars?

I used to always think that mars was the closest planet to earth... until a few days ago when I heard that Venus was closer to earth. I heard everyone around the room all questioning and wondering what was correct. We searched it up of the internet and Venus turned out to be the winner.

Still today we are wondering what is closer, so we double checked and Venus won it again. I am still startled.

The Best Holiday Yet!

The term 3 holidays were AWESOME! I was at both a very hot place and a very cold one.

On Saturday the 20th of September, at six am, I was sitting on a plane to Brisbane as we were taking off. The flight felt longer than it was. I tried to go to sleep but I cannot sleep on planes. As we arrived we got our bags out and ran out because we were so excited. We were puzzled because we couldn't contact anyone with our phone because it wouldn't work and we could't use the phone box because it was way different to the New Zealand phone boxes and looked way to complicated to learn. we got outside and found my Aunty and Uncle waiting for us. 

We did many things in Brisbane but the highlight for me was going to movie world. As we got to movie world we went to the stunt show because there is only 2 stunt shows a day and I wanted to experience it. it was awesome. At the begging of the show they chose a guy out from the crowd and he was very clumsy but and the end of the show is was obvious that he was acting. After the show was over we went over the batman ride. It is pretty much the fear fall/giant drop except it goes really fast up as well as down. I wanted to try the other rides but they were mostly closed and one opened at the end but by that time my uncle and I were both very tired.

When I got back on Saturday 2 weeks forward, I went to a birthday party the day after we arrived and saw the maze runner. It is an AWESOME movie. The day  after that I went with dad to Taupo. We were going on a fishing trip. The first couple of nights we ended up in a motel because the weather was horrible and cold. On the second day there we went fishing and caught our biggest fish of the ones that we caught. the rest of the day was just sitting around and talking with dad. The next day we went fishing and I wanted to catch a fish of my own so dad had a few turns and once when I went to get something from the car, I came back to find another fish on the ground. I was very annoyed.The next day we went fishing AGAIN and this time I caught a fish, that day was also our last day on Taupo. We left and got home and all I could do was sleep. 

There is no doubt that I had a good time!

I Want Another Production!

I LOVED the production. I thought we all did really well. for year 7 and 8's, we needed to write the script, think of props, make up dances and much more. I can remember when we were first starting and we were thinking of a name for the production and names for the bad and good guy. We have come a long way and we have done well.

I give big thanks to all of the teachers who have pulled it together (Mrs & Ms Bolger). We have all done really well and all you can do is do your best, and that is exactly what we did. Good job

Can't wait!

 The production is very good and I am looking forward to it. I am in the dance to the song tainted love. I also have to sing part of let it go in the final scene. I am also in the first scene as a talking role. I am looking forward to the dance, it looks so awesome. I am nervous for singing, but at the same time excited.

I love the production. I look forward to it every second year. This year, our theme is space, I am a villain. I like my role, I am kind of dumb, but sometimes I am smart. My parents are coming to the production. My dad is going to both of the productions and my mum is going to one. I have told them when to drop me off so that I can get there on time.

I can't wait for the production. It is awesome!

I love SOCCER

I love soccer. I usually I play in defence. I find it so fun. My soccer team is called the Onslow Mysores. My dad says that I am good at soccer, but I have to improve a lot as well. Last term, our team won every game. I have won player of the day once this year and have only scored one goal in my past soccer life. I still need to work on it a bit

Other sports that I enjoy playing (soccer is still the best) include tennis, squash and swimming. I am not that good at any but I enjoy playing the sport anyway. Even thought rugby is our National sport, I don't like it that much. A reason for that is probably that when I see rugby on TV it seems rough and I am not that rough. I Enjoy playing a game rather than watching it as well. I like the energetic part of it (unless I am exhausted). I love soccer a lot.

What sport do you Enjoy?

I Love the Production

I am learning the dance to the song called Tainted Love. I find the Production really fun so I even practiced the dance at soccer practice with William Wood and Thomas. I think I am pretty good at the dance (for a beginner). 

I only have 5 lines so it is pretty easy to learn my lines. I have some of the funniest lines including, “and the she carried a watermelon (Villains laugh),”and also,” I just love soap opera dramas.”

Over all I think I am doing pretty well with the production. Not only am I doing well, I also enjoy it.

Art

This is my amazing Ancient Egyptian art with hieroglyphics. It is a photo of an Ancient Egyptian man. I thought that it wasn't that good, but now with the rest of them they all look good because they are all together. What type(s) of art do you like and did you enjoy doing this art?

I will ask you one thing... WHAT DID YOU LEARN

There were a lot of things that I didn't know about Egypt that I know now. I learnt about the medicine stick that whisks up the brain, I learnt about boats. The boats used to be made of papyrus and then many years later they were made into wood.


For Glass they didn't know that you could make glass out of sand, instead they used glass beads. The glass beads were made from the heat of the sun melting the sand and lightning striking the sand. They melted the glass beads and made them into many different glass objects.


The pyramids were built with blocks of hardened sand and were covered up with a type of limestone. The way that they transported the blocks was up many different types of ramps. They had something called a crane which transported water into the pyramid.


I have enjoyed learning about Ancient Egypt ( probably not as much as Xara.) I would love to learn more since it is very interesting and I learn a lot from it.

SOCCER

When I was at Nairnville, the class and I were doing gymnastics. We had to do lot of exercises and forward rolls and lots of other stuff. Personally I find it a little bit boring. I would prefer some sport. I play soccer and would love to play it at Nairnville.

The good thing is that the next topic is sport! I am really excited, as long as it's not rugby... I would be thrashed in rugby. I will be fine if it is touch rugby though. If it is soccer, I will be SO happy. I would name my team the Khans because that was my soccer team name. I LOVE soccer.

BRAIN JUICE

This week in school I have learnt a little bit about Egyptians. But the most disgusting, gross, weird thing that I know about is what they do when people die. The Egyptians have a hook that they called the medicine hook.

When people die, the medicine hook was used to get the brain out. But that's not the worst part. They whisk the hook around and around until the brain started to drip through the nose.

The next step was to tilt the body so that the liquid would pour out into a jar. They also cut out the lungs and the liver. They didn't cut out the heart because they thought it was precious and they didn't cut out the kidneys because they couldn't reach it.

Just Imagine...

Just imagine how it is to be lost in the wild. That is exactly what is happening to the boy, Brian, in my book called hatchet.

I am in a book reading group with JMK, JR, Thomas and Sam A. We are reading a book called hatched by a guy called Gary Paulsen. Last week we unlocked 'crackers'. Crackers is something where you are allowed to bring snacks along to your group.

In our group we have something called the talking FM. Only one person is allowed to talk at a time... the one who is holding the FM. At first we all talk at the same time and then after time we got better and better.

From this experience I have started to enjoy reading a bit more and have become faster at reading. I love hatchet. I would recomend it and so far rate it 4 1/2 out of 5.

Little Miss and Mr Men

When I was just a little boy my favourite book was the Little Miss and Mr Men collection. I used to read it over and over again; in fact even every night I read it. My brother sister and I all loved the book. It was always just about little, weird things that always got into a bit of trouble and the others needed to help. Oh yeah, by the way, at this  time I was really young.

BIGGEST BIRTHDAY EVER!

This holidays it was my birthday. I was so excited but on the actual day it wasn't that exciting it was the week after. That was when I had my party.

There were 18 people there (including me). I split them into two teams of nine. There was the red team and the blue team. We were about to the the amazing race in teams. We were doing it in the botanic gardens. It was such a big course. We got given two envelopes, one that had the clue and one emergency envelope. If we had to use the emergency envelope, there would be 50 points taken off us so we never used that.

We were searching for all of the places and had to write the answers for the questions. The answers would be where we arrive. There were three main stops. At the first stop where we met an adult we had to eat dry weet-bix. Gross! but when we each ate one some people went for seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths and even sevenths! I don't know how they did it.

The next adult stop we had to spin around with a pole on our head. we were allowed to hold it. My dad said that it was hard but it was so easy. While we were waiting for the others we just played in the playground there.

At the next stop we had to find some chocolate that was hidden in a certain areas. In the end we found them all. They we delicious.

When that was all finished we had some cake. It was HUGE. You have probably seen it. after that we had some ice cream and L&P. Delicious.

The Awesome Fair

This years mission fair was awesome!!! I loved it. Joseph, Penny and I were walking down to the fish and chip shop and we kept on pretending that we were breaking out of school. It was really fun. when we got back, we went to our stall which was in a little room by the staff room. It was a really good spot.

I was with Rebecca, Elizabeth and Joseph. We were waiting and waiting and then... the bell rang! Everyone came rushing down and the first thing I did was see my dad. He had come to the fair. He bought me a packet of hot chips. They were delicious. We had reserved some chips for Bernard because he said that he would pay $5 if we reserved chip for him. But when he came, he denied it. We were fine with it though.

We were selling chips, popcorn, fudge and a raffle. We were selling out so fast. When It was time for my shift I went straight to get a snow-cone. I was so thirsty. But the line was so long and it took forever. So my five minutes was up by just getting a snow-cone. The rest of the time was so busy. We were sold out of chips and fudge but we still had lots of popcorn left.

In total we made $148. We did really well.

How much money did you make?

3 reasons why I like...

There are lots of things that I love to do at home but there is nothing that I love to do more. The thing that I absolutely love to do is... eat. I know for my size it doesn't seem like it, but most of the time I am ether just be snacking on food, or having heaps and heaps of meals. But when a friend or anything like that come to my house I try to be as polite as I can. When I am in the car with my dad he always says," you are a real foody."

I also really like cooking which is probably why I like food too. I always cook at least one day of the weak. I love it. I love the aroma of different types of food. They all smell so good. I have learnt all about cooking thanks to my mum. As cooking is a really fun thing to do and work on, I try to do my very best in all of it. From the first time I have cooked I have really improved.

But eating by itself is boring so why not watch some TV while eating? Every Sunday and Monday night I always sit down and watch Masterchef with my mum. That is one reason why I love cooking. But when I have free time I love to just watch whatever there is on that I like to watch

The test. Dun! Dun! Dun!

I finished the test at the end of morning tea. I think I was really good but I have no idea because I haven't got my score yet. I have a feeling that I got 100%. Well, at least I hope I got 100%. I am quite good at maths so I must have been good at the test.

Camp Was AWESOME

What did I find easy

 The easiest thing for me was probably for abseiling. I wasn't frightened at all. I was in my comfort zone. It was really fun. The other easiest thing for me was the high ropes. I was frightened but I had a good time.

What Did I expect

I expected to do heaps and heaps of things but lots of the things took a long time. So we only did high ropes, kayaking, flying fox, bush walk, abseiling, caving, canoeing, eating and overnight camp. But they were all so fun. I would go again

What did I find the most challenging

I found kayaking the most challenging because I was with Joseph and as soon as we got onto the kayak, off go his hearing aids. The whole time it was so hard to communicate. Whenever I said back-paddle he thought I said turn around.

What was my proudest moment

My proudest moment was when I did the rickety bridge part of the high ropes because I did it so fast. The other thing was when I found the way out of the cave because they chose me as leader.

What was my favourite moment ?

My favourite thing that I did was caving because they chose we as leader. And I just love the caves because they are so cool with all of the glow worms.

Swimming

I am really good at swimming when i am at my dads and we go into the pool but when it came to the lessons to choose what group we are in and i was horrible and slow and really, really bad. So now I am in learn to swim. The order from worst to best is learn to swim, which is the worst, water safety which is okay and then diving, snorkeling and kayaking which are the best.

I am down there in the bottom. But because I am with my friends, I always have a good time, except for when they tease me because there is a leader called Antonella. You probably know why they tease me about that. But I don't really care. I just take it like a joke. We are really only learning different types of swimming styles. But after the lesson we have free time and we have lots of fun. Once some other classmates and I were up on the platform and pretending that we were water aerobics leaders and everyone else was in the water and doing the same things. It is really fun

Beggining of the year

Hi. I am Ben. P

This year I am a Year 8 And I am in Rm 12. One of the things that I have liked most this year is dodge-ball. A really fun, super exciting, energetic game that everyone loves to play. This year I am betraying my old team which was room 11 because now I am a room twelvien. We are tying at the moment but soon later it will be over for Rm 11. This year every single term room 12 is going to win for sure. No ifs, no buts. We will win for the whole entire year.

Another thing is the school picnic. It was so fun. We built sandcastles, we went swimming, we played in the playground and much more. I think it was the best thing of all so far. They had an awesome slide that went so fast into the pool. I did everything I could so that I would have a good day. We went to the ocean and went shell collecting for our sandcastle and we found a scallop shell. We also found. But sadly we didn't win any prize at all.


The thing that I am looking forward to is the O.P.C. camp. I am so excited for it because we are going caving, kayaking, tubing, bridge jumping and much more. I am also just excited to stay in the cabins with my friends. It will probably be the most exciting thing of the year. I am so excited.

These are the things that I have most enjoyed and things that I am looking forward to... I wonder what else is coming up.

Ben. P