I’ve moved blogs. My new blog is called, http://lizzie3.edublogs.org

Yesterday afternoon I went down to the Kihikihi School Hall to do my karate grading. If you don’t know what a karate grading is, you are about to find out. A karate grading is an exam to see if you are good enough to go up to the next belt. Like anything you want to achieve it is hard and you have to work for it.

I was a orange belt and I was hoping to double grade to blue belt, but if I wanted to do this I would have to work sooo hard. Also I was the only girl grading.

It was the a big day and we started off with a run. We ran all around Kihikihi three times and then ran back to the hall and did some exercises before starting. Then we started!

It was sooo hard and I must have done about fifty push-ups, fifty sit-ups and fifty star-jumps. My muscles  were aching by the time I’d finished!! When we did fighting a boy kicked me hard in the knee and now I’ve got a big bruise on it!

It was time for the judges to decide who had passed and who hadn’t. Fortunally everyone passed. Unfortunatly I didn’t double grade to blue belt, but I went to orange belt black tip instead which is good enough for me!!!

 To Kill a Mocking Bird

 By Harper Lee  

The book I have chosen for my review is called, To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. I loved this book because I found it  witty, gripping, full of sadness and joy. 

The story revolves around the three main characters, Scout a little girl of about nine who tells us the story in her own words, Jem her older brother who I always thought bossy and demanding, though he always looked after her, and Atticus the children’s father who was a lawyer and had to be quite confident and careful in part of the story. Scout herself doesn’t understand a lot in her life, that’s why I find it confusing, because I saw what happened through her eyes. I only understood what happened at the end of the book when all the clues added up. 

The plot is centered around the trial of a black man accused of abusing a white girl. This showed me or reader how bad it was for all the black people who lived in that area at the time. It showed me how cruel human nature can be. However I also learnt how poor people were during the Great Depression. I spite of all the bad things there were good things as well, like childhood innocence, decency, kindness, love and courage. 

The book was set in
Alabama, one of the southern states of
America, in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. I liked the setting because everyone in this town knew everyone else. Also it is because at seven o’clock at night you can walk around town with your friends without your parents having to worry about you. However you might just have to be careful walking past the Radley’s house late at night!! 

 The book begins with the gripping mystery about the Radley’s house and who lives there, and who has  been accused of murder. Scout her brother Jem and their friend Dill are determined to make whoever lives in that house come out. At first I found the book a bit boring and confusing as I said before and also because of the English they used. However, later on in the book it starts to change. It is no longer slightly boring it is very exciting and a bit scary at times. You will never want to put the book down.

I hope you decide to read this book as it is definitely a book to read and that’s a promise!

On Wednesday the 14th of May eight students including me set off to St Pauls Cathedral in Hamilton. If your wondering why we were going there it was because of the Literacy Quiz!

On the way there we stopped at Mcdonalds and got some dinner as we wouldn’t get a chance to eat at the quiz. As we were backing out of the Mcdonalds a herd of yobs came and crashed into the school van with their cars denting it. Then they got their knifes out and started stabbing the van!! O.K maybe I got a bit carried away seeing as their weren’t any knifes and only one car. But it was scary all they same.

When we arrived the Cathedral,and it didn’t look anything like I thought it would be. I thought it would be like a big stage with special seats up high, instead the children were up front of the room and the parents were just sitting in front of us. But it was so much fun I’ll tell you about it.

It was really hard but we tried our very best and put in one hundred and ten percent into everything. They had lots of questions about, The Lord of the Rings and Starwars and on one catorgory we got 9.5/10. We tied on a round with another school and we could of won a book each, but the other team got their first. It was a question about Romeo and Juliet. I thought my team did really well. Also we get a badge sewn on to our sch00l jersey saying Literacy Quiz. Overall my team got 14th out of 46 teams so I think thats pretty good! The other team from our school got 30th out of 46 teams.I still think thats good. But I think the best part is that we actually got to participate! 

Day 1 

On Monday the 12th of May, around two hundred children from T.A.I  set off to Totara Springs band and music camp. We got on the bus at nine o’clock and headed off towards Matamata. I knew I was going to get carsick ten minutes into the drive because someone opened their lunchbox to get something to eat, but whatever it was it smelt foul! I’d also forgotten to take a carsick pill. I was just about to vomit all over the place and then we arrived…

Day 1

Oh-my-gosh today was such a busy day, where do I begin? I’ll start with the dorms. There was sooo much confusion with them. First off we got told to go into cabin 1D, so me and my friends started unpacking our stuff. I was just about to take out my sleeping bag when another bunch of girls came in and said we were in the wrong cabin. Apparently we were meant to be in 1B. So we packed up all our stuff again and went to 1B. Then after ten minutes the girls who had told us they were actually meant to be in 1D said we were moving back. I was getting seriously peeved by this time but didn’t complain as the girls were bigger then me! After a long half hour our music teacher said we were meant to be in 2E all along!!We all settled into our cabins we had to go and have a choir practise in the chaple. It was absolutely exhausting and I had a sore throat.

Day 2

This morning I woke up to the yells and shouts of girls using the showers. I looked at my friends watch it was HALF PAST FIVE IN THE MORNING!! I couldn’t't get back to sleep after that so I lay awake in bed till 8:oo when I was forced to get up. It was absolutely freezing outside and I had to wait in the breakfast queue for ages. It was such a relief to step inside the eating area. After a good breakfast we set off to the chapel again for an hour and a half. Our music teacher got really grumpy halfway through the practise and said our singing wasn’t good enough and we have to try harder because we were preforming tonight. So everyone started being on their best behaviour cause they didn’t want to be humiliated in front of everyone.

The night of the concert went well I thought but I think the choir could have sung a bit louder and clearer. The band did really well though. Just before the concert started the fire alarm went off and everyone started getting scared and saying they could smell smoke even though almost everyone knew it was false alarm.

Day 3

I was so tired this morning, I didn’t get much sleep last night and anyway we went to bed at 11:15 and woke up at 6:45. Before we left Totara Springs we had lots of jobs to do, such as: cleaning the toilets, (hey someones got to do it!) clearing belongings, tiding the rooms, sweeping the kitchen, loading the buses and many, many more! After all that we got to do the activities! including: archery,three wire bridge, shooting and the hidroslide. The hidroslide was the best activity it had lots of dips and turns. You went really slowly at first and you think its going to be really boring, but then you get to a dip and as you go down you get that swirly feeling in your stomache. It was the best!

On the way home I tried to get to sleep because I had the Litracy Quiz in the evening. But if you want to find out what happened there. Well… thats another story

The story I have chosen is Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The story relates the life of Anne, an orphan who comes to live at a house called Green Gables and how this new life contrasts with her old life in the orphanage.

I loved this book mainly because I loved the character of Anne. She has a very definite personality which we can see change as she gets older. The book starts when she is eleven and ends when she is sixteen. At first her personality is flighty and talkative and this gets her into lots of trouble. However she is also confident and intelligent. Later on she becomes more of a daydreamer but grows mature. This helped me to understand her better and to see her as a real person not just a character in a book

The story is set in Green Gables, a big old farmhouse in a small town of
Avonlea,
Prince Edward Island,
Canada. I liked the setting because I know it’s the kind of house that every child would like to grow up in including myself.  It was also set one hundred years ago, and some things seemed rather strange, e.g. they didn’t have cars so they had to use a horse and carriage, men did the farmwork and women kept the house. However, I quite liked this because they didn’t have to worry about global warming and I myself would rather do housework than farmwork.

We see Anne’s life from when she arrives from the orphanage at the age of eleven until she is sixteen. Her life changes from a hard life as a servant with no friends and no education to a new life at Green Gables where she goes to school and makes new friends. Although her new life seems wonderful, one thing was missing for Anne and that was love from Marilla, her new mother.  However, Anne rubs some of her personality onto Marilla and for me it was a wonderful thing to be able to see that Marilla changed from a grumpy old woman into a more likeable person.

I hope you read this book and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series to find out what happens to her.

 Day 1

Last week room 3 which is the room I am in, and room 7 went on school camp. We stayed at Ohope Christian Camp. On the way there I started to feel a bit carsick even though I’d had a carsick pill! Luckily we stopped for lunch. Actually now I think of it maybe it wasn’t such a good thing. It was sooo windy and I’d left my jacket in my big bag that was at the back of the trailer!! I was freezing!

We finally got there and the campsite was really run down slightly grotty. In the evening we went to the  aquatic centre , it was really great fun!

Day 2

The next day my group headed off to the high-ropes. I was scared out of my skin. they were 9 metres high and had a single rope to walk on and 2 ropes to hang onto. I was so glad when I got back down to the ground. After spending the morning at the high-ropes we spent the afternoon at the Amazing Maze. I think that was the best activity we did at camp.  What we did was walk around the maze and find Questions and answers. We got back to camp and went to aquatic centre again.

 Day 3

Today we set off to the wharf to do fishing. I thought it was going to be really boring. But it was really fun! I caught 5 big fish and 2 small ones. Straight after fishing we went Kayaking, but I didn’t like it that much because I wasn’t strong enough to kayaking for long and I had to keep stopping and starting it was so annoying. Finally we finished kayaking and headed down to the campsite to get ready for our walk to Shelly Bay. You have to walk for ages to get to Shelly Bay, and then you have to walk up 310 steps! But once you get there its really cool. Its got all these rock pools with fish, crabs sea-snails and starfish and lots and lots of pipis. But then we had to walk all the way home!was exhausted  by the time we got back to camp! In the evening we went to the Awerkeri hot-pools and had a BBQ. I had a great camp!

             Throughout your whole life time you will come across billions of doors.You will come across big heavy doors that are stiff and hard to open. Little doors that are easy to open but cannot close. Glass doors that can be smashed at the smallest touch. Stony doors that are stained with black grime. You may come across neat doors that have beautiful paint work and neat tidy flowers hanging down in baskets. This is how we usually think of doors but I see doors in a different way. Doors can be the decisions we make in life. Each door leads to new pathways, new worlds and adventure. You might see doors in the distant horizon just waiting to be opened and revealed. You may come across Family treasures and secrets just by opening an unknown door in the form of an old box of letters found in an attic. However, our desire to open doors could also lead  into war and possibly murder. You could find the wealthiest families suddenly struck with poverty. Children’s lives could be affected because of the world of doors. For example, in David Copperfield his mother opened the door to remarriage.  She died, his stepfather sent him to work and David became poor and homeless. 

Of course good things can happen because of doors. They could bring world peace. Bring hatred and poverty to an end. You could win the lottery and have the exquisite  house of your dreams. People could be led to bigger and better places. We could stop pollution, fossil fuels, global warming and bring green peace to our country and only world. We would stop tagging and graffiti and plant the greenest grass and the highest  trees in its place. We could stop the terrible whaling in
Japan, child abuse, drugs and the hatred on this earth. All our lives we have to make decisions. You can choose which door to open each door we open leads to another decision. You can choose the right door or the wrong door…..your choice  

There are two fairly attractive stepsisters and they live with a ghastly girl called Cinderella whose father married a sweet and kind woman for his new wife, her name was Ella, The father died a few weeks after their marriage leaving his new family with Cinderella. She loved doing work so they Cinderella the job of keeping the house tidy.but after a while she became lazy and didn’t bother doing even the most simplest jobs.

‘Cinderella you haven’t done your jobs ‘yelled the exasperated stepmother as Cinderella dragged herself down the stairs. ‘You must learn to help each other on this family’ said her quiet sister Anastasia who had just sat down to read a book. ‘Would you be quiet’ screamed Cinderella rushing down the stairs and raising her hand ready to slap her stepsister.  Stop it both of you the stepmother cried flopping down into the nearest arm chair. What’s going on mother’ asked Gruella walking into the living room and turning on the radio. ‘Turn that off now I’m trying to sleep’ shouted Ella. ‘Listen’ whispered Gruella. ‘That’s right’ the radio Man shouted in the loudest voice he could have managed. ‘The prince is looking for a bride and all the women in the country are invited to come. If you live outside the city boundary pay five dollars per person to get in starts at five thirty tonight. Gruella and Anastasia started running up the stairs to get ready for the royal ball. Cinderella skipped up the heavy wooden stairs and made her way into her stepsister’s bedroom. Cinderella grabbed her stepsister’s best clothes and pushed her way out of the room again. Gruella raced after her but Cinderella was too fast. She slammed the door shut and locked it with such a bang the whole house shook. Cinderella got ready as best she could in her bedroom. When she was ready she jumped out of her enormous solid window and made her way to the ball.

Meanwhile the sisters were crying and Ella was making new clothes for them. Oh, no Ella cried out I haven’t got enough material for both of you! Gruella and Anastasia started cursing Cinderella out loud. So loud in fact that Ella had to call out girls please. You will go to the ball someway. Just as the words finished touching her lips a soft tinkling noise filled the whole house. An old lady dressed most oddly appeared in the living room. She was wearing an old and battered traveling coat soaked with rain water, big glasses that filled up most of her face and a huge flowery hat with her hair pinned up at the back in a messy grey bun tied back with a hairpin. She smiled at them warmly and said suddenly, ‘come on lets get you ready for the royal ball’ and started taking measurements. In no time at all they were dressed in the most beautiful gowns and gorgeous slippers. ‘Thank you so much’ Ella said breathlessly. ‘Sorry if this sounds rude’ Anastasia asked the strange woman but… umm…who the heck are you? ‘Anastasia’ Ella whispered ‘shut up’. Why I’m you’re fairly odd mother. ‘Ohh they all exclaimed together ‘now we understand’ ‘Thank you so much and they rushed outside and hopped into their old cruddy car and drove off into the distance.

‘We’re here’ Gruella shrieked jumping out of the car with Anastasia close behind. They ran into the house and saw the Prince! He was hideous. He had pimples, big glasses, ginormus feet and, and  … freckles! Worst of all he was dancing with Cinderella. The girls went straight home and lived their lives by themselves in their warm, cosy, cottage because Cinderella had married the prince so they all lived happily ever after.

Last night I was watching One News at 6:00. I wasn’t really interested in what was going on until I heard about the eighteen year  boy who was about to die from doing stunts on his motorbike. Luckily he came back just in time. Apparently he came back from the dead just before the doctors were about to take out his organs. That would be pretty scary if it was you! The T.V people said that his parents had given up hope of him living, but his grandmother didn’t. They said that she prayed for him and he got better. Doctors said that they would try to bring him back one more time. One doctor grabbed his foot and another   cut his foot with a pocket knife. As soon as the knife touched his skin he tried to pull away. he was alive it must have been some miracle . He still carries that pocket knife around with him in his pocket for good.