Showing her appreciation for her granparents. This is Genevieve's letter expressing her grattitude for her grandparents.

Dear Mrs Baker,

Have you ever had someone who you loved you, took care of you, fed you and put a shelter on top of your head. Well that’s the job my grandpa and nana have done for me ever since I was a little girl. These two amazing people raised, cared and nourished my mother. My mum and dad have full time jobs so my nana and grandpa are like my heroes.

My nana had two marriages. She had 5 kids before she met my grandpa. Then when she met my grandpa my mum came along. Even though my grandpa is not related by blood to my nanas 5 older children he still cares for them as if he is their father.

At home sitting in her own little room is my great grandma who is 89. This lady has Parkinsons disease. This mean she needs help to do everyday stuff like eating, having a shower, going to the toilet and sometimes even walking. That when my nana comes in. She cooks, does the laundry and makes the best Lu sipi (lamb wrapped in taro leaves) I have ever tasted. My nana is just 70 and has problems with her right arm but she still cares so much about her mum that nothing will get in the way when she needs help.

My grandpa may not be special to you but he is to me. This man has been in the hospital several times because of his heart. The year before last year on Christmas my grandpa was rushed to the hospital because he stopped breathing. At that moment I thought I was going to lose my role model, my rock and my hero.

Yours Sincerely

Genevieve

Are We Ready?

The extension classes at Tamaki Intermediate made this movie "Are We Ready?" which is all about student voice. We had a lot of fun making this movie. Ideas for the movie were researched and also generated from the "ULearn Teachers' Conference' held recently at Christchurch. We acknowledge all presenters at the conference who presented teachers with ideas to teach digital learners of the 21st Century. Manaiakalani is all about this. We are putting into practice what we are learning. Enjoy watching the movie.

Kitione expressing his love of Music and Dance

Music and Dance

Dance and Music has changed over time
It sometimes comes on Prime
Music is a sound
You can hear it all round
It sounds sweet
Like when birds tweet.

I like to listen to music
When it doesn’t sound like a broken record
Music is nice to listen to
Dancing is great to do
Michael Jackson is the best
He is better than the rest
And he has finally been laid to rest.

By Kitione Tamale

Hi everyone here is Eparama's explanation writing on cooking methods and utensils

Cooking utensils are used to cook food. People still use old fashion cooking utensils today. However, some appliances such as the egg beater were not electric until the 1885.

Ovens are also cooking utensils however ovens in the past was not so flash. Some cultures used the earth to make food. Just like my culture we call it the LOVO.

Some people are returning to the appliances and utensils of years ago. These had been accumulated for use and decorative purposes. But some collectors now are actually using them instead of those they can acquire in modern stores.

These might date from 10 or 20 years ago, or they could go back to the mid-1950s or earlier. Those collected for decorative effect often were used even earlier than that.

Through the years cooking utensils had been modified for improvement.

This is a recount about Erika's school holidays.

My memorable holidays

In the holidays it was my birthday and my Nana asked me what I wanted to do and I just said I wanted to go to Denny’s. My Nana said alright and she went and booked it. On my birthday my family and I travelled to Denny’s in a four wheel drive.

As we walked into Denny’s we had to go to the receptionist’s area. After that we started eating and talked about what college I was going to and about my school and how I have been doing at school.

After we ate, we left and travelled to Candyland in Hamilton. The drive was very long it took maybe an hour. Candyland was fun. I had never seen so much candy at one place. We all started eating lollies as if the world was coming to an end.

When we finished up at Candyland we went to my dad’s house. It was a beautiful apartment but we didn’t stay long because we were coming back on the following Sunday. We drove back up to Auckland and when we were in Auckland we drove back home to cook dinner.

Two days after my birthday my generous aunty took us to the Highland Park Cinemas. We watched Toystory3 it was awesome and at the same time it was scary and awfully sad. We munched on popcorn while watching the movie.

The movie was very interesting to watch. When the movie finished all my little cousins and my annoying brother ran to the arcade area. We stayed there for a couple of games and then we leaving a trail of a mess. After that we had lunch that each one of us packed which was fizzy drinks, lollies, sandwiches and other snacks.

When we got home we ate pizza and nachos. When it finally got dark we started watching movies we watched Eclipse, Boy, Ip Man1, Ip Man2, Predators, Toystory3, Shrek Forever After, Karate kid, Final Destionation3 and Legion.

The holidays were memorable. Another year was added to my age. I went to Candyland and almost suffocated myself with so much candy. The best part is I had so much fun.

This is a narrative written by Chloe. There is a theme in this narrative which she has worked hard to bring forth to the readers.

It was a sunny day and the sun was shining brightly. It was a typical summer’s day in Folkerston. The wind was blowing lazily and the flowers swayed as if they were enjoying a classical piece by an orchestra. Inside a bach a teenage girl sits at her table looking as if she was in despair.

Her name is Ruby. She always looks sad and angry because she is always bored and always too shy to go outside and play. Every time she looks outside she sees the other children playing with their best friends and laughing. Secretly she wanted to experience the joy the other children had with their friends but she never has the courage to join in.

One day Ruby was looking outside and saw a car driving in to the next house. She then saw a little girl hop out of the car really excited and jumping up and down. “Melina stop moving around so much” her mother said. “I heard the girl next door is a really nice girl. Why don’t you go over and say hello”.

Ruby couldn’t believe someone had said she is a nice girl. She is always being put down by others and has never heard a compliment from anyone but her mother. Before she could think again there was a knock at the door. Ruby walked over and opened the door. Standing there with some cookies was a little girl with a bright smile. “Hi there, my name is Melina. I will be your neighbour for the holidays”. Ruby could not say anything for a while. She then smiled at the little girl and asked her to come inside.

They started talking about their schools and how the children are. Ruby told Melina she does not have any friends and Melina was shocked at her confession. “Well, I will be your first friend, and I hope to be your best friend too” Melina said.

The next two weeks went like the wind. The two girls spent so much time together. They went walking in the park every day and counted how many birds they saw in the trees. They baked chocolate chip cookies using Ruby’s unique recipe which included cinnamon. Melina said she has never tasted such nice cookies and will never stop making cookies.

Ruby felt as if she was in a dream. She never thought she would find so much joy from having a friend. Especially a friend so much younger than her. On the day Melina was returning home to start school, Ruby gave her a necklace she made herself. As the girls hugged Melina’s mother asked Ruby if she wanted to visit them during the next holidays. Ruby accepted the offer and felt as if she was walking on clouds.

Vaegaau and Afu had fun writing this narrative. They are starting to use similies in their writing and hope you enjoy their narrative.

The Haunted Stadium

On one cold misty night on the 22^nd of June 2010, Zuzu gazed out the window and saw a swirl of strong wind taking the leaves into a slow dance in the misty air. She was practicing her ballet routine for her school event by herself and all of a sudden she heard weird sounds coming from the stadium outside.

She ran into the stadium at the speed of lightning and saw no one. She then walked around looking for where the strange noises came from. Her heart was beating like thunder, her teeth were chattering like cups during an earthquake.

Stomp, stomp she hears someone moving around. Her heart started to beat faster and faster. She felt the presence of the person getting closer and closer. Her mind was telling her to run but her heart was beating so fast she could not make a move.

Just before she opened her mouth to scream, she saw the person move closer and realised it was her friend Bridget who was playing a trick on her.

Samoa

An Action-Packed Term 3 for Room 3

This term’s Year 7 topic was ‘The Nutty Professor’. We had to find an experiment, test it out and present it to the school with display boards. Three adults and some secret students judged our Science Fair projects. We enjoyed carrying out the experiments and displaying our scientific research and thinking.

A group travelled to Samoa to represent our school. Before they left they showed us what they would be doing. This included a ‘Fiafia Night’ to help the fund raise money for the trip to Samoa. We also had a Mufti day where a voluntary contribution of two dollars could be donated towards the trip.

A Year 7 and Year 8 after school netball team played in a graded tournament. The Year 7 team never lost a game! They were presented with a trophy for winning the Grade D section.

We also had four rugby teams representing us. They were the over 55s and under 55s boys team. There is also an Open Grade girls rugby team and under 55s girls team. Our Open Grade girls have done well, making it to the finals. We are all as happy as larks!

Each Monday we have taken part in an exciting new dance exercise session called Zumba. The instructor’s name was Yvonne. We were all thrilled and pumped. During the session we heard some of our favourite music.

In math we have been learning about percentages, fractions, decimals, geometry, and measurement. We also have a new teacher because our teacher is with the group that has gone to Samoa. Her name is Miss Bell. We have learnt heaps more thinking strategies and ways to improve our standards with her.

Nostalgic Memories and Reflections of Term 3 2010

It’s nearly the end of the term and we start to reflect back to memories that have happened this term. A reflective feeling came over us as we thought of the science fair that recently took place in the hall.

In our Year 7 individual classes we were partnered up with a buddy to construct a science experiment. We experienced how hard it was to do this particular topic. But with a positive attitude and the help from our buddies we managed to get through. On the day of the science fair a lot parents turned up to see their child’s experiment that they worked very hard on. The next day one of the pairs got one of the individuals to present their work to the school. They left their projects in the hall ready for the two judges to judge their experiment.

Measurement, Time, Fractions, Angles, and Capacity, these are some of the topics that room 3 have been learning about in Mathematics this term. In our group we learned parts of a decimal. We also learned if the number is after the decimal that means that the number is not a whole number yet. But if it is before the decimal it is already one whole number.

Every Thursday Room 3 has P.E. At the beginning of the term we had gymnastics which was usually tiring. Even though it was hard we still managed to pull through it. In the last few weeks of the term we have been practicing our Large Ball Skills. This included the games of Volley and Dodge Ball.

Writing for Room3 has been in the format of a Procedural writing and also Narratives. Procedural Writing was connected to the “Crazy Science” unit study because when we presented our experiment we had to write out our method which includes a diagram of how you set up the equipment, and describes the steps you take to carry out the experiment.

Te Reo Maori for us was really interesting because we got to learn how to ask questions in Te Reo Maori and we also learned about the Atua’s of the Maori’s that lived long ago.

In Technology the girls in Room 3 had Art with Mrs Baker and the boys had Music with Miss Dekker. The girls in Art got to draw birds and we learned the basic shapes of a bird. We also learned how to weave and dye a background. The boys were enjoying learning to play songs on our school ukuleles.

By Vaegaau & Afu

Talofa from Samoa

We have been very busy in Samoa. Since our arrival we have made several trips to town and today we went to the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum. It was amazing to hear about the history of Samoa surrounding the famous writer who died in Samoa and is buried at the top of Mt Vaea due to his wishes. His other wish was to be buried with his boots which the Samoan people fulfilled when he died. It took a lot of work for the people of Samoa to carry Robert Louis Stevenson's coffin to the top of the mountain but they did it because they loved him.

Tomorrow which is Tuesday in Samoa we are travelling to Savaii. We are all excited to go because we have heard so many wonderful stories about Savaii. MRsTofa is escpecially excited because Savaii is where she was born.

We will keep you all posted when we have access to the internet but for now Tofa Soifua.

The power of Mentos

Question
Will the coke react if we drop mentos into it?

Hypothesis:
We thought the mentos will make the coke fizz.

Materials:
• Coke 1.5L bottle(don’t shake)
• Mentos(mint)
• Geyser tube

Method:
1. Open the coke bottle and place the geyser tube at the top where the lid was
2. Put the little plastic key and insert it in the two holes on the geyser tube
3. Fill the geyser tube with mentos
4. When ready release the plastic key to drop the mentos into the coke

Observations:
As the mentos dropped into the coke, it started to fizz and then the fizz rose to the top causing a fizzing eruption.

Analysis:
Any foreign substance put into carbonated beverages helps release the carbonation from the beverage. Since the carbon dioxide is forced into the soda it is unstable and will fizz whenever there is something else added.

Conclusion:
Our observation proved to be right. The mentos caused a fizzy explosion from the coke because of the carbon dioxide being forced into the soda.

My awesome dad

Dear Mrs Baker

I am going to talk about my handsome and most lovable Dad.

When I am with him it is like I am with a friend because he helps me with my homework and usually takes me fishing.

While fishing with my dad, my cousin and my brother he taught me how to fish and how to kill it. He says it is just being slow and steady, and if it wasn’t for my dad I wouldn’t have caught a fish for the first time.

He is a helpful and a trust-worthy father who cares about me and does whatever he wants to do in his life. He sometimes tells jokes and acts all silly that makes me laugh.

Ever when I was 7 years old and it’s the holidays, he takes me to the beach. Afterwards when we are finished, he takes me to the shops to buys me an ice-cream that makes me happy.

We both watch our favourite shows N.C.I.S and C.S.I which makes us happy. My dad gives me money when I have no food to eat, he usually calls me “AA” or “hungry” (because I like eating) and it makes him laugh sometimes. Sometimes he gives me lollies.

This is why I have nominated my dad, Togia Pineki because he is valuable to me and is a kind hearted father.

From: Ro-June