Recently in class we have been writing an argument to present to the class .It has to be persuasive and interesting , we chose the topic we could do it about but had to be sensible and also inbetween 2-3 minutes long.

Enjoy!

Sugar tax

Try to think of all the harmful problems sugar causes ,dental issues, obesity ,diabetes and simply living happily

Think of a world where everyone around you is healthy and happy ,Including yourself ,wouldn’t that be perfect?

However it would take a miracle to get everyone to live that way ,luckily there is hope ,thanks to the sugar tax if every country in the world participated in making sugar filled drinks and foods more expensive, than all the problems caused by sugar would be solved.

Tell me ,how many people have told you “sugar is bad for you!don’t eat it” well they're not wrong and the thing is you know it’s bad for you ,so then why are you eating it?.Well it’s because sugar is actually more addictive than cocaine !not only that but also when you have sugar a chemical in your brain called dopamine which goes into your Nucleus Accumbens therefore making you go hyper and happy and part of the process of getting you addicted to the wicked sweets with a tragic ending .

Already a few countries have introduced the sugar tax such as,Denmark , Mexico ,Norway ,South Africa and the United Kingdom .So by now you’re probably thinking well ,what stopping us from solving all our problems ?

Well it’s due to the fact that some of new zealand’s parliament member (such as peter dunne) don’t believe that the sugar tax is necessary ,But the question is ,Why is Peter Dunne against the sugar tax ?

Peter Dunne is actually against the sugar tax because he believes that “it will do nothing because people don't know how bad the sugar really is and children need to learn to brush their teeth and care for themselves”.

But that’s the thing even if children brush their teeth as they’re meant to … nothing will change!,because no matter how much you brush your teeth ,people will still be eating the same amount of sugar .

Sugar causing the world so many problems ,dental ,living happily ,obesity and diabetes ,is this wicked sweet tooth causing us so much pain worldwide ,so ask yourself this question if you had one opportunity to stop a worldwide problem ,why wouldn’t you?

And I hope that someday the sugar tax shall be introduced worldwide

Jill

Olympic Games Padlet ( Work In Progess )

Currentlly in class we are working on some questions that we have about the olympics and posting them on our olympic games padlet.

here it is ...

My Olympics Padlet

Work This Term!

This term we have been looking at ways to make our writing more interesting for the reader.

We have used the following criteria to guide us:

• Changing the word order of a sentence
• Using literary devices such as metaphor, simile, alliteration, onomatopoeia and  personification
• Using specific verbs and adjectives
• Using  show, don’t tell techniques
• Using different sentence beginnings and lengths

Here are some examples of my writing this term.

Show Don’t Tell-Emotions

Rage: “NO DEFINITELY NOT” I shout “look there is no reason to be mad“said mum as if there was nothing wrong .“But mum PLEASE I really really really want to go!”I try to scream in fury ,But my voice box just cracks and now I know I’m definitely sick.

Envy: As the crackling and crumbling feeling swishes down my throat,I feel a burst of exclusion burst out of my mouth in a huge “ROAR!”.A wave of envy flushes through my body .Attempting to pretend I don’t care at all,A very big struggle for me How could my parents do this! No way are they going to get away with this!

Joy: Excitement filled the room as I stepped into the living room.

There on the coffee table were 5 beautifully wrapped gifts with white and blue polka dotted wrapping paper

with a golden think glittery ribbon wrapped cautiously around the new gift and a pink envelope balancing on top

of the presents .My face lights up with a smile and my heart overflows with excitement .

I pound over to the table and ask my parents who are now sitting on the sofa if I can open one yet ,

they answer “Yes,of course just not this one yet” Mum says as she pulls away one of the gifts,

”This one can go last”she continues .Finally The last gift rests on my pale ,gentle ,ballet tights ,

I grasp my hands onto the golden ribbon ,gently pull at the perfected bow as the ribbon unties and

lays on my thighs .I tear at the wrapping paper making a giant RIP sound flow into my ears.

As I see a cream coloured box sitting on my lap I lift the lid off the box I see two beautiful ballet shoes ,

lying in a cloud of tissue paper.

My heart explodes with happiness and Joy.

Sample Of Music Writing

The same old boring piece of music we had been practicing for months for our big performance ,

hamish had told us that this was our big shot at making an impression in the musical world.

However, our piece was just the same tune all the way through and I had ,

had enough of it as we begin my memory flashes back to new zealand in my kapa haka group

when I was 10 years old I remember when the boys were doing the haka if even one boy got out of synch

then the whole group would go faster and faster  

A chance to finally get the dream our group had always dreamed of,

A classic piece of music ,one chance to change our track .

I begin to slither my fingers swiftly across the wooden polished violin ,

We kick off at the original pace and then I slowly get faster and faster george starts playing at my pace

and then Trace, Felix and Claire join in then hamish our constructor frowns

and slows his hand movements to a very slow version of our piece and

everybody starts to move their fingers faster , and faster and faster and faster,

I begin to wonder whether hamish knows it’s me who started this catastrophe ,

I’ll definitely be kicked out of the orchestra now ,

we were struggling before but now the public probably thinks we are a mess ,

it’s all my fault There is nothing I can do now though ,I’m done for .

Wait why is the crowd smiling ? why is hamish smiling ,what’s happening ?,

I just need to focus my mind on sliding on the smooth surface of such a powerful instrument held in my

freckled beige sunkissed new zealand skin.

Attempting to focus my mind races to possibilities of why the crowd is enjoying this?

We are messing up the easiest piece of music of the planet ?!

As we finish the “classic” piece I realize ,

If everyone is happy with our performance then hamish can’t be mad!

I’m safe ! Hooray!! But .. does he know it’s me who changed it?...

The End

Edvard Grieg: In the Hall of the Mountain King

“ The Boy ” -Show Don’t Tell-Picture Prompt

Completely alone .Nobody there to comfort me ,just me and my soul.Against them .Standing in a corner .Two giant shadows towering over me .nowhere to run ,nowhere to hide ,nothing to do .Two of the toughest boys in the school crowding me .Why? … why is my life this way? … why am I giving up ? no less than two years ago this was happening to me ,just not the same .It was at my old school and all the kids in my syndicate would bully me they would call me “dumb,lonely,loser” because my initials are D.L.L which is Dylan Lachlan Lane .It was so bad that every time I walked out of class for ANY reason the students would cheer.As im walking into school today I think ”why? Why am I always picked on … I really don’t want to move schools again…”

And then Jamie and Kyle jumped out of the bushes in front of me .The two tall,strong ,boxing enthused boys towered over my scrawny ,weak soul.

” Look who it is .. it’s little D.L.L “ Jamie says smugly with his dark mossy green eyes glaring down at me “Got anything for us D.L.L ?”said Kyle threateningly “ no, I don’t have anything for you, just leave me alone. Go bother someone else!” I say angrily “oooh trying to stand up to us mate?, haha good try but no prize mate come ‘ere” they say trudging toward me .I go into a panic mode looking for any escape ,then I remember I have a special ability that these boys can’t do ,I look for a perfect chance to escape I see my only chance I leap and slide down onto the cold hard concrete as my smooth hands scrape against the pebbly uneven ground ,shuffling my knees and hands along the ground

I stifle to my feet ,my whole body shaking and scrambling ,twisting and turning I turn to see Kyle and Jamie turning their heads in my direction .

I run as fast as my legs can take me ,my head spinning like a spinning top trying to find anywhere to go and hide I hear my shoes pounding on the ground with a retaliation going into my body I feel like an earthquake has struck as I hear two sets of pounding feet turning the corner and coming in my direction.

Viking Girl-Show Don’t Tell

Head tilted down ,eye bags ,underneath my death stare starting its engine

“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT … NO WAY !!” I shout “I'M NOT DOING IT !!”

My death stare getting stronger and stronger hoping she’ll disappear .

I clench my fists and stomp my feet .

Coming towards me to stop my emotion .Mum reaches for me in a steady grasp .

”NNOO Let Me GO!”

I scream .But I am defenceless …

Mum has already started doing the worst thing she could

……. BRUSHING MY HAIR!!!!

Genius Hour Update!

Update!

Recently me and Ash-lee (Blog Linked below!)

have been working on our Recycled clothing 

project.The progress we have made so far is only just getting us 

started but we will be posting updates on our blogs .

We have been trying to re-create a photo we saw on the internet of a pair of shorts with lace on the sides We liked this idea but we felt it needed a little extra so we decided to make this pair of denim shorts distressed (Distressed is a style of denim where the denim is "torn apart"

and it is meant to look messy )But no need to worry we are taking extra care of this to make sure we dont actually damage the denim .This pair of shorts used to my old pair of jeans which I decided to use for this project(with permission).

Ash-lee's Te Poutama Blog

and here is our distressed denim shorts!

Water Gun Catastrophe!

Stomping coming from inside as the noise gets louder and louder I realise what is about to happen ..I jump inside the garage behind my brothers bike ,fred staring at me like I’m a lunatic but staying right where he is with his water gun completely unaware of what is about to happen.”FRED WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY WINDOWS …I’VE JUST CLEANED THEM!!!” Mum shouts furiously ”but..but.. But...I..uhhhh…” “NO! GO TO YOUR ROOM!” .As I see Fred walk off with his head down … I feel a glimmer of guiltiness rush through my body as if I had broken a child’s toy ….pfft As if!

Show Don't Tell

We were given a challenge to be shown a photo and do a piece of show don't tell writing... which is
basically where you have to write describing a moment of emotion and have to list down the amount of things that we can see with describing without telling the reader what the emotion is and then we get to decide why they are so emotional I decided since it was a child that I would do something which I know I hated as a small child !!we then had to colour code everything which would be a clue to how this person is feeling.... enjoy!

Show Don’t Tell

Head tilted down ,eye bags ,underneath my death stare starting its engine

“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT … NO WAY !!” I shout “I'M NOT DOING IT !!”

My death stare getting stronger and stronger hoping she’ll disappear .

I clench my fists and stomp my feet .

Coming towards me to stop my emotion .Mum reaches for me in a steady grasp .”NNOO Let Me GO!”

I scream .But I am defenceless … Mum has already started doing the worst thing she could ……. BRUSHING MY HAIR!!!!

Scroll Down For Highlighted Version

Speech

Looks

Body languge/movement

Thinking

feel

Show Don’t Tell HIGHLIGHTED!!

Head tilted down ,eye bags ,underneath my death stare starting its engine

“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT … NO WAY !!” I shout “I'M NOT DOING IT !!”

My death stare getting stronger and stronger hoping she’ll disappear .

I clench my fists and stomp my feet .

Coming towards me to stop my emotion .Mum reaches for me in a steady grasp.There is no way im letting her do this! .But I am defenceless … Mum has already started doing the worst thing she could ……. BRUSHING MY HAIR!!!!

Block Run Records

Note: the lower the bars the better
also I don't know why it has changed it to 16 minutes but my average times are around 4 minutes

Scary Injections-My Holiday Story

The day I had been dreading for weeks .

But it has to happen

        or something much worse could happen.I walk into the unknown

medical service which was even more scary .

The white and cream walls reminding me of the possibilities, I could faint, I could puke .

The blue marbled floor with its detailed splotchy pattern with a clear coat making the surface slippery .

Waiting on the uncomfortable plastic chairs of the waiting room,with every nurse doctor

and receptionist walking past a thought bounces into my brain,

“Is it my turn? Is it my turn?” Finally someone announces “Jillian Ransby”as my mum and I stand up and follow the nurse into a room with a dark blue door and a small tinted window.  After a few minutes of talking the nurse leaves and then returns.  I place my sunglasses on to hide my fear of needles and to stop anyone  seeing the tears forming in the corner of my eyes.  I know what’s coming, it’s exactly like at the dentist when I was getting my filling.   They got me to hold an electric toothbrush (as if that was going to work ).   I could see the needle in his hand and FREAKED OUT!!!  But not this time,there was no escape now …  now the needle was an inch away from reaching my skin .I try to squirm away but it’s too late, the needle has already punctured my skin   .I hold my breath and it’s over within an eyeblink.  Only one left to go and then done for 10-20 years I think, but there’s one problem ……..

It’s GARDASIL !

Genius Hour Reflection

Driving Question:How might we make old clothing that we already had.Into clothing which we could have bought at a store.

The first day of Genius hour Me and Ash-lee had decided on making old boring recycled clothes, into new fashionable clothing we were both really excited about this.But I had forgotten to bring some clothes !

We spent the entire time discussing what we were going to do .

We have decided on two outfits possibly three ;) .

Here is a sneak peek of what we will be making: