"The Giver" - Reflection

Why is the community so obsessed with "precision of language"? What does this have to do with rules and control?
Because if somebody thinks that their words are better than other words and uses them lazily, that would break the rule of: people thinking that they are better than others and are different from everyone else.

What is the value of memory in the giver? Why does the community need it preserved?
Because when some of the community people need help with things that haven't been dealt with before they need the wisdom of the giver. Also if the memories are released and the giver or receiver is killed or passed the boundary, the memories will go to everyone. Which means everyone has feelings and can think for themselves.

Things that differ from the book to the movie are:
Movie had 5 rules for being the receiver the book had 8. The houses were a lot different than what I had pictured. The community was on a sort of floating island. There was a big triangle to get through of rocks in the movie and in the book there wasn't. Jonah was at number 52 in the movie and 19 in the book. Asher (Jonah's friend) was elected to fly a ship in the movie. Asher dropped Jonah in the water with gabriel (A little baby). There were heaps of key bits in the book that wasn't in the movie, for example: to escape Jonah had to punch Asher in the face and, Jonah slowly started to see all the colours not all just at once.

Technology Cycle 4 Finished Project

 I have worked hard and have almost completed my project. I really like and enjoy how the design works and looks like. The soldering was probably the hardest but would have been a lot easier if I had had an extra hand coming out the side of my body. It's great that the design works.
Here is a photo of my work in progress but nearly done:

And here is a photo of the completed design:

Speeches: Tongue Twister

Room 12 B have been racing against other people in the class to see who was the fastest person with tongue twisters without mucking up. The tongue twisters were annoying to say after a while and everyone got mucked up with the words. We all chose a tongue twister and recorded it. I chose red lorry yellow lorry x10. Here is my tongue twister:

New Zealand Duathlon

New Zealand competitors have gathered to compete in the New Zealand Duathlon competition. I got to the race event late in the morning breeze, but the breeze was deadly cold for all the competitors and the clouds were a dark grey promising rain. The race was held at Taupo.

I set up all my gear in transition at 12:15pm practising running in and quickly getting on my helmet. Finally what seemed like hours the year 7&8 category was called up to the starting line by a booming speaker. I was only racing out of year 7's and was all nervous, but ready for the race. Sadly the night before I had got a bad earache, but that didn't stop me from competing. Me and others like Ollie Marshall (someone from Hawkes Bay) stepped up onto the starting line. "Okay" said the race organiser. " I will say on your marks and then this horn will go on the horn you start." Everyone nodded understandingly. "On your marks."

BANG!!! The horn hooted and everyone ran off into the race. The first run was 2km, the bike 7km and then the final run 1km. after doing the 2km I entered transition. I buckled on my helmet and mounted his bike after the line. After I had done one lap of the course I was far behind. I knew I wasn't doing well and was out in the open of the course trying to catch up to the leaders. 

After completing the second lap I dismounted well before the line and started running into transition. I put my bike onto the racks then took off my helmet. Once I was running around the final lap of the course. I knew that my run was horrible but stuck behind another runner. I was close to the finish, and the runner picked up the pace and was at least 15 metres ahead. I thought the other runner was going to beat me but I still had enough energy. I started sprinting, the other runner looked back and by then I was 1 metre behind. I sprinted faster and faster it was so close and we didn't know who crossed the line first but luckily I got there by the skin of his nose. After the race I congratulated the other person.

Prize giving started and the race organiser called up...... "Will Tidswell from Havelock North Intermediate." Startled I walked up onto podium.

I was so happy! The medal said: Duathlon New Zealand 3rd place.

Afterward looking at the results I had got the same time as the other boy. I told mum "I guess the sprinting paid off!" 

Cycling In Taupo

New Zealand Cycling Champs

It’s all on….. Cycling competitors have gathered to take a shot in the New Zealand Champs for cycling. Many teams are ready to give their best crack and also all the individuals. It’s a cloudy day at the Taupo racing track.

From Havelock North Intermediate, Barney Wardlaw, Jono Williams and Will Tidswell are racing for Hawkes Bay. They have come up to Taupo and are getting prepped for the team event. They have been entered into the Year 8 category because Jono is a year 8, even though Barney and Will are Year 7’s.

After a while the year 8 boys got called up to the starting line. Jono, Barney and Will were second to start, 30 seconds behind the first team. 3……2……….1………..Go!!! The loud speaker boomed. Off went Havelock keeping a nice pace at the start. There was no sun on the Friday so many teams were wearing skins to try and stop the coldness getting to them. They were finally on the last lap. The Havelock North team speed up passing a team and another and another team that had already passed them.

Trying to avoid getting passed again they changed into top gear after getting out of the head wind. They were along the final straight. They stood up with their thighs booming and they pressed down upon the pedals and……….. Crossed the line!

After they had circled back into the hanger. Everyone said how well they did. There was only half an hour till the individuals year 7 boys.

Barney and Will progressed towards the line behind the car. They waited until the car started moving and clipped in with their cleats. They started off going slowly, until they had rounded the corner then the car pulled over and everyone burst away trying as quickly as possible to drop people off. Barney was unlucky and after a couple of minutes had got caught in a bunch of people. By then the lead group had sprinted off and after passing the group of cyclists could not catch them.

Will however was still in the bunch group behind the 3^rd person drafting him so he could save as much energy as possible. Once the first lap was over the fastest group, of about 15, was in the lead with a couple of stragglers behind. Barney was unfortunately with the chase group and after a 2 more laps was still in the chase group. Will was still in the lead group and had dropped off only about 3 people leaving the total amount to sprint with at, 12. Since the year 7 boys were doing four laps they were on the last lap. Barney was still in the catch group and had also tried a number of times to sprint away from the chase group.

The lead group was along a head wind straight about half a km from the finish. The lead group started sprinting. Will was in the front of the lead group and wanted to drop back to save energy. But since there were so many people behind Will he couldn’t. After they had all rounded a corner and another 2 year 7’s sprinted pass everyone, Will and 2 others from different schools left the other year 7’s in the ta. It was a five person sprint. Everyone was hurting. The first 2 went through with the same time then……… The 2 others and then Will.

Will had come 5^th out of New Zealand. Barney came in with a great placing as well. He got 19^th in the whole of New Zealand. And for the teams Barney, Jono and Will got 10^th!!!!!

Jono then had the same exciting race and came 19^th overall which was again amazing. Hawkes Bay did really well and Havelock North did well as well!!!! Everyone had an amazing time. It was a great experience.

My Technology Elective

For Term 3 I chose the elective technology. In technology your objective is to create objects making them work, make them look cool and working together. My favourite competition that we have done so far is an egg challenge one. For the challenge you had to drop an egg from a certain height without letting it break. You could not wrap the egg up making it even more difficult. We made a parachute made out of paper with a holder which you could put the egg in. Sadly the egg had a crack in his head and later on was turned into an omelet. The other challenges were also very fun, I have had a great time taking on the challenges.

Persuasive Writing

In the past 6 writing sessions we have been writing persuasive writing. My one was about why you have to do homework. Here is my writing:

Homework Creates Success

Homework is necessary! Homework is important. Information, effort, responsibility, engagement and reliability can only be accessed when doing homework. Homework is THE ONLY WAY for your child to learn.

When you go to school and do a test, they will have all the information because you have done homework the night before the test and then you will get top marks.You always hear your Mother saying, “Homework is very useful for later on in life and you will, get a lot out of homework and will learn heaps.” You would have studied and learnt all the different questions. Scientists have tested how much information kids retain and how much they improve. The facts show that kids improve immensely in their tests and have retained heaps of information letting them get a better job. You would learn about things that you would use later on in life and homework is the only option for that to happen.

Homework will make you more engaged in everything.  You will find everything interesting and will love it. You will find all subjects interesting and will enjoy them a lot more. You will be really engaged and enjoy everything they do. Everyone hears their Dad saying, “Once I did my homework I was fascinated in everything.” You have to, have to like everything. We both know it, that’s why you want to do homework.

We both know that if you put effort in, success will come out. That’s why we do it. You should too. When you do homework and put in a lot of effort we know that the result will be great. No one else can put in effort apart from you! Success is easy if you put in effort and to do that you have to do homework! Grandparents always say, “When I was younger I didn’t put in a lot of effort, then I did my homework and I got top marks for everything.” Homework is easy if you put in effort, and everything else will be easy too once you’ve done your homework. We know it will be, that’s why we do it!

We both know that your responsibility is appalling and will walk out of the house unprepared and it’s raining and you have even forgotten to eat breakfast! The main cause of that would be NOT DOING HOMEWORK!!! Your teachers always say, “My responsibility was poor I always walked outside still in my pyjamas, then my teacher gave me homework and I always got dressed and new what to do.” After doing homework you will take full responsibility for yourself and will know what to do. There is NO way round this, it is 100% proven that if you do homework, your responsibility remarkably improves.

We know that homework makes you heaps more reliable. We know that you have to do homework. If you want to do your favourite sport or go to a maths competition, you have to be reliable enough to hand the notice in.You've all heard someone say to you, “I was never a reliable person right until the point when my teacher gave me homework, and from then on I always handed my notices in.” People will trust you more if you do homework because you, will know that you are reliable. The only way of making yourself more reliable is doing your homework.

Now to sum things off we both know that homework is very important and has to be done to succeed in life that’s why we do it. I’m sure that you would agree with me that homework is very important and is the only way to do well. So start doing more homework!!!!

Electronics Technology

Today I learnt how to solder. We soldered wires to a piece of copper which was stuck onto a piece of cardboard. We all really enjoyed ourselves and the experience.

P.E. Social Dancing

This term for P.E. we have been learning all sorts of dances for our curriculum. On the first day we started off with Gay Gordons then progressed onto Coconut Cream. The next session we learnt Red Hot and by the end of you were very red and hot. Then we learnt Sha la la la la. We kept on learning those four dances and after we had almost mastered then moved onto the Maxina then Sea Cruise. The steps looked easy when someone did something but when you learnt them they were hard. Today we learnt Bus Stop. It is really good opportunity to dance and interact with someone but sometimes the dances are hard to learn. Hopefully by the end of the term I'll have mastered them all.