Today I learnt...

About a Greek god. His name is Dionysus. He is the son of Zeus and Semele, a mortal. She died when he was in her womb. She wanted to see Zeus in his true form. He didn't want to, but he really loved her. He did it, but the power completely disintegrated Semele, but not Dionysus, Zeus opened a flap from his skin and put Dionysus in it. He had a big lump on his side. Once Dionysus was fully formed, Zeus gave the baby to a farmer's house with his wife.

Today I learnt...

About a Greek goddes. Her name is Athena. She is the daughter of Zeus and Metis, a nymph. She was sucked into Zeus' body and had birth to Athena in his brain. She can transfer into a memory, so she made a racket in Zeus' head and made a terrible head-ache. Hephaestus put a crack in Zeus' head and out came Athena as a fully grown woman. She is the half-sister of Ares.

Today I learnt...

A Greek god. His name is Ares. He is the son of Zeus and Hera. He is the god of war. He has 2 sons name Phoebes and Deimos. Fear and Panic. His brother is Hephaestus. And his half-sister is Athena. Talk about a family tree.

Vampire Bite

Vampire Bite

The name is Max. Just a little warning, some bits are for 10 and over. Those are the bits that have red text like this. Now let's get into the story.

"I swear, that place is haunted! Look, you have to believe me!" said Max panicking.
"Sorry kid, but you have no proof that the house is haunted." said Officer Sean, a cop.
"Uh... you can come with us! We can show you is haunted! said Anna. Sean thought for a moment. After a few seconds, he finally answered.
"Okay, but you have to do it before 8:30 pm. Right now it is 8:04 pm so you better hurry," said Sean.
"Oh, thank you so much. You won't regret it." thanked Max.

We went down the streets until we got up to a road that had Gray Rd. They looked  for the number 66. Once they got inside, they looked everywhere for any paranormal activity.
"I'm pretty sure it is right..." said Max. But then, the lights went out. The floor cracked and made Max fall to the ground screaming. He heard Anna and Sean screaming. Then he heard scratches and bites and more screams from Sean. His voice was soon very faint. Then silence. The lights turned on. Max only saw a bit of light.
"Max! Where are you?! MAAAX!!!" yelled Anna.

Her voice was fading away. I was getting deeper and deeper until it was 10 meters. I hit the floor, waiting for something to come. "I'm here!" I cried... "Down here!". but no one could hear me as I waited for someone or something to come. I tried again. But this time, at the top of my lungs.
"CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!!" I yelled.
"Max?" said Anna. "Is that you?".
"Oh, thank God. Are you OK? I said.
"Yes but Sean, the cop, isn't."

When I got up, I saw blood, guts and organs are everywhere. His head was at the other corner of the room, his limbs were ripped into shreds and his uniform had claw-marks all over his plump stomach. A disgusting sight if you asked me. Then we heard a faint laugh.
"Why thank you for giving such an amazing feast. He did regain quite a lot of my strength. You should of forgotten all about this place. Except you just gave me more food. Say your last words." said a dark figure. He lunged at me. All I heard was Anna's scream and then scratches and bites. Then all I thought of was what a fool I was.

I improved at...

Finding out things to do for my Today I learnt. All you have to do is to think of a subject like the human body and figure out 3 different things about it.

Today I Learnt...

How neurons work. Neurons are things inside the brain which transfer memories as an electrical pattern. It's pretty cool if you think about it. They are the basic working unit of the brain, a cell designed to send information to other nerve cells, muscle, and gland cells. Neurons are cells in the nervous system. They usually have a cell body, an axon, and dendrites.

Today I Learnt...

How the veins work. They pump deoxygenated blood through a series of veins and venous valves. When the leg muscles contract, the valves let the blood go through the veins to the heart. The valves have two opposite flaps that are like doors opening in one direction preventing blood to go back down to the leg.

Today I Learnt...

How long an adult's human heart rate is. It is around 60-100 beats per minute. That's for a relaxing adult like laying down on a couch, drinking some tea and reading a book by the fireplace on a cold winters night. Most of the time, a heart with a lower heart rate means that the heart is quite efficient. For example, a well-trained athlete relaxing on a couch has a heart rate of 40 beats per minute.

Whareroa Farm

In the 17th of June, we went to the Whareroa Farm.It is a place of wonderful plantlife and small animals. We went with Rm 18. We got into groups. Rm 18 was group C and D. We split our class in half to do A and B. It was turning into a good day.

Our first activity was to go to a little stream that was filled with aquatic insects. I was with Mack, Jackson, Stase, Joshua Mc, Nathan and Luc. We had to go in pairs. I went with Mack. We first checked the purity of the water. We got 1.79 m. That was, on the chart, excellent. We scooped up some water and found lots of mayfly larvae. We studied them with magnifying glasses. Stase even caught a fish! It was really cool!

We went up a hill with Mr C. He showed us a place called Camp Mackay. It was a military camp in WWII. He then showed us a place that had cracked shells where the Maori used to eat. When we got to the top, he told us to use the map from the booklet that we got at the start of the day. It was very cold at the top.

When we went back down, we had lunch. We had a few games of Tag. Then it was our turn for Orienteering. We had to go into small groups. I was with Luc, Jackson, Mack, Chloe and Jessie. We had a chart with numbers 1 to 18. We crossed off 4, 5 and 6 'cause they were hard to get. When my group found number 1, 2, 3 and 13, we split up. Me, Luc and Jackson met Stase and Joshua so we teamed up. When we found 14 and 16, me and Jackson looked for 15. Then Stase, Luc and Joshua kind of ditched us. We found 17 and then we went back. It was time to do our final activity.

We had to walk through the river. Then the manager told us about some fungi. We then saw some wetas and a dead cat. Yuck! We went back to school on the bus. It was an awesome day.

 Otto, Wilkie and Swithin

Hi, my name is Otto. This is the story about me and my friends. Their names are Wilkie and Swithin. Wilkie is the smartest, and Swithin is...well...dumbest person in the world!!!! Anyway, as I was saying, we went on a really cool adventure, and here is the story.

“Come on, let’s go!” yelled Wilkie.

“No, I’m sick. Cough, cough.” said Swithin.

“That is so fake. Let’s just go see the new king.” said Otto. They went to the castle and saw King Balderdash.

“Hello, people of Gagglefoot. I’m going to...uh… hold on a sec. Where is it...here it is. You will be proud of your new king!” The crowd went wild.

“That was pretty weird. That was also really short.” said Wilkie. Then they saw, a figure with a black mask, holding a sack of gold.

They sneaked up to where he was going, and saw him going to a castle.

“King Balderdash’s castle! Let’s go see what’s happening.” said Otto. They walked for a bit until they found the man putting down his sack.

“You are under arrest!” yelled Swithin. The figure turned around and we saw the culprit’s face.

“King Balderdash? Why are you stealing gold?” asked Otto.

“I’m poor, alright? I don’t have that much money. Please don’t call the guards.”

And that is the end of the story. King Balderdash was sent to prison and we were announced heroes.

I improved at...

Science. I figured out why the clouds are floating in the air, why they are white and what they are made of. They are made of tiny water molecules. Their is a ton of molecules inside one. The white is created by the light shining through them from the sun. They float because when the water evaporates, all the molecules separate and because of the warm air, it rises. When it starts to cool, the molecules join with other molecules to create rain drops. The water going in to the cloud is condensation. When it rains, it is called precipitation. This is what I improved at.

Today I learnt...

A Roman goddess. This one is called Minerva. Her Greek version is Athena. She is the daughter of Jupiter. She somehow was born from his head. That's also what she does with her babies. She was the one who invented the flute. But that's another story.

Today I learnt...

About another Roman God. His name is Mercury. He is the messenger of the gods. He is the son of Jupiter and Maia. Legend says, he created a new instrument called the lyre. He also stole some cattle from Apollo and ate 2 when he was just born. When Apollo wanted to kill him, he showed him the lyre then Apollo spared his life. That was Mercury's first adventure.

Today I learnt...

The Roman gods. I'm going to do 2 extra posts about 2 other gods. The first one is Bacchus. Bacchus is the god of agriculture and wine. He was the son of Jupiter and a woman called Semele. He figured out his powers when he was quite young. He can do powers of insanity.

This is my Nudibranch facts. Hope you enjoy. Sorry about the missing letters.

Today I learnt...

About Maori weapons. There are long handled weapons like the Taiaha, a fighting staff. There is a pointed fighting staff called a Pouwhenua. Another staff is the Tewhatewha, the axe-like fighting staff. Those are some weapons that I found. Here is a link to go to a website that shows more Maori weapons.

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/riri-traditional-maori-warfare/page-3

Today I learnt...

The Maori name for Flax and Pepper tree. Flax is Harakeke and Pepper Tree is Kawakawa. Usually, they used the hard bit of the Harakeke as a splint. And a bad cut was sewn up with muka (flax fibre). Sometimes, they use the Kawakawa leaves and bark to cure stomach pains, cuts and wounds.

Today I learnt...

That after WWII, in Germany, USA and Russia  had half each of Germany and Berlin. USA had the West, Russia had the East. That also was in Berlin. They made a wall between Berlin and Germany. The USA gave the people from the West food. Lots of people tried to get in and out of Berlin and the walls. Unfortunately, the Russians were on guard and shoot anyone that came out or anyone trying to get in. There were famous people that got in and out safely.

Pharazyn Reserve

We went on the bus at 8:50 with 10 students from Rm 19. I did some jokes with Luc, Noah and Jackson on the bus. Some of them were quite funny, others were a bit bad. When we got there, we saw many, many plants in holes. Some were juveniles, some were adults. He told us 3 types of plants, and then told us how to plant them. We then chose a partner. I went with Joshua T. In 30 minutes, we already did 5 plants. We then washed our hands. Rob walked us to a wetland where we saw some Pukekos. He then showed us the other side which didn’t have much trees. He said that one day, that would be filled with native trees and animals.

Today I learnt...

Some Spanish tongue-twisters. Here are 2 tongue twisters. "Ahi va la bala. Atahala." which stands for "There goes the bullet. Catch it". Another one is "Tres triste tigres tragan trilo de un trigal." which stands for "Three sad lions swallow wheat from a wheat field. Those are some tongue-twisters.

Today I learnt...

That you can make a ruler into a wurring thing. The way to make it is to get a ruler, attach a string to the hole and you're done! Then you have to spin it around really fast and it'll create a wurring sound! It's pretty cool to do, and fun fact, the thing was used for warning the people because of it's pretty loud sound.

Today I learnt...

How to do some Maori weaving. I can only do a windmill and a fish but you can do a lot more than just 2. If you want to do some more, here is a link.

http://www.alibrown.co.nz/instructions.html

P.S: I'm sorry that I couldn't make this TIL longer but I can't really explain Maori weaving.

Champions to the End

We were in our 3rd game of the 2nd term. Our score was 03:04. Our time was 1:04. We only had 1 minute to get a score, so we wouldn't lose. I passed the football to Jack, my mate. He passed to Zack, my other mate. We were doing a triangle to make the opponent confused. Jack was going in for the score. The opponent was big and bulky with long legs. He dodge 1 guy, 2 guys, he passed it to Logan, he passed it to Max, he passed it to me! I kicked!! The ball was aimed to the goal!!! The gorilla like goalie blocked like a roadblock. Time's up. We lost.

"Oh, come on! We were so close!" said Zack.

"Well, we didn't do it good enough." said Max.

"OK, fellas. That was a good match, but you need to get your hopes up." said our coach, Mr Solomon. "We can do it because remember our motto..."

"Champions to the End." said everyone gloomily, except for our coach.

"WHAT?!" I yelled with a grin. "We're going to go to the finals because a team was cancelled and we were the only ones left?! That's AWESOME!!!" The notice on the school hallway was not lying. We were really on the finals. The entire football team did a group hug. They have waited for a long time to go to the finals. They made a list of what they needed:

• Football Boots
• Football Shorts
• Football Shirt
• Jacket
• Water
• Snacks

The list was done and they knew what they needed.

The games went well. We had hope, strength and teamwork. 03:05, 01:02, 04:07. We were at the last game. We won all the other games. We had all we got. The other team was the last and hardest team. After 9 minutes, we were at 4:4. Our time was 1:04. I passed the ball to Jack. He passed it to Zack. We were doing a triangle to make our enemy confused. Jack was going for the score. He dodged 1 guy, 2 guys, he passed to Logan, he passed it to Max. He passed it to me! I kicked, it went for the goal. The goalie missed. The ball was to short. It was edging closer, closer... we won.

Our Experience to

the 

Whakarongotai Marae

When we got to the Whakarongotai Marae, I looked around the Area and I saw smoke coming out of the next door. That must have been the hangi. The Kapa Haka group welcomed us with some Maori songs like, Purea Nei, Waikanae E and Nga Iwi. The boys did A Utaina, the Haka and Te Waka. In between all of that, there were some speeches by Mr Campbell and a Maori elderly, which Ms Lumsden told us was quite important. When it was Morning Tea, we wet back to school and did a bit of a play, we did some work, it was Lunch Time early and we did another bit of a play and then we went back to the Marae. Over there, there was some new things, like a place for weaving a windmill and a fish. Right now on my desk there is a fish. There was a place where Rm 19 made rulers with paper inside them with pictures for the Marae, attached to string. When you spin it around, it made a funny noise like "wurrrrrrrrrrrr" kind of noise. There was a place to colour in, to make lanterns and a wooden/cardboard waka where you can get a picture.
That was our experience at the Whakarongotai Marae.

Tree Frogs

Tree Frogs have an interesting name, because their name has "Tree" in it. Do they live in trees or do they camouflage with the trees? Well, the answer is yes, they do live in trees. Not all of them, but most of them. There are over 800 types of Tree Frogs. Tree Frogs come in lots of sizes, but I couldn't tell you all of them exactly or this would be 5 pages. I can tell you some of the sizes, like the White-lipped Tree Frog which is 4 to 5.5 inches long, which is the biggest Tree Frog. The biggest Tree Frog in the US is the Cuban Tree Frog, which is 1.5 to 5 inches long. The worlds smallest Tree Frog are less than an inch long!