SLJ- Teaser Week day Two

Hey Everyone!

This is a post for Summer Learning Journey. Simply insert the link into a new tab and watch the slideshow!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vRGUWfOa5jie0EEWKjXFrrkaiXXqxrSxeNkxcs1Oq_DtmztZyj32UJmBUSx5sQAOG3Y2avq4jtIU1wR/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=200

Have an awesome day,
Annelise :)

Summer Learning Journey- Teaser Week-Day one

15 minute Writing- Message in a Bottle

Hello!

I'm back with another piece of 15 minute writing, its not finished, though I'm really happy with it. Feel free to leave me feedback in the comments :)

Message in the Bottle

I blinked myself awake as my tiger cub, Tigger, rearranged himself on my lap. “FERN!” Mum screamed. 

“Fern?” Lilac, my little sister of four with dyed pink hair said unsurantly.

 “Yeah?” I called. 

“Yeah, baby!” Grandma Pearl yelled at Grandpa Peter snapped photos of her. 

Mum didn’t reply. “MUM?!” I yelped. “You okay?!”

“COME HERE, FERN!” Came the reply.

I sighed and tipped Tigger off my lap, who gave an annoyed meow and tried to steady himself against the rocking of the ship, but to no avail. I stood and made my way to the prow of the tiny boat, slipping out the front door of our house, crammed onto the boat in an attempt to make it look homely.

A pink umbrella with white tulips patterned along it swayed in the wind as Uncle Gray (Yes, that’s his real name), rowed the boat with one oar, giving us an extremely slow getaway. I winced as the voices began worming through my long hair into my ears, turning around and around in my ear drums. My younger brother, Phill, wass grinning at a crocodile as it swam by the boat-house, Mum was feeding Baby Zip from a bottle, and many objects were stacked up so Grandpa Peter could get a picture of Grandma Pearl from the best angle (Though think her best angle is no angle). The family chicken, Bill, crowed in his cage, Tigger rubbed himself around my legs, and the broom toppled from its corner where it was leaning and smacked me on the head. Just another day of Evacuation.

“Yes, mum?” I called over the roar of the wind, rubbing my head. Mum nodded at a bottle with a message in it. “Hon, can you get that?”

“Why?” I asked. It seemed like a valid question.

“Because you’re good at swimming. Also, Im busy with Zip here;” She tickled him on the chin, “Lilac is to little, Uncle is rowing, Phill can’t swim, and Pearl and Peter are doing who-knows-what.”

“So the responsibility turns to me. Great.”

I pulled the hairtire from my wrist and tugged my long black hair into a ponytail, turned, and leapt off the side. 

I dove into icy water, heated by my sun-warmed skin and reached for the bottle, blinking away the cold liquid as it rushed at my eyes. Wrapping my tanned fingers around the glass bottle, I turned and kicked back towards the surface. I gasped for breath as mum yelled; “Yeah! You go, girl!” When she noticed the bottle flashing in my tight grip. 

“So what does it say?” Uncle Gray inquired.

I’d changed into ripped jeans and a white t-shirt with the words ‘Not today, Satan!’ Written across the front in small, simple black print. My hair was woven into two long dutch braids which swayed as I squeezed past Grandma Pearl, (now glaring at a magazine,) and stood next to mum. “Hi, honey cakes.” She said as she saw me. “Hey.” I replied, slipping onto a stool beside the long table in the dark room. “When are we going to get windows in here?” I asked, glancing at the light trickling through the gaps in the wooden house.

“Your room has a window. Surely that’s enough?” Uncle Gray replied, staring unseeingly at the dead flowers on the table.

Annelise

Otaki Gorge Trip

Two days ago,we went to the Otaki Gorge trip. MNL was split in half, I went on Wednesday and the other half went on Thursday.

First, we split into our groups and went to collect dry wood for a campfire, which spluttered and choked before roaring to life. A few people had marshmallows, so we toasted them. I had three, while others had about seven, but I didn't mind.

Then we went on a five minute walk to a clearing in the forest, before we set up survival shelters out of tarps and rope.

After that, we made rafts (we tied a bunch of sticks together, and lost.... but okay).

Overall, I had tons of fun and I hope everyone else did too.

 

By Annelise :)

Hi everyone! Its me, Annelise with another chapter of Discovery, which is in a series I'm yet to write called Elementals. If you haven't read the others, go read them, because it won't make any sense aaaaaand it'll annoy me. And you. So yeah.

Enjoy!

Three-Emma Chinni

Then something leapt from the shadows, sharp teeth aimed at my throat.

I screamed, and a wall of… wait, was that water? Morphed in front of me, and the
creature slammed into it with a heavy thump. It looked like some kind of werewolf,
only werewolves didn’t exist. Says the girl who is studying Light and Charmspeak, I
told myself. A girl stepped out from the shadows, her coffee-brown hair pulled into two
dutch braids, wearing baby blue pajamas. “Not today, wolf.” She said, her golden eyes
blazing. The creature snarled, leaping at her. “HELP!” I screamed. “HELP US!!”

Watery armour formed around the girl, and the wolf thing slid off her. She made a
water lasso, (how that was possible, I had to idea), and caught the animal. She looked
at me, and the water in front of me melted away. “Uh…” I said. “Um. So. Uh.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“What are you doing here?!” I exploded. “It’s the middle of the night!”

“I could ask the same to you.” She pointed out. “Also, you probably just woke up
everyone in the school. They’re aren’t going to be impressed.”

The wolf lunged at her, and raked at her face. She yelped and threw up her arms
to protect herself. Blood bloomed along her skinny forearms. “Go away!” I yelled
at the creature. “Leave us alone, or I swear…” I let the comment fade, pushing as
much charmspeak into my words as possible. “Get out of here.” I told it. “And never
return.” 

The werewolf whimpered and ran away, it tail between its legs. The girl looked at me,
arching a long, thin eyebrow. “Uh, thanks.” She pulled herself into a sitting position,
wincing in pain. 

“You’re welcome.” I said. “Are you okay?” It seemed like a stupid question, as the girl
was clearly was in not okay. “Uh, yeah. Well,maybe not, “ She hefted her blood-coated
arms,”But I will be in a sec. Hand me the first aid pack, will you?”

El Rancho

A  couple of days ago, we went to El Rancho by bus. By we I mean MNL and a few other classes, so the groups were mixed. I was with Alexandra, Eloudie, Adejah and a few boys who's names I don't remember (Sorry).

 Our first activity was Go Karting, I was excited, I loved doing these kinds of things!  I did worry a bit when one of the karts broke down, but I went in the yellow one anyway, grinning as I drove around the track.

Our second activity was RIFLE FIRING! I was so excited for this one, I'd never fired a rife before! We walked down a hill to the shooting range, it turned out there were five targets for us to shoot down a long metal tunnel. I was a bit worried, what if I hit someone? But the feelings of doubt dissipated as soon as I made it to the small hut. We walked inside and were asked to sit on a wooden bench by two teens, both male and looking about eighteen. One introduced himself as Joshua from Costa Rica, the other was Tom from Germany.  Adejah was jittery with excitement throughout the safety rules, and so was I, but I knew I'd be fine, we couldn't shoot someone, and anyway, we weren't even shooting. We would fire the air rifle, with pellets, not shoot it with bullets.

Eventually, It was my turn, so I stood and walked to to Joshua. "You ready?" He asked, handing my the safety glasses. "If you want an honest answer, no."
He grinned. "Good one. "
I smiled and followed along with how to fire it well and how to aim. I took aim and shoot down the long, metal tunnel and grinned. The green pig from 'Angry Birds' was swinging from side to side, I'd actually hit something! I pulled the safety button out, thus make the weapon impossible to fire or shoot unless you pushed it back in. I reloaded the rifle and shoot another two times. We went again a few times, then it was time for our hour long lunch.

I sat with Alex ( Alexandra's nickname), Eloudie, Kate and Adejah. We ate our lunch, chatting, then went and jumped the life out of one of the trampolines. When the bell sounded, telling us lunch was over, I went to Megan (my teacher and group leader) and asked what our next activity was. "kayaking." She replied, then noticed the grin spreading across my face. "I'm guessing you'll enjoy it?"

I nodded, and I wasn't lying. I loved the feeling of making powerful strokes through the murky water, and I did have an awesome time.

The ride home was uneventful, apart from when the boys started playing music from a Bluetooth speaker and singing with tuneless voices, but I laughed and joined in.

Hi everyone! Here are some photos Megan and other people took on the trip. Have an awesome day.

By Annelise :)

Communication Presentation

Hi everyone!

This week in Homeroom, Megan had made two Multi-media text set, which has links to Youtube videos and articles around a subject. We've been learning about Tuia 250, so Megan let us chose between Communication and Discovery, two interesting subjects. I chose Communication, here is my presentation.
Enjoy!

Discovery- Elementals book 1 chapter 2

Hi everyone!
A while ago, I posted chapter one of my book; Discovery. Its in a series which I'll write called Elementals. I'm really excited about finishing it, I've written sixteen chapters so far, and I'll be posting them.
Here is it, enjoy!

Two-Will Alvaro

I could hear laughing coming from the Japanese building, but I stepped inside anyway.
A girl and boy sat at a bench, the girl pointing at his screen and laughing. “Your face!”
She said. “You look like a cow hit with a shovel.” 

The girl’s dark brown hair was swept over one shoulder, and her eyes were bright gold,
she was wearing skinny  jeans, pastel blue high top converse and a plain white shirt
which read ‘Not today, Satan!’ in pain black lettering. The white shirt complemented 
her coffee-brown skin beautifully. She seemed so happy, and I felt horrible for intruding.
I turned to go, but the boy looked over. “Hey.” He said. “I'm Alex, this is-”

“Hazel.” The girl, Hazel, cut in. “Hi.”

I nodded to them. “Hello. I'm Will. Do you mind if I use a computer?”

“Of course not.” Hazel said. “We’re not using all of them.” She gestured to the other
computers, almost smacking Alex in the face. He gently pushed her arm down. “I like
my head intact to my body, thanks.”

She looked at him. “Oh, sorry.”

I walked towards a computer next to Hazel. “Whatcha playing?” I asked.

“Minecraft.” She replied. “You wanna join our world?”

“I am a total god at Minecraft, peeps, so you'd better watch out.”

She and Alex laughed, and I grinned. We played around for a few hours, then the sun
started going down. Hazel’s stomach rumbled. “Im starving.” She said. “You guys
wanna get dinner together?”

Alex nodded. Hazel turned to me. “Yeah, sure.” I said. 

Alex fixed his gaze on Hazel. “Do you have any clue where the cafetera is?”

“Nope.” She pulled something out of her back jean pocket. “But this map does.”

Music

Hi everyone!
It me, (duh) and its week 4 of music. We've improved a lot and I've enjoyed it so far.

This is our video: (Its not that great)

You can't see me in the video, but I'm singing to the left of everyone. I think we kept in time well, and we can improve on knowing the keyboards chords, some people were really out of tune.

Have a great day everyone,
Annelise :)

15 Minute writing- Zoo's should be Banned!

Zoo's should be Banned!

I know this is a strange topic. Some of you reading this will be confused or maybe angry. I know everyone loves Zoos, but have you seen the conditions the animals there live in?

Imagine you are a cheetah. You used to live in the savanna, a massive desert where there was plenty of room to run. You could act as normal, hunting, mating etc etc. But now you were in a small inclosure. You were trapped by glass which reflected the faces of humans, tall ones, small ones and inbetween. But they were all watching you. They pointed, laughed and pushed each other, jostling to get to the front. Now your space is limited. Your legs whish to run, to sprint, to jump to, to be simply natural. But the humans have control. You disbehave, feeding time doesn’t come.

People have control over every action of an animal. Cheetahs aren’t the only ones suffering. Tigers, Dolphins, Lizards, spiders, Elephants, Zebras and every other animal in the Zoo suffers because they aren’t in their natural habitat. They are forced to mate with a particular animal. They don’t have a choice.

Yes, some animals are bred in captivity, but they would still have the same natural instincts as any other animal. When baby animals (I’m not specifying, its around the same for all of them) they are left with their mother for a few days or weeks if they are lucky. To you or me, this seems like ages, but if you are an animal, you often nurse your child for three quarters of its life. Then it goes, mates and takes care of its children.

I hope, after these reasons, you agree. I went to the Wellington Zoo recently with my mum, and instead of being delighted, I was often just sad. A deep glum feeling took residence in my stomach and didn’t budge until we left. I hope you will think about these points and decide to go to a Zoo less. There are other, less harmful places to go.

By Annelise

Climate Change- 15 min writing

Climate Change

If I could fix one problem in the world, I’d immediately, without hesitation, chose Climate Change. Climates are notable places where it’s usually dry and hot, or cold and wet, I.e Ocean climates, Desert, Steppe and the Polar ice cap. Climate change is the change of weather patterns over a period of time. Due to Climate Change, the average temperature everywhere has risen by a degree. That might not seem like much, but what happens when the average has risen by ten degrees?

Pollution is one of the many things causing Climate Change. Oil spills are one, and people are another. Yes, you read that right. Humans are causing most of the Climate Change in the entire world. Our cars need fuel to produce power to take us places. The burnt fumes of fuel rise into the atmosphere, making it thicker. This creates what’s known as the Greenhouse Effect.

The Greenhouse Effect is warming the entire Earth, speeding up Climate Change and eventually causing our planet to become one massive desert. The oceans will dry up, with the Amazon river in tow. Plants can’t live without water, neither can animals. And humans? We will die, along with every achievement we have done. No one will live to remember Neil Armstrong, No one will think back on Kate Sheppard.

That is why I’d chose Climate Change.

Hi everyone. I hope you're having an awesome day, and if not, hopefully it'll improve. This week Megan wanted us to improve on our paragraph writing, so she gave us a few topics to write about. For the first piece of 15 minute writing, I chose Music and wrote about how it can help you focus, and about how it can damage your ears, blah, blah, blah. For this one, Megan let us chose between 'If you could chose any superpower, what would it be any why?' or 'If you could get rid of any problem we are facing which would it be and why?' As you have probably guessed, I chose the second option.
Which would you chose and why?

By Annelise :)

Discussion Questions-Section 4

    One: I think if Salva was older and stronger, we would give the people his water. Salva would surge forward, and hand the woman his water. "Here." He'd say. "Use this."

Two: I don't think the Uncle has a choice. The soldiers might run after him and find him, destroy the group and leave. Also, Salva won't be alone. He's made friends before, why can't he do it again?

Three: Because they think he will eat all the food, slow them down a complain. Also because he is too young to do any real work, they think. I think Salva will do work for older boys to show them he can and will.

Four: Uncle's words subtly tell Salva his family are dead.

By Annelise :)