Life Education lessons

On the 2nd of June, my class and I went into a truck for Life education. Our teacher talked to us about what makes a good leader. This made me think, what does make a good leader. The teacher had put a few notes around the classroom, then she talked about what they meant. She asked us which picture described ourselves as people, so we all went to the pictures that described us. I found that I was a Lion because it is a person who loves to lead and who wants to be heard of. This one really spoke to me because it described me perfectly. We then had to talk about what our strengths could do to help in the classroom. This was a really cool session and I can't wait to have my next session and what we are going to learn.

Have you ever thought about what makes a good leader??

Caritas Challenge

On the 18th - 19th of May the Kaupeka hub joined in a worldwide challenge that is run by Caritas. We have been learning about a country that was in need of our help, to help them my hub and I decided to sleep over at school in cardboard boxes. This was very tricky because we were doing it in winter and we had to organise everything.

The start of the day was really interesting, so we all had a big breakfast and we were unable to have morning tea and afternoon tea. This was really cool because I got to feel what it was like for Timor-Leste as they don't have much food to eat in their day. After we went to mass, the teachers brought in a city missioner to talk to us about the people of Christchurch, who don't have homes and who live in their cars. I was really surprised by the amount of people who were living in their cars and who were homeless. I really felt for the people who didn't have homes because they were living in freezing temperatures in winter and they didn't have half the stuff we had for the night. Then we had a mini move it challenge for three hours, we had asked if another school wanted to join us when we did this challenge. They came to our school and joined in for three hours of exercise. This was really cool because we got to have some fun with another school. I really enjoyed this day so far because it had made me realise what it is like in different countries in the day.

What has been challenging for me during the day is the food because I usually have morning tea and afternoon tea in my day. But today we had breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was really hungry in between but I knew that this was for a good cause and I kept telling myself that I shouldn't have any food and finish the challenge properly. Since I was hungry now I was getting really anxious because I was scared about the stomach cramps that night.

The connections I have made from this experience is that Timor-Leste doesn't have very much food and water. This was a struggle for me with food but I always had to remember that they don't have very much and I was doing this for them.

From today, it made me think about them and how I could help them in long term. I thought that I could give them some money to help them and give them some cans of food. I think that this will help their families and those who need help.

At the start of this challenge I had no idea what other people in the world were going through. But as this challenge went on I learnt what people lived in and how they cooked and ate food. This challenge really spoke to me through out the day and night, it really made me think about the world and what people lived like.

Have you ever had this feeling about people in the world?

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Saturday Netball

On Saturday my team and I had a netball game. I thought that we were not going to play very well because we had just had the Caritas challenge that night and we had like no sleep. It made it even more difficult that we were versing a very hard team because we were in the top grade. We all got there early because we had to warm up before the game and wake up. We ran up and down the court a few times and we did some drills before the game. It was really annoying that one of our players was away so I had to play the whole game centre. It was really tiring the first quarter because my legs felt like jelly and I couldn't feel them. In the first quarter we did horrible and we were losing 10 - 2. In the end of the game we lost 17 - 14. It was a really good improvement and I was really proud of my team because we were all tired. I was quite happy that I played my best and in the end we had two player of the days and I think that they deserved it.

Have you ever done something when you were really tired??

Maths challenge

This Term my teachers had a new idea to put my classes into maths groups. In my group my teacher challenged us to create a mini golf hole that when you hit the ball, you would always get a hole in 1. This challenge was really interesting because I have no idea how to make a golf hole and what to do it about. So this really tested my imagination, I had no idea what to do or how to do it. So one of our partners had to go on a trip to mitre ten mega to learn about the money side of things and how to do it. My partner went to mitre ten and asked a lot of questions so that we knew what we were doing. She wrote down what they said so that she wasn't going to forget .When we finish our plans and prototype, 3 pairs will be picked and those three holes will be made. I can't wait for the end result because it is interesting to see what people end up with and how they do it.

Have your teachers ever challenge you to do something??

Cross country zones

It had been two weeks after my school had done cross country. I had come fifth in my race, so I was in zones. My teacher had got in all the people that had come in the top 6, she gathered them up and asked them who wanted to go to zones. At the moment I went yeah sure. Man I wished that I hadn't said that.

It was the day of zones and I wasn't ready, I hadn't practised at all and I wasn't up to doing it that day. We got onto the bus and started on our journey to the grounds and it was raining. I really hoped that it was going to be cancelled or postponed. But of course it didn't, we arrived and it wasn't dry anywhere but underneath the trees. So my school all huddled together underneath the trees to keep warm, me and my friends were about to race so we all started getting ready and training for it. But we didn't realise that the boys had started racing and we were training on the track, we all ended up sprinting back to our school. Man that was close, they almost banged into us when we were training. After the boys it was us, I was not ready and I wasn't up to anything. We were off, I started with a jog and I stayed a great pace the whole time. But on my last lap I was really tired so I had slowed down quite a bit, so in the last length the person behind me started sprinting. I was too tired I couldn't be bothered sprinting to the end.

When we had finished and I was walking back I saw my mum just coming in. I told her that I had already raced, she asked me what I came so I said 14th. She was really annoyed that she came at the end of my race and she had missed it all and so was I.

Today was a great experience for me and I was really proud that I didn't walk the track and I was happy that I finished it too.

Have you ever ran 3 km, if so how did you go??

Cross Country

In the first week of Term 2 my school ran cross country. I was really nervous at first because I hadn't practiced during the holidays and I wasn't sure how far I could run.

It was day one of Term two, my class was unable to practice for cross country because it was the first day and we were busy doing other education that day. So now I had two days to practice for cross country and I was not up to doing anything, our teachers got my whole class together so that we could do the training together for fitness. Since at our school our field was blocked off by other classes doing fitness so we were unable to go around there for our circuit, the teachers had to decide where we could have our fitness because I had to run 3 km this year and running around the court definitely wouldn't be enough. We then ran through the teacher car park and up the driveway as our circuit, we did about 4 laps of this. That was not far enough for the circuit that we would be doing in two days.

The next day we had some more training but we did it a bit later than the day before, so that we would be able to use our back field for it. The circuit that day was pretty much the same but we did 6 laps in total, it felt a bit more real to what we were doing the next day.

It was the day of cross country and I was ready as I would ever be even though I had only done two training sessions. The whole school walked down to the park where cross country was held, I was pretty nervous. The races started with the year 8 boys and then it was us, it all happened so quickly. We got there, we stretched and then we were getting ready to race. My teacher who ran this event was there at the starting line, telling us that she was just going to go ready.... go. Straight after she had said this we were off, I wasn't ready at all to race but it happened too quickly I couldn't say anything. After my first lap I was pretty tired and I had slowed down a lot to regain my speed at the end but by the end I was too tired I couldn't be bothered to sprint to the end. When we finished I got this card that said 5th. I was so proud of myself for coming 5th but then I realized that I had to go to zones because I came 5th. I congratulated my friends for there achievements and then we got to go and run for the year 0-4's. It was really cute to run with them, to help them when they got tired but I was really tired because I had just run my race. By the end of the day I was really shattered and I enjoyed hanging out with my friends.

Have you done cross country before, if so, how would you describe it?