Narrative

It was the first sunny day in weeks, so to make the most of it, I went over to my friend (Ellie’s) house and we enjoyed the sun with a picnic at the top of a grassy hill filled with trees. Just as I took a bite out of my delicious ham sandwich, the ground started to shake, the trees started to sway, and  then… crash! A huge tree landed right on top of  my arm. After about 5 minutes of pain I heard sirens in the distance. I was taken inside a large white vehicle. Next to me lay Ellie, her wails told me that she was in pain too. I looked down at my arm, the sight of it would give anyone nightmares, it went of in a really odd direction, and I couldn’t move it back.

When Ellie  and I entered the hospital, we were taken up 7 floors to get to the children's ward. The nurse there didn’t look very friendly, she had short brown hair, a boring grey dress and her makeup looked like she tossed it on in ten seconds. She put me in a very uncomfortable bed then raced Ellie to get an operation, it was only then that I realised just how badly injured Ellie was. One of her legs looked like it was just about to fall off, the other was bent awkwardly and her left arm  flopped to the side looking boneless.  Suddenly I felt cold, something about the room made me feel unsafe. It could be the fact that all the other kids looked very pale and kept on staring at me or it could be that the nurse was looking at me in a way that suggested that she wanted me gone.

The next day it was my turn to have the operation. They gave me this medicine that made me fall into a deep sleep. I dreamt about anything and everything. I dreamt that the nurse stumbled over while trying to eavesdrop on some patents whispering, I dreamt that I would look out the window and see two people jump out of a plane. Then  I had the worst nightmare ever, I dreamt that my mum and my brother came to visit me. Just as they were leaving, my brother fell to the ground, everything was silent including him, doctors rushed in and took him into the emergency room, and the next day I was informed that the operation went wrong and would only have a week to live at the most.

I woke up shocked, thinking that the dream was real. I asked the doctor that had just finished operating on my arm. “No” he said ‘your brother is perfectly healthy’. He  is coming to visit you this afternoon, so you can see for yourself. “Ok” I replied, ‘dreams aren't real.’

But as I entered the children's ward I saw a group of three whispering. It's just a coincidence, I thought, but then the nurse tripped over near the three girls. Now it didn't feel like a coincidence, but to make sure, there was only one thing to do. I felt nervous as I approached the big glass window. I gazed at the sky, hoping that no one would jump out of the big plane flying over the building, to my horror I saw two people jump. Suddenly I became very frightened. Did this mean that my brother would get the wrong operation and … I didn't want to think about it. I just had to make sure that my brother got the right operation.

When brother came that afternoon I made sure he walked slowly and carefully, but that still didn't change the fact that he fell to the ground and doctors raced him to the emergency room. I didn't know what to do, how could I make sure the operation goes right? Although to do anything I have to get out of the children's ward first. I tried just walking out quietly, but just as I opened the door, the nurse turned around and yelled “GET BACK IN HERE!”  I instantly ran towards my bed and dived in afraid that she would yell more. But I was determined to get out. Then I noticed a long piece of strong looking rope in the corner. I suddenly had an idea. It was going to be dangerous but I needed to get down to the floor my brother  was on. That night I snuck out of my bed and walked towards the window. With the light of the moon I could just make out a plump figure lying directly in front of the door. Clearly the nurse knew I wanted to escape, but she would never see this coming. I grabbed the rope, tied one end to my waist and the other to the leg of the closest bed. With my heart pumping faster and faster, I opened the window and jumped.

I felt a cold rush of air brush past my face. But there it was, the 4th floor. All of a suddenly I realised a problem, a big problem. How was I going to get this rope to stop falling? But to my luck the rope stopped and I was dangling out of the window. I tried and tried but my feet just couldn't reach the 4th floor. I yanked on the rope, hoping it would make me get closer to the window, nothing happened. I yanked again. Then something terrible happened. The rope snapped and I plummeted towards the ground. Thud! I landed face first on the cold wet grass. I woke up in a hard uncomfortable bed. I thought the nurse had caught me and brought me back to the children's ward, but I was in a completely different room. A doctor came in and explained what had happened. “ As your mum was leaving from checking on your brother, she saw you falling and brought you in here,” he said. Also, ‘your brother is in the bed next to you’. Then he left. I looked to my right and there he was. He looked as pale as a ghost. Before I could say anything the curtain between us closed. I could tell the operation was starting. I had to do something, and fast.

Quietly, I slipped out of my bed, and crawled underneath the curtain. I had no idea what to do next. If the doctor saw me then I would have to go back to my own bed and he  would keep a close eye on what was happening underneath the curtain. To make sure the doctor wouldn't see me I crawled underneath my brothers  bed. There, I could think what do without being noticed. I thought and thought hard. Then I came up with a solution. There was a chance that it might not work but it was the only idea I had. I closed my eyes and then drifted off to sleep. I dreamt that when the doctor was moments away from finishing I dashed out from under the bed, took one look at my brother and got to work. I fixed the mistakes that the doctor made and replaced them with the proper ones. I woke up, suddenly doubting my plan. It was way too unrealistic to actually happen, with the other dreams at least it was possible for them to happen. But suddenly I dashed out from under the bed and everything that took place in my dream was happening. Once I was finished I darted back into my own bed, and then I wondered, why was I still in the  hospital when I felt completely fine? At that exact moment, the nurse from the children's ward came in. I thought I was in trouble, but she looked at me and smiled and just like she read mind, she answered my question. “You're staying here for a little while longer so that we can make sure that you are not seriously hurt, that was big fall you had” she said. Maybe she isn't so bad after all, I thought to myself.


The next day I was able to leave, along with Ellie. I told her about my crazy experience but she didn't believe me. But there is one thing we both know, we’re never going on a picnic again.

Business pitch

This term we are doing businesses. Everyone comes up with a business idea, but only afew are chosen. To make sure that the best businesses are chosen, we write pitches and film our selfs reading it. This is my pitch.

Whenever you look into your lunchbox, what do you see? Chips, biscuits, chocolate, lollies and muffins?do you really need all that sugar and fat in your body? Well all you have do to eat healthier is order some delicious and healthy snacks from Nutrutious treats and we'll always serve it to you with a smile.There will also be some competitions where you can win some healthy prizes.
Nutritious treats is the best thing for your health and a great adddition to your lunchbox. Come and get yours today.

Europe

At the beginning of the year it was decided that my family and I would travel all the way around the world, to visit Europe. I was bouncing of the walls the moment I heard about our trip. But before we leave there is a lot of planning that comes beforehand. We have to plan exactly what we are going to do, each and every day. Then we have to find the perfect place to stay that is close to where we want to go.

It still doesn't feel like we are actually going. It just feels like an idea that won't happen. But I am still really excited to go. I think my favourite place that we are going will be Paris, I will be able to put my French skills into use and who wouldn't want to go to the Eiffel Tower!

As well as going to Paris we are also going to London. Just like Paris, we will visit a bunch of exciting places like Buckingham palace, Windsor castle, Tower of London, Tower Bridge and many more.

To top it all off we are going to Amsterdam. It will be really hard to understand everyone because the only Dutch thing I know is hello and hello in Dutch is the same as English!

I can't wait until I go to Europe, and I will surely update my blog when I get back.

Three way conference

In colab we do three way conferences a bit differently from other classes. In this explanation I will tell you just how different it is and the process we go through to create the perfect three way conference.


What makes our three way conferences special is that the kids organize their conference and tell their parents about their learning,  occasionally the teacher pops in to see how we are going and to answer some questions that we can’t. But we can't just tell our parents everything we do, without some planning and preparation. The week before the three way conferences start, all the kids make a learning site, (which is not made public.) The learning site contains our learning target, writing and maths A4Ls, our book club our blog and our report. After that we create a plan. We have to decide what we would like to show our parents, how long we will spend on each category and if we want some time to answer some questions, but we are only allowed 20 minutes to present our learning.

When our parents arrive we show them all the things that we are proud of and the way that we learn. I showed my weekly plan, teacher time table and fast track first, then my blog then my a4ls then my book club and lastly my report. During the conference our parents asked lots of difficult questions that we had to answer.

The three way conference ensures that the parents know what we are doing every day and with our report on our learning site our parents can access it from any computer in the word and it updates itself automatically.

So that is how colab runs their three way conferences.

Cross Country

As you anxiously look at the track, you see steep hills spread across the landscape. But as you start running you realise it's way worse than that. You have to start dodging cow poo and struggle to keep your shoes clean when you are walking over the mud, and while you are doing all that you have to run a tough course, that tires you out.

The mud is glue, grasping at your feet, wanting to pull you in. As you carry on, you find it harder and harder to breathe as you sprint over the track. After what seems like hours of running up and down massive hills, you leap over a hay bale and enter the shadowy forest.

 The path is very windy, after an eternity of running downhill among the tall trees, you see light through the big green branches, and start sprinting towards the end. Everyone cheers you on as you cross the finish line and you feel relieved that you just completed the hardest race of the year.

Pigeon Impossible

It was just another day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and my stomach was rumbling. I was just perching on a bench when this man holding a briefcase came and sat next to me with a delicious looking bagel. I desperately wanted it! And then he took a piece and threw it on the dirty ground. What a waste! Now nobody can eat it, I thought. He clearly wasn't going to give it to me so I flew towards the bagel hoping that he would, but instead he threw it, not the way I would like him to give it to me, but you can't always get exactly what you want. I kept flying towards the bagel, trying to get it before it hit the ground, but I wasn't looking where I was going and I flew right into the man's open briefcase. It closed on me! I walked around petrified, then with every step I took the briefcase either moved forward, made gun noises or flew.



While the briefcase was flying and making gun noises I started to hear fire trucks, what on earth could they be for, I wondered. I roamed around the briefcase a bit more and I found a screen that showed what was going on outside, I saw cars and buildings on fire but the thing that stood out the most was the man holding the bagel. I went down to the ground, pushed the lid open and waited for him to hand it to me. But he wasn't looking at me he was looking at his briefcase, getting ready to take it. So I hid back under the lid, but it turns out I was wrong he did give it to me, he threw the bagel up in the air I flew up to retrieve the bagel but it fell back into the briefcase before I could reach it. Just as the bagel landed into the briefcase a huge missile exploded into the air. With that as a distraction the man decided that he would fly away and steal my bagel. I needed that bagel so I flew up to him. I was exhausted so I went on top of the briefcase, and glared at him until he gave me the bagel

Luckily he opened the briefcase and the bagel fell out. As soon as I landed on the ground I started nibbling away at the delicious bagel then suddenly… CRASH! The missile fell from the sky and landed on top of me. And none of this would have happened if that mean selfish man just gave me his bagel.

Here is the Link to the video that gave me the inspiration to write this story.

Sink Or Sail

At camp I took on the photography challenge, this is of one of the rafts a group has made to float in the lake. I called it sink or sail.

The mud run

I was so nervous, it was the second day at camp and we were about to go to the mud run!
We headed towards the brown pit of doom. The track to get there had a bunch of twists and turns and a lot of steep and slippery hills. When we got there I looked down at the mud it looked disgusting! We all watched the people who were brave enough to go first and cheered them on. Then it was my turn. Butterflies were flying rapidly inside my stomach. I did not want to go into the ozzing mud.

I walked down the sticky path thinking that it wasn't too bad so far, but then I was put to a halt, there was a big  mud  pool right in front of me! Reluctantly I stepped in. It was gross, cold and deep, I clung to the rope as tight as I could and slowly moved towards the end. When I got out I walked forward to see what else I had to face, but I slipped and landed on my back, ouch, now I was sore and muddy. To my horror there was another mud pool but this time it was waay bigger and deeper. One of the camp parents were helping us in but this didn't make me feel any better because he was dumping mud on our heads and he even put mud down the back of my friend's shirt. When I went in I didn't use his help I just jumped in and ran for it hoping I wouldn't get extra mud on me, but unsurprisingly I still got splashed. After a while of walking through more pools of mud, I saw light through the trees. Yay it's all over I thought but again there was still more mud, but this time it wasn't watery, it was thick hard mud. I walked through but it was so hard as it was just too thick and it was above my belly button. At one point when the mud was super thick, I couldn't move I was stuck for ages. In the end another camp parent had to heave me out (with a lot of struggle ) so I was lieing on my stomach trying to swim to the end. This was a very slow process but at least it worked. I was relieved to get out of the mud and finally breathe in fresh air.

I looked down at myself I looked like a complete mess. I was covered in mud from my neck down.
When everyone was out of the mud we decided that Mrs Dennison was too clean (she didn't go into the mud)  so everyone ran up to her and gave her a big muddy hug. Then to wash off we all jumped into the cold lake.

After that I still found mud in my ears for about two days but it was definitely an experience I wouldn't forget.

My Tagul

Recently we made taguls, to hang up on the walls of our class. Tagul is a website where you can upload an image and then add words overtop to describe yourself. This is what my one looks like.

The beginning to a new adventure

As I walked into the classroom, I was greeted by a warm smiling face, Miss Gordon. But to my surprise she was wearing construction gear. I looked around and the other 3 teachers were wearing construction gear too. Yes you heard me 3 other teachers. Our class has 3 classrooms, 90 kids and 4 teachers. Anyway, once the bell rang, the teachers introduced themselves with a video, then they explained the reason for all the  construction tape around the place. We were going to design our own class. The furniture, the colour of the walls, everything!

After morning tea, we played a game to get to know each other. We were given a sheet of paper with a bunch of different tasks. There were ones like find someone with the same birthday month as you, same breakfast, speaks two different languages, all sorts of things. It was quite hard to find someone for each task.

In the afternoon, we discussed how we would set up our classroom. We got into groups, because if ninety people tried to do the same job at the same time it would be catastrophic. There is the colour group, who decided on the colour of the walls. There is the space group, who decided where everything should go. There is the movers group, who moved everything into place. Then lastly there is my group, the documentary group, we are making a video so that people, like our parents, can see the progress we are making.

In our group we made a plan of the jobs everyone would do. I am one of the editors, along with two other people.

Overall the day was great and I'm certain that the rest of the year will be fantastic as well!