Alma

A New Discovery  

I sprint under the dark beige cement archway, glancing around, my blonde hair concealed under my light blue beret. Dressed up and ready to explore my village, in my pearl white sweater, underneath my fuschia vest. I skip and hop, sliding my finger along the brick wall. The sound of the cold, breezy wind flies up at my forehead. Right ahead of me, is a black chalkboard, with names written all over it. I find a small space on the board and write with a white chalk my name. “Alma.” Feeling strange, I turn around, and see in a shop display, me? What? I carefully approach the so-called ‘me,’ behind the glass. I glow joyfully, but turning around for a moment wondering who I can trick with this doll replica. 

Looking back at the shop display, and.. What? Where did ‘I’ go? I look around outside of the shop display, punching my face against the glass. No ‘me.’ I keep moving to the right until finally reaching the entrance to the shop. Struggling to open the door, I sulk and frown, planning to give up. I gather a slightly moist snowball in my gloved hand and fling it aggressively at the glass door framed with a wooden patterned frame. I walk away angrily as I slide my hand against the light navy blue wall. Suddenly, I hear a weird squeak from the shop just behind me followed by the ting of a bell. I smile happily, entering the door ready to explore the exciting unknown.

Doll Where?

My curiosity gets ahead of me and I take a few steps inside of the shop. I take a quick glance of my surroundings and it seems that I’m in a dool shop. Quickly, I look in front of me to find my prized doll replica. There it is on a three legged stool! I can quickly borrow my parents money and in exchange, I’ll give them the change. I stare blankly in awe at ‘me.’ Taking a few steps forward, I reach out to seize my look-alike, but just before I take hold of it, something crashes lightly at my ankle.

 A wooden baby doll lying on its right shoulder, peddling on its tricycle. It seems to get nowhere, so I kneel, pick it up and place it upright. As it touches the ground, it zooms to the exit of the exit shop, but has no luck. Instead, it bangs its head repeatedly on the decorative door. I feel confused, but I smile in the direction of the wooden baby doll, as I was able to enter this dool shop. I grab the table behind me for support, but when I stand up and look on top of it, my doll is not there. It was right here just a second agoo. I look around in shock. On the table? Not here. Under the table? Not here either. On the shelf holding other dolls? Yes!

Sprinting excitedly, I run past the three legged table, and climb up on a worn out sofa with three dolls sitting near the arms. Two of them were twins with black short hair wearing a black dress. The other doll on the left side of the sofa is stuffed with two beady eyes and a warm smile. I didn’t mind them though as my eyes are on my prize. As I was about to grab my doll located on the third shelf I bit my glove off my hand and reach out to grab it. I can’t wait until I get home! 

Stuck in Place

I touch its nose for a second and everything around me disappears. It seems that I am facing upwards, at the black sky. The walls around me are made of water, resembling an iris. Everything is moving so fast. It is pitch black. Finally I see something pink. Babies, all falling past me. But the last baby. I zoom into its eyes. I finally return to the real world. But wait a minute, why am I up high? Why can’t I move? Why can’t I see out of the corner of my eye? It is like I have a plastic lens permanently attached to my eyeball. I look around, breathing heavily. I cannot look behind or beside me. What did I ever do wrong.. A few seconds later, a red headed girl rises on a platform at the front window wearing a flowery red dress. A new victim? No, I don’t think so. Anyways, I wonder if anyone misses me, but now, I just have to watch and wait.

Socrates

Socrates, a great Greek philosopher was born in 470 bce and sadly died in 399 bce, by being forced to poison himself by drinking the deadly ‘hemlock’ plant at his execution. He was accused of ‘not showing grace and reverence to the Greek Gods’ and supposedly ‘corrupting the youth.’ He spent his last day in prison before his execution refusing offers to escape.

Socrates was a wise philosopher famous for his great wisdom thoroughly included in his quotes. Two of my favourite quotes are “Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.” 

This quote I really relate to as some people like me, love attention. 

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”

This second quote really makes me question how children in my generation became how they are in the present.

 

Description:

This Google Drawing is about NZ Herald helping World Vision rescue and save two million Ukrainian mothers, daughters and sons flee their country as it is not safe for anyone to live there. They are helping them by bringing them on their bus but the children are asking their mothers, where are we? Why are we going here? Why do we need to hide? Most of the mothers only have one answer. “Let them think we are going on a trip.” says Julia, a mother of twins and a teenage daughter. All the mothers don’t want to tell their children that this is war. That there is death in war and no peace for a long time. “We just want to go home, in our house, knowing we will be safe and sound.”

Argo Float Diagram

The Argo Float is a device to collect data that everyone can see, but it is especially useful for oceanographers to learn more about the oceans and how their waters move. Meteorologists use this data to prepare weather forecasts.  Scientists interested in climate change also use the Argo data to track changes in sea water temperature. Over time, this tells them which parts of the world are getting warmer or cooler. This diagram will explain how the Argo float collects data.

High Diving Giraffes

A Tunnel of White

All my giraffe friends and I saw was a tunnel of white tiles on the floor and walls with the reflection of my friends trotting their hooves on the white ceramic tile. A sudden burst of chlorine hits my snout. Behind me, my friend smells it too. She moves out of the line to inspect a white camera attached to a corner of the white-tiled tunnel poking her tongue out. She moves back into the line behind me. We continue trotting in our evenly spaced line ready to see the unknown at the end of this white tiled tunnel.

A Glimmering Surprise

Walking up this spiralized pathway with a square glass fence makes me feel our group are in a windowed gallery. Suddenly, we stop and I hear intense trotting from in front of the line. I scooch my friend over and see a giraffe sprinting to an entrance filled with light. The giraffe in front of me is about to leap. He gets a head start and runs to a giraffe suspended upside down on a metal bar attached from the ceiling.

He somersaults in the air, then falls gracefully head first into the crystal clear pool. A huge splash is heard from the front of the line. My turn to jump. Sprinting on the grey cement, I pray the giraffe three metres in front of me will catch me. Leaping into the air twirling and spinning  like I’m in a washing machine I finally see the water reflecting my giraffe self. Hitting the water head first, eyes closed, feeling like a thousand bullets of panicky feelings hit my senses, creating another splash. 

Done and Dusted 

Arising above the surface of the cerulean water, taking huge breaths constantly as I paddle to the end of the large swimming pool. Finally, feeling dizzy, I use freestyle  to swim to the end of the pool. With my head above the water, I slowly walk up the slanted walkway pulling myself up and out of the crystal clear. I drip slowly and trot on the white tile breathing heavily. Shivering, teeth chittering, turning around, my friend right behind me, panting, still following me from the start of the tunnel, dripping with water everywhere.

I shake the water off and travel another metre from where I saw her. Standing next to each other, we bend down, stretching our legs to take a quick drink from the chlorine infused pool water. Soon the other giraffes join us, spreading a metre apart from each other. They all bend down and take a few sips before we do it all again. 

                                                                                               

Choie Sew Hoy was born in Guangdong, South China, 1838. When Sew Hoy was 13, he went to the United States, California with his extended family to take part in the gold rush. The group did so well, that when he went back home to China, he was able to marry. He had a wife and 4 children. A few years later, when gold was discovered in Australia, Sew Hoy sailed to Melbourne, but he had learnt from his time in California. That people who sell things made more money than most of the miners, so he became a merchant. Some achievements he had were speaking up for the Chinese people who came to New Zealand and experienced racism. 

He always spoke reasonably and used appropriate words for backing himself up. In 2002, the New Zealand Government apologized to the Chinese community for the tax. People say that Sew Hoy was ‘sharp as a razor’ as he would quickly see opportunities to make his business grow. For example, he bought beef bones as in China, they were used for carving ornaments and pieces for toys. He kept finding out more opportunities to make his business grow, and it was successful. After his death, many people admired him of how he was an immigrant, and became a wealthy man. His wealth didn’t make him greedy, it made him more caring and kind as he was able to give more back to his community.

Choie Sew Hoy left behind his kindness and dedication to his descendants. That is why he is such a great man.

Today in class our group built a swing. The swing had to be 1.8 metres high that could swing a heavy weight (in our case 4 wheels on a pole). It really wasn’t that difficult because all we had to do was make 2 A shapes, reinforce it, and add the string for the tires to go in. I really wanted to swing on it but Ms George said it couldn’t support me. After all of that, it was really fun to build!