My Special Place

My special place is not on the ground
My special place moves about freely
My special place can jump
My special place is big-ish
My special place is with a friend
My special place has emotions
My special place is on a horses back

Crazy Horse

He rears up like a stallion

He is vicious, he is ferocious and he is determined

Running, galloping, the horse is catching up

What is the meaning of this? Why is he like this?

His paddock is gruesomely green and muddy

Mud, grass and hoof prints line the paddock

Love is a battlefield, much like this one I should think

Quickly I shut the gate behind me so he can't get out

Bang! He smashes against the gate trying to escape 

Rushing around the paddock

He is galloping like a madman

The gate groans with the weight of him pushing it

Chance! He stops at the call of his name

Again, again and again I call his name

He is now fuzzy, fluffy and looking at me intensely 

He is a gelding called Chance

Holidays

In the holidays I rode a horse called Jimmy, my riding instructor took me down to the Springston Pony Club and we practiced cross country jumping, a dressage test and showjumping (only 30cm jumping) for the one day event on Saturday. first we practiced dressage and I was terrible at it so I definitely need more practice at that but show jumping and cross country weren't too bad.

so in conclusion I need more practice at dressage if I want to place in the ODE (one day event).

20th Century Inquiry by Freya, Lily and Stella

Koru Games

Zoom! the ball flies up the field. It flies like a bird. Tom scores a goal and we hold off the other team so we end the game with 0-1. Quickly we shake hands with the team and celebrate our win.

The Beach Chase

"Gallop!" my friend yells to me from behind, "there is a man with a gun coming down the beach!"
"OK! Lets go!"I shout.
The man starts firing shots at us as we gallop away as fast as lightening. We are going as fast as the wind, when suddenly a cliff face appears looming in front of us. Quickly, I turn my horse and ride really fast at the man and I bowl him over, my friend is so shocked it takes her a little while to realise we only just got away by the skin of our teeth.

A Horse Story

Georgie was homeless she didn't know what to do, she had been on the run for awhile now and she was hungry. Georgie did not know where she was going, she had walked down a road towards a house where the lights were on, she hoped they would give her some food and maybe let her get warm by the fire for a couple of minutes, of course not many people would do that but maybe these people would be nice.

Georgie walked up the gravel drive towards the house and knocked on the door, footsteps came and a lady came out, she screamed when she saw Georgie and her husband came running.

“Um hi, I-I-I was just wondering if I could have some food” Georgie stammered, heart beating fast she looked at the lady and her husband for a reply,

“ NO! Begone little girl!” Says the husband,

“ Jeffrey! She is just a little girl, she can't look after herself!” Says the wife,

“Where are your parents dear?” The wife asks Georgie,

“Dead” replies Georgie, “Same as my brothers and sisters”

“Oh dear! Well you better come inside you poor thing” Says the wife.

Inside the house Catarina (the wife) ran a bath and got some fresh clothes for Georgie to wear, after the bath Georgie had dinner with Catarina and Jeffrey, then Catarina showed Georgie to her room, which was in the attic as that was the only room available in the whole house, Georgie was very tired and she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Georgie woke up to the sound of birds at the window, she looked around and spotted some clothes on a chair that Catarina must have put there for her. Georgie went over and tried to open the window to let in the warm summer air, but halfway open the window jammed and in the top left corner of the window something had become stuck, Georgie pulled it out and discovered that it was a necklace with a charm in the shape of a horse’s head on it, it was the culprit of the jammed window, she fastened it around her neck, it glimmered in the morning sun.

After breakfast Georgie went off to explore the farm, she was going down to the calf paddock when there was a great commotion coming from the stable block.

“Aauuggghh!” “She bit me! That silly pregnant mare bit me!” The groom yelled as Georgie raced into the stables, Georgie went right up to the loose box that held the mare and started talking to her and petting her softly.

To Be Continued…..

Why Horses Gallop

A long time ago when predators ruled the earth there was a horse, her name was Shanteh and she had a herd of 25 horses to look after in New Zealand. But as predators ruled they were constantly living in fear of being attacked, because they were slow and they were an easy target for all predators.

5 years later Shanteh’s herd was the only one left on earth. The predators were taking over completely and Shanteh’s herd were worrying that they might become extinct, Shanteh kept telling them that they would be safe with her in the clearing in the middle of the kauri woods, but she couldn’t promise everything. And one day the predators pushed through into the clearing so forcefully that the surrounding trees shook in terror, the predators chased the herd around the clearing taking them down one by one.

Injured and with only 5 other horses in her herd Shanteh had managed to escape from the predators but now she had decided that enough was enough and she went to speak with the storm goddess Aliya.

“Aliya! Aliya! I want to speak with you!” Shanteh yelled to the sky. There was a rumble, a crack of lightening and then a melodious voice rang out.

“Very well then Shanteh what do you wish to speak to me about.”

“The predators are destroying my herd! Soon we will all be extinct!” said Shanteh.

“Ok I will look into my globe for guidance.” Aliya replied.

Shanteh waited for about 10 minutes and was about to walk away when ….

“I see what the predators are doing, I will make a potion, come back tomorrow I will have it ready, but if you do not come back I will not wait.”

“Alright thank you Aliya.” Shanteh replied.

The next morning Shanteh went back to Aliya for the potion,

“Good morning Shanteh the potion is right by your feet.”

Shanteh looked down and sure enough the potion was there, it was purple and the bottle holding it was quite small. “Thank you Aliya” said Shanteh.

“That's ok, but remember only one drop each for you and your herd, anymore than that could be fatal,” Aliya warned.

“Ok, I shall go and do it now,” said Shanteh.

Shanteh went to her herd, she took one drop and watched the others take their part of the potion. A few days later they were attacked by a predator, but with their new burst of speed it was unable to keep up and Shanteh’s herd galloped up and over the ranges unharmed.

Visual Mihi

This is my visual mihi I have put myself in the middle, my hobbies, family and friends are on the outside.

Kinetic And Potential Energy.

Types of Energy - complete the chart

Energy is due to position or movement of an object - Kinetic and Potential

Forms of energy	What is it?	Example?
Kinetic energy	Energy in movement
Mechanical energy	Makes things move by workable moving part or parts.	Wind up toy, scissors.
Thermal energy	It comes from heat. Heat is generated from tiny moving particles.	Fire, boiling water etc, stove, the earth's core, the sun.
Magnetic energy	Energy from attraction of objects made of iron.	Magnets, magnetic force, magnetic fields.
Electrical energy	Can be used to move particles through wire from a power plant to our houses and workplaces etc.	Appliances in your home, power plants, electrical currents.
Potential energy	Stored Energy
Gravitational energy	Energy stored in objects held above the earth’s surface.	People dropping things.
Elastic energy	Stretched or squashed objects.	Slingshot, spring and rubber band.
Chemical energy	Is energy stored in chemical compounds and is released in a chemical reaction.	Batteries, petrol.
Nuclear energy	Energy stored in the nucleus of an atom.	Nuclear power plant - provides electricity.

Hexagons

On Tuesday we had to connect hexagons together about moving things, gravity and lift. We placed these based on their connection with other hexagons.

Self Defence

On Thursday 4 May all the year 7/8 girls participated in a self defence course. We learnt about what to do when people (usually a man) grab you and try to pull you away or along with them, so what you do is either try to block them from grabbing you then grab them and lunge towards them and knee them with your knee or if they have already grabbed you then still try to grab them and knee them, if they grab you on the shoulders: block or grab them on the shoulders to lunge in for the kick, if they grab you on your arm: grab their arm and knee them using same technique, same with if they grab on both of your arms except just grab on wrists. We were also taught that if they grab you on your off side the do the same (grab them) except you spin while you kick and try to get them on the top of their knee with the side of your shoe or on the top of their foot where all the little bones are. Then we did a scenario where if a person (usually a man) stops their car and gets out to ask you for directions this is a sign that you need to get out of there fast, its a bit different if the person doesn't get out of their car but once you give them directions if they ask you where you live you just confidently repeat the directions.

Biking at Little River

   Little River Bike Ride

Routeburn class started training for the upcoming Little River bike ride on a Friday in March by biking to Lincoln University, we repeated this each Thursday or Friday until 24 March when we were doing the bigger bike ride. The training for me wasn’t to hard as I bike to Lincoln quite a bit.

Finally it was the day before the bike ride and I packed my rucksack, here is what I brought:

• Food/Drink
• Rain coat
• Bandanna (to keep flies from getting in my mouth)
• Sunglasses
• Sunscreen
• A polyprop
• Bike gloves
• Bike helmet
• Bike

Friday 24 March Routeburn class was getting ready to bike the rail trail from Mandalay House to Motukarara. We loaded the bikes onto the truck as well as some on dad’s car and everyone got in the cars to leave, it was about a half an hour, 40 mins drive.

When we got to where we were starting, we unloaded the bikes and the parents left to take their cars to the end while the parents that weren’t biking, took the parents that were biking to the start again then went back to Motukarara themselves.

Starting the rail trail everyone kept together in one big group until the faster people started gaining speed to get away from the medium and slower bikers. After a while my legs had started getting tired but my adrenaline was still pumping as I rode over cattle grids and small bumps. The good thing was that there were no flies around to bother us. However there were some wasps instead.

We stopped for lunch at a huge rocky hill/cliff and we all climbed up it to eat at the top. The view at the top was pretty good apart from the dying lake.

When we were finished with looking at the view and climbing, we began biking again, I kept up with dad the whole way to Motukarara.

When we got to Motukarara we all drank and ate lots, then got into the cars and drove back to school.

What I used to play when I was little

There were 20 girls in my yr 2 class and all of us wanted to  play imaginary games, Animals, fairies , princesses and more we all wanted to be someone new every day, oh except for me I was always a horse.

We would build tire "castles" around the trees on the field. When the grass was freshly mowed we would be grass war enemies 10 girls on each side and a queen to send us forward it was our job to protect the queen and her tire castle. If we weren't so lucky we would get captured and had to find a way out of the tire prison, this would result in an argument about wether the person escaped correctly and then an even bigger grass war but this time there would also be water and we would try to avoid getting wet, there would be shouts of "HEY!", "I'M TELLING!" and "STOP IT!" the teachers would growl, "oh oh" all of us thought then we would look around for the squirming tattle tale who told the teachers and we would get banned from playing that for the rest of the day sometimes the whole week! But we would always come back for more.