Holiday Highlight

During the school holidays Teague, Rogan, Jasper, Ava, Craig, Dad and I went to Clive pools. There was a small hot pool and a deep lane pool that got deeper as you go along.  It was quite nice to get into a pool because as it is not summer now we are not swimming anymore.

Also, it was the holidays so they had  this special a big blow up thing that travels around different pools.It was a  hurdling course. The blow up thing looked like a rocket ship because it had a  big bit were you climb into with other small bits in the side about knee height to hold onto. As you went on it, it got smaller and smaller and at the end you had to jump off. When you had pasted the two things on either side to hold onto they go away. The side things were blue and the base was red with the 5 yellow hurdles in between.  

On my first go, I jumped over the hurdle and I automatically fell off. It  felt fantastic to get back into the water for once. After my second go, I realised that you have to stay on the middle if you don’t want to fall off . After I while, I tried sprinting across it and I ended up slipping into the  water on the 4th hurdle, falling head first. As I keep on trying I tried a different technique. It was sliding across it on my tummy staying strait in the middle but it was hard because if your feet slid off your whole body will go with it. After a while I finally made it to the by standing on it and walking across it and holding on to the hurdles as I went with my back facing the wall very slowly climbing over the hurdles.

I think I got to the end three times altogether and every time I got to the end I  stopped and then jumped off really high. One of my last goes, I asked Rogan if I should go backward anyway I did and I climb on and then tripped of on the first hurdle. After about five minutes they took it down and a couple of time I race Rogan in the lane pool standing on the big starter blocks. Then we went into the small warm pool and we got Dad and Craig to bounce the ball on the concrete and then it bounces into the pool and then we jumped up and caught it. At 3 o’clock it shut and we went home.

Matariki Day

MATARIKI DAY  

Matariki day was really fun, to start off we had a maori dance group come to Parkvale school and perform for us. They sung for us, danced for us, told us some stories that had been passed on from generation to generation and also some maori games.

My favourite activity that I did on Matariki day was making poi with Whaea Emma in Room ten. The first thing that we did was how to plait with four pieces of wool. There was twelve pieces of wool in each group and because we were plaiting with four we had to split them up into groups of four. There was three people in the group. Each person had to do something. I did the plaiting with Hugh while Jacob held the bottom to keep it in place. Then we started plaiting. When we had got to the length that we wanted it at, we tied it up and then helped all of the other people plait before we moved onto our next step. After everyone had finished plaiting we started making the bottom of the poi. First we had to get some stuffing and roll it into a ball and put the plait into the middle of the ball of stuffing. Then we got a small plastic bag and put the stuffing ball with the plait in it into the plastic bag and wrapped it until it was tight and then we pulled up all of the other bits and then tie up all with string around the top of the ball of stuffing and pulled tight. Then we cut all of the other plastic bag and our pois were done.

How to plait with four is to sit with two people facing each other. Then split the wool into four each part then each person needs to grab two. Next you cross them over diagonally and grab then do it on the the side diagonally and then keep repeating. Once you get to the length you want it, you needs to grab both of the your two and the other persons two and so you should have two equal parts. Now tie them up into a strong knot and then connect it to the bottom of the poi.