The Ronald McDonald House Fundraiser

At Hornby High School we are doing project-based learning. We were asked to choose a topic which has a good impact on the community. We got into groups of three or four. My group has Leticia, Haylee, Jasmine and I, we are called the Maccapacca. We chose the topic of 'The Ronald McDonald House'.

The website we use are:
https://rmhc.org.nz/ - The Ronald McDonald House

http://rmhsi.org.nz/   - The Ronald McDonald House South Island

https://rmhc.org.nz/house/christchurch/ - The Ronald McDonald House Christchurch

http://rmhsi.org.nz/ways-to-help/volunteer/ - The Ronald McDonald House Volunteer

https://mcdonalds.co.nz/ronald-mcdonald-house-charities - The Ronald McDonald House Charity

We choose the Ronald McDonald House because not everyone knows why it is there and that it is there. It is there for the Patients and their families which have to leave their homes to get treatment for their illness. As they stay there, they don't get many visitors and it isn't the happiest place to be. We want to fundraise for The Ronald McDonald House by selling chocolate and having a bake sale or a carwash, which all fund will be given to the families and the staff which live and work at The Ronald McDonald House. Then go to The Ronald McDonald House and spend a day with the Patients and Families. We will go and talk to the children and play games and read to them. The want to brighten up there days.

Same sex marriage should be allowed in all countries

Love is love, equal rights for all. Gay marriage should be allowed in all countries, Because we are all the same, they didn’t choose to love the same sex, but also adoption rates will go up. Gay Marriage should be allowed in all countries because we are all equal. It doesn’t matter if we are black or white, or like a girl or a boy, we all deserve the same rights and we shouldn’t try to stop them from being happy. No one is perfect, there is no perfect life, we are all the same. So it was switched around and it was wrong to like the opposite sex would you do anything to make it happen? Along with equal rights, they don’t choose to like the same sex. What if you were hanging out with your friends and you realized you like them a little more than you normally do to a friend. You might feel wrong, or disgusted in yourself, but you don’t get to choose, there isn’t a button that you press that makes you like girls or guys. Is there that button out there somewhere? Same-Sex marriage should be allowed because everyone deserves equal rights, they don’t get to choose who they are, and also adoption rates will go up. 135,000 children are put up for adoption in the United States a year. 59% of them are coming out of welfare or foster systems. But if we allow gay marriage the rates will go up, because they may want children, but they can’t have them themselves so they rely on other sources like adopting children. By them adopting children the adoption rates will go up, which will help put all the children in safe and healthy environments and will be able to grow up with people that love and cherish them. Some people might say that it goes against religions to marry the same sex. But like I said earlier if it was switched around and marring the other sex was weird and abnormal, you would feel insecure and want to do something about it. You wouldn’t sit around a feel bad for yourself. You wouldn’t be against it if it was the other way round, would you? This is why I think that gay marriage should be legal in all countries. Because we are all the same, they didn’t choose to love the same sex, but also adoption rates will go up. Are you going to be the one to stop true love?

Creative Writing #2 Old Buildings should be preserved for future generations to enjoy.

24/10

Old Buildings should be preserved for future generations to enjoy.

Old buildings should be preserved for future generations to learn about their history, see how they lived and to be able to experience what it was like back in the olden days.

At our age, we can go to museums and see how people lived or what life was like years before ours. But if they destroy them, or leave them to rot, and deteriorate, that is not how they lived and it doesn’t show what life was like for the people back then.

Like I just said just before when you go to old building or museums you get to see how people back before our life lived and work and that helps us learn and respect what we have now. If we don’t keep our old building there will be no way of the generations after us to see how we lived.

Finally, along with the education in which the buildings hold about how we live, it also holds the key to the future generations to experience life before their own. When you go to an old building you get the sense of how the people live, play, work and other things. You sometimes get to even try live like that and realize how hard it was for them compared to yourself.

So we should keep old buildings for the future generations to help them learn and see how we lived and be able to experience what it was like in our age in time.

Creative Writing

27/09

Drugs shouldn’t be allowed in Sports?

Drugs shouldn’t be allowed in sports. It causes people to increase their skills but also can have bad side-effects, people can become addicted to the drug they are taking, and if someone who isn’t taking it would have fewer chances since all the other people senses will be increased by the drugs.

Yes, it increases the skill level of the contestants that are participating in the sport, eg. Athletics. But when people take the drugs they can have side-effects. They use Anabolic Steroids, Erythropoietin, and more. The side-effects of some of those are vomiting, skin rash, Hair loss, Liver, Kidney and Heart Disease, and more.

People can get addicted to these Drugs the same as getting addicted to Cigarettes. If you are addicted to Anabolic Steroids it could result in loss of appetite, mood swings, depression and more. Sometimes the depression leads to suicide attempts.

When you use Anabolic Steroids it increases your muscle mass and strength. That is unfair for others who are not using drugs that enhance their skills and are using the skills they trained and we born with.

That is why Drugs shouldn’t be allowed in Sports. Because it can have bad side-effects, people can become addicted to the drug they are taking, and if someone who isn’t taking it would have fewer chances since all the other people senses will be increased by the drugs.

English - Scuba Diving in Fiji

Scuba Diving in Fiji

I was sitting on the edge of the boat, ready to throw myself back into the unknown. Ready to face a big challenge. I could see the vast, blue ocean stretched out in front of me. I was waiting for the sign to go. I was shaking, letting my thoughts get to me, about every bad thing that could happen. On a boat full of Fijian professional Scuba instructors, I could hear the wave crashing against the boat making it sway from side to side with the mumbling of the Fijian trying to tell us what to do when we are in the water.

I thought about it, what if I landed on a fish or there is a shark in the water or a sting ray. I was shaking, worrying about what I had got myself into. I felt the water splashing up against my face as I sat looking into the water praying nothing bad happens.

I put the regulator in my mouth and breathed in the compressed air which tastes funny. I was sitting about to fall in breathing heavily into the regulator looking at the instructor telling me what to do. I thought of backing out but I knew if I did I would regret straight away, missing out on a once in a lifetime view of the underwater life, I told myself I would do it.

Splash! I hit the water with a thud, I panicked and stop breathing for a moment, looking around to see where I was. My heart was beating as fast as lightning. I could see for over 30 metres ahead of me in the distance colours flashing past each other. It was beautiful. Colourful Corals and Tropical fish. I swam to the back of the boat looking down at all the pretty creatures swimming around me.

Once everyone was in we swam down to the sea floor and took photos with all the amazing coral. I was so happy that I did it because it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I swam with the tropical fish and see how lovely the underwater life really is. I could feel the bubbles that I was blowing out of my regulator rushing past my ears. The heat of the sun warming the Pacific Ocean reminded me of a safe place.

I learnt that it is okay to be scared of trying something new, but it won’t always end in a disaster it could be the best thing you have ever done. When amazing opportunities come your way take them with both hands and use them to your advantage.

P.E - Gymnastics 2017

Monday 4th of September
Today I did Floor and Beam. On Floor, we practice forward rolls, cartwheels, and handstands. Then on Beam, we practice sequence 1 which was 'Side mount, 4 dip walks, cat leap, pivot turn, tuck dismount.

Thursday 7th of September
Today I did Beam, Bar, and Parallel Bars. On Beam, we did all sequences. I could do all skills but the forward roll on beam. Next bars I could do a circle up onto the bar but I was too scared to do a back hip circle because I hadn't done it in a while. Then on Parallel Bars, I did the first sequence, then tried to do a forward roll.

Monday 11th of September
Today we did Parallel Bars, Floor, and Trampoline. On Parallel Bars I practice sequence 1. On the trampoline, I could do all 3 sequences easily. Then on Floor, I practice my Roundoff probably.

Thursday 28th of September
Today we performed two events. I did Floor sequence 3 and Trampoline sequences 3.

Written Assessment Essay

Outsiders

In this essay of ‘The Outsiders’ I am writing about important relationships within the written text, and explaining how they had a positive or negative influence on other characters. The important relationships in ‘The Outsiders’  I am writing about are Darry and Ponyboy, Dally and Johnny, Ponyboy and Johnny and Sodapop, Darry and Ponyboy.

The first relationship I will be writing about is Darry and Ponyboy. Darry and Ponyboy were brothers, Darry was the oldest of three and Ponyboy was the youngest. Ponyboy and Darry would get into fights with each other over what Ponyboy was doing. Darry was overprotective of Ponyboy in Ponyboy’s mind and Ponyboy didn’t use his head in Darry’s mind. One night when Johnny and Ponyboy were out at the vacant lot watching the stars, Johnny and Ponyboy fell asleep, they didn’t wake up until 3am the next morning, when they did Ponyboy rushed home and tried sneaking in the house. Darry was sitting on the couch waiting for him. Darry became enraged as Ponyboy told him he had fallen asleep in the vacant lot with Johnny. At that moment Darry hit Ponyboy. After Darry realising what he did he apologised profusely, but Ponyboy ran out the door back to see if Johnny was still there. After Darry hits Ponyboy, Ponyboy ran  away with Johnny.  Johnny had murdered Bob, one of the Soc and he didn’t want to go to jail.  This had a negative influence because Ponyboy already thought Darry didn’t like him, but to Ponyboy this proved it. Darry hitting him pushed him over the edge. Ponyboy had decided that the best thing for him to do was run away, with the help of Johnny and Dallas. S.E Hinton did this to show the audience that people can do things they don’t mean in the spear of the moment and regret it straight away. Darry did as was shown and he became upset with himself because no one had hit anyone in their family before. When Ponyboy ran away he became scared for Ponyboy’s safety. Darry and Ponyboy’s relationship was a long fight which carried on for a while. People do things they don’t mean just because they were worried or scared. Darry and Ponyboy like most siblings fight, but always will come together when they need each other. They love and couldn’t live without each other. This reminded me of when in ‘Kanin’ by Amanda Hocking when Bryn left Doldam after being sentenced for treason, she missed Ridley a lot while she was on the run and all she wanted to do was call him even though they were angry at each other and didn’t want to talk.

Another relationship in ‘The Outsiders’ what I thought had a negative influence on another character was Johnny and Dally. Dally and Johnny were members of the gang. Johnny lived with his mother and his father but he had a bad life. Dally loved Johnny and Johnny was the only thing Dally loved in the world. Dally helped Johnny and Ponyboy run away after Johnny murder the Soc and kept the police away from them. One day Dally went and visited Johnny and Ponyboy, they had been staying in an abandoned church in Windrixville. They went down to the local Dairy Queen and when they came back to the church in was set ablaze. There was a bunch of young school children in front of the church counting to check if they had all the children. Ponyboy and Johnny could hear children’s screams coming from inside the burning church. The jumped through a window and saved them. When they were escaping the roof collapsed on top of Johnny and a couple weeks later he died in hospital. Dally lost the only thing in the world he loved and he robbed a convenience store. The police shot him because they through he was armed, the greaser knew that was what he wanted to died. Dally and Johnny had an interesting relationship, because you didn’t know they relationship was that strong until Dally chose to die to be with him. Johnny’s death had a negative influence on Dally because in the end he died to be with Johnny because he couldn’t live without him. S.E Hinton did this to show the strong connection between Dally and Johnny even though they weren’t brothers, Dally was like Johnny’s older brother. It showed that even if you think they are hard as rocks and only care about themselves, they don’t. They care about others as much as themselves maybe more it is just a shield to cover what is inside.

As well as Johnny and Dally and Ponyboy and Darry. Another important relationship that has an influence on another character was Ponyboy and Johnny. After Darry slapped Ponyboy he ran back to the vacant lot where Johnny was lying on the ground watching the stars. They went for a walk to calm Ponyboy down before he went back home. As they were walking through the park a blue Mustang pulled up and a group of Soc jumped out, they were drunk. One grabbed Ponyboy and started to drown him in the fountain. As this was going on Johnny had stabbed a Soc named Bob which had killed him. After Johnny stabbed Bob the rest of the Soc felled in the blue Mustang. When Ponyboy came too they decided to run away with help from Dally. Ponyboy and Johnny’s relationship was strong because Ponyboy left his brothers and friends behind to go with Johnny and keep him safe. Ponyboy didn’t want Johnny to go to jail and rot in a cell. So Ponyboy and Johnny ran away to Windrixville. This had a large influence on Ponyboy because they had decided to run away instead of confessing to the police. The purpose of this was to allow the audience to see the connection between them and how much they loved each other and how Ponyboy didn’t want Johnny to go to jail like Dally did and end up like him. This reminded me of when Ridley and Thalia left Doldam secretly to find Bryn and make sure she was okay. The could of stayed and just hoped for the best but the rest the lives trying to escape and find Bryn.

Lastly the final important relationship I am going to write about that had an influence on another character was Sodapop, Darry and Ponyboy. Ponyboy, Sodapop and Darry were brothers. Ponyboy was the youngest, Sodapop was the middle child and Darry was the oldest. Darry and Ponyboy would get into lots of fight and Sodapop would get caught up in the middle of them. He would back Darry and Ponyboy because they were both right but both wrong in his opinion. Darry looked after Ponyboy and Sodapop. He would make sure Ponyboy was getting good grades and Sodapop went to work, he was like their dad. S.E Hinton did this to show that when people fight sometimes people get caught up in the middle of them and they don’t like it. They try there best but it is hard to keep everyone happy and keep yourself while everyone is fighting. This reminded me of when parents fight. They might not realise but it hurts the people around them not just them. It could hurt your family, friends and yourself. Like what I said in the first paragraph about Darry and Ponyboy they fight like all siblings do, but they always will love each other.