Dear Future Self...

This year has been crazy! I've just had to write my personal yearbook entry as well as a yearbook article about the conservation club. By the way when I grow up, do I become a doctor? I've always wanted to be a doctor.

Currently I'm in Mr R and Miss G's class, but soon I'll be leaving to go to intermediate. I'll miss all my friends. We've had camp this year. It was my first time horse riding since I hurt my arm while riding a horse. I can't wait until the summer holidays! Oh by the way, do I have a, Um, say, Iphone 6000? Do humans have like brain implants to control their phones? And has WW3 started?

Anyway, this year is one of the best years of my life, and I want to remember it for the rest of my life.
This year my best friends have been:

• Dorothy
• Maya
• Shaniquia
• Reem
• Zarha
• Priya
• Navidi
• Ayshea
• Mayar

Is that all of them? Think so. 

Anyway, this year I have competed in:

• Epro8
• Writing Comp
• Swimming sports

I can't believe that this year has come to an end. I will miss all my teachers and friends.

World of Wonders Cultural Festival!

On Wednesday GRi11 2.0 will be hosting the World of Wonders Cultural Festival! I'm part of the cultural food group. Since the group was to big we split up into smaller groups. We split up into 4 groups: Italian food, British/Modern food, Arabic food and Asian food.

My Graphic Design For our Stall!

We're doing this because this term we are learning about cultural diversity and this is for our taking action.  Taking action is when after we've learnt enough we do something ( Making a protest, going on a trip, fundraising) taking action is my favourite part of the term!

I'm in Arabic food. We're making stuffed grape leaves ( Dolma). Reem, one of my friends, offered to bring the grape leaves. We made our posters and sent home notices asking parents to help. Many parents said yes. We figured out what we would need. Tomorrow other groups will do their thing, and then come back to enjoy some cultural food.

Another poster to go on our stall!

There are 4 main groups:

• Cultural sports
• Cultural dance
• Cultural festival ( who make sure it all runs smoothly)
• Cultural Food ( Me!)

Other groups are making:

• Gingerbread men
• Pizza
• Dumplings
• Fried rice
• Mango jelly

And much more!

We're all really excited and can't wait for the big day. We've all prepared, made posters, cooked the food, made sure we have enough for everyone to eat and that everyone has fun!

Then to Now, A History of the Discus

Then to Now, A History of the Discus

History

The sport of discus throwing dates back to ancient Greece, where the sport was prized for its display of an athlete’s precision and coordination, combined with his physical strength. Discus was one of the earliest games played in the Olympiad, along with other similar sports, such as the javelin. Still a widely practiced competitive sport today, discus throwing hasn’t changed dramatically over the past few thousand years.

The first modern athlete to throw the discus while rotating the whole body was František Janda-Suk from Bohemia (Now called the Czech Republic). He invented this technique when studying the position of the famous statue of Discobolus. After only one year of developing the technique he gained the olympic silver in 1900.

The women's competition was added to the Olympic program in the 1928 games, although they had been competing at some national and regional levels previously.

Culture

The discus throw has been the subject of a number of well-known ancient Greek statues and Roman copies such as the Discobolus and Discophoros. The discus throw also appears repeatedly in ancient Greek mythology, featured as a means of manslaughter in the cases of Hyacinth, Crocus, Phocus, and Acrisius, and as a named event in the funeral games of Patroclus

.Discus throwers have been selected as a main theme in numerous collectors' coins. One of the recent samples is the €10 Greek Discus commemorative coin, minted in 2003 to commemorate the 2004 Summer Olympics. On the coin a modern athlete is seen in the foreground in a half-turned position, while in the background an ancient discus thrower has been captured in a lively bending motion, with the discus high above his head, creating a vivid representation of the sport.

What is was like at the Greek Olympics

It was traditional for a discus thrower at the Olympics to present his discus to sanctuary officials after having it inscribed and dedicated to a god. While in Olympia we held an ancient discus inscribed with the words, "Kleon threw me to win the wreath." The discus of antiquity usually was fashioned from metal, though a discus made of stone was permissible for competition. Each quoit-shaped discus was tapered from the center to the thin edges, which made it easy to grasp. The diskoi, studied in various museums, range in diameter from eight to eleven inches; in weight from five to twelve pounds. Apparently there was no official standard for the size or weight of the discus to be used in competition. Again, as with the halteres for jumping, the size and weight depended on individual preference of the contestant. His discus was made to his specifications, to suit his style and technique for throwing the greatest possible distance. Unlike today's discus competitor who throws from within a circumscribed circle, the contestant in the ancient Olympics stood inside an area called the balbis, marked off by three lines. The thrower could not step over the lines to either side, or across the line in front of him. Within the balbis, or throwing cage, he was permitted freedom; he could stand forward or to the far right or to the far left; but, if he stepped outside any one of the three lines while making his throw, he was immediately disqualified. Statues, vase paintings, and literary descriptions of events create some confusion about the science of throwing the discus. Conflicting written statements and illustrative evidence of differences in techniques make it difficult to arrive at a clear concept of general principles. One certain fact is that the Greek discus thrower warmed up with a swinging of arms similar to the actions of a baseball pitcher. BY JULIETTE AGBORCHI

Brooke Fraser

Brooke Gabrielle Fraser Ligertwood was born on 15 December 1983, better known as Brooke Fraser, is a New Zealand musician best known for her third studio album Flags, and hit single "Something in the Water". Brooke`s first album was ‘What to do with daylight’.

Fraser took piano lessons between the ages of seven and seventeen. She started writing songs at age twelve and taught herself the acoustic guitar at fifteen. Despite her skills as a singer she has never taken singing lessons. She performed at Parachute, an annual New Zealand music festival in 2000 – including a special guest performance in 2007. She was also part of Hillsong United (Since 2004)

Argument

How plastic is shaping the future of our oceans

Plastic pollution is a major cause of many environmental problem.

The real impact of plastic bag litter is felt on wildlife both in the marine environment.

Every piece of rubbish we drop can kill 15 animals, both on land and in the sea! Putting your rubbish in the bin can save 500 animals lives!

All we have to do is walk over to the bin and put in the bin! Also try to reduce the amount of plastic that you use.  Here are  some ways that you can help

• When shopping bring your own bags.
• Try to recycle plastic and use plastic bottles,instead try to buy a reusable bottle.
• Bring your own reusable grocery bags with you when you go to the store
• Use a refillable dispenser for your hand soap and dish washing liquid, one large bottle is better than using a bunch of small ones
• Use a reusable container instead of sandwich bags
• Bring your own mug with you to the coffee shop

Animals die every day because of plastic! Please try to reduce the amount of plastic that you use!

More than 30 marine animals species are endangered because of plastic!

For example:

Animals are disappearing!

In August 2000, an eight metre Bryde's whale died soon after becoming stranded on a beach. An autopsy found that the whale's stomach was tightly packed with 6 m2 of plastic, including many plastic bags. Such problems in animals can cause severe pain, distress and death.

Bryde's whales, like many other types of whales, feed by swallowing large amounts of water. If the Bryde's whale had died at sea, it would have decayed, releasing the plastic to kill other marine life for hundreds of years to come.

.Animals mistake the plastic for food and then swallow it down. When turtles swallow it, it stays in their stomach, then when they eat fish the 2 gases mix and the turtle floats helplessly to the surface . Here they are easy prey for sharks and other large fish.

Plastic doesn't go away It is manufactured to be hard in hard to destroy. .It is made to last longer and not disintegrate. In this way tens of thousands of whales, birds, seals and turtles are killed every year from plastic bag litter in the marine environment as they often mistake plastic bags for food such as jellyfish.

Plastic bags, once ingested, cannot be digested or passed by an animal so it stays in the gut. Plastic in an animal’s gut can prevent food digestion and can lead to a very slow and painful death.

As plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to break down, once an animal dies and decays after ingesting plastic, the plastic is then freed back into the marine environment to carry on killing other wildlife..

Plastic pollution doesn't just affect animals, It can also affect us!

When the small particles from degraded plastic bags get into the water, they are ingested by filter feeding marine animals. Bio Toxins like PCBs that are in the particles are then passed up the food chain, including up to humans. These can affect the human body. Also diseases like malaria will spread more easily since people and animals will be drinking deadly, polluted water.

Animals don’t deserve this. What have they done?

Walk to the bin and put it in.

Its as simple as that.

The House of Light

Once upon a time in ancient Egypt...

Zia walked down the well-worn path that lead down to the river.

The long grass stalks brushed against her legs. Suddenly she heard a rustle in the grass.

She stopped walking. She heard a hiss, and turned around.

A cobra.

The cobra was the most feared snake in all of Egypt. It’s venom could kill a man in minutes.

Zia was too far from her village to call for help. And if she ran, the cobra could easily it could reach  a speed of 12 miles per hour. She heard a slash. Zia turned.

The cobra had its fangs stuck into the sole of her sandal.

It reared back, ready to strike again , and then stopped, and slithered away.

Zia blinked, not quite sure that she was still alive. She looked up to see a man, holding some sort of rattle. " Shukran!" she thanked the stranger. Then a cloud of dust rose up, forcing her to shield her face. when she looked up, the stranger was gone, like he had disappeared with the dust...

“Cheerp!” Zia looked down to see a small quail chick, scurrying around her feet, she bent down to pick it up.

She noticed a small collar around the quail chicks neck. It was black, with a little green pendant in the shape of a reed leaf on it. “Where did you come from?” she wondered. Then, she touched the pendant, and she was sucked into a blinding vortex of light…

“How can you be sure?”

“I just know!”

“We haven’t had a new apprentice in more than 15 years!”

“Look, if she isn't the one, I’ll send her back”

“And if she is?”

“Than we are all in terrible danger!”

Zia opened her eyes to see two young men standing above her. They both had short, cropped black hair. The one closest to Zia had a long scar across his face. She was lying in a bed, in a room that

looked like it was made of pure gold. “Who are you?” she mumbled. The quail chick from before hopped up onto her chest. “It’s you!” she said “Damn right it's me!” the chick said “How did I get here?” “The portal brought you here” she the man with the scar “My name is Ahmed, and I am a senior magician”

“Magician?” She asked, puzzled. “Yes, here at the house of light, all people with magical power are brought here to learn their full power” he answered “ What’s my power?” Zia asked, interested to learn more “well your power seems to be-

“RRRRRRRRRR!” A huge hand reached in through the door. “What's that?!” asked Zia. “that, is a very angry monster”....

Two vultures swooped in and picked up the quail chick “let me go! You filthy birds!You'll be sorry! Just wait until I get my claws on you!!” the chicks screams faded away. A huge mouth appeared. Zia could see a row of huge dagger like teeth.

Then a huge hand picked her up.

Amed's Spell

Zia squirmed desperately. Then Amed said something that sounded like a spell.

A blinding flash of light exploded and Zia lost consciousness.

When Zia regained consciousness, she was in a tunnel somewhere in a place she didn't know.
"Good, you're awake" said a voice from the shadows. "Who are you?" asked Zia.
"Well, that depends, if you cooperate, then you might leave this place alive,"
"And if I don't?"
"Then you won't..."

Calender art

 Hello! This term we are doing Calender art, here is mine:

Elements

Hello! in you like this chapter then Commemt below and I will write more!

:)

Chapter 1

I raced through the streets, praying it wasn't too late.

I dashed in the alley way and slid down the passage under the loose stone and to the door. I pushed it open, breathing unevenly.

But it was too late, they found they, and it was all my fault.

Something fluttered to the ground. .I looked up and noticed a small note:

Follow us.

I looked up in time to see a shadow slip away. I ran after it.

Now, looking back on it that was stupid. It could have been anything, a guard, assassin, even D.I.E ( Destruction of Innocent Elementals, at least that's what i think)  but I was so heartbroken I didn't care. All the young elementals were gone.

And I was responsible.

How it all began...

Now you see, when i was 12 years old i found out about the elementals. They were a race of powerful beings. Then one day they disappeared. For several years the world was in utter  chaos until  they returned, not in human form but in spirit form. They entered the bodies of mortals and those mortals inherited their powers. Unfortunately for me they can still talk inside our heads.

My spirit is called Keya. And she is annoying. And loud. And rude. Jay, where are those little pipsqueaks she said inside my head. I was sweating. You see, when elementals get angry they tend to explode. Now they can’t die, being immortal, but we can.

Um… well….you see…..keya….there….kidnapped….

Silence….

JAY MIDFIELDER HOW COULD YOU DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE, THAT IS A GENERATION OF ELEMENTALS OF ….GONE!

                ‘And I’m going to find them’

Infograhic

Hello, This week we have been doing infograhics!

Here is mine:

Save our seas!

Plastic

One of the main causes of depopulation in marine life

What is plastic?

A synthetic material made from a wide range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, PVC, nylon, etc., that can be moulded into shape while soft, and then set into a solid or slightly bendy/soft form.

How is it made?

Plastic pellets are fed from a hopper into an extruder. Plastics are made from organic products. The materials used in the production of plastics are natural products such as cellulose, coal, natural gas, salt and crude oil. Crude oil is a complex mixture of thousands of compounds.

How much do we use?

10 tons of plastic fragments—like grocery bags, straws and soda bottles—are carried into the Pacific Ocean every day.

• Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century.
• 50 percent of the plastic we use, we use just once and throw away.
• Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the earth four times.
• We currently recover only five percent of the plastics we produce
• A average person throws away 8kg of plastic that could have been recycled or reused
• 
  
  • Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away!
  • Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.
  • Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam coffee cups every year.
  • Over 1,600 businesses are involved in recycling post-consumer plastics.
  • PET plastic can be recycled into: clothing, fiberfill for sleeping bags, toys, stuffed animals, rulers and more.
  • Only around 27% of plastic bottles are recycled.
  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures a year! Ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? It's twice the size of Texas and is floating somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii. It's also 80 percent plastic, and weighs in at 3.5 million tons.
  • When the small particles from photodegraded plastic bags get into the water, they are ingested by filter feeding marine animals. Biotoxins like PCBs that are in the particles are then passed up the food chain, including up to humans.

How does it affect wildlife?

The real impact of plastic bag litter is felt on wildlife both in the marine environment and in rural areas.

.Animals mistake the plastic for food and then swallow it down. When turtles swallow it it stays in

their stomach, then when they eat fish the 2 gases mix and the turtle floats helplessly to the

surface . Here they are easy prey for sharks and other large fish.

Tens of thousands of whales, birds, seals and turtles are killed every year from plastic bag litter in the marine environment as they often mistake plastic bags for food such as jellyfish.

Plastic bags, once ingested, cannot be digested or passed by an animal so it stays in the gut.

Plastic in an animal’s gut can prevent food digestion and can lead to a very slow and painful death.

As plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to break down, once an animal dies and decays after ingesting plastic, the plastic is then freed back into the marine environment to carry on killing other wildlife.

We use over 300 million tonnes of new plastic every year.  Half of this we use just once and usually for less than 12 minutes.  8 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the ocean every year.

Animals and marine life suffer directly from plastic pollution. Birds feed on plastic, and an increasing number starve when their stomachs are full of plastic waste. 97.5% of Laysan Albatross chicks have plastic pieces in their stomachs.

Animal stories

Carrying on

In August 2000, an eight metre Bryde's whale died soon after becoming stranded on a Cairns beach. An autopsy found that the whale's stomach was tightly packed with 6 m2 of plastic, including many plastic check-out bags. Such obstructions in animals can cause severe pain, distress and death.

Bryde's whales, like many other types of whales, feed by swallowing large amounts of water. If the Bryde's whale had died at sea, it would have decayed, releasing the plastic to kill other marine life for hundreds of years to come.

'Lucky' the platypus rescued

In May 2003, a Platypus was rescued from the Don River, Tasmania, after a plastic bag became wrapped around its body, cutting deep into its skin.

The platypus overcame the species' usual shyness to approach a person for help.

After seeking medical advice and giving the platypus time to recover it seemed to be okay and set free. On seeing its injuries, its rescuer called it 'Lucky.'

'Pete' the pelican died after swallowing 17 plastic bags

In 1998, a pelican was found dead in Kiama after eating 17 plastic bags.

The pelican probably thought the plastic bags were food. The pelican was preserved and named Pete. Since then he has been standing in front of a sign at Fitzroy Falls that informs visitors of how he died and the problems of plastic bags and ocean pollution.

Other wildlife affected by plastic bags

Discovered in agony, a calf that was recently put down in Mudgee NSW, was found to have eaten 8 plastic bags.

Birds get caught up in them too. Unable to fly they die of starvation.

Turtles have also been rescued with plastic bags lodged in their throat – and part of the bag hanging out of their mouth. (left)

What happens to it after it has been used?

Most of us do not think much about recycling. We might clean bottles and jars, crush cartons and break down boxes. We might sort these items into their designated bins or bags, but once we lose sight of the recyclables, the rest of the process is an abstraction. Recycling makes us feel good, but few of us know what actually happens to a plastic bottle after we drop it into a bin.

What happens is the bottle enters an elaborate global system within which its plastic is sold, shipped, melted, resold, and shipped again—sometimes zigzagging the globe before becoming a carpet, clothing, or repeating life as a bottle. This process is possible because plastic is a stubborn substance, which resists decomposition. With a presumed lifespan of over 500 years, it’s safe to say that every plastic bottle we have used exists somewhere on this planet, in some form or another.