The Lighthouse Mystery

Brooke McNamara

As we dashed out the front door away from our horrible foster parents, the hot wind blew in my face as I was following Daniel, my long brown plaits blowing about in the fierce wind.

Daniel and I are twins but he is two minutes older than me so he has looked after me ever since Mum and Dad ran away. As we walked down the busy streets of Rome we could now smell the fresh salty sea water from Shell beach. We arrived and ran away from the noisy city and towards the old stripey lighthouse. We rang the doorbell then waited for the door to open.

We saw Uncle Joe’s strange gardener planting a lemon tree down the driveway. As we passed him he gave us a dirty look as if to say get out of here. Uncle Joe was very rich so he had a gardener and a young cleaner.

“Hi Uncle Joe, we were hoping to stay with you” Daniel said confidently as the tall figure emerged out of the battered door. When he questioned us we explained all about our horrible foster parents and how we ran away. We were then finally invited inside because he agreed to have us stay for a while.

Uncle Joe has a very important TV, the only thing left from his wife who had passed away thirty years ago. He would never ever watch it and certainly never let anyone else even touch the TV.

As soon as my head hit the pillow I crashed, sleeping silently all night until I heard Daniel whispering to me “ Stacy wake up, it’s eight o’clock already”I sat up and saw Daniel’s bright blue eyes staring at me. I turned over and tried going back to sleep but was woken up again by a different voice.

“Excuse me kids” we turned to see Uncle Joe towering above us with a stern look on his face “ I am going to have a party tonight with only a couple of guests but you must stay up here the whole time and be quiet, or you will have to leave”. We nodded vigorously at the thought of having to leave so early.

“Let’s go down to the beach for a walk today Stace” Daniel suggested while Uncle Joe was munching loudly on his toast. “ Ok, goodbye Uncle Joe” I said to the tall man across from the table.

The day went so fast and before we knew it it was six o’clock, time to head back. Back at the house four cars were parked up the driveway to the old lighthouse, so we snuck around to the back door. The music was pumping loud and everyone was dancing, the cleaner, the gardener, his best friend the artist and of course Uncle Joe himself.

“Wake up Wake up, my precious TV has been smashed, by someone last night” Uncle Joe shouted at us as we suddenly awoke. “Do you know anything about it” he yelled, his face turning red with anger. “ No” we chorused nervously.

He rang the police in a hurry and they arrived within minutes searching the house and T.V for clues. We carefully made our way to the kitchen avoiding the bits of TV shattered all over the carpet.

“Aha I found some fingerprints, get everyone here now” the tall burly man said gruffly. We collected everyone and the police carefully took everyone’s fingerprints.

It was the old, cranky gardeners fingerprints that matched in the end though. Uncle Joe was furious with him and immediately fired him on the spot. As he tried to bolt away the policeman grabbed his hairy arm and handcuffed him. The gardener got terribly angry at him and kept denying that he did it so they taped his mouth shut on the way to jail.

Later on the kids decided they should leave but Uncle Joe loved having the company and didn’t want us to ever leave. After we agreed Uncle Joe adopted us and became Dad to us from then on.

TIME

In class we have been learning how to tell the time in Te Reo. I worked with Bonnie and this is our poster to explain time.

New School Values

Our new school values are Respect, Integrity, Kindness and Resilience.

We have been exploring these concepts in class. Here is a poster with a quote that I chose below. 

Food Tech Pizza

Timbernook Trip

On Wednesday we went on a class trip to Timbernook for the day. We had lots of fun getting muddy.

Maths Working

On Thursday in maths, we did some problem solving and we showed our working for one of the questions. This is my working out for question four.

Read a Local

Title: The dark blue 100- ride bus ticket

Author: Margharet Mahy

Blurb: The dark blue 100- ride bus ticket is about a boy called Carlo and his Mum Jessica who live in an old brown run down flat. One day they accept a bus ticket from an old lady in the supermarket. Outside the shop, a blue bus that looks like the ticket shows up and takes them to the end of the world supermarket. Inside the endless supermarket, there is everything out of the ordinary including the horrible, mean, nasty Dowlers who are trying to overtake the supermarket. Carlo and Jessica meet another girl Carlo’s age called Pearlie and her dad Dominic who also have a bus ticket. All four of them throw a big party and invite all the people who work at the end of the world supermarket. The bus drivers who went to the party left the bus outside. Pearlie and Carlo were checking for Dowlers when suddenly they heard a cackling and screeching herd of dowlers coming. They jumped into the bus and hid under the blue velvet seats. Next minute they arrived at the Supermarket and the dowlers wrenched them out from under the seats. The dowlers smashed down the shelves and threw Pearlie and Carlo around the supermarket.

Opinion:

Recommendation: I recommend this to people who like magic things.

Science Fiction

Title: Opal Moonbaby and the best friend project

Author: Maudie Smith

Blurb= As the milkman (Chloe's uncle) was delivering the milk he saw something flash in the corner of his eye then he crashed and he lost his job. One day Martha and her younger brother Robbie find a furry creature that leads them to an exciting alien from Carnelia called Opal. Opal is on earth to complete her CIA (Carnelian Independence Award). Opal has to survive her time on earth and not be in the media or have anyone take photos of her. She also has to make a friend. After Martha’s best friend Chloe became friends with Colette Martha had sworn to never ever have another friend. Martha’s mum had to work in the hairdresser for the whole holidays to earn money and Martha and Robbie would always go and play with Opal at the playground. Martha still refused to be Opal’s friend but one day it was raining and Martha had to go to Chloe’s house with Colette. They were teasing her about how babyish Martha was when Opal turned up and read Colette's mind. Opal said that Mr Tickle Bump was Colette's teddy and she went everywhere with him and then she got really embarrassed. Chloe’s uncle had been trying to take pictures of Opal ever since he saw her cause she made him lose his job.

Opinion: This book didn’t really hook me in but later on in the book it got really good.

Recommendation: I recommend this book to people who like magic alien books.

Stereotyping

We had to do a stereotyping challenge and guessed a heap of things about different people. This is my work on Stereotyping and respecting.

Lost In Translation

Title: Emil’s Clever Pig

Author: Astrid Lindgren

Blurb: This book is about a boy called Emil who is very mischievous and likes pulling pranks and playing tricks. He lives on a farm called Katthult. One day he goes to an auction and buys a fire pump, a chicken and some other things. Later on in the book a man called Alfred who lives with Emil and his family cut his finger while carving teeth for hay rakes. He got blood poisoning and Emil’s Mum was going to take him to the doctor at Mariannelund but a huge snowstorm hit and they were unable to go anywhere.

Opinion: I think this book is very interesting and I liked hearing all the naughty things that Emil did.

Recommendation: I recommend this to either boys or girls between the ages of 12 and under. It would also be good for people who like playing tricks and pranks.

Maths

In maths, we had to work out the formulae's for each recipe. Above is my working out using google sheets.

Book Review-Award Winner

Title: Wonder

Author: R.J. Palacio

Blurb: This book is about a boy called August who was born with a bad face. August has never gone to school before and he has been homeschooled. He has a sister called Olivia (Via) and a dog called Daisy. His parents one day decide to send him to Beecher Prep school. He takes a tour of the school and meets some new kids. He get’s very scared and nervous starting school and lot’s of people bully him. At lunch time no one sat at his table apart from Summer who felt sorry for August. August get’s used to school and pretends not to notice people staring at him. He makes good friends with a boy named Jack. August get’s this hearing aid band that goes around his head. Soon after his dog Daisy has trouble breathing and they have to put her down. August was really sad because Daisy was the only one who didn’t care about what he looked like. Next week he goes on school camp. He has lot’s of fun but one day when they go to the movies at night. Jack needs the toilet so August and Jack go off to find the toilets. It is too crowded so they go off into the forest. In the forest, they meet these mean tall boys who make fun of August and chase him and Jack and fight them.

Opinion: I loved this book. It is very sad at some points but it is also very interesting. The message I got from this book is it doesn’t matter what who look like but who you are.

Recommendation: I recommend this book to boys or girls between the ages of 8 - 13 years old.

Book Review Classic

Title: The Borrowers
Author: Mary Norton

Blurb: This book is about a family of tiny people who live beneath a house. The Mum called Homily and the Dad called Pod have a girl called Arrietty. Pod always goes into the human house and borrows food and materials for their home. No borrower has ever been seen by a human but one day Pod gets seen by a boy. He tells Arrietty and Homily and Pod takes Arrietty borrowing. Since Arrietty had never been outside before she was running around in the grass and lying in the sun. Suddenly she sees a pair of eyes staring at her. It was the boy, he had seen her. She jumped a little frightened but then she became friends with the boy. The boy digges a hole in the kitchen floor and it leads to their house. Every night at midnight he takes things from the dolls house and delivers them to the borrowers. One night Mrs Driver who lives in the house snuck downstairs at midnight and saw the borrower’s house. The three of them were sleeping and ran away to another room in their house. Mrs Driver destroyed their house and took out all the furniture. She saw the borrowers and called the police to come and get them.

Opinion: At first I thought this was a very good book but then it got a bit bad. Towards the end it gets really really good again. I thought it was a very interesting book.

 Recommendation: I recommend this book to girls or boys between the ages of 8-12.

Furnware Trip

We went on a Sheppard house trip to Furnware in Hastings. We looked around the Factory and had the opportunity to design our own tables in the design studio. It was cool seeing how they made all our classroom furniture in the factory. I made a PhotoPeach about our Furnware Trip.
Furnware Trip on PhotoPeach

Inquiry Powtoon

This is my Powtoon on the difference between Invention, Innovation and Discovery.
https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/dghU9W1gwCd/?mode=movie#/

Reading Outside The Box

A 2nd Chance

Title: Friday Barnes Girl Detective

Author:  R.A Spratt

Blurb: Friday Barnes is a girl who usually goes unnoticed and is very smart. She wants to be a detective so she solves a bank robbery. She get’s 50,000 dollars for solving it and sends herself to the poshest, most expensive boarding school as a full time boarder. At the school there is lots of mysteries for her to solve. Everybody thinks she is the scholarship student so she get’s bullied.

Opinion: I think this book is very good and interesting. It hooked me in at the start and got very exciting near the end of the book.

Recommendation: I recommend this book to people who like mysteries and are between the ages of 8-11 years old.

Quad Death

For P.E we tried out a new game with room 10 and 11 called Quad Death. This is how to play Quad Death below and the rules.

Quad Death

Writing Purpose: To inform other HNI students the rules of the game and to develop our creative thinking ability.

Audience: Mrs Ellmore and HNI students

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJfVvophGAk

Use your creativity to come up with 3 alternative names for this very exciting game!
Quad Death	Quarter Chaos	Quad Chaos

Imagine another class here at HNI has not played this game before. Complete the rules below to clearly describe the aim of the game and exactly what the rules are.

Aim of the game: To get no points by having none of the four netballs in your quarter by the end of the round and making the other team’s score lot’s of points.

Rules:

1. You need to STAY on the floor sitting down for the whole game.
2. Do NOT throw the balls too high otherwise the balls will hit the equipment on the ceiling.
3. DON’T aim for people's heads when throwing a netball.
4. When the whistle is blown you need to stop throwing the balls.
5. Wait for the whistle  before you start to throw balls out of your quarter

Game Adaptations

Use your creative thinking to explore possible adaptations to this game to enhance both the fun factor and the ability to win the game. I have given you one example for each category but challenge yourself with other ideas and thinking.

Attack	Defence	Game Plan/Strategy
Use balls other than netballs that aren’t as heavy so the speed of the travelling ball also speeds up the game.	4 players from each quad are allowed to sit on the bleaches to stretch with their arms and intercept flying balls.	People on the perimeter of the quad pass the ball to someone closer to the bleaches to allow them to throw it further into the opponent's area.

Instead of just using four balls you could use more balls if you play with more people and less balls depending on how many people are playing.

After one round the people at the front could swap with the back people so they get a turn up front throwing and catching balls.

One of a Series

Title: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Author: J.K. Rowling

Blurb: This book is about Harry Potter who thinks he is an ordinary boy. His horrible Aunt and Uncle told him that his Mother and Father died in a car crash but that was not true. Hagrid who is the hogwarts school gamekeeper and a giant comes and takes him to Hogwarts school because he is a wizard. Hagrid and Harry buy his school things and then take the train to Hogwarts School. Harry meets Ron and Hermione and together at night they have lot’s of adventures.

Opinion: I think this book is very interesting, full of detail, adventure and exciting happenings.

Recommendation: I would recommend this book to people who like mysteries. I think it would be suitable for a girl or a boy between the ages of 8 and up.

Grey Angels Nurse Advertisement

For reading we had to read a book called Grey Angels and then make an advertisement to get more war nurses to save our soldiers in war. Here is my advertisement.

OHOPE

              

Ohope Beach!

As the blazing sun rises I can feel the sea breeze whipping across my face and the sand soaking into my feet with every step. Craaash! I hear the waves beating against the soft sand. On the surface of the choppy water I can spot ripples, white like marshmallows.As I look to the left of the rough sea I see trees dotted with bright red Pohutukawa. Standing on the beach I smell the strong salty water from the enormous sea ahead of me.

Poem

Title: Enjoy

Blurb: This poem is all about enjoying every moment of life. Play lot’s and have fun.Make every day count because you only get one life to live.

Opinion: I think this poem is really cool and it tells you to Enjoy yourself.

Recommendation: I would recommend this poem to anyone.

Reading outside the box

Title: Matilda

Author: Roald Dahl

Blurb: This book is about a little girl adopted by horrible parents.They hate her and never do anything for her. Therefor she is very independent and by the age of 2 has learnt to do almost anything like tying shoelaces, cooking things and many more. Everyday Matilda would walk the 10 blocks to the Library and get lot’s of books. At six and a half Matilda started school with a really nice teacher called Miss Honey. Unlike Miss Honey Mrs Trunchbull the principal was really cruel and mean.

Opinion: I love the book Matilda and I think it is really cool.

Recommendation: This book is quite sad but it is a great book.

Mystery Book

Title: The Secret Seven Win Through

Author: Enid Blyton

Blurb: It’s the holidays and the secret seven can’t use their usual meeting place (the shed) because it is getting touched up. They search for a new meeting place and find loads.The best one that Peter and Janet found was a big cave with a sandy floor covered with a big curtain of plants and vines.They took lot’s of things to their meeting place but the next day lot’s of things were stolen and somebody had been there.The intruder dropped a notebook in which it had a note to Albert.It said meet at the post office bench seat at 8:30 pm. So they met there and another guy said The Scarecrow to Albert. The seven hunted all around every scarecrow looking for anything stolen but no luck.

Opinion: My opinion of this book is very good and it is quite exciting.

Recommendation: I recommend this book to people who love adventures.

Audio Book

Title: The Witches

Author: Roald Dahl

Blurb: The Witches is about a boy whose parents die so he lives with his Grandma in Norway. She tells him all sorts of Witch stories and how to spot real Witches but he does not believe her. She told her when she once met a Witch and then he believed her. In the boy’s father’s will it said that his Grandma was to look after him and take him back to live in England. When they were in England for quite sometime Grandma started to get sick.The doctor said that they could not go on a holiday to Norway anymore but could stay at a hotel by the sea.They stay at the same hotel as the annual Witch meeting.The boy get’s turned into a mouse when they discover he was listening to their meeting.

Opinion: This book was full of strange peculiar things but also sad at some points.

Recommendation: I recommend this book to people who love Witches.

Re-Read a book I loved

Title: Billionaire Boy

Author: David Walliams

Blurb: Joe Spud is a 12 year old boy who is the richest kid in the world. He is an only child who lives with his Dad. His Dad made money by inventing new toilet paper. The kids at Joe’s posh school called him mean names.He moved school’s to a normal school. He wasn’t going to tell anyone he was a Billionaire and maybe he would find a friend like he had always wanted. Bob was a boy at his school and became friends with Joe. A new girl called Lauren came and she liked Joe. Bob and Joe had a fight and now he would just hang out with Lauren.One night he invited Lauren over for dinner but when he got home their was a big party going on. Sapphire had got engaged with his dad. He found out that his Dad was paying Lauren to be his friend.He was so angry he ran away. He went to Raj’s newsagent shop and slept outside for the night.He went to Bob’s house and apologised to him.They were friends again but then he saw his Dad on Television. He was crying and he had lost all his money and was fired because his toilet paper made people’s bums go purple.Joe went back home and he and his Dad stayed at Joe’s house. Joe’s Dad married Bob’s Mum and then Bob and Joe were stepbrothers.

Opinion: This book is very interesting and hooked me in.

Recommendation: I recommend this book to people who love sad but interesting books.

Chunkster

Title: The Midnight Gang

Author: David Walliams

Blurb: Tom gets hit in the head with a cricket ball and goes to hospital. In the children’s ward there are four other kids called Amber whose arms and legs are broken. George who had to have his tonsils taken out. Robin who had an eye operation and for now can’t see a thing and little Sally who is very ill. Every night the midnight gang make one of the child’s dream come true but Sally was too ill to be part of the gang. Tom joined the gang and the Porter, an ugly homeless kind man. One night the gang was racing around town looking for a lady who stole the balloons and went flying. The Porter said it was his fault and he got sacked. The Porter lived in the hospital basement his whole life and did not have a name. They had to make Sally’s dream of a big beautiful life come true. When the boss saw the gang he gave the Porter back his job but now he looks after the kids ward instead of the horrid old Matron.

Opinion: This book was very good and was full of description and interesting things. It is also quite a sad book.

Recommendation: I recommend this book to a boy or a girl in between ages 8-14.

Turangawaewae

Mihi

Ka tangi te titi

Ka tangi te kaka

Ka tangi hoki ahau

Tehei Mauri Ora

Ko Rongokako te maunga                         

Ko Tuki Tuki  te awa                             

Ko Brooke ahau

Ko Steve toku matua

Ko Julia toku mama                 

Ko McNamara toku ingoa whanau

Ko Maungawharau te kura

No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa

This map relates to my mihi and shares my special/important places.

Recommended by someone else

Title: The Mum-Minder

Author: Jacqueline Wilson                            

Blurb: The Mum-Minder is about an 8 year old girl called Sadie and her baby sister Sara. Sadies Mum is a child minder and looks after four babies.Gemma, Vincent, Clive and Sara of course. Sadies Mum gets the flu so the children spend one day with each of the kids parents.They end up having so much fun and then Sadie and Sara get the flu, but their Mum is better.

Opinion: I think this book is very good because it hooked me in and it is very descriptive.

Recommendation: I recommend this book for a girl in between the ages of 8-12.