The Tunnel by Anthony Browne

 We read Anthony Browne's book called The Zoo it is a very good children's book.  We were then tasked to find the message and our understanding on this book so here is my understanding.

Waterslides🏄

 In class, we have been learning about figurative language. We learned about personification, alliteration, and assonance. We also learned a new sentence structure - Some;others. I used some of them in my recount. This recount is about the waterslides we went to.

“Ready?” My mum asked with no excitement (never really wanted to go). Here I was at our

hotel with my mum and brothers. It was a really nice hotel an hour out of Auckland, a nice

geothermal bath out the back with a fence for privacy, comfy beds, it even had a nice

bathroom and right across the road were some hot pools with two of the biggest water

slides I have ever seen. The time was five pm, the evening sunlight smiled from above us as

it slowly set. We were just leaving our unit and the slides were still in sight as they towered over every other

building around. We walked over to the pools, and my Mum paid for the swimming fee then

straight to the slides. “Last up is the loser,” I heard Aden say cheekily before he sprinted

up with Kaine chasing behind him.”I'm not going to try, I just ate dinner and I don’t even

feel like swimming” I thought to myself.

Slowly, I made my way up the many floors, with each of them taunting me.“Taylah are you

almost here?” I heard Kaine yell from the top of the slide “Yeah, yeah I’m coming” I replied

being on the final floor of the ‘tower.’ I made it. I was finally up, the sun that was once up a

few minutes ago had set and the slide looked like a black hole; a portal to another dimension.

“Go!” I heard and saw Kaine yell at Aden as they raced down the slide until they were out of

my sight. “Do I really want to go down?” 

“Three, two, one” I whispered to myself as I sped down the slide clutching the mat I was

using, I couldn’t see any of my surroundings I turned a corner swiftly, then another, then

the mat that was once under had left me behind, my head hit the sides of the slide spinning

me backwards? To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing till I saw a dim light reflecting

against the side of the slide. With a splash, I landed into a….. pool? I swam to the top gasping for air and opening my eyes to see that I was finished. I laughed and went back up

for another round. This time I would try to make it less painful.

I went for many more rounds even though the walk-up was hard; almost too hard. It was

worth it because the only really bad thing was the migraine I had, we were there for hours.

Some people hate pools and slides; others love the thrill of them. Personally, I loved it. The

pool was really nice as well and I know for a fact that I would really like to go back to that

place again.

Matiriki

 Matariki is an important time for many religions. It represents the Maori new year. 'Fun' fact: the Chinese call it Subaru and that's the car's name origin. 

Science

 We have been learning about run-offs, estuaries, nutrients, and many more things. So here's some work around that.

Planetarium trip

We were learning about the solar system and the mysteries it holds. So we went to a planetarium in Whangarei, it was pretty fun especially looking through the telescopes. 

Book review

 This is a book review on a book that I have recently read, called 200 minutes of danger. Yeah, so here it is.

In my own words, this book is about many different stories with a different protagonist in each one to make one book. There are exactly 10 stories with life-threatening experiences and the protagonists only have 20 minutes to survive. In the end, all the stories are linked by one giant monster, a ship, and a time machine that is shaped like a boomerang.

This book is probably rated 11+ (maybe 10 if you’re a really good reader) because, in the end, you need to link each story to understand what is happening and if you can’t find the links it can be hard to understand the story. Overall, it is a really good book and I recommend it.

Writing

In class, we have made puoro/ukutangi.  It was hard well for me at least, this shows the steps on how to create your own ukutangi. We have also been learning about De;de sentences so I have added one to my explanation. Well- enjoy:)

 Introduction

Do you know what a Ukutangi is? A Ukutangi means ‘clay flute’; they were used for sending messages, ceremonial purposes, and creating calm spaces. Ukutangi are very interesting things and easy to create, have you ever made one? This will explain the steps I used to create my Ukutangi. Once you've created one you will find the same joy as I found.

Moulding

Firstly, we grabbed a rectangle of clay, halved it, then began to mould each half into a ball. As the clay took its shape, we put our thumb imprint in the middle of a ball and used our index and middle finger around the sides, rotating it around the thumb. We then did the same thing to the other ball of clay and it began to look like a bird's nest.

Connecting

We now had to separate pieces of clay that looked like bird's nests. We joined them one on top of the other. Smudge clay over the line that shows where the two halves have been connected and drill a hole in the top using your pinky finger. Stab your index finger through the hole your pinky made. 

The last step

Put the Ukutangi in the sun to dry and when it’s dry put the Ukutangi next to your mouth at an angle where half your breath is going inside the Ukutangi and the other half going out. If you want to add more wow into your Ukutangi you can use a pin to etch a drawing into the sides, it can be anything you want.

Conclusion

When you can make whistling noises you can start to make tunes that are calming. Ukutangi may be hard to make for some but easy for others. In the end, it was worth it. If you can’t make peaceful tunes neither can I, so I cannot help you.:)