The thrill and pain of paint ball!

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As I was sitting down getting ready to know what our first activity was, I was wishing it wouldn't be paintballing. But today my luck was bad, as they read out my groups first activity I heard “PAINTBALLING” I was nervous and scared because I have never done paintballing in my life and the stories I have heard about paintballing are not good.

As my group lined up to go paintballing, I quickly ran to my cabin and got my big puffy jacket . As we were walking towards the battle area, I saw popped paintballs everywhere. I could also see mud, tires and  Slingshots.

We had 4 matches our first match was a team match. There was 2 teams with 4 people in each team. My team ran to the left side of the battle area getting ready to start the match. We heard our instructor Prince say “ 3 2 1 GO” First me and my team made a plan our plan was for 1 person to go to the left and one person go to the right. Me and my friend went down the middle. If you didn't know the middle is the worst place be right now.

My hand was shaking as I had the slingshot in my hand. I was scared that I will get shot first. But as I ran and dodged heps of paintballs I thought I will never be shot. But I thought wrong, I got shot in the leg and it felt like I just got stung by a bee. I had to get off the battlefield and stand with Prince or Instructor.

Round 2

Or next game for paintballing was capture the flag. Me and my group went back to the left side and waited for Prince to do the countdown.

The countdown was said and my team did the same strategy. As the other team grabbed the flag first We chased them But we could not catch them.

Round 3

This time it was a free for all. Free for all is when you can go for anyone. But Still people teamed up. My trick was to tell people i am in there team and then shoot them in the back. There was only 2 people left I ran up behind and shot them so I became the winner.

Last round

This was probably the scariest one. It is called the hail mary run. This round 1 or 2 people had to run straight while the others get a free shot on them. I was picked to do the run. I waited at one side on the field and then ran. I got hit about 3 times but I didn't really hurt thanks to my big jacket.

So that was my experience of paintballing maybe if you do paintballing one day you might  have the same experience as me.

What do you wonder about space? Talita animation

This week's class post comes to us from Talita. She's posed a very interesting question for astronauts. Watch Talita's animation to find out more! (Blog link for more from Talita)

WALT: Animate our answers.

Every term, we have to make an animation. This term we made our animation animate our answers to a question. This question had to say 'I wonder' in the beginning of the question.

'I wonder...'

This term we started with some 'I wonder' questions. This is where students get to simply 'wonder' about anything to do with our school focus. This term's it's a science focus on space. The following is a slide deck produced by two boys in Room 3. Noah and Christian. Have a look through at their questions and then answers they found out by researching. Well done boys!

 hi my name is...Noah my animation is about what is the moon made our of????

Polyfest! Year 7 & 8 @PES were there!

The following post is by student Trinity of Room 3. It was a beautiful day with so much to see and take part in! Thanks Trinity for sharing your thoughts on this day. To see more from Trinity go here.

  On Thursday the 16th of March our year seven and eight students went on a trip to Poly fest. We had organised three busses to take us to Poly fest. It took about half an hour to get there and once we had arrived we walked to the centre and sat down. Not long after we had sat down and another school had sat down.Once all the schools had arrived each class had one tour guide. Our tour guide was showing us some of the place the would give us some learning time.I could remember two of the places which were the Police area and the ASB truck.
One of the highlights that I enjoyed from poly fest was going to watch the Maori stage. The Maori stage was breathtaking because of the way they showed they wanted to be there. They sang their loudest and that was what I liked the most about the Maori stage.

Another highlight from poly fest was watching the cook island speeches. The Cook Island Speeches were outstanding even though I didn’t understand what they were saying. I liked that they tried there best to try and say it proudly.

My last highlight of poly fest was the diversity stage. They were astonishing with the way the worked as a team and had fun while doing it.They looked like they were enjoying their dance because I could see that they were laughing.

After we had seen the stages and looked at the stalls it was time to go. We were ready to go so we walked to the bus at head back to school. When we had got back to school we walked inside and it was 2.30pm. Mrs Tele’a was telling us about how great we were at being responsible. We sang a song to the helpers for helping us at poly fest. After that we all went home and had a big rest.

Our journey - our bright stars

This video was put together by Room 3 to highlight the amazing feat our ancestors completed in voyaging across the vast Pacific Ocean. Part of this script is from an article written by the Polynesian Voyaging Society. Further - we make links to how our events in our homes, community and school are like the bright stars that guide ones journey. Keep your eyes on the stars!! Toia mai - te waka!!

PENN sTar Waka from SchoolTV on Vimeo.

Polyfest Highlights 2015

Polyfest Highlights 2015 For the first time in the history of Pt England School, the year 7's and 8's had gone to the Polynesian Festival 2015. Another way of saying it is, Polyfest. We all arrived at the Polyfest with 4 buses. Us, year 7 and 8's had the most amazing opportunity to go because we were 1 of the 5 schools that were chosen out of 20! So we were very lucky to be the first Pt Englanders to go on an awesome trip to Polyfest. It was actually a good time to go because it was there 40th anniversary! So before I start my highlights, I would love to say a big THANK YOU to all the parents who had made a big decision to come and join us for Polyfest or go to work. If it wasn't for all you, we would of not attended Polyfest 2015. Thank you for even buying us food. So thank you again for your kind and loving help. The highlight of the day for me was when my group played Jenga in one of the stalls. In my group our parent helper was Anas dad, Mr Vaafusuaga. I was in a group with Ana, Angelina, Promiseland and Taakai. The record for the day for the game Jenga was 30 stacks high. Each of us had turn to take one block out. We were so close to the record but when it got to 28th stack, it all fell down. Overall it was great because all of us were working together and trying to not make the stacks of blocks fall. I cannot wait until I am a year 9 because I would join the Samoan group for Polyfest 2016. Polyfest was so enjoyable to watch, but soon I won't only be watching, I might be performing on the stage. It'll be so fun to perform because your not only there to dance in your cultural group, you also learn more about it. Polyfest 2015 was an amazing experience, maybe on 2016, the next year 7's and 8's could go and watch again. VISIT THIS PAGE to see more from Jordenne's blog.

Hokule'a - Malama Honua arrive at Ukutoia

Many of our community know of the significant event we had in our final weeks of term 1 2015.   Here is a video conference between our students and students in Hawaii.   If you listen carefully you will hear the thoughts and feelings of our students about this historical event for children of Tamaki - Manaiakalani cluster of schools.  

Outlook for Someday Workshop

Our year 7 and 8 students had the privilege of learning from Chris and Elai from the Outlook for Someday. They learned all about sustainability in some of it's forms. The next step was learning about how to include some of these themes/ideas in a movie. Our team of students are currently working on movies to submit in this years movie competition. Check out what they made in a very short time with the guidance of Elai and Chris. Special thanks to the Outlook for Someday and their tutors Elai and Chris. It was a day of impact in terms of learning, creating and sharing for us here at PES. The way you quickly gauged the ability and understanding of this group was most impressive. You are great tutors of movies and the impact they can have. We learned very quickly about sustainability through your workshop. Our students reflected that they thoroughly enjoyed the 'how and what'of you taught. We look forward to working a lot more with the Outlook for Someday team. Kia Ora Koutou!

Will.i.Am gifts Manaiakalani

Will.i.Am from the Black Eyed Peas today visited our school. He is a recording artist, song writer, performer, entertainer, philanthropist and more. He came with a big group of people that included the media, friends and family. Hallensteins clothing company helped to bring him to our school. Will presented us today with a cheque of $100,000 for Manaiakalani. That's right he gifted this to us all! He shared many important messages with us. We've included a couple of these in our movie here. We've captured his korero with us and will post more soon. Be sure to check the individual blogs of PES students to read about this wonderful experience.

WilI.I.Am visits Pt England School from SchoolTV on Vimeo.