Who am I?

I have wings but I cannot fly.
I have scales-like features but I am not a fish.
I live in one place and not in any other.
I can eat but I don't have a mouth.
I can hear but I don't have ears.
I sleep in the day and walk around in the night.
My eyes are black but i can still see.
Guess what I am.
Comment your answers.

Riddle #1

What can 1 not keep.
Two hold and three destroy?
Comment the answers.

Pourquoi- How the Elephant grew his Trunk and Saved the World

L.I. To write a ‘pourquoi’ story explaining  how/why something is

How the Elephant grew his Trunk and Saved the World

Once upon a time, on a cold winter morning in the grey gloomy lifeless town called Sadness. There lived a large number of sad colourless animals. One of them was an elephant called Sylvester. Originally he was quite a kind mammal who tried to bring joy into the town. But no one listened to him. All they would say is, Happiness is a waste of time and energy, we don’t need it here. He only had one person in that town who agreed. That, was his best friend Gibson, a raccoon. They had read about happiness once in a book from overseas and they sure wanted to experience it, but they didn't know how. When they tried asking someone all they said was that they were a nuisance and they shouldn't be worrying about such silly things like happiness. They still tried. But they didn't know how it should feel. Maybe they had experienced it and hadn't realised?

One day Sylvester and Gibson were strolling along the mournful street whistling a lifeless tune when someone called out, “Help!”  Sylvester and Gibson glance back at Old Grey Rabbit who was in his dreadfully dull garden. Sylvester and Gibson  rush towards him. Old Grey Rabbit starts telling them a long story about his grey garden. After five minutes of him boring them with his dull story he heard a snore. So he woke them up and told them long story short that he had an unfortunate accident yesterday at the pool when he slipped and fell on his leg. Now he can’t take all the weeds out of the garden. So the young boys decided they should help. They had nothing better to do. After five hours they had taken out all the weeds, except for one.

There was a HUGE five metre tall weed. Gibson used his little raccoon claws to dig into the weed and started pulling at it. Sadly though Sylvester, even though he was the strongest animal in the land, had nothing to pull with. All he could use was his short hooked nose. They pulled and they pushed. They nudged and they shoved and soon, they pulled it out completely!

Out of the hole where the weed had been growing a huge explosion of colour and fireworks erupted, and after the spectrum strike, three angels flew out and thanked the boys for letting them free after the Demon of Glumness shut them away for always laughing and playing, and for everything happy that they had ever done. Because as his name implies he isn't exactly a fan of happiness. Gradually a rainbow set over the grey dull world and colour set in.

Suddenly something hit Gibson on his head. It was Sylvester! He had a long trunk. All of that pulling created a long nose! Sylvester, surprisingly, didn’t notice! When Gibson told Sylvester, he was shocked!!! It took him two years to master using his long trunk to do everyday things (which Gibson had to do before because Sylvester didn’t have anything to use.) Also the town of Sadness soon was changed to Joytown where everyone became happy! Luckily the whole towns colours returned immediately! Everyone was so surprised and shocked.

Gibson and Sylvester finally experienced happiness, and they loved it! They thought that happiness was so strange because it never drained your energy like sadness did so they played around, made treehouses and, of course, made loads of friends!!! For some strange reason Sylvester’s long trunk became a biological part of his body and his children, and grandchildren were born with long, useful, trunks!

Now that is how the story of how the elephant’s received their trunks. We should be very grateful to these large and wonderful creatures, because without them, we would be living in a sad, grey town, with our sad grey pets, sad grey children and in the zoo all we would see would be sad grey elephants with short grey noses.

By Oksana

Why the Death of Animals is an Environmental Concern.

Would you eat one of your household pets? No? Neither would I! So why is it ok to eat someone else’s cow? Or pig? Or chicken? I would like to discuss with you today the animal killing problem.

Almost every day an average person will eat some kind of animal. Except for vegetarians of course. But just that slice of bacon on your french toast in the morning is death of a cute little piglet. Obviously we all need meat for its protein. But there are alternatives to gaining the protein you need, like cheese,beans,eggs,milk products and nuts. We don’t need to be vegetarians and ditch meat completely, but we could at least cut down a little on our everyday intake.

Firstly, people started eating animals in the olden days as a source of food. Now people are eating it ALL the time for its flavour, or just to replace hunger. There are many other natural things in the supermarket to eat like vegetables, fruit or even just plain ice-cream!

Animals technically were on Earth long before us, and it was ok to eat them just for a source of food as we were a source of food to them. Animals are the hosts, we are the visitors, we shouldn’t take over their own home. Obviously we are able to share as long as we are allowing it. We are animals too in a way, so why are we attacking our own kind. You may think lions or tigers or even Great White sharks are the most dangerous. But they aren’t we are.

Not only are we eating them, but we are also killing them for money. Have you ever seen a coat or a scarf made of animal fur? Where do you think that comes from unless the fur is faux? That’s right! The animals provide us with all this fur just for our happiness and popularity. It is disgusting to see how much money businesses are paying to produce this kind of material for clothing! Tigers, foxes, cheetahs, seals even rhinos are being killed for all their special fur and horns. Even whales are killed just for their oil that they produce. Protesters are slowing down these killings, but not stopping them completely. Because of us these marvellous, intelligent creatures are becoming endangered and some, and even going extinct! I am positive that if we don’t slow this down soon, our children will end up wondering what a plain polar bear is. We are killing them and their habitats.

We are also polluting their homes with all of our store bought, un-environmentally friendly litter. Which is why we need more protected habitats for these animals. Imagine if somebody stole your house and family to get money! That is done to animals every day. They have to live with it. How many hedgehogs, possums, birds, and even cats have you seen lying dead coated with a thick layer of gore on the side of a road? I have seen about 200, and that is 200 too many. We must slow down and watch out. Without animals we wouldn’t survive. So why should we be killing them? We are killing ourselves. Without animals the world will end.

In conclusion I think we should do something about this catastrophe. Like maybe we could use faux fur for clothes rather than real fur, and slow down on our daily meat intake. We should eat to live, rather than live to eat.

By Oksana

Fun Facts!!!

* Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
* Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed people do.
* The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it.
* The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.
* A rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair.
* It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
* The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
* The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."
* All of the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20.
* "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt"..
* Almonds are members of the peach family.
* A snail can sleep for 3 years.
* China has more English speakers than the United States.
* The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
* A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is not white, but actually clear.
* The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
* Did you know you share your birthday with at least 9 other million people in the world?
* Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
* On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
* The strongest muscle in the body is the TONGUE.
* "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.

Weekly Smile (NO NEGATIVE THOUGHTS ALLOWED!)

Optimism is a happiness magnet.
If you stay positive,
Good things,
And good people
Will be drawn to you
-Mary Lou Retton

Kindness is a language
That deaf can hear
And blind can see
-Mark Twain

When life gives you lemons,
Squeeze them into life's eyes.

The journey of a thousand miles
Begins with a single step
-Lao Tzu

Adult- There is a fight between to wolves in me right now
         One good, and one bad. Only one can win.
Child- Which one wins?
Adult- The one you choose to feed.

Our prime purpose in this life
Is to help others
And if you can't help them,
At least don't hurt them.

Extension Art Trip

Three days ago our Extension Art Program went on a trip to Hamilton Museum. We saw many famous artworks from New Zealand Artists, like 
Michael Smither, who could see colours in music. We also saw a variety of pottery and sculptures. At the end of the day we painted our own landscape. I painted a snowy mountain landscape behind a pine forest and a river. The Year 7's painted a landscape while our Year 8's painted a self-portrait. We all enjoyed our trip.