Craig's Bigfoot Story

Hunting Humans

I Look down at my Scars,  they ooze blood and pus.  I look up to see my daughter leave me.  She turned round,  her dark blue eyes gleamed at my, while her fur whipped in the wind.  “Goodbye” I whispered.  Then I black out.

I fly through the forest, it is my home.  With every leap, I jump high in the sky.  But Before I know it I am here.  At the town that houses the Dreadful Human Race.  They killed my father.  

I have watched many animals die.  The Gorilla Men of the North.  Gone.  The Lions of Azmodan.  Gone.  

I peer through the bush at the billboard, and my face was there, glistening in the sunshine.  But it was a reward for my capture.  A call for a team,  ready to catch me.

I haven’t introduced myself.  My Name is Bob.  The humans call me Bigfoot.  My mottled hair all over my body protected me almost like a bullet proof vest.

I have been living here for many years.  I love it here.  But soon I know I will be dead.  I feel time has caught up on me.

I walk back to my home.  My cave, my safety.

I tell my wife and child to leave.  

They left for our underground home.

The hobbit hole under the mountain.

Its our Sanctuary.  

I set my traps along the top of my cave.  Traps of fire, Traps of Water. Traps of Death all ready for those humans.  My emotions fight each other.  I want to live.  I love my Wife.

My Death is due.  Its been due for a while.  I can never be too sure.

I peer through the bushes once again.  Sabres weave their paths through lines of humans,  while people collapse from gunfire.  I set my battle club flying.  It smacks a human in the forehead and he lies down dead.

After hours upon hours of fighting 3 remain.  They cower over their friends and they weep there hearts out.  

Now is my time to attack.  Now that they are weak and weeping.  Humans are very smart.  If I delay the attack I will definitely die.  And it would be a gruesome death.

I pounce out of the bushes and attack.

One of them stumbles and falls, but the other two are ready.  Their darts locked and loaded.  I pounce at one, darts whizzing past my head.  I send my hand flying at him his skull cracks and he drops down. I pounce again.  But this time I miss.

I plummet down the hill and hit a tree.

My Brain rattles round my head as I try to get myself into shape.

I have landed at the base of the hill.  My home.  But my wife lays there.  Dead.  Her mottled fur is on fire. I cannot live.     

I Look down at my Scars,  they ooze blood and pus.  I look up to see my daughter leave me.  She turned round,  her dark blue eyes gleamed at me, tears welling up in her eyes.   Her fur whipped in the wind.  She is definitely a daughter of mine.  “Goodbye” I whispered.  Then I close my eyes forever.  

The last Gorilla Man.  Dead.  There is my daughter.   But she collapsed just as I closed my eyes.  An axe flew through the air and hit her in the side of her head.  Blood splattered all over the walls and into my eyes.  I winced and closed my eyes.  A memorable death I thought.

Leadership

There is greatness in all of us!  That's right there is greatness in ALL of us.  Of course being a leader is not natural for most people and most of the time you have work hard to get some respect as a Leader.  But what is a leader and why do we need leaders in countries and communities around us?

A Leader is not too different from from you or I, but they lead other people to achieve certain goals. Of course they are like every other person, not a slight bit difference, but when it comes to a challenge these people tend to stand up and lead.  “Leaders are made not born”.

Why do you think we would need leaders,  we need them to lead us to strive in everyday challenges and achieve their goals by using their and the groups skills.  We need leaders for their greatness in communication, and other qualities that they use to their advantage. Leaders a lot of the time are the organised people of the group, the people that organise other people to do things.  Leaders over many years have lead civilizations to victory and to glory. Leaders aren’t afraid to do something different, they are believing in their cause, not ready to give in or stop after a road block.

Dean Barker the skipper of Emirates Team New Zealand America’s Cup Boat he like all leaders has to be organised,  he can’t just go sailing around unsure of what he would do next, because that would lose him the race.  Dean Has to be persistent/determined because if he is going bad he can’t give up he has to (and does) continue and try himself and others to success.  He needs to stick to his goal and he would have probably completed it at the end.  Last of all he needs to be human and make mistakes!!  He has to make mistakes or else he won’t learn it and he’ll get stuck on it until he succeeds.  Just remember no one is ever perfect.

As mentioned previously a leader is a great person that is leading people to do great things, you don’t need many qualities you just need to know how to stick to a thought out plan and learn from your mistakes.Rallying and organising other people to do their jobs and by the end you will have reached your goal and life for you might have changed for the good of the world.  Being a leader is not easy, but it isn’t hard either you just need to work hard and work one brick at a time to succeed!

Craig Keenan

A visit from a Biologist!

On Friday, during the second block, Annette came over to share her insect presentation with us. Annette is a biologist from the University of Auckland and she spends a lot of time studying insects.

First she shared a Powerpoint about what types of insects live in different areas and told us how to classify if a creature is an insect or not. We learnt that insects always have 6 legs, 2 antanae and 3 body parts (head, abdomen and thorax) - which means that spiders aren't even insects! We also learnt that bugs are a certain type of insect, which means that not all insects are bugs! All of these creatures though are called invertebrates because they don't have a backbone, instead they have an exoskeleton (their 'bones' are on the outside instead of being on the inside, like the are with humans and animals.) We asked lots of good questions were able to answer some of the ones she asked us.

Then, we were tested on our knowledge. Annette gave us little containers that had creatures inside them. We had to decide whether the creatures were insects or just invertebrates, and note down special characteristics (exactly what they were.) Some of the insects were saw were alive! There was a big selection, including a monarch butterfly, a white-tailed spider (NZ's main poisonous spider), an earwig and baby cockroaches. We had fun trying to recognise what they were but some of us were creeped out by the live insects - especially the spider!

We were also shown a little bottle filled with alcohol and lots of dead invertebrates. These are known as pitfall traps. They are placed in the ground and the invertebrates fall into the trap over a period of days, and show the scientists the insects that are in the area. The pitfall trap that Annette showed us came from Motatapu Island and had lots of scary spiders (called arachnids.)

She also showed us a collection of insects that she'd caught and found herself, and that she'd pinned herself in a wooden box. They were all labeled and looked amazing.

We really enjoyed having Annette along to Learning Hub 3 and hope she comes back again. It was great to hear from a real biologist and it was clear that she knew a lot about invertebrates!

By Craig and Ben

Insects with Annette! on PhotoPeach

An Image in Time - Jamie, Craig, Fatima, Maddy & Ben

WALHT (We Are Learning How To): Write a interesting paragraph from a picture, using metaphor and personification.

This morning for journal writing we were doing a moment in time image.  It needed to include a metaphor and personification.  We chose between two images.  One was a globe with hands, the other was a rock climbing wall.  We hope you enjoy them.

When I look at the globe I think of each hand as a country and the globe as the environment.  Each time a hand comes away, a country stops caring, making it harder for the remaining hands to take care of it.  It will end up being a concrete wasteland.  If this happens the stars will never wink again.

By Jamie

It's Craig here - I've underlined the figurative language I used, can you work out which ones I've used where?

It all started when the universe ran over to our part of the solar system and popped a balloon causing a big bang.  That was the point when our part of the solar system was invented.  Then civilization started, they began to hold the world. Later on war was invented, civilizations crumbled making it harder to hold the world.  The Earth was beginning to feel like an anchor to the people who are still holding.  Later on in time our technology has begun to pollute the land and our environment.  More hands drop.  If one more pair of hands drop, our world will be a wasteland.   

By Craig

Standing alone holding the globe all by myself.  The globe felt like I was carrying a marble but the longer I held it, the quicker I realised I was holding a dinosaur sized globe.  I felt like giving up but the globe smiled as someone else helped me hold it.  I felt like a thousand weights lifted off my shoulders.

I felt like I did quite well because a couple years ago, I wasn't sure about metaphors and personifications.  Now I can write metaphors, personifications, and similes at ease.  Journal writing has helped me lot.  Journal writing is really affective because the teachers give you a topic to write about and you have to use figurative language.  I am looking forward to more journal writing so I can improve on my weaknesses.

By Fatima

As I steer at the rock wall it laughs at me. As I start to climb the wall I turn into nimble monkey creeping to the top.

By Maddy

As I am the great billy goat I am preparing to conquer this great big mountain and guess what, it laughed at me.  I think it will be a big challenge for me!

By Ben