The climb to the top of One Tree Hill was the 29th climb in memory of Sir Ed. Climbs are taking place all over the North and the South Island. It was New Zealand’s way of remembering a great man who was extraordinary in lots of different ways. He had a passion for walking so this remembarance for him would have been one that would have made him smile.

At 4pm students, teachers and family members from all over Auckland gathered to pay their final respect to Sir Edmund Hillary. Each school who participated also brought a stone with them that had their school name on it. All these stones from all the summit climbs from all over New Zealand will be gathered together and made into a cairn in memory of Sir Ed at the foot of Mount Ruapehu . This will be an everlasting memory at a place where Sir Edmund Hillary first fell in love with mountains.

At the beginning of the walk there was a speech about Sir Edmund Hillary from the organisers of the Summits for Sir Ed Trust. He spoke about his achievements and why these walks were such a great idea.

It was a challenging walk for us and fun at the same time. Some of the parents found the walk difficult as it wasn’t in their habit to walk up so high and far. When we made it to the summit of One Tree Hill we listened to a few people from the Nepalese community talk about Sir Edmund Hillary and then we held a one minute silence for him.

Walking down the hill was much easier and quicker. We also took a short cut which meant we reached the bottom in record time. Some of us were tired after the walk so we couldn’t imagine how Sir Edmund Hillary felt after climbing Mount Everest.

We are glad that we all took part in this walk and that we have remembered such a wonderful man. This will be an everlasting memory for all of us. We have learned a lot about him this Term and we all really appreciate what an EXTRAORDINARY MAN HE REALLY WAS!!

By MH, JW, JM, PK, LA & MM Room 21

When we arrived we saw dirt bike tracks and people doing amazing courses. I really wanted to give it a go. Everyone got of the bus and then walked by the Safety Instructors and they gave us something to put on called a harness. A harness is something that protects you if you fall of the tree.  Its just like a safety belt.

After we put our harnesses on we went to a practice course to see if we could do it properly and we all did it so we went on to course .
It was AWSOME because it was a bit hard and everything wobbled so we had to really concentrate and try hard.

First we all got our harnesses on and we were shown how to use our pulleys for the flying fox.  The pulleys were for the blue life lines and the karabeaners were for the red life lines.

All of Room 21 went on Course 1, Course 2, Course 3 and Course 4 but I got to go on to Course 5 but don’t tell anyone!!  DO NOT TELL MISS ADAMSON!!

After a long hour we arrived at Tree Tops Adventure. When I got out of the bus I was very scared because I thought we were going to do all of the ten courses but we WERE only doing four courses.

We had to put on our special gear which were called harness then we went to get safety cheek. The first course was the practice course. It was very easy. We had to use two karabiners on our safety belt plus wear a helmet too. The helmet was very hard.

My favourite course was course one. It was kind of scary. After climbing all of those tree’s I got tired so I went to eat my lunch. I only did three courses. I had so fun. We stayed there for about three hours then Room 21 and Room 25 had to go back on to the bus and return to school.

When we got back to school I felt really tired and glad because I had so much fun. I would really like to go back again some day.

By TG

It was time to get the gear on. Once I got my gear on I realized it was too bulky. Then I remembered that the instructor said they were going to tighten the harness so they tightened mine and then it felt better.

On the way back in the bus Mitchell, Tyson and I were playing a game called Give Up because we were bored. When we got back we were greeted by our parents (well for some people) I had an excellent time with my friends and I had the best experience every hanging in the trees.

By LT 

Sir Edmund Hillary is one of the people that we most admire. We found four of our favourite pictures of Sir Edmund Hillary and then asked each person in the class four questions about him. They were….

1. Tell us one interesting fact about Sir Edmund Hillary.

2. What Habits of Mind did Sir Edmund Hillary use in his life?

3. What do you most admire about Sir Edmund Hillary?

4. What are your dreams for your future?
By MH & MHH

Next the lady from Keeping Manukau Beautiful told us lots of information about graffiti. We learned that graffiti is very bad and that the Tax Payers spends over 3 million dollars on graffiti each year just in Manukau. Then she showed us some pictures of what graffiti looked like.

Then we all stood up and followed the one of the lady helpers who travels around Manukau painting over graffiti.. She led us out of Elm Park School and around the corner. We walked for about 30 minutes and then we stoped near a long alley.

We were shown where we were going to paint and how to paint. Then we had to choose a partner. I choose JM. We were then given a paint brush each and a paint bucket was put in front of us. We walked up the alleyway and the lady told us where to paint.

I dipped my paint bush into the paint pot and then lifted my paint bush up so fast it went all over Jason. It was really funny. We finished the whole alleyway in 45 minutes. I looked at it when we were finished and it looked beautiful.

Then we had to walk back to school. I felt very proud of myself because I did a good job and it was very helpful to the community.

BY JW

They talked about how taggers effect our community and that we are the ones who have to pay the money to clean it up. If you get caught tagging you get a black mark after your name on your permanent record so when you are older you will find it difficult to get a good job.

We learned that Graffiti first appeared in the Collesium which is in Rome in Italy. A long time ago they used to write graffiti as they had no way to express their feelings so they used to write messages on the walls. The messages were for other people to read and were also for the politicians because there was no other way for people to communicate with each other.

After we listened to the speaker a small group of students were chosen to go and paint over some graffiti in our neighbourhood.

We went to a small walkway which was filled with graffiti. It was a long walk. We found a buddy and then one of the helpers gave us paint and paintbrushes. We went down the pathway and the Police Officer called Constable White showed us the fence we had to paint.

We started painting. Spikes, our class mascot was also helping us.

It was a hot day but we didn’t mind. We had to fill up our buckets with paint two times. The paint was thick and brown. I got a sore arm painting the fence because my arm was moving up and down lots.

We finished painting it just in time to go back to school for lunch. On our way back, I wasted all the water from my drink bottle to wash my hands. It was a really long way back. It was really fun. I never thought working would be so much fun.

If I could go and help the community again, I would. I learnt a lot about how tagging effects our community and how millions of our dollars are spent on tagging. I think that our money would be better spent on our schools and hospitals and making people’s lives better.

I am so glad I learned more about not tagging on other peoples property and how it affects people’s lives.

By MH

Background Information

Jonah Lomu was born on the 12th May 1975. He was born in South Auckland, New Zealand. He is 32 years old. His parents are Tongan. When Jonah Lomu was 9 years old he had to run behind his parents car every Sunday to go to church because he was too tall to fit into the car!

Jonah’s Dream
Jonah Lomu’s dream was to wear the black jersey of the New Zealand, All Blacks. The All Blacks are the best rugby team in the world. Jonah Lomu became the youngest ever All Black in history.
He was only 19 years and 45 days old when he had his first match.

Match History
Jonah Lomu’s first Provincial side was Counties Manukau. He played 28 games for them between 1994 and 1999. He played his first World Cup against France and then he was selected in 1995 to play in his second World Cup. In 1996 he played against the Barbarians in England.

Jonah Lomu was once described as being like a Boeing 747 because he was big, fast and made the ground shake like an earthquake. When he played he was also described as brushing off the other players as if they were flies meaning that they weren’t strong and they didn’t really challenge Jonah Lomu.

Life changing illness

After Jonah played against the Barbarians in England he had to stay in bed for 3 days because he couldn’t move. He was told he had a serious liver disease and that he would not be able to play rugby again and he would spend most of his life in a wheelchair chained to a machine that was going to clean his blood.

Nothing is Impossible
Jonah Lomu never gave up. After 9 months Jonah Lomu was back on the rugby field ready to play. He found the power within himself to get better and get back up there to achieve his dreams of being a rugby player.

Jonah Lomu is an extraordinary because he made a difference with the All Blacks by helping them to become the best team in the World.

We admire him because he is one of the best players in the history of the All Blacks and because he believed in himself and never gave up his dreams.

Facts about Jonah Lomu

Full Name : Jonah Tali Lomu
Height : 1 metre 96 centimetres
Weight : 116 kilograms
Speed : Can run 100 meters in 10.8 seconds
Size : Wears size 13 boots
College : Studied at Wesley College, Pukekohe
Eye Colour : Dark Brown
Favourite Colours : Yellow & Blue
Chest : 116 centimetres
Hips : 125 centimetres

Research and writing by

The White & Yellow Reading Group

In Room 21 we have been thinking about ways that we can improve our writing. We have been learning about synonyms as we think that they could be a tool that we could put in our writing toolbox that would helpour writing.

WHAT IS A SYNONYM?

A synonym is a word that has a similar meaning to another.

WHY ARE SYNONYMS A USEFUL WRITING TOOL?

* Synonyms can be used instead of common words (high frequency words.)

* Common words lack power in our writing. They can make our writing boring.

* By choosing more unusual words a text can become interesting.
This voicethread is about synonyms that Room 21 found for 3 common words.

We would like to hear your synonyms too, to add to our voicethread.