The Writing Game

The writing game

Two words; Blue, Ranger.

I hate this person because they are extremely boring, annoying, and he never stops talking!
He always talks about his blue puffer jacket, and his new forest ranger job.

Two words; Big, Shack

He is constantly on my nerves. I know everything about his life, even the big shack he has in his backyard.

Two words; Hole, Hill

Last week, I knew for a fact, he dug up a mountain of dirt up to make a hill.
But he wasn’t prepared for the hole the hill left behind.

Two words; Extraordinary, Pineapple

After digging the whole afternoon, he went inside for a refreshing snack.
Apparently he ate the most extraordinary pineapple.

Two words; Metaphorical, Feijoa

He also ate a metaphorical feijoa. Nobody know what it really was, that is the one thing he wouldn’t say.

Two words; Edit, Simple

Though he did say how he edited this simple metaphorical feijoa.
Apparently he added cheese and tomato. A yuck combination, if you ask me.

Two words; Draft, Breezy

That was only his draft. He said he planned to make many more.
Right after, he got the loveliest breeze.

Two words; Mighty, Waffles

That’s when he got the whiff, waffles. The neighbours were having waffles!
They smelt beautiful! They might have been the mightiest waffles in the world.

The writing game above is what we learned when two visiting Author's came to our school to talk about their careers. They taught us that doing this small game can make your brain work so that you can be more creative. We all took turns choosing two words each to add to our stories. Most of the time we all picked wild words that we knew would confuse people because we wanted to make the challenge as difficult as we could. And by making the challenge more difficult with words, we were able to create more creative stories. We learnt that some author’s even make their stories from this creative game alone. There was only one rule to this game, and that was making sure that you never stopped writing. When you were not writing, you were scribbling on the paper to figure out what to write, If you took your pen off the paper, or stopped writing, then you were disqualified. Although that was only because it was a class competition

I really liked this word game because it makes our brains create wonderful stories out of crazy words.
Most children’s stories are fun, creative, and silly and this word game will help you create a brilliant story of
your own. I recommend this game for anyone to play because it will really help if you are an inspiring
children's author, or you just like writing for fun.

Refuge by Alan Gratz

Breakout Challenge Game

Many schools came to our school to show students and teachers from other schools the items or new technology they were learning about. We intended to show other pupils how we did blogging, and hopefully get more educated on how to do blogging properly. While we were waiting for curious students to appear, another school got up to do a presentation on breakouts. Breakouts is a game that makes you think outside the blocks for clues, in hopes of escaping whatever you are “trapped in”. At first, when we were just starting the breakout game i thought that it would be relatively easy, however this game really tested our minds. We were given a page that had different bits of information on it, that you perhaps had to click on or interpret to figure out the clues. By the time we had figured out the first clue, we were halfway through the time, and even at that point we were tempted to look at the other teams answers.

 A Breakout game is a brilliant game to test a person mentally, and a very good challenge for anyone. I recommend this game to everyone of any age. I look forward to creating, and completing more of these Breakout challenges.

"The child of dandelions"

The child of dandelions

“We have to clear our land. The weeds must be uprooted. What can I do? You are the child of dandelions?”

Shenaaz Nanj

(I had a nice font, although it doesn't show on blogger, and I'm still learning how to change it)

Whaea Clare wants me to blog about Maths, although I am not very fond of Maths.

Des Hunt Visits NC

Des Hunt, the visiting author, came to our school to give a presentation of what he went through as an author and the tips and tricks of writing. Being a highschool student, I did not realize how much effort and work goes into writing a novel. Des Hunt explained how he writes a novel for the students, which include how he positions his hooks and how he makes the story interesting. Des explained to us that he did not start as an amazing author, instead he went through the same struggles and stages that we have all been through.

 His first book, The Last Tuatara, was given to 20 of his students after he had published it, and only four were able to read it. The 20 students told their teacher that there was nothing exciting to hook them in, and if there was there was not enough excitement to last the whole book. Des, being a chemistry teacher, decided to treat his books as a chemistry project. He needed to work out the exact formula to make an interesting book, and with his clever mind that is what he did.

I learned a lot from this experience, and I am glad that I took the opportunity to take his workshop. Having a hook at the very beginning of the story, near the middle, and the end leaves the reader excited to finish the book. Writing in third person makes the story more structured, adding an event to the time in the book makes a more interesting plot. That is only the few things that I remember. Des also showed us his chemistry he did, and how that related to his work. He did explosions with a barbecue lighter that he remade, some flammable gas product, and a container.

 The only trick that I did not like of his was how he would place the event at the front of the paragraph. I believe that It should be at the back because people enjoy a buildup of excitement, instead of figuring out right away. For example ‘Johnny got the puppy’ is so much better than what Days does ‘The puppy was given to Johnny’. Although even though I may not like his trick, It is whats helped him as a writer.

Do Animals Get Earthquake Warnings in advance

This is from Hawkes Bay Today  by Michael Fowler

Written on 7 February 2012

This is here because Whaea Clare asked me to check about the Napier earthquake after we discusses the scientist in Frog Whistle Mine by Des Hunt

Peculiar signs have been noted in nature before disaster, Michael Fowler discovers.

The unusual behaviour of some animals before a large seismic event is a phenomenon some have witnessed or heard of.

Before the Boxing Day tsunamis of 2004, elephants in Sri Lanka and Sumatra apparently made for higher ground - trumpeting loudly as they went. Some believe that animals have a "sixth sense" and, therefore, have advanced warning of potentially catastrophic events.

While researching for my book, From Disaster to Recovery, I was told a number of stories in relation to peculiar animal behaviour before the February 3, 1931, 7.8-magnitude Hawke's Bay earthquake that killed 258 people.

Hastings accountant Harold Carr told his daughter, Diane, that a couple of days before the 1931 earthquake, a client from Napier, had said, "Harold, last evening I saw the most extraordinary sight. I was going along Marine Parade, going into Napier, and there were rats running, running away from Napier along the road."

The Devoy family at Haumoana noticed pukeko leaving swamps and making for higher ground the day before the earthquake and thought that most strange.

Hastings tailor Thomas Honnor had a tradition of walking (complete in waistcoat and long trousers) to the gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers every year.

Two days before the earthquake, he made his annual walk but, on his return, told family members the birds were "very restless and unsettled".

After the 1931 earthquake, animals were keen to escape the aftershocks and the HMS Veronica, berthed in Napier, became something of an animal shelter, as many cats and dogs leapt on to the ship.

Residents near Cornwall Park, Hastings, had a few seconds warning an aftershock was on its way at night as the birdlife twittered away loudly beforehand.

Non-animal phenomenon has also been reported before major earthquakes, such as strange lights in the sky before the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China.

One phenomenon has always fascinated me, and it was told to me by Alan Grant in 2006, concerning an observation his mother, Dulcie, had made while travelling with her husband to Rotorua, on the morning of the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.

When leaving Napier, Dulcie thought the sea looked "like a string of sausages". She then had an "uncomfortable sense of dread" and continued to voice that to her husband at various stages of their journey.

Upon arriving in Rotorua, they were told of the deadly 7.8 quake that had occurred in Hawke's Bay.

I have often wondered about what Dulcie saw and thought perhaps it was just a heat-haze mirage - until two weeks ago I received a letter from Jan Graham of Hastings, who had read Dulcie's account in my book.

On May 22, 1960, Jan had been on a chartered fishing trip with her husband in Whitianga. On the open waters, the woman skipper became alarmed and pointed out what appeared to be a string of islands on the horizon.

"There are no islands there," she said. "The last time I saw this phenomenon was the morning of the Hawke's Bay earthquake in 1931. My father and I were out fishing in the bay."

The woman skipper - afraid of this seemingly bad omen - turned the boat back to the harbour and refunded their money.

The next morning the world's largest recorded earthquake, at a 9.5 magnitude, struck off the coast of Chile, and generated a huge tsunami in the Pacific Ocean. The wave killed 61 people in Hawaii and 199 in Japan.

The tsunami also uncovered the 1840 wreck of the HMS Buffalo in Whitianga when the sea retreated. In Hawke's Bay, pleasure boats were swept out to sea at Ahuriri and Burden's camping ground at Te Awanga was swamped, flooding the tents of eight Maori camped there but there was no loss of life.

While we know what causes earthquakes, predictions of when they will exactly occur are still an inexact science.

Perhaps nature has a way of warning of seismic events that our ancestors, perhaps more in tune with nature, understood.

Frog Whistle Mine Review

I’ve recently read the Des Hunt “Frog Whistle Mine” book, which I found very unrealistic and a complete bore.

There was some points in the book that I struggled to read like when the two children adopt the abandoned Weka chicks, and the weka chicks were completely calm, which was not normal in wild animals. A

nother point was when after the earthquake Tony’s mother sent him into an unstable mine that could possibly collapse with being shifted, to save the man she loves. I found this really unrealistic and childish since a mother would never risk their child's life for the man she liked, instead she would await for emergency services.

Apart from the unrealistic parts, the book was alright. I would never choose to read a book like this due to my preferences, although I would recommend this book to anybody who enjoys these novels, or for people who do not want to read a lengthy book.

Nau mai, haere mai ki tēnei taonga

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