Duffy Assembly -

Today Saint Patrick’s School went to the school hall and we had some visitors from the
Duffy books. They were the people that buys  books and give them to us .
There were two gentlemen and one of the men stood up and talked about how books
changed his life.

His story was about how he went to the shopping mall with his mum one day.
Every time he would go there, his mum would see a friend in one of the shops. She
would tell him to wait for 5 seconds while she talked to her friend.  The 5 seconds
actually meant 5 hours.

The next time it happened again and mom would say the same thing to me. Then it
happened again and again and again that he became sick of waiting.

He decided to go to a place that had a lot of shelves with  CD covers. He picked one
of the CD covers and looked at it and he said to him self, this looks cool and then when
he opened it there was nothing so he became upset. He walked up to the front desk and
asked the lady where is the CD . The lady said to him , “ It is a book not a CD. After
that he read the book in the library but then  someone distracted him by talking very
loudly in the library.

Henry got up and was ready to tell the person off but, when he got there he tapped the
person on their back and the person turned around. Henry looked at the person and the
person looked back at him and he saw her beautiful brown long hair and her brown
eyes and big juju lips.  She asked him , “What do you want?” in a posh way,
When it was Henry’s turn to talk he had no words coming out of his mouth so she
told him to Get lost!

After a few days Henry got up because he was sick of crying because he cried for 7
days and 14 hours 10 minutes and 10 seconds. He felt devastated because he liked
the girl and she rejected him.

Some time later when he went back to the library,  he went to look for a book. He was
surprised that the girl was there. He walked up to her and  said to her can you go
somewhere else? (because she was talking to loud) and then she ran off out of the
library. And she cried for 7 days and 14 hours and 11 minute and 11 seconds.

The audience including me,  said to him you are sad and some kids just laughed .

He was very entertaining.

Thinking about playing safe.

How can you play safe? but firstly What is playing safe?

Playing safe is taking a risk or being responsible whenever you play.

How can we play safe if we are just playing rough with each other? Playing rough such as pushing or punching
is not playing safe. If you’re just playing roughly, don’t you care about yourself? You can get injured or hurt if
you are playing in a place that is not safe to play at.  

To play safe is to play in a suitable place. Like a game of tag, a field is the best place to play. Playing on the
concrete is not the best place to play tag.

Playing with a adult or parent guiding you can make you keep safe if you are playing in a public playground.
For example you might get kidnapped and no one is there to save you. It very dangerous if you are alone and
you are very young so it is a very safe if your parents are there guiding you.

Avoiding children who are older than you  - sometimes they don’t realise their own strength and if you are
smaller you could get unintentionally hurt!

The Ozone Layer

What is the ozone layer?

The Ozone layer is a layer or a shield that protects planet Earth
from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun.

Why Is The Ozone Layer Important?

The ozone layer in the atmosphere give us important protection
from the rays of the sun. The ozone layer absorbs the ultraviolet
rays that can cause sunburn and cancer.

How is the ozone layer getting
damaged?

The ozone layer gets damaged by types of molecules, which is
making chemical reactions, also making contact with the ozone
layer. It causes the ozone layer to break down and makes it unable
to absorb the ultraviolet light. The main molecules that are
damaging the ozone layer are called chlorofluorocarbons.

What effects does the ozone layer
does to the Forest?

The ozone layer protects the entire Earth from the ultraviolet rays
of the sun also including the animals, the humans and the plants.
But the chlorofluorocarbons damages parts of the ozone layer.
Now the ozone layer are harming the plants and animals, including
us.

Kauri Dieback Argument

It comes to our attention that the infectious disease that is killing the native
giants of New Zealand  - the Kauri trees.

These trees are suffering from a disease that perhaps could limit the
growth of the future Kauri, this disease has been gravely affected our native
giants because of the contamination of footwear that is passed on the
minuscule spores, it is spreads wherever people walk and infect the tree at \
the root level and the disease doesn’t stop!

The Department of Conservation has created an awareness campaign by
using a range of media to inform a promote awareness that not  only informs
the people of NZ but for the hundreds of tourists that visit our beautiful land.

It is our right and responsibility to care for our trees, our land and to teach
others to also care for it.

Argument Explanation - By Christopher

Today I participated in an online discussion based around how I felt about the view a
group of people known as: Nature Watcher’s, who believed that ‘ Animals that are
called ‘pests’ by the Predator Free groups should be treated with more respect.’

I disagree on nature  watcher because respecting the predators and not the
native birds will mean that  were betraying our native birds of NZ and if we
can't take care of our native birds the predators will be able to roam around
and will kill all the birds of NZ until there is no more. Also predators who has
diseases such as possums  , rats , and stoats , can spread their disease on
our food supply. So when we want to order say like Pizza or McDonald's and
when our food is delivered and you don't know that the food is already been
infected by the disease that possums, rats, and stoats carry. We need to ban
the possums, rats, and stoats because if they keep on infecting our food supply
we won't have any more food or worse we might get infected and die in 7 days
or next week. Also possums,rats,and stoats give birth to a lot of babies and the
predator population will grow and will kill all the native birds instantly and
quickly.

Getting rid of predators    

The number of birds that have been killed by introduced predators of NZ is
approximately 25 Million a year and it’s the most animal extinction in the  world.

The predators of NZ they don’t eat the mama bird and the daddy bird but it just
scares the mama and the daddy bird away until when the birds are far away
the predators eat all the eggs.

Where do your Stand?

The task we did independently after some discussion based around the idea that
Other groups including the Department of conservation (DOC) are working to take
action that will see NZ predator-free by 2050.

Today, I participated in an online discussing based around how I felt about the view
of a group of people known as: Nature Watchers who believe that “animals that are
called ‘pests’ by the Predator Free groups should be treated with more respect.”

I was asked to agree, disagree or express my ideas based around the information
provided and supporting information I found online.

What I wrote:

The task that we did independently was based around the idea that other groups,
including the Department of Conversation are working to take action that NZ is
predator-free by 2050.

I partly agree with the Nature Watchers group because feral cats eat the rats and mice.
It is not their fault that they kill some of NZ native birds. It is because they do not have
an owner to care for it, feed it, or train it in any other way. I think cats should get more
respect because some of the cat owners around here do not fix their cats because it is
too much money, so they start to multiply, causing most of them to make themselves
feral cats, who roam around the neighbourhood.

I partly agree with the Nature Watcher group because rabbits, who are so called ‘pests’,
can be fixed at the pet store so they can stop multiplying. It’s a lot of money, but you
can start saving. If you still don’t have enough money, you could start being generous
and give away some of the young rabbits to your friends and neighbours. If they don’t
want them, you could give them up to the pet store. Rabbits also have predators
themselves, such as eagles, hawks, owls, falcons and kestrels. It’s surprising that birds
can also be a predator to those who people call ‘pests’.

Where do you stand on this issue?