Digestive System Blog Post

 Digestive System Blog Post

The Oesophagus is basically the muscular tube commonly known as the throat. Connecting the mouth to the stomach, When swallowing different types of food, the walls of the oesophagus contracts/tighten together which transport the food to the stomach. The oesophagus is about 25cm in length. The stomach then mashes/consume the food down then turns them into miniature/smaller individual pieces that came from the oesophagus, using the acid in our stomach, the stomach also requires help from a lot of our stronger muscles on the stomach's walls. To prevent/protect our stomach from burning (Burning from the acid). 

The stomach has three main functions, storage for food that was passed from the oesophagus. The stomach holds the food for two hours or longer, Then next all the food inside would start to break down and would start to mix together. The small intestines also break the food down or digest the food, it also absorbs all the nutrients, vitamins, minerals etc). The large intestine takes a straight path compared to the small intestines, it goes through your belly also known as the abdomen.

 The large intestine absorbs the waters and salts from the material that hasn't been digested, the large intestine also gets rid of any waste products that have been left. The liver converts substances. ex) elemental parts, water, iron, aluminium, air, salt etc). The liver does this by receiving blood with nutrients from the digestive organs.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Hunt For The Wilderpeople Essay

“The Hunt for the Wilderpeople” is a New Zealand film produced/directed in 2016 by Taika Waititi. An adventurous comedy-drama film. The Hunt for the Wilderpeople is an adaptation/ was based on the book Wild pork and Watercress, written by Barry Crump.  Jullian Dennison who played Ricky Baker and Sam Neill played “Uncle” Hector. A father figure and a foster son who had become “criminals” and was chased by a manhunt after fleeing to the Bush (New Zealand Bush). The film was released across New Zealand on the 31st of March 2016. 

The movie includes a throughout plot/storyline, character developments, and well-written relationships. Ricky Baker (Protagonist) was a juvenile delinquent who was abandoned by his own biological mother and was taken by the child welfare agency, officer Paula and police officer, Andy. He then was brought to a farm with foster aunt Bella and her husband.

Throughout the start of the story, Ricky and Bella then developed an unbreakable mother-son bond. Ricky felt accepted and thought of aunt Bella as a mother that he never had, but unfortunately, Bella had suddenly died, leaving Hector and Ricky devastated. Throughout the story Ricky and Hector adventures to the bush building a relationship similar to Bella’s and Ricky’s. You could say Hector is a very interesting and unusual character to learn about, a lot of times he is very unpredictable, mysterious, and sometimes understanding.

At first, Ricky and Hector had a very distant relationship, when Hector was first introduced to the story he was very mysterious and he looked very intimidating to Ricky. Around the start of the Hector never really showed any affection towards anyone or anything but he did deeply love and care for Bella but showed affection at the very end of Bella’s life. After Bella’s quick death, Ricky and Hector’s relationship didn’t change or develop for a minimum of time but they developed an unusual but understanding relationship/bond with each other. 

One of the most memorable moments in the show was when Ricky was able to overcome his fear, saying something similar to “you never trade family for anything!”. Leaving Paula and Andy speechless, this scene clearly shows that Ricky’s character had changed throughout the show. 

Cultural Celebration

 Cultural Celebration 

For the past few weeks in Wga, we have been researching our geneaolagy and our ancestors. We had too choose a culture that we identify with. The culture I dentify witht the most is Filipino culture, I was raised and born in the Philippines in a very hard working household. Philippines is a country that I love and miss at the same time. I moved to New Zealand when I was 9 years old and ever since then I haven't really interacted with a lot of my relatives.

ESOL Reflection

 ESOL Reflection

Today in Esol we played two games related to our grammar. One game was called Hot potato, we were given a piece of paper each and were asked to write one single word on the paper. The game was that we had to pass around our papers to the person beside us and write one word onto the paper to form a story with the correct grammar. Another game we played was called the Alphabet story, we had to make a story using the correct order of the alphabet A, B, C, D, etc). Example: Angrily, Bennett crawled down. It was very challenging to do especially having a short amount of time to do it. 

Two new things I've learned today are that the amount of time we are given to finish/do it affects how our brains think and work. I also learned that working with others sometimes is very challenging. 

DLO Siege Kaiapo Pa

 DLO Siege of Kaiapo Pa

In the early 1670s, Ngai Tahu Maori drifted to the South Island and the North Canterbury area from the North Island. searching for food and land, they fought and eventually defeated the Ngati Mamoe who was recently living in the area. The pa was built in the 1700s by Tu Rakautahi (Ngai Tahu chief), built on a peninsula between modern-day Woodend and Waikaku that was around 5 acres and was extended into a lagoon. The environment made it easily defendable. The neck of the land was very narrow and was surrounded by a deep ditch. 

Before the siege, an incident had occurred three years before the actual main event took place. A Ngati Toa chief had appeared from the north, Te Rauparaha. He fought and killed at Kaikoura and Omni. The Ngati Tahu was suspicious and cautious of Te Rauparaha and his men arrived at Kaiapoi Pa claiming to be greenstone traders. Ngai Tahu took quick action and attacked before Te Rauparaha did, killing eight chiefs which Ngati Toa was forced to travel back north. For two years Te Rauparaha carefully bid time to planning his revenge.

In those two years he he made a bargain with an English captain in a ship. He then attacked the Pa in Akaroa and destroyed it, taking the chief of Kapitit. torturing and killing many others, however he was still not satisfied with his revenge.

By now it was around 1831. On the night the Pa was attacked, most of the men were away at Port Cooper as escorts to the Chief Taiaora from Otago. The people who remained were inside the Pa closed the gates and waited. Te Rauparaha also waited patiently hoping they would starve, the first signal of the siege.

The Otago chief collected the men and returned to the Pa in the night. They creeped quietly through the scrub and then raced hrough the lagoon to the Pa with minimal casualties. The Pa was better equipped once they returned to fight Ngati Toa. The siege lasted for 3 months, despite the food decreasing within the Pa, Ngati Toa gathered scrub from nearby and dried and stacked it around the Pa. It eventually caused a fire.

After a few months of waiting, the Ngati Toa lit the scrub on fire during a Northwest wind hoping to drive off the attackers. creating a gap in the defense, allowing them  to enter the Pa, killing and capturing those who are inside the Pa. About 200 escaped to the lagoon, leaving the great Pa abandoned.

Athletics Day

Athletics Day

Yesterday was Athletics day, the 4th of March. Everyone in our three kahui's had to wear mufti in house colours, Mohua was gold/yellow, Riroriro was blue, and Tieke red. I had to wear something that had either gold or yellow to sport my team/kahui, along with some of my friends.

At the start of the day, we had to meet with our kahui's, Every single year groups, 7/8/9s,10/11s, and 12/13s. Every single building had its own special chant, Mohua went with Mohua! Who are we? Mohua! we would repeat it twice then we would say numbers in Maori then saying We are the warriors of Mohua! repeatedly.

Halfway throughout the day, we were separated into our own year groups, ex) Year 9 Males, Year 9 Females. Luckily I was together with my friends throughout the whole day. 

We were able to participate in High jump, Discus, and Sprints. Unfortunately, we weren't able to participate in Shotput since we somehow got separated from our group. 

I very much enjoyed Athletics day, although we weren't able to win. It was really fun doing athletics with my friends, doing chants, supporting our kahui, and being able to wear mufti.

Athletics P.E

 Athletics P.E

For the past few weeks since school started for P.E we have been training for athletics day, Discus, High Jump, Long jump, Sprints, Shotput. At first, I was terrified of participating in every sport except sprints. I felt insecure doing them but in the end, I managed to include myself on every single one except shotput since I was away for two days. When Athletics day came up I was more confident in myself, I improved a lot more at discus and I gave high jump my best shot. We weren't able to participate in Long Jump and Shotput. We weren't able to get our scores on Athletics day but I did improve a lot more! 

Results before Athletics day:

Long Jump: 2 metres

High Jump: 80 cm

100 Metres: 20.9s

Discus: 5.1 m

For these past weeks, I always have brought my PE gear to school every time we have P.E. A tip I could give for high jump is to spend most of your energy, around 90% on the run-up and takeoff. For Long jump, it's better to fall forward than backwards, Discus it's a lot better to stand on the ground with your feet wide apart. For sprints Focus on Posture and Core. Keep your torso upright, shoulders relaxed and away from your ears, and engage on your core. For shotput, it's best if you come to the top of your movement, push the ball out, keeping your elbow high.