Production Diary: Entry 9, 10, 11

26/8/14

Dear Diary, today we had the first dress rehearsal. It was really fun! And some of the costumes from the other legends looked AWESOME! Ezra looked really cool with his moko on.

27/8/14

Dear Diary, we performed in front of the junior school today. I think they really enjoyed it, because there was a lot of laughing.

Today we also had the smoke machine back to. It was really cool disappearing into the fog and coming back out again as a hill.

Miss Hill thought we did really good and gave us all ice blocks after the show.

28/8/14

Dear Diary, last night we had our first show! It was just like the show we performed to the juniors but at night. We got lots of claps and everyone really enjoyed it.




A photo of the seven whales.

Production Diary: Entry 7,8

22/8/14

Dear Diary, another practice in the hall today. Nothing new.

25/8/14

Dear Diary, I got pulled away from practice today. My sister was going to the dentist. But why did I need to go? Dad told me it was so he could kill two birds with one stone and take us both. So I believed him.

Well that was a mistake! Turns out it was all a trick. We left us as soon as Bella was finished, without me getting a check up. Turns out we going to get my 11 year old shots! Great just what I needed.

The shot didn’t hurt too much, but Dad totally owes me a pony!

Production Diary: Entry 4,5 and 6

19/8/14

Dear Diary, we are are better again today. But always room for improvement.

20/8/14

Dear Diary, we had another practice in the hall today. We did it with our props and it was really fun. Tomorrow we are performing to the rest of the Nga Raku Nui.

21/8/14

Dear Diary, today we preformed in front of Nga Raku Nui. I think our group did pretty well. It was boring wait for our turn to show though.

Production Diary: entry 3

15/8/14

Dear Diary, we were in the hall today. We practiced on the stage and we were pretty good for our first try. We had Mr Moriarty’s son Leo,watching us but he fell asleep in the first five minutes. I’m not sure if it was because he thought it was boring or if it was because he was tired (Leo is only a toddler) and just finished his milk. But I’m sure he would have enjoyed it so lets just say it was the tired thing. Anyway thanks for listening.

Production Diary: Entry 2

14/8/14`

Dear Diary, Me again. We went back to production practice again. We’re really good now!Everyone is much louder and almost everyone has got their voice at the right speed. I’m starting to get use to the position I need to be in on stage. And everything is starting to get much more relaxing. Any way no complaints today and hopefully not for the rest of the production. Bye Diary.

Production Diary: Entery One

12/8/14 

Dear Diary, lately we have been doing production practice and, oh let me introduce myself.My name is Elijah and lately I have been practicing for my school production, The Journey Through The Legends. There are four legends in the production and my legend is called The Seven Whales. It is about seven whales who work for a great Tohunga (a very skilled and powerful man). They have to gather news from the oceans and bring it back to him. My Role is to be one of those whales. I play Onepoto the whale that likes to head north and talk to the sword fish. In the play I have a very lazy young brother who sleeps in, and gets us turned into the hills of Wairoa for being late.

When we started me and the other whales, I must admit, were pretty bad, but now we’re much better. We are starting to get our timing right and we sound and look much better (most of us). And everyone else is improving lots to. but we still need to work on being quiet while we are waiting back stage. I think that personally I've improved to. I feel much more confident walking on the stage, then I did when we first started.

The Little Lizard's Sadness

In my reading group, the Jedi  Knights I have just read a book called The Little Lizard's Sadness. It is a traditional  Vietnamese legend about a rich man and a beggar here is my retelling.

A long time ago in Vietnam there was a very Rich Man who had invented a game. He loved to play this game with other rich men in the country because he would win almost every time.

This is how the game was played. One man would say I have 50 gold bars and the second man would say I to have 50 gold bars and no one would win. But if the first man said I have 10 cows and the second man said I only have 5 cows the first man would win.

One day a stranger in ragged old clothes came to see the man. "What are you doing here?" the Rich Man asked.

"I have come to play your game," he said. The Rich Man thought that this man looked to poor to play this game but he let him play anyway.

"Where do you come from? What is your occupation?" asked the Rich Man.

"What does it matter to you? Lets just play," the stranger replied.

"But," said the stranger "I have some Ideas to add, to this game of yours,"

"What sort of Ideas?"

"Well I think the winner should get a prize," replied the stranger "So if I win, I would like in return all your belongings and if you win you can have all my belongings and myself, as your personal slave."

"Well... What sort of thing do you have to offer me?"

"You will be amazed at what I own," answered he.

"Very well then. Lets begin!"

"Oh and one more thing," said the stranger "I would like to go first"

"Well I guess that will be ok,?" the Rich Man replied.

"Ok" said the stranger removing something from his belt and holding it out "Do you have one of these?" In his hand was a chipped up, old coconut cup. The Rich Man thought that for sure he had a cup like that and told his men to find it. But the men did not find it. All the coconut cups were new not old. And smooth, not chipped.

The Stranger had won and was very pleased. In the next few months the stranger gave away all his new belongings to the poor people of the country. When he had given away all his riches, he once again set off, and was never seen again.

As for the Rich Man, he turned into a lizard. These days he crawls around on the ground crying "tsst tsst" in self pitty saying "tsst tsst what a pity."

And that is the story of the little lizard and why lizards say tsst tsst.

My Letter To R.J Palacio

As most of you know we have just finished reading Wonder in our class. So lately we have been doing a lot of wonder related tasks. One of those things was to write a letter to the author so this is my letter to the Author of Wonder R.J Palacio!

Dear R.J Palacio

My class have just finished reading your book  Wonder. It was very exciting and every time my teacher finished reading the whole class begged him for more. My favorite character was Jack Will because of how he stood up for August. all the time. My favorite part of the book was the very last bit when Auggies Mum said  “you really are a Wonder, Auggie. You are a Wonder”.

We would all sit on the mat with our notebooks writing down details while our teacher read. The only sound you could hear was Mr Moriarty (my teacher) reading and the fish tank. When I had other jobs to do I would beg Mr Moriarty to save the book for another time, so I didn’t miss out.

We have done art about Wonder to, this is mine...

Thanks Elijah.C.

By the way I hope everyone likes the art and please comment!

India

For homework I have been researching India. This is what I've learnt...

Das Piano

Lately I have read a book called Das Piano. It is a story in one of the School Journal  about a boy named Thomas, who is at war with his teacher Mrs Biggs. At the same time World War II is going on. He is caught pretending to be a German (not the good guys) and is told by Mrs Biggs that him and the rest of the people being German's to have to sing god save the king under the flag pole. The singing gave Mrs Biggs an idea. She would invite the Mayor, to school and they would put on a concert. She brought a huge piano for the concert. And they practiced everday, until it was the day of the concert. Thomas was standing next to Mrs Biggs. He accidentally sneezed on her and was made to sing a solo... Find out what happens next in the School Journal June 2014. Click this link to download digital version of the story and this to download the whole Journal.