Mum and I

Rueben is part of Miss Tuxford's extension writers. This is his piece of writing for contemporary fiction that he has worked on at home:

We lived in one of the biggest cities in New Zealand. It was just Mum and me. Having just a Mum was nice because she read books to me with great expression like when she read 'Heidi' to me, I could imagine everything throughout the story like I could imagine the wind blowing through the fir trees and Peter pushing down the wheelchair and smashing to a hundred pieces. She also taught me how to cook and bake. Once when I tried making a fruit smoothie I accidentally added too many mangoes and then it exploded everywhere like someone put a bomb in the blender and lit it! It covered everything and everyone. Mum was furious! She shouted at me but smoothie got in her mouth and she accidentally swallowed. "Yum!" she said. "But now I'm gonna teach you how to clean." She handed me a mop and a bucket and said, "First you move your mop forwards. Then you move your mop back." After one hour of torture I finally finished the floor. "Okay, now the walls." said Mum. It took forever but I finally finished everything. "There. Now you know how to clean." Mum said.

But there were some problems about just having a mum. In winter I decided I'd play soccer. My first game was terrible. We lost 1-10. So Mum and I practised in the backyard. Mum tried her hardest but landed on her bum a few times. Or like when I needed to go to the bathroom in a mall I have to go into the ladies' room because Mum is too scared for me to go into the men's room because she thinks a boogie monster's going to eat me. Or when my bike needed a new chain my Mum went down to the shop and got one but when she tried to put it on it got all tangled and it still wasn't attached to the bike!

Which was when I started to wonder about having a Dad. With a Dad I could practise sports, watch sports, plant things in the garden with him, build things or walk to school with him. When I went to my friend Phil's house I played with his Dad on the tramp and the Nintendo Wii and I really enjoyed myself but it made me even sadder because I didn't have a dad to go home to. So I got sadder and sadder about not having a dad. As I got older I kept drawing what my dad could look like. One of my pictures was the best. My picture had green eyes, black hair, nice clothes, light skin, grey pants and grey shoes. Anyway, at Scouts (which is a group for boys) I started crying during a movie which was about a boy and his dad going off on an adventure to find treasure. The leaders asked me, "What's the matter?" I answered, "This movie is too sad. I don't have a dad." They answered back, "We'll stop the movie." After they stopped the movie everyone shouted "Boo!" except for me. I game the leaders a thumbs up quickly. At the end, the leaders told Mum about the movie and on the way home she asked me what was going on. I answered, "I'll tell you at home."
"Okay" she said.

At home Mum told me to sit down at the table with her. Then she asked me what was going on. I told her what happened from the beginning to end. Once I told my story, she gave me answers to the questions I had. I found out his name was George and his last name was Smith. She wasn't married to him, he ran away when he found out I was in Mum's stomach. She also told me that I definitely was not adopted and I was hers. But I had a newer question that she couldn't answer. That was, "Why did George leave me?" I asked if we could find him but Mum said, "If you really want to look for him, I'll help you through it, but you need some time to process the information inside your brain so when you think you're ready, come and talk to me again. Oh, and don't forget you can always share your wonderings and questions with me."

I was OK with that and she kept her word and always helped me whenever I had problems. Who knows? Maybe someday I'll ask Mum again about finding him. But for now, I'm happy with just Mum and me.

By Reuben

Roald Dahl Website

Danielle has just messaged me to recommend the Roald Dahl website. You can find it at: http://www.roalddahl.com/
There are all sorts of things to explore on it including tips for writing, outlines of his books, cool facts and even a teacher section. I took the test 'Are you a Miss Honey or a Miss Trunchbull?' - lucky Rm 22 - I am a Miss Honey:-D
This is his recommendation for writing:
"As you write your own stories, I would keep three things in mind:1. Don't ever bore your reader.2. Don't worry if you don't have the whole story worked out in your head before you start. The story will grow as you write if you use your imagination.3. Give yourself enough time to write. Work on your story at home. Lie in bed and think about how your story could develop. Good ideas are very hard to come by. I couldn't write anything worth reading in an hour or class period." ROALD DAHL
There is an activity on invented words that you might like to do as part of your home learning:

Kiranjeet's Information Report

The Blue Penguin
Penguins live in Antarctica where it is cold and good for them. The South Pole is where you can find them.

Description
Blue Penguins are small, they are only 30cm tall and only weigh 1kg. They have blue backs and a white front. The blue penguin has a flat tummy to slide on the ice to have fun. It also has flippers to swim fast in the water and to catch fish. The Blue penguin eats , squid and krill. It’s main and favourite fish is called lantern. Each year the Blue penguin grows an new coat. Their old feathers fall out. They can’t hunt for food in the water until their new coat grows back. Penguins are very funny animals. They give lots of entertainment to humans.

Penguins communicate with vocalization, they pick up sounds. They have bad hearing so they use their eyesight. Penguins see on land and water. Penguins see colour they are good at smelling. If penguins look to the sun, they can get sunburned. They cover their feet with their flippers. That is why the colours are young and different to Adult penguins.They don’t have layers of fat to protect them from the sun.

Conclusion
The Blue penguin lives in the south pole. They are funny animals

Arden's Information Report

AFRICAN ELEPHANTS

INTRODUCTION
An elephant is a big big mammal that has large ears and a trunk. An elephant has a grey long trunk and has big big fat feet. It has big flappy ears. They little little eyes.

Habitat
The African elephants are also known as African bush elephants. Most elephants live in tropical regions, lakes and rivers.

Food
Elephants drink water and use their trunks to spray themselves to keep cool. They eat roots and bark off trees. Amazing, they drink up to 70- 90 litres of water a day.

By Arden Pirker

Elena's Information Report

Elena has published a report on baby elephants.


BABY ELEPHANTS

In so many ways elephants are exactly like humans. They get up to mischief and love to play .



HAVING BABIES


Family members gather around . You can stand up by yourself half an hour after being born .

You are about one metre tall and weigh as much as two people .



HABITAT / FOOD

You will find elephants in India and Africa on dry grass.

They eat grass and drink water. Some eat roots.


by Elena Wilson

Alex's Information Report: Killer Whales

Like Liam, Alex has written an information report about killer whales:

Killer Whales

The killer whales belly is white and its back
is black,it has a dorsal fin and it has a round head.
They live under water but can't live on land and
they breath air.It eats almost anything,from small fish
to big great whales ten times its size.It reproduces slowly,
with a calf about every eight years.it has very sharp teeth,
it has big fins to swim and the stiff dorsal fin makes them
move.They can camouflage when there black and white,
they can do tricks as well.They have a blow hole and
there head is called a melon.The female killer is only
seven years old and already weighs two tonnes.
A female killer whale lasts only ninety years.

Liam ph's Information Report

Liam has written a report on Killer Whales. Click on the image to enlarge his report so you can read it.

Angelica's Information Report

This report is written by Angelica and is about Koalas. Click on the image so that you can enlarge it to read it.

A Mission on Mars and Saturn by Kiranjeet

Two men are going to the rocket centre. They all get ready and pack their stuff. Everything goes into the rocket they are ready he lady in the speaker starts a checklist. 1 hour later... finished. The countdown starts 10,9,8,7 suddenly a dog called Bolt and a cat called Mittens chase each other to the rocket ship. 6,5,4,3, the door closes and Bolt and Mittens are trapped inside 2,1,0, BLAST OFF!!! Uh oh...

Everybody is holding tight as they get ready to go out of the Earth’s atmosphere. When they are out, they float in the rocket Jimmy steers the rocket in the way to Saturn their Mission begins!!! Jimmy and Jack get hungry they eat mouthfuls of food meanwhile Bolt and Mittens try and get out, they find their way to the pod that lands on the plant. There were lots of supplies there and there are the controls Mittens accidently pushed the take off button and the alarm goes off. Jimmy and Jack quickly run to the pod they find the controls bolt and Mittens hide they find Penny and stare in surprise TAKE OFF!!!Oh No... The pod lands on Mars the red planet. Bolt hugs Penny Mitten yawns. Jimmy and Jack find them. Jack asks why they are here. Penny says nervously “I was looking for my dog Bolt and find him at the rocket centre, they ran into the rocket so I do too. I went in but then the rocket suddenly took off. I quickly put on a suit and waited. Now I am here I’m really really sorry.” Jimmy lets them come with them to their mission but now they are stuck on Mars.

“What are we going to do?” asks Penny.”We are going to get out of here of course” replies Jack. “We could go but the engine is empty” said Jimmy. Suddenly little colourful aliens come and meet them and say “hello earthlings you look very very weird, do you need any help?” They stare in surprise everyone thought the aliens were evil then Jimmy said “yes we need to go to Saturn can you help us?”Jimbo said “sure”. The gang go to the big, big, big, 100,ooo,ooox big house

Then Jimmy says to Jimbo “we thought you would be evil.” Jimbo said happily “yey we get that a lot but we are not evil.” Anyway they go into the house and get cleaned up and get some supplies. They fix the engine and meet other aliens. Penny was wondering “how can we get to Saturn?”. Suddenly Jenny came and had the same thought as Penny. “Hey we have this machine that can get you anywhere in the Solar System in just two seconds!” yelled Jenny. Would you like to use it” she told. “Um ask Jimmy and Jack” said Penny nervously. So Jenny asked them they shouted YES!. So everybody said goodbye and went in the machine. “we will miss you” said Jilly . “ guys are the best ‘’ said Jas. Jimbo said to Jimmy “Please don’t let the other humans discover us’’. We won’t we promise’’ said Jimmy. “right guys’’ “yey’’ said Jack and penny. Jack was wondering “First Jimbo said that they get it a lot of from when people come’’. But he didn’t tell his thought to anybody.

So everyone climbed up in the rocket and too Saturn. They had a great time there getting rocks and taking pictures. Penny even wrote a story . Soon after they came back to Earth and told everyone their amazing story but not about the aliens. “I wonder if we can go again sometime” wondered Penny “Maybe” says Jack.

Dr Jhon Alien Attack by Kobe

12:30 HOSPITAL GARATEL RD

“Scissors, knife” called out Doctor Jhon. Suddenly, a green glow came shinning out of the window. Doctor Jhon and Illisabith came immediately to the window. They saw a flying saucer coming smoking down.

Green Martin’s flying saucer:

2 lasers coming out of each side
3 bomb droppers
Spikes on the replacement

‘BANG’ it hit the ground with an explosion. The hospital shock like an earthquake hit. Everyone quickly got under their table. People rushed outside with a mask on. The smoke was rising up vertically. The dust cleared as Martin the alien stepped out with his troops.” Don’t even think about calling the cops” said Martin with an aqua-green laser gun.

Range Gun

Points a light green sharp laser than can cut through anything.
He repeated once more. Everyone ran away as he shot his range gun.

One O’clock.

Marel Hotel.

“This will be a perfect place for a hide out” said one of the troops. “No one will find us”

It had been burnt as was very black. “We will stay here until they do” said Martin greedily “Bwa ha ha ha”

1.25 Doctor Johns Laboratory

Dr John and Illisabeth were setting up a trap. “I thought you ran out of traps” said Illisabeth. “I have, that’s why I’m making a new one” “We can track Martin down on this rampgan”

“ It says he’s in Marel Motel, he’s invaded it”
“Wow that’s pretty hard to invade, it’s been there for 135 years”

Suddenly a man ran in and slammed the door behind him. “Watch it, they could fall off” said Doctor John.
“They’re after me” he said”
“They’re after everyone” he responded.
“Who are you?” asked Illisabeth.
“Cameron” he answered
“Hi I’m Illisabeth, I live two blocks away from here”
“Okay, I can see where this is going, I need G45 to finish off the trap” said Dr John
“Who’s G45?” asked Illisabeth
“My latest creation, here’s the map”
“He’s not on here” said Illisabeth.
“Flip the flap” said Dr John
Illisabeth lifted up the flap.
“Come on, there’s the magaraige, Lets go”

The Magaraige

Two magnets and large wheels on each side.


2.30 Half past middle of city

Green lasers started destroying the city. Everyone screamed. The spun while flying through things with their spikes.


3.00 end of school Dr Jhons Lab

“Quickly, they’re destroying the city already” said Cameron. “Thanks for the tip” said Dr Jhon sarcastically. “That’s ok” said Cameron. “G45, Done” he said. “We’ll have to set it near your house” said Dr John pointing at Cameron. “Mine?” muttered Cameron. “No your Grandma, yes you”. “It’s not going to be an explosion, is it?” asked Cameron. “Nope, just technical stuff” he answered.


3.30 pm Marel Motel

“More back up” declared Martin. “We’ll escape on it, no-one will stop us”.

4.00 Afternoon tea Beach

“G45 like beach” he said to Dr Jhon on the beach. “What’s that thing in the distance?” asked Dr Jhon. G45 used his close up eye-sight on the thing. “G45 says it a ship” he answered. “That must be Marin’s” said Dr Jhon.

Martins Ship

4 cannons on each side
20 rowers on each side

Dr Jhon and G45 hid behind a bush. The large ship stopped just 5 metres away from the shore. Martin stepped on the soft orange sand. “I’ve been waiting for this moment, bwa Ha ha ha ha” said Martin greedily laughing. He stepped on the ship. “Quick, if we can pull chain we can get onto the ship” planning Dr Jhon. They both ran over to the leaving chain. Dr Jhon gripped the chain in his hands, the shi0p started pulling him in the water. The next second he was in deep water. Dr Jhon was struggling to pull himself to the ship. The water was pressing against Dr Johns’ chest, well enough to let him let go. He got there. He knew if won’t get out soon, he will freeze to death. The water was zero degrees. He saw a ladder just beside him about 2 feet away from him. He slipped along the back of the ship to the ladder. Dr Jhon climbed up onto the ship. “Savantary” an alien called out. 3 men ran over to him. He saw a saw balancing on the top of the flat surface. He cu just under him of the wooden pole and then kicked it. The wooden pole fell down with the Aliens on it. Dr Jhon fell down too, but he landed safely. Dr Jhon crept into one of the rooms, it was the prisoner room, nobody was in there. A head of Martin popped up from the window and locked it. “See ya in Hell, I might not cause I’ll be in Heaven” he said walking away. 5 feet away from the ship, G45 on his floaty with Illisabith and Cameron were heading to the ship. When they got there, they climbed the ladder. G45 saw that Dr Jhon was in the prisoner room and unlocked it.

“Thanks, Little Jack” thanked Dr Jhon. “Attack!” said one of the troops, G45 quickly all gave them swords and they had a long battle. Finally Dr Jhon made him drop the sword and stabbed him. Illisabith couldn’t take it, it was gross as all the blood and guts squiggled out.


5.00 tea time Cameron’s house

“Here comes the bride, all fat and …..” Dr Jhon interrupted G45 with nasty reply of “Shut up!” They were just about to kiss when a trap went off and a pit hit Illisabith’s face. “Well, you know what they say, pie beats Alien” said Dr Jhon snickering with G45.

Suddenly a crocodile burst out of a drain.

No. 2 – ‘Dr Jhon and the sewerage croc’

Goozacks and Topias' Problem By Millie

‘ Ah mum what are those bright lights out side’ shouted Selena
‘nothing go back to sleep right now or you are grounded for a month’ Stephany shouted back
“BOOM” all of a sudden the house started to shake frantically like an earthquake one might say.
‘ get down and try get outside” said Austen in his loudest and most scared voice ever. So everyone got outside safely only one scratch because Selena fell down the stairs.

Well back to the big bang I mean boom it was a giant round spaceship
‘ mum what is that thing” whispered Selena staring at this alien like creation
‘ I …I…I don’t know” Stephany whispered back also looking at this alien like creation.

Mean while what the humans didn’t know is that two purple aliens had snuck into
their house while the humans were staring at the ship and what the humans also didn’t know was that if the ship crashed it would explode so that the humans didn’t do all their scientific stuff and find out about the aliens.

All of a sudden a low and scary voice started “scona , fera ,cora, scuscu cu teco
‘ahhhhhhhh” shouted the family as they were flushed back closer and closer to their house.

‘ what is this place?” asked Topia one of the purple aliens to her brother Goozack
‘ what is that?” questioned Goozack staring at Max
‘ bark bark” Max warned his family that someone was inside
so the humans ran inside and saw the aliens
‘H…H…Hello” stutted Stephany
‘ H…H…Hello” Topia and Goozack both stutted at the same time
‘ where are you from” Jack nervesouly asked
“ we are from planet Suntun in another galaxy with only 4 planets because all 8 planets have been made into 4 different planets because there are 2 different planets put together in one” said Goozack trying to act smart when actually topia is.

While that was all happening back on Suntun Paul (Goozack and Topias farther) was commanding orders to locate the lost ship and find his children.

Then back on earth Goozack said ‘ dads probably trying to find us I just know’
Because back on Suntun they were hot on the trail of the lost ship and they were planning when to leave and what ship to talk because this is a very important misson because Goozack and Topia are Pauls children and Paul is the king of all purple aliens.

‘Goozack what if they don’t find us what if they don’t come , Goozack I’m really scared’ whispered Topia hugging her brother and letting all his warmth come trough and lift her spirits.
While this was happening the family of humans were stareing at Goozack and Topia looking amazed ‘
‘ what ’ said Goozack ‘why are you stareing at us’
‘I don’t know’ said Jack who was stareing the most and was still stareing
then they looked outside and there was a huge space ship outside and just as the door opened Jack woke up in his bed thinking and wondering what was happening then looked outside and the dent in the grass where the space ship was was completely gone like someone had come in the middle of the night and fixed it then Jack relaiszed it was all a dream
‘come on Jack or else you will be late for school’ shouted Stephany
and at school Jack told his class about his dream and he got a lolly for shareing such a wonderful story

They Never Saw It Coming by Natasha

Here is Natasha's science fiction story:

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6” said Zerzack the alien space ship captain over the big loudspeaker “5, 4, 3, 2, 1” “ boom, kappow, poof, bang, zoom and crackle ”, as the space ship that the aliens were in, set off from Pluto to Earth. After a month of flying through space they finally saw Planet Earth but as they hovered above Earth, the spaceship ran out of fuel…

It was a normal day on Earth, everyone was at school, work or at home. Then a space ship appeared from the sky, the aliens crashed straight into Banks Avenue School. Everyone fled in fright, they ran into the class rooms, under cars, behind trees and some children even ran home, but Julian, Dick, Anne and George ran into the hall and peered round the door, they wanted to save the universe.

They made a plan together and because their street had tunnels running from house to house underground they decided everyone could hide in them until they managed to kill the aliens, but there was one problem the aliens had captured Trina and Josh from their class. The aliens had by now found the schools lost property clothes and started dressing up as school children and fooling the children that had not been able to hide in time. The aliens had their own plan and kept Trina and Josh and all the little children they fooled as hostages. Everyone was worried about them especially their family and friends but little did they know the aliens had mind powers and were reading and playing with Trina and Josh’s minds.
Now having the information from the minds of the kidnapped children, the aliens decided to sneak into the tunnels, put bags over the human’s heads, take them to the prison cells in their space ship where they keep them alive until they ate some of them for lunch.

But Julian, Dick, Anne and George jumped out and started fighting the aliens. Because the aliens were weak as they hadn’t eaten humans for a while, they all got knocked out easily and the children took all their weapons like lasers and ray guns. Also Worm balls that can read minds, scanners that can tell who lives in a certain houses and a book called “How to Dress up like Humans. They spent lots of time looking for Josh and Trina but they couldn’t find them, they never gave up and when they climbed up into the space ship, Anne yelled out “I FOUND THEM” they were knocked out and covered over with the lost property clothes. Anne and Dick carried Trina and Josh to the hall and stayed to look after them while Julian and George went to the tunnels to tell everyone about their victory. The aliens were starting to wake up and captain Zerzack said to his alien soldiers,

“Bogota toga marsh oz. roe rub rubo orbs robo z sacks tagine ta totty maye hart hue”
Translated:
Are you strong enough to get up?
Ezzep, then said veau ehur nigh runty headk shifg
Translated:
I am ok but I don’t know about the others
Pabzig, said “tgbv bow jfb wae ndhg equek”
Translated:
I’m fine I only have a headache

Then Gug said quietly “abet shah hem fabd heft gaffs gad fatwa aim wyff erg oafs jeur keck weur”
Translated:
Let’s go check on the prisoners and I am absolutely fine
But Zerzack said “tokpiu bofet barey dotre”
Translated: no, because I want to get back to the space ship and fly away these humans are too strong for us!!!

By that time every one was in the tunnels including Josh and Trina because they had all been rescued. Then Anne saw the aliens creeping back to the spaceship. Luckily they didn’t see her and she ran into the hall to warn the others. Julian, Dick, George and Anne were ready to jump at the aliens again but as the aliens were going back to the spaceship the children yelled at them NEVER COME BACK OR NEXT TIME YOU WON’T BE SO LUCKILY. The police came running out and said “well done” and everyone came out of hiding to congratulate them. By then the aliens were speeding away in their space ship into the sky. The heroes had had a wonderful time but their mothers came out and said “that will be your last adventure” but I don’t think it will be……….

Writing

SCIENCE FICTION

Science fiction stories often include:
- space travel
- aliens
- futuristic technology/machines/weapons
- time travel
- set in the future
- a problem that has to be solved (often involving the state of Earth in the future)

However, characters usually still behave like normal human beings.

You challenge is to write your own science fiction story. You might like to use some of the story ideas below (if you click on the diagram it will enlarge):


Think about creating interesting characters that have depth (this means that they are made more real by the way you describe them and their reactions to events in the story). Think about an interesting opening that is doing to draw the reader in. And remember, a story needs a problem that has to be resolved in order to keep the reader interested.

Once you have written and edited your story, you might like to e-mail it to me so that I can upload it onto the blog to share with the rest of the class.

Remember that you can also talk with your family about ideas before starting your story. They might have read some interesting science fiction books or be a good person to bounce your ideas off.

Happy writing:-)