As we walked into the gym we saw the parents standing up and clapping us. Everyone was smiling and were very excited. As soon as we sat down all the parents sat down as well. Lee walked up on the stage and introduced the school captains Julian Amelia and Jack.

First Jack talked about all the responsibilities and roles you have when you are school captain. The Julian got up and spoke about his personal experience when being school captain. Lastly Amelia got up  and said some thankyous to people who helped them.

After that Matt came up and presented the graduates with their certificates. First it was 5/6A then 5/6 B and last of all 5/6C everyone was clapping. After they had presented the certificates. After that finished Grace came up to read her valedictorian speech which reflected on her time at Moonee Ponds Primary School.

Rebecca came up to present the specialist awards. These include the buddies award, the sport award the visual arts award and the performing art award. Next Matt came up to present the more procedures awards which were the Dux award which Amelia won the Academic award which was won by Julian and the excellence award which I won. Then we had a dance which the parents did not know about. So it was a huge surprize for all the parents. After we had finished the dance all the parents and graduates went out into the foyer to get something to eat and drink.

Over all I had a really fun time I did get a bit embarrassed when we did the dance but when I got into it I did not feel that embarrassed anymore.

On the 15 of July my dad, my brother and I went to see the movie Man of Steel. It was for my brothers early birthday present. My dad got some pop corn and then we went to see the movie. I think the movie was really good and I had a really good time and I think my brother had a really good time too.

After I had played my game with Chloe I had some of my lunch because my next game was not until a while.

Finally my final game came. This time I played with Ece. We tried so hard to return the ball and get it over the net.

After all my games had finished I played some games of U.N.O and ate the rest of my lunch. I also had a few practice matches with my friends.

After everyone’s games had finished we walked from St.Monicers to Queens Park. At Queens Park we just got to relax and we played a few games of U.N.O.  When we had finished we walked back to school.

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog,

Last year went very quickly I thought on this post I am going to tell you about what I did on the holidays.

On the holidays I had a great time I went to the zoo with my family which I thought was very exiting, we went to the Melbourne Museum to look at the exhibits and I had heaps of sleepovers at my friends house.

My favourite day of the holidays was on New Years Eve when my friend and her family came over. We got to stay up till midnight to watch the fireworks. I thought the fireworks were very amazing. My friend also got to sleepover.

I am really looking forward to this year because I get to be house captain for banks (blue team). I also have a fantastic teacher and class.

So look forward to more of my fantastic posts.

I woke up very excitedly because today was the swimming carnival and I was house captain for banks (blue team).  We got to school and we met in our room to discuss what was happing that day, we had all ready  put everyone in their events the day before,  when we had finished we got ready to walk down to the pool.

When we got to the pool we got our tent  ready. Once everyone had finished we started the events.

My first event was 50m freestyle . I had to wait ages though  because I lined up a while before my event. But finally my event came. I got in the water and Jess said go and then we were off. I swam as fast as I could. But I only came 7th.

My second event was backstroke. But there was only 3 girls in it. So we all got in the pool and started swimming. This time I came 2nd and I was really proud of myself.

I had to line up strait after I had finished doing backstroke because I had to do breaststroke( breaststroke is where you have to do a frog kick and your arms came out from your chest). Once I had lined up I felt very nervous because I was not the best at doing it breaststroke. We got into the pool and us soon as Jess said go I swam as fast as I could but I came last.

I only had one more event the wading race (where you have to run in the pool) but it was at the end of the day. Got While I was waiting I was waiting I  got everyone sorted in their events.

Finally my last race started and I ran as fast as I could  but I did not came first . The last event was the cork scramble but while that was on the other people got to have a free swim.

When we got back to school we got to hear who won but unfortunately banks did not win but we did come second and I was very proud of my team.

I had a great time it was very tricky being  house captain though.

On the 26^th November it was the 5/6 camp. We had to get to school by 7:00am so we could put the luggage on the bus to leave our school by 7:30am. When I arrived, I put my luggage on the bus and had my name ticked off. We boarded the bus and waved good-bye to everyone.  I sat next to Amelia from Jude’s class. 

The bus trip to Canberra was going to be long.  We were told that we would stop in some country towns on the way.  The first place was Euroa to have morning tea.   After we had our morning tea we got back on the bus and were off to our next stop – Holbrook.  I read until we got to Holbrook for lunch.  The day was getting hotter so we did not stay very long.  While we were at Holbrook we saw a huge submarine which we could climb on.

We got back on the bus and watched Kung Fu Panda 2.  After the movie had finished we arrived at our last stop – Gundagai for afternoon tea.   We got to see the ‘dog on the tucker box’ – a famous landmark.   After we had a nice rest we got back on the bus and before we knew it we had arrived at Canberra.

The place we stayed at was called the Green Hills Conference centre. We unpacked everything from the bus and then got sorted into our rooms. I was in 7b with: Zoe, Kaitlin, Eden and Isabel. After we had finished unpacking everything we had dinner. For dinner we had chicken schnitzel and vegetables then for sweets we had cheese cake. After dinner we had a play until it was dark.

We woke up at 7:00am, got dressed and had breakfast – Rice Bubbles.  After breakfast we got on the bus to go to Parliament House.  When we got to Parliament House we went to the House of Representatives and were shown where everyone sits. After that we got to do some role-play.

After lunch, we then went to the CSIRO which stands for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. We watched a 3d movie and also did some experiments.  After our visit to the CSIRO we went to the Australian Institute of Sport to play different sports.   

We arrived back at Green Hills and had dinner: hamburgers and chips.   After dinner we got into our bathers because we were going to go swimming at the AIS.  I was really excited because I love swimming.  We got swimming caps that said “I swam at the AIS”.  We got ready to go in the pool but first we went over the rules to make sure everyone was safe.  Swimming at the AIS was one of my favourite things that we did. It was time to go, we got dressed, hopped back on the bus and went to sleep as soon as we arrived at Green Hills.

The next day we woke up at 7:00am and had breakfast.  Today we were going to the Museum of Australian Democracy which use to be Parliament House. It was fun visiting old Parliament House as we were able to do some more role-play. After that we went to the Electrol Education Centre were we were able to experience what voting was like.

We had our lunches and then visited Mt.Ainsle – which is a big mountain in Canberra.  We then went to the Australian War Memorial where we saw the unknown solder’s grave.  We also got to see the closing ceremony – this is a ceremony included a bagpiper. I thought that the bagpipes were really moving. 

After our visit to the Australian War Memorial, we arrived back at Green Hills and had dinner – pasta.  After dinner we went to Black Mt. Tower, it was getting dark but not too dark to see the views of Canberra.  We also got to see a short movie on how the tower was made. After we had finished looking at the tower we went back to Green Hills.

The next day we did what we usually did – got dressed and had breakfast! We got on the bus and went to look at the 78 embassies.  My favourite was the Egyptian embassy because it had two sphinxes. We then went to the National Museum of Australia were we had to take a picture of something and then tell a story about it. I took a picture of a tin – similar to a bucket.  We then watched a short movie about the Museum’s collection.  The chairs we were sitting in moved – it was like a revolving stage.  It was quite fun. 

After our visit to the Museum, we then went to the National Film and Sound Archive.  We got to see many different films, including films in black and white and films that had no sound – we were told that these pictures were called ‘silent films’.

We then went to Questicon – similar to Scienceworks but much, much better.  We got to experience a real earthquake and control a robot.  Back to Green Hills for dinner – this time it was sausages, not my favourite. After dinner we had a disco which was really fun. When the Disco ended everyone was really tired so we went straight to bed.

The next day we had to wake up really early and had breakfast then go on the bus. We visited the same spots as we did on the way to Canberra.

I had a great time at Canberra my favourite thing was swimming at the AIS.  I can’t believe we did so many activities during our stay.  No wonder I was tired when I got home on Friday.  I went to bed at about 10.00pm and did not wake up until 11.00 the next day!!!!

We arrived at school. Everyone was dressed in their house colours. Everyone looked like they were ready to go. The bell rang and everyone went into their house rooms. The house captains went over all the things that were going to happen. Then we were on our way to Moonee Ponds Creek.

When we got to Moonee Ponds Creek we all walked to the starting line. The siren went and everyone ran as fast as they could. We had to run two laps of the oval. Isabel, my friend, and I ran together. We finally did two laps. We went onto the bike track, we had to walk some of the way but we mostly ran. We finally finished but it was still very cold and it was still raining.

We walked back to school and had a fruit juice and an icy pole. I loved the school fun run it was great fun!

The Shrine of Remembrance

On 18/5/2012 all the 5/6s went on tour around the Shrine for an excursion. We first had to go on a few trams and buses to get to the Shrine. We had to use our Myki cards which were very exciting. Sometimes it did not work.

After going on all our rides on public transport we arrived at the shrine. First we had some recess. We then got into all our groups and stepped into the Shrine. First we watched a video presentation about the Shrine.

After watching the video presentation we met our tour guide. We made our way to a little room where some students from our group dressed up as soldiers . The clothes that they wore looked very heavy.
After that we went to look at the stone tablet which people sometimes use to remember the dead. We held a two minute silence. Every year on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour a beam of sunlight shines on the word love. After that we looked at some books which had all the soldier’s names in it. The hand writing was amazing that was in the books.

Just before we had lunch we had a look at the Eternal Flame. When we went to the Shrine it was very cold but the flame warmed us up. It was lit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1954. It burns all the time. It runs on gas.

After we had lunch it was time to go back to school. We took a tram to the train station and then took the train to the bus stop and took the bus back to school. I loved the Shrine I think it was great fun. At the end of the day I was wondering if the poppy still grows in Flanders Field. I found out that it does still grow in Flanders Field.

When I Got My Cat
On the 23 of August, Mum, Atticus and I went to the Lort Smith Animal Hospital to look at some cats. We had been thinking about getting a cat for a while and went to different places around Melbourne like the R.S.P.C.A. in Burwood and the Cat Protection Society in Greensborough. All the cats we saw were lovely but they just did not seem quite right to take home.

On the day we got our cat Dad was at work and we had nothing to do so we went to the Lort Smith to have a look at some cats. We saw numerous cats in their cages. There was one cage that looked like there was no cat in it. The lady that worked at Lort Smith opened the cage door and let me in. Then a Tabby cat peeked out of the little hole and saw me. He slowly walked towards me. My mum told me to hold out my hand so he could see if I was safe. When he did that and he felt safe he put his head on my lap. I felt very happy when he put his head on my lap. The lady there told us how Tom (his old name) had been through a terrible time as he had the cat flu and had almost died. He had also needed an operation to patch up his wounds. Tom had a lot of fur shaved off and he was very skinny. We then decided that Tom was ours.

After we made the decision we realized that we had no food or cat bowls. We left Tom behind and raced down to the supermarket to get these things. We came back to Lort Smith to collect our new cat. When we got home and brought him into the house, he spent a couple of days hiding but it did not take him long to live up to his new name Zippy by zipping around the house. And that was the start of his new life.

Gala Sports Day

Our Gala Sports Day was held on Friday the second of March. Our school had been practicing for this event for one week. There were four different events held at different schools. These events were: bat tennis, volley ball, kanga cricket and soft ball. Five schools participated in the Gala Sports Day. These schools were: Niddrie Primary School, Essendon South Primary School, Essendon Primary School and of course, our school, Moonee Ponds Central. Bat tennis was played at St Monica’s and I do not know where the other events were held. I was in the bat tennis event.
St Monica’s had a whole tennis court which was divided up into six bat tennis courts. The nets were donated by a local sports shop. When we arrived, we sat down with our bags and listened to the sports teacher from St Monica’s tell us about the game and the rules. He used a loud speaker to make sure everyone could hear him. After he had finished, the bat tennis games commenced.
I was not playing until the end of the rounds. This was good as I was able to observe how the other teams played and how good and not so good they were. When it was my turn, I found out that my playing partner was Andreas. When I started the game, I felt scared and excited. We played against St Monica’s. This team were hard to beat because they were so good. I think they were good because they had a whole tennis court to practice on. The final score was six to two. We tried our best, but still we lost. At the end of the game, Andreas and I congratulated the winning team and shook their hands.
At the end of our events, my friend Izzy and I were able to relax and have something to eat. I had my lunch which was a roll that my mum had made for me.
I loved the Gala Sports Day because it was so much fun. It was fun because I got to meet other people and play against them at a different school. I think we should do this again one day.