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Wednesday 5 December 2012

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Chapter One Tara stopped and announced, “I’m going to my Aunt Jean’s house in Whangamata.” “What!’ exclaimed Jane, “You can’t, I’ll be on my own in the summer holidays with them,” glancing over to Ken and Jake. “I wasn’t finished,” said Tara. “My aunt welcomes anyone who wants to come. She’s got a huge house and she can make a good berry crumble,” said Tara. “I’ll come,” said Jake. “Me too,” said Ken and Jane together. They all raced home to ask their parents and of course they said they could go. “Great we’ll leave this afternoon,” said Tara. “I’ve got plenty of pocket money left for the bus,” she added. “Come on girls!” The boys had been hanging around for ages and were getting impatient. “How long does it take a girl to do her hair?” grumbled Ken. “I think we should hit the road.” They all picked up their luggage and sat down and waited at the bus stop. The bus arrived five minutes later. They hopped on the bus and Ken shouted to the bus driver, “Please drop us off at 18 Limited Place”. They sat down on their own comfy seat because no one else was in the bus. They all discussed what they should do when they got there. “Maybe we should have a tea party” suggested Tara since her Aunty Jean’s garden was very big. The two boys replied in disgust, “No way would we do that, that is way too girly!” They drove past a lot of lovely sights as in flowers and beautiful parks. It was a long drive because it was going to take an hour to get there. “Are we there yet?” moaned Jake. “Soon,” said Tara with a little smile on her face. “But you said that an hour ago, my legs are getting stiff,” whined Jake. A little while later there was a loud SCREECH as the bus came to a stop. ‘Finally we’re here!” exclaimed Ken. One by one they stepped out of the bus and they walked slowly up the hill towards Aunty Jean’s house. Tara ran up the driveway and saw her Aunty waiting at the front door. Cuddling her she said, “Oh I missed you aunty. Ok, where are the cookies?” Aunty Jean laughed and rolled her eyes. “Welcome, come in, come in everyone.” Tara’s aunty said. The children all ran in. “Who would like some freshly squeezed lemonade?” “Yes please,” the children chorused as they walked in. “This is a nice place,” said Jane. “Why, thank you dear” said Aunty Jean. “Let’s have this in the garden as it is such a lovely afternoon.” Jake said, “Great! It would be good to have a stretch in the garden since we have been on the bus for such a long time. Chapter Tw0 “Look here comes my Uncle Joe,” said Tara. When they first saw him, he looked like a mad scientist because he had blue eyes with evil looking red veins. His face had warts all over it and his lips were all dry. He had pitch black hair with blond stripes. His teeth were as sharp as shark’s teeth and they were a little bit yellow. The kids thought he looked quite frightening. “Uncle Joe would you like some nice cold orange juice,” asked Tara. “No thanks I’m going to my underground lab, no I mean my workshop for a while.” Uncle Joe started walking to his shed mumbling to himself. “That’s odd he never goes there,” said Aunty Jean in a shaking voice. The by nightfall he still hadn’t come back. Aunty Jean was getting very worried. She kept on asking the children if they had seen him. As time passed the children grew more and more sleepy. Eventually Aunty Jean asked the children to meet her in the lounge to watch a movie. “Time for bed,” shouted Aunt Jean. Then the kids rushed into their beds, and when everyone was comfortable Aunt Jean said, ”Lights out.” When she had turned the lights out Jane and Jake said “Ahhhh, this is heaven.” “The silk is as soft as a cloud,” said Tara. “No kidding,” said Ken. Suddenly when the children were about to fall into a deep sleep a strange flashing light shone into the room. The room filled with many different colours; with dazzling blue, light green and many more shades. Then the lights disappeared like a ghost vanishing into thin air. After awhile a strange screeching noise was coming from a shed in the garden. “ We’re did that come from?” asked Tara “I don’t want to worry about it now, I’m too sleepy. Let’s investigate in the morning,” murmured Jane drowsily. The next morning the children were up early and rushed downstairs to find Aunty Jean already waiting in the kitchen with a big smile on her face. “What would you kids like for breakfast?” “Bacon and eggs!” all the kids exclaimed! “Ok, bacon and eggs coming up.” “Shall we eat breakfast out in the garden”? “Yeah, that will be different for once,” said Jake. “Fancy some orange juice?” said Aunty Jean. “Yeah, that would be lovely,” said Ken. Aunty Jean had gone back to the kitchen to fill the glasses up but when she came back all the kids were gone! They were already having fun playing a game of ‘Hide and Seek’ in the enormous garden. “Wow! You could easily get lost in this garden,” said Jake. They played a few games until everyone had had a turn at being ‘in’. Tara was last to be ‘in’ and had found Jane and Jake but Ken was nowhere to be seen. “I’m getting fed-up of looking. We seem to have explored everywhere except that garden shed,” said Jake. The shed was in a dark damp area of the garden. It looked like nobody had been in it for years. The wooden planks it was made of were rotten and you couldn’t see through the windows because they were so dirty. The children pushed open the door of Uncle Joe’s shed. As they walked in they could see spider webs in the corners. There were jars of dead bugs, rat poison and a few boxes with the words “Do not look inside,” written on them. As they looked around they saw old tins with dribbles of different coloured paint running down the sides, a rusty lawn mower, a huge box of garden tools, hundreds of different containers of powders and liquids. There were dark shadows everywhere and a musty old smell filled the air. “Oh, what mixtures I could make,” sighed Jane. The kids were fascinated and quite forgot about Ken who suddenly popped out from behind some shelves. Chapter 3 Ken slid a jam jar across the top of the table to read a tiny label. All of a sudden as he moved the jam jar a piece of the floor next to them moved away. A trap door in the floor began to open. They could see lots and lots of steps. They all crept down the wooden steps. The staircase creaked so loudly that even Ken got scared. At the bottom the children stood and gaped in amazement. They were in an enormous underground room with silvery gleaming walls. It looked like a science laboratory full of high-tech equipment. The lights were flickering on and off. There was equipment that the children had never seen before. There were shelves packed with liquid potions. There were bits and bobs and gizmos scattered all over the floor. There were flashing buttons everywhere all with wires attached to them. The friends wandered around gazing at the incredible things. They saw levers, levers and more levers and buttons, buttons and more buttons. “This is huge!” said Jake. Tara exclaimed,”I never knew my Uncle Joe had this big area underneath his tiny shed”. “We shouldn’t be in here!” exclaimed Jane. “We need to get out of here now before we touch something valuable,” said Jake. But Ken didn’t move because he was amazed by all the weird and wonderful things in the lab! They walked around the enormous room until Ken said, ”What’s that big weird looking machine there?” They all stopped and stared... A huge contraption was standing in the centre of the laboratory. It had shiny silver sides covered in bolts and dials. There was an odd ray beaming out of the side with emerald green rings around it. There were hundreds of gigantic buttons; there were blue ones, velvet ones, purple ones and even turmeric ones. There was a tank of wine red liquid and a corkscrew stand beneath it with weak little spikes at the end. A satellite was on top of all this that shone a bright blue coloured light through different sized holes. The kids rushed up to the machine it was like it was from another world. “Hey look, buttons,” said Ken. He ran over to the flashing blue and purple buttons and started pressing them at random. “Ken, stop! We don’t want you to press the wrong button.” Suddenly the ground under the kids started to move. “What the...?” exclaimed Tara. They were all moved into a gleaming silver tunnel. Some red lasers shot out zapping the terrified kids. “Is it just me or is tunnel bigger than it was before?” asked Jane. The ground stopped moving and in front of the kids there was a little hatchway. “Yay! A way out of here!” squealed Tara with delight. The hatchway led the children to a small ladder which they climbed up into the garden. But everything was mega huge. “We... WE SHRUNK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” shrieked Jane. Chapter 4 Outside the shed It was a lovely sunny morning, the birds were chirping and the trees were swaying. Ken, Jane, Tara and Jake, were happily playing in the enormous garden, beginning to enjoy being so tiny. They were crawling through the long green grass. Suddenly Ken said, “It feels so different to be small.” They all nodded. They were all fascinated by the unique plants growing in the wet soil. All of a sudden a graceful Monarch Butterfly swooped down and landed on an Albany Pitcher plant. Jane spotted the Monarch Butterfly, so she took out her research pad on insects and climbed up the prickles on the plant. Since Jane was only 5cm tall and the butterfly was 10cm, it looked like the butterfly was a monster! Jake, Ken and Tara were still playing with the plants and the red roses. They had not noticed that Jane was up the Albany Pitcher plant. Accidently, when Jane was climbing up she pushed one of the prickles into the plant so it stuck through into the inside. But as Jane reached the top of the plant, the Monarch butterfly flew away. The gust of wind made by its wings pushed Jane into the plant. She felt herself sliding down inside the plant. The sides were really slippery like sago pudding. There was nothing to hold onto. She slid towards the pool of acid at the bottom of the flower. As the lid was closing, it got darker and darker until she almost couldn’t see anything. She heard a fly buzzing around and then all of a sudden, PLOP. The fly was dead, floating in the acid. Jane was still sliding down slowly. Just as her feet were about to touch the acid, she saw the prickle that she had pushed through the plant as she was climbing up. So she grabbed that. Jane was frightened and scared as the lid had completely shut now. Jane screamed “HELP, HELP! I’m stuck in the Albany Pitcher Plant! Somebody help me please!” she cried and hoped that someone would come and rescue her. Ken, Jake and Tara thought they heard something but didn’t take much notice. But then Jane screamed out even louder, “HELP, HELP! SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME . I’M STUCK IN THE ALBANY PITCHER PLANT!” Ken, Jake and Tara heard this time, so they zoomed to the plant and ripped off a long piece of grass growing next to it. They opened the lid and they all threw the piece of grass into the plant. They shouted, “Grab onto the piece of grass and we will heave you out.” The sides of the plant were all slippery as they heaved her out. “Thank you for saving me,” she sighed. ”If there wasn’t a prickle to hold onto, I would have drowned in the acid. So the children sat down to rest after their ordeal. Chapter 5 That night the children rested their heads on a huge oak tree. Suddenly there was a big snapping noise. Jake looked up to see a fat pigeon fall out of the sky. At that moment he heroically pushed everyone out of the way. It was too late , not everyone was so lucky. Jake was flattened by this overweight, one eyed bleeding pigeon. The three children gasped in horror as they saw their friend get sumo slammed. All of a sudden they heard a small sound coming from under the pigeon. “Help me!”.Jake was still alive. Three, two, one push! But the pigeon wouldn’t budge. Eventually the pigeon stood up. Jake crept out from underneath the pigeon. He stunk. Everybody sighed in relief. Jake stood up and shouted, “Roasted pigeon time.” So he yanked out his miniature lighter from his pocket. ”Charge” Jake shouted waving his lighter up and down. Shh! The flame was extinguished. The pigeon went out of control. It hopped after them trying to eat their clothes. Tara turned around and chucked a $2.00 coin right into its head. It yelled, “I’m hit!” and fell over. It stood up like King Kong. It was furious. It found Tara’s torch and picked it up. With all its might it threw it high in ther air. It landed on its head. There was a lake of blood streaming from the pigeon. It was dead. They had a moment of silence then carried on their journey to try to get back to normal size. Chapter 6 As the children walked though the garden, the sky turned gloomy. Suddenly hail began to fall. To the terrified children the balls of ice were the size of footballs. They pounded down all around them. Quick! Climb under this root. The friends sheltered under the old gnarled tree root which formed a roof over their heads. “Ouch, stupid hail,” screamed Ken as a massive block of ice hit his shoulder. “These things could kill us!” The storm seemed to last a long time. The kids were terrified under the dark sky. They were shivering with fear and cold. Eventually the storm passed over them. The sun came out, the hail slowly melted into rain and the rain formed a little stream which carried them into a large puddle. The puddle was so cold it froze up to the children’s waists. All of a sudden Jake remembered that he had a lighter in his T-shirt pocket. He grabbed it and melted the ice, before Jake could melt all the ice Jane also remembered she had a sewing needle and she started to break through the ice. Before long Jake and Jane were free. “Now let’s free Ken and Tara,” suggested Jane. “Let’s do it,” replied Jake So they hurried over to rescue them. It wasn’t long before they freed Ken and Tara. “Yay we are free,” said Ken. “Let’s celebrate,” yelled Jake. “Hey I have some chocolate in my backpack, let’s break it into quarters and eat it,” suggested Ken Ken took the chocolate out and ripped the wrapper off, but before he could give it out. The sun’s ray bounced off a piece of glass and melted the bar of chocolate in seconds. “Oh no! My emergency chocolate bar!” shouted Ken. Chapter 7 “Wow. This grass really needs to be mowed.” complained Ken. “No kidding,” said Jane as she shoved some blades, of grass out of the way. Meanwhile Uncle Joe powered up the flourescent yellow lawn mower. Rumble! “Is it just me or can you guys hear something rumbling?” muttered Tara in confusion. The kids kept tracking through the long grass. The noise grew louder and louder. The kids looked up to find grass floating in the air wildly. Suddenly a dark shadow came upon them. Jake couldn’t stand the noise anymore and turned around to see a blazing yellow lawn mower. “Ahhhhh” Jake howled like a wolf cub. "Ah stop screaming like a little girl and hurry up and run!” cried Ken as he grabbed Jake’s ear and yanked him along. They sprinted as fast as they could. The lawn mower was gaining on them. Items were falling out of their pockets, chocolate, a dog tag, a toothbrush with 14 bristles, a necklace, an old mp3player and a slime drink bottle. ‘There’s one thing I want to say before we die, Jake’ howled Ken. “I broke your play station portable!” “What?” “The buttons were too small and the last level of super Mario brothers was extremely impossible and I got frustrated and so I threw it on the roof.’’ The kids started looking around frantically for a way to escape. ‘Maybe we could climb up that shrub,’ yelled Tara. ”No! It’ll be crushed by the lawnmower wheel!” exclaimed Ken trying to sound very smart. “I have an idea,” screamed Jane. “RUN!!!” The children followed the stupid plan and kept on running through the long grass. Suddenly Jane collapsed to the ground puffing madly. “Just leave me here. Go on without me,” said Jane “OK” yelled Ken getting ready to sprint off, when suddenly a giant purple barrier stopped him in his tracks. “What the...!” said Ken in surprise. The barrier was purple underwear with pink hearts. The kids quickly hid inside the underwear. Meanwhile Aunty Jean walked up to the washing line with a basket hanging from her hand. One by one she pulled the freshly washed clothes from her hand. One by one she folded them up and put them in the basket. She noticed the purple undies on the ground. She picked them up and tossed them carelessly into the basket. The kids had to hang on for dear life. She started walking towards the deck. What she didn’t realise was that her shoe lace was untied. “Ahhhhh!!!” screamed Aunty Jean as she carelessly dropped to the ground. The basket went flying out of her hands and landed on the ground, but the kids had fallen out of the basket. “Man, we were so close” said Tara in disappointment. The kids kept tracking along the grass. Chapter 8 “Let’s climb up onto high ground to have a rest. I’m fed up of water,” said Jake. “Look there’s Aunty Jean’s garden ornament. We’ll be safe up there,” said Jane. Jake, Tara, Ken and Jane climbed up a sticky spider web and relaxed on the bleached white statue. They thought it was all over when... Water started bubbling! “You forgot to mention that this statue was a fountain, Jane,” exclaimed Tara. “I didn’t think it was still working,” replied Jane. Suddenly an indigo fighter fish leaped out of the water! Tara slipped in with shock and froze for a second as there were thousands of fish eggs! Jane was mumbling trying to make up a plan. “I’ve got an idea!” exclaimed Jane. She rushed over to her miniature back-pack and got out her seaweed experiment and threw it on the far side of the fountain. The fighter fish swam away to get the seaweed and Jane yanked Tara out of the silver water. The next moment the four children went over the edge of the fountain and got on to the emerald green grass. They struggled through the long, grass and saw amazing things. It was very strange to see ordinary things from this strange angle. All of a sudden Jane stumbled over a thick brown twig falling into a huge puddle of mud. “Ewwww gross,” she screeched. “Are you ok Jane?” worried Tara. “Yes, I’m fine, its just that mud is not my colour.” She got up in disgrace and Ken was full of laughter. “Come on guys stop being stupid, we have to go find Uncle Joe,” Jake said loudly. A few minutes later they came across a giant ant hole. Suddenly, a group of black ants trampled towards them leaving them no escape and before you know it they were in a deep hole. They were in an enormous pile of old biscuit crumbs. Jane rummaged round in her pocket for the old blue torch she had put in earlier. Eventually they found their way out of the biscuit crumbs. Jane turned on her torch to find a whole colony of ants staring at them. “Run,” shouted Jake! They all jumped to their feet and ran for the exit. Ken ran through a dark tunnel with the others following him. They came across an ant. It had big black eyes, the size of golf balls, that glistened in the reflection of the sun. The ant was the size of a small dog but it did not look dangerous at all. ”Its kind of cute,” Tara whispered to everyone else. “What?” Ken exclaimed. It was searching through a pile of white eggs. Jane looked down to find they were standing in the ant’s nest in a pile of eggs. Suddenly a crack came from behind them. then there was another crack and another and another. Before they could run they were surrounded by baby black ants. Jake looked up and noticed a hole in the roof. Jake and the others started climbing the muddy walls. As Jane was putting her hand down to help Tara up they both fell down again. They both noticed a heap of ants charging towards them. “RUN” yelled Jane. They climbed like monkeys up the wall. When they got up they found themselves in another tunnel. The tunnel split into two. They saw a pool of melted chocolate down one side of the tunnel. They rushed down the other tunnel away from the chocolate. Of course the ants ran towards the chocolate and the kids breathed a sigh of relief. “Hey look down the tunnel there’s a light” yelled Ken. They sprinted towards the yellow gleam of light. They could feel fresh air blowing against them. They climbed out to see the long grass. The kids walked and walked through the long grass until they came to a large clearing. In the middle stood a huge brown object. It towered above the tiny children . “Hey I’ve seen this before,” exclaimed Jane “It’s the giant apple tree in the middle of the garden” “Yeah, she’s right,” the others agreed. A triumphant grin spread across Jane’s face. “Oh stop showing off, let’s just climb this thing,” scolded Ken. Chapter 9 The kids started climbing up the tree. It was tough at first, but they soon learned to use the bark to climb the tree much quicker and more efficiently. After about ten minutes Ken, Jake and Jane were dead on their feet. The only one who kept plodding steadily up was in fact Tara. “C’mon slow pokes,” she yelled down at the trio. “I’m almost at the top!” So they started slowly clambering up groaning all the way. When they finely reached the top. Tara was standing there with her arms folded looking like their maths teacher when someone forgets their times tables. “About time,” said Tara smugly ”stop lying around we gotta explore this place.” All around them was a huge jungle of leaves and branches. They set off treading slowly along one of the branches. But just then Tara looked down. “Ahhhhhh! We’re so high up!”she screamed and immediately ran towards the nearest stick hugging it like the ground beneath her was going to fall away any second. “Who’s the big baby now. Huh?” sneered Ken. “Stop it. It’s just that we’re so high up,” wailed Tara. “Ooooh. Do you want your mummy?” cooed Ken. Tara turned towards Ken, face full of rage. She started running as towards him. As she advanced on him Ken had the cheekiness to mumble, “Man, someone got up on the wrong side of bed this morning.” “Break it up you two,” Intruded Jake “we’ve got enough problems without you guys squabbling all the time.” They stopped but Tara’s look said it all. As they shuffled along the branch somewhere in the tree arose a cracking sound. “What’s that?” said Ken. “Don’t worry it’s nothin’ “ said Jake. Then the branch they were standing on broke. They fell through the tree scrabbling for something to hold onto. Suddenly they stopped hanging in mid air. “Where are we?” asked Jane. “In a spider web!” “How do you know?” “’Cause here comes the spider!!!!!” “Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” they all screamed. Just then an apple fell down and squished the spider but also destroyed the web. “Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” they screamed again. SNAP! The web broke setting the kids free but also propelling them towards a branch. “We’re DOOOOOOOOOOMED!!!” shouted Ken. But Tara grabbed a leaf and Jane grabbed her legs and Jake grabbed hers. But Ken was too slow and missed Jake’s feet and fell. “Ken!!!” yelled Jake. “I’m OK.” yelled Ken. ”Just jump there’s a pile of leaves down here.” So they jumped and fell and fell until... Splat they smashed into a giant pile of leaves. “Gee Ken, thanks, Ken?” said Jane Ken was already busy pulling leaves down and tying stuff together. “What on earth are you doing?” exclaimed Tara “Making parachutes, if you don’t mind Ms Tara!” said Ken “Don’t know ‘bout you people but I’m gonna get outta this wretched place.” “Fine, but don’t talk in that voice it’s annoying” A little while later they had three parachutes made and were ready to fly. But just as they were making the fourth parachute, the wind picked up and blew the parachute away from them. Jake managed to hold on but the wind blew him away with the parachute. “Jake!!!” shouted Tara. “Ooo la la.” said Ken “Shut up Ken.” said Tara. Meanwhile, Jake had crash landed on the roof of the house. “How am I going to get out of here?” he muttered. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a glint of light. There was a bit of glass just next to him. A plan formed in his mind. “Oh come on Tara,” said Ken “it’s not like Jake’s gonna die.” “He could.” murmured Tara. Suddenly she saw a glint of light from the roof. “Jake’s on the roof. He’s safe!” cheered Tara. They grabbed the parachutes and took off. Back on the roof Jake was worrying whether the others had seen the light. “What do you think spider?” mused Jake. “Wait, spider?” exclaimed Jake. “Jake!” shouted Tara “Tara?” said Jake as the spider jumped at him. He grabbed the piece of glass and stabbed it in the throat. Goo splattered all over him. “Jake you’re safe!” said Tara. She was crying tears of joy. “Yep!” Jake replied. “Hey guys lets slide down the gutter to get down,” shouted Ken. So they all jumped down and landed on the deck. Ten miles of wooden planking lay between them and victory. Chapter 10 “We are nearly there,” shouted Jake. “We just have to pass the stairs,” cried Ken. “Compared to those stairs, we are tiny and the stairs are HUGE. It is simple math,” complained Jane. Tara mumbled, “Maybe this isn’t too safe. There are big holes in the deck. If one of us falls down it could be really dangerous, not knowing what bizarre creature are down there.” Suddenly they heard a scream, they looked left. Jane wasn’t there anymore and there was a big hole were she was walking. Then Tara said proudly, “Told you so.” Jake yelled, “Come on guys, don’t just stand there, come here and I’ll tell you the plan. The plan is to get the longest piece of grape vine you can find and I will jump down and get Jane. We will wrap this vine around us and you two pull us up. “Ok” they replied. Jake lent down the hole and told Jane the plan. “I’m coming down Jane,” screamed Jake. They dragged a huge length of vine across the deck and tied one end securely around a drainpipe. Jake leaped down. As he landed he got a huge groundshock. “Drop the vine,” wailed Jane. They lowered the vine and Jake and Jane wrapped it around themselves. Then Tara and Ken started pulling. Tara whinged, “You guys are heavy.” Suddenly the rope snapped away from the drainpipe. Tara and Ken tumbled down the hole. Then all of them dusted off. “Thanks a lot you lost me my lunch,” said a low voiced creatures lurking in the mist. “Who is that?” said Tara very scared. “I’m a tuatara and now I am going to have to eat you as my delicious lunch.” By the way before I eat you can you tell me your names. They all introduced themselves. “I’m Tara“ “That’s Jane“ “That is Ken” “Our leader is Jake,” said Tara “I’m Bad Rob and my favourite meal is little children. Licking little, tiny bones is a delight.” The tuatara got closer and closer. Ken said quietly, “I got my fake spider in my backpack.” Everyone yelled, “Get it out, get it out. He got the rubber spider out and said, “Wouldn’t you rather have a fat plump juicy spider than skinny kids?” Tuatara slowed down and said, “Go on.” Ken threw the fake spider and said ,“Tuataras are too easy to fool. RUN!” All the kids turned around and ran for their lives. They saw a glimpse of light in the distance. Jane looked back and saw the tuatara choking while eating the spider. The kids came up to a hole and climbed out and found themselves near Aunty Jean’s front door. “I don’t know about you guys but I’m really thirsty,” said Jake. He delved into his backpack and found the fizzy drink concoction he had made before he got on the bus. He passed the fizzy drink around and everyone had a sip. The drink tasted amazing it seemed to explode on their tongues. As it reached their stomachs they felt a strange bubbling sensation. BOOM! POP! POW! All of their body parts started to enlarge bit by bit. Jake looked down in horror to see that his fingers were growing and the growth started to travel up his arm. Tara looked up to see that Jane’s head was huge. After a couple of minutes they had stopped growing. They were back to normal size. Just at that moment the door opened and there stood Aunty Jane. “Oh there you are, I’ve got your orange juice ready for you on the breakfast table. Well, what would you kids like to do today? I would imagine you are ready to start exploring the garden after you all had such a good night’s sleep.” The kids all looked at each other trying not to smile. “Er, that would be great, thanks Aunty Jean,” grinned Jane.

Monday 3 December 2012

Things we've learnt this year...

I learnt that you can achieve anything if you try (EM) I learnt that I’ll miss BDS when I leave (EM) In life when things come your way that you don’t like you just have to deal with them (JD) On road patrol in winter it a good idea to wear gloves because it gets really cold (JD) I learnt that your brain smells like blue vein cheese (FS) I learnt that my brain is as big as my two fists together (FS) I learnt to read the questions before trying to answer them (FW) When people are scared they sometimes attack you (FW) I’ve learnt that if you talk too much you get in trouble (MC) You need more than 5 pairs of pants at camp (MC) I learnt that house leader work is harder than it looks (JT) If you’re in a haunted house, you shouldn’t scare little children because they hit your face JT) I have learnt that being a house leader is a big responsibilitiy (BM). I have learnt that I will miss being a little kid. (BM). During our Cultures and Celebrations unit I learnt that Tacos are delicious (JML) I’ve learnt that school discos are actually cool (JML) How to do road patrol properly (SG) Doing independent reading cards really makes you think. (SG). I learnt how to say hello in Korean – Aneyong. (KA) I learnt that I really like helping in the office. (KA) How to cooperate with little children during peer mediation (AF) Octupusses have blue blood (AF) In Korea it is a custom that the children won’t start eating until the eldest person at the table starts eating. (ES) I’ve learnt that if I practise my basic facts regularly, I get better at them.(ES) I’ve learnt how to play the ukulele. (RS). I’ve learnt that if you practise reading everyday you get better at it. (RS). I learnt that you shouldn't play tackle bullruch with a watch on.(SW) I’ve learnt that you have to train really hard to win cross country (SW) I’ve learnt how to multiply with fractions. (AF). I’ve learnt that having face paint on your face for productions and dances really itches. (AF) I learnt to not rush my work because then you make mistakes (CS) A lot about Japan’s culture - one interesting thing is that they celebrate a tea festival (NM) I learnt to sail solo at camp (VH) I could beat the goalie and get sherbet for it (VH)