My Draak

Baie mense het mooi troeteldiere, Maar ek dink nie hulle het 'n draak nie. My troeteldier is 'n scary soek draak. Alhoewel, Sparky is heeltemal skadaloos. Sparky se asbsolute gunsteling ding om te doen is boom-klim. Sy skerp naels grawe in die groot boom. Sparky het twee horings op sy kop. Sy horings is rooi en hy het dodelike spykers, maar Sparky sal niemand met sy skerp spykers seer maak nie. Die kleure op Sparky se uitgestrekte vlerk is asemrowende. Sparky blaas oranje vuur en het vuurvaste spykers. My ontsagwekkende draak se stert wieg lings en regs. Sy maag is groot, maar hy is gulsig en hy eet baie. Sparky waggel om 'n groot boom en glimlag. Hy begin om die boom te klim. Ek hou van Sparky omdat hy die beste troeteldier in die hele werêld is.

Op elf jaar oud...

Hi, ek wil vertel jou oor my. My gusteling kleur is blou- soos die lug. Ek hou van die liedjie Superheroes. Ek baie van tempura garnale. My beste maat se naam is Gabi. Ek speel die klavier vir 'n stokperdjie. Ek speel netbal by die skool. The Great Australian Bake-Off is my gunsteling TV- program. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was die lekkerste boek wat ek nog gelees het.  Ek wil graag eendag 'n reis-journalis wil wees. Ek het regtig respek my vriende, my familie en my onderwyser.

Ek wil 'n reis blog begin. Ek sal reis na verskillende lande. Dan wil ek blog oor my toer. Ek wil 'n kundige pianis wees. Ek sal baie op my klavier oefen leer on te verbeter. Ek wil in staat wees om maklik 'n doel in netbal te skiet. Ek sal 'n netbal en hoepel kry en oefen om doele te - oefen maak perfek! Ek wil leerom Hindi te praat. Hindi is Hindu mense se hooftaal.

Grandparents' Presents: Always the Best

It's Christmas and my grandparents are down. They always get me about 3 million gifts, so I decided to start opening them before anyone els woke. There was a row of presents in front of the tree. I ripped open the first present. It was a huge packet of chips. The next present was a brilliant, red toy helicopter. It came with a remote control and everything too! I ran into the garden and tried it out. I watched it fly across the sky with ease. Sweet, I thought. I lie on the grass watching the red  helicopter with wonder. 

A Day Living in the Informal Settlements

It's always good to have a positive outlook on life, but I really think that you can't get any worse than how my life is now.

I have one brother and a Mom and Dad. I'm really lucky because 40% of the people in South Africa only have one parent. I'm really worried that I'm going to become one of them though. Yo see, my dad is in the hospital because he has HIV. HIV and TB is really common in the townships, which is where I live. Our home, an informal settlement, is really tiny. So personal space isn't really an option. We have one area where we sleep, a dining room and a kitchen. We're really lucky because there's a tap right outside our 'house'. This morning there was no food in our cupboard, except for two sandwiches which we took for lunch. Fortunately, my brother and I got to school early. There are 65 children in our class. Today, we were learning a new maths subject but I didn't understand it properly. I put my hand up and waited for the teacher. She didn't even see me because I was sitting at the back. Plus, there were a lot of other kids that needed help. This made me quite annoyed. I want to get a good job when I get older, so that I won't ever get hungry and i will get a proper house. Well, I guess I'll have to learn on my own and hope for the best.

 Unfortunately, it was really muddy everywhere because it had rained last night. I didn't want to get dirty so I sat with two of my friends on one of the benches. We talked about how we could get jobs and how we should help around our community. I think that there is always hope for a better life. Our home isn't the best place in the world, but it's still ours, so we're going to try to make the best of it. 

What a day

  Hannah and the time machine went flying through the air! She called into her headphones.'Dr Smith can you hear me?' 

'Yes! Are you alright?' 

'Yes, the time machine just started spinning really fast and landed in the middle of this huge, open moor!'

 'Aright Hannah, listen. Somehow the connection between the 2 wires in my experiment was lost, and your trip to 1915 was cut short. I just have to re-attach them and you'll be back on your way.' He fumbled with the wires. 'Alright,' he said. 'Ready?' 

Ready,' Hannah said. And she was off! This time the machine was spinning, getting faster on every turn. 

She tumbled onto her bed,  thinking to herself, What a day.

The Singing Inspector

Last week the singing inspector came. He had a round, red face, bright blue eyes and a mob of curly blonde hair. His name was Mr Reymond. He wore long, thick stockings and had a frown on his face. At first sight, he looked like a General, or something, that was, for some reason, really, really cross.

He took us into a big room but didn't let the smaller children or the biggest boys (like Jack Long and Paulus, who do exams and don't do singing) come as well.

Once everyone was in the big room, we did exercises like do, re, me and tata tete. Then we started singing. 

 Benny and Charles went first. Mr Reynold told them that they would stand in the front and sing for him and the rest of us. Little did he know that they couldn't even sing Blue Bells of Scotland or Minstrel Boy. Mr Reynold got really angry and almost shouted at them. "What can you sing, then?" he yelled. "We can sing Pretty Polly" Charles had said, though it sounded more like a squeak to me. "Then sing it" Mr Reymond had roared, and Benny and Charles and sung it, though it was terrible I must admit.

Then he called me. I was frightened of the horrible Mr Reynold and was scared he was going to shout at me or tell me my singing was horrible, but everyone's always said I had a good voice, so, I decided that I wouldn't let my being scared get me shouted at. I was really nervous, but I thought it best not to look at him, so singing for him wasn't actually that bad. I thought it went quite well, actually, and believe it or not he didn't say anything, which, I guess, means he didn't think mine was that bad.

Super Skype Session

Wilmington Shool was doing a Skype marathon. Our school, Elkanah House, was part of it. Since there school is in North America, our class divided into groups to tell them a bit about our country. My group told them about how we are taking action to help the animals and environment. I talked about how, as South Africans, we have licenses for catching a limited amount of fish. My two friends dressed up in  traditional Zulu outfits and they looked really pretty! I thought it was a good experience for us to do a half an hour Skype session with them because we learned a bit about there country, and they learned a bit about ours.