Learning to be a Man

2010-01-19T01:29:00.004Z

The earthquake in Haiti

Haiti is a country on a small island called Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. It shares the island with the Dominican Republic. It is about 4,500 miles from us. The USA is near it.

On Tuesday, 12^th January 2010 at 7 minutes to 5 in the afternoon, a strong earthquake happened near Haiti's biggest city, Port-au-Prince.

This map shows where the earthquake was strongest.

Lots of buildings were badly damaged.

Lots of buildings were destroyed or they are too dangerous to live in. Many people have died and even more have been injured.

Thousands of people have no homes now. They need somewhere to live.

They urgently need water, food, medicines and fuel or they will die too.

What can we do to help?

We can give money. We can raise money or help others to raise it.

The people in the picture are running round a square to raise money for Haiti. We could do things like that.

The people of Haiti really need our help!

Joseph

Oak class

18^th January 2010

My weekend - in the morning

2009-11-09T20:19:00.002Z

SATURDAY

In the morning

7.53am

One bright unusual day,

I heard some lightening bursting to get out

whilst the whistling wind

and the pouring rain

was crashing was against the windows.

Soon afterwards I was extremely starving

because I had been on the exercise machine

for about half an hour.

8.23am

So as quick as a flash I ran to the kitchen

to get some

breakfast.

My trip to Ireland

2009-11-04T16:58:00.003Z

Joseph Kennedy

Half Term Holiday Diary

Autumn 2009

Tuesday

5.00am We went to Ireland today! We were late! I got up and got dressed as quickly as possible.

5.25am Dad, Orla and I left for Bristol Airport in our car. Dad drove very quickly.

6.20am We arrived at the airport car park. We had to run to the check in desk in the airport. Luckily we got there on time! We had to wait for a while to get on the plane to Belfast. It was very exciting! As the plane rose into the sky the lights of the cities and towns got smaller and smaller.

8.30am Finally we arrived at Belfast Airport. The flight seemed to last a long time. We went to a conveyor belt to collect our suitcases. Then we got a taxi to Jenna's house. Jenna is one of my older sisters. She is married to Colin. They live with Elisha, age 4, my niece and Matthew, age 1 month, my nephew. Matthew was very ill and nearly died last week. When we got to Jenna's house, I was able to see Matthew for the first time. He was very small.

Matthew 10 days ago

Matthew this week!

9.30am We all had breakfast. I was starving!

11.30am We got a train like this one to Belfast museum.

Belfast museum is a lot bigger than Bristol's and the museums in our area are smaller than any of the rooms in Belfast museum!

Here are some of the things I found most interesting -

Tyrannosaurus Rex skull

The longest antlers in the world

Stuffed tiger

Giant fish

A large crystal

Stuffed wolf

Brown bear

Egyptian mummy (age 3000 years +)

The most interesting rooms were the café and -

Interactive craft room

Interactive history room

We had lunch in the café. We played coloured in and made pictures with wool and paper shapes in the interactive craft room. We dressed up in old clothes and played with old-fashioned toys, jigsaws and puzzles in the interactive history room.

7.00pm We went back to Jenna's house and had our dinner. We had spaghetti Bolonese. We had a busy day and I got very tired. Soon afterwards I went to bed.

9.30pm I was fast asleep!

Wednesday

7.00am Elisha and Orla woke everybody up!

8.00am I got breakfast. After that Colin and I played the X-box.

11.00am We went to the Ulster Folk Park at Cultra in the train. It is a giant outdoor museum with lots of old buildings. In the old buildings were old toys, furniture, clothes, machines and fires.

We saw an old school. There were no books or pencils, just slates for children to write on with chalk. The seats were like church pews. I pretended to be the teacher.

There was an old post office with a small sorting office. There were feathers on the desk which you write with. They are called quills.

We saw an old sweet shop with real sweets in jars that we were allowed to eat but you had to buy them.

There was a café with lots of food and drinks were we had our lunch.

I saw how a wall was made in the olden days. First you make a frame out of wood. Next you twist some straw to make rope and attach it to the wood. Finally you put the clay onto the rope to make it smooth.

I sat on a very old tractor which has metal tyres.

We went into an old-fashioned clothes shop. At the back of the clothes shop was a lady making cloth on a machine called a loom.

There were lots of other buildings to explore. The weirdest thing I saw was a toilet with a piece of wood with a hole in it for the seat. There was no water to wash anything away! You had to go outside to go to the toilet and there was no light in it or any heating. Not even any toilet roll!

6.00pm We went back to Jenna's house and got our dinner. Then I played with the X-box again until it was time to go to bed.

9.30pm Bed time.

Thursday

7.00am Orla and Elisha woke me up again!

10.00am Dad took Orla and me shopping in a huge shopping centre. We had our lunch there too.

I got two shirts, two hoodies, a football dressing-gown and football socks in a shop called Dunnes Stores.

This shop is bigger than Tesco's!

1.00pm We went to Lisburn swimming pool.

It looked a bit like the swimming pool at Butlin's holiday park in Minehead but it's better. It had three jacuzzis, lots of water slides, a paddling pool and a large pool. There was a “lazy river”which is water flowing in a circle at the outside of the pool. I could swim in it without doing much.

4.00pm It was time to go home again. I was sad. We got a taxi to Belfast Airport where we got a plane to Bristol Airport. Then we drove home. We had tea on the way home.

9.30pm We were home. I showed my Mum my new clothes. I was very tired so I went to bed.

Photographs of the train and Belfast Museum exhibits taken by Joseph Kennedy

Christians (homework)

2009-09-11T10:48:00.000+01:00

Joseph Kennedy

4th year homework

6^th September, 2009.

All About Christians

Being a Christian is to follow the teachings of Jesus (the Christ). These teachings can be found in the New Testament in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Most Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God, but some just believe that he was a good man.

You can't tell if someone is a Christian unless they tell you because they don't look or sound different to other people.

Lots of Christians go to Christian churches. There they sing and pray and they listen to the vicar or another teacher who tells them what Jesus wants and teaches them how to be better Christians.

Christians can pray just about anywhere, but mostly in churches, graveyards, in their homes and before meals. They pray to thank God for all the good things that he has given them and if they have problems they ask him to help them. Sometimes they ask God to help other people who have problems. They also pray for dead people to keep them safe in heaven.

There are lots of different types of Christian churches. In our area we have the Church of England church, the Methodist church the Baptist church and the Roman Catholic church. There are some unusual Christian churches, for example there is a Christian church in Minehead which believes that ghosts can speak to you and help you with your problems (Minehead Christian Spiritualist Church in Alcombe). Each church has different beliefs, but they are all similar.

Quiet and peaceful things that Christians do are praying and reading the Bible.

Some Christians are active in groups of people who help others because Jesus taught people to care for each other. Others shout about about Jesus in the middle of towns (I saw a man like this in the middle of Taunton).

If there was no Jesus, then there couldn't be any Christians, since they believe that he is the Christ.

Christians use a picture of a cross a lot to show others that they are Christian. They like this picture because Jesus died on a cross. There is an example at the side.

My trip to Disneyland Paris

2009-03-31T15:56:00.000+01:00

I went to the Disneyland parks in Paris in France. There are 2 parks, Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios. I went there with my dad, my two older sisters Carla and Collette, my two nephews Lee (11) Reece (4) and Shannon (13).

We stayed in a very big hotel. They had a swimming pool with a slide and a jacuzzi which was really cool. We had 2 rooms. Me, my dad, Orla and Collette slept in one room. Reece, Lee, Shannon and Carla slept in the other room.
When I got to Disneyland I first got something to eat. You could eat anything you wanted in the restaurant and the food was really good. Our dinners were the same, you could eat as much as you wanted and there was lots and lots of things to eat, even desserts. I tried most things except the things which looked yukky. I even tried some of those and they tasted really nice. The Mexican food was my favourite and it wasn't very spicy. Even Orla could eat it.

Disneyland had lots of shops. When I went into the shops they were full of toys, clothes and jewellry. But everything cost a lot of money so I couldn't buy very much. I got a Disneyland hat, but then I lost it.

They had lot's of rides. One of my favourite rides was the Rocking Roller Coaster. It has corkscrews and loop the loop. The best part was the start. You wait for a moment, then a screen comes up and says 3,2,1 and then you set of very, very fast.
Another one of my favourite rides was RunAway Train. It is a fast ride and you go in the dark for some of it. There is also a camera which takes photos on the scary parts. I also went to the Haunted House. It wasn't that scary but I still liked it. My best part about the Haunted House was when we went into a Cowboy village.

In the Walt Disney Studios park, I went in the Hollywood Tower ride. My favourite part was when you fall down. Your get a funny feeling in your tummy like you're going to be sick.

The best show was the stunt car show. It was really cool.

There were racing cars which didn't go very fast, but you got to drive them yourself so they were good fun.

We saw so many things and went on so many rides that it would take me a million years to write evrything about them! But I really want to go back again. Orla and Reece wanted to live there, but that's silly. It was the best place I ever went to in my life!

AJ's Adventure Playground

2009-03-02T17:51:00.000Z

On Saturday, I went to AJ's with my dad. I met my sisters, my nephews and my nieces there. My older sisters and my dad sat down and had a cup of tea. My little sister Orla and my niece Elisha played together in the little kids' area. I played with my older niece Shannon and my nephews Reece and Lee. We played tig and football.

AJ's is a big indoor adventure playground. It has a football area, different types of slides and air guns that shoot balls. It has also got a café which sells snacks and drinks.

After a couple of hours we went home because we were all tired.

Snowy Friday

2009-02-06T14:03:00.000Z

I woke up at 7:30 this morning and got ready for school. I didn't think it was snowing but it was. There was snow all over our car. I went to school but it wasn't open because the teachers couldn't get there. Because it wasn't open my dad and I drove outside the town to the hills where the snow was much deeper. It was snowing lots, too.

Later on I went home and did some reading. I learned my 9 times tables too. I wrote my first blog post.

In the afternoon Orla and I watched Tom and Jerry on TV. It was very funny and Orla started to get crazy.

Christmas

2009-01-01T15:12:00.000Z

Christmas

Before Christmas Day, I’m always looking forward to it. It took so, so, so long to get to Christmas Day. I’m looking forward to opening my presents.

On Christmas Eve night, I looked forward to going to bed because it’s Christmas tomorrow, but I’m afraid that if I wake up too early, I’ll see Santa and he won’t leave me any presents.

On Christmas Day, I was shocked when my mum woke me up and said that it was Christmas. I couldn’t wait to see what presents I’d got. Then I played with my new toys and games. I had been looking forward to my sisters and their families coming to my house. When they came, I was excited about getting presents from them. I bought my mum and dad and my little sister presents and I gave them out. I was happy because I chose them myself and I wanted my mum and dad and little sister to be happy.

Next we had Christmas dinner. It’s different from other dinners because we have a starter and our whole family is there. After that I go and play with my toys with my nephews. Then my sisters and their families go home and I go to bed. I am really happy because I’m going to my grandma’s house in Weymouth where my grandparents and my aunties and uncles live and I’ll get more presents!

Christmas means a lot to me because I get to see all my family and get presents and all of us have lots of fun.