My Pigeon Impossible Writing

Hello, 
Last week Colab watched a clip called Pigeon Impossible. It was about a secret spy called Walter, his briefcase and donut, and a pigeon. I wrote my take on the story. 

You know, some days, pigeons feel hungry. That's just the way of the world. On this particular day, one ravenous pigeon was so starving that he found any food irresistible! This pigeon was walking along in the gutter, when he saw the most delicious, amazing, biggest, best bagel ever in the hands of the very misfortunate secret spy Walter. This wasn't just any bagel either, it was fresh and warm, and the pigeon was craving bagels!

Walter praised and treasured his high tech briefcase that was nestled beside him. While having a lunch break he saw this pigeon. It pecked at his bagel. Fairly enough, he presumed. He broke off a modest amount of the bagel. It was only a crumb, yet the pigeon was famished. Poor pigeon. It squawked. Walter (slightly irritated) shooed the pigeon away.

Worst mistake ever! The pigeon snatched the bagel, and in all of the commotion the pigeon went flying into the briefcase. The pigeon, rather distressed skittered on all the buttons. He pecked on a button saying ‘fire’. Laser beams shot across the street towards Walter, but he was prepared and ducked behind a wall. This happened repeatedly. The Pigeon, flew up into the sky, and fired at a person in their car, and started causing destruction in the city. ‘This was nothing yet’, Walter thought.

The Pigeon pushed on a button that released the safety catch for the red button. Startled, was how the pigeon felt, but his curiosity won him over. He looked around, poking at this and that. He was becoming rather exasperated.  Pigeons, are a bit like bulls. When they get angry they run at red. The pigeon saw the hugest, biggest, bloodiest-looking, reddest of the red HUGE button! The pigeon backed up, before charging at the speed of lightning, towards the button, before flying backwards. The abuse to his beautiful wings only made him more enraged with anger, and he lunged again.

Suddenly a crisply coloured white tower erupted open, to reveal a huge missile, that soared into the air. The briefcase went skidding across the street before opening, catapulting the pigeon way into the distance. Walter, who was appalled, was obstinate to get revenge. But there was no time to worry about some as small as that! No, Walter was preoccupied with other things right now. Such as a multi million dollar explosive device, accelerating towards Moscow in Russia. Walter, with beads of sweat running down his face, frantically banged on the keyboard, hoping there was a ‘back’ button. No such luck! Aided with his high tech gadgets Walter zoomed into the sky. He adjusted his aim, only to discover the aggravating pigeon gazing at him.

Walter hurled the donut away, and thankfully, the pigeon followed after. The bottom segment of the missile detached and plunged below. “Phew!” Walter though. Walter aimed at the remaining segment of the bomb. He exhaled slowly, and pressed release. BANG! To Walter, the sky was black. He went plummeting down, but used his briefcase to prevent injury.

After landing, he scrambled back onto his feet. Walter slid his sunnys over his eyes, before casually strolling away, safe and sound. You might be thinking, where did the falling segment of the missile go? THUD! Well, let’s just say the pigeon’s fate was unfortunate.

Impact Project

Hi again!

Over the past few weeks Colab has been doing our inquiries a little bit differently, and I wanted to share that with you. We are currently doing impact projects.

We have a slide called leading my learning, which is the headquarters for our inquires. To get us started, we thought of all the things we love to do, all the things we are good at, and all the things we would love to learn about. We wanted our projects to always be exciting for us, so that we are running to school each day.

Then we recorded some possible questions, ideas, projects, issues, or problems. They had to have a positive effect on something. I had a lengthy list of possible projects, and I took my time to figuring out what my term-long adventure could be. In the end, I chose something I never would have guessed I’d be doing.

I want to find other kids like me, that want to take action in the community, and provide help to others, and create a group. I am very aware of unquestionably successful programs such as the Model UN, and the Youth Council of Palmerston North, but I am under the impression that they are not very suitable for 10 Yr Olds. Hopefully by the end of the term we will have a project in mind.

So this is what my impact project will be. I wonder what projects you are working on? Please comment below. Thanks for reading.

Council Chamber

Hi Guys, This is a newspaper article that Madeleine, Eilidh, and I wrote. We went to Council Chamber. It was incredible. Thank you to Mrs Dennison, who made it possible.

On Friday the 5th of May, Madeleine James (10), Eilidh Mackay (10) and Kate Coutts (10) who are Young Leaders at College Street Normal School attended the Palmerston North City Council Committee Meeting to present their submission about Palmerston North. There were multiple meetings to decide whose ideas to include in the budget.

Kate Coutts recommended that a recycling bin be placed next to every rubbish bin in the city. Madeleine James and Eilidh Mackay thought of new ideas to make Palmerston North better, for example, having more free events, activities at the library for tweens and opening the science observatory to the public.

“These three girls are extremely passionate and are committed to making a difference in our local community” says Amanda Dennison, one of the teachers who work with the Young Leaders team.

“Today was an amazing experience that I will never forget” said Madeleine James.

“It was so much fun and the City Councillors were so nice. I just want to do it all over again!” says Eilidh Mackay

“It was an incredible experience and everyone was so welcoming. All the Councillors valued and considered our ideas.” Kate Coutts.

Madeleine on Left, Eilidh in middle, and Kate on left. At submitters desks, in the Council Chamber.

Selfie Time! 

Our Colab Target

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all have had a good holiday. For my holiday, I spent the first week in Kuratau, and the second week catching up with friends. I was very lucky and got lots of Easter Eggs, from family, friends and the Easter Bunny.  Here is some writing to inform you of what Colab has been doing recently.

I have had an excellent start to Term 2. For the first two days, we completed 5 fun activities, that was an introduction to Colab’s Target. The Target is what we aim to achieve. There are 6 areas of the target.

The first area is Collaboration. For Collaboration, my group and I did Breakout EDU which is a really challenging activity where you need to crack codes, find clues and keys to ‘Breakout’. This was so much fun, and really helped us be amazing collaborators.

The second area is Creativity. For this area we were challenged to invent something unique with a paper clip - and give it a new purpose. This was fun, and you really had to be imaginative.

Thirdly, we aim to have a growth mindset. For this activity, we listened to podcasts, read articles and studied pictures to gather information about how to create a growth mindset. Then, we presented our information. My group chose to present using a play.

In Colab, it is important to be curious researchers who have an impact. This was our fourth area. We did an activity called moonshot thinking. This is where you take a huge problem, one that has existed for centuries, or is up to a global scale. You use a crazy idea and combine with breakthrough technology, and you have a solution. In the activity, we pitched an idea that could be an incredible solution.

Lastly but most definitely not least is Knowing yourself as a Learner. For this activity we looked at kids in different scenarios-there was one that was relatable for everybody. We had to give them advice. To summarise at the end we wrote down 5 things that we should do as learners.

You might be wondering, ‘Hey, where’s the sixth area?’ Well, that’s where it’s down to us. The teachers cannot decide what criteria we’re missing, and neither can I! I wonder if you have any ideas for our final area of our target? So, this is what Colab and I have been doing. Thank you for reading this, please comment below.