Flying To Neverland…

Hi guys! Sorry I haven’t been updating for a while. I’ve been flying off to the wonderful world of Neverland…

…or so I wish! In actual fact, I’ve been unbelievably busy since school started – I’ve had a lot on my schedule in such a short amount of time! But finally, I’ve found one of those rare moments of quiet that school life gives me, and so I think it’s time I told you guys a bit about what’s been going on now that I’m back in the busy flow of school life…

The biggest thing that’s happened this year so far would probably be getting a place in this year’s JUNIOR PRODUCTION! As I’ve said in my previous vlog, I auditioned for a role in the production, and for at least a week, I was waiting nervously. Then finally, the cast list was released, and I must have spent at least 5 minutes carefully reading each row – frankly, I was a little bit scared about the result! Then my eyes fell upon my name, and I was over the moon!

So now I’m involved in more than weekly rehearsals at lunch and after-school too, which is one of the main reasons why I haven’t been able to post anything for so long, alongside my many homeworks. I’m not sure if you guys remember, but I was also in last year’s production of ‘Around The World In 80 Days’. I played the Indian merchant and the dancing octopus – both roles I am very proud of!

This year’s production is called ‘An Awfully Big Adventure’, and it’s quite different than last year. It’s kind of a cross between Peter Pan and Mary Poppins, and it explains the origins of the world-famous children’s tale. It seems like a very good watch! This year, I’ll be playing the role of one of the grumpy Park Keepers that turn in to PIRATES when the park is transformed into Neverland through magical stories (see? I wasn’t completely lying about flying off to Neverland)! We’re basically the comedy of the show! So far, it’s been a really interesting acting experience – I can’t wait for what else this year’s Junior Production has in store for me!

But the Junior Production is only the icing on the cake…I’ve yet to get to the cherry on top! Less than a week ago, our English teacher set us a homework task of writing a revenge story. At first, I was struggling a lot to think of something to write about, but then a light bulb went off in my head, and after writing it, I handed it in more confidently than I had started off writing it! And guess what? I ended up getting my first GOLDEN BOOK of the year for it! Alhamdulillah, it’s truly a blessing from Allah, but also a sign that I should take this as motivation to carry on working hard!

So all in all, this first half-term has proved to be a very enriching and fruitful one…I can only think of what lies in wait for the rest of the school year!

Blessed,

Omar Mukhtar

Back To School!

The Summer Holidays are finally over and it’s time to go back to school! So, I’ll be sharing with you guys all the latest updates about school in my new school vlog series. This is my first vlog, and I’ll be telling you all about the new school year and what changes there have been at school. Head over to our YouTube channel: The Family UK (link below) to watch the full vlog and hear all about my new curriculum, teachers and big events that I’m looking forward to. And of course, find out what the ICING ON THE CAKE at the end of the week was for me!

Happy new school year,

Omar Mukhtar

p/s: Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe! 😉

My Golden Year of Shells

When I started KES, one of the first things I was introduced to was the Liber Aureus (Golden Book). Huh? The “Liber Aureus”? The GOLDEN BOOK? That was my initial reaction. But to my surprise (and possibly disappointment), this mysterious-sounding, famous, fancy Latin-named tome of legend was not a book constructed from pure, 24-karat gold – now that I think of it, that would be quite impractical.

Apparently, this Golden Book was one of the highest achievements in the school. If you did an exceptional piece of work (like, REALLY exceptional) or gained a certain amount of credits (the school point system), your name would be written down in the Golden Book, so your achievement would be remembered even years on from now. Getting an entry in the Golden Book was the one thing everybody in school worked towards, and soon, I too joined the race. 

Since then, I probably worked harder than I ever had. Like my classmates around me, I had the Golden Book in my sights. And so that was how I worked until December 2018, when I got my first Golden Book entry – a DOUBLE ENTRY too, if that wasn’t surprising enough. I couldn’t believe it! Up until then, being able to make my mark in the Golden Book seemed so out of reach to me. And here I was, holding the pen in my hand that would write down my name in the prestigious Golden Book! Little did I know that by the end of my first academic year, I would have a total of not 1, not 2, but 4 Golden Book entries, meaning that my name was carved into school history four times! What a great way to end the school year alongside my unexpected exam results! I don’t know how I did it, but it was indeed a miracle!

Alhamdulillah, I feel so blessed to earn such a great achievement. However, I cannot claim that this is just a product of my hard work. I would not have achieved this without my teachers. Their fruitful teachings have benefited me in countless ways, not just academically! My friends have also given me their support and encouragement. It’s true to say that a friend’s motivation is like no other!

Above all, a lot of the credit goes to my family, especially my parents, Mrs Mom and Mr Dad, without whom I would have never gotten this far. They are the ones who have been sacrificing a lot for me. Their unconditional love and endless support have motivated me to keep on working harder!

And how could I forget all of you wonderful people? You are our loving supporters! I may not know all of you, but your love, prayers, and kind words touch my heart. There is no way I could thank you all enough! May God shower you and your families with the best of blessings!

And of course, all praise is due to Allah, for He is the one who has seen all my struggles, and He is the one who has showered His endless blessings upon me. For now, all I can do is thank Allah and pray that next year will be as fruitful as this one.

I also know that somewhere, somehow, my Mamajee is watching over me. I just hope that I have done enough to make him proud of his nephew as he looks on. May Allah let us all be reunited in Jannah.

Last but not least, I would like to say goodbye to the Shells year. It has shaped me into the KES boy I am today!

Blessed,

Omar Mukhtar

Feeling Blessed…

Alhamdulillah, what a great way to end the Spring Term! Other than my excellent end-of-term report, me and 3 other students from Year 7 were selected to go to the University of Birmingham to compete in Salter’s Chemistry Festival. And guess what? We won 1st Prize! We were competing against 16 other schools from the West Midlands in a chemistry forensics challenge. We managed to win and we were the only team to gain full marks for our final answers too. And that’s not all, we were among the youngest there! But above all, nothing could beat the proud smiles on my parents’ faces! I thank God for giving me the opportunity to not only represent my school, but to make my parents happy! May God guide me on the right path so that I can continue to make my parents proud and set a good example to my little brother and sister, Fatimah and Ali!

Blessed,

Omar Mukhtar a.k.a. The Pawsome Lion

#The12YearOldAuthor

p/s: Don’t forget to pre-order my first book #MNPOE – buy now or cry later! 😎

Taking A Trip Down Memory Lane…

 

This was me exactly two years ago, when I first stepped foot in King Edward’s School for their open day – my ‘Harry Potter stepping into Hogwarts’ moment! I can still remember the 10-year old me, so wonderstruck and dreaming that I would one day be a KES boy…and two years later, by God’s grace, I’m one of the students studying here at KES! Obviously, my journey to become a KES boy wasn’t easy. There was a lot – and I mean a LOT – of hard work along the way. But of course, on top of all that, I could never have done it without the support and prayers of the two most important people in my life: Mrs Mom and Mr Dad! And above all, I am beyond grateful that my mother is still here to witness it all. May God grant both of my parents long, happy and healthy lives so that they can witness many more of my achievements to come…InshaAllah!

So guys, if you have a dream, wake up and run. Don’t run away. Run after it! Never stop chasing your dream!

Blessed,
Omar Mukhtar a.k.a. The Pawsome Lion
#The12YearOldAuthor
#BornToWrite
#GeniusFreeZone
#throwback 18th March 2017

A Poopy Story…

 

This half-term in Science, we’ve been looking at biology, specifically the development of babies. So, the Science department decided to adopt some babies so we could examine their growth over the next few weeks. Relax…they weren’t real human babies! They were only baby chicks, and really, the chicks were actually eggs to start with. So don’t worry, no human babies were harmed during our Science lessons!

I was actually lucky enough to witness the first few baby chicks hatching! The picture above is of me before the half-term holidays (credit to my friends Prnay and Daniel for the photos) when the Science teachers decided to give us a little treat and let us stroke the hatched chicks. You might think that it was enjoyable, and it was, until that sweet moment turned into chaos! Literally all the chicks started pooping on all of my friends! In the end, everyone was less concerned about the chicks than they were about washing chick poop off their clothes and avoiding the chicks as much as they could. I was lucky enough to quickly put down the chick in the picture the moment before it did a Number 2! So overall, my first experience holding newborn chicks was not what I expected!

When we had all sat back down (and all the chick poop was washed away) one of my classmates asked the Science teacher what would happen to the chicks when we finished learning about Biology. In response, the teacher said, “Well, they’ll be sent back to the farm where they came from and, in a few months time, they’ll be…well, they might be on your plate the next time you go to KFC!” And that’s how the teacher successfully managed to keep the class quiet for the rest of the lesson – you should have seen our faces then!

Have a PAWSOME Wednesday,

Omar Mukhtar a.k.a. The Pawsome Lion

p/s: Have you ever been pooped on by an animal? Share your #poopystory!

 

 

My Last School Report!

Is there such a thing as school-sick? Because if there is, then I am SCHOOL-SICK! This was my last school report, written by my class teacher, Miss Patrick. As you can see, it is very detailed! When I first received it, I was awed, not by the length of it, but by the fact that she didn’t miss a single detail about me! Just thinking about the amount of effort she put into it touched me! This is something that I will never forget. I will definitely treasure this forever! And in case you’re wondering, yes, that bouquet of flowers that Miss Patrick is holding was from me! 😊

Have a pawsome Wednesday,

Omar Mukhtar

a.k.a. The Pawsome Lionlast school report

miss patrick last day

My Pobble Day! #throwback 13th October 2016

FYI, this post is a THROWBACK post! I have lots more pieces of written work that are also waiting to be published! 😛

Hello pawsome peeps! How are you? I hope you’re settling into the new school year OK. A lot of things have been happening since school has started. I am now a Digital Leader, I have gotten into Choir, the new members of JLT have been selected and a lot more! But, there was one particularly exciting event that took place yesterday. Read the following to find out…

It was…a Pobble Workshop!!! I had been waiting for this for ages! Finally, the day had come! Just to let you know, Pobble is a website where teachers and parents are able to post a picture of their children’s writing for the world to read! It is used by 10,000 teachers in over 100 countries and has 30,000+ pieces of work posted on it!

There were only four people out of the whole school that attended the workshop: me, Nimat, Leah and Shoaib. 7 other schools had also come to our school to attend the workshop. They were all Year 6, we were the only people from Year 5!

Of course, there was no better person to host it than the man himself, founder of Pobble, Simon Blower a.k.a. Mr Pobble! I found him very kind and welcoming; we all enjoyed working with him.

To start off, we were shown a picture of an old, scruffy-looking man walking along a road that was shrouded in a thick mist. The only other things that were there to accompany him were several clocks showing different times (mysterious! 😯) and an upside-down lamppost! Using this picture, we had to write three sentences about it: ‘I see…’, ‘I think…’ and ‘I wonder if…’. My sentences were:

  1. I see an old man walking down a foggy road.
  2. I think he may be near water.
  3. I wonder if he can control time?

Most of us wrote the same thing for the third sentence due to the fact that all the clocks in the picture were showing different times. This was related to the theme of our writing, which was…time travelling! We had to write a story in which we travelled through time to a different era. Now, this wasn’t like another old English lesson where we are set off to work after briefly talking about it as a class. In the workshop, we went through each stage of the story-one at a time-whilst we were writing to make sure that it was perfect!

Before we started on our stories, we had to choose an object that would send us on our time travelling adventures! My object was a golden pocket watch with azure hands. Other people chose things like keys, flowers, pendants and even cupboards! Interesting! 😀

After that, we moved on to the first stage of our story, which was called the hook. This was the opening paragraph, which had to grab the reader’s attention and convince them to read on. To cut it short, we had to basically ‘hook’ the reader onto our story.

The second stage of our story was to introduce the magical object that makes us travel through time. In this stage, we had to think of how the object came into our lives. Some people said that their parents owned it and passed it down to them whereas others said that they found it lying on the floor in the street.

The next stage that we had to do was write about our journey through time. The main things that we had to think about were what you could see whilst travelling through time and what it felt like when you time travelled. What colours could you see? Were you flying? Were you spinning? People came up with all sorts of crazy ideas such as ‘being thrown into a tunnel of colour’ and ‘shaking around like a rag doll’. One of my favourites was ‘energy surged through my body like a tidal wave’! 👍

Finally, we had to write up our dilemma! In this stage, we had to reveal the era that we had ended up in and create a problem that we had to face e.g. being captured or not being able to go back home. Then we had to finish off with something called a ‘cliffhanger ending’, which is when the dilemma of a story comes at the end. I pretended that I had travelled to the time period when Queen Victoria ruled and two guards were trying to catch me. Other children chose Ancient Egypt and the Roman time period. One person even decided to travel to the future when robots ruled Earth! Sounds fascinating!

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When we finished all that, our story was complete and ready for posting! We gave our sheets to Mr. Pobble and waved him goodbye. Writing with the founder of Pobble was such a great experience. I didn’t want it to end! Hopefully I will have the chance to have another Pobble day another time! 🙂

Oh well, that’s all for this post. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading it! Don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for the next post. Goodbye!!!

p/s: If you would like to visit Pobble, click on the link below:

https://www.pobble.com

School’s Here!!!

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Wagwan pawsome peeps! Hope you’re doing well! As you all know, the Easter holidays have come to an end and it’s the start of a new school term. Since I haven’t written about school for quite a while now, I have decided to write a quick update about what’s going on at school.

As usual, I couldn’t wait to meet my PAWSOME Hazel class again on the first day back. Everyone was in a cheerful mood, especially the ROARSOME duo, Miss Javed and Miss Hussain!

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Since it was the start of a new term, we would be starting a new topic. Our topic for this term is all about Natural Disasters. This topic is jam-packed with lots of fun things to learn such as why earthquakes happen, what makes volcanos erupt, how tsunamis form and much more. And, we made great, enormous volcanos out of ordinary plastic bottles that were put on display. Some children also drew life-like pictures of natural disasters. From what I have seen, I guarantee that everyone will enjoy learning about this topic!

 

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Then, on Thursday, something special happened at school. It was…Arts Day! Arts Day is a day that is dedicated to art and design. Each Arts Day has a different theme each year. The theme for this Arts Day was portraits! As usual, there was task for us to complete. We had to create a portrait, collage or sculpture of someone who inspires us the most. Being the typical me, I’m always ready to take on the challenge! So, I made piece of artwork with both me and Mr Dad in it. As part of the artwork, I also created a quote related to father and son. It was:

“My father is the greatest father anyone could have. He gives me love, guidance and he always believes in me.

But the best gift he gave me was teaching me how to spread my wings and fly!”

By: The Pawsome Lion

Thursday 21st April 2016

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I presented my artwork in a HUGE frame that looked like a film strip. And like I always say, even if I don’t win, I still tried my best! As a treat, a graffiti artist came visited us and explained to us what graffiti is! He also wrote the school’s initials in graffiti style writing and showed us some of the techniques that are used in graffiti art. The finishing product looked AA-mazing!  The graffiti art was going to be in the middle of our arts display once the portraits that we made at school were finished.

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Each year group was also asked to wear a certain colour on that day. This was all part of a school arts piece that we made. Year 4 was asked to wear a blue shirt or dress. Miss Javed and Miss Hussain were both wearing blue tops, blue trousers and even blue hair extensions! For once, they actually looked like twins! When all of the year groups were sitting together, the colours of our clothes made a magnificent rainbow if it was seen from above. Some of the teachers took photos of us and we all can’t wait to see them!

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Me and Nimat have also started our very own Handwriting Club! Our aim is to help children develop their handwriting so they have a better chance of earning a pen licence in the future. There are currently 5 children attending the club. From time to time, we also ask some other children to help us run the Handwriting Club because these children can be a handful (if you know what I mean)! At the moment, the club is for Year 2 children and is held three times a week. The club has been going on for more than two months now. We are also hoping to open up to other year groups over time.

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There is also some other news that I would like to share with you guys. I have finally got a place in Drama Club! As the name states, this is a club where we act out plays and movies. It is run by Mr Ball, a class teacher in Year 5. The play that we are currently practising is called A Midsummer Night’s Dream written by the well-known William Shakespeare. Surprisingly, I got the lead male role called Lysander! As a coincidence, Nimat is also in Drama Club! She plays the role of the Fairy. Rehearsals are held every Monday after school and Thursday at lunchtime. The actual play will be held in June and we are all very excited about it.

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Last but not least, I would like to welcome a new student that has recently joined us. His name is Furqan! It has been around two weeks since he started at our school and has settled in really well. Welcome to Shireland Hall Primary Academy, Furqan! I hope you enjoy your time with us!

I’m afraid that I’ll have to end the post here, guys. But, keep your eyes peeled for the next update about another special day that I’ll be writing shortly! Till we meet again, ciao everybody!

ciao new

 

P/S: I’m feeling a bit under the weather so it looks like no school for The Pawsome Lion tomorrow, which is like the end of the world for me!

*Media Source: Google Images*

Back to School!!

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Hiya there pawsome peeps! Since the past two weeks, everyone at home have been feeling under the weather. This is because it has been freezing cold lately. Dr Auntie was the first one down, then it passed onto Mr Dad, then Mrs Mom and finally both Little Miss Diva and Baby A. Luckily, this time, I am not tagged along with them! 😀 As I am the only one who is as strong as a lion, I’ve been busy helping around the house. This has affected my schedule and I am a lot behind it at the moment. There are a lot of unticked boxes in my to do list! Got a lot of catching up to do!

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As you know, the two week school holiday has passed and today was the first day at school in the year of 2016! YAHOO!!!!! I couldn’t wait to go to school this morning and meet my AMAZING Miss Javed, my PAWSOME Miss Hussain and surely my ROARSOME Hazel class!!!

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When I arrived at school, everyone was looking happy and cheerful. Today, we had a supply teacher called Miss Dildar in the morning for about half an hour. In that half an hour, we spent the time writing some New Year’s Resolutions in 2016 and reflecting back on 2015. If any of you don’t know what a New Year’s Resolution is, it’s kinda like setting yourself a challenge or trying to improve on something for next year. My New Year’s Resolution was to improve on my writing skills so that one day, I can be a successful writer!

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Then, when Miss Javed came back to the classroom, we started our Train Your Brain Day! Train Your Brain Day happens on the first day of school after any long holidays. Train Your Brain Day is basically discovering new learning powers and having a go at using them. After our short Train Your Brain session, we moved on to the “normal” school day. Now, because it was the first day back, we were going to be learning about a new topic. It was…the Amazon rainforest (I don’t mean “Amazon” as in the electrical commerce Amazon XD )! The Amazon rainforest is a rain forest near the Amazon River Basin in South America. The Amazon rainforest is also known as the world’s most largest rainforest!

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Now, we needed a new display at school because we are learning about a different subject. So, in order to do that, my class helped make some parts for the display. The first thing that we made were cute little lemur monkeys that looked like King Julien! The parts of the body were separate so there was a lot of colouring, cutting and sticking. But, at least we only needed two or three colours. The lemurs were grey with black stripes on their tails. There was also some black on the face too. Once we finished colouring in the parts of the body, we cut them out and stuck them all together. Then, our lemurs were finished! They all looked cute and like King Julien!

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After that, we left the lemurs in a pile inside the classroom and went to lunch. For my lunch, I had:

  1. A veggie roll/sausage with sweetcorn and pasta on the side
  2. Fruity jelly
  3. Juice

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After lunch, we had another exciting activity to do in the afternoon. We were going to make Amazon snakes! The snakes were also for our Amazon rainforest display. There were three different techniques that we could use to make our snakes.

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No.1 was to use a plate and decorate it before you cut a swirly pattern onto it. No.2 was to use the chain technique, which is just cutting the right length strips of paper and bending them round to make a small ring and joining all the rings at the same time. The 3rd and final one is called the concertina technique.This is made by glueing two strips of paper which are the same size at right angles, folding one piece up, then the other one and repeating this many times.

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There were lots of pawsome snakes that were made for the display. All three techniques were seen all around the classroom. The techniques that I used were the chain and concertina technique. The most hardest technique out of all three of them would definitely be the concertina technique! I got there in the end but I also had to give a snake-making masterclass to some other classmates like Amaan, Abubakar and Krish! Phew!!! That was a lot of  hard work! 😉

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At the end of the day, we put all of our snakes and lemurs in one pile so that they could be displayed on the Amazon Rainforest display. I’m very intrigued by this new topic and I can’t wait to learn about it! It sounds super pawsome!

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As always on Tuesdays, at home time, I went to Keyboard Club. When I arrived at the place where Keyboard Club was held, I was surprised at what I saw on the interactive whiteboard. On it, in big, blue writing, it said, “Song Writing!” When I read that, I felt like jumping up and saying “WOOHOO!” Perhaps everyone should’ve known by now that other than writing, I also love making music and writing songs. So, I knew this lesson would turn out good for me. What we did first was think of our favourite song and read out the first line of it. Then, we need to try and guess what the song is about by just reading the first line. After that, we needed to think of some categories that we could write about in our song. Next, we wrote the first few lines of our song and shared it with the rest of the class. My lyrics were:

The moment I had to leave you,

I was left in complete sorrow

My heart was broken, just a tiny pebble,

I was afraid of the unknown…

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Then, when we finished writing our lyrics, we had to find a suitable tune for our lyrics on the keyboard. We all managed to finish this task just in time before we had to go home. We were then informed that our individual songs would be put together at the end of the half term to make one big song! We were all excited when we heard the news and couldn’t wait. Finally, it was time to go home…

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p/s: What’s your New Year’s Resolution?

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*Media Source: Google Images*