Year 10 Writing Portfolio

The "Game of Cards" ESSAY  

Introduction 

The story “A Game of Cards''by Wiiti Ihimaera is about a woman called “Nani Miro” that loves to play card games and she was the kuia of their family(Kuia of a family is the person who runs the family or a leader that everyone looks up to). The mokopuna(grandchildren)always went to Nani Miros house to play card games, especially on Saturdays. As much as Nani Miro loved them and liked enjoying time with them, it wouldn't take her too long to get sick of them. If there was one character that I could relate to from the story it would be Nani Miro. The reason I chose Nani Miro is that she was always trying to have fun and laugh even before her last few breaths and she was super competitive. 

Body paragraph 1

One reason why it was important that I was able to relate to Nani Miro is that she was always trying to enjoy her life by spending time with her family by playing cards and she was always trying to have fun. “Nani was lying very still. Then she looked up, saw Mos leletit and whispered to her ‘Maka... Maka tiko bum ... I want a game of cards”.We see this in the text when Nani Miro wants to play cards just before her few last breaths, This shows that Nani Miro is not scared of death to she doesn't worry much and she just wants to enjoy and spend some more time and play her favorite card games with her family before she leaves this earth. This made me understand the real purpose of life which is being happy and how important having a laugh with friends and family are and this made me- -realize that we shouldn't be scared of death and we should just always try to be as happy as we can till we are alive. This is important because you should always do what you love and do whatever makes you happy and you shouldn't care what other people say or think because it's your life and you deserve to be happy and enjoy your life.

Body paragraph 2

The other reason that I chose Nani Miro as a person that I could relate to was that she is highly competitive and she always wants to be the leader or that she always wants to win even if it's just a little friendly game.”Eee you cheat, Miro! I already have two aces in my hand and there are only four in the game and how come you have three? ” We see this in the text when Nani Miro cheats while they are playing a card game and when she gets caught and she refuses it. This shows that Nani Miro wants to be the winner so badly that she even cheats to win and it also shows how competitive Nani Miro is. This made me realize that we shouldn't give up on things when it gets hard and that cheating is not the right way to win, we should try to win by trying hard and trying our best instead of cheating. This is important because cheating is not a really fair way to win something and that we should avoid cheating no matter how important winning is two you.

Body paragraph 3

The last reason why I chose Nani Miro is that she loved her family and friends and she loved spending time with them. We see this in the story when her grandchildren were going to her house every Saturday to play cards with their grandmother and when just before she died she still wanted to play card games with her family and to spend some time with her family before she leaves them forever. This shows the importance of our family and how important it is to always keep your family together and happy and to spend as much time as you can with them. This made me understand how valuable our family and friends are because they were the people that introduced us to this world and they taught us social skills when we needed them, Family means that you have someone that sticks with you when you need them or someone who is always there for you and always helps you when you need their help. It's also important that you do the same when your family or friends need you and it's important that you show as much respect and love that they show you. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, in the story of “ A Game of Cards” by Wiiti Ihimaera, The character Nani Miro made me understand the importance of family and how important it is to spend time with them, And that we should always try to enjoy life even the little things, and that we shouldn't take life so seriously. Of all of these ideas, the most important is that we should always try to be happy and enjoy life with people that we love Because life is too short to worry about stufFor example caring about what people say about you and you shouldn't care what people think about you because it's your life and you should do whatever that makes you happy, And enjoy life with people that you love and care about.

The Creative Writing

The Flying house 

As I gazed up to the sky I saw a Tiny house swimming around the sky and I was like ‘Wow’. The clouds were nearly touching the roof of the house. For a moment I thought I was dreaming but after I rubbed my eyes and pinched myself I believed that it is real and its actually a house floating with clouds around the sky. The house had 4 windows and a door and one of the windows was so Little. Through the Tiniest window, you could see something shiny as a star but I couldn’t tell what it was. While I was thinking about how a house can just fly and swim in the air, I heard a bird singing and I looked around and I still couldn’t see the bird till I Took a peek at the house. The bird was colourful as a rainbow and I just couldn’t stop looking and listening to it. I stared at the bird for a long time till his friends came and he just flew with them and left the house to float by itself.

It seemed like The house belongs to a woman, a women that love art. Because I could tell by the graffiti around the whole house. And wet clothes were hanging from the balcony.







During the time that the house was going higher and higher in peace, it started to get rainy and windier. The gorgeous blue sky turned to a dark and scary black and the wind was pushing the house away from me. At that moment I was nervous and scared and at the same time, I had to do something to help the house from getting destroyed. The house started to fly and move quicker and quicker than I thought it would fly and I tried to run faster to follow the house but Suddenly the house got a stroke by strong and powerful lightning. The house got ruined in pieces. I was shocked I couldn’t believe what I just saw. I felt bad for the Tiny house but at the same time, I was Sad. I looked up to the sky and saw a door on fire falling on me. I start screaming and It was about to hit me that I heard my mum saying Wake up Hasan, Wake up you are always later for school.