Kapa Haka

All I could see were yellow feathers sticking out of the girls hair. Moana Syndicate was getting filmed first - we had to be filmed because of Covid- and I was so excited! I have always loved Kapa Haka, and having it being filmed in the hall of our school was not as nerve racking!

Our first waiata was Utaina and we sounded amazing! Our second song was Ka Waiata, one of my favourites. To be honest, the camera was a bit overwhelming at first, but I got used to it after a while. Our bracket had quite a few new songs such as, Ka Waiata, Toia mai and Ka Panana. But most were ones that we have done before. 

The next song we performed was E Rona, the poi and my favourite. On the second round of E Rona the two front rows kneeled down so the other rows could be seen. A new haka that could be performed by girls and boys, was introduced to us in Term 2. It was called Ka Panana. The boys would come to the front towards the end of it, so they could do their haka.

After the boys haka, we did another new song, Toia Mai. This was one of my favourites as well! As soon as it had started we were finished, and I was so happy! I enjoyed it so much and hope to remember all the songs we just learnt! Here is the performance video:

Kapa Haka

Ilminster Green Team Performance

When Nanny Kōura walked on stage, my heart filled with joy. If I went to Ilminster, that was what I wanted to be doing. MLH and some of Room 3 and 4  had gone to see a play put together by the Ilminster Intermediate Green team. They were a group of students from the school that made plays and performances about enviro.

Two of Nanny Kōura's mokopuna ( grandchildren ) were sitting on the floor while Nanny Kōura told them a story. The story was about when Nanny Kōura told the aliens to stop dumping rubbish on earth. A group of children were playing at the skate park, dropping their rubbish everywhere. 

After the kids had left, an alien ship landed behind the skate park, throwing their rubbish everywhere. The kids came back to find their skate park trashed. The kids thought it would be best for them to see Nanny Kōura. But she told them that what goes around comes around, and they shouldn't be dumping rubbish either. After a while Nanny Kōura agreed to helping them, she asked the kids to bring the aliens to her.

Once the aliens arrived, Nanny Kōura told them not to dump their rubbish on earth. The aliens dropped to their knees, thinking she was the alien queen! Nanny Kōura played along with it. She instructed for the aliens and the children to clean up the mess they had made. 

I loved watching the performance and I can't wait to do something like that at Ilminster! Here are some photos: 

Speech Performances and Flooding

Last Thursday was the speech performances, and there were heaps of well written speeches. My topic was why you should get vaccinated. I went 44th but lots of people before me were away, so I was a bit earlier. Shivers ran down my spine as I stepped up onto the little stage, this was scary!

My speech was over and done with as soon as it started. I had mucked up in the middle of it, but that didn't matter, I had gotten my point across. After a while, kids started leaving, in the middle of the speeches. I thought it was Campion tour for the year six's, but then year five's started leaving. What was going on? 

When there was just half the class left, the teachers decided to stop speeches where they were because of the disruption. They told us that the weather forecast said the rain was meant to die off, but it had got stronger and there were flooding warnings for Gisborne. I glanced out the window and there was a puddle, ankle deep. 

After a while, my mum came and picked me up. Sponge Bay was told to evacuate because of high flooding. Our school hall was a safe place for the families that had to evacuate. Here are some photos:

 I really liked doing speeches, and I hope we do them at Intermediate! The flood wasn't as fun!

Speeches

 Term 4 means speeches, so our class started at end of Term 3. Our starter topic Going for gold. My topic is COVID Vaccinations, and why you should get them. Originally I was going to do Valerie Adams, but vaccines seemed more important at this time.  Here is my speech for now: 

Are you vaccinated? Are you vaccinated? Are you vaccinated? Covid. Vaccinate. A humongous problem, and one little thing to help. The world wants the problem dead. But for this to work, everyone must play their part by getting their vaccine. Vaccinations will help to change this mess we have gotten ourselves into. In my opinion, everyone should get vaccinated in the age group.

If the population gets vaccinated, it will reduce people from getting Covid. That is what they are made for.

This one is simple. If you get vaccinated, it is less likely for you to get Covid and spread it. The government wouldn’t give out vaccinations if they weren't safe.  Imagine being stuck in hospital, on a ventilator with nurses rushing around you, think about it, that could be you if you’re not vaccinated. Although you can still catch Covid, it is less likely for you to be badly affected by it. It helps not just yourself, but others as well. 

Vaccinations also mean travel, if everyone can get vaccinated, everyone can travel safely. 

When you have a happy life, you have memories. But lots of memories can be traveling. One night I was looking at a photo album of when my parents went overseas, and I wished I could do something like that. Covid stopped my dream of traveling to Greece and stuffing my face with feta and salad. You could go travelling safely if you get vaccinated, and so could others around you. 

If you get vaccinated, you protect yourself, whanau and your community. 

Protecting people is kindness. Protecting no one is selfish. By getting the vaccine, you protect the people who are most in danger of dying, our whanau over 70. Us kids can’t get vaccinations yet, but we can encourage our elders to get it. Vaccinations are like a present to our world, don’t take advantage of it.

We have been taught to protect our planet, recycle, plant trees, help save our oceans, but we can’t enjoy and appreciate our beautiful world, if we aren’t healthy ourselves. So you see, from reducing Covid, to protecting others, vaccinations don’t have an upside, they are the upside. Encourage vaccinations, so we have a future.

I hoped you liked my speech so far, I really have enjoyed working on it!

Green Gold Walk

Yesterday we went on a hikoi (walk) while the enviro people inspected our school. Our school has been working towards Green Gold for at least 7 years. Green Gold is an award for enviroschools, there is Bronze, Silver and Green Gold. Koka Rozie had organized our class to go for a walk on a farm where she rides her horses. 

We walked from school to Scarlys Way as this was where the farm was. On the farm it was very boggy and wet. At first I was a bit annoyed because we had to cross Hamanatua Stream in our shoes! But after not landing my jump across the awa, me and my friends decided to do a challenge. The challenge was when we had to walk through an awa or some mud, we couldn't complain. 

Water was running through my shoes, mud filling my shoes so much, I barely had enough room for my feet! I could hardly wait to take the soaking things off of me! Before we went back, Koka Rozie asked us what we think was a negative impact on the awa. We all agreed that a negative was the farm animals droppings that washed downstream. I also thought that a negative was when the animals would run or walk on the edge of the awa and mud and grass would build up in the stream and make it all brown and muddy.

When we got back something amazing was waiting for us, GREEN GOLD! YAY! I loved the walk, here are some photos from the day:

Jean Batten Day

 This Tuesday MLH had a day all about the famous New Zealand woman aviator, Jean Batten. The teachers had booked the hall for the whole day, so we could work in there. We were put into groups of 3-5 and I was with Betsy, Krissie, Harry G and Mahanga. I was really excited because the teachers said we had codes to crack! I love cracking codes! I have been learning how to crack onomatopoeia codes in my own time.

Our first clue was a little cat tag that said: Buddy, (this was Jean Batten's cat), and J=B. We all thought this meant Jean Batten, but it didn't. After a while we realised it was the alphabet. We finished that clue in about 20 minutes.

The next clue was a morse code. If you don't know what a morse code is, I didn't know either until we did it. A morse code is a group of sounds that add up to a code like, long short, short short long and long long short. This was a bit confusing but we got there in the end.

After lunch we were making buzz panes. Buzz planes are made out of the head of a toothbrush, batteries, lights and when you make it, it should buzz and move on the floor. This was quite tricky and our buzz planes didn't work, but the ones that did work, had a race.

At the end of the day, we each got a awesome badge that the teachers got for us. I got one that said Creative in French. I really wanted this one. It was so much fun learning about a awesome NZ aviator. I really would love to do some more of this learning!

Cross Country

 This Wednesday was School Cross Country. But because of being in Level 2, only year 4, 5 and 6 students went down. Level 2 also meant no spectators, so no parents or family were allowed to watch. I was really nervous! As we walked to the track, my heart started beating just a little bit faster. 

Year 6 girls were up first so I lined up as soon as we got there. When Koka Sue blew the whistle, the sound ricocheted in my ears. I ran as fast as I could when that whistle blew. For some reason I could taste blood. The metal taste felt like money. My asthma made it hard to breathe. 

After the race my breathing got worse. I took my asthma pump and had a drink of water. Me and my friends recreated a photo from athletics, here is the original and the recreation:

 This is the original:

Here is the recreation:

Olympic Booklet

 This term one of our Inquiry topic is Olympics. At the start of the term we got given booklets that the teachers printed from Kiwi Kids News. Our booklets have lot's of tasks to do with the Olympics and Paralympics. I enjoy researching and finding out new things.  How much do you know about the Olympics? 

In the booklets, we also have our favourite Kiwi Olympic athlete and Kiwi Paralympic athlete. My favourite Olympic athlete is Emma Twigg, a 34 year old that won gold in rowing at this years Olympics. My favourite Paralympic athlete is Sophie Pascoe, a 28 year old that has won nine gold medals and six silver medals in swimming. Who would be your favourite Kiwi Olympic and Paralympic athletes?

Here is what the cover looks like: 

I love working on my booklet and it makes me feel more ready for Intermediate next year with all this knowledge about the Olympics. Would you enjoy filling in a booklet like this? I know I enjoy it! 

 

Reading Questions

This term, in our L3+ Reading group, our teacher set us questions and we would find a book, that isn't in a series, to answer them. I chose 'The Midnight Gang' by David Walliams. Here are my answers:

Midnight Gang

1. I chose this book because it had a nice message to it and I liked other books that the author had written.

2. If I was Tom, the main character, I would have stayed with Sally instead of leaving her on her own, and because of her illness she would want some company. 

3. If this book was a TV show the actors I would put in it would be: Andrea Barber as Tootsie,  Candace Cameron Bure as Tom’s mum, Paris Berelc as Matron, Isabel May as Amber, Finn Carr as Tom, Elias Harger as George, Mckenna Grace as Sally and Michael Champion as Robin.

4. The book is set in London, England.

5. If Tom lived next door to me, yes, I would be friends because he could introduce me to the other characters.

6. In my head, the setting looks exactly like London and I would definitely want to visit there.

7. The two new words I learnt were 'adversary' and 'pantomime'. Adversary means opponent or rival, and pantomime means faking, like in The Midnight Gang, Tom was pretending to sleep or be in a pantomime of sleep.

8. I think the author wrote this because he wanted kids to have a laugh and show them that, one day, your dreams will come true.

9. I chose this book myself, but sometimes other peoples choice of books do help me change vary my choices of books to read.
   

Rhythmical Dance Group

This week Lola and Rio started a rhythmical dance group with year 5 and 4 girls from Moana syndicate. Me and Ella are assistants. At morning tea and lunch they practice and practice, everyone loves it! They can do amazing back bends and flips, even I can't do that yet! They are very flexible and have clean moves. The song they dance to is, Levitating by Dua Lipa. 

We practice in the hall with the mats and outside the classes on the grass. I wish I could do dancing like they do! Have you ever been in a dance group?

Little Blue Penguins

 This term our inquiry is on the Little Blue Penguin. They are the smallest penguins in the world and are very cute. Since it is our inquiry topic, we have been doing it in most of workshops. In our writing workshop, we are doing poems about penguins turning into dragons. I really enjoy doing it even though we just started! 

Here is my first few sentences of my poem that I just started:

"I'm waddling to my nest where a fluffy stoat, with an orange coat is gobbling up my eggs. I feel myself burning inside, I'm really going to make him hide!"

I'm very happy with my start and can't wait to do more learning about the Little Blue Penguins!

Gymnastics

This term is the gymnastics festival. The festival is for everyone to give it a go and have fun, but it is optional. At first I wasn't going to do it as I had hurt my arm. But, just when the practices started, my arm had healed and it didn't hurt when I moved it. So I decided to join B grade gymnastics.

Although I am really happy that I can do it, I fell into the learning pit when I found out I had to do a backwards roll. I couldn't do a backwards roll yet, so I was a bit nervous. But I practiced and practised, until I got it.

I am really happy because I have never done gym before, and it is really fun in the practices. This morning we had a fifteen minute practice and I think that there is another one on Friday. I love the gym and hopefully we have more practices soon!

     

Kawa of care

On Tuesday we had half an hour to complete a Kawa of care poster. We were in pairs and I was with Dune.  I had missed out a bit as I was getting my arm X- Rayed. Me and Dune did the big think, solving problems on your chromebook. Here is our poster:

Year 6's Cooks Cove walk

As soon as I got to Cooks Cove I placed a huge smile on my face. It was my first time walking up Cooks Cove and I was really excited! It was really good practise for the year 6 camp. When everybody had arrived the year 6's took a seat on the wet and soggy ground. Koka Ngaire called out loudly the groups for walking. I was with Charlotte A, Oscar and Reef, I was happy with my group.

We lined up in single file and started walking up the maunga. At first there were heaps of steps, but then we were walking on flat ground again. Our first stop was The Beckon of Light, a really intricate and detailed statue. It had some sort of solar panels on the top, so when it was dark the statue lit up astonishingly. This part had a beautiful view. After we had a quick gulp of water, we headed back on the track.

Then after we passed the lookout, we walked on tracks, where you could hardly see light. After a few minutes we saw something amazing, it was a Morepork! It was so fluffy and cute, I loved it!

Very soon we were at the end of the walk. We had our morning tea and then all the groups went to have their photo taken by the hole in the wall. Then we walked back. I loved the walk and I can't wait for year 6 camp!

 Top: The Morepork.     Bottom: Me and my walking group.

Schools back!

 Schools back and it's already week 5!  I have the best teachers: Koka Rozie, Koka Ngaire and Koka Pip. These weeks have been so much fun! Our first day was on a Tuesday because Monday was Waitangi day. We have been walking our Pepeha, doing heaps of art and quickwrites. I even get to do year 6 surfing every Friday!

 On the second week of school, the whole school walked to Hamanatua stream as a part of our Pepeha. It was a beautiful day, so me and my friends played in the sand and had so much fun. We walked down the beach on the way back.

The next day Moana syndicate walked up our maunga, Maungaroa. We had morning tea and brain break up the maunga. Koka Rozie told us about the Ngati Oneone tribe that swam out behind Maungaroa to catch sharks for kai. The bravest people would cut a bit of their body just enough for blood to seep out. Then they would wade out and wait for the sharks to come and catch them. 

In week four we went to visit Te Poho o Rawiri Marae, but I was sick so sadly I didn't go. These things have been so much fun and I can't wait for more fun activities throughout the year.