A Trip To Kori Purakau Workshop

This morning the whole school of Saint Patrick’s went on a trip to Kori Purakau workshop to do some dancing and other fun stuff.

When we arrived we all felt a little tingle of joy when we stepped inside, and our amazing instructors Maddy, Rachel, Andre and jorsey  took us outside and introduced us to a 50,000 year old poe called “Matakerepo”. It had strange faces up on the poe and lizards and birds. I heard that alot of people were helping others build that. Up on the statue was a powerful man named Kupe and there was a purple face and her name is Tawhiti, she is blind and has something on her forehead and she uses that to see and think. After we invested the Poe we went inside the four wind theatre and our dance teachers introduced us with a prayer that included movements that we had to copy and we did a great job. After their beautiful prayer we were introduced with a little drama play and I liked it very much. We had to create a little dance with a dance teacher but first we had to copy and walk like a bird. We lined up and one teacher said a bird and we had to walk like that bird. The teacher said in a circle, we had so much fun. Finally got picked by teachers to be in their team to create a dance. I was in Andre’s team. When they were finished picking we started making our dance. First we were together in a group and had to wiggle our hands in the air and crouch to make a little wave and we had to walk like a grandpa and get in a little line and create a waka. Someone had to be in the front with their hands together pointing upwards to create the front of the waka and someone at the back facing the opposite direction and doing the same thing. After the waka we had to do our favourite poses and I just folded my arms together. When we were done we performed it in front of everyone. I loved everyone’s performance, but now it was our turn. When we went on the stage we started with a countdown, 3, 2 ,1 and we started off with a wave, did our grandpa walk, made a waka and did our favourite poses and that was it. I was so confident.I thought our one was great. After our performance we sat down and one of my classmates stood up and said thank you to our dance teachers for offering us to be here with them.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi is a wealthy Italian who abandoned a life of luxury to embrace poverty and nature.He founded the Franciscan friars, dedicated to preaching and helping the poor. Known as the patron saint of animals.Saint Francis of Assisi’s dad was a wealthy and successful silk and cloth merchant,he was a prominent member of the rising middle class, travelling to trade with other people and expecting his son to follow his steps. In saint Frances of Assisi’s 20’s he was in a battle against perugia and was taken to jail for almost a year which sparked his disappointment with his formal life.

Memories of 2025

last year when I was leaving room 6  I was feeling a bit Confident and ready for Mr Bell’s class. Iv’e been waiting for a long time to be included into Mr Bell’s class.

In term 1 Room 7 and I were doing some passion projects about anime and manga which Mr Bell showed and told us about. I love watching anime and finding facts about some characters. The characters are so powerful and good looking. We watched some anime Shows that were so cool I had to watch them again. Everyone in the class started talking about the Anime show ever since we finished watching it.

In term 2 we did some amazing passion projects about some New Zealand singers because it was New Zealand music month, we  researched about some New Zealand artists and got amazing facts. There were too many amazing artists to research about so I just picked the artist that I knew the best and it was Stan Walker. I didn’t know he had so many facts about him, I didn’t know he had so many facts about him so that helped me alot.

In term 3 we had an amazing time because we had swimming lessons, we had swimming lessons for two weeks and, while we were swimming our teachers were taking videos of how much progress we made on our second to last test and on the last test we had to race other people from the start to the end which was 20 meter’sh, but I just stayed calm and floated on my back and turned to my belly and free styled.

My favourite things about being in room 7 is working together as a family, sticking together, saying sorry to each other and even helping each other clean up and that’s the most important thing we did this year in room 7. I am grateful to be in this class and communicating with others. To be honest it was mostly my teacher (Mr Bell) that got us together as a family, so I thank him. I hope I could have a teacher and classmates like my friends in room 7 in the future.

I hope that next year that I could focus on things that are important to me, I Hope I could do some stuff I haven’t been able to do. I hope I could learn more stuff from my friends, teachers or some other kids that are in my school, i’m just grateful that I am making more friends at this school and learning alot about them and I can teach  them more about me .

 

 

 

 

Dragon ball fan-fiction

For the past 2 weeks room 7 and I have been making fan-fiction for dragon ball. Our teacher (Mr Bell) told us to be in groups but he allowed me and my friends to work in four’s. He told us to write a made up story for our fan-fiction. My friends and my friends finished our writing in two and a half weeks. When we were done our teacher told us to make a screen casting of us reading it.The easiest was working together as a team and the hardest was thinking of characters.

What is Foreshadowing?

Last week and this room 7 and I have been learning about Foreshadowing, fore shadowing is when authors give clues for you to figure while reading a book or watching a movie or show.

 

Foreshadowing is when the author gives hint for you to figure out like something in a movie or in a story book. We were doing a little bit of foreshadowing while watching Dragon Ball . We were at a party where Goku was getting smashed by Tao. We all thought that Goku was going to win but he tried doing the Kamehameha wave but that just ruined Tao’s clothes. When Tao tried his signature move he sent Goku flying and Goku hit a wall and blacked out.

 

Foreshadowing makes a story or movie better because it could be useful for bets and for fun. Some don’t like it because they think it’s spoiling the stories or movies and if it does happen they won’t be surprised.I even think it’s a little spoiling for others because it won’t be fun if someone says what happens in the story because they won’ t be surprised.

 

We got to this part when Goku woke up and he was hungry. He saw Korin’s tower and said he was going to climb it so he can drink some magic water so he can be stronger. That’s when we did some foreshadowing. We thought he wont make it up because only 1 person has made it up to the top of Korin’s tower. It was getting dark and he was tired. We did some more foreshadowing that he was going to sleep and he did go to sleep.

Guy Fawkes day!

This morning room 7 and I have been learning about someone named Guy Fawkes. We decided to learn about him because it is November the 5th Guy Fawkes day. One day there was a king of England and Scotland, there were lots of fight between England and Scotland because one country was no catholic and one was. everyone hated the king for not stopping the fights until one man named Guy Fawkes wanted to put gun powder under his royal chair and light it up when he sits down. About 30 minutes later the guards found it and sent Guy Fawkes to prison to get executed.

Tonga and the British

Today I was researching Tonga’s and the British company together.

I think the people in Tonga want to be like the British people because the British was protecting them while the world war was happening so they had some British people hanging out with them and some British showed them what they had like toys, toothbrushes, food and fuel canisters. They think the British were cool those day because they didn’t have anything, they only had sticks, flax and the traditional cloth they wear till this day. They’ve been under British protection for 70 years, so the Tongans respect the British so much. Tongans respect the British so much they want to be like them, some people didn’t like them because they thought they were show offs and they wanted to be the cool ones.I wonder how the British even communicated with them.

     

Swimming Lessons

For the last two weeks our school has been going to swimming lessons. The little kids went together and Room 6, 7 and 8 were split in two boys and girls. The little kids went first after morning tea, at 12:45 we went on a bus and we went to the pools for swimming lessons. When we arrived at the pools we were put in order. The people who were new to swimming went into the learners, the people who knew a little bit about swimming had to  go to advanced and the people who knew a lot about swimming had to go in experienced. I was in advance because I was on some swimming journeys.

 

When we were about to go into the pool the instructors told us to sit on the edge of the pool and twist our body while we were going into the pool. We went into the pool and our instructor (Kerry) told us to dunk our heads into the water. When we put our head up Kerry gave us little blue boards to support us when we were swimming. Kerry told us to first put our hands on the tip of the board and leave our heads up out of the water. She told us to kick our legs as fast as we can while we are floating on the water.I was the first one to go and I did exactly what Kerry said. The faster I kick my legs the faster I go. I made it to the other end of the pool and I was happy, my friends completed the lesson too.Kerry told us to go back to the other end and We all passed the lesson. When we got to the end Kerry told us to go back to the other end again but we had to do it with no board, she told us that we can freestyle and said we could also do the thing we did but without a board. I chose to freestyle, I went first and I started to freestyle all the way to the end. I needed some air so I popped my head up and cached a breath the dived right back to the water. I didn’t realise I was at the other end and bumped my head.I was laughing but my head was hurting a little bit but I let the pain go.

 

When my friends go to me I tapped their heads to tell them that they finished and not bump their heads. We went back to the other end of the pool and I free styled and floated on my back when I was at the half way flag  then I put my hand In front of my head so I didn’t bump my head into the wall. When my friends got to the other end Kerry told us to float on our back for 3 minutes. I closed my eyes, put my belly up above the water, then I spread my arms so I could float. 1 minute passed and we completed the challenge. After that Kerry told us to swim and do any swimming style to reach the other end of the pool but we couldn’t touch the floor. I just free styled and then flipped over to my back then floated all the way to the end, but for fun I swam back. Kerry was impressed with us so she told us to get out of the pool and fold our hands on our shoulders then step in the pool like a stick then float on our backs. I was first in the line so I had to go first. I wasn’t sure what to do so I just did the  instructions Kerry told me and I completed it. I floated on my back then swam to the halfway flag.My other friends tried it and some made a mistake but it was OK because it was our first time doing it.

 

For our last lessons we were being tested. Someone had to go and the other person had to try to chase after the person that just went. I was 2nd and I had to chase after and my friend had to try and swim away from me. When Kerry told me to go I pushed my feet away from the wall and zoomed to my friend. I was so close to my friend but he got away.I was went first and my friend had to try and chase me. I zoomed away fast and then I was half way before my friend even went. My friend almost cached up to me but he started to get slower and slower I had my chance and I touched the wall to finish. I touch the wall and I won.

 

That was the end of our swimming session. I wish I could come back next year. CLM Round the Bays was where we did our swimming lessons. Thank you CLM Round the Bays for letting our school have swimming lessons at your pools.

 

Posting a comment.

Today I watched a video of instructions on how we can post empowering comments. She said to copy a slide she has made then compare words that are Maori and English. I slid down to the other slides and then I copied the slides of what they told me to do. They told me to go on the Manaiakalani network blogging then click on a random blog. To post a comment I had to slide down and press on a box to write a positive comment. The hard part was figuring out the Descriptive Maori words. The easy part was making a empowering comment.

Why we should NOT WASTE WATER!

Today my teacher (Mr bell) told us to get in groups of two or three to make a video about us telling others to save water. We went on a slide and we inserted paragraphs of what we were going to say in the video. We had to record on the slide. When we finished our paragraphs we made a short video and uploaded to our blogs. The hard part was finding out ideas of what we would say to convince everyone to save water. The easy part was making the video and saying the words.