Recount On Marae Trip

Here is my Recount about our trip to the Marae at Arahura.

This is a piece of writing that retells and evaluates (what you think) events or experiences.

Title A brief name for the experience or event.	Arahura Marae.
Orientation Tells when and where the event began and who was there.	Last week on Thursday the senior school went to the Arahura Marae. We left our school at 9:30am. We got split into groups and traveled in different cars to the Arahura Marae. When we arrived at the Arahura Marae I was surprised because when I had been to another Marae it was totally different. This marae was different because it was a different colour and it looked way more modern! In the morning I was feeling excited.
Sequence of events Tells the events in the order they happened. You need to have a minimum of 3-4 events. Remember one topic per paragraph.  Your paragraph should have an introductory sentence use a time sequence word/phrase and then detail.	Once we got to the Marae we left our bags in the car and walked around to the entrance and stood behind Miss Ireland while she did the karanga. Before Miss Ireland did the karanga two ladies from the Marae did their karanga, then it was Miss Ireland’s turn. She started walking forward while singing. Once we got close to the Marae Miss Ireland stopped singing  and the other two ladies  welcomed us inside. Before we got inside we had to take off our shoes then go inside. Once everyone was ready and inside the men did a whaikōrero then we sang waiata. After, the powhiri we had morning tea in the dining room. When we walked into the dining room it was all flash and food was lined up along the front of the room. There was lots of food and it was just morning tea. It was great! After, morning tea we went back into the wharenui and we said our mihi. When it was my turn I missed out my mum and dad because I was that nervous. When it was my turn I felt really nervous because it was my first time saying my mihi in front of lots of people and I felt even more nervous when I missed out my mum and dad!   After, the mihi we went to our cars and got our bags and put them in the wharenui. Once we put  our bags in the wharenui we grabbed our lunch boxes and had lunch out on the big deck. Halfway through our lunch one of the ladies from the Marae came with some pounamu to show everyone. There was lots of little and big pieces of pounamu. There was dark green and light green they were amazing! I thought that I needed to find some pieces like that as well! After, lunch we walked down to the river. Once we got there Miss Ireland had a little talk to us about how close you can get to the river! After the talk everyone ran off looking for pounamu! Four or five people found pounamu and they got to keep it. One person found a piece of rare pounamu called lettuce because the color looked like a lettuce color. Once I heard that you could keep the pounamu I got even more closer to looking at the pounamu but I didn’t find any and my friends didn’t either.   After, the river we crossed a little creak and went onto the beach. The sand was hot and soft. On the beach we picked up rubbish but there really wasn’t any rubbish so after we picked up rubbish we had to get into groups of five or four and build a Poutini taniwha. There was three winners but my group wasn’t one of them! But we had a fun time building a Poutini sculpture anyway. Our Poutini looked like a square at first but then we took down the back ones and added a tail and head. I found a good head that had paua shells as eyes. We also put a gate around it and a entrance made out of sticks and a mat made out of stones. Me and my team thought it looked really cool and we were glad that we worked together on it!     Once, we walked back from the beach we did some quiet activities. Me and my friends played uno. After the quiet activities, we had dinner. The people who did dinner gave us a lot of chicken and the bread was delicious and all the rest of the food made me feel like I could get used to it! Most of the girls gave half of their chicken to Katie-Rose because they couldn’t eat all of it. I also tried to steal some of Mackenzie’s bun but she came back. The dinner was great even though it was too big for me!   Once, we ate dinner we sat outside and roasted smores and sang waiata around the fire. I ate the biscuits first and then ate the marshmallow! Everyone started singing and it was great. Everyone sang good and the sound was great as well! Then we went to bed. All my friends and I couldn’t get to sleep and the boys across from us keeped on farting and making funny noises so we all were laughing. After awhile the lights went off and we all went to sleep. The whole senior school was sleeping in the wharenui so it was hard to sleep but we all got there at some point! In the morning I woke up early and all my friends were awake at the same time. When we woke up the birds were chirping. We started talking until we were allowed up. Then we got changed into our school clothes ready to go back to school. After, getting changed we did some activities inside. I did some drawing then some colouring. I coloured a taniwha mask. It was a traditional mask so it wasn’t that colourfull! but it still looked cool. After, some activities we had some breakfast. Breakfast was delicious and yummy. After, breakfast we got our bags ready to go into the car and played some more games outside. Then we did a special farewell where people said thank you and me and Sasha and Mackenzie said thank you for letting us stay in Maori.
Personal Comment/Ending Tells how the experience/event ended and some thoughts you may have about it.	I really enjoyed going on camp and it was really cool to go to a marae for camp and I would definitely go to another marae again.

Day And Night explanation

For reading we have been learning about space and our solar system.  We learnt about why we have day and night.  Here is my DLO (digital learning object) about why I think we have day and night.

Magic Box

This is a poem I wrote earlier this year. We were learning to use interesting language and use our imaginations. Hope you enjoy my poem.

Smart Cookie News - William Trubridge

This is our 2nd Smart Cookie news post we've taken on some advice and added more people to our news crew. We did this work all by ourselves and it is about William Trubridge who is a freediver. We did this work for our 'own choice' writing.

Trubridge Breaks World Freedive  Record

William Trubridge is a New Zealander who does freediving.  Freediving is when you dive down to a certain mark with no diving gear and you have to do it on one breath.  This sport is very hard and you have to train lots.  William Trubridge has broken 18 world records that were set by him. William Trubridge held the world record but he set a new record with a 102m dive. He held  his breath for, four minutes and 15 seconds. His family and support team were waiting to see if the record had been achieved.The dive location was held in Bahamas at a spot called the blue hole. This is where he broke the world record in freediving.

Click here for news update

My Taniwha, Writing

For the past few weeks we have been practicing using descriptive language in our writing. We have been trying to 'paint pictures with words.' We all got to invent our own taniwha. We all drew our own taniwha and then we had to write about it and describe what our taniwha looks like, what we do with our taniwha and what our taniwha is like. Then we read our work to a buddy and they had a go at drawing our taniwha.

Create and Describe Your Own Creature

(Nogard - taniwha)

WALT: be descriptive in our writing.  

Look at the description of a Nogard.  Now Create and describe your own creature that you will then be able to read to a buddy so that they can draw it.  Your description must be as detailed and clear as possible so that when you share it with others they will be able to visualise and draw you creature. Use lots of adjectives (describing words - big, small, round, green).

You must .....

• Have a name for your creature
• Start from the big things and work your way to the smaller things
• Describe the shapes
• Describe its neck, body, tail, wings etc.
• What does its head look like?Think about its eyes, nose, eyebrows, mouth, teeth
• Describe its legs/flippers/fins etc.
• What colours is it?
• Any extra details on the body like scales, spikes etc.
• Keep it simple and clear!
• Use correct punctuation and spelling.
• Check that your sentences make sense.

Remember that a good writer ‘paints’ pictures in their reader’s head with words.   This is what good descriptive writing does.  

Create your piece of writing here

By Grace

My Taniwha Moana.

Have you ever heard of a Taniwha? Well I have and it is called Moana. Moana is my Taniwha. Moana has a long neck like a loch ness monster's neck. Around my Taniwhas neck, there you will find a pounamu necklace that looks like some sort of manu. Moana has a shortish and roundish tummy which is also like a loch ness monster's tummy. My Taniwha has two great big dragon wings that are pointed  at the end. My Taniwha has a long tail but not too long and at the end of Moana’s tail there is a triangle. Moana has wha short legs and short feet. At the very end of Moana’s feet there are three claws. My Taniwha’s face is the same as a loch ness monsters face but on the face there are 6 sharp teeth and one round red nose at the very end of Moana’s face. On her face there is one short and a little bit round eye (which is white on the outside and red in the middle) and a little eyebrow. My Taniwha’s tail is white with light blue zig zags and a light blue triangle. Moana has a dark blue tummy, face and neck and the string around Moana’s neck is black and the green stone is light green. My Taniwha’s feet have zig zags that are light green and bright yellow. Moana’s teeth are bright yellow and Moana’s eyebrow is black. Moana’s wings are light blue with white  korus on them. My taniwha lives at Lake Brunner and we fly around Moana and I have lots of fun. We stop at my house and get food and dinner and eat it at Bain Bay and once we have eaten our dinner we soar through the sky and dive into the water. My Taniwha and I love water skiing. Moana stands on her back feet and holds onto the rope with her front feet and that's how Moana skis. Moana and I go to different lakes and ski plus swim. My Taniwha is awesome and protects my whanau!   

             This is the Drawing that Cullam did of my drawing                   This is the Taniwha I draw.

Peer Evaluation   Name of Peer:  Cullam.

What I think you did well: described your Taniwha well.

Self Evaluation:

What I think I did well: I think I did well at describing my taniwha.

What I could improve on:   Make the sentences make sense.  

Smart Cookie News, 1

Once a week we get a small amount of time to do our own writing projects that we chose. My friends and I have started a news group called Smart Cookie News. We chose a topic to write about and then we also create a news clip. Here is our first peace that we have made. We hope you enjoy.

Rio De Janeiro.  

Natalie Rooney wins silver at the Rio Olympics 2016, in Clay Bird Shooting.

Natallie is 28 years old and finished second overall in the Clay bird shooting semi finals.

Natalie sadly missed out getting into the New Zealand Olympic Team in 2012. However she then trained hard to get into the 2016 Olympics. She has been competing for ten years now.

There was a little bit of funding to help her. She said, “She's got a very supportive Dad that helps her  for funding and stuff like that.

Click here for Rooney News Update

My Mihi

   I made my mihi by using a google drawing and then wrote my mihi and added some pictures and then I did screencastify to record me saying my mihi. To make my mihi better next time I would make my google drawing look way better and I would also say the words a bit more clearer.  We were learning to pronounce the Maori words properly. It also lets other people know me more. We were also learning to introduce ourselves in Te Reo Maori.

First Post

Welcome