Two weeks ago the kahu hapori went to totara park to learn about the nature around us. To be able to learn about the environment we downloaded this app called seek. This app uses artificial intelligence to identify whatever plants you want. To use this app, find a plant that you can’t identify yourself, open up the seek app and click on the camera button. Show the item on the camera and it will identify the plant for you. The more dots there are to come out the more accurate the guess is. If it is unidentifiable it will not say anything unless you click the shutter button and it will tell you to try again. The plants that I scanned at totara were, dicotes, silver fern, rimu, and many more.

At totara park the classes were split into 2 groups so there would be less crowding

well we walked on the tracks. We ended up doing 2 walks around totara and these were both as interesting as each other, my legs weren’t happy though.

Last week we went to the botanical gardens. This trip was insanely fun as I was put into a group with my friends. The first thing we did was go on a walk around the area, well we were walking around and we got to learn about the water system that botanical gardens used. The next thing we did was a scavenger hunt, where you had to find plants within the alphabet/completing the alphabet, for e.g T – Tree. My partner Tayler and I almost finished but we didn’t have a few letters. Overall this trip was very fun.

Introduction

Have you ever heard about the Lord of the rings? The Hobbit? The Silmarillion? Even a Leaf by Niggle? If you’ve heard of any of those books then you had definitely heard of the great J.R.R Tolkien.

Growing up/early life

Tolkeins parents grew up in Birmingham but before Tolkien was born they immigrated to South Africa. J.R.R  was born in Bloemfontein an Afrikaans-speaking area of South Africa on the third of January 1892. Three years later Tolkien‘s brother was born in 1895 that same year him, his brother, and his mum moved back to Birmingham to be with their grandparents. They never saw their father again as he died of rheumatic fever 1896. The family settled at five Gracewell cottage now known as 264 Wake Green Road, a cottage in Sareholle Village. They moved several times throughout the next few years. Mabel converted to Catholicism in 1900 but some of the family disagreed and withdrew financial help for her and her kids. To save them money they enrolled in oratory school Saint Phillips. Mabel and her sister coach Tolkein and because of this he was able to win a scholarship to King Edward school to start in 1903. When he started attending the school, he got into the rugby team and was a member of the debating society. In 1904 Mabel developed diabetes and back then there was no treatment, so she ended up passing away that same year. She appointed a priest from oratory to the boys guardian. In December 1904 the brothers moved in with one of his uncles and aunties. January 1905 Hillary started at King Edwards and for the next few years they both lived at their aunt Beatrice‘s house. Beatrice was the widow of Mabel’s younger brother who also passed away in 1904. The kids moved to a lodge where Tolkien ended up meeting his wife Edith, they  would go out to cafes together and sometimes go on bike rides but Father Francis Morgan (The priest Mabel appointed) disapproved. They moved lodges again in 1910. At King Edward school he gained a scholarship to attend Exter college at Oxford University to study classics in Birmingham in 1911.

University

Tokien began studying Finnish and became a member of the College club after a while of being at university. Tolkien reached out to Edith on his 21st birthday and they ended up getting engaged. Soon after she gets accepted into the Catholic Church. Tolkien started writing his first ever identifiable middle-earth fragment ‘The Voyage of Èarendel the Evening Star’ and later on started writing ‘The Story of Kullervo’. J.R.R later revised the poem ‘The Horns of Ylmir’, writes ‘You and me and the Cottage of Lost Play’ and ‘kôr’. Tolkien ended up gaining a first honours degree.

After university

After university Tolkien wrote the poems ‘A Song of Aryador’, ‘Korition Among the Trees’, ‘Goblin feet’ which is published in Oxford poetry, and ‘Over Old Hills and Far Away’, featuring Tinfang Warble. 22nd of March 1916 Ronald and Edith got married before he had to go to fight in the army. During the war, Tolkien travelled to France on a boat, and on that boat he wrote ‘the lonely isle’ poem. In this war, Tolkien was a battalion signalling officer, but Tolkien got trench fever so he ended up having to go back to England. The next things he writes is ‘The Book of the Lost Tales’, The first version of ‘The Cottage of Lost Play’, ‘the Fall of Gondolin’ all before getting admitted to hospital, and in hospital he wrote ‘The Tail of Tinuvel, ‘The Grey Bridge of Tavrobel’, and a lexicon  and grammar of Gnomish language. He eventually gets to go home. 16th of November 1917 Tolkien’s oldest son was born, after that he started working on ‘The Tale of Turambar’. Tolkien was remitted to the hospital in July 1918 and got out in September. After getting out tolkien returns to Oxford and obtains employment with the new English Dictionary (Oxford English Dictionary). He began to write the first version of ‘The Music of the Ainur’. As well as working on the dictionary he was also a freelance tutor. During this time, he writes the early version of the ‘Changing of Melko’ ‘The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr’, ‘The Theft of Melko’ and ‘The Darkening of Valinor’. He began working as a reader in the English language at Leeds university before Michael, Tolkien’s second son was born on 22 October 1922. Weeks later his family moved up to join him in Leeds, and once they were all settled down, he started writing an alternative poetic version of ‘The Children of Húrin. Late August 1921 Toliken and E.V Gordon began their work on the addition of ‘Sir Gawin and the Green Knight’. Tolkien wrote the poem ‘The Nameless Land’ before he was appointed as a professor of English language at Leeds university. Christopher, Tolkien’s third son was born 21st of November 1925, before he started working on the alternative poem ‘The Flight of the Noldoli From Valinor’. 23rd of April 1925 Tolkien and E.V Gordon’s  edition of ‘Sir Gawin and the Green Knight’ is published by the Claredon press. The next pieces Tolkien wrote was the poem ‘Light as a Leaf on the Lindentree’, ‘The Lay of Leithian’, ‘Roverandon’, And he started a club called the Kolbítar Club where they would read and translate the Eddas and Sagas (literary works written in Iceland in the 13th and 14th centuries). The first known meeting of this club was on 11th of May 1926 where Tolkien meet Jeremy and they soon became friends. Autumn of 1926 was when Tolkien first lectured on the old English exodus. Tolkien’s next pieces are ‘The Sketch of Mythology’, the first version of ‘Farmer Giles of Ham’, a new glossary of the dialect of Huddersfield with Tolkiens’ forward, ‘Cantos IV-IX of the Lay of the Leithian’, and ‘Mr bliss’. 18th of June 1929. Tolkien’s only daughter and youngest child was born, she was named Priscilla. Tolkien composed a lot of the fall of Arthur in 1930.

The hobbit and lord of the rings

Summer 1930 Tolkien wrote the first line of ‘The Hobbit’ “In a hole in the ground. There lived a hobbit”. Late 1932. Tolkien lended the typescript of ‘The Hobbit’ with C.S Lewis which at this time ends with the death of Smaug, however 1936 Susan Dagnall read the unfinished manuscript of ‘The Hobbit’ and urged him to finish the narrative and it was accepted for publication. 21st of September 1937 ‘The hobbit’ was published and because of its success Stanley Unwin urged tolkien to write a sequel which he began. This was the start of ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Tolkien ended up and banning his work on the ‘Quenta Silmarillion’ to start working on “the new hobbit” in December 1937. August 1938 the narrative has reached the seventh chapter ‘The Hobbits Arrival and at the Prancing Pony’ 1940 Tolkien made a reason for Gandalf’s delay in reaching the bag end. 29th of July 1954 ‘The Fellowship of the Ring, Lord of the rings’ was finally published, on November 1954 ‘The Two Towers’ was published and finally 20 October 1955. ‘The Return of the King is’ published. 17 years later on 2 September Tolkien passed away from a stomach ulcer.

Conclusion

Tolkien was a great man who wrote many outstanding pieces and has definitely left a big legacy behind. He will always be remembered.

Excitement, joy, music, dance, food, those are all amazing qualities of the one day I will never forget also known as, polyfest.

I arrived at school at 8:15am, walking to the hall, I was freezing cold as I had no jacket because I was waiting for my leavers jersey to arrive. I got to the hall and sat outside with my friends as we waited to be let inside. Eventually Miss Rowland came out and my friends and I got to go inside first because we were waiting patiently. We looked at the papers that had been placed on the ground to try find our names. As I was trying to find my name I heard a quiet “Danae!”

I thought nothing of it and kept looking for my name. I ended up hearing it again and this time I looked up to see Kalilah waving at me to tell me that I am in her group, I walked over to her and sat down. We had to wait for everyone else to find their groups, in the meantime we just talked to each other. Finally everyone found their groups but we still had to do the roll and get talked to about the expectations and stuff. Eventually we got to the buses.

Kalilah and I got to sit together for the ride, we were bored at the start of it but we started having fun because we were waving to everyone. I think we got 5 people to wave back. Also during the ride the people sitting in the very back were playing rock paper scissors with a guy on a bus next to us.

At last we arrived at poly fest, everyone was raging with excitement. we stepped off the bus to go to the check in, every school went through the same check in so as you can imagine the line went out to the road, but that didn’t matter because we still got through quickly. A lady walking pass said that we had to empty our drink bottles if we had any water in it. Me being the scared person I am I thought that if I didn’t do it I would get told off or something so I emptied my bottle. I was almost was on the verge of tears emptying it because my water was so cold and had so much ice. as I was doing it I noticed that no one else except for a few people was emptying it. I was confused but kept going on until I reached the check in. I opened up my bag and all the check in guy did was take a glance at it and then told me I was all good, I don’t know if there is a rule or something where you can’t touch the bag unless you’re suspicious because that happens all the time but still I could of been carrying something bad and you he wouldn’t know because all he did was have a little glance. That wasn’t the main reason I was not happy though, it was the fact i tipped out my perfect cold drink when I probably didn’t even need to, it was ok though because there were water fountains.

Once everyone made it to the stage we all sat down, but we still had to wait for the other schools. Eventually every school got there, so the host started talking. She talked about how many schools there are, what’s going to happen and stuff like that. All the schools had been split up into groups, there was a Tonga group, a Samoa group, and the group my school was in Niue. The groups split up and we started on the tour. Basically we just walked around the shops near the stage, I was a bit sad because we weren’t allowed to buy anything and the food stalls smelled so good. Once that had finished we came back to the stage to get ready to head off to the next stage.

The next stage we went to was the diversity stage. The dances I saw were so cool, I got to see Philippines dancing, Chinese dancing, Punjabi dancing, Vietnamese dancing, and Bollywood dancing. The dances were so amazing to watch and I was so shocked that the people dancing were only high school students, and some dances were choreographed only by the students as well. In one of the dances we got to see 2 former garden school students dance as well, one of them even gave a shout out to us at the end of the dance.

The last stage we went to was the Māori stage. The schools got to sit up in the stands which originally I thought was cool but we couldn’t really hear anything, it was okay though because the Kapa Haka itself was so great to watch.

Eventually we returned to the first stage to meet back up with the schools, they got some polyfest sponsors to talk about what they do. The host also did a few fun challenges before everyone left as well. Sadly we got back on the bus to go back to school. I will forever miss that day at polyfest.

Fur white as snow,

Cheeks have a very pink glow.

Tail fluffy as ever,

don’t think it’s very clever.

The thing walks on stage 

after being let out of its cage.

Everyone is confused,

“Where is the magician and who are you”

“Hello, Hello,” said the bunny

“I really am just as funny,

You will see” 

Everyone else disagrees

The bunny jumped and twirled,

Bumped and whirled,

Pulled coins from behind people’s ears,

People thought this was the best thing they’d seen in years.

The bunny disappeared and then reappeared in different spot,

Then changed people’s shirts around without getting caught.

The bunny made chairs float,

Changed coats,

Then brought a boat.

“Oh bunny Oh bunny you’re so cool,

Oh would you Oh would you give me a pool”

The bunny huffed and puffed with an angry face,

“Oh didn’t you, oh didn’t you think I was a big disgrace”

“Oh bunny we are all so sorry 

Would you please accept this apology as we have given you all this glory.”

The bunny yelled NO,

Then took the cash,

And ran off in a dash.

I woke up at 6:45 on a Tuesday morning to beep beep, surprise, surprise it was my alarm. Every morning I hear that and it’s so loud and obnoxious, also my family is all asleep so the second I hear that I turn over quickly and hover my hand over the ground to try find my phone, keep in mind that I just woke up so my vision is so blurry so I can’t see anything. Once I manage to find my phone I have I click stop and go on my phone. I went on it for a minute then got up straight away. I was super tired and did not want to get changed or do anything, because I was not used to being up this early. Eventually I got ready, packed my lunch, unloaded the dishwasher, put my shoes on and was out the door. The whole car ride to school all I could talk about was the fact that today was my last first day of Primary School. I was a bit sad because I have been at the Gardens School ever since I was 5 and I’m 12 so that’s more than half my life.  

I arrived at school and walked up to the hall and sat down in the lines. I was trying to look for my friends and I eventually saw Georgia, Tayler, Rosery, and Pearl. It was exciting to see all the new teachers and what teachers were moved where and if there were any new kids etc. the teachers took us outside and read out the classes, I was really hoping I would be put with my friends, and I was put with Chelsea and Rosery so I was happy. I got to class then we started labelling our stationary and books, when I was labelling my pens it was so wonky. After that we went to morning tea. I ate my food then played volleyball with my friends. 

The bell went again and we went to go sit in Tamika. Miss Kelly explained the wataka and what the stuff meant. We walked back to our home space and started doing our wataka. After that we did our job applications,Miss Smith gave us these fake newsletters with all the jobs on it, it looked so cool. I ended up applying for hospice ambassador and pta ambassador. We went to lunch and my friends and I played volleyball again.

We came inside to have a hui, I can’t really remember what we talked about. Then we went to house games. I really enjoyed my first day of school and I am super sad that it was my last first day.

Oh what a starry night,
the sun had sunk below the horizon and
the day was over,
You sat outside glancing at the night sky.
The breeze blowing through your hair,
you had so much work to do but you just didn’t care.

Oh what a starry night,
the moon was burning bright,
the stars looked so delight,
oh what a wonderful sight. 

a shooting star cut across the sky,
blazing bright it caught your eye.
Upon that star lay a million and one wishes waiting to become true,
you added to that making it a million and 2.
Oh what a starry night.

Think of a school rule or local law that you don’t like. Write to convince the person in charge.

pe gear wearing it to school and back. Think about it if kids are aloud to wear or gear to school it will most likely bump up the chances of kids being in there pe gear for pe and I know I know it’s our responsibility to get changed at school but still, it would make everyones life easier. Remember that one week when the outside toilets where broken so kids where aloud to wear pe gear to school and back. That was the easiest week of school in my whole life. Everyone in my class had there pe gear on.

“Have a great day today” my mum says while I get out of the car.
“You too bye”.
walking into school there is no one to be seen. There are cars but no people? I thought nothing of it and kept walking. I got to the bag huts and there are bags on the hooks, I looked around and there’s a moldy chapstick in the corner and a banana in the other. After I put my bag on a hook I walked to the door and it was locked? Well walking to the other door I heard the slightest creek. The door was open? walking back up to the door I feel a gut feeling telling me not to go inside but I did anyways. There’s no one there. walking around the whole school and still no people. I opened up my iPad and tried calling my mum but there was no service. I was scare- ”squeak squeak” coming from the corner of the room. following the sound I find a dying rat squeaking like crazy. I grabbed a book I found on the ground and started hitting it and killed it, I was too agitated to be listening to that. I’m crying hysterically. I go to every exit to get out but they’re all locked. Being trapped I gave up, I sat down sobbing. Then a monster jumped out and bit me in the neck and ripped all my hair off but then I woke up.

Blake is an organisation that is inspired by Sir Peter Blake to carry on his legacy after being killed by pirates. The organisation was made by his wife Pippa Blake and they have been carrying on his legacy for over 20 years.

I went down into the hall and there were 2 women. There were a bunch of VR headsets on the ground. The ladies introduced themselves, one was named Grace and the other girl’s name was Alice. Grace explained to us what was happening and then we got to turn on the headset and put it on.

Grace was setting everything up so it was just random fish on the VR. Eventually we started, Grace played some random videos so we could get the hang of it. After that she taught us about seaweed and how the more seaweed the healthier it is. Grace showed us 2 different beaches, 1 was a marine reserved and 1 was a normal one. The marine reserve was clean, healthy, clear/blue, a bunch of fish and tons of seaweed. The normal beach had a bunch of kina, no seaweed, it wasn’t clear and there were bits of rubbish floating around.

We talked about what we saw and what we can do to prevent it. If you don’t know kina eat seaweed so to prevent the seaweed to get eaten the salmon and lobsters eat the kina but the problem is people catch the salmon and the lobster so now there is no salmon or lobster to eat the kina. People came up with the idea of limiting the amount of fish you can catch but there is already limited fish you can catch. We didn’t really come up with any conclusions because the next group came so we had to go.