This Country is made up of 33 islands and only 20 of them are prohibited. What country am I thinking of? It’s Kiribati! This country is part of the Commonwealth and is part of the Central Pacific Ocean, home to the South Pacific marine life.

 

In Kiribati there are always gatherings or get-togethers every now and then where they would have their traditional food, dance, songs and many more around their culture. Their very favorite Palu Sami (a coconut cream-curry powder-taro leave-seaweed concoction) Though some tourists prefer to have pork or chicken with rice as it tastes more natural to them. Another big thing is dance and clothing. For clothing the ladies wear a skiffuly top named Te Tiibuta with a lavalava. The boys also just wear a lavalava but depending on the fashion taste they wear it up to their knees as well as girls and boys wear shell necklaces and headbands as accessories.

 

In 1501 – 1600 Spanish explorers sighted some of the islands in the 16th century, but hardly any islands of Kiribati were charted until the early 19th century, when first whalers and then coconut oil traders reached the islands. Then a few years later The United States finally recognised the republic of Kiribati on September 20, 1979 when both nations signed a friendship treaty. Soon later The Gilbert Islands, previously a British colony, had gained independence on July 12, 1979, under the name of Kiribati and they were all very releafed.

 

A very special part of their culture is food because they believe that food is a gift of gods and it should be treated with respect so as long as their belief is alive the food is always to nourish the body and support the head and eyes.

 

Other facts

Currency 

• Australian dollar is the official currency of Kiribati as well as banknotes and were issued in 1979

Other things 

• Famous for world class fly fishing, scuba diving and seabird wildlife
• Only one airline with service to the most famous of kiribati Christmas island (Kiritimati)

 

 

• Taneti Maamau – President

• Nooa Takooa – Famous for Track and field athlete

• Nooa Takooa is a sprinter, who internationally represents Kiribati. He participated in 2009 World Championships in Athletics and 2010 Summer Youth Olympics. He represented Kiribati at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London in the Men’s 100m event. Takooa was eliminated in the preliminary round but finished with a personal best time of 11.53. 

 

Native animals – Polynesian rats, dogs, cats, pigs, 75 bird species, 600–800 species of inshore and pelagic finfish, some 200 species of corals and about 1000 species of shellfish

 

Flag – 17 rays of the sun represent the 16 gilbert islands and Banaba

 

Language – Kiribati and English

• Known as Gilberteses

City/Capital city 

• Tarawa

Landmark/famous places

 

• 1. P2. Sacred Heart Cathedral

• Aranuka Island

Parliament Building

Have you done tessellation art before? Well today I will be telling you about my experience of doing it. First let me explain what tessellation/geometry art is. Tessellation is a shape or something that you duplicate on a piece of paper with no gaps or spaces. This term we have been practicing doing more art to display in our class while also using watercolors. Since tree plating was happening the same day as our art Wednesday, only a few people made this art but the next day everyone else made one. 

 

We all had a choice on what to do like making a fish with the help of a video or use some shapes to make our art. I wasn’t very interested in making an animal one so I decided to make one using hexagons and the steps were very simple. Firstly use the hexagon shape and trace around it on the whole page with no gaps or spaces. After everyone would finish tracing out their templates to create tessellation on the whole page we all went over the pencil in vivid to make it pop. The best part was watercolouring which was very fun and relaxing and ended up looking very cool once dried.`   

 

I think that this was very fun to do and also cool that we used math in art. I would definitely recommend doing this if you have the right material but if not you could try using something else. Someone’s artwork that I think was very cool is Chanel’s because she used the tesselation but she added her own cool touch which made it stand out more to me.

 

Equipment needed: 

• Paint brushes
• Water colors
• Newspaper and paper towels 
• Two cups of water
• Vivid or permanent marker
• Something u can use to trace around to use for the tessellation

Steps

• Trace the shapes
• Overliner with vivid
• Color with watercolors
• Let dry

Have you ever been to a swimming lesson for free with your class? Well I have and actually I just had my first lesson for the year on Wednesday. Most years we go swimming with our class but it’s our first time in a while since it was closed due to Covid – 19. Us Piwakawaka were put into groups and those groups were who we were going with on the bus and swimming with. Our swimming lessons were held at the Manurewa Leisure Centre and we had 3 very nice teachers named Lyall, Teegan and one other teacher but I never got to get her name. Schools across Auckland were getting swim classes for free for all students to learn how to swim or get better in case of a life living situation.

 

The next step after getting there and changing was to sit down on the edge of the pool in a nice line so that they can show us the proper way to get into the pool. As we get in, they tell us all the rules and get us to test our goggles by putting our face in and blowing our bubbles. After that we were all paired up and had to show them our freestyle swimming as well as our breathing. A few minutes after everyone showed off their great freestyle swimming we were all put into groups. Group 1, group 2 and group 3. I was put into group 2 but there were a lot of us so we did another freestyle so they can see who can actually be put into group 3 and lucky enough for me I was moved up to group 3 which I was very happy about. Another great thing about group 3 is that I was with Teegan, one of my favourite teachers.

 

Now was the fun part! Learning well is more like practising our swimming skills. The first swimming skill we practised on was swimming with one arm and our legs so that we can use it to rest our head on to catch our breath. Next skill was backstroke which I really enjoyed because it was very relaxing. I can’t entirely remember the other skills we did but I do remember the games we played. The first game was going to swim to get a dive stick but there’s a twist. We weren’t allowed to use our legs which I thought was very challenging but wasn’t even that hard. Next game was keeping the flutter board on our head without dropping it into the water. We were allowed to use any strategy but I didn’t know what to do until I realised that we were allowed to hold it and that made it so very easy.

 

Sadly it had been the end of swimming but I really enjoyed it. At first I had been really nervous because I was thinking what if I embarrass myself or do something wrong but I just had to give it a go and look where I am in group 3. I am very excited for next week because we might be doing some even more challenging things next week.

Do you have a fear of something? Well I do. 2015 I was only four years old when a traumatising thing happened to me which grew to a fear of… are you ready? RIVERS! 

 

I was four years old and went to a river with my older brother Jericho, my twin Xavier and my grandparents. When we went there my grandparents set down some rules if we wanted to stay. I was following the rules and having a fun time until I slipped into the river and fell over into the current of the river. I was terrified and panicking which made me get even more stuck under some rocks and started drowning. Xavier saw it happen first so he told my grandparents and then went to help me which didn’t turn out so well because he got stuck too. My grandparents came to help us and got us free and I was very thankful. 

 

When we went home my grandparents told my dad everything and how I was so scared that I never wanted to go again. He wanted to help me, so he took me to lakes that didn’t have as many rocks and kept going and going till I wasn’t scared. Another way I conquered my fear was honestly just looking at people swimming in rivers and lakes but also just letting me think about it also helped so now i’m not afraid anymore of swimming in rivers or lakes.

 

If you ever have a fear of something you should always tell your closest ones about it because they are always there for you and will be there to help you overcome your fear.