Our Local Taiao

Kaitiakitanga, what is it? Why is it relevant? Well kaitiakitanga is our school’s theme for this semester. What does that even mean? Well kaitiakitanga means guardians, guardians of what? Guardianship over the sea, the land and the sky. A kaitiaki is short for kaitiakitanga which will be used a lot more. Meaning that we will try our best as a school, a community to practise and look after our environment now. What does this have to do with going to Tōtara Park and Botanical Gardens? As much as we love going to Tōtara Park, often at school we normally do not take our devices, however for Botanical Gardens it’s much longer and further.

Our Tōtara Park Visit

As much as Kāhu students love to visit their taiao every once in a while, unfortunately there are usually not enough teachers as its 6 teachers against around 150 students. So whenever we do go it’s always a blast! However this time around the teachers sent out permission slips, as well as asking the parents if they are available to help out as again the ratio is absolutely crazy and wild when the whole of Kāhu is combined. When we arrived in Tōtara Park the teachers sat us down and explained what we were gonna be doing. We ended up splitting up into two groups, one going to the trail walk and another going to another one. The first walk my group did (Kāhu 1, Kāhu 2, Kāhu 4) was terribly muddy which everyone tried avoiding at all costs as no one really brought spare shoes. As we walked we took pictures of our surroundings with an app that will be explained soon.

At the end of our class’s trail it began to rain a tiny bit, so we had to go under some trees. As soon as we got back to the meeting place everyone ran to the trees, because not many people remembered to bring rain jackets. We sat under the tree benches for a while, and ate our lunches. Soon enough we had to go to our next trail, the trail we headed to wasn’t as muddy as the other trail, having a lot of students relieved. As we walked we saw a lot of different new plants, new leafs and new trees. I saw tons of people holding out their devices taking photos every time they saw something. Finally we finished the trail, the teachers allowed us to go on the playground since we had time to spare. When the other group/classes arrived we had to pack up and start doing the roll. Sadly it started raining and there was only a tiny bit of shade fit for a maximum fit for 10 people (there were over 100 Kāhu students). Once we finished the role we headed back to school.

Our Botanical Gardens Trip

We started off our trip at school, doing the role and getting put into our home Whanaus. We grabbed our bags and headed to the hall, once the whole hapori arrived the teachers said that while we were walking we could not get in the way of other people and that if we saw someone we would have to move to the side. Then we started heading out Home Whanau by Home Whanau (1 through 6). The walk to the Botanical Gardens took just under 20 minutes. As soon as we arrived at the Botanical Gardens we sat on the grass and Miss Rowland started talking about what we were doing. What were we doing you may ask? Well we were split into groups of 10 with around 10 adults. Some groups were looking at the waterways (aka the puhinui stream) and the others would go on a scavenger hunt in alphabetical order. Then all we had to do was wait for our names to get called out. 

As everyone’s names got called out every time there would be a new group announced Miss Rowland would introduce the adult that would be leading the group through Botanical Gardens. My group’s teacher was Mrs Fowler. When all the groups were gathered in their own groups we were told what we were doing first and what we would be doing second. My group was doing the scavenger hunt first in alphabetical order, my group was really elated. The first place we went to was the edible garden where we used our seek app to identify which is what, and whether we had gotten the letters we needed. However during that time my camera just would not focus so I didn’t get many photos. The second place we went to was I’m guessing the flower garden, there were many different kinds of flowers just waiting to be photographed.

Throughout the first session we visited many gardens taking photos as we went through. At one point we reached the potter kid garden, as we were looking at the pond to try spot any tadpoles. However just a few minutes later a worker came up to Mrs Fowler and asked her to leave as there were little kids and they were a little sceptical of us big kids maybe being able to push the kids into the ponds as it was a health and safety hazard so we sadly got kicked out. By the time we went back to the grass we already had to start eating lunch and wait for others to return. Once everyone was finished eating, playing and waiting we finally headed off now my group was headed to where the puhinui stream was. We did a brief walk with Mrs Fowler and we stopped by a random path and started talking about our waterways and what a difference our plastic we throw on the floor does to our water. Finally we headed back to the grass, did the roll and started to head back to our school.

The Seek App

As much as I have been talking about our amazing trips I have briefly mentioned the seek app. However it was not explained very well. The seek app was mainly made for children so it was just fit for us. Seek allows you to well seek for new species of any kind of nature, insects and flowers just by taking a simple photo. Once you take a photo it may or may not tell you exactly what kind of tree/flower/insect it is. How does that work? Well seek uses artificial intelligence to identify what kind of species of insects/trees/flowers are.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, I think the trips were quite similar, however one was very muddy and one was more like a nice stroll in the park. However there were a lot more different kinds of species of trees in totara than there was in Botanical Gardens, but in Botanical Gardens there were vegetables and flowers and it was much less mud and nicer to stroll. In Tōtara Park it was quite a lot of walking and wasn’t as enjoyable and clean as Botanical Gardens, not to mention the bathrooms in totara were in one place, but in Botanical Gardens there were many toilets evenly spread out.

Introduction: 

Have you ever wondered what the author of The Hobbit did before becoming an author? Why did he create The Hobbit, and how did he think about The Hobbit before he released it to the world. Now when was this amazing writer born? JR.R was born on the 3rd of January in 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

His early life

When JR.R was a young child he enjoyed using his time to draw landscapes and trees, and any kind of nature that was easy to draw. Although his favourite lessons were those concerning languages, his mother taught him the rudiments of Latin very early. JR.R read by the age of four and could write fluently soon afterwards. His mother was proud of him allowing him to read many books growing up.

What he experienced/enjoyed growing up

JR.R had a hobby growing up and now might be seen as a geeky trait of his, his hobby was creating new languages. However sadly JR.R was only 3 years old when his father died in February. Artiger Tolkien had become a bank manager in South Africa. In 1895, when JR.R was 3, his mother brought him and his little brother Hilary back to visit their grandparents at Ashfield Road, Kings Health, Birmingham. They never saw their father (Arthur Tolkien) again, he died of typhoid fever.

His family

Meanwhile after they returned to England as after JR.R Tolkien’s dad’s death as it’s been said. Not long after JR.R’s mother Mabel soon fell ill as well, dying of diabetes in 1904 when she was only 34 years old. JR.R was only 12 leaving a 9 year difference apart from both his parents dying. However before his parents had passed away JR.R had a brother, a younger one, Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien he was born on February 17 1894 only a 2 year gap from JR.R who was born in 1892. Not long after they were taken to foster care where they would wait for a while.

JR.R’s school life

JR.R attended King Edward’s school where he obtained a scholarship to attend Exeter College, at Oxford University, to study classics. JR.R left Birmingham for Oxford in October 1911. JR.R had a simple home life in Oxford with his wife who he married on 22 March 1916 on Wednesday at St.Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church where John Ronald Reuak Tolkien married Edith Mary Bratt. Not to mention Tolkien had 4 children named Christopher Tolkien, John Francis Reuel Tolkien, Priscilla Reuel Tolkien and Michael Tolkien.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is an amazing author that inspires people day by day with the movement and publicity that he got while he was still alive. His children miss him dearly as well as his company.

It was high noon (no seriously it was) I was playing monopoly with my brother a very old version but still playable, we had totally forgot how to play, so we were fighting over the instructions sadly my brother got it(older sibling advantages), anyway besides the point our mother told us we couldn’t be on our devices the whole day so we decided the only fun thing to do with our time was play monopoly (not sure what it’s called but I’m just gonna call it by monopoly because it was). So we opened the dusty box and the game board was all wrinkly (I rubbed the dust on his hand, I’m really salty), my brother set up the board and started reading the instructions which sounded like complete gibberish. Anyway once he finished reading the instructions I quickly snatched the instructions away from him before he made it even more confusing. By the time I was done reading the instructions he had already set the board we knew the basic instructions of monopoly so we got used to it once we started playing, fast forward like 2 hours and me and my brother was still playing monopoly at this point we were both broke and kept paying each other the smallest amount and our board had like New Zealand landmarks and you know if you own some of them and a player lands on your property you have to pay them you know like the basics. Well that fateful day my brother landed on a property that I invested my whole monopoly currency in and kept telling me that it was a ‘bad idea’ and I kept telling him that one day he would land on it and he would need to sell half of his property just to even pay for my rent, but he ended up getting annoyed and got bankrupt I had officially won (younger siblings always win).

Another time when my brother was being annoying was during the holidays when we were eating dinner (we take ages to eat). We usually talk during dinner and I was trying to explain to him this game I played with my friends. My brother is the kind of person who would question if spring water from the supermarket is actually spring water from the springs, and yes this is what we argued about for that dinner. You know those countdown papers with their deals and stuff yea. We got the paper and questioned each other if we would buy that and drink/eat/use that there was spring water and so I told him I wanted the spring water then he questioned me saying why do you need spring water when we have water at home, and I said that it’s just water but a little bit more fancier and he said that it was a waste of money. Then I said I would have a different item then so I chose chicken (because chicken is good) and I got sidetracked, anyway as I was saying before I was explained this game I played with my friends that day and it was called the marshmallow game where you say 1 marshmallow then check-it out then woo! Then after woo it goes 2 marshmallow then the next person as well says 2 marshmallow and so on saying things twice, once you get to 3 marshmallow you say things three times and then 4 and then 5 and so on. Anyway, as I was saying, my brother asked why we needed to use the word marshmallow, check-it out and woo, I said I had no idea but it was just how the game went. He then questions me and when it is said I wanted to practise instead of using marshmallow or check-it out or even woo he used a, b and c, but by the time I was gonna question why he finished dinner and trotted away (I think I won??). 

Sarah got woken up by the sounds of the swishing leaves. In fact it was so windy she could almost feel that if she stood up she would instantly flown down back onto her bed, obviously that wouldn’t happen but she just felt so cold.Then her alarm went off causing her to get up and press the off button, she felt so tired but then in realisation she ran out of bed and went to get ready because that day was a special day it was when her family and her other relatives came together for a matariki celebration, she remembered how much fun it was when her cousins and her played on the swings for hours on end pushing each other and making them unable to laugh anymore. She could already tell this year’s was going to be even better than any of the previous years that her family had hosted.

As Sarah was imagining tons of things that were unimaginable and was probably impossible her mother called her down telling her to eat breakfast or she would starve and not have enough energy to talk to her cousins. Sarah quickly rushed down as soon as possible and quickly ate up her toast then she had to go to school sadly. Sarah knew that her education was important so she just hoped the day would end quickly as she walked to school. She still was daydreaming about all the fun she would have later that day. Her day went super quickly and it felt like time flew by so quickly! By the time she had come home her mother was already panicking about food and how everyone was gonna fit around the table, quickly Sarah rushed to her mother to try to help her out preparing the vegetables and trying to help her mother as best of her as possible.

Once they were all done they felt relieved but quickly the stress wasn’t over yet they still needed to cook the actual food. They quickly rushed over to the kitchen and started cooking the food. Then Sarah’s father came back, Jake, Jake came over and asked if he could help with anything. Sarah and her mother were already doing the best they could but they remembered something suddenly and they started to tell Jake to go to the dining room and the whole house and make it look nice. Jake quickly ran over to the dining room and started to work away as he would always. Then the doorbell rang…

Everyone turned around to the door and when they slowly opened it, it was their first guest! But they were only 2 hours early. As Jake and Jill opened they were surprised that their aunt, Mia, had already come (the same aunt that was almost sued). They greeted Mia and offered that she watch tv for the time being, Mia happily accepted the offer and she began to watch her favourite movie miraculous! Jake started blowing up balloons and put them around the house then set the table finally, Sarah and Jill were finally done cooking they quickly put it on the table and waited for people to come. When Sarah’s cousins got there Sarah went away for the door and went to go play with her cousins. Later when all Sarah’s relatives arrived her mother called for everyone to eat! So everyone went around the table and started to grab things like a homemade buffet. When Sarah finished eating she went to throw her plate in the bin (it was a paper one). Sarah then hurried her cousins to hurry up so they could play again.

Then there was tons of desert. There were all sorts of things: ice cream, jelly, APPLE PIE, chocolate. It was just so delicious looking! Sarah decided to grab one of everything. She tried to eat everything at once but it was just impossible. Once everyone finished eating everyone started to talk to each other for about 2 hours but they all realised it was getting really late and everyone started to leave. After everyone left Jill, Jake and Sarah had to start cleaning up but it was hard so they decided to clean up 75% and leave it for tomorrow.

The first thing that comes to mind when I wake up in the morning is school. Then I snap out of what dream I was in even if it was the best dream in the world, I get up, brush my teeth and change into my school uniform. I then go wake up my mum and go downstairs to have breakfast. After I have my breakfast my mum has probably gotten ready to walk to school. Sometimes if it’s pouring cats and dogs my mum would drive me to school. Then once I have walked to school I go to the baghuts to put away my bag. Then I go inside and greet Mrs Dobson. I then go to class and sit on the floor or the couch or the little circle things (that’s gonna be the official term of the chair). I then do the role with the teacher, and when she sends us off I went to go get my stuff for my labs.

The first lab I had was SDL (well it isn’t really a lab but it counts as a block) In that block we had 45 minutes to do our SDL tasks. After that 45 minutes we went to our maths lab with Mrs Barrowman! We learnt about stem and leaf graphs, although it was educational it was also somewhat boring. Then it was morning tea, where we ate and talked to our friends. Then after morning tea we had literacy whanau, where we practised our play. For example I was the narrator so I had to practise my lines, the only downside was that it was the whole block, and a bit of the next block. Then that was the end of the day. I then walked home and had lunch.

The Gardens School is a School that helps students learn in unique ways. Sometimes they let hapori’s perform items like songs, painting shows and much more. Recently the teams Kiwi and Kākāpō set an amazing assembly for the whole school to watch. You might be wondering who is this Kiwi and Kākāpō people or are they birds? Well the school named the year 1s as Kiwi’s and for the year 2s they are called Kākāpō, the Kiwi and Kākāpō are on the same floor so they included the Kākāpōs with the Kiwi’s.

While I was watching the Kiwis and Kākāpō’s assembly they suddenly started dancing to the coconut song p, and there I knew that was the highlight of the assembly that had just brought me to my childhood as a year 1. I recognised my buddy from buddy reading and buddy maths. She was doing the Haka and I watched her cluelessly do the moves that she seemed to not know a bit. As an audience member I was super interested in what they did, but I wasn’ so interested that I stood up I just viewed from the end and admired their work. I felt that I was leading proudly as they passed me holding there paintings shyly. The Kiwi’s and Kākāpō’s assembly was and all but I think that the Kahu’s could do better (clearly not bias). I personally think that for our assembly we can try go for a funny theme because I think if we make it funny we will get more enjoyment out of the parents so when the parent walks out they could just think “wow what a great School”!

At The Gardens School we do all kinds of fun adventurous things, but one of my favourite things we do at school is clubs. You might be wondering what is clubs? Well the thing is that clubs is a thing that year 5-8 get to do, at the start of the Term we get many fantastic choices of clubs we can do! Like if you want to do something very active you can do a sport but only do it if you quite keen on sports. There’s so many things people do as hobbies and so much to choose from.

Now about me (yay!)! The main clubs I chose was enviro and sewing and quite frankly I got in both of them. What I was most excited about was seeing because I always saw my mum sewing but I never understood how to do it. Sewing club is basically either hand sewing or once we get better at hand seeing we might have a chance of doing machine sewing. For sewing we were trying to do some skirts and dresses that were size 2s. For the present we are still trying to make it but we have made a pattern, we aren’t quite finished yet but I feel like by the end of the term we will.

Today it was my first day at school at intermediate (mind you this is my thoughts) and I was extra nervous because I was starting intermediate. I had heard lots of bad things but as much as there were bad things there would be good things at least I thought. As my mum dropped me off I said bye! Then I headed up the hill, for some reason it was quiet nobody was here. I felt like I could drop a pin and actually hear it, I then tried going to the door and then I opened it surprisingly there was still nobody there. I then got the idea that I was in the school all alone! I started prancing and dancing jumping on the couch and then I dared myself to go to the monster’s lagoon (aka the staff room) I saw bundles of items in the fridge I then snacked on them almost like forever and then I heard “WAKE UP YOU’RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL” I then felt I light tap on my shoulder I opened my eyes and then I was lying in bed wondering what the heck just happened?

The heart I made for my buddy!

Last week the teachers introduced this new subject of buddy maths. At first I didn’t really know what they meant but as I listened more I realised it was where we went down to the year 1s and do stuff with them like fun activities etc. The teachers then said that even though valentines had already passed we could still make something related to valentines for them. At that moment I was thinking of doing something unique or something special that would make my buddy feel special, but then I got interrupted in my thoughts with the teachers saying what we were actually suppose to do. We were just meant to write a message and then fold it into a origami heart. I thought it was simple but I was so wrong…

After knowing what to do we were given papers to fold and we had a selection and then I made the most regretful decision I picked the most effort paper. As soon as I started colouring I realised that I wasn’t able to get done so later that day I brought it with me home and finished it until my hands ached with pain. When it was the next day I gave it to my buddy but I honestly think she didn’t really care about it but she told me that she liked it so I guess it was okay?

The first thing I did with my buddy was play in the sandpit. I didn’t feel like taking my shoes off so I just watched her play in the sandpit. After awhile she got bored of the sandpit so we decided to go inside and play with the fake kitchen. Sadly none of the food was logically like they were baking apples and fruits and they were microwaving things that weren’t meant to be in the microwave in the first place. Well soon she got bored of that too so we decided to play with a baby and dress the baby up. I was surprised that the baby was so hard to dress but we somehow got the baby in it’s outfit! Then we just played with the chalk on a chalk board. I just wanted to see what she would do but I somehow got dragged in (what I mean by that is me just being a child and wanting to draw stick figures) I had a bit of fun but then I think I broke the seat (although I’m not sure it was the seat but still) I don’t know how but the lid of the seat or box kinda just sank to the bottom and them including me I got stuck at the bottom of the box but luckily I was able to get out. THANKFULLY!

When I was around my buddy I felt that she was quite chaotic because when we were in the sandpit she would be crawling around while other kids were making innocent kids were making sand castles but I guess that was what made her stand out, but I never picked up any negativity from her she was honestly just nice, funny and still chaotic just the tiniest bit. When I was with her I was honestly just quite comfortable with her because she just seemed to be interesting and fun to be around. I honestly felt like a great role model telling her not to make too loud noises but I didn’t really wanna flatter myself. To me a great big buddy is a person who is a role model to younger kids doing great things picking up rubbish not making a huge mess nor a huge argument, just someone who would make a child want to be them.

I think overall that the little valentines idea was a great idea! We got to know some children and play with them a bit, but I think that it would be cool if we did like buddy reading, maybe creating imaginary stores together so we can share our ideas and make it into one amazing imaginary story that we could share with the class!

As I walked to the busy gardens school hall I noticed so many experiments. I wondered which experiment was my daughter’s. I knew that it was busy but it turned even busier. I walked through the crowd, I saw so many people inspecting the projects. I saw some candles and I knew that it was my daughter. I made my way through and viewed the candles. I could see all the candles that she made. There also was a poster which in my opinion was creative. I looked in the opposite direction and saw some cute little cardboard houses. I walked up to them and that actually had quite a lot of detail in them. I noticed that there was insulation in the walls which was VERY realistic.

After I viewed the houses I noticed that there was a TV showing a presentation. I watched from afar because in front of the tv there were tons of people. I saw that they had made prototypes. The prototypes weren’t bad but I just saw some things that they could fix up like some of the walls were unstable, but I guess the students noticed that too. Overall the houses were pretty good! I then went back to the candles because apparently they were scented candles so I quickly made my way through the crowd to smell the candles. One of them smelled like lavender, another one of them smelled like something really sweet, maybe like a fruit? I went across to the left and I saw some food that was in a glass container. I then read the posters and it said that it was pickled stuff. That must have taken a bit to master. There also was preserved stuff. There was a laptop to interact with so I switched through the presentation.

After reviewing glorious food I went over to this place where there were clay items. It was super cool! There wasn’t much that interested me there but I was pretty interested in the pressed flower art and these glass beakers containing something that exploded! I then went over to some houses (well not really houses they were basically just wooden houses but still!). I looked inside and I saw some beds. It was complete but it looked pretty cool, in one house I saw that they had added carpet. YES CARPET! I’m not sure if it was a real carpet but either way they must have made a huge effort trying to make the houses.

 I then noticed that there was a paper apparently it was an auction. A silent auction,I wanted to buy them but I realised that I didn’t really want to spend money on houses that aren’t finished, but it was a really great effort! I then moved forward and saw volcanos. There was a tv in front of the volcanos and it was playing that volcano love story song. Apparently the volcano was going to erupt soon the next day at 3:00 PM. Sadly I had to work that day and was gonna finish at around 3:30 PM. I told her that the other day.

After viewing the volcanos I went to the next place. There were first-aid kits and other items.it was talking about healthy things and why you should eat healthy items to improve your body. After that I went to the other end because I saw more items. I saw that there were some water items. I then saw a fishing rod and a bucket. I got one of the fishing rods and started trying to fish (of course it wasn’t real fishing but still). It was basically magnetic fishing and it was really fun! I was really bad at fishing because I kept losing the fish. I then saw there was a board game. I decided to play by myself because I didn’t want to stop anyone from viewing the fair. I kept losing so I just gave up and packed it up. 

After that I had to go home because school started. Overall the school fair was excellent and if I could I would go again. I saw so many projects that I had never seen in my life. Like the houses I can’t believe it was made out of scratch, and the volcanos was one of a kind. The pressed flower art was amazing too. The fair was so fun and all of the stalls had really well made projects. Both of the houses were amazing, especially the insulation because they really thought about that well. I just really like the concept of houses.