Maui Dolphins by Salote

Maui dolphins have been endangered by fishermen’s nets and they need help because the number of dolphins is becoming smaller and smaller from them getting caught in nets or because of bottom trawling. People have been putting the dolphins life in danger because they also capture calves.

What  are Maui Dolphins?

Maui dolphins are the world’s rarest and smallest known subspecies of dolphins. They are the most endangered sea species in the world and there are a tiny amount of them left, they are also subspecies of the Hector’s dolphins. In New Zealand scientists have declared that there are only 55 dolphins left. That is a really small amount!

Why are they endangered?

Maui dolphins have been living with threat throughout their lives and they have been caught up in fishermen’s net including trawling. For example, Fishermen have trapped the dolphins in there set-net while they have been setting for fish. They scoop any sea-creature up and don’t realise what they have caught in their net.

What people can do to help them?

People could stop setting their nets or trawling near the dolphins to prevent them from not getting captured in their nets. People could also help by writing to the prime minister and to the minister for primary industries.

Help the Maui dolphins by stopping fishermen from capturing our native species and don’t trawl by the dolphins.

Halloween by Tumanako

The tradition of halloween is to celebrate the friends and family that have passed away. Halloween is taken way back, like in the olden days when there was an ancient celtic festival known as samhain. During medieval times in Ireland and Scotland, the Samhain festival was held at sunset on October 31st and lasted through daylight on November 1st.  It marked the ending of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the “dark season.”people believed that the dead would return as ghosts so people would put food and wine outside of their house for the ghost’s to take. People would dress up as ghosts so they would be mistaken as one of them. Halloween was brought to the US by Irish and Scottish immigrants during the late 18th century to the early 19th century.

Today people celebrate halloween by putting pumpkins with carved faces in them spider webs around their houses and other things that scare off people for halloween. People still dress up as ghosts but they also dress up as monsters, vampires, the devil and other scary things too. As for the kids, they dress up in fairy tail people like, princesses, something mythical, something off a kids movie or anything that relates to being a kids costume. They go around house to house saying “trick or treat” and to be funny “trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something nice to eat”. They walk around with pumpkin buckets or anything else they can store their lollies in. As you can see over the time traditions began to change.

We can carry on celebrating the way that we are because there is nothing wrong with how we are celebrating but there might be some people that

are dressing up in costumes to blend, in but really they're just doing that because they want to kidnap a child or person! They could even be the people that live in the houses that your kids going to! So the parents are letting their children/child go by themselves/self, DON’T because one day they won’t be coming home!

In Mexico they celebrate Días de los muertos or Day of the Dead on November 1st.  It is a big celebration that honors family and friends who have passed away.
In Hong Kong Halloween celebrations are known as Yue Lan  meaning Festival of the Hungry Ghosts. During Yue Lan celebrations fires are lit and food and gifts are offered to angry ghosts looking for revenge.

Halloween by Dekorah

Why do people celebrate Halloween?

As you know Halloween is a holiday event that happens once a year at the end of October,but does anyone know why we celebrate it,or what even is Halloween? Did it have a name before Halloween?  Here is an explanation about what Halloween is and it’s history.

Halloween all started with a tradition that was celebrated over two thousand years ago. It was known and named as “The day of the dead” or in other terms “All Hallows”(this name was called by the saints on November the 1st.)The tradition of celebrating All Hallows was believed that the dead ascended from a door that lead into the underworld opened and let all sorts of spirits through.People believed and that the spirits would come and bring harm to their town’s and families.So during the Samhain festival people would leave offerings and food outside their houses so they would take the food instead of the people.Towards this people dressed up like a ghost or a dead being that made the spirits think that they are dead and would let people pass by.When people did this they could enjoy their times by passing house to house celebrating the festival of Samhain.

In in this event other countries also celebrated it but named it different things,and believed in different reasons.Here are what some countries celebrated it like,and what they called it.Halloween was accompanied by a Celtic festival of Samhain on which was called by “Summer’s end” for it was to be the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter,this was also a common reason why they celebrated this festival of Halloween.Medieval times in Ireland and Scotland,the Samhain festival was held at dawn on October the 31st towards the daylight of November the 1st,it was called “Dark season” which meant it highlighted the last day of harvesting,and the new day of winter. Over time Halloween was brought to the US by the Irish and Scottish people living in the united states during the 18th and 19th century.Ever since then traditions began to change.

Now Halloween is just celebrated by going other people’s doors and saying “Trick or treat” to get candy,or Halloween is just to have a family get together party,or even just partying.In the modern days though this event is mostly popular with children,in the original days trick-or-treaters mostly received fruits,nuts,money, and wine to contribute to their delight.In the present days Halloween Trick-or-Treaters became more popular in the US for all of the shops went all out of selling products contributing to Halloween,and sells 6 million each year just because of Halloween and its contents.

There are more and more reasons to why Halloween is celebrated and how other countries had celebrated it back in the day.We shouldn’t forget why is was created and all of its history,for Halloween has more to it than just getting free candy and sweets by just saying a phrase at someone’s door.

Compare and Contrast

After we created our takakau and scones last week we discussed the similarities and differences between the two of them. This is what Telesia created:

How to make scones

This week we have been working on adding detail to our sentences so that our audience can follow our recipe easily. Check out Mathews recipe for scones:

Scones are an English type of bread which are very popular and they have been eaten for hundreds of years. The British upper class take their scones very seriously and follow rules about how to eat them. This recipe makes 6 small or 4 large scones.

Ingredients

Plain flour, for the dusting

1 ½ cups self raising flour

½ cup milk

40g butter

Instructions

First wash your hands and get ready to cook.

Add the flour and butter into a big bowl. Rub the ingredients together
between your fingers and mix it and it will become like breadcrumbs.

After that, add some milk slowly to the centre of the bowl to make sure it doesn't get too sticky

Then you knead the dough on a floured tray and shape it into small balls. You should be able to make six small scones.

Put the scones on a baking tray and make sure you don't touch them too much because it will make the scones tough to eat.

Put the tray in the oven at 200 degrees celsius and then it the scones will be ready to be eaten in 20-25  miniutes

You might like to eat them with cream, butter and or jam. Traditionally they would be eaten with tea. Why not have a tea party and have a go at following tradition British Etiquette? There are tips in the video below!

Grease is the word!

Today room 8 and the seniors at Glenbrae School were fortunate enough to watch Auckland Girls' Grammar school's production of the musical Grease. Check out AJ's review of the show!

Grease is about a girl named Sandy from Australia who is an intelligent nerd. She likes a boy called Danny who is in a group of cool boys. A group of girls help Sandy to be with Danny.

My favourite part of the play was when they sang Grease Lightning because I liked the dancing. I liked that the actors all had a lot of confidence and they were talented. I would recommend this play to high school students as the story is set in high school. I'd tell them that it is about a nerd who wants to fit in. I would say that it is very funny and also very realistic.

How to make Takakau

This week we made Takakau after being inspired by Room 5 at Kawakawa Primary School.  We then learnt how to follow the structure of a procedural text. This is what Mathew created:

Takakau is a Maori bread that was first made when the Europeans came to New Zealand and they brought flour to the country. You can eat it with butter and syrup or you can have it with a boil up or hangi.

 Ingredients
1 teaspoon salt (to your taste)
2 cups flour
2 teaspoon baking powder (optional)
100 ml milk or water


First mix the flour,salt,and baking powder together

Then sift or mix all the ingredients together.
Slowly add in the milk to the middle of the bowl and stir it.

Then knead the dough.

Place the dough into a pan and make it flat

Then it is ready to be cooked in the oven for half an hour at 200 degrees Celsius and eaten.

Procedural Writing

This week we have started to look at procedural writing. As it is our first time writing in this genre, we started by reading different procedural texts and identifying their key features. We will be focusing on following the structure of a procedural text.

AJ and Fasi identified the key features of the text below:
                      

Te Tiriti o Waitangi

This week in writing we created an explanation about the Treaty of Waitangi. The students then had to present their writing in a DLO that would teach others about the subject. Some of the students created Explainer videos which you can watch below!

Davarni & Telesia

                                      
                                                    Anita, Salote & Tumanako

My Trip to the Aquarium

Po wrote a fantastic story about his trip to the aquarium! Check it out below:

Yay! I woke up and yelled ‘’I can’t wait to get to the aquarium today, with my brother Kestrel and uncle Matt.’’ Uncle Matt told us to get everything ready before we hopped in the car. All of us were so noisy because we were looking forward to going to the aquarium.

 When we got there we hopped out of the car and I said, “I can’t wait to go inside.” When you enter inside there are fish tanks filled with lots of different kinds of fish. There is a park and a cafe where you can sit and have a coffee or hot chocolate while having a little snack.

 First we went to see the big fish tanks and i saw a stingray, squid, octopus, and shark. There were some people swimming underwater, feeding the fish even the ones that were camouflaged and which were really hard to see. Looking around at all the different types of fish Kestrel and I decided to see if we can count all the different types of fish in the tanks. It was kind of exciting at first but then got a little hard because there were just so many of them, swimming from side to side. I’m pretty sure I counted 3 of the same fish twice. So we moved on.

 Moving from one end of the aquarium to the other to saw more of the other fish. We finally found the habitat where the penguins were, they looked so cute and cuddly it was so unreal. After that we went back out, went for a little car ride around Mission Bay and went home.  

Po's Blog

To the moon we go!

Check out the writing that Anita completed for the students in Room 4!


 Once upon a time Mr Louie and I had the opportunity to go to the moon.We were told from the government that we could go and  see the american flag placed on the moon! Let the journey begin!

 I have just put on my Astronaut Outfit and there I noticed Mr Louie my sidekick Cat didn't know where his Astronaut was? We looked every where for it..We looked in our Laundry,We looked in our rocket we even looked under our rocket and we still couldn’t find it! Time was running out so we took of without the Space suit.

Mr Louie and I just arrived on the moon and we were so excited! We saw awesome things...We saw Astro’s flyin around the universe and we also saw the american flag that was placed on the moon! As me and Mr Louie hopped back in our rocket ship we heard a strange noise mmmm“ugghhhrrrr” we heard it again,We turned around and it was Captain Zaddurk..Zaddurk was an alien who lived in Mars,He was captain of the Alien Army (Aliens who battle).I wasn’t worried at first but then Captain Zaddurk took something really important.It was Mr Louie’s Space Suit!

I rushed to Captain and claimed Mr louie’s Space Suit,but Captain Zaddurk was sad he wanted to go earth with Mr Louie and I so we let the Alien join our journey! We got to earth and the people were scared of the slimy alien who was walking down the street,but when Mr Louie and I introduced the Slimy ALien to the humans the humans thought he was cool and thought his stories of battling was wonderful

Then we lived happily ever after!

Telesia's Weekend

Today we started to plan a recount about something we had done at the weekend or during the holidays. Telesia managed to finish this during the day - check it out here:

During the weekend my whole family was going to my Aunt's Wedding. Everyone was very excited because we haven’t been to a wedding in a long time and because we have never met our aunty. The bride was only about 24 years old and was getting married to a Samoan man. My mum ironed the clothes and we all got ready to go. We travelled in our van to the Waipuna Hotel. We were all so excited because we had never been to a hotel before. As soon as we arrived we went to see where they were getting married. It was very beautiful.

Everyone sat down and waited for about 5 minutes until it started. The music was on and the bridesmaid and the bride walked down the path. Almost everyone was filming or taking photos. It was gorgeous. At the end of the wedding everyone took photos with the bride and groom and waited until the after party. The after party was in a white beautiful room with 12 tables for each of us to sit. We all sat in our seats and waited for everyone to arrive.

Once everyone had arrived the bride and groom had a quick speech. Then the bride Sandra’s dad came to pray before we ate the food. The food was very delicious. Some people from the family had a performance that they learned to do so they could show to the bride and groom. There was a tongan dance and samoan dance and niuean dance done by the bride's children. We finally had DESSERT! It was very yummy. We had pavlova cake and a chocolate cake. We also had the wedding cake but we had that the next morning.

The after party had finally finished and my mum took all the little children including me home. My mum and my older sister stayed because they didn’t want to go yet. My parent came back at 4:30am. As soon as I got home I went to sleep because it was 10:00pm. My weekend was very fun and I couldn’t wait for the next wedding we get invited to.

What is Rugby?

In Room 8 we have been looking at explanation writing. As a sport mad class, we decided to write a little about Rugby this week. Check out this piece of writing that Telesia completed, which was started by Miss Stone and Room 8:

What is Rugby?

Rugby is a sport that has been played since the 1800’s. It was first played in England, but it is now played around the world.  Rugby is a contact sport and the players have to follow certain rules. Rugby has become very popular and there are several competitions, including the rugby world cup.

It is not clear how the game of rugby first started. However, it is said that the first game took place at Rugby School, Warwickshire in 1823. The students originally played football, but they are said to have changed the rules so that the ball was carried.  This game began to be played by other English schools and by 1871 the Rugby Football Union was established. Official rules were then created and the first international game was played between Scotland and England. 

Rugby is always played between two teams. Each team is made up of 15 players who each carry out different roles. The different roles are Wing, Hooker, Flanker, Lock, Prop, Right Wing, Full back and Scrum Half. You can carry you can kick to the other side to score a try. There are no timeout unless someone is injured and each team is only allowed 7 replacements each game. After a team has scored they have to try to kick the ball into the goal post. If you get it in you get an 2 point advantage. The kick is taken from the spot in line where the ball was originally grounded, so scoring near the goal post is the best place to try.

Bibliography: 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_union#History