Day 6-Winter Learning Journey

Day #6: Native Aotearoa

Welcome to Day #6 of your journey and the last day in the south island. You are going to start the day by traveling 63 km north up State Highway 1 from Dunedin to a place called ‘Shag Point.’ Shag Point is one of five places in the south island where the Maori arrived hundreds of years ago to settle in New Zealand. They arrived at Shag Point in large canoes called ‘wakas.’ For more information on Shag Point and other Maori landing places, go to the Waka landing places website.

http://www.kiwidaydreaming.com/p/new-zealand-maps.html

Activity 1: Let’s imagine that you were on the first waka to arrive at Shag Point. You had never been to New Zealand before and you had no idea what to expect. Write a poem describing how you would have felt when you arrived in New Zealand. Would you have been excited or scared? I would have felt pretty nervous, I reckon…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waka_(canoe)

I see ahead, miles of land

Specked with thousand green spikes

With large brown and green fans dancing in the air

Tiny miracles blossoming on the ground

Everything fresh and Beautiful

But what awaits me on this land?

Vigorous creatures,

Enormous and ferocious

Evil spirits,

Dark and intimidating

But perhaps good things await me on this land?

Beautiful animals,

Majestic and colourful

Food!,

Delicious and heavenly

Feeling nervous as ever, I will soon be able to find out.

Activity 2: After visiting Shag Point, you hop back in the van and drive all the way up the east coast of the south island until you reach the town of Picton. You get out of the van and onto the Interislander ferry. It travels back across the Cook Strait to Wellington. Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand and every winter the city hosts a huge Matariki festival to celebrate the Maori New Year. This year part of the festival is being held at Te Papa, a big museum in Wellington.

Read about the Matariki festival at Te Papa.  There are so many different things to see and do at the festival this year. On your blog, tell us about three of the events. You can choose any three events that you wish.

Timo Timo-

This event is where all sorts of people come together to celebrate Matariki through traditional Maori and Modern storytelling. Exploring a new world with movement, song and taonga puoro.

Matariki Fireworks-

This is event is where the Wellington city council lights up the sky with stunning fireworks to display over the harbour.  This commemorates what Matariki stands for which  is the celebrations of people, language, spiritually and history. Matariki to some is a Maori new year.

Tīramarama: Storytelling for kids-

This is a programme of storytelling for little kids. Told both in Maori and English. The goal of this programme is to entertain and to brighten  the young children. Their story telling sessions are interactive and delighting to a range of audiences. Various of stories are told, stories of heroes, Nz adventures, mythic creatures/characters and ancestral leaders. Stories are told of Matariki too!.

Bonus Activity: As part of the Matariki festival, there is a two day Kapa Haka competition. The haka is a traditional war dance that Maori performed before going into battle. The haka is now performed by children/adults in the community and by professional sporting teams, including our national rugby team, the ‘All Blacks.’  The All Blacks have performed various haka over the years. Watch the following three haka videos (1 – 3) and, on your blog, list the haka videos in order from best (#1) to worst (#3). There are no right or wrong answers ☺

#1. World Cup 2015 – All Blacks vs Argentina

#2. All Blacks vs South Africa 2016

#3. Rugby World Cup 2011- All Blacks vs France

I personally favour and always will favour the original haka that every New Zealander knows and loves, Ka Mate. The “Ka Mate” haka is well known and a beloved haka in Nz. My second favourite would be Kapa O Paonga haka, I love the rhythm and beat in this haka, but not as much as the Ka mate haka. Lastly, the last video I watched, (I don’t know the name of the haka), I didn’t favour as much as the first two. Overall, all hakas were excellent!.

#1. World Cup 2015 – All Blacks vs Argentina

#2. All Blacks vs South Africa 2016

#3.Rugby World Cup 2011- All Blacks vs France

At the end of your day at Te Papa, you head to your hotel in the centre of Wellington. You are staying on Cuba Street, one of the coolest streets in the city.

Bonus Activity: 8 points

Cheetah🐆 Poem

I created this poem using our group poem templates created by Miss. Ogam.

Four expeditious legs
Two triangular ears
One flexible spine
Agilely, Hunting, Pouncing
Vigilant, Erractic
Dashes through the air like a bird
The nimble hunters of Africa

Photo Link

Animal research/brainstorm_Poetry

Animal research/brainstorm

My Animal is:	My animal is a Cheetah🐆
3 images of my animal:
Watch a video of your animal choose words to describe:	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8vejjVgIHg
How it moves	It moves Agilely
What it sounds like	It sounds like a bird, when it communicates
How its body parts move	It’s body parts move rapidly, they are very vigilant. They also have a flexible spine which cause it’s hind legs to reach forward and accelerate, pushing forward, charging the body forward.
Where in the world does your animal live?	Cheetahs mainly live in the eastern and western parts of Africa. They also live in parts in Iran.
Is your animal endangered?	Cheetahs are quite vulnerable, so yes!.
Some interesting facts about your animal:	Cheetahs are the fastest land animals on earth Cheetahs have about 2000-3000 spots on their body, which help them camouflage King Cheetah's has a pattern mutation. It’s rounded rings turn into joined patches, stripe like. This happens due to the lack of genetic diversity
Choose some words to describe:
Its eyes	Highset eyes of amber
Its ears	Semi-circle shape, upright,
It’s nose	Triangular shaped, black
It’s fur/skin/feathers/scales...	Spotty, sleek, tawny to golden toned fur, coarse fur,
Its legs/arms	Rapidly
Its teeth/mouth	Quite paltry, compared to it’s other feline relatives
Choose some words to describe your animal overall.	A swift predator Erratic Gracefull Svelte Sleek Ravenous Vigilent

Thomas Peaceful-Anzac Poem

Thomas Peaceful is a fictional character from my favourite book, Private Peaceful. The book is all about Thomas Peaceful's life, from his first day at school and to his battles at France. My poem is about the Sacrifice his dad made for him and Penance.

From the perspective of Tommo Peaceful

Sacrifice

It demands the surrender of things

We cherish above all else

Along with sacrifice comes

Penance

The more grievous the sin

The more self inflicted suffering

My sin?

My greatest fall!

The day I had killed father

Twas not my intention

Nor was it the tree’s

The tree that had ended the life of father

The tree that had cut short

Father’s lifelong film

My penance, I was going to live knowing what

I had faulted against father

The greatest suffering above all

When the tree was falling
It had seemed as if it was still upright
Father yelled from a distance
His voice shot like a bullet through my ears
and echoed continuously on my thoughts
I was in a deep trance
So deep, that when I had realized
that the tree was falling
Not a muscle nor a hair on my body
moved

At that moment, father had swooped me in arms
Lifted me gracefully with ease
Ran a few meters, before thrusting me across
And there I lied, at the tip of the oak tree
Facing dear father
Hands, were spread out wide
Body, didn't make a single movement
head was flopped, looking at me
With a red velvet substance of liquid
dripping from his nose

I remember
Seeing his pain lift from his face, and enter mine
I remember
not coping with his death
I remember
the trauma I had put my family through
I remember
how everything was before he had died


🌹🥀

ANZAC Poem

As part of Room 7's holiday homework we had to create a poem about Anzac. I chose to structure my poem like this, I had also written 2 other poems.

What is poetry?

Poetry is a of genre of literature. This genre of literature has more depth, more feelings are expressed and ideas are intensified.

Where do you read poems?

I read poems in school journals, on the web and in Poem books.

Who are some famous poets?

Emily Dickinson

William Shakespeare

William Blake

Gallipoli

Silence, Misty

Patience, Fighting, Gun fires, Trenches

Armed forces, Mercenaries, Soldiers, Gun shells

Damage, Casualties, Perished

Lost, Bitter

Mourning

Photo Link

Identity~Who am I?

For reading this week we are focusing on identity. The book/chapter we are reading is called The beggining of the tounament. In the books the author Witi Ihimaera explains about his identity and his love for his dad, whanau. Our creating work is to create something that represents who we are. I have decided to write a poem. My question to you is What makes you, you?. 









http://aispantherexpress.com/tag/identity/

Day 3~Rio poem~Sport Specifics

If I worked for TVNZ and were paid to attend the Rio Olympics and had to report at either the golf or rugby sevens competition, I would be nervous. To express my feelings of this event I wrote a poem.

What do I say?, what do I do?
If I mess up who do I go to?
There's nothing to worry about for i'll be okay
And the viewers out there, are miles away

How will I cope
Surely i'll still have hope
Just traveling to Rio has me jumping on my seat
Oh no here comes the terrible hot heat

Rio's not that bad it's a town of happy ought
Maybe when I return, i'll come back with happy thoughts
Interviewing talented athletes
Which they approach me with varieties of greets

Out of no where, the doubt disappears
My deepest fear, suddenly clears
Having a great time, meeting new people
Every interview there's always a loop whole

Winter poems

Winter's here, I need to get snugged up and wear warm clothes. But also reading warming winter poems make my day warmer that usual. Here are my favourite Winter poems.

The truth is dark under your eyelids.
What are you going to do about it?
The birds are silent; there's no one to ask.
All day long you'll squint at the gray sky.
When the wind blows you'll shiver like straw.

A meek little lamb you grew your wool
Till they came after you with huge shears.
Flies hovered over open mouth,
Then they, too, flew off like the leaves,
The bare branches reached after them in vain. 

Winter coming. Like the last heroic soldier
Of a defeated army, you'll stay at your post,
Head bared to the first snow flake.
Till a neighbor comes to yell at you,
You're crazier than the weather, Charlie. 

http://www.poemhunter.com/poems/winter/page-1/91588/

He way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued. 

http://www.poemhunter.com/poems/winter/page-1/32031/#content

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.

Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding cake. 

http://www.poemhunter.com/poems/winter/page-1/32774/

God's Gift-LindaKiki

One of my favourite poems from this term is a original poem by one f my peers Lindakiki. She is a very talented girl that I respect. But when it comes to writing her words flow like a river. Also Linda and I write in a similar way so it's quite hard to come to an idea for who's writing is who. I love the rhymes she came up with and the descriptive paragraphs.

God's Gift:

Entering the light of God,

I see a man so bright he is almost 7ft tall,

Creating us to be in his palm of his hands,

So precious he sent us down to his own motherland,

Going to sleep was my only plan

But, seeing God I was a big fan

A loving god he is a man

Who serves us with light not dark

He watches us from above

He’s the blue sky I will always love

By LindaKiki