Niuean Language Week

Fakalofa lahi atu This week is Niuean Language Week. The theme for this year is Lay the foundations - give rise to Vagahau Niue for generations. We had to share 10 interesting facts about Niue. I found the one about political parties most interesting.

 

Vincent Van Gogh

This term our theme is Art Alive. We have a term full art based work in which we will be having many fun activities which will incorporate art. This is Vincent Van Gogh who is a famous artist, we had to create profile to portray what we've learnt so far about Vincent Van Gogh. There is so much to this mysterious artist like how did he think and if there was a bigger reason behind his terrible mental health. And what exactly happened during the incident in which he accidently cut off his ear?

 

As I saw it!

 What is this item? ~MakoI~

Makoi are used to scrape the leaf waste and moisture of the harakeke to leave the muka. Muka is used to make kakahu and taniko.

Who has this item? Was it traded/ used for something? ~Kaiwhata~

Kaiwhatu had been using this item that she found on the beach. She used it to get the Muka from harakeke. 

Write a paragraph in the perspective of the item.

- Makoi POV -

Wow no isn’t this just fine and dandy. I’ve just gotten thrown around like a piece of trash. I’m not even being used anymore. This lady seems upset, something must be wrong. ARGH! These useless humans, can’t they just get along!?

Today in class we continued the as I see it task. This was the last part of it, we even got to see the items that we were looking at. But even so this task was really interesting as we got to see how people interpreted this event and there were so many different ways and stories about it.

Hades and Persephone

This term in inquiry we covered myths and legends. We looked at different countries and how different cultures have different myths that are similar but have there own twists. We learnt that myths are completely made up to explain something illogical and a legend is just a deeply exaggerated story.

Persephone is the goddess of vegetation, and grain. One day Persephone was picking Flowers. 

Hades appeared and stole her to the underworld. There he fed her 6 pomegranate seeds. But the seeds were special as they were grown in the underworld, thus binding Persephone to the underworld.

Meanwhile, Demeter went looking for her, and it came to her attention that Hades probably had something to do with it.

She took off, and arrived in the underworld. She confronted Hades telling him that Persephone did not belong in the Underworld and demanded Persephone returned to Earth with her. But Hades had already thought about that and told Demeter it was too late as Persephone had been bound to the Underworld.

As stated before Persephone is the goddess of vegetation, and without her presence of Earth. Plant-life started to decrease and everything started to die. Hades and Demeter came to an agreement that Persephone would spend 6 months in the underworld for the 6 pomegranate seeds she ate and she’d the remainder 6 months on Earth. 

Thenceforward for 6 months a year the vegetation would thrive and for the 6 months it would die, preparing for new growth. Over time this became known as the 4 seasons of the year. 

Over time Persephone grew to love Hades who treated her with compassion and loved her as his Queen. She stayed young and beautiful as things don’t age in the underworld. The god and goddess ended up getting married and lived happily ever after.

The Moment...

Today our whole school sang a maori waiata to celebrate Maori language. Today is a special day because in 1972 30,000 signatures were delivered to parliament saying that people wanted to preserve the dying Maori Language.

Because long ago people weren't allowed speak te reo. In schools it was said that speaking te reo was looked down upon and punished. The language then started to die. And quite recently it was turned into an official language of New Zealand.

Now we celebrate Maori language every year. We sang 2 moari waiata at 12pm to celebrate the delivery of that petition and that amazing day!

Drogon The Great!

Hades paced back and forth. Shadows danced in the darkness across his gloomily lit palace in the underworld. He'd taken control of the underworld soon after him and his brother had overthrown Cronus, their father.

'Where is she? It's been hours since I'd last seen her' he stated not slowing his pacing.

'Hades calm down she will turn up sooner or later' Zeus said taking a seat on his brother's throne of skeletons.

'How can I not, she's my wife and along with that your daughter' Hades exclaimed, stopping to look at his brother this time.

There was a moment of silence when Zeus spoke 'Give it an hour or two and then we shall go out looking for her'. He snapped his fingers and several guards opened the doors that led from the throne room to the courtyard.

Hades and Zeus both walked out into the courtyard, only to see a gargantuan beast. ' You know me brother; I always come bearing gifts this is yours too keep. He's been banished here for the various sins he's committed back on earth.'

'I see, well I guess he could stay here, take him to the dungeons I'll deal with him later' Hades said waving his hands signalling to the guards.

'My work is done here, see you soon brother' Zeus left Hades disappearing further into the horizon.

Hades sat down in his throne massaging his temple in frustration. 'Where is she!' he asked aloud.

'Theseus and Pirithous' a voice said. It was a husky voice just merely above a whisper. Hades followed the voice, it seemed to be coming from the dungeons.

The poor creature lay there almost lifelessly. Blood stained various parts of its body and there was fire part of the collateral damage. There were chains keeping the dragon bound to the dungeons. 'Theseus and Pirithous' it said again.

'what about those scoundrels?' Hades questioned

'The-they've t-taken... Persephone' it slowly whispered. The dragon's eyes were slowly closing. Hades took pity on the creature, allowing it the freedom to rome the underworld.

'Will you please help me find and rescue my wife' Hades questions hesitantly.

'I-I can t-try' The dragon stuttered. Hades unchained the dragon, put out the fire and attended to it's wounds. He gave it food and water; bits and pieces that were lying around in the castle. 

When the dragon was ready, they set out together a dynamic duo, off to save the lovely Persephone. They flew to Athens, Greece. Home to many greek gods and goddesses. 

When Zeus grew aware that Hades was in Athens he took it upon himself to see why. ‘ Brother it’s not like you to be here, is there something wrong’

‘Theseus and Pirithous, the punks that stole my wife’ Hades said, they’ve got another thing coming. He stroked the dragon that claims his name was Drogon.

Zeus let out a chuckle ‘shall I join you brother?’ he questioned. Hades shrugged and together the three of them were off to save Persephone. They headed to Theseus and Pirithous lair in which they were most likely hiding Hades’s wife.

They made a grand entrance, raiding every corner of the castle. They found Theseus and Pirithous talking to Persephone. ‘Release my wife our be banished to the fiery pits of the underworld’ Hades stated sounding very much heroic.

Theseus and Pirithous refused instead choosing to run. They dashed aways from their hideout much too quickly to catch them. Drogon on the other hand had another idea. He flew overhead and released fire on the two scoundrels. 

‘Hades, Thank you!’ Persephone said. ‘I had been picking flowers on Earth when the two snuck up on me and kidnapped me’ She explained brushing off the dirt from her dress and hair.

‘Well that’s the last of them’ Zeus said ‘I’ll take care of them here in Athens, you two go ahead home’ Zeus signaled for Drogon to take flight. 

Hades Persephone and Drogon returned to the underworld. And resumed living their happy life with Drogon as their pet and family member. You see Dragons aren’t always bad and merely misunderstood.

Ancient Myths

Today we did some inquiry in Home class. For this task we had to pin point at least 2 different myths on a world map. We then had to write about that myth, as a way to share what we've learnt over the term. I had fun and enjoyed this tasks my favourite of the myths is the one about Seasons and Hades & Persephone!

As I saw It

Today we looked Captain cook's first day in New Zealand. It could've gone a lot better and there were 9 deaths because of a lack of communication. But in that we also learnt that many people didn't know what had happened and or mistook it to be something else. This just goes to show that many stories can be made and it gets harder to find out the truth. This same thing happened with the cupcake theft, story too. By the way that was all planned by Ms Tele'a.

Myths and Legends

Today we had to create a myths and legends passport, to show that we had been to each class and learnt something. I enjoyed all the classes but the Dragon's eye lake myth is my favourite over all!

Dragon's Eye Lake

Today we looked at another, Myth. This one is from Croatia, it's about how Dragon's eye lake came to be. I really liked this story, it's quite interesting especially since, our Teacher this morning told us that, Dragons have been put into many different myths and they probably all originated from dinosaurs. The legend about the lake is also very sweet!

The Watcher of the South

Today we looked at the Watcher of the South. Which is a myth from a tribe called Xhosa in Cape Town which is in South-Africa. The Myth was about A god creating the world getting injured during a fight with a sea dragon and fearing that his creation would be ruined. The gods mother then creates giants to fight of the sea dragon but they die in the process, and to help the Giants the god's mother turns them into Mountains. These are known as the Table-Mountains on the Coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

Welcome to Cambodia

Today we learnt about Cambodia and the Cambodian Myth of Rain, Thunder and Lightning. I enjoyed this topic it was a lot of fun, the video was very clear and the myth was very interesting. Cambodia is also a very interesting place, that have a huge population. I couldn't find many myths about Cambodia though, so in future I hope I get to hear more.

Cambodian Myth of Lightning Thunder and Rain

Today we looked at Cambodian myths and how Lighting Thunder and Rain came to be. We also looked at how much smaller Cambodia is from New Zealand and their population withstands ours by a lot! I enjoyed learning about this and am looking forward to expanding my knowledge!

The Water-Cycle (Term 2 Animation)

This term we had to create an animation to explain one of the earth's system. We had the choice to choose between animating a Volcano Erupting or the Water-Cycle. I chose to animate the Water-Cycle I started with precipitation then Accumulation, Condensation, Evaporation, Transpiration and Sublimation.

Next time I feel that if I start to work on my animation earlier the graphics would come out looking better, I also had to re-record my voiceover due to background noise. But overall I am proud of this animation. :)

The Water Cycle

Today we looked at the Hydrosphere and we looked at the Water cycle specifically. There are 7 major parts in the continuous cycle known as the water cycle. This relates to our term wide theme known as the Living Earth.

A Guide To Earth's Inner-Core

The Earth's Inner Core, is the very heart of the Earth. It's responsible for many things and most importantly the Geosphere. Here is everything you need to know about the Earth's Inner-Core. This was a literacy task, that I've been meaning to do for a while, but it's taken me a while to complete it because I wanted it to be high quality and easy to read and understand. It isn't 100% the best I could've done but seeming that the circumstances, we've been very busy lately, so I hope you enjoyed. WE'RE GOING BACK TO SCHOOL NEXT WEEK YAY! :))

The Hydrosphere

Here is what we learnt about in home room this week on Friday. We learnt about the Hydrosphere, which relates to our term wide theme We Are the World. I am enjoying this pretty very much, and had fun learning about this one in specific. But it's mainly because I can tell how this one relates to the Biosphere. I also enjoyed this because it allowed me to find something from way back when and it actually helped me, remember and recognize some of the knowledge we were learning. Does the Water Cycle ring a bell, yup I learnt that in year 5 and it was SUPER FUN! so it was cool to revisit that part of my past.

Different Biomes and The Biosphere ~Extension~

This week, we learnt about the Biosphere, in extension. We looked at ecosystems, climates, animals and how this all works. We also looked at how the biosphere is made up of parts from all the other sphere such as the Atmosphere, Geosphere and Hydrosphere. We are continuing to learn discuss and research in depth what all of these are. I'm pretty happy with this task, in which we had to answer some questions and research a couple different biomes. Enjoy!

Volcanic Eruption

This week we are learning about the Earth, and Tectonic plates. Tectonic plates are pieces of lands that broke apart two hundred million years ago. We are learning about this because it relates to our term wide theme We Are The World. Throughout this term we are going to be looking at the Geosphere Atmosphere Biosphere and Hydrosphere. Tectonic plates relate to something we learnt about last week the Geosphere. Tectonic plates are also related to the Earth's Crust, volcanoes and Earthquakes. It's all very interesting, see the presentation above for more.

The Atmosphere

Today we learnt about the Atmosphere. This ties in with our term wide them the living earth. I found out some pretty interesting things, and during our class discussion we did have many things about Climate change and the Ozone layer come up. It was all quite fascinating, I was looking forward to doing the Atmosphere, even though it is something we have learnt quite a bit about already.