The Seven Sisters

Kia ora, in Te Ngahere we have been doing Matariki Activities to celebrate Matariki. Matariki is a constellation that is known by other names in other parts of the world, like Subaru or The Shoulder Of Taurus. There are also many myths, legends and beliefs about Matariki. The Māori believed that if the stars of the Matariki Constellation shone brightly it would be a good year for harvesting and it would be a good year, however if the stars were dim they would have to leave the planting of crops until October. We have only done one activity so far but there will be multiple more, the one that we just did was a Matariki Quiz. We had to read a text then answer the questions, in total there were 11 questions. I think I answered the questions pretty well. Do you celebrate Matariki?

Here are the answers to the questions. I forgot what the questions were and I can't find the text for the questions.

1. Matariki is a constellation that signifies the beginning of the Māori New Year.
2. Some constellations like Taurus are, Leo, Cancer, Scorpio, Aquarius. Zodiac Constellations or any constellations in general.
3. The Māori could have used a drop in temperature to tell it was around May or June.
4. Matariki appears in the month of June.
5. The Māori believed if the stars were shining brightly then it would be a good year and there would be a lot of crops to harvest.
6. I think there’s multiple myths because different iwi had different beliefs.
7. A: Storage house B: Feast C: Land D: Family E: Ancestry/Genealogy
8. Three of the many ways to celebrate Matariki is, eating food, being with family and dancing.
9. I think they told myths and legends when they were telling stories during the Matariki celebrations.
10. Christmas is an important celebration that my family celebrates. We eat a lot of food, catch up with family we haven’t seen in awhile and get each other presents.
11.  To celebrate Matariki I could spend time with my family.

COVID-19 Narratives

Kia ora, in Te Ngahere we have been writing narratives. There was a topic we had to base our narratives on, it was coronavirus sweeping through the globe. My narrative is based on political tensions rising and the Greek Government releases a new virus, called COVID-19. Before we wrote down our narrative we had to plan it, e.g conflict, resolution, the characters and where it took place. I think my narrative is really good but it just needs more ideas added to it because it’s not finished yet. Do you like narratives?

Here is what I’ve written so far.

Title: The Political Virus
Who? Kyriakos Mitsotakis. (Greek Prime Minister) Donald Trump. (US President) Angela Merkel (German Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau (Canadian Prime Minister)  Xi Jinping (Chinese President) Vladimir Putin (Russian President) Kim Jong Un (North Korean Dictator) Scott Morrison (Australian Prime Minister) Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand Prime Minister) Boris Johnson (British Prime Minister) Rest of the world Translators. Scientists that come up with the vaccine for COVID-19	What? Political tensions rise and the Greek government deliberately releases an extremely infectious and deadly disease (Covid-19). To avoid suspicion and blame, they release it in Greece.	Where? Worldwide

Problem/ complication: Tensions are high between world leaders and the Greek Government releases a new disease which is extremely infectious and a bit deadly.

Resolution: How is the problem solved? New Zealand eradicates the virus in New Zealand, then comes up with a vaccine.

“I say no! Your country is already in too much debt, you’re not paying it off and it’s more debt than the entire world’s economy!” Kyriakos Mitsotakis said with a raised voice, he  had an infuriated look on his face.

“Can you be a bit more optimistic please?” Donald Trump pleaded Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“No! In the end, Greece and America will lose money, Greece isn’t prepared for that economic crisis and quite frankly, I don’t think any other country is either.” Kyrikos said, anger stifled in his voice.

“I don’t think you’re being very fair.” Angela Merkel stated her opinion “The USA needs a bit of economic help.”

“Again, I say no. I know that you won’t allow the US to have a loan, so why should Greece?” Kyrikos asked. “This also goes for every other country.”  

“I have to agree with Kyriakos here. The US is in a lot of debt already and isn't paying it off. Why let them take another loan if it’s not going to come back?” Vladimir Putin asked. 

“New Zealand isn’t ready to loan America any money. The amount they would ask for would be too high.” Jacinda Ardern said.

“New Zealand has a high economy though, it’s the fifth largest country when it comes to wealth per adult.” Kyriakos and Donald Trump said at the same time. 

“Yes, but our economy isn’t as high as other countries. Our population is lower so we have more money per adult.” Jacinda Ardern debated.

Red Cross Kindness Letters

Kia ora, in Te Ngahere we have been writing Kindness Letters. Kindness letters started as a thing where a person would write a letter to the elderly of New Zealand and they would give it to the Red Cross. The reason people would write to the elderly is because during lockdown the elderly weren’t allowed to see anyone from their family and got lonely. There were three paragraphs in the Kindness letter, they were mainly about introducing ourselves and telling them what we like. We also wrote about the things we did and didn’t enjoy during lockdown. Have you ever done something like this before?

Here is the Kindness Letter I wrote.

To whom it may concern.

Hello, my name is Ben and I go to Paihia School. I have a family of four, unless you count the cat (making it a family of five); I live with my grandparents and my mum. We live in a small town called Paihia. I’m interested in Geography, Current Affairs, Politics and History. I mainly like the history of wars but I do enjoy mythologies and inventions as well. 

During lockdown I enjoyed going for walks and going running. Sometimes I would walk with my friend, except we were on opposite sides of the road to social distance. I think it was good that I exercised regularly because it helped me beat my  record of running time. I ran what I think was 3 kilometers in just under 12 minutes, but aside from that, exercise is important because if you don’t it’s unhealthy and you can die. 

There are a few things I learnt over lockdown, such as I’ve taken a lot for granted. I find it strange how I didn’t realize how much I took for granted until it was taken away. The thing I like about geography the most is locating countries or American States, I also like learning what a country’s capital city is. I think that online schooling was a good thing and it improved my writing skills. 

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” - Robert H. Schuller.

Yours sincerely

Ben

Can You Convert?

Kia ora, in Te Ngahere we have been learning how to convert fractions to percentages and decimals. It’s quite easy in my opinion. Example ¾ is 75% or 0.75. It’s quite easy to get the answer, here is how you get it. You divide 100 by 4, which is 25, the reason you divide 100 by 4 is because most percentages are based off of the number 100. When you do that, multiply 25% by three, giving you 75%, there is your answer. If this wasn’t very clear, here is a Screencastify to help. I hope you learnt something from this. Do you like fractions?

Do You Have Maths Eyes?

I am learning to identify maths in the world around us. Kia ora, in Te Ngahere we have been looking at objects (in this case gingerbread cookies) and thinking of things you can see on them. There were some questions that we were asked to help us. One of the questions were, Do many people like Gingerbread cookies? My buddy and I then surveyed 20 people, asking them if they enjoyed eating gingerbread cookies. 16 people said yes 4 people said no; giving it a 4 - 1 ratio (4 people liking, 1 not).

On the whole I think I did well, the only thing I didn’t do well in was creating a story for the Gingerbread men.

Do you enjoy eating Gingerbread men?

SLJ Day 10: Education comparison

Kia ora, day ten was about education. For Activity One we were comparing a typical day in Te Ngahere and a German students timetable. There are quite a few differences which I explain. For Activity Two I looked at multiple schools around the world and chose two that looked interesting, then I explained why I chose them, then for the bonus activity I made up a timetable, and that's how I would want a day for learning.


A school day in New Zealand starts and 9:00 or 8:55 AM, whereas in Germany a school day starts at 8:00 AM. The first subject of the day, in some people’s cases in Germany, they start with Maths; whereas in Te Ngahere we usually start with blogging. Something I have really noticed is that their timetables are sort of set out like how they would in high school. In Te Ngahere we don’t have that, because our subjects are all in one class. I think I would rather go to school in Germany, mainly because they have a very large variety of subjects. I also like bigger schools so another bonus. They have history and that’s my favourite subject.


I’m quite interested in a school in Panama City. The reason I’m interested in it is because instead of being taught Maths and that sort of curricular, they are taught about maritime things. The next school I’m intrigued by is in Islamabad, Pakistan. The reason I’m interested in it is because of the sheer amount of students they fit into the class. It makes me wonder how noisy it is and how they can concentrate. In a typical classroom I think there needs to be a big enough space so everyone doesn’t feel cramped, I think they need books and a white board, and a good teacher. I think a classroom should have all the resources it really needs.

I find it easier if I just don’t use a Canva template so I’ll write it down. 9:00 History. 9:30 Maths. 10:30 Reading. 11:00 break 11:30 Writing 12:30 Art 1:00 Lunch 1:20 Science 1:50 Daily reflection 2:00 Home time.

Goodbye, hope you enjoyed this post. (These photos are of the two schools I chose). What do you think is needed in a classroom? What subjects should be in a typical day at school in your opinion (and what time should they be on at)?

SLJ Day Nine: Families

Kia ora, day nine was about family. For activity one I wrote the pros and cons of having 19 siblings, for activity two I wrote a diary entry. First we had to watch a video, which, was the intro of 19 kids and counting. I then had to put myself into the shoes of being one of the parents and write about what would be in the typical day of one of the parents.

Here are the pros of being in a family of 21.

You learn how to put up with things later in life.

Here are the cons of being in a family of 21.

If you’re all annoyed at each other you’ll be surrounded by your siblings.
If you’re the youngest you’ll probably get forgotten about a lot.
If you ever went on a family holiday you could easily get lost.
You would  probably get less food than if you were in a family of four.
Might not get as good of an education because most parents with 19 kids home schools their children.

I woke up at 6 am, our alarm clock went off, and we start a tireless day. Michelle and I start the gruelling task of making the lunches for five of the kids, the rest are old enough to make their own. This task alone takes 30 minutes. Now we make breakfast for the kids. This is very tiring as we make it for everyone, including our grandchildren. We now set all the children that need to go to school, up. They all exit to take the school bus; however this doesn’t mean we get a break, we still have to clean up after the kids. One and a half tiring hours after, Michelle and I have finished cleaning up. We can now have an hour break, but as soon as we do that, we must prepare afternoon tea. When we have finished the task of making afternoon teas we get another small break,It isn’t long before the kids get home. We set them all down so they can eat afternoon tea, after that we set them all out for their playtime hours.The youngest children get to play for longer, we try to give the older kids a bit of time so they can think about things in their life. When they have all finished, Michelle and I, ask all the children above the age of 11 to help us cook dinner. When we have finished dinner and cleaned everything up, we get the children ready for showers; this is no easy task. Most of the kids have 1 more hour to just settle down and get ready to go to bed. When the kids all go to bed we settle down and sleep, getting ready for a brand new day.

What do you think the pros and cons of having 19 siblings would be? I hope you enjoyed this, it took me awhile to write. Stay safe.