We broke down Written by Christina Appleby-Lambert

“Christina close the door.” Whaea Oronsay yells. “I can’t the labels are in Chinese.” I moaned. “Just push both buttons and see what happens.” Whaea Oronsay angrily replies. I pushed both buttons but nothing happened. Whaea Oronsay stomps over and tries to close the door, but she was unsuccessful. Then Miss Lokeni calmly walks over and starts yanking and pulling the door. After a couple of minutes the door finally closes. “YAY.” We all happily cheered.

Whaea Oronsay starts up the bus, but Brmmm put put is all we hear. Whaea Oronsay repeatedly tries but each one is unsuccessful. All of us worried girls had to patiently sit in the bus, while Whaea Ata and Mrs Lokeni called Matua Dudley to tell him that our bus won’t start.

When Matua Dudley and the boys arrived, all of us girls had to exit the bus. When Matua Dudley found out what happened straight away he pulled out his phone and rang AA insurance and told them what had happened.

One hour had slowly passed and the man still wasn’t here. So Matua Dudley made the decision that the girls will travel the rest of the way with the boys on their bus. At first we were alright with it but when we took one step into their bus we changed our minds. Their bus was absolutely disgusting. There was rubbish everywhere, it was stuffy and stink and there was bubble-gum on the roof.

Finally the man arrived in a yellowish car. The man looked Indian but sounded like a Maori. He was wearing dark blue overalls with brown work boots. The man jumped out of his car and started talking to Matua Dudley and Whaea Oronsay. After they had finished talking the man suggested that we push start the bus. So Callan, Fasi, Johnathan, Matua Desmond and some of the boys lined up behind the heavy blue Clendon park bus. They began to run and push with all of their might. The boys stopped and the bus was still going. “Yay the bus is fixed.” All of us happy girls said while we ran out of the bus like wild animals. Once we were all out of the horrible boy’s bus, we all safely headed back to our bus. When we were all in Whaea Oronsay wasted no time and zoomed of to our next stop, beautiful Taumarunui. 

Haerenga ki Ruapehu Maunga

Last week some of us were very lucky to participate in an awesome learning opportunity. We headed down to the beautiful area of Tuwharetoa to see some of it's greatest treasures.

As soon as we saw Ruapehu maunga in the distance, we were so excited to touch snow for the first time. Some of us built snowmen, slid down little hills of snow and threw our hand made snow balls at each other.

Another highlight was relaxing in the steaming hot pools not far from the mountain. For some of us the temperature was too hot so we had to have a quick cold shower and then jump back into the pool.

We also got the opportunity to ride on Whaea Ata's aunty's horses, Belle and Ben. They were both really calm horses and lovely to ride. 

Thank you to all the teachers who brought us down here and helped out with the trip, it was awesome!

P.s. If you want to know any funny stories, come and see us.

Myths & Legends!

This term our topic is about Maori Myths & Legends. Every term before we start a topic Whaea Ata likes to ask us some 'prior knowledge' Questions to see how much knowledge we have learnt throughout the topic. Below the questions are some of our responses.

What is a myth?

- Te Ngahere, Lizzy, Matariki and Leilani - Fairy Tale
- Myra - something that is made up from years ago.
- Ngamoekura - I think it is a god.
- Jada and Chanel - Not too sure.
- Dexarne - I think it is a tale or a legend.
- Calais - A story that is not true, but not in existence.
- Suaad - A myth is a magical tale that is either true or false.
- Precious - A myth is something that could be real but people do not have any proof of it.


What is a legend?
- Precious - A legend is something that is from years ago while the gods were alive.
- Suaad - A legend is like a myth but it's true.
- Leilani - Old history.
- Calais - A true story.
- Matariki - Something from a long time ago
- Dexarne - A story from years ago that's true, I think.
- Chanel - A story that is true, but I'm not quite sure.
- Jada - A person that is a boss of the gods.
- Ngamoekura - A person or object that has a special thing.
- Myra - A person who is remembered.

Some myths or legends that we know:

- Maui & the Sun
- Kupe
- Mahuika
- Hine raukatauri
- Tangaroa
- Tane Mahuta
- Papatuanuku & Ranginui
- The legend of the seven whales

And the prep begins...

This year a majority of our class will be performing at the Primary and Intermediate National Kapa Haka competition which will be held in Palmerston North. This is an awesome opportunity for us to represent not only our school but, also our Maori heritage so, make sure you follow us on our Journey to hitting the nationals stage!

Here's a few photo's from one of our kapa haka practices where we got to use tititoria (sticks). Although it was difficult at first to keep in time, some of us managed to maintain a bit of rhythm and control of our rakau.

"Com'on guys get Banking Wise"

Thanks ASB for the awesome Get Wise program. We learnt a lot about credit cards, making wise decisions and the importance of asking lots of questions.

Here's a photo of us with our brand spanking new wrist bands. Ka mau te wehi ASB!

Room 20 Check out Polyfest!

Most of our class were very fortunate to have the opportunity to attend the Auckland Secondary Schools Polynesian Festival, or just Polyfest for short.

We had an amazing day out! We got to walk around the festival and see what was happening, what school's were performing and what was being sold around at the different stages.

Here are some photo's of some of the things we saw and did today.

Ka Pai Room 20! A Message from Whaea Donna & Room 14 :)

Last week, a few girls from our class were fortunate enough to publish some of their awesome  writing in the school's newsletter.

The girls spoke about what they had been learning in terms of the Treaty of Waitangi and they also described how Fantastic their trip to Waitangi was.

Here's a little Message from some of our teina in our school.

Ngā mihi Whaea Donna me ngā taitamariki ō te Ruma 14. :)

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Congratulations Matariki, Tamara, Serenade and Myra on your awesome recounts that were published in this week’s school panui!  I’m sure every family at CPS have enjoyed reading your experiences and learning more about The Treaty of Waitangi.

Keep up the great work!

Three cheers from Whaea Donna and Room 14 J