Rongoā Māori | by Saoirse

M13 has been investigating Rongoā Māori. Arihia is an expert with Rongoā Māori. She has been teaching them. Arihia taught them a legend about kawakawa leaves and why they are shaped like hearts. The story is that Papatuanuku and Ranginui got split up so Tane covered his mum with plants and one of them was the kawakawa leaves. He shaped them into hearts to calm her down.

Harvesting

When harvesting leaves, always say an important karakia:

         He mihi ki a Papa

         He mihi ki a Rangi

         He mihi ki a Tane

         Tihei Mauri Ora!

but if there are fallen ones you can take them without saying the karakia. However you can’t make the same medicine with the dried ones.

Medicine

You can make balm with kawakawa leaves as well as tea. Since it is shaped like a heart, you can remember that it’s good for your body, tummyaches, headaches, skin diseases, boils, and toothaches because it numbs your mouth.

I enjoyed learning about this. I recommend Rongoā Māori to people who love nature.

Writers' journals riddles and poems

Every Wednesday we start the day with observational drawing and writing in our writers' journals. There's a fad for riddles going on at the moment, along with our usual passion for poetry...

The helicopter
by Francesca

The helicopter falls around and around
in circles
and flutters in a slight breeze.
It got rumpled
rain's sliding down the base of the wings
it cracks and crackles
in the breeze
fluttering downwards.


Colours
by Peta

There are colours
that nobody can name
it has patterns of all kinds
slippery like silk
it has some bumps
that can only be felt
they can't be seen
but they can be touched
the vampire teeth
want to hurt the people
the taste buds 
want to taste some more blood.


The shadow's shadow
by Ella

My shadow has a shadow
and the shadow is me
we are exactly the same
but when he goes away
I am all alone...


Guess what I am!
By Mel

I sparkle 
in the sunlight
I glow 
the colours of the rainbow
I also can crack again
in any shape
What am I?
                     ... paua!

I swirl around
like a tornado
I'm sharp 
at the end and
I get fatter
at the bottom
at all times
I can hear
the light
waves of the sea
What am I?
                     ... a shell!

I twirl
and twirl
around as
I get down
like a helicopter
I am light brown
and I have veins
that you can see.
What am I?
                     ... a maple tree seed!

As I hit the ground
I go
thump thump
thump and 
sometimes crack.
I can be found
nearly everywhere
in different way.
What am I?
                     ... a rock!

As I fall I land in heaven and turn
from green to yellow to orange
to red and finally to brown
and lie there
but I can still
travel around the world.
What am I?
                    ... a leaf!


Morning
by Luca

feet frozen,
cheeks tingling, zip tightened
hands shoved into pockets

I trudge up the alleyway

My hair flying back into the wind


Fuzzy figure
by Dot

It's fluffy like a toy dog
it's brown like chocolate
it's warm in my hands
it's fuzzy and fuzzy and
fuzzy!

Clock
by Dot

tick tock tick tock
it's a clock
now it's 6 o' clock

Untitled
by Dot

A smooth
rich caramel brown triangle 
on my grey hard desk
stripes of light,
bright and white
looks like a yellow lemony colour
on the back


Untitled
by Aliya

one small cut shell
with a hole
shaped like the sea
one little shell with lines curved
like the calm sea

The frame
by Aliya

It's a mini frame of shell
as white as snow
sitting on my dull grey desk
and it looks magical


The shell
by Amelie

the wavy swirly pattern on the shell
pale orange, skin colour, creamy white,
a blob of colour on the beach,
plainly the colour of bleach!


Who am I?
by Tama

It's in the middle
but with more than one
it's very quiet
but only when told
it has a clown
that's upside down
but all of them
are really stars.
Who am I?
                    ...M13!


Changes
a found poem by Joe

The north wind doth blow
Dragon smoke rain wind
who has seen the wind
to a red kite
windy nights stopping by woods
on a snowy evening.


Untitled
by Saoirse

the orange egg rubs against my palm
making me quiver
all over.


The flappy thing
by Mahinaz

the flappy thing is
if you throw it up
it comes down
like a helicopter thing
at the top 
and it goes light to dark
and there's a circle on it
and at the bottom it is little
and beautiful


What am I?
by Jamieson

I look like gas
I live under the water.
I am tasty to eat.
What am I?
A piece of paua.

I am black and white
and like a stick.
What am I?
A tiger snake.

I am black and yellow
and I am venomous.
What am I?
A black and yellow frog
that is venomous.

Surfboard | By Saoirse

I waggled my legs in the water.  

‘This is so cool!’

The sunset was gleaming.  I heard a hum of noise while I was balancing on my board. I saw fish swim by. With the bubbles floating up, I was like an iceberg.

Slam poet - Paris, AKA Saoirse

The rapid winds | by Saoirse

The rapid winds rock me
from side to side.

I urge my feet
through the force field
but all the little wind people
are too strong
for my little feet.

I feel like I'm going
to bang in to
the big green pole.

By Saoirse

Our multiple intelligences

Today we were thinking about the health of our BRAINS.  We looked at a whole lot of pictures of kids doing different things, and discussed what we think they might be good at.  We wrote these ideas in yellow.  As we placed the pictures on our poster, we thought about how these talents might be connected, and tried to place and group similar talents together.  Then we talked about Howard Gardner.  He has done a lot of research on how we think and has come up with a theory of multiple intelligences, describing how different people's brains work in different ways.  When we looked at his list of multiple intelligences we found that it was very similar to ours.  We stuck his words (in white) alongside our own ideas.

Howard Gardner says, "All of us have the full range of intelligences; that is what makes us human beings, cognitively speaking. No two individuals—not even identical twins—have exactly the same intellectual profile."

Our intellectual profile is a way of describing which intelligences we feel more or less confident in.

Tomorrow we're going to think more about our own intelligences.   Which do you think are your strengths?  Which do you want to develop more?

So much depends...

Last week our poem of the week was William Carlos Williams' poem, The Red Wheelbarrow:

so much depends
upon

the red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.


Over the weekend, Saoirse wrote her own version. Here it is!

Grrreat graphs

This week we are learning about pictographs.  Earlier on in the week we made a pictograph showing what we did on holiday.

Yesterday we started making M13's hair colour pictographs.  First we sat in a circle and said the colour of our hair.  Amy made a tally on a piece of paper, for each hair colour. The most people had light brown hair.

Then we made our own graphs.

We talked about what makes a good pictograph. We agreed that we needed to:

1. measure the width of each column evenly
2. draw pictures of the hair colour
3. write a title and underline it
4. keep the columns straight
5. show accurate data
6. be neat

Using these criteria, we marked our graphs ourselves using red pen.  Then we had a look at each other's and decided which ones were good examples to put on the blog. Here they are:

By Noah

By Saoirse

By Meline

By Peta

By Francesca