Continents

We are learning about the Continents of the world.

Continents are large areas of land. There are seven continents on Earth now: Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America, Australia and Antarctica.

Play these games to make sure you know these.

National Anthem of NZ

Today we sang the NZ national anthem in both Maori and English. We plan to sing it heaps over the term. It is called 'God of Nations'. Here is some information about our national anthem.

Thomas Bracken wrote his poem in the early 1870s, and offered a prize of 10 guineas for the best musical setting. This was won by Otago schoolteacher John Joseph Woods. In 1940, on the recommendation of the NZ Centennial Council, the Government declared God Defend New Zealand to be the National Hymn, and bought the copyright. In 1977, with the Queen’s consent, God Defend New Zealand was given equal status with God Save the Queen as one of New Zealand’s national anthems.

NZ Flag

The New Zealand Flag is New Zealand’s national symbol. Its royal blue background represents the blue sea and sky surrounding us, and the stars of the Southern Cross signify our place in the South Pacific Ocean. The Union Flag recognises our historical foundations and that New Zealand was once a British colony and dominion

Mapping NZ

We have been mapping this week. We put the host cities of the World Cup onto a map and then added some important geographical features. Today we began looking at the provinces where the Webb Ellis cup is going on the road trip. We looked at Northland, Auckland, Hawkes Bay and Bay of Plenty. We think it is important to know about our own country. Tomorrow we will look at Taranaki, Manawatu, Waikato and Wellington. As part of this study we are looking at main cities, things to do, main geographical features and the provinces rugby colours. We also learnt about using key words when searching for information on the internet using Google. Also, we revised capital letters for names of places. Presentation was very important and most of us are getting very good at presenting our work neatly.

Responsibility

Responsibility means doing what needs to be done to take care of yourself, your family, your friends, and the greater community. Being responsible means that others can rely on you, that you follow through on your promises.

We need to learn to act responsibly and this might involve doing something difficult--like handing your homefun in on time or giving up your own time to help the family. Responsibility can also take strength, such as, saying no to tings you know you shouldn't do.

The Wind

There is a place where the raw polar winds blow, bitter and raging.
The trees stand tall next to me grasping their bony long roots into the freezing, snowy ground.

Still, I stroll through the isolated land when a gust of wind strong and whirling, hits my face bitterly ,chilling me to the bone.
The misty winds pick up the clouds which gather in groups, turning darker than ever, raging their tempers.

The snowy icy ground below my feet crackles like the fire.

By Olive Pujol (aged 8 years) R16

Trophy for the Rugby World Cup

Webb Ellis Cup

• Made in 1906 in Garrard's workshop
• Silver and gilded in gold
• 2 cast scroll handles
• 38 cm tall
• Not made originally for Rugby World Cup
• Named after William Webb Ellis (the inventor of rugby football)
• NZ All Blacks first team to win it
• South Africa currently hold it
• 4 nations have won the cup (NZ (once), England (once), Australia (twice) and
South Africa (twice)

Snow Days

Wanaka Primary was shut for two days because of snow.

The All Blacks

The All Blacks are the NZ men's national rugby team. In NZ rugby is considered to be a national sport. The NZ rugby team are one of the most successful sporting teams of all time. After first playing in 1884, they maintain a 75% winning record and throughout their history have only been beaten by five teams. They are also the only international rugby union team to have a winning record against every test nation they have played.

Haka

The Rugby World Cup will see the All Blacks perform the haka 'Ka Mate' which has been performed at many great rugby matches and official functions since 1906 until 2005 when the All Blacks introduced a new haka 'Kapa O Pango'. Te Rauparaha, a tribal war leader composed 'Ka Mate' as a celebration of life over death after escaping his enemies. Translated from Maori to English, the main art of the haka declares

Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora! I die! I die! I live! I live!
Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora! I die! I die! I live! I live!
Tenei te tangata puhuru huru This is the hairy man
Nana nei i tiki mai Who fetched the Sun
Whakawhiti te ra And caused it to shine again
A upa ... ne! ka upa ... ne! One upward step! Another upward step!
A upane kaupane whiti te ra! An upward step, another.. the Sun shines!!

Right Here Right Now by the Feelers

The marketing song for the Rugby World Cup in NZ 2011

Kiwiana

We asked the question, What is culture?
This a definition we liked ...
All the knowledge and values shared by a society
Everything a group of people think, how they behave, and what they produce that is passed on to future generations.

We wrote and drew the things that were important to us in our own cultural wheel. We then got together, in groups of three and talked about similarities and difference between our wheels.

After that we drew things that make us 'Kiwis' and discussed 'Kiwiana. We pasted them onto a chart.

The Oxford N.Z. Dictionary defines kiwiana as “Any of the many 'collectable', items redolent of New Zealand life and culture."

Go to Kiwiana Town to see some of the things that are important to us as KIWIS.







We then completed a cultural wheel that reflects the things that are important to us as New Zealanders.

Flags and Symbols

What is a flag?
A piece of cloth, usually rectangular, of distinctive colour and design, used as a symbol, standard, signal, or emblem

What is a symbol?
A shape or sign used to represent something such as an organisation
such as the Silver Fern)

What is a logo?
A symbol or other small design adopted by an organisation to identify its products, uniform, vehicles and to go on stationery (such as Wanaka Primary School logo)

After completing our kiwiana work, we webbed ideas about what
Wanaka Primary Schoolwiana and Wanaka communityana might look like.

Over the next two days we plan to design a flag or symbol that would represent either our school culture or the Wanaka community culture.

History of Rugby and the Rugby Ball

Rugby and Rugby Balls
This week in reading, the Lollipops group read a new school journal. In it they read an article called 'The First Rugby Ball'. Here are some of the facts they found. They recorded facts on a rugby ball shape and displayed on a group chart.

- Rugby school developed Rugby football from football and played this game according to Rugby rules

- Until 1870, rugby was played with a near spherical ball with an inner-tube made of a pig's bladder!

- William Webb Ellis was a schoolboy at Rugby School, who, bored with the slow pace of a football game, picked up the ball and ran with it, and created the game of rugby. Webb Ellis is the person the World Cup is named after.

- Richard Lindon started making rugby balls for Rugby School out of hand stitched four-panel, leather casings and pigs’ bladders.

- The rugby ball's distinctive shape is supposedly due to the pig’s bladder
Early balls were more plum-shaped than oval.

- The balls varied in size in the beginning depending upon how large the pig’s bladder was.