Taking Action: Peace Week

Today we spent the day Taking Action. Last week, we learnt a lot about nuclear history and why New Zealand is nuclear free. Today we used what we have learnt to take action. We made plays, movies, songs, art, persuasive letters, poems...

These are some of the things that we came up with: 

By Mateo and Anatole

By Alexandra: "I felt sad that animals were dying from pollution!"

By Nell and Isabel: Peace Poem

By Charlotte: Comic Strip about Chernobyl

By Charlotte: Comic Strip about Chernobyl

By Rim, Ari and Hunter T

Visual Art about nuclear weapons

By Jessie

By Bethen

By Parker

The Creative Process: We are writing a song!

Peace Art: By Haare

By Kaia

By Luca, Nick, Ollie and Oscar

By Alastair and Hugo W

By Alastair and Hugo W

By Janne

By Orla

Chernobyl

115,000 people evacuated Chernobyl is the worst nuclear power disaster recorded, the exclusion zone is 70 kilometers and 31 firefighters died instantly and after fifteen days of firefighting they put out the fire. We still don't know how many people have died so far.

The reason the reactor melted down is because they were doing a maintenance check and they removed the control rods and the reactor got too hot and they could not get the control rods back in so the reactor melted down.

-       Sam St

How I Feel?

I feel heart broken that so many people died when they were living there peaceful life that people could just come in and ruin their lives.

-       Lucie W.

Thoughts…

I feel really sad because just thinking about all the people that died and the people who had to leave their homes because of a test gone horribly wrong. And all the people that helped stop the radiation who died from radiation sickness. I am so grateful for the people that died helping. They died trying. That died because they cared. That died because they wanted to help.

-       Arabella H

The 4th reactor overheated

115,000 people evacuated

Crops are affected by radiation

Radiation is invisible

They took all the radiation detectors

They kept the other reactors on until 2000

They covered up the 4th reactor in 2017 for $3bilion dollars

-       Jupiter

Very few people live in radiation zone. Water is very radioactive. The explosion is the most fatal ever. 8 tons of radiation. When the explosion happened, they didn’t want anyone to panic.

-       Alex B

Broken rides

Destroyed buildings

Everything ruined

Emotional

How did those masks not help?

-       Madeline

It was probably a beautiful place and all the people had to move out of it and it just got ruined.

Feeling…

I felt really sad because people loved that place and didn't want to move place but happy because they survived. like I didn't want to leave the Caribbean but I was happy I did to make new friends.

-       Talia 

Peace Week 2017: What happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Peace Week celebrates Aotearoa New Zealand - 30 Years Nuclear Free. 

About Schools’ Peace Week

The Peace Foundation New Zealand, started Schools' Peace Week in 2000, as our contribution to the United Nations Decade of the Child, to educate people of the consequences of nuclear war and to campaign for a world of nuclear weapons. The date of Schools’ Peace Week commemorates Hiroshima Day on 6 August, and Nagasaki Day on 9 August. The event has become increasingly popular in New Zealand and abroad each year and students are engaged in various activities, which promote peaceful practices in our schools and communities.  By making small changes we are able to empower people to create a safe world based on justice and human rights as well as to build a sustainable environment and peaceful relationships. This year Schools' Peace Week is being held from Monday 7th August to Friday 11th August. The theme for 2017 is “Nuclear Free”.

For more information log on to: www.peace.net.nz

We learnt what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Reading Links 

We generated some research questions: 

Here are some Quick Writes that we did after finding out what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

The only reason that the USA dropped the atomic bomb was because the Japanese refused to surrender. The people from the USA dropped the first bomb was when the Japanese first refused to surrender and the bomb was dropped Hiroshima and the emperor still refused to surrender and three days later another bomb was dropped in Nagasaki and the emperor finally surrendered. By Nela

We learn from history! As you now it is peace week and today we are learning about atomic bombs. I feel sad that they did this and it was not a very nice thing they did. I would hate to be in their shoes. I wish I could of stopped it. why did they need to bomb that country, just because the emperor would not give up and surrender. By Isabel

During world war 2, 2 bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bomb that hit Hiroshima was called “little boy” and the bomb that hit Nagasaki was called “fat man”. Tens of thousands of people were killed by the bombs. The 2 bombs were dropped by America. The the bomb that hit Nagasaki was dropped on the 9th of Aug 1945 and the bomb that hit Hiroshima was dropped on the 6th of Aug 1945. The bombs were only dropped a few days apart. By Arabella

We are researching about what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Poetry, Storms

Poetry Writing:

We have been writing poems: about storms, about what happens when we are sleeping, about what the city does in the middle of the night and we have been writing poems for Peace Week.  We have been writing some crazy songs too but we will share some of those later.

We used a William Blake poem about caring for each other and caring for our World as a model.

Long Live

                               Long live our unextinguished zest

                                     Long live our forever love

                                   Long live our love for animals

                                     Long live the scarce green.

                            Long live what little freedom we have

                                  Long live the buzzing bees

                                       The colorful flowers

                                     Long live the coral reef.

                                    Long live the white rhinos

                                   Long live our brown  world

                               Long live our undented courage

                                 Long live our beautiful world.

                            Long live the freedom women have

                                   Long live the compassion

                     that has led us to both destruction and victory

                               Long live our love for learning.

                                       Long live our hope

                              Long live the good in people

                                Long live the kelp forest

                          Long live our precious rainforest

                                

                                  Let our passion wonder

                         Let the unreasonable fighting stop

                           Let us thrive in green and blue

                                   Long live the peace.

                                      Long live us!                                      By Danielle

                              What Happens When We Are Sleeping             

                         The basilisk roams around in the middle of the night 

When you are sleeping sneaking through streets

                            Snatching, eating, gobbling, slithering, he whispers

                            In Parseltongue   kill      kill       kill      KILL

                           

                              Cats meow, dogs bark, wind flows, rain flys

                             Trees drip, noone sees the monsters

                              Roaming feet thudding houses crushing

                               Water rising, trees falling, ground ripping

                               

                                People growing, ideas flowing, time spinning

                                Coming going in and out, blackness falling over

                                Mountains growing, trucks towing, rivers

                                 Flowing things roaming.   By Flynn

Storm by Dani

Grumble rumble, treacherous churning

Raging howling thundering funnel

Clouds coiling, pots boiling

Wind smashing, trees clashing

Dark sky darkening, inside apple pie

Krackle crash smash bash, kersplash

Hail piling up outside

No one dares no one tries

Pitch black, then lightning crack

Thump whump plop throup

Rain stain, what a shame

Krackle bash bang

Clouds munching, sticks crunching

A black monster, a white fright

Which is day, what is night?

Scary fork, stabbing light

Curled up, book in hand

Wind blowing, heater going

Tv on, all together

Disaster strikes, what a night

Last night I saw the City…..

Last night I saw the city thinking,

couriers zipping along, like nerve signals,

boats drifting like ideas,

Tiny thoughts in the harbour of the city’s mind.

                                                                             by Ben

What Happens When We Are Trying Sleep…..

The leaves scatter from the wind

As cars hurry past your house

The trees sway, the sounds

Get deeper into your mind.

You struggle to get to sleep

You wonder what it’s like

On the other side of the world?

Were the murderers creep

                                                      Were the devils speak

And the monster peek into the

Bedrooms.      

                                                                 by Haare