Grandparent Day

Thank you to everyone who came along to our Grandparent day today. We sang some songs, read some poems and served some kai. Students shared their work with their grandparents and family.

Gardens in Newtown

Today some kids went with John to some gardens in Newtown and got some inspiration for the gardens we are going to build at school. By Gretel

Here is a movie about our trip:

Going to the gardens from Matariki on Vimeo.

Empathising with refugees through the Save the Children Advert

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

More reading: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/16979186

This is us learning about refugees at Te Papa

New Zealand to take 750 refugees http://www.kiwikidsnews.co.nz/blog/nz-to-take-750-syrian-refugees/

Finnish PM opens his doors to refugees: http://www.kiwikidsnews.co.nz/blog/finlands-pm-opens-house-refugees/

Homeless and Refugee Poems

Homeless by Hanne

Lost,

Alone in the world

No one to talk to

No home, but a box

No warmth, just cold

No fancy clothes

Rags

No nice warm dinners in winter

Not even a warm bed

No family, no friends

I am just alone in the world

No one cares!

Homeless Poem by Perry

sitting on the street

with no money whatsoever

tired, no money

shelterless

searching for food

trying to find a way to get more money

coming to the soup kitchen

with not much sleep

making different homes

on the ground

sleeping on the ground

depressed

Homeless by Charlie

Homeless, homeless

I am homeless

Homeless, homeless

Not being blessed

Homeless, homeless

I have no chance.

Homeless, homeless

Why bother to dance.

Homeless, homeless

It could be my day.

Homeless, homeless

But the sky is still grey.

Homeless, homeless

The city is wonderful.

Homeless, homeless

But I’m just horrible.

Homeless, homeless

Why bother try.

Homeless, homeless

I’m just gonna die

Homeless, homeless

I am homeless

Homeless, homeless

Not being blessed

Homeless by Lucas

Homeless

homeless

I wish I wasn't homeless

I sleep in a box

my best friend is rook

not a penny

freezing to death

no family, I'm left out

hungry for food

bored with nothing

jobless

no one listens to me

begging on the street for something

hurt

Refugee by Meg  

I am not like you

you are lucky

I ran for life

I ran from war

I ran to food and water

I ran to education

from my country to another

I  walked for miles

you are lucky

I am not like you

I am a refugee!

Homeless by Liv

Thirsty,

desperate search for water,

Hungry,

never ending search for a bite,

Parched,

my search for a sip continues,

Famished,

please just a nibble,

Friendless,

endless searches for survival resources,

Chattering teeth,

I’m lying beneath half-a-layer of ripped leaves

Trying to sleep,

but only yesterday,

I had a breadcrumb

but I’m still unemployed,

and I’m a disadvantaged beggar,

neglected, abandoned,

lack of fun,

dull and bland,

could someone lend a helping hand?

All I have, is dirty and hopeless rags,

and the smallest of all of the bags,

all I’ll ever be is unoticed.

Who cares for the elderly: Documentary

We have been thinking about whose role it is to care for the elderly and have uncovered some really interesting information and ideas.

Here is our documentary that we have made. 

Enjoy!

Refugee Centre Visit

Harua and Fahima came in from the refugee services. They talked to us about what they do there. They help people that have come from overseas. People that have come from overseas usually have problems in their own countries for example, war. Fahima and her husband, had to leave her country and travel for 25 hours over mountains with 5 children, including a 2 month old baby. She travelled from Kabul to Pakistan.

By Evie

Visit from the Compassion Centre staff

Steve and Sister Josefa came to WBS to talk about the compassion centre/ soup kitchen in Wellington and the work they do there. They own a little breakfast/dinner place anyone can go there but mostly homeless people go. Homeless in New Zealand means people who live in uninhabitable dwellings with no power or water.   

The soup kitchen opens at 7.45am for breakfast. They serve soup in the morning. They also serve dinner. At dinner they serve meals and these can be anything from pasta to curry. They don't work on Sundays.

A lady called Suzanne Aubert helped loads of homeless people in NZ. She came here in 1901 from France. She might be New Zealand’s first saint. 
Here is a link to their website: http://www.soupkitchen.org.nz/

By Zoe, Manaia and Betty

We had a visit from Two staff from the compassion centre, They talked to us about what they do to help the community. They talked about what they serve at the compassion centre. (They serve soup for breakfast with tea, milk and coffee, They have meat and veggies for dinner). We also found out how long they are open for.        

                                 Here is the timetable:

Breckfast	Problems	Dinner
In the morning they are open from 7:45 - 9:45 for breakfast.	Helping the people with their needs and problems with things.	At 6:00 - 8:00 They serve dinner. (For  2$ Just for the  dinner)

If people have any money can pay 2$ for dinner, but if they don't, they will still give you a meal. But  you need to save up to pay for it. They get around 40 people for breakfast and about 70 - 90 people at dinner. They get volunteers for handing out the breakfast and dinner so then the staff can make it. By Frankie, Emma and Meg

Suzane Aubert- Founder of the soup kitchen

Suzanne Aubert was a french woman who founded the soup kitchen. Who wanted to help people in need and who are living on the streets of Wellington. She travelled on a  boat from France to New Zealand for many months.

She traveled miles and miles, weeks and weeks to Jerusalem and many more places. She had almost no transport so she walked thru the mountains. She helped many people. 

By Felix and Ben     

We had a look at some people's stories on the Soup Kitchen website. Here is Rusty's story told by Liv...

Rusty visits the soup kitchen for dinner. He sometimes visits for breakfast. When he was a kid, he was fostered by his aunt. He has seven brothers and sisters. Rusty's sisters live in Australia and even though he longs to see her, he can't as he has a criminal record. He went to prison. He is artistic and active. He used to be an alcoholic and took drugs, but he gave them up after being in prison. He stole a car once. Now he doesn't have a car and he isn't allowed to drive. He gets bored when he isn't doing anything. He visits the soup kitchen because he doesn't have much money.

Questioning for our research

As part of our inquiry, "who is in our community?" we have been learning about what kind of questions to ask and the need to come back to some of our big inquiry questions:

• Who are the people living in my backyard?  Who is in my community? Where is my community?
• What is community?
• How do I affect my backyard/environment?
• What can I contribute to my backyard/environment/community?

We have learnt the importance of asking green light questions:

Red light questions can be important too: 

We looked at some of the students' trips and did a PMI on how well they linked their interview questions to our big inquiry questions.

We came up with success criteria for asking questions on a trip:

• I have good questions
• I can keep the interviewee talking by asking relevant questions
• My questions are connected (flow)
• I was well organised

Lala: Film maker- Who is in our community?

Our inquiry is about, “Who is in our community.” We are learning about different people and their stories. Yesterday, Lala came in to talk about her work as a film director for documentaries and told us some stories.

She showed us part of 2 films/ documentaries that she has made. We thought they were very cool and interesting.

Then she told us a story that she and John made when they were young. It was a silly story about how he lost his finger. It made us all chuckle.

Lala told us how she got her interesting name. She was in a big family of 6 siblings. She was the 5th of 6 girls. Her mum did not know what to call her as she had run out of girl’s names. A fijian high chief in the village where she was born suggested that she would name the 6th child if it was a girl. The baby was a girl, she was called Lala after Adi Lala. We asked Lala a bit more about the high chief in an email. Here is her response:

“The chief was Adi Lady Lala Mara - a high chief of the Rewa province. Adi is pounced Andi (with the and i in the Maori pronunciation way) and Adi is the Fijian word for high born chiefly women. And the British gave her the title 'Lady' too. In Fiji if you name someone your name they become your yaca,(pronounced ya-the). Which means namesake but it also becomes special bond like a godparent. So she was my yaca and also officially became my godmother. And in Fiji when I was  kid I was very skinny and white and Fijian people used think it was hilarious to call me Adi Lala because I looked so different from her. So Fijian woman when I was  little and sitting on the bus with Eme my nanny used to squeeze my cheeks and say, "Isa Adi Lala"  and laugh their heads off...Tell everyone to go to Fiji for the holidays it's a pretty cool place.”

After she told us about when she found drawings in a cave on the west coast of New Zealand. They were drawn from  Taipei, the man who stopped the first fight between Maori and captain cook.

She told us we can help her fundraise for her documentaries to go on TV, which would be very cool. We would have to write to NZ on air to convince them to fund the show so that we can watch it on Maori TV. Her new documentary is about writers in New Zealand and will include the writer’s walk.

By Burton and Isaac