Talofa from Samoa

We have been very busy in Samoa. Since our arrival we have made several trips to town and today we went to the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum. It was amazing to hear about the history of Samoa surrounding the famous writer who died in Samoa and is buried at the top of Mt Vaea due to his wishes. His other wish was to be buried with his boots which the Samoan people fulfilled when he died. It took a lot of work for the people of Samoa to carry Robert Louis Stevenson's coffin to the top of the mountain but they did it because they loved him.

Tomorrow which is Tuesday in Samoa we are travelling to Savaii. We are all excited to go because we have heard so many wonderful stories about Savaii. MRsTofa is escpecially excited because Savaii is where she was born.

We will keep you all posted when we have access to the internet but for now Tofa Soifua.

Genevieve is the best

Genevieve is the best
Genevieve can ace a test

She is the kindest person I have ever met
There is nothing I would like to change about her
We are fortunate to be in the same class
Everyday we laugh and laugh

We go on bebo everyday
And comment to each other with hearts

Information Report about the Sun

The Sun

The sun is a large round ball that the planets travel around.

It is made out of many gases, chemicals and most importantly fire. The sun also lets off tiny explosions that create sunbeams and sunrays which gives us light and heat.

The sun formed first at the centre of the cloud. It became whole when gases and chemicals and dust started to grow.

The centre of the sun is called the core. The core is extremely hot. The heat sends tiny bits of matter called atoms crashing into each other. The crashing atoms set off atomic or nuclear reactions. All of the energy of the sun comes from these nuclear reactions in its core. It takes a long time for the energy from the core to reach the surface of the sun- about 170,000 years!!

The sun is very important to us. We play in the sunshine. We see daylight. The sun keeps us warm. Even ancient people knew the sun was very important. They thought the sun was a god. The ancient Greeks thought the sun god drove a chariot across the sky every day. The ancient Egyptians thought the sun god sailed a boat across the sky.

Heat from the sun warms up the ground. The warmth from the ground heats the air above. The sun warms us and gives everything life, so without the sun the universe would not exist!

Our trip to the Howick Historical Village

When we first got there we had our morning tea and put our bags away in special cupboards that had locks.

We got put into our classroom groups and we went to four different classroom activities. First we went to experience what school was like in the past. The chairs and tables were incredibly small. The boys had to let the girls go first all the time. Our teacher’s name was Mrs Mills. We started off with handwriting and we ended school by learning how money was and how much they were worth. We also had a spelling test and the boys won. The equipment we used to write with was ink and old fashioned ink pens.

Our second activity was when we made a mini Raupo Whare. Thanks to Mrs Parker-Tofa we were almost finished. The materials we used were flax, rope and sticks. The girls won because our one looked the best.

In our third activity, we learnt how to make bread and how they kept food good. There was a special cupboard on the side of the house where you could put your butter, milk and all your cold food accessories to keep them nice and cool. The oven was put in a fire place and there were special metal sticks that you use to open up the oven when the oven was hot. The oven and stove was working by fire and there was a huge barrel where they stored the wood. She said that if you wanted to made bread it took quite a long time to make in the past.

On our last classroom activity we got into groups of four and we had to try and make a trolley. Mrs White said the first team finished got to ride on it. The main key we used was Team Work. My team won because we were the first ones that were nearly finished. Eparama was the first one to ride on it but most of the pieces fell off!
After that we had our lunch and had free time to walk around but only where the teachers could see us.

After lunch we went with a teacher in groups to explore the Howick Historical Village. We had a partner to work with. Each pair had a booklet they had to work on. There were houses where two families had to live in. Upstairs was where everyone slept and downstairs was the everything room where you had to cook, iron and do much more work. There was one house where only one family could live but you would have had to be very wealthy because the house was HUGE! The Raupo Whare could only fit one family because it was really small. There was a small white tent that soldiers lived in. They were promised the tents by Queen Victoria.

Finally it was time to leave. Vaegaa’u said thank you on behalf of Tamaki Intermediate. We all went on the bus but the people who could not fit had to go in the van. When we got back to school, school was not finished just yet. We packed up and we enjoyed our DELICIOUS bread.