(Established 2009) This is the history of our Year 7 and 8 classes in Huia 1 at The Gardens School, NZ. We wrote for ourselves, our families and friends and for anyone who wanted to know what life was like at our school. From 2009 to 2013, Huia 1's teacher was Mrs Vincent. 1n 2014, classes changed and Huia 1 became Miss Murphy's room, with Mrs Vincent teaching on Thursday afternoons in Term 1. This blog has now ceased regular publication but is a record of our time together in Huia 1.
Some of the Huia 1 students entered a competition to create a video with the theme ¡Aprender español es divertido! (Learning Spanish is fun!) for a competition organised by STANZA which means Spanish Teachers Association of New Zealand Aotearoa.
1st prize is a $200 class party. We used iMovie and Garageband to create the video. We enjoyed making the movie because we made heaps of mistakes which were really funny and learned lots of Spanish. The whole class was involved in some way by playing games, singing, recording and videoing. Our video was made 100% by students in the class. Mrs Lee approved our Spanish punctuation but everything else is our own work.
These were the students who created the video:
Director/Editor: Nikeeta
Camera operators: So Yeon, Mighael, Nikeeta
Sound/Music: Brittany Kumiko Nikeeta So Yeon Rebekah
Cast and Crew: Brittany Maria Rebekah Kumiko Juliana So Yeon Nikeeta Huia 1
Stanley, Reece, Jordan, Josh and I have been working in the Hard Materials room every Thursday with Mr Fowler.
We have been making puzzles out of thin pieces of wood using a band saw to cut patterns, and we’ve made wooden boxes to keep the puzzles in. We painted the boxes with 3 colours, and then when the paint dried, we had to write ‘The Gardens School’, our name, and draw the design of the puzzle on the box.
We made the puzzles especially for the New Entrants.
Our group all had a turn cutting pieces of long, thin wood to make lids for the boxes.It was quite difficult – Jordan cut the table!!! It happened because he wasn’t watching what he was doing. We all had a little laugh.
Mr Fowler taught us lots of skills:
- using safety equipment to protect our eyes and ears – we wore safety glasses and ear muffs;
- how to use the equipment and how it should be treated
We all liked working with Mr Fowler because he is cool. We all respect him, and he respects us.
Check out out blog posting about the AFS student Carlos, from Paraguay, who visited us last week. It got published in the wrong place but click here and you will find it.
Meanwhile, here are some more stories from some of the students in our class, Huia 1.
¡Hola! Mi nombre es Maria. Soy de Manurewa, Auckland , Nueva Zelanda. Vivo en Los Jardines. Tengo once años. Mi cumpleaños es el veintiseis de septiembre. Hay cinco personas en mi familia. Tengo dos hermanos. Se llaman James y Patrick. Mi madre se llama Jackie. Mi padre se llama Kane. Mi escuela se llama Los Jardines. Mis mejores amigas se llaman Jenna y Juliana. Me gustan chocolate y la mùsica.
Maria samples crepes made in Poutama.
¡Hola! Me llamo Mighael. Tengo once años. Soy de Sur Africa. Vivo en Los Jardines. Tengo un hermano y una hermana. Se llaman Aaron y Maralize. Me gustan chicos buenos. No me gustan los chicos malos. Tengo un pájaro amarillo se llama Tweety. Juego el fútbol. Mi cumpleaños es el 17th de febrero. Mis amigos son Alwyn y Jacob y Ethan.
Mighael is taking a video of our group making empanadas.
¡Hola! Me llamo Shane. Tengo once años. Tengo dos gatos. Juego el rugby y el polo de agua. Mi cumpleaños es el treinta de septiembre . Tengo un hermano. Mis amigos son Mark, Nico, Calen, Anthony, Elliot, Andy y Kenneth. Soy de Nueva Zelanda. Vivo en Manurewa.
Nathan, Andy, Shane and Kenneth are making pizza.
¡Hola! Me llamo Roneel.Yo soy Manurewa, Auckland Nueva Zelanda. Tengo doce años. Me apellido es Roy. Yo soy bajo pero yo soy muy inteligente. Mi comida preferida es coca-cola y pizza. Me gustan los computadoras. Juego el fútbol.Hay tres personas en mi familia. No tengo hermanos ni hermanas.Mi cumpelaños es el veintiuno de julio. Mis mejores amigos son Sambit, Aminder y William.
¡Hola! Mi nombre es Aminder. Soy de Manurewa, Auckland Nueva Zelanda. Tengo doce años. Mi cumpleaños es el once de agosto. Mis mejores amigos son Sambit, Roneel y William. Mi escuela se llama Los Jardines. Hay cuatro personas en mi familia: una madre, un padre y un hermano. Me gusta el cricket y fútbol. Hablo inglés y indio, hindi y un poco español.
Sambit, Aminder, William and Roneel are making a pizza.
¡Hola! Me llamo Theo. Tengo doce años. Soy de Nueva Zelanda. Vivo en Auckland. Hay cuatro personas en mi familia. Mi padre se llama Donald, mi madre se llama Maria. Tengo una hermana, se llama Charlotte. Mi comida preferida es macarrones de queso. Me gustan las camisetas Nike y los blue jeans. Tengo un perro, se llama Max y un gato se llamo Patch. Mis amigos son Elliot, Shane, Anthony, Calen, Andy y Josh.
On Tuesday the 3rd of November (martes el tres de noviembre) we had athletics. Athletics is when you compete in different sports like shot put, high jump, long jump, long distance runs , relays, sprints and discus. (Take a look at the pictures below).
It started off as a rainy day however it cleared up which was great.
The intermediates did a great job when they were doing athletics and some of the intermediates made it into the team to go to the interschool athletics day which is coming up soon.
When athletics was finished there was a sausage sizzle. Everyone had an awesome time when they were eating - well we thought we should have a treat for all our efforts.
Written by Nikeeta and Brittany.
Photos by Nikeeta
Year 8 girls sprints.
Year 7 girls sprints- Te Ana wins just ahead of Mikayla.
More sprints .
Starting the boys long distance run.
High jump.
A fun obstacle course so we could fit all the groups in an activity.
Another high jump group.
Discus
More high jump.
And more high jump.
The start of the boys relay.
Sprints.
Girls relay.
Our long jump pit wasn't ready so we did a standing jump instead.
On Friday 6th of November Carlos came to visit us. He is an AFS student and he came from Paraguay which is next to Argentina. He lives with Mrs Grace who is a teacher at our school. We had fun learning Spanish because he understood what we were saying.
We also did a bit of fun and games as well. We played a game where you have to say a Spanish word clearly and it had to sound a bit "Spanishy". Each round had three students who had to say the same word. Carlos had to choose the best pronunciation. It was a whole heap of fun because we got los caramelos which were delisiosos. Take a look at the video below to see us learning spanish with Carlos.
While we were in the Poutama building we learnt to talk to Carlos in "espanol" and the awesome thing was that he understood what we said. While Carlos was around we had a great opportunity to ask him any Spanish questions we liked.
On Friday a special group got to make empanadas. Empanadas are from Argentina and are pastry with filling. We had three different fillings for the empanadas, which were carne picada (mince), maiz de crema (sweet corn) and jamón y queso (ham and cheese). There were some students that couldn't have meat (beef or ham) or others who couldn't eat any meat or eggs because of religious reasons so we had to make maiz de crema and empanadas with just cheese.
Our Spanish teacher, Mrs Lee, taught us how to make the empanadas and she brought the ingredients. The ingredients for all the empandas are: flaky pastry, mince, carrot, ham, cheese, sweet corn, egg and milk. The empanadas were triangular in shape. They needed to be folded on the sides in a special way so it could go in the oven.
We made the empanadas during our lunch time but it was worth it. At the end of the day the students that helped make the empanadas got an extra empanada because of their hard work to make them.
We are making a video called "Aprender Español es Divertida" which means "Learning Spanish is Fun". We think that making empanadas was a good idea because we would learn how to make them and so we would get an extra cooking lesson for the year (Sambit's opinion).I think making empandas was a good idea because I never made empanadas before and it we have had our last session for cooking this year (Roneel's comment).
By Sambit and Roneel
Kenneth said: The empanadas were pretty nice and similar to the ones I used used to have at my home. I already knew about empanadas because there was a fast food place in my home country (Philipines) where I used to get them. My favourite fillings are mince with cheese. The ones we made were a bit bigger that the ones I used to have.
Rebekah said: It was really fun because I love cooking and I like learaning new recipes so I can try them at home with my family. I'm going to ask Mum to buy the ingredients next shopping day. I learned how to say the ingredients of the empanadas in Spanish- jamón y queso, huevos, zanahoria, carne picada y maiz de crema.
Daniel said: I think empanadas were yum. I tried only one flavour, sweet corn. I think sweet corn was the best. Learning Spanish is fun because it is quite easy. It is easier to learn Spanish more than English because my mind thinks it is. Soy de Korea.
Aminder said: Fue muy divertida. I think the best one was the mince one because it was healthy and I like mince. I would like to make empanadas at home and let my family taste them as well.
Te Ana said: Me gustan las empanadas. I think they are the best empanadas I have tried. I haven't tried any before. They kind of remind me of small pastry pies.
Mrs Vincent said: Me gustan las empanadas. Me recuerdan de la Argentina. I tried many types of empanadas when I was in Argentina.
Mrs Lee said: I learned how to make empanadas when I was staying with my friend Monica in Iguazu. Aprendi cocinar las empanadas cuando era en Iguzu con mi amiga Monica. When I was in Argentina I used to go to a take-away shop which sold only empanadas. You can buy special circles of empanada pastry in a pack - a bit like a pack of won ton pastry- so you can easily make your own at home too.
How to Make Empanadas by Mrs Lee
First you need puff pastry, beef mince, cream corn, ham, cheese,eggs and carrot. You also need milk or egg for glazing.
Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
Peel and grate a carrot.
Brown the mince and grated carrot in the pan. No oil is needed.
Hard boil an egg.
Cut the egg finely and add it to the cooked mince and carrot.
Grate the cheese and cut the ham into small pieces.
Open a tin of sweet corn.
Cut each of the pastry sheets into four.
Place a spoonful of a filling onto each quarter of pastry.
Wet the edges of the pastry with your fingers dipped in water (or use a pastry brush). Don't use too much water.
Fold the pastry square in half to make a triangle containing all the filling. Press down on the edges of pastry to stick them together.
Trim the end off the triangle to make the shape a bit more semicircular.
Roll the edges of pastry over to make a rope-like pattern. (Ask William for a demonstration - he is the best empanada folder we have ever seen).
Place the empanadas on baking paper on an oven tray.
Brush with beaten egg or milk.
Place in centre of oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes until golden.
Remove and leave for five minutes until cool enough to eat.
ENJOY!
These can be reheated but are best eaten straight away. (Why would there be any left over?)
Other fillings could include: chicken or smoked fish or anything you want.
Here are some photos of real empanadas in Argentina. These are photos Mrs Lee took of her friend Monica making empanadas. Can you follow the steps?
