Our ANZAC Ceremony and Remembrance of the Battle for Crete

On the 20th May, the Intermediate students participated in an Anzac ceremony (even though it was nearly a month after April 25th) with special guests from the Manurewa RSA as well as parents, and students from other classes. We had been preparing for this since the beginning of Term Two when we started to learn about The Battle for Crete. For homework, we had to research one aspect of the Battle for Crete and our charts and dioramas were on display for our assembly.

First thing on Friday morning, Huia 1 students were busy collecting donations from other students for poppies to wear. When we ran out of pins, we got extra from the sewing room in Poutama...and told Mrs Hansen later. Some of the boys organised cones to reserve parking spaces for our guests, and speakers practised their lines. Nikhil said he felt nervous because there were heaps of people. Jackie said, "I felt excited because I was meeting the RSA guests because I have never seen them before."

Karnjeet, Bhaban and Jackie greet our guests.

Many students had specific jobs such as greeting RSA guests, parking attendants, making wreaths, singing, speaking roles, reciting poetry, holding the flag, holding song chats, technical jobs and giving out programmes and poppies.

Some of the guests and the helpers.

Student speakers led the ceremony and the only adult to speak was President Graham, from the RSA. Hunter welcomed everyone and, after the National Anthem, Ben spoke about the landing of the first ANZAC troops at Gallipoli. Then we sang a medly of songs from World War One: Keep the Home Fires Burning, Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag, and It's a Long Way to Tipparary. Following that, Jaime, Jasmine and Serena read the Message from Ataturk to the mothers of the fallen.

Ben, Jasmine, Serena, Jaime

We moved to Flanders Fields, in Belgium, and Huia 2 recited the poem by John McRae.

The day of our ceremony was also the 70th anniversary of The Battle for Crete. We had all done projects on this and we learned that 671 New Zealanders died and 2180 soldiers were taken to be prisoners of war.Jakob, one of the speakers about Crete, said, "I found it scary because I thought I was going to muck up in front of the RSA people. After it was over I thought, it wasn't that bad."

President Graham spoke to the students and encouraged us to join the Manurewa R.S.A with our families, and told us all the entertainments and activities available there. He also told us that some of their members had been very young when they witnessed bomb tests in the Pacific and that there not many of these people left alive now.

RSA guests

A group from Huia 1 sang Abide with Me, then students placed wreaths on a special table.

Choir singing Abide with Me

Laying wreaths

The Last Post was played as Prateek lowered the flag to half mast, and then The Ode for the Fallen was read by Tracey and Ishapreet. A minute's silence followed before Reveille was played and the flag was raised again.

Prateek, the flag-bearer

We finished the ceremony with a medley of World War Two songs: We'll Meet Again, The White Cliffs of Dover and Maori Battalion. Our visitors and guests viewed our projects on the Battle for Crete before our RSA guests joined a group of teachers and students for morning tea in the board room.

Morning tea for our guests.

Some comments about the day from our class:

- When they said, 'We are the dead...' it actually sounded as if they were the soldiers that fell. When the Last Post was played it felt very serious. Ricki-Jean

- The lead up to it, and the actual ceremony, really educated us on the Battle for Crete, becasue some of us didn't know it existed. Hunter

- It went really well. Nothing bad happened. Nikhil

- I really liked singing the songs. I was also in the choir singing Abide with Me, and I was outside in the doorway shaking the R.S.A's hands and giving out programmes. I brought a flag to put on the table. Bhaban

- It was quite scary when we sang Abide with Me because everyone was staring at us. Danny

- When the Last Post played, it was hard to think of anything else but what happened in the war, like, if you saw your best friend get shot. Jakob.

It was probably one of our best assemblies we have ever done. Everyone tried their best to make it well-organised and make it worth remembering. All those involved will be more confident in the future if they have to speak in front of the school and an audience again. There will now be a strong relationship between The Gardens School and the Manurewa R.S.A

The wreaths were moved outside by the flagpole after the ceremony.

Some examples of the homework projects about the Battle for Crete done by our Intermediate students.

Lest We Forget

 May 2011

It was a fine Friday morning; the sun was glimpsing in my eye. It was the day for the ANZAC assembly to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle for Crete and to honour the fallen.

We were so excited.  Huia1 students were preparing for a special assembly at 10’clock,  in the school hall.  Firstly, we arranged the seating by having rows and we had to sit in our allocated rows. The speakers sat in the the front row so they could quickly get up to the microphone. All of the Intermediate students and teachers  were wearing a poppy.

Members from the  Manurewa RSA [Returned and Service Association] came to the assembly to share their time  and to remember the fallen. Some of the students greeted our guests at the door, while Ben, Hunter and a few other boys were introducing themselves  to the guests.  One of the RSA members  had 5 medals on him.

Hunter, our MC, gave us a warm welcome to start off the assembly and asked us to stand for the National Anthem of New Zealand. At that point, I felt very proud to be a New Zealander.

Ben, Ricki-Jean, Jakob, Nikhil, and Krizelle were talking about World Wars One and Two, the commemoration of ANZAC day on the 25th of April, and  the Battle for Crete. Jasmine, Serena and Jamie from Kea 2 recited the Message from Ataturk, the first  President of Turkey and Nikhil, our student speaker, spoke about Flanders Fields. Then, Mrs Irwin's class recited a lovely poem called Flanders Fields by John McRae.

After that,we sang a medley of World War 1 songs, Keep the Home Fires Burning, Pack Up Your Troubles and It's a Long Way to Tipperary  We blew the roof off the place. I think the guests were impressed by our singing. We were all happy too.

RSA guests stood up and told us that we can join the RSA. Mr Dolan, the president of the Manurewa RSA,  spoke to everyone about the R.S.A and he wants to see us there soon, when we are a bit older. He also said he liked our performance and really appreciated being invited to the assembly. Then the choir students sang Abide with Me.

Two  people from each class laid  a wreath by a sign saying “Lest We Forget”.  Then the one  minute's silence began. The flag was lowered to half mast. The last post played over the silence of the children and adults. We stood still and remembered the fallen in silence while the trumpet played the Last Post. Then, the reveille played and the flag was lifted from half mast.

The assembly was about to finish and our last song was a World War 2 Medley of We'll Meet Again, The White Cliffs of Dover and Maori Battalion. Hoani had the best voice. When it finished, the RSA guests were looking at our posters and they were taking photos of them. When that finished, the RSA guests went to the staff room to have morning tea. Some of the Intermediate students went too.

 I enjoyed singing the songs from World War 1 and 2. This has been a great experience and I wish to do it again.

 From the combined recounts by members of Huia 1

Princess Smarty Pants Visits our School

This morning, all our students watched a performance of Princess Smarty Pants, based on the book by Babette Cole, performed by students of Alfriston College. Although this performance was aimed at a younger audience, the Intermediate classes were watching it to learn more about what is involved in putting on a drama production, and the skills and techniques involved in performing in front of an audience. Huia 1 were also looking specifically at themes and conflict in the story being told, so we could relate them to themes and conflict in our recent novel study of "Holes" by Loius Sacher. It was also good to support our local high school and our past students who were involved in the production.

Here are some of the comments about the play by Huia 1 students:

Although I realise they were actors, I still think it was believable. The choreography was great and they must have worked really hard. I learned that to be in a play, you have to be enthusiastic and sometimes you have to shout as you don't have a microphone. Matthew .My favourite part was when the singers were singing because they were in tune with the songs and the beat. I learned that to be in a play you have to have the proper skills, like Alfriston College did. You have to memorise the words because when you go on, the words aren't there. Hoani.

They were good actors and good guitar players. They spoke loud and the people at the back could hear them. They looked confident. I want to be like them when I go to high school. Fa'afili

I liked the show and it also made the Juniors laugh. It was entertaining, with believable costumes and funny jokes. I learned that to be in a play you must have a clear voice, not make mistakes, have good expression and be confident. Donny.

I knew they were high school kids but they were really good actors because they got the message across to me. I learned that to be in a play you have to have a good mind because you have to remember a lot of words and if you forget some it would be embarrassing. I learned that enunciation is important. Tegan.

They put so much effort into the play because they cared so much about everything. The sound effects made it real and touching. I learned that the simplest story can turn into a magical moment. Every play can be magical if you know what to do at the right time and to be brave, even though it can be scary. Annella
I liked it because they got into their characters and were credible, like the trees acted like trees - even though they talked. Jakob.

I learned that watching and listening to a story based on something for Juniors is actually really cool. It showed me that I want to do drama at college. Shayla.I like the way they said the words clearly so everyone could hear. They are really good actors for high school kids. I learned that just because you're not that age it does not mean you can't watch it, because you might enjoy it. This showed me that when I go to high school, I might want to act. Renae.I learned that you have to be in character all the time. Sarah.
The funniest part was when the guy was a professional horse rider but couldn't ride a horse - and he was scared of the big horse. I learned that plays made for young people can also get the interest of older people. I think I got my money's worth. Chris
There was good acting because they emphasised their characters' emotions and made it clear. I learned that to make a good play, you don't need to use really flash props or costumes to make it look flash and to make it entertaining. You need a lot of time to practise and memorise your lines. When I grow up I want to act a little bit. Jessica.

I learned that to be an actor you need good expression so that you don't lose the audience's attention. I think I got more than I paid for. Hunter.

I learned that some books can have big plays inside them. Bhabandeep.

How Do You Spell That?

First two entries in our Interesting Ways to Spell Words competition...

Hunter learns to spell choir by making the shapes of the letters with her dog's toys.

Sarah learns to spell threw using paper towels. We hope she threw them in the bin when she had finished...

The Life Cycle Continues

The continuing story of our caterpillar rescue....

We left the rescued chrysalids carefully protected and pegged to other plants in our garden. Over the holidays they all hatched and this is all I could find when I went to check on them in the second week of the holidays. If you look very closely, you can see the almost transparent 'case' still attached to the dead seed pod.
Meantime, other eggs hatched on some of the rescued plants and branches which we are keeping alive in a bucket of water in the garden. There are at least five new caterpillars living on these branches.


Can you find the tiny water droplet in this photo?

And, the aphids are back too. There is no sign of any ladybirds or their larvae but I'm sure it won't be long before they turn up.

If you look very closely, you might see and ant on one of the leaves, heading towards the aphids to collect their 'honey dew'.


Thursday 28th April - I found some ladybirds very near the aphids. Can you see how close they are?

How does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly (cake)?

This term our whole school has been focusing on improving our recount writing. There are several types of recounts but the one we are working on in Huia 1 at the moment is a personal recount. Mrs Vincent 'modelled' some of the following recount using the data projector and explained why she chose the words she used - or why she made changes. Then, in groups, we wrote our own versions to complete the story and she summarised and edited them to create the final recount. When we re-read it together, we had to identify all the features which made this a recount- such as: orientation, events in chronological order, time words, past tense, conclusion, connecting words and conjunctions, as well as an interesting use of vocabulary.

We were not expecting yesterday to be particularly special, but a series of events happened which completely threw our daily plan out the window. Consequently, we think we ended up learning more than we would have done if Mrs Vincent had followed her plan.

Callum, Ben, Hoani, Wade and Matthew were representing our school at the Central Counties soccer tournament and Nikhil was absent so we couldn't do any testing because too many people were away. How disappointing! Meanwhile, a woman from Cambridge University in England came to survey the rest of Huia 1 and Kea 1 students to get information for her PhD research. It was the most gloriously warm and sunny autumn day - the kind that makes people want to say, "Isn't this just the most glorious day?" and expect everyone to agree with them. In comparison, our classroom was cold and dark and dull, so, after the survey, we joined Mrs Whitehead's class in a game of longball on the court until morning tea. It was a golden opportunity to make up for missing our P.E lesson the previous day. The tone of the day was set!

Morning tea was over and Mrs Vincent decided it was still far too perfect a day outside not to take advantage of this golden opportunity to learn more about our garden and its inhabitants. Caitlin and Krizelle were sent to select non-fiction library books about plants, weeds and insects and, with Ricki-Jean, they set out to identify the weeds in our garden. They discovered that black nightshade, creeping mallow and hawkesbeard were some of the weeds in our garden. We think it's hawkesbeard - although it could be a dandelion. Jakob took photos of the swan plants and Terence was observing an average everyday caterpillar household in the cabbage and broccoli plants in our school vegetable garden. He discovered that the average caterpillar produces a large amount of poo which gets trapped at the base of the cabbage leaves. Meanwhile, others researched the monarch butterfly life cycle on the computers. They found some fascinating You Tube sites showing the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis.

After we discovered that the white butterfly and larvae were pests, some of the boys took up the interesting job of eliminating them. All of the boys tried to catch white butterflies and we learned how to kill them humanely so that they did not suffer. We collected the green caterpillars in a lunch box and instead of squashing them, we put the lunch box in the freezer to kill them humanely, and then gave them to Mrs Whitehead to take home for her chooks to eat.

At midday, a group were called away to have immunisation talks with the public health nurse and the rest of the class went to the library to choose picture books to read to Mrs Bradshaw's class after lunch. We abandoned our garden for a brief interlude of reading to the juniors - still outside in the early afternoon warmth- and then returned to complete our research and cabbage caterpillar cull.

Towards the end of the day, after Mrs Vincent decided it was all too noisy, we settled down to practise our recount writing skills in peace and quiet until the bell went at 2:50 p.m. Meanwhile, back at soccer, our team was undefeated. Our boys played non-stop with only one minute changeover times between games so they were shattered by the end of their tournament. They have now qualified for the Counties Zone tournament and we are very proud of them.

It was one of those days which we will probably remember every time we see a white butterfly or its green caterpillar - especially if we decide to grow cabbages in our own gardens. Mrs Whitehead reported that her chooks loved the caterpillars and we can look forward to some happy hen eggs early next term. Mrs Vincent suggested we could then make butterfly cakes to demonstrate the ultimate in recycling.


The irony of our recent experiences is that last week we were learning to save the lives of some caterpillars and butterflies and this week we learned to kill others.

"I wish I was here yesterday," said Nikhil.




(And now, watch this You Tube video about the life cycle of a butterfly - in Spanish. How much can you now understand?)

Catering for Caterpillars - An update on the survivors

A relocated caterpillar has already turned into a chrysalis on its new plant.
A dead caterpillar. We are not quite sure how or why it died - or even if it is a monarch butterfly caterpillar.
Getting ready to turn into a chrysalis.
There's a lot of interest in our caterpillars.
Some really interesting facts about aphids and lady birds.... The new home for the caterpillars has a lot of aphids on it.
Sarah talks about the caterpillars to some of the juniors who were checking out the swan plant at lunchtime.





Caterpillars and ladybirds seem to be enjoying their new home.
Watch this video and this one about a caterpillar turning into a chrysalis.
Lady birds on the seed pods.

We put all the cut branches in a big bucket of water in the garden and started searching for eggs and any tiny caterpillars.
We found some really tiny caterpillars and made sure they were safely relocated on juicy leaves. Hopefully the branches in water will stay fresh enough for the caterpillars to grow fat and healthy.




We have a big caterpillar and a tiny one on a swan plant branch in the classroom.