What's Huia 1 doing?

Today is the start of a new week, Huia 1 started their day by doing their daily Spanish roll. Then, they went down to the hall for assembly. Mrs. Vincent asked a few questions about the New Zealand's National Anthem, such as: "Who wrote the lyrics of the national anthem?" and "Where was the composer of the music from?" and "What does Guard Pacific's triple star mean?"

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This week we are starting to read Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo.Mrs Vincent read it to her class last year and a group of Year 8s who were Year 7s in Huia 1 last year, petitioned her to read it again. So she is. Check out our spelling and vocabulary words based on the first chapter.

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In current events today, we learned that there have been several natural natural disasters in New Zealand last week:
- another 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch
- a tornado in New Plymouth
- a landslide in Ohope
- flights cancelled because of ash cloud from the volcano in Chile

We also learned that:
- there has been flooding in China (after a long drought)
- the N.Z. army will be patrolling the Red Zone area in Christchurch for another 6 months
- a 150kg bell has been stolen from a church in Otorohanga
- there has been a riot in Vancouver, Canada because the local local team lost to the Boston Bruins in an ice hockey final
- a South Korean commercial plane was shot at by its own army because it was thought to be an enemy jet
- women from Saudi Arabia have been using Twitter and Facebook to protest about not being allowed to drive

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When the class was discussing the new debating club at our school, one student said he went there expecting to hear arguing and all he heard was discussion. Mrs Vincent showed us this Monty Python You Tube clip to help explain the meanings of argument.

Quiz:
1. When could it be dangerous to buy a pitch fork? (And where?)
2. What is Michael Morpurgo planning to do with his story Private Peaceful?
3. What do you think the pink stuff on the wires is in this video? What simile does the speaker use to describe the sound of the tornado?
4. How much did the Hamilton scrap metal year dealer pay for the stolen Pembroke Bell? (Bonus question: Do you think the dealer should have suspected it was stolen?)
5. What side of the road do cars use in Saudi Arabia - left, or right? (Bonus questions: What are the reasons given for allowing women to drive in Saudi Arabia? What are the reasons given against women being allowed to drive?

Possible Crunchy Bar for the first Huia 1 student to bring me all the answers.

Cute animal video of the week.