First two weeks of Term 3!

It has been a very busy start to the term.  Here's what we've been up to the last two weeks:

Playing soccer.  Instructors gave us a free lesson. It was really fun! Some of us have signed up for lessons every Tuesday afternoon after school.

We had a very exciting trip to the Howick Historical Village! Here we are getting ready to go and eating our morning tea once we arrived.  Then we went to the school house. It was very different to Meadowbank School.

Handwriting on slates.

Lining up before we sat down.  We had to bow and curtsy!

Hands on your lap! Eyes front!

About to do handwriting.

Our handwriting!

Map of NZ - where is Auckland?

Time for Maths!

Next we learnt how to make butter.  The girls or boys had to milk the cows, then the cream was separated from the milk.  After that the boys or girls had to churn the cream until it turned to butter. The buttermilk was then drained from the butter, and the butter needed to be washed about 10 times. It was yummy!

Making butter balls once the butter was made.

We all had a turn to churn!

It took a lot of churning to make butter.

Draining off the buttermilk, 

After that we learnt about the first European settlers.  They had to go on a ship for 100 days to reach NZ. Once they got here they were promised houses, shops and food.  However, there was nothing but a beach when they arrived. They just had what was in their trunks. The Maori people swapped some of their goods for food. It was hard back then. Boys and girls had to help with many chores. To make a cup of tea you need to: Chop some fire wood, get a flint to light the fire, go to the well or stream to get some water, then put the kettle on the fire and wait. WHEW!

Chopping the firewood with an axe.

The buckets were about 5kg without any water. This is because they were made of wood and metal.

Last we got to play with the toys.  Boys and girls didn't have much time to play and they had to make their own toys - no toy shops.  All the toys were made from wood.

Last we had a tour of the whole village.  We liked the water pump.

On Friday the Junior Kapa Haka group performance as part of Maori language week.