Kahukura's Blog

Miss Cotter’s Farewell

kahukura — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:25:14 +0000

“Thank you so much for the lovely farewell surprise party! You really gave me all a fright when you jumped out from behind the tables and chairs. I loved the very special gifts you gave me and your lovely letters and cards. This will be the last time I will put up a post on our blog. I am sure Mrs Simpson will eventually start adding to it. I promise to come on and make comments though, so we can keep in touch. Thanks again Kahukura for such a special day and a wonderful year together. Take care, Miss Cotter xx”

‘Scratching’ Art

kahukura — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:52:17 +0000

Today we have been working on our ‘Scratching’ art. A few days ago we coloured in a piece of paper with yellow, green and brown crayon. The next day we painted over it with black paint, very thickly. Today we scratched the black paint off with kebab sticks to make a picture of the native bush, stars and the bush floor. Next we glued on a pastel Kiwi that we had made.

Jenna says “It looked very, very cool and we made it by cutting out a Kiwi shape and colouring it in (the Kiwi)”

Casey says “All our class finished it just in time before the lunch bell went”

Today we have been talking about ways we can help the Kiwi. Some of our ideas are:

Quinn says “Make traps for the predators”

Asger says “We can put signs and posters up in the town about helping the Kiwi”

Mat says “We can make a song about saving Kiwi”

Emily says “We are going to make some stuff on the computer about Kiwi to teach the other children about putting traps out”

Letter to Tahi

kahukura — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:11:56 +0000

We read a true story about Tahi, a Kiwi who had his leg amputated because he got it caught in a gin trap. He was rescued and eventually a new leg was made for him by Weta Workshop. He now lives in Wellington Zoo. We decided to write letters to him to ask what it was like in the zoo and what we could do to help Kiwi.

We were very excited today when we recieved a letter back from Tahi and the Zoo keepers! We also got photos of Tahi with our photo and letters.

Emily says “I think it was exciting that we got letters and photos from Tahi”

Maddison says “Getting letters and photos from Tahi was very special”

Casey says “I liked it when they sent back the photos of Tahi and he got to see our letters”

Here is a copy of the letter sent to us from the zoo:

“
To Kahukura at Ohope Beach School,

Thank you for all your lovely letters and questions to Tahi. It’s so exciting that you really like kiwi and want to learn about them.

Tahi likes living here at Wellington Zoo, it is his new home. Tahi does things here that he would have done in the bush like, looking for food, sleeping, and guarding his home. He even does a few things different like coming out to meet everybody that comes to see him. He sleeps during the day and comes out at night, when it is dark. He doesn’t spend the whole night out but, he will spend some of it out looking around. In the morning he has a yummy hamburger for breakfast, it has mince, carrots, peas, raisins and sometimes even banana in it, but it hasn’t been cooked.

Our pet cats at home can be a problem for kiwi like Tahi in the wild, but one thing you can do to help is to keep you cat inside at night. This way your cat gets a comfy bed to sleep in and no kiwi will get hurt.

If you ever come to Wellington, please come to the zoo to see Tahi. He comes out everyday to meet people and would love to meet you. If you don’t come down to Wellington you can always go visit kiwi in a sanctuary near where you live.

Thank you again for your lovely letters.

From Katie

Kiwi Handler and Zoo Guide”

Here are the photos of Tahi and our letters and class photo….

Self-Portraits for Calenders

kahukura — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:01:52 +0000

We have made self-portraits. They can be made into calenders and cards for parents and family to buy to help fundraise for the PPTA.

Firstly we drew our face and our neck with sharpies. Then we painted our face, then we painted around our face with water colours. Then when it was dry we added details with pastels.

Nga Paiaka Trip to Rotorua

kahukura — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:55:02 +0000

This week Nga Paiaka syndicate went to Rotorua to Kiwi Encounter and Rainbow and Fairy Springs. We got to see real live Kiwi and Kiwi chicks!! The Kiwi Encounter help Kiwi by getting them when they are eggs. They incubate the eggs and look after the Kiwi chicks until they are big enough to go back to the bush.

Shakira says “We got to see eggs and an egg with a Kiwi beak sticking out”

Casey says “We saw two Kiwi that were alive, they were brown and it was dark and we didn’t see it properly”

Jenna says “It was fun seeing the Kiwi and we got to see a Kiwi on the TV hatching. It takes 3 days for the Kiwi to hatch”

Here are some pieces of writing from the students of Kahukura about their day in Rotorua.

Recounts by Kahukura:

I saw a Kiwi fall over and I saw a stoat.
Quinn

We went on an adventure to see Kiwi. The Kiwi hatched out of the egg. Happy Kiwi.
Maddison

I saw a baby Kiwi and I saw a ferret and it was huge. A Kiwi takes 3 days to hatch.
Hamish

When we went to the Kiwi Encounter it was fun. They looked little and it was brown and they were fast.
Ma’a

It was awesome seeing a cool Kiwi. It was bigger than I thought. It looked like a big fluffy ball. We saw lots more animals too like chickens, pigs, fish, pidgeons, baby fish and bunnies too. They ran very fast.
Jenna

Lukus came with us. My Dad came with us. We saw a horse on the side of the road. We saw a Kiwi hatch out of the egg one day ago.
Jacob

Yesterday we went to Kiwi Encounter. We saw a Kiwi chick in a box with some glass in it to keep the chicks warm. The chicks can stay in there. We saw where they put the box with chicks. Our guide showed us around the place. We saw a lot of fish. We saw some Tuataras. They are the only dinosaurs that are left. We saw a grown-up Kiwi.
Amy

I saw a cave with heaps of Wetas and I saw a baby Kiwi. I saw a fluffy Kiwi. I saw five alive fluffy Kiwi.
Asger

Pom poms and Kiwi Life Cycle

kahukura — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:42:06 +0000

Well, it has been ages since we wrote on our blog….we have been soooooo busy!!!
We have finished our pom poms! They are fantastic! It was lots of fun making them.

Last week we were learning about the Kiwi Life Cycle:

Pounamu says “Kiwi find their territory, find a mate and then lay an egg”

Llew says “Then the dad Kiwi incubates the egg for 70 to 80 days. Then the egg hatches and they are in the danger zone where they might die”

Emily says “Stoats, rats, weasels, possums, dogs, ferrits and cats kill the Kiwi chicks in the danger zone”

Quinn says “The daddy sits on the egg”

Kiwi Pompoms with photography by Jenna

kahukura — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:22:09 +0000

We are making Kiwi pompoms. You need wool and cardboard circles. You thread the wool through the hole HEAPS of times!!! Hundreds of times!! We are using brown wool.

Jenna was our official pompom photographer, she says “I like taking photos, I haven’t done it for a long long time”

Watch this space for our finished pompoms!

Kiwi Poetry and Collage

kahukura — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:34:41 +0000

The day Kahukura got to see a dead frozen stoat!!!

kahukura — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:38:29 +0000

Wow! What a day! Today Hamish and his Mum brought in a dead, frozen stoat!! They found her in a trap near their house.

Jacob says “It’s teeth are really sharp”

Quinn says “His teeth were bleeding”

Juliana says “He smelled really awful”

Emily says “Miss Cotter was shaking the stoat and it’s tail wiggled!”

Stoats kill Kiwi chicks. They are a predator to Kiwi.

Week 3

kahukura — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:13:47 +0000

We have been making Kiwi pompoms! You get two little circles, then you wrap wool around them. So far we think they look great.

This week we have been practising for cross country. We are doing this down near the beach in the reserve. It is fun but you can get very tired!

Asger says “I get tired”

Jesse says “When I start running my legs stop and then I start walking, but then I start running again!”

Quinn says “I kept on passing Miss Cotter!”

Miss Cotter says “No way Quinn, I was passing you!”

Jenna says “Miss Cotter couldn’t pass me! I’m too fast”

Today we wrote menus for a Kiwi Restaurant. In our menus we had food that a kiwi would like to eat. We are finishing these next week. Maybe our pet Kiwi Snuffy will come to our restaurants?

See you later, alligator!