For the duration of social studies we have been looking at different aspects of cultures. The most common culture we have been looking at is European cultures. The first culture my group looked at  was: Russia, for the aspect of this culture we looked at compared to aspects from this country to New Zealand, first we compared Russia to Nz then we started to compare the aspects of these two countries. After this we started focusing on Asian cultures. 

The country that I chose to focus on was Japan, for the  aspect of this culture I chose to focus on drifting and samurai, these were both too main aspects of Japanese culture. Focusing on these aspects of this culture has taught me alot for example: I learnt that Japan seems like a quiet peaceful country but learning about drifting made me think that japan isn’t that much of a quiet, peaceful country at all because most people like drifting because the thrill of turning the car fully sideways. Also learning about samurai has taught me that most samurai used to think that the best way to regain honor when they were wounded in battle was to slice their stomach.

When I found out that samurai kill themselves to regain honor I thought this was pretty extreme.

For social  studies we have been looking at cultures my group and me choose Japanese, for this we chose drifting and samurai after we finished choosing we started to research about these aspects of Japan. The things I learnt were that samurai and  drifting were related  because  they both started  in Japan drifting began in the 1970’s while Samurai began in the year 1185.

In science we have been learning about space and the solar system. We have been using this website, The website we have been using is really helpful. It shows us how big planets are and how wide they are. Part of this activity we used a measuring tape to measure how long the classroom was . The reason we measured the classroom was to compare the two different sizes. For science today we were learning about the distances and sizes of certain planets one of the mature planets we were focusing on was the sun. the task was pretty fascinating how we would change the size of the sun. today we compared the different distances in our classroom and the sun. during this activity we learnt about what a light year is, A light year is the distance that light travels in one year. Today for one of the challenges we had to use a tape measure to measure the distance off the classroom which was 11.2 metres long.

What I liked about science was learning about how long light years were, what astronomical units are and different planets sizes.

Luke: This activity was fascinating learning about all the different sizes of the planets and our biggest star the sun.

Traditions are a thing that has been going on for thousands of year past down from generation to generation where they celebrate it for their culture

We maoris still use hangis to cook to keep it alive and so we have something to represent our culture. This represents our culture because it’s how we cook our meals.

We celebrate our Matriki culture because it’s a celebration that leads us into a 

new year and it is a time to spend time with your family and plant trees. We also have a public holiday so everyone can go off work to spend time with their family. On matariki night everyone goes out to the beach or somewhere nearby so we can light fireworks, see the matariki and have a good time with family.  

We eat hangi, boil up, mutton bird, and kai moana. We eat this kai because in New Zealand we love hunting, fishing and diving. So we would always dive for kina and oysters, anything we can get from the ocean we would eat. We also love hunting so we would hunt for mutton birds and pigs. 

–Mutton Bird

In our Maori culture you may see a lot of people with a green necklace or a white necklace. These are called Pounamu and Taunga. It is a treasure that our family members have either given to us or have passed down to us. Our Taunga are very special to us because they hold a lot of spiritual and cultural meaning.

We have a traditional dance called the Haka. The first hakas were created and performed by different Māori tribes as a war dance. It is an ancestral war cry. It was performed on the battlefields for two reasons. Firstly, it was done to scare their opponents; the warriors would use aggressive facial expressions such as bulging eyes and poking of their tongues.

 our culture is got a lot to do with kai moana/seafood 

 Kai moana is important because it helps with a lot of things 

 In our culture. Kinas are really good for growing plants 

 First you eat what’s inside the shell either put the juice in a bottle or 

 Put the juice into whatever you’re trying to grow.The kina shells make a good       

 organic fertilizer/tonic for. The garden also feeds back           

KINA    KINA BARREN