Summer learning Journey week one day one: Setting Sail

Activity one: The first settlers

It is widely believed that the first people to arrive in New Zealand came from Polynesia. Most historians believe that they landed in New Zealand over 700 years ago. Although they were originally from many different countries, these settlers learned to live together and, eventually, formed their own distinct culture known as ‘Māori.’  Māori have their own language, traditions, and culture. Follow this link to read a short story about a famous man in Māori mythology – Maui. On your blog, post three facts that you learned about this interesting man. What other stories have you heard about Maui?

Here are that facts that I have learned about Maui...

1. Maui is in a whole lot of legends in the world and they are a bit different in every country in the Pacific.

2. Maui was the youngest of the five sons of his mother Taranga. His mother believed Maui was still-born and in her grief wrapped him in a bundle of hair (tikitiki) and cast him upon the ocean. He floated in the hair knot to a beach where he was found by his tupuna Tamanui-ki-te-rangi who raised him as his own.

3. In the myth, Maui used his magic fishhook to pull New Zealand's North Island from the depths of the Pacific ocean as a huge fish. The fishhook was magic, a talisman with great meaning and power carved from the jawbone from his grandmother. 

4. Maui is also an island in Hawaii.

Activity two: Setting sail

The first settlers to come to New Zealand must have been really brave! They had to leave their original homes and sail thousands of miles across the ocean on a special boat called a ‘waka’ to reach New Zealand.

Imagine that you were on board one of the wakas. On your blog, write a short letter to a friend telling them about your voyage to New Zealand. In the letter be sure to tell them how you feel about moving to a new country. If it was me, I would have felt really nervous…

Dear Jordan,

The past weeks have been tough. The perilous journey we are making has made everyone stressed out. We have come across a few obstacles on our voyage to a better home. On Tuesday we encountered a large sea beast that was attempting to consume us. All of this travelling is making me miss home. I am always finding myself thinking about all of the fun that we used to have together in our tree fought. This new country that we are seeking seems to be further than I though I would be. We have been sailing in our waka for two weeks now and we still have further to go. How is everyone in the village? I miss them so much, make sure you tell them that. 

I hope that I can see you soon, 

Yours sincerely, 

Nadia. 

Bonus activity: Waka Ama

To this day, the people of New Zealand still use waka. Instead of using their waka to transport them from one place to another, they sometimes use waka in special events and in sporting competitions such as Waka Ama. Both boys and girls compete in Waka Ama boat races. Watch this short video of a Waka Ama race. On your blog tell us whether you would like to be in a Waka Ama race one day. Why or why not?

In my opinion, Waka Ama seems like a very challenging sport. You need to work as a team and be strong enough mentally and physically. Personally I don't think that I would like to be in a Waka Ama race simply because I would not be strong enough. Since I am very competitive, I would hate to lose that because I wasn't strong enough. But if it wasn't a race I would probably join in especially if I was with my friends.

This blog post is my first post for the summer learning journey. The summer learning journey is a challenge in which students do a blog post once a day. Doing this will make sure that the student doesn't lower their literacy skills over the long summer break. I volunteered for this challenge and I am enjoying it so far!