St Josephs Student News

Please see newsletter that is going home today. We look forward to doing our play next week.

Our awesome junior team.

Good luck for your season.

Matariki Dinner

On Thursday night last week, our families gathered together to celebrate Matariki. Thursday was an exciting night, we did raffles, we ate food and played with glow sticks.

Yesterday was the shortest day of the year for the Southern Hemisphere, otherwise known as Winter Solstice.

It happened last night at at 9:13pm today, when the sun’s position in the sky reaches its farthest point north of the Equator. Yesterday we had the least amount of daylight of any day for the year - only 5 hours and 4 mins.

Now the days will start to get longer and the moon larger as the South Pole begins to tilt towards the sun. Also in Antarctica they have 24 hours of darkness.

(From Kiwikids news- for all the latest news to go to: https://www.kiwikidsnews.co.nz/) - Edited by us

Barong

Do you want to know about a Balinese myth? Well here’s one…the Barong.

The Barong is a Balinese myth and Bali is in SouthEast Asia.

The creature has rolling eyes, a lolling tongue, fangs like a blood vampire. It sort of looks like a lion/vampire.

Despite what it looks like, the Barong is considered a mythical creature of good fortune. Some of the people from Bali believe it battles evil creatures like the wicked child-eating witch Rangadan.

The legendary fight between the Rangadan and the Borang is mostly remembered today by Balinese dancers. The Barong cast a spell to protect human warriors against the black magic that the Rangadan uses.

So it’’s a hero to most Balinese people like me. I think it isn’t true but won’t stop me from believing in it.

Kristiana Hutchesson (year 4)

Phoenix - What it looks like

Did you know that the phoenix is 12m tall and 12m wide and the wingspan is 48 feet. The magnificent firebird's tears can heal wounds. And the Phoenix is kind of immortal because when it dies the ashes plus the sunlight creates a new baby phoenix. The Phoenix's tears can heal wounds with just a drop.

What did people say

Did you know that people think that simply catching the sight of the Phoenix gives good luck? Different countries say different names like in Ancient Egypt it is called the Bennu.

Opinion

My opinion about the Phoenix is they are magnificent looking. They are beautiful in their wings and immortal which is surprising to me.

Jaycee Serenado (year 5)

The little bird was very hungry. He wanted food, but the water was too high. The little birdy was so scared.

By Iris (year 0)

Matariki Poems

Matariki

Glowing and joyful !

Playing and Telling Legends

Having a game of tag with the seven sisters

A happy celebration.

The Maori New Year

Exciting and Loud !

Creating and Feasting !

Gazing at the shimmering stars

A time for gathering crops.

The seven sisters

Magical, Fun and interesting !

Flying kites, playing games and doing the kapa haka !

Making Magical Music

Having fun with your Whanau and friends.

By Safire

Matariki

Connections, interesting

String games, cooking,feasting

Blanket covered in sparkling stars

Traditional maori new year

Waiti

Shiny glittering

Twinkling sustaining supporting

Watches over freshwater and its inhabitants

Melodious

By Grace

Matariki is a reminder to us that we need to care for creation.

We are aiming to have a garage sale to raise funds to plant a small orchard at the school and an orchard house.

The garage sale will be early next term and students can start collecting things to bring into school over the next few weeks. Big items we would prefer just before the sale. Other items can be brought in during the first week of term 3.