Daniel from room 26 is an amazing story teller. He is currently working on his first book - go Daniel!

Jake and Timmy Save Matariki

One dark and gloomy night Jake was camping with his brother in the backyard, when Jake saw a bright light falling towards earth.

So he woke his brother and they set out on Jake’s ATV. When they reached the forest, they saw the light, but it was still dim.

“This might be a rough journey”, said Jake. “Mmmm mm”, said Timmy. So they kept on going. The tree tops were getting so thick Jake could barely see. So Jake turned on his ATV’s lights. “Ahh, that’s better!” said Jake.

The suddenly a raccoon jumped out of nowhere. “AAhh! A raccoon!” shouted Timmy.

“Timmy, it’s just a raccoon!” said Jake.

“I know, Jake. Me and raccoons have bad relationships.” Yelled Timmy. So they kept on going.

The light was getting brighter and brighter. Now Jake could see a crater and a small girl. So Jake leaped out of the ATV and Timmy grabbed his bag. They rushed to the crater. All the trees were burnt, because a star had fallen out of sky and crash landed in the forest.

Jake had one look at the situation and concluded, “The poor thing is stuck on our planet!”

The brothers ran to the star and Timmy grabbed his remote control plane. Jake carefully put the star on it and Timmy flew the plane up to space – Matariki was saved.

By Daniel from room 26

We have explored some Matariki myths in the ESOL classroom. Enjoy Geonwoo and Carlo's retelling of one version of the old story!

The Ancient Story of Matariki

In ancient times there were seven sisters and they were from outer space. The sevens sisters were very busy sisters. Until the stars were going out of control, they went crazy. They whizzed about, zigzagged all around the planets and also the other stars.

The other stars were getting annoyed, stressed and mad. Soon two stars went upon them. Then Red Star shouted, “You guys are really crazy, unintentional, chaotic and annoying little stars!” Then Blue Star demanded, “Settle down you troublesome little kids!”

The argument went on and on.

Suddenly the mother said, “We need to do something to calm our children down.”  Then the father had a really good idea. The father said, “Why don’t we give them a job to represent the Maori New Year, so the children calm down?”

That’s why we see the seven sisters from our planet called Earth. So the stars have lived happily in a sacred place. And that’s how Matariki was born.

By Geonwoo from room 16

The Story About Matariki

Many years ago seven sisters were zigzagging around the sun and the other planets. Then a loud sound came from other stars, one was a red star and one was a blue star.

Red Star said, “I really don’t like you!” Blue Star said, Settle down! Settle down! Settle down!” All the other stars and all the other planets were getting annoyed as well.

The parents needed to do something. The dad suggested, “Let’s give them a job, so they will settle down.” So the dad called them over and spoke to them. So they started preparing and off they went. The mum and dad were really happy that they were not zipping, zagging and whizzing about.

So that is why Matariki was born. The people will celebrate Matariki with vegetables and meat. They celebrate with their family and friends.

By Carlo from room 17

Ben Creagh from room 15 wrote a very cool space adventure story - have fun reading it!

Martian

“Aww!” I groaned, as I woke to a rumble. Then I inhaled. Suddenly I felt an instant pain in my left shoulder. “Ouch, I must have slept funny.”

“Hold up! Where am I?!?” I wondered, as I sat up and glanced for a minute. I slowly processed what my eyes were taking in.

“Ahh!” I said, the moment I understood what was going on. I spied to my left, then I saw my crew dealing cards in mid air.

“12 hours till we land on orange, rocky Mars”, I announced, stunned about how long I had been sleeping for.

“Can I play?” I asked, whilst I swiped the hair out of my eyes. “Sure”, replied George.  He stopped, then started quickly dealing cards in my direction.

Suddenly I heard a rumble, coming from my stomach. And again. Then once more.

“Do we have any food?” I curiously wondered.

“We’re out”, Connor slowly mumbled.

A devastating Bang rushed through my ears, as I heard a horrifying sound. Without warning the power went out. I rushed to the metal power box and flipped all the switches and pushed the emergency power button….. silence flowed through our ears.

I screamed dreadfully.

George sped to the control panel, then looked at the red screen.

“Three percent fuel left”, he quickly warned us.

“Brace yourself for the landing”, Connor nervously exclaimed.

“Crash landing on Mars – what a great way to die”, said George sarcastically. Suddenly an enormous black hole came out of nowhere.

“Even better – being sucked into a black hole and die there!” he screamed joyfully continuing with the sarcasm.

For a moment I was blinded, my ears were ringing. I fell out of my seat. When I got up, I could see that we were in a parallel universe and headed straight towards a planet that looked somewhat like earth.

By Ben Creagh