For pākiki this term in Whai Wāhi, we all learnt about four, historical Māori figures. They were Dame Whina Cooper, Hōne Heke, George Nēpia, and Dalvanius Prime [who is not a transformer by the way]. We learnt all about who they were, and what they did, that had a huge impact on our country's history. After researching about one of them, we needed to create a picture book that was based on their story. It had to at least have some sort of resemblance to who the person was, what their huge impact was, or what their timeline was like. We were able to use our own characters too, and change it a bit. Some students took Hōne Heke and used the predicament of land ownership as the critical element of the storyline but then changed the characters to chickens and foxes, fighting over a sandpit with a leaf flag. This was important so our stories would really appeal and be interesting to juniors whilst allowing them to learn about these important figures.

Today we went over to Westpark, to read our picture books to the juniors. We had four Rāroa students to four Westpark Students and read all our books together in a group before returning to school. We had to think about how we would read the book to small children, using power in our voice when needed, that the pace was slow and that we showed animation to keep them engaged.

This Pākiki was interesting because we were able to draw our own characters, make our own story, while learning historical facts about New Zealand’s past as well. But at the same time, it was a bit stressful, as drawing our own illustrations, coloring them, and outlining them was really time consuming for some of us. Overall, it was a really exciting experience, as we now have our own picture book to bring home and keep!

By Maxin B, Ela F-S, Elva C and Ivy T.