Letter to my e pal in Sweden Epal Name: Anna-Gael
Room 10, Tokoroa Intermediate School.
8th of April 2024.
Dear Anna-Gael,
My name is Nadia. Nadia means hope. My birthday is June 18th 2012, I live in Tokoroa New Zealand and my favourite thing to do is play tup ae (a Maori game), also the people in my family are Lea my Mum, Shaun my Dad, Preston my oldest brother who is 17, Noah my second brother who is 15, Kiara my older sister who is 14 then me who is 11 and finally Blake my younger sister who is 6.
Tokoroa Intermediate School is about integrity and being kind to one another. What's your school's name? And what are your school values?, In room 10 there are 35 kids, 13 girls and 22 boys. We have different whares the whares are Pono, Tika, Maanaki and Honore.the whare I’m in is Pono and the values are Whanaungatanga, Hapori, Akonga, Rangatiratanga and Eke Panuku. Also in P.E (physical education) we wear P.E shirts so we don’t play sports games in our uniform and get sweaty, but Ponos P.E shirts are coloured blue, Tikas are yellow, Honores are red and Maanakis is green.
We also have a thing called “Huarahi”. It's where you get to learn new and different things each term. There is, Digital technologies, cooking, creative arts, Hard materials and Te-reo Maori. I am currently in cooking and I have learnt how to cook so many new things that I didn't know how to do before. In cooking you are to pair up with two people you work well with. I usually go with one year 8 and one year 7. There are 6 mini kitchens with an oven, a bench top, a sink, a microwave and cooking measurements and bowls, plates and utensils.
There are so many subjects that we get taught in class such as Math, Science, reading, handwriting, maths whizz, spell zone and many more my favourite subject would be P.E because we get to run around and learn how to play new games.
In our school, we have an interval which is morning tea and we also have lunch. We start school at 8:45 am and do class work until interval starts which is at 10:35 Am and finishes at 11:00 Am, then we go back to class and work until lunch starts at 12:45 Pm and finishes at 1:10 Pm. We get free lunches every day and have to pick them up at the end of lunch. Then there is a bell that rings so we can return our leftovers and rubbish.
On Monday mornings we have a thing called Rahina Hui. In Rahina Hui we just get told the things that are on in our school for the week. On Wednesdays, we have either singing or kapa haka practice. The songs we sing are Never Enough by six60, Love Will Keep Us Alive, Ko Te Ata Ma Hina which is a Maori song also Ka Pioioi E as well as Hutia and so many more.
In our school, the most favourite place is the tuckshop also known as the “canteen” . The tuckshop lady repeats the same word to everyone and those are “Hi what would you like?”. The most popular items are purple sweet thai chilli doritos, black currant juicys, heated cookie time cookies, chocolate moosies and trumpet ice creams. Those are the most popular items but she also sells 10-cent lolly snakes, 20 cent mini cookies, multiple flavoured moosie and juicys, red cheesy doritos, a big gummy snake, chocolate bars, sherbet fizzes.
On Saturday I play soccer for the school, but I also like playing ki-o-rahi. Last year I played soccer for the school but I signed up too late so I couldn’t do a tournament although I had done a ki-o-rahi tournament last year and my team won 2, lost 1 and tied 2. Ki-o-rahi is a fun Maori game where there is a defender team and attacker team, the attacker team has a target which is called po and they have to try to hit the po meanwhile the defender team has to try blocking them from hitting the po if they hit the po then they get a point. The game goes in quarters and every quarter you swap sides.
What do you enjoy doing whilst at school?What's your school about and what's your favourite thing to do?,
From Nadia.
Room 10
Tokoroa Intermediate School
8th April 2024
Dear: Patrick,
Hi my name is Marley. I am eleven years old, and was born at Waikato hospital on the 24th of October 2012.
I got my name from a famous singer named Bob Marley.
I am Maori,Swiss and Filipino.
The members of my family are my Dad Colin. He is a farmer on all 4 of our farms but mainly works on 1 of them. And my Mum Leanne works at Harcourts which is a real estate business. I have 2 step parents, my Stepdad Tyler works for fast logging which is in the bush, and my Stepmum Katie works for white wood homes and they build hous
The things I like are rugby, squash, almost every food and the farm.
My favorite people are my friends Rory, Glenn, Cooper and Kasey. Some more of my favorite people are my Mum, Dad, Lola(nan), Gran, Nan and Grandad. My favorite siblings are Lyrik and Oaklee.
The things I dislike however are red onions, my brother Louis and chewy meats.
My hobbies are riding my motorbike, My favorite sports are Rugby, squash and league while my favorite food is probably parmesan fettuccine
My friends are Rory, Glenn, Cooper and Kasey. I have been friends with Kasey and Cooper since Kindergarten while Glenn and Rory I have been friends with them for about 4-5 years. They are the best because I know they will always have my back.
In the future when I finish school I would probably like to be a farmer because my Dad,Gran and Grandad were all farmers, or I would be a professional rugby player because I love rugby. My goals for this year are to stay in extension maths for the whole year and to stay at the top on all the subjects.
The school I go to is called Tokoroa Intermediate School (TIS for short).
In TIS our principal is called Mrs Mariassoucé and the Associate Principal is Mr Creigh-Smith.
In our school we have these things called Whares which is Maori for house they are called Tika, Honore, Manaaki and the one our class is in Pono. Each Whare represents something different they each represent Pono – doing their best with integrity.
Manaaki – doing the best for others.
Tika – to be responsible for what they say, do and how they do it.
Honore – to be true and honest with genuine sincerity.
Every wednesday we have either kapa haka which is like an emotional and powerful combination of song, dance and chanting using the Maori language, or we Have singing practice which is exactly like it sounds.
And every Friday we have Friday sports, which is when our whole school goes outside to play different variations of different games involving catching, batting, running and passing skills.
And on Thursday Pono has this thing called huarahi which are Hard Materials which is when you build things using wood with various machines, food tech which is just cooking skills. There is Digital Technology which is about skills with chromebooks and computers. And finally there is Creative Arts which is art skills.(Wednesday is Honore Tuesday is Manaaki and Tika is on Monday).
In my class there are 23 boys and 12 girls that makes 35 kids total.
In our school we have something called a tuck shop. It is a shop where you can buy juices,moosies,trumpet cones,sherbet fizzes and heaps of other things.
I hope you enjoyed reading my letter. I can't wait to read yours.
From:Marley
Room 10
Tokoroa Intermediate
8th April 2024
Dear Sonia,
Hello, my name is Temali. I'm a 12 year old girl born on 27/09/2011. I got my name from my Nan. Her name is Temalisi which is a pretty common name in Tonga. But my parents wanted to shorten it to Temali. My Japanese name is Temari which is a 'Temari ball' and it represents Loyal friendship or a valued friendship.
I'm Japanese from my mum's side and Tongan from my dad's side. I was born in Japan while my parents and my brother were going for a trip to Japan. Once I was born they decided to live in Japan for a while so I lived there for 4 years.
I have 3 cats Ninja, Kuno and Obi. I have 1 sibling Tatsuya and I have heaps of cousins from my dad's side but not so much from my mum's. My mum works at Kiwi can and my dad is a Police officer.
My favourite foods are rice, mango, mochi, steak (medium rare), cookies, sashimi(raw fish) and much more. My favourite drinks are water, milk and bubble tea.
Stuff that makes school cool is the tuckshop (shop that has snacks to buy) Friday sports (playing sports against other classes every Friday), every Wednesday, we get to go home earlier, and when you are at assembly, you have a chance to get your name called out for the tuckshop draw (win a 5 dollar voucher for tuckshop only).
We have 12 girls and 23 boys in our class. We always have sports on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. My favorite game is Tapuwae. You can also sign up to performance art, KapaHaka and Poly groups which a lot of people do at our school. Every fortnight we have a formal assembly but on the other Fridays we just have a whare assembly. Every Thursday we have something called Huarahi where we have subjects to do like Cooking, Wood tech, Technology, Performing arts, Library and Maori Tech. We have 4 whares(houses). Pono, Tika, Honore and Manaaki (Pono on top!) Every Time you do something good, you get a tis and once you have 50 tis you can get a bronze badge then another 50, you get a silver badge and then ANOTHER 50, you get a gold badge. (The tis is made out of paper and is a shape and size of a credit card).
I have long straight black hair and my eyes are dark brown. I’m 163-164 cm tall and my skin tone is tanish.
I like food, animals, movies, traveling, holidays, Christmas, fridays, drawing, cooking, eating, SPORTS!, clothes, drinks, music, Martial arts and heaps more.
I love my family.
I dislike going up on stage, talking In front of a group, hypocrites, dirty toilets and ants.
I have a fear of stink bugs, Taupo volcano and nightmares.
I have moved into 6 or 7 houses in the past (Including the house I live in now) and I have had 5 cats and 1 dog but right now I have 3 cats. Most of the people who live in my neighborhood are people I know and are my friends. Most of my family lives in Auckland or a different country so it’s nice when I get to visit them.
I look forward to hearing back from you 😃
From Temali
