Our Commonwealth star profile

Maria Tutaia

Full name: Solonaima Maria Tutaia

Date of birth: 18^th February 1987

Tokoroa, New Zealand (age 27)

Height: 1.88 m

Maria is an international netball player. She plays as goal shooter and goal attack.

She played for the Auckland diamonds in 2005-2007 in the National Bank cup. In 2008 when the ANZ championships started off Maria got signed to play for the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic, partnering with Irene Van Dyke in the shooting circle. She played for the team for 2 years, then transferred back to Auckland to play for the Northern Mystics in 2010.

Maria Tutaia owns 5 medals, 3 Gold and 2 Silver. 2 of the Gold medals she won from the last Commonwealth Games; playing netball.

Maria Tutaia is dating a rugby French based star.

 She still lives with her parents and doesn’t plan on moving anytime soon.

By paris and kalolaini

How do bees make honey?

When you see a bee crawl into a flower that’s when you know that they are collecting the nectar. They then return back to the hive and pass it onto the working bees. 

These bees’ suck the nectar from the honey bees and chew the nectar for half an hour.  After a long time of chewing; they finally spit it out and into the honeycomb. 

The nectar has now been created into thick syrup.  When the honey is gooey enough, the bees seal off the honeycomb with a plug of wax. 

In one year the bees will eat up to120 – 200 pounds of nectar.

WOW that’s a lot of chewing!! 

 

What a character!

Wednesday 30^th April 2014, the second week of our holidays and we had both been selected to attend a writing workshop, at Birkenhead Library. We were really excited because we were going to meet and work with well-known authors. 

The two stunning ladies were Maria Gill and Victoria Azaro, we have many of their books in our class and in our school library.

The day was split in to two sessions. The first half of the day we got to work with Maria. She taught us how to introduce our writing to the reader and how to use good word selection to develop a characters personality, without needing illustrations.

We then had a break to have afternoon tea. After we were refreshed we quickly moved into our second session.

For the rest of the day we worked with Victoria. She taught us how to illustrate our writing. The main thing we worked on was expression. By changing a characters facial expression the reader can get a clear idea of how they are feeling.  This was Paris’ favourite part.

At the end of the workshop we were all presented with a certificate of participation, which we will keep and put in our High School applications.

The whole day was fantastic; we learnt so much that we were exhausted; on the drive home we both couldn’t resist closing our eyes.

We hope we get the opportunity to attend something like that again, as it has made our passion for writing even stronger.

Crafted by Paris & Grace

Maria, VIctoria, Grace and Paris 

I remember…

I remember punching my brother in the face because I was jealous of him being the baby.

I remember cutting my foot while walking on long grass trying to follow my brother.

I remember getting thrown up in the air by an enormous bore hog.

I remember when my favourite cousin died and I cried forever, and losing my breathe.

I remember falling asleep by a big giant tree in the forest with my horse and waking up in my bedroom.

I remember coming up to Auckland and seeing the sky tower for the first time.

I remember seeing everyone in my family crying, and me not knowing why.

I remember going to my koro’s burial and all the men doing the haka.

I remember my dad going to a meeting in Taupo and me having rheumatic fever at that time.

I remember seeing my baby brother for the first time; he looked like a pale alien.

I remember having my first operation, I felt petrified because they had to cut out my ovary, and they tried and tried to put me to sleep.

I remember my dad telling me everything about how he was trying to get his land back, and me telling him that he shouldn’t give up achieving your goals.

By Paris

 I remember

·      I remember my fifth birthday where all of my family came together bringing gifts and happiness

·      I remember my papa protecting me

Where ever I went and if someone made me cry then they would get really scared because of my papa

·      I remember when I used to stay with my grandparents when I was little I never wanted to go to my mum and dad house because I was super close to my grandparents.

·      My first day in primary school my first teacher was miss stanway told me to read this big book that I can’t remember and I read it, then she went and got Mr lysaht to come and listen to my marvellous reading.

·      I remember when I was seven I experienced how to play the guitar and my first song I knew how to play and loved so much was ‘more than words’.

·      I remember getting first place four years for Sunday school test’s out of the entire Methodist congregation’s in Auckland

·      I remember the night my papa passed away I never got to see him to say goodbye before he died but I knew that I was his favourite and I miss him so much

·      I remember winning the Tautua Mo Tupulaga award two years in a row and seeing my nana and clapping and cheering for me and I am the only person who holds the record today.

·      I remember getting top student in a Samoan test out of all the student in Manurewa and I got the gift voucher  and a golden certificate

·      I remember me practicing my dance routines just listening to random songs from the TV

·      I remember celebrating with my best friends Collin and Sam after we won CGT in 2012

·      I remember writing down what I remember about my childhood.

By: June

           I Remember…

I remember meeting my family in Tonga and watching them do the umu with the kids  younger than me.

I remember crying in front of my family when leaving them to come back to New Zealand.

I remember the first time I had to perform my Tongan dance, I was 10 years old at my Aunts 21^st birthday.

I remember getting a broken arm at school from falling from the monkey bars.

I remember the first time I ate coconut and I was allergic to it, and going to school with ugly skin.

I remember the first time I had a sleepover at my friend’s house and couldn’t go to sleep at night.

I remember the day that I was a flower girl at my Aunt's wedding and being shy walking in front of people.

I remember the first time I went to Rainbows End and being extremely excited.

 I remember the day I met my best friend Paris and she asked me for a pen.

I remember getting the best present ever from my mum and it was a new phone.

I remember teaching the girls in my class the Tongan dance and it was frustrating.

I remember going to Paknsave with my aunty, and her fighting with a man for park in the disabled parking.

By Teuhiva 

I REMEMBER………

I remember when I came from Tonga in 2005; I missed my family in Tonga so much.

I remember when I was young my grandpa passed away in Tonga I felt so sad and I couldn’t stop crying for 1 day.

I remember I used to go to school in Tonga and I got a lot of hidings for not listening.

I remember the first time we celebrated Christmas in New Zealand it felt very different from Tonga.

I remember the time I nearly got run over in Mangere, I was so scared.

I remember I couldn’t sleep anywhere without my mum.

I remember my aunty teaching me the Tau’lunga before she passed away.

I remember the first time I went to Rainbow End with the road patrol and I had the best time ever.

I remember when I started C.P.S and my first teacher was Miss Jones.

I remember the first time I met my mum’s family at a family reunion I had a good time with them.

I remember the first time I met Louisa at a wedding she was so weird when I met her.

I remember walking with Losana talking and laughing on the way home.

By Lose

…I Remember….

·    I remember the first time I went to school and everyone was staring at me like I was some sort of monster entering the class.

·    I remember the first day I attended Clendon Park School, I was so nervous I hardly ever spoke for the whole day.

·    I remember my first friends at Clendon Park School they were  Teuhiva and Paris they were smart and kind.

·    I remember the first teacher I met at Clendon Park School, it was Miss Jones, she was so pretty and so kind and that took away my shyness towards the others.

·    I remember the first hiding I got I was screaming like I was dieing.

·    I remember seeing my brother at hospital and I would always call him a monster.

·    I remember when I was young I would always give my brother a hiding if he beat me at a game.

·    I remember when I was ten years old I would hide away from the cleaning and my brothers and sisters would come and look for me.

·    I remember in one of my classes I was the oldest and one of the shortest people.

·    I remember when I was a young no matter where my mother was, I was always by my mother side.

·    I remember just last night I was up all night reading my Anne Frank book so I wouldn’t be behind.

by Dorothy

Fiafia night

“Go home and have a shower.” Miss Jones said as we left.

I rushed home as fast as I could with butterfly’s trying to ruin my stomach with excitement.

I had a shower and quickly walked to kalolaini’s house to pick her up.

When we got to school everyone was there before us so I gradually put on my dress without the boys looking in.

As we waited and waited it was time to go to the back of the hall.

Everyone blended in with flowers in their hair and lava lava’s around their waist. All the costumes were amazing.

I loved our classroom’s costumes, we wore Teki teki’s in our hair, bracelets made out of crepe paper and amazing dresses.

To start of the night we sang our welcoming song and then our Maori song and dance kia Kotahi E.

It was one heck of a night but we still had more performances to go.

Our next item was a Tongan dance that Teuhiva had taught us.

As I was in the front I  was getting nervous, I was saying to myself “smile, don’t muck up and have as much fun as possible.”

Once we got on stage everyone was staring at us like they were amazed by the way we looked.

I instantly kept on saying in my head “smile Paris, please smile.”

Once it was all over and done with I simply laughed at how far we had come, all of those practices we had, everyone looked beautiful.

By the time it came to the Niuean song I wanted to replay the whole night and do it all over again.

That was how much fun and excitement I had, had all in one night.

Everything that night will definitely be memorable.

By Paris

Fiafia night photos of our performance