Colwill Likes to Party

Sausage Sizzle 

Colwill is quite the party school. We do all sorts of fun things here. On Wednesday they had a Sausage Sizzle to meet and greet the parents. All of the different families (school teams) were in charge of a station and got to keep the profit of the earnings for their team. My (and Kirsten’s) team, Harakeke Whanua was in charge of the sausage sizzle part, Pohutukawa Whanua was in charge of ice cream (Kirsten W. family) and Kowhai Whanua (Emily’s family) was in charge of the drinks.

Working as the sausage station was quite fun actually. I got to see most of my students and their smiling faces without their uniforms! I’m ashamed to admit it but it was actually kind of hard to recognize them at first glance without their uniforms! It was interesting to see their own sense of style.  I was in charge of the money. I realized that it is tricky to do the math in my head (they didn’t have calculators), give back change, and still be pleasant and hold a conversation is all quite difficult when you aren’t that familiar with their currency!

Once it was all done I went back and got a picture with my classroom! Good ol’ room 14. It is a lovely place to be. While we were over there we found some girls that think Kirsten and I are pretty cool and beg for us to hang out with them at lunch. I’m not exaggerating at all. They ask us all sorts of questions about America, boyfriends, and make us practice our New Zealand accents. Unfortunately we are not very good at their accent, but they are excellent at American accents. 

From left to right: Sara, Me, Riana, Danielle, Kirsten

Volcanoes

Our family is studying volcanoes right now in Science. My class sure thought that this was exciting since they haven’t ever done something like this before. Here are some pictures of my little munchkins and their volcanoes!

From left to right: Benjamin, Earl, Mina, Alania 

Front: Jnr, Sarah

Back: PIta, Miracle (Kolio)

Front: Hlune 

From left to right: Ayad, Ashton, Ram

From left to right: Micah, Saphire, Darren, Elissa 

From left to right: Pita, Miracle, Jnr

From left to right: Micah, Darren, Saphire

They have serious muscles. 

From left to right: Earl, Mina

Only these strong men can rip paper. 

From left to right: PIta, Jnr, Miracle (Kolio), Sarah 

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Oh boy do kids say and do the darndest things! I have kept track of the funny things said to me or that I have overheard while being at Colwill Primary School. Here are a few!

• The class was working on copying the poem 5 Little Monkeys. Benjamin, a special needs boy in my class (he has severe brain damage) started singing 5 little monkeys to himself. He then stood up and yelled to the entire class, “Everybody! Join in with me!” while waving his arms around conducting the class. The entire class started singing and dancing like monkeys around the classroom. You couldn’t help but laugh. (Benjamin is 8 years old)

• “I apologize tremendously for my lateness. My mother had an appointment.” – Earl (5 years old)

• Not only does Earl have a very extensive vocabulary that makes him funny, but he has a bit of a toilet issue too. Well, it’s more of a lack of toilet that causes his issues. He has had so many accidents in his pants its ridiculous. I have decided it should be mandatory for all students to be FULLY potty trained before they come to school. End of story. Anyways, here is a really funny story that happened in our classroom. 

Earl had to go to the bathroom really bad one afternoon. He was bouncing around and this is what went down.
“Mrs. Whitehouse, Mrs. Whitehouse! I have to go to the bathroom real bad!” – Earl
“Well, go on ahead! Hurry up and go to the toilet!” – Mrs. Whitehouse
Unfortunately, he wore a really difficult belt that day and so he was fiddling with it trying to get it off in the bathroom for about 2 minutes until he came back in the classroom.
“Mrs. Whitehouse, Mrs. Whitehouse! I can’t get my belt undone!” – Earl
“It’s alright, come here and I’ll help you get it undone.” –Mrs. Whitehouse
“NO! NO! I got it Mrs. Whitehouse! I can do it! I’m to the rescue!” – Benjamin (Yes, the special needs boy)
Benjamin rushed over to Earl and started helping him with his belt. He had eventually gotten it off, but regretfully he was just too late. Yes, Earl and full on wet his pants. All Earl could say was “Ahhhh…much, much better”.

• Kirsten and I were walking around doing duty during lunch when a group of girls came up to us to chat. Here is a funny but brief conversation we had.                                                                  

“Miss Harper, Miss Harper! Do you like him?”

“Well yes, He’s in my class.”

 Chorus of girls giggling as they ran away. I had forgotten how you have to choose your words wisely when girls ask you if you like boys at the age of 11 and 12. Poor Kirsten.

• While I was on duty one day during lunch there was a little boy on the playground singing. He was singing the phrase “I am getting so hot, so I’m gonna take my clothes off” from the song Hot in Here from Usher. A little girl then ran up to me saying, “Miss! Miss! That boy over there is singing naughty words”! It was really hilarious.

• There is another boy in my class and his name is Jnr (Junior). He is such a cute kid. He is going to be quite the ladies man I can already tell. He is constantly making moves on me, which I think is kind of comical. I work with him often because he is one of the lower students in our class. Because the tables are mini sized for the little munchkins, I squat down beside the tables. As I began working with him more and more he would gradually move a little closer, then a little closer, then a little closer until we were touching. One day he got the point where he got so close he decided to put his arm around my shoulders and tuck his head onto my shoulder. I turned to him and said, “Jnr, we need to make sure that we are keeping our hands to ourselves”. He immediately replied, “But, Miss Taylor! I just like it here so much”! It took all my will power not to bust up right then and there.  (Jnr is 5 years old)

• As my class sits in the classroom eating morning tea and lunch I like to eavesdrop on their conversations. One day there was a table of boys that had quite the conversation about their love lives. Jnr (5yrs old), Hlune (5yrs old), Ayad (6yrs old), and Mina (6yrs old) were having a very serious conversation about each of their girlfriends. Here are some of the comments made in this intense conversation:

“She’s my girlfriend, but she doesn’t really like to play with me.” –Hlune

“She has a pretty face.” – Mina

“I’d say Mia is a baaabe cause her hair is pretty and curly.”- Jnr
“I wish I had a girlfriend too.” –Ayad

• I was making the base for the volcanoes our class was going to paper machete. I had two helpers Saphire (6yrs old) and Earl (5yrs old). As we were working Elissa (6yrs old) comes up to me and asks me if I had ever heard of a specific Maori song. She started singing it and it was so precious. Earl rudely interrupted and said, “Oh ya! Well watch this!” and immediately started singing Baby by Justin Bieber completely in tune and in rhythm. 

• I was working with Jnr again in class and sat there in his chair just staring at my face. Then he turns to me and we have this conversation about my make up:

"Miss Taylor, whats that pinky stuff on your face?"

"Well, its blush."

"Oh, Okay."

Pauses for a moment...

"Miss Taylor, Whats that black stuff on your eyebrows?"

"Jnr, do you mean on my eyelashes?"

"Oh, oh ya your eyelashes."

"Its called mascara."

"Oh. Why do you wear it?" 

"Because it makes girls look pretty."

"Oh. Do you think I could wear it too? Would it make girls think I'm pretty too?"

"Oh, Jrn, boys don't wear makeup. Especially ones as cute as you."

Stand In Holy Places

Church today was amazing. Kirsten and I had the opportunity to teach Gospel Doctrine for the YSA! I was not super excited about this, seeing as teaching returned missionaries intimidates me a little, but it was wonderful! The lesson was titled Oh How Great The Goodness of Our God, based on the atonement. It was such a great reminder of the blessings of the atonement and how remarkable it is.

Then we headed off to relief society for another fabulous lesson. It was based off of the talk President Monson gave in general conference in October 2011 titled Stand In Holy Places. This talk was one of my favorites out of all of general conference.

To get you thinking a little bit think about this question that was posed to us. What are some behaviors that were once considered inappropriate or immoral and are now tolerated or viewed as acceptable? How does God view our standards?

She brought up a fantastic analogy given by John Bytheway. When he gave a devotional he used the analogy of basketball standards. The height of the basketball hoop is always going to be 10 feet because they are the same everywhere. That is the standard and you have to adjust yourself to the level. It is not the other way around. They are called basketball standards, not basketball variables.  

If you haven't read President Monson's talk recently it is a must! It is so good! Here is a link to his talk via LDS.org: President Monsons Talk. 

“Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me.”⁷ As we do so, we will feel His Spirit in our lives, providing us the desire and the courage to stand strong and firm in righteousness—to “stand … in holy places, and be not moved.”- President Monson 

Instead of a mormon message here is the clip from John Bytheway's talk about standards. Enjoy! 

That Was Sweet As

Friday

Friday was an absolute wonderful day! We got to experience two things that are special and unique to New Zealand. We went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum and then a rugby game!

Museum

We first went to the war museum. This was absolutely fascinating to me. I know so much about Americas history but I didn’t know much about any other countries history until then. It was interesting to see another countries perspective to both of the World Wars. They had entire wings of the museum dedicated to each war. Here were some of my favorite parts of the museum.

I loved the introduction we received. They had a Maori cultural performance that was amazing. There was a group of “warriors” and “maidens” that sang and danced for us. They showed us many things that were specific to the Maori culture.

They showed us the titi torea, the word used for the double short sticks. There are many forms for playing titi torea, starting from the simple ones where a player learns to change hands with the sticks they have, through to the sticks coming from behind and having to be caught. Both children and adults play titi torea. Competitions are sometimes held, with the aim being for each team to complete a certain set of patterns without going out of beat or dropping any.

They also did a dance with Poi. They dance swinging these balls, which are attached to flax strings. The poi they swing rhythmically can have short or long cords. Sometimes the dancers will be grouped so that dancing can be performed with both short and long cords swinging in harmony. Originally the poi was used as a means of training and developing strength, accuracy, flexibility and poise.

Then of course they did the famous Haka. There are two different types of Hakas. Peruperu is the style for true war dance. Weapons are involved and one of the characteristics would include a high jump with the legs folded under at the end of the dance. Ka Mate, on the other hand, is not a war dance. It was originally of the ngeri style, a short, free form of Haka whereby performers interpret as they feel fit. Weapons are not involved. When the All Blacks rugby team does the haka they do the Ka Mate version. Here are the lyrics to the Haka:

Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!


Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!


Tenei te tangata puhuru huru

Nana nei i tiki mai


Whakawhiti te ra
A upa … ne! 

ka upa … ne!


A upane kaupane whiti te ra!


Hi!

I die! I die! I live! I live!


I die! I die! I live! I live!


This is the hairy man


Who fetched the Sun


And caused it to shine again


One upward step! Another upward step!


An upward step, another … the Sun shines!

The music that they shared with us was amazing! Here is a video of a mix of all of the songs they performed! 

I also loved walking through the areas of World War II. There was a wall that had a wall that said, “were you a prisoner of war?” with words below encouraging those that were in concentration camps to go to the front desk and write down the camps they were in and when. I carefully read the pieces of paper added to this wall and my heart about broke. It was very appropriate to then have a room dedicated to those who survived the concentration camps, with pictures, their stories, and also when they arrived in New Zealand.

Next, as simple as it was, I loved this bronze statue of men that was a memorial of New Zealand bomber command. This memorial depicts an RAF Lancaster Bomber crew after returning from a night operation and honors the 2157 New Zealand airmen, all volunteers, lost while flying with RAF bomber command in Europe during WWII. 

Last but not least, there was an entire room dedicated to olden day instruments! I was so excited when I saw this room I could hardly stand it. They had some really interesting looking instruments. First, they had rows and rows of violins. They had the most rich colors and interesting markings I could stare and examine them all day. There were also some instruments that looked like violins and cellos but they had 6-8 strings on them! How weird is that? There was also some other instruments that kind of looked like guitars/ukulele’s but they weren’t. I don’t even know what you would call them but they sure looked neat!

*that thing in the middle is a cello*

Rugby

After the museum we went to the rugby game. The game was between Auckland Blues and the Christchurch Crusaders. This was the first game of the Super 15 Tournament. 15 of the players, combined from both teams, are on the All Blacks team as well. I have come to the conclusion that rugby is awesome, it is intense, it looks painful and much more fun to watch than football. The game is so fast paced that there is never a dull moment. Rugby is sweet as.

Dog pile! 

Christchurch Crusaders 

Auckland Blues 

Auckland Blues maskot! 

Saturday

Saturday was so relaxed it was delightful. We were going to go to the beach but it was so windy that it would have been miserable, so we made a last minute decision to go to the Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World. Oh my gosh I loved it. It was super small, but it was worth it to me to go to the aquarium.  Just like the zoo I got reconnected with my inner child. Everything was so exciting to see even if I had seen them before. Here are the highlights.

My absolute favorite part of the entire aquarium was all of the penguins!! There was tons of them and they are probably the funniest animals to me. In the penguin habitat they have soccer balls, Frisbees and balls on strings for them to play with to keep them interested and stimulated. It was funny to see that even the penguins have clicks. There were certain groups of penguins that were together and each group of penguins had their own look to them. Funny. I have decided that their little waddle is great.

My next favorite part was seeing the whole entire cast of Finding Nemo. When I spotted Dory, Bubbles (part of the tank gang), and Nemo in the tank I about died. Kirsten was probably embarrassed to be with such a fanatic of a Disney movie. Then there was a giant Crush hanging out for the little ones to climb on. Since he was there I had to have a picture too.  There was even Bob and Sheldon, the sea horses! It was a great, great day.

Here's some other things that we saw and did. 

What We Do In School

Because I am in a years1-2 classroom we do lots of hands on activities. I love it, since it is so my style of teaching and the students love it because its fun. 

Here’s some things that we have done so far.

My mentor teacher loves the arts. The children were taught how to draw faces and were given paper to draw their own self-portraits. Once they had it drawn with pencil they colored it in and outlined it in black or brown. Next, they took some dye and painted over it so there was a nice pretty color as the background. Then they pasted it onto black construction paper. They finished the project off with creating a mosaic boarder with cut out pieces of paper. Aren’t they such artists! Such likeness! 

In the category of the arts we do lots of singing and dancing. Here are some recordings of my classes’ favorites to sing and dance to. Trust me, it’s worth it to listen. They are pretty funny, especially the Bad Hair Day song.

WARNING: These songs tend to get stuck in head very easily. Do not, I repeat, do not listen to them multiple times. 

Bad Hair Day

Jump Forward, Jump Back 

Gosh, little kids are so much fun! 

Dating for Dummies

I have come to realize that the YSA really like to get together and talk about dating. The last discussion that was held last week was on dating and there was a fireside again today about dating. Tonight fireside/discussion was absolutely hilarious and I am so glad that I went.  Here’s how it went: the men and women were separated and they were each given instructors on a certain topic. The instructors had me crying I was laughing so hard.  There was a topic on communication/body language AKA flirting and then another with 10 tips for dating.

10 Tips for the “Dummies”:

1. Encourage "mission before fishin"
2. Make your list check it twice
3. Build your profile
4. Simple, cheap and heavily populated 
5. Date=Mate
6. YOU are the key (you are in control) 
7. Let's get physical....NOT 
8. Avoid the 10 Second rush (avoid getting a little too close in compromising situations
9. Don't "park" in the dark
10. Fulfill your dream 

Tips for Communicating: 

1. Smile! But not the creepy stalker smile
2. Make eye contact. If direct eye contact makes you feel uncomfortable look at their forehead, shoulder, other shoulder, nose or mouth
3. Pay attention to them! 
4. Ask them about themselves

After we were all given these workshops everybody was given a dating registration form. The YSA were told to fill out their information and people they would like to get to know. This was meant for them to practice their dating skills. All of these names would get put into a pot and they would get paired up for group dates (2 couples). They would then go on these dates. After the dates each person would rate their date. Yes, rate their date (according to what we learned about tonight) and text their rating to the person in charge. Then the 4 people that have the highest overall ratings get to go on a group date paid for by the stake presidency. Neat. Here is the actual form for you to take a look at. It's pretty funny. 

It has become very evident to me that New Zealand has an issue about dating because I guess the YSA have in their head that if someone asks you on a date it means that you are boyfriend/girlfriend or looking for marriage. So they are trying to get them out of it by showing them that dating is for fun by doing firesides like this. They always make references about how American girls are used to going on dates and doing it properly. They actually make a lot of references the American girls. For example, they were talking about being careful with physical contact (specifically making out) on the first date because its not always culturally acceptable. He then proceeded to say "except for some of our YSA girls here from America, they're probably used to it". Wow. Go America. What a great reputation. 

Because it's Sunday I need to add a Mormon Message. I know I already showed this one but it's so appropriate and I just love it. Enjoy!

Nice and Fitness

Saturday, as Kirsten and I were running we saw one of her students. Her student, Riana, yelled out her window, “Miss! You look nice and fitness!”! Let me tell you, our entire weekend was about fitness.

Friday

On Friday we spent the entire day at the beach once again. I’m really enjoying these relaxing weekends after chaotic weeks, especially the ones on the beach. Anyways, at the beach it was full of excitement and active things. Tawharanui beach happened to be my favorite of them all. It was gorgeous and was a lot more secluded than the rest of the beaches we had been to.

Since we were at the beach, of course we were going to swim a lot. I ended up swimming further than I can touch so I ended up treading water for quite some time until I could swim against the current enough to touch. 

We also did a heck of a lot of boogey boarding! I had forgotten how much I love boogey boarding. The waves were huge and I had forgotten how hard it is to get out far enough to catch the good waves to ride them in. Let me tell you, with the power of the waves it was a work out!

Next we did a lot of walking and climbing. Around the area there were a lot of rocks that we could climb on getting in touch with our inner child. There were plenty of rocks to have some A Little Mermaid action going on. It was pretty cool. There were also caves that we could walk through that had waves splashing through and smaller caves the tide didn’t cover that were full of HUGE crabs. I’ll admit it freaked me out a little. It was pretty awesome.

Emily was digging holes in the wet sand as the waves came up to stick her feet in. Her hole got pretty big so she became a midget. It just made me laugh so I had to post it. I've never felt so tall before in my life!  

This was completely unrelated to fitness, but with the group we went to dinner and then saw the movie The Vow. For dinner we went to a bar that had some pretty yummy food for the most part. I got some chicken nuggets that were absolutely disgusting (they were soggy in the middle. We all know that they are not supposed to be that way).  Then I got some potato wedges that were scrumptious. I was expecting a little side of them, but it came in a wicker basket with enough to share between 5 people. A few other girls got them as well so we had more than enough wedges to go around. The food took us so long to get that we were going to miss our movie. We were all in need of a chick flick so we wanted to take our food to go. Of course, the place did not have to go boxes. Girls put their food in napkins, but I had just gotten my mound of wedges so I couldn’t exactly do that. I ran back to the van to grab a container that I could put them in. When I was coming back I saw the girls and James with their heads down walking quickly because James said it was okay to take the baskets with us. He apparently told the girls that those baskets are super cheap and they can get new ones. So yes, we took the baskets that we were probably not supposed to take. No worries though we made it to the movie! When the movie was over we all about freaked out cause the ending was…not so great. The movie would have been relatively okay if it didn’t end the way it did. I’m glad I saw it, but I wouldn’t ever see it again.

Saturday

Kirsten and I (along with a few other girls) are going to be running a 6K in a week! I am not a runner so this is a big deal, a very big deal. We have been trying to go running often but it is so hard to go running after a long day at the schools when your exhausted and it’s a sauna outside. Thank goodness for Saturday mornings! We went for a nice run. When I say nice I really mean hard. I don’t ‘think there is a single flat area in all of New Zealand. We were running up hill then down hill, and then repeating that over and over again. Not exactly pleasant but we did it…most of it. As we were out for our run that’s when her cute student Riana yelled out the window, “Miss! You look nice and fitness”! I love that the children here are polite enough to call us Miss. 

Then we did some basic abdominal workouts and some stretching. The stretching was by far my favorite part of the entire thing! So relaxing and enjoyable, plus this actually felt good.

That night Phyllis was out with her brother so Kirsten and I made dinner for us. After an intense weekend we made ourselves a delicious hardy meal. We made some BBQ chicken, creamed corn, green beans with soy sauce, and rice. Since we are in New Zealand you can’t just have a meal, you must have dessert. So, for dessert we had some chocolate fondue, sponge cake cut into cubes, and bananas. MmmMmm good. 

Then we invited Kirsten, Emily, and Elyse over for a girls night. We painted fingernails and watched Catch Me If You Can. Emily and Kirsten (my roommate) had never seen it so we had to watch it! Such a good movie.