Duffy

We were lucky to have Stella Schmid visit for our Duffy assembly today. At the age of 10 she couldn't read. She didn't go to school 80% of the time because she lived with her grandparents. When they passed away, her family realised she couldn't read. She didn't have the opportunities to read when she was you get, so she reads at every opportunity now. 

She now owns 3 businesses and travels New Zealand sharing her passion for reading and the environment.

Her message to us today was about how important we are. 

"Someone in this room has the potential to be the prime minister one day."
"Someone in this room has the potential to be the future minister of conservation."

She talked about the kereru and how it is the only bird large enough to eat some of the seeds for our big trees. Once it's extinct, the trees will be too!

The huia is already gone.

By the time you wake up in the morning, 170 species will die.

There are 3 species of rat in New Zealand. 

- One came with Maori and was a major food source.

- Ship rat originally came from India. It kills 26m native birds and insects every year. It has the potential to have 10 babies every 2 months. 

-Norwegian rat can swim. It eats the birds and insects I. The canopy of the trees.

Possums come from Australia. It was brought here for its coat. There are more things that have been brought into our country, than the things that belong here. 

Stoats come from Europe. They were brought here to fix the rabbit population. The rabbits were brought here by gold planners to eat. They over bred and ate too much grass then dig up farmland. The farmers demanded stoats were brought. On average 40 kiwis are killed by stoats each day. It's cousin the weasel is the same, but smaller. The ferret is from the same family. He was brought here for its mink coat. They were farmed. When it was decided that they weren't welcome here, they weren't sent back or destroyed... 4700 were released back into the forest.

The Kauri has been here for 250m years. We used to be covered in them, yet 1% is left.  

Native-made its way here on its own. 

Endemic - can only be found in one place in the world. 80% of our native population is endemic.

Introduced - brought here by humans.

Why are we important? Because we can help. 

Kiwi Can

The focus of This term is Positive Relationships 

We are starting to look specifically at positive communication first.

"Kiwican says communication say the word,
Use your words so you can be heard.
No need to Arthur, listen and see,
clear understanding is the key."

Our energiser was a game of Ninja. The game started with all group members saying "Ninja Ha!". To coincide with that, each person made a ninja stance. They then freeze.

One person starts and makes one movement to try and tag another person's arm. They can make a movement to dodge it. Each movement must freeze afterwards. If you're tagged, you put that arm behind your back. When both of your arms are tagged, you sit down. The winner is the last person standing.

If there were problems, like someone getting carried away and hitting a bit too hard... we needed to use respectful communication by using our manners to ask them to settle down. 

Everyone has different points of view, meaning that we all have different perspectives and opinions. We need to listen to our friends and come to an understanding.

To practice listening to other group members, we played "Wizard Giant Dwarf".

Wizard beats Dwarf
Giant beats Wizard
Dwarf beats giant

Fanimals in da house!

We were lucky enough to have Jess and Molson visit from Fanimals.

Apparently, Molson is quite cheeky and is probably the naughtiest! 

Where do they live?

There is an animal carer, who trains the animals. Many of them live in her house when they are not working. Tina & Tama the geckos, as well as the Fish,  live in the studios. The other animals get brought in for filming and then go home again. Molson lives with... our another family.

A German Shepard can jump really high! That's why they make great police dogs.

There are a couple of species of goldfish that x can survive in both freshwater and saltwater, but you wouldn't find them in a pet store. 

The fluffiest animal is a ChouChou. It is an Asian breed of dog. It is like a Pom Pom. It has a black tongue. It's going to be on the show next Tuesday!