A Great Big Thank You!

When Mr Davidson went back home to Canada, he saw his family friend, Helen. She was always very good at knitting. When Mr Davidson was little, she made him many things: sweaters, mittens, socks, hat and other things. She knew Mr Davidson had a class of children back in New Zealand and she knew that it was winter time there (even though it was summer time in Canada). So she decided to knit hats for every single Meerkat (including Ngeru). Mr Davidson brought them back in his suitcase.

We even learned a new word from Canada: toque. It means the warm hats you wear in the winter time. 

We decided that it would be nice to send some thank you letters. A few weeks ago, we wrote our letters and Mr Davidson sent them in the mail. Now that they've arrived in Canada (on Helen's birthday!) we can share the surprise. Here are some of the letters that we wrote:

From Paris

Thank you Helen! We really enjoy the warm gloves and toques you sent us! It's really cold right now and they are coming in very handy.

GEG Student Summit

Yesterday, some of the Meerkats took a bus ride to Hobsonville Point Primary School for the Google Educator Group Student Summit. We made a presentation on how to make animations using Google Slides. Then we got to see what other students were doing in other schools. we learned how to make a blog and how to make a Google site (more on those later, or if you're clever, you'll see what we made). We had lots of fun and learned lots.  Here is the presentation that we made:

Here are some pictures of us:

Maori Language Week Challenges 2 and 3

Yesterday the Meerkats were very busy and couldn't find time to finish the challenge. So today we decided to make a movie to show the last two challenges. Our friends visiting from Australia (Hazelnut and Luna) wanted to be in the video, but they were scared. So Ngeru offered to be in the video with them. Have a look at our video. Thank you to Danielle and Ryley for making the video and Dakshesh and Dizaliyah for helping Ngeru, Hazelnut and Luna remember their lines.

The Amazing Adventures of Ngeru: Part VII - Another Hamilton (and my Journey back to New Zealand)

Dear Marvellous Meerkats,

I am so tired right now. I have just been on an airplane for 13 hours! But I am very happy to be back home and I'm very excited to see you tomorrow!

But before I see you, I want to share the last few days of my trip. I got to visit with your teacher in the place where he lived when he was little. It's a city called Hamilton. No, not the one you can drive to from Auckland. This Hamilton is in Canada. It's got lots of trees and a mountain. Well, they say it's a mountain, but it looks like a really big hill. I got to climb to the top and look at the city. It was very beautiful. I even got to see the school that your teacher went to when he was your age. It looks very different from your school.

On the way back, I got to stop in Vancouver again. There were some pretty neat statues and carvings in the terminal. I also got to see some big mountains outside. I even spotted the plane I would travel on for that very long journey.

It's been a fun journey, but I'm glad to be back home. And I can't wait to see all of you tomorrow! I wonder what adventures we can get up to this term?

The Amazing Adventures of Ngeru: Part VI - Visiting My Relatives

Dear Marvellous Meerkats,

When I was in Chicago, I was lucky to get to visit some of my relatives. These are my second cousins, twice removed. I can't remember all of their names though.

I also got to meet lots of their friends that live with them in the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago (which didn't cost any money to visit!) and the nearby Aquarium. How many of these animals can you name? I'll give you 5 house points for each animal you name.

This animal is very slow.

I used to listen to a song about this animal when I was little (you could ask Mrs Brienza, she might know)

I got to touch these animals. They felt slimy.

I found him!

The Amazing Adventures of Ngeru: Part V: Chicago, The Windy City

Hi Marvellous Meerkats!

Wow, I have been so busy I haven't had time to write. But I did have time to take lots of pictures. I spent an amazing week in the city of Chicago. Did you know that there are more people in Chicago than there are in the whole country of New Zealand? Actually, there are twice as many people in Chicago as there are in New Zealand. That's a lot of people! There are lots of interesting things to do there though.

Before I left for Chicago, I was really lucky to get to see something right where I'm staying. This is a picture of the Stanley Cup. It's the trophy that they give t the best team in the National Hockey League. And I only had to walk five minutes to get to see it. Do you know which team won this last?

When I was driving to Chicago, I saw this sign. I thought someone in your class might find it interesting...

This is a baseball stadium. It's very famous because it's more than 100 years old. It has ivy on the wall instead of the regular cushions.

This is what Chicago looks like from the water. Look at all those big buildings!

I got to visit a museum all about space! They had a rock that some astronauts brought back from the moon!

Here is a model of one of the robots that they sent to Mars! I bet if you worked really hard to learn about robots, you could send one there.

This is a very cool looking stage for concerts in the park.

I really like this picture of me. The thing behind me is called "The Bean." Lots of people liked looking at it and taking pictures.

This is from a science museum. Can you see the big airplane. It's inside a building!

Can you name this dinosaur?

This is my favourite dinosaur. It's a bit harder to name. I bet you could figure it out if you were really clever.

I found a Marae in Chicago. How cool is that?!?

I went to one place and got shrunk down to a very small size. I ran into this scary thing here...

... and here too! I don't like spiders. I'm glad it already has something to eat.

Remember that tall building from the picture before? I got to go to the top and take some pictures. It was a very nice view.

There was even a place where I could stand on the floor that had a glass bottom. You could see all the way down. It was very far and very scary. But I was brave.

And this is me at the bottom of that building