The First School Journal
This Journal is the first Part 1 School Journal of the twenty-first century.  
The first ever School Journal was published ninety-three years ago, in 1907.  
These photographs show what your classroom might have looked like in 1907.
There were no pictures in the first journals, but there were stories, poems, and articles in every issue.  Up till the Second 
World War, children were given free copies of the Journals to keep in a special cover.
"The Dog and the Pukeko" was a story published in the School Journal, Part 1 Number 1, 1907.  This is what that first 
Journal looked like.   

Tebuae Dances
story and photographs by Jill MacGregor

Tebuae lives in the village of Bikenibeu on a small island in Kiribati.
When visitors come to stay in the village, the families welcome them with a botaki (celebration).  
Tebuae is excited.  Some visitors from New Zealand are coming to stay in her village.  Tebuae has been chosen to dance for them 
– all by herself!
Tebuae's parents, Sainimele and Baretoka, are teaching her a new dance.  It tells the story of a beautiful girl who is 
looking for shellfish on the reef with her new fishing basket.  
Baretoka teaches Tebuae how to rock gently from one foot to the other so that her hips sway.  Sainimele shows her how 
to make her toes creep quickly across the floor.  Tebuae must bend her knees and keep her shoulders straight.  She must look 
straight ahead and not let her eyes wander.
Sainimele sings, and Baretoka claps the rhythm on his knees.
Te-ua-na, uo-ua, teni-ua, a-ua …
One, two, three, four ….  
Tebuae dances.
She practises every day until she can remember all the actions.
There is a lot to do before the botaki.  Tebuae helps Sainimele make the dancing costume.  They sew long strips of black 
videotape together to make the skirt.  
Tebuae cuts strips of pandanus leaves, and Sainimele weaves them with red and yellow flowers to make a necklace and 
waist-skirt.  
Baretoka finds twenty shiny shells on the reef to sew onto Tebuae's belt.
Then, just before the botaki starts, Tebuae picks some sweet-smelling flowers for her headband.
The botaki is held in the maneaba (meeting house).  While the visitors are eating, Tebuae gets ready for her dance.
Sainimele brushes coconut oil into Tebuae's hair to make it shine.  She rubs oil on Tebuae's skin and over the dancing 
costume.  Tebuae will sparkle when she dances.
Sainimele ties the belt round Tebuae's waist and puts the crown of flowers on her head.  Tonight Tebuae is allowed to 
wear her best gold earrings.  She looks beautiful.
When the speeches are over, the dance begins.
Tebuae is very nervous.
She listens to the music.  
Tebuae's arms begin to flutter like the frigate bird.  Her toes creep quickly across the floor.  Her skirt swishes as her hips 
sway from side to side.  She looks straight ahead.  She knows when to smile and when to look sad.  
Sainimele and Baretoka sing loudly.  The music beats faster and faster.  
Then suddenly the singing stops.  Tebuae stands still.  The visitors are smiling.  They clap and clap.
Sainimele and Baretoka are smiling too.
Tebuae feels proud.  She knows that she has danced well tonight.

Dear Great-gran
story and photographs by Jan Trafford
Dear Great-gran
I started writing this letter with the old ink pen you gave me, but there were too many blobs.  The 
computer's much easier.  
This week, our school is having its hundred-and-fiftieth birthday.  We had an "old-fashioned 
day" when we all dressed up in olden-days clothes.  
That's me in the white apron and blue hat.  Bet you didn't recognise me with curly hair!  You 
were right – it's very hard to sleep with your hair tied up in rags!
When we got to school, we all had to wait outside till Harley rang the bell for us to come into 
the classroom.  
The teachers were very strict.  First of all we had fingernail inspection.  Anyone with dirty 
fingernails got the strap (just pretend, luckily!)   Did you ever get the strap?
We had to keep our heads down and do all our work in silence.  Every time an adult came 
into the room, we all had to stand up.  
We've been trying out some other things too, like washing clothes without a washing machine 
or dryer.  We scrubbed the clothes using soap and a washboard.  Then we put them through a wringer 
to squeeze out all the water and hung them out on the line to dry.  Wooden pegs, of course – there 
wasn't any plastic then.
Then we ironed some clothes using a heavy iron without an electric cord.  The teacher said 
that in the old days, people heated the iron on the coal range, but we used an electric frying pan.  The 
handle of the iron gets really hot – that's why I'm holding it with a cloth.
Then I gave Jake a shave with an old-fashioned razor.  He kept giggling because he's ticklish.  
It's lucky the blade was so blunt!
We made some butter by shaking up cream in a jar.  It took a long time, but in the end the 
butter separated out from the liquid.  Then we put it between butter pats to get rid of the extra 
buttermilk.  
I wish school could be like this every day.  Maybe I'd miss the computer games, though!
Love from Jasmine
PS  I'm eighty years younger than you, and I love you very much.  Write back soon!


A Letter to Renee
story and photographs by Margaret Gould

Have you ever wondered what happens to a letter after you've posted it?  Read this article to find out.

Georgia's best friend, Renee, had moved to a new school.  Georgia really missed her.
"Why don't you write her a letter?" suggested Mum.
So she did.

When Georgia had finished writing the letter, she put it in an envelope, wrote Renee's address on the front, and stuck a 
stamp on it.  
Then she took it to the postbox and pushed it through the slot.
Along came the bright red postvan.  The driver jumped out with a big red sack and opened the box.  Inside was a whole 
pile of letters – including Georgia's letter to Renee.
"What will happen to my letter now?" asked Georgia.
"Ring the mail centre and ask them," said the driver, piling all the letters into his sack.
So Georgia did.

"Come along and find out," said one of the mail sorters.
The mail centre was a huge place, full of noisy machines.  Hundreds of letters were pouring along a conveyer belt.  
Georgia looked carefully to see if she could find her letter to Renee.  
The mail sorter explained what was happening.  When letters arrive at the mail centre, they go into a machine that prints 
a postmark over the stamp so that it can't be used more than once.  The postmark shows the date and time and the name of the 
mail centre.  
This machine also scans the addresses on the letters and sorts them according to the places they are going to.  Envelopes 
that are too big and heavy to go through the machine get sorted and postmarked by hand.  
"What happens to them after this?" asked Georgia.
"They'll be sent to the post offices in all the other towns and cities," said the mail sorter.  "Then the posties will sort 
them into streets and numbers, ready to deliver."
"When will Renee get my letter?" asked Georgia.
"She'll probably get it tomorrow," said the mail sorter.

And she did.



You can find out more about what happens to a letter on the New Zealand Post website:  
http://www.nzpost.co.nz
Look under "Features: Journey of a Letter".

Monarch Emergency
story and photographs by Diana Noonan

On Jesse's birthday, Mum gave him a special present.  "It's a swan plant," she said.  "There's a fat 
monarch caterpillar on it."
The swan plant came with a letter from the plant shop.  It said that the monarch caterpillar 
would munch up almost all of the plant.  Then it would change into a chrysalis that would hatch out into 
a beautiful butterfly.  The letter said that swan plant was the best food for monarch caterpillars.  There 
wasn't much else that they liked to eat.
The caterpillar was striped black and yellow.  Every day it ate and ate.  It grew longer and fatter.  
It grew so heavy that it broke a branch on the swan plant!  Jesse was worried.  Would there be enough 
leaves left for it to eat?  
Then one morning, when Jesse was eating his own breakfast, he saw another caterpillar on the 
plant!  It was tiny, but it was striped.  He called his mum.  They found Jesse's magnifying glass and 
looked all over the swan plant.  Oh, no!  There were seven baby caterpillars crawling on the leaves.  
"This is an emergency," said Jesse.  "There's not enough food for all of them."
Luckily, Mum had a smart plan.  That afternoon she helped Jesse to phone his friends.  "If you 
have a swan plant in your garden, you can have a monarch caterpillar to put on it," he told them.  "But 
be careful.  Make sure you find a swan plant that doesn't have any monarch eggs on it."
The plan worked.  The baby caterpillars went to good homes – and Jesse's caterpillar had the rest 
of its swan plant to itself.
One day, when the caterpillar was about 5 centimetres long, it crawled off the swan plant and 
onto Jesse's window frame.  It hung there by a silk thread that it had spun for itself.  After a few hours, 
the caterpillar's skin began to split.  The green pupa underneath wriggled and wriggled until the black 
caterpillar skin came right off.  
The pupa kept wriggling.  It grew shorter and fatter until it had pulled itself into a tight, green, 
jelly-bean shape.  A day later, the "jelly bean" had changed its colour and shape.  Now it was a bright 
green chrysalis with a gold stripe and gold spots.  
The chrysalis didn't grow any larger but, day by day, it became darker.  Soon, Jesse could see the 
butterfly's wings showing through the chrysalis.
After three weeks, the butterfly was ready to come out.  It stretched its wings a little, and the 
chrysalis broke open.  The monarch rested beside the chrysalis for a few minutes.  Then it dropped onto 
Jesse's desk.  Soon, blood began to fill the veins of its orange and black wings, and the wings spread out 
wide.
When the butterfly was ready to fly, Jesse let it go in the garden.  It was sad saying goodbye to it 
when he'd looked after it for so long.  But Jesse knew that if he wanted to do some more monarch 
watching, all he'd have to do was visit one of his friends! 

Post It!
by Margaret Gould


Flying to Wellington
by Philippa Werry

Last year, the School Journal ran a competition for poems on the theme of "Flying".  The prize was a return flight on an Air New 
Zealand plane to Wellington.  
The winners were Shruti Shukla from Ellerslie School and Tom Wilson from Freemans Bay School.  You can read 
their poems in this issue of the Journal.  
Philippa Werry and Mark Round went along with Tom and Shruti on the flight from Auckland to Wellington.

Shruti and Tom and their families meet up with each other at the airport check-in desk.  Everyone is very excited.  The woman 
on the desk hands over their boarding passes and a special badge that says "UM" ("Unaccompanied Minor") to show that Tom 
and Shruti will be travelling back from Wellington on their own.
At the boarding gate, they line up with the other passengers to show their boarding passes before making their way 
onto the plane.
It's already pretty full.  Tom and Shruti look for their seat numbers, 13F and 13E.  Shruti has first turn by the window.  
They both figure out how to do up and adjust their seatbelts.
One of the flight attendants welcomes all the passengers over the intercom.  "The flight time will be just over fifty 
minutes," she tells them.  Then she adds, "A special welcome to the two competition winners travelling with us today!"
Shruti and Tom read the flight safety card as the crew explain the information.
"I think we're moving!" says Shruti.
The plane trundles into position at the head of the runway.  "It's the best and the worst part, taking off," says Tom.
The plane moves down the runway: faster, faster, and then up, up into the air.  There's a brief glimpse of the harbour 
before the plane climbs up into the clouds.  
Tom thinks the clouds look like a range of mountains.  Shruti thinks they look like snow.
"Now it looks like we're in Antarctica," says Tom, "with lots of icebergs floating around."
Tom and Shruti trace out their route on the map in the inflight magazine.  Then the flight attendants start handing 
round trays of morning tea and cups of tea and coffee.  They give both Tom and Shruti a special activity pack as well.
 "Would you like to come up to the front of the plane?" asks a flight attendant.  
In the cockpit, the Captain, Ruth, and the First Officer, Giles, are sitting surrounded by instruments.
"Congratulations on winning the competition," says Ruth, shaking hands.  She shows them that they're flying at 9455 
metres and at a speed of 850 kilometres per hour.
"It doesn't seem that fast," says Tom.
"That's right," Giles agrees.  "Up this high, it feels as if you're floating above the clouds."
Ruth points to where Wellington is, somewhere up ahead.  "We'll be there in fifteen to twenty minutes," she promises.
When Tom and Shruti are back in their seats, a flight attendant asks if they'd like to hand out the sweets.  They take 
one side each.  The plane wobbles a bit, and Shruti has to hold onto the back of the seats.  They each choose a sweet and suck it 
to try and stop their ears from popping.  "That's the only part of flying I don't like," says Tom.
"Is that Wellington?  Is that Wellington?"  From the window, they can see the coast and the hills, then the houses 
perched around the harbour, the tall buildings in the city centre, the new stadium, Te Papa …
"Wow!" says Tom as the plane swoops down low over the sea.  "Some people live right by the airport!"
Down, down, down – and on the ground again.  
Tom and Shruti can't wait to get to Te Papa.  They collect up their bags and jackets and follow the other passengers 
off the plane.  At the door, the flight attendant says goodbye.
"Did you have a good flight?" she asks.
"Yes, thanks – all flights are good flights," says Tom.

photographs by Mark Round

Hundreds of Pets
by Jane Buxton

Jack Benge lives with his family on a farm park in Golden Bay, near Nelson.
A farm park is like a zoo for farm animals.  The Benges' farm park has rare animals from all over the world.
Jack's first job on a weekend morning is to help his big brother bring the animals down from the paddocks into their 
pens.  
Jack checks that they all have clean water.  
Pat-lamb, the Gotland sheep, comes up to Jack for a cuddle.  Jack used to bottle-feed him when Pat-lamb was a baby.  
Gotland sheep come from the Gotland Islands in Sweden.
Scooter the goat wants to say hello.  Jack used to bottle-feed him, too.
The newest animal at the farm park is a baby llama whose mother can't feed him.  He needs a bottle four times a day.
Jack goes with his brother to feed out hay to the yaks and the donkeys.  Then he brushes the miniature horse and helps 
to put the harness on.
It's now ten o'clock, and visitors have started to arrive.  Jack helps to put pellets in bags for the visitors to feed the 
animals.
Then he stops to talk to Pumpkin and her kittens.
Jack takes some of the visitors to feed the eels.  
Then he shows them the fallow deer.  "Fallow deer are very shy," he says.  "So when Minka was born, someone 
stayed with him all the time for three days – even during the night.  And now he's really tame."
"You're lucky having so many pets," says one of the visitors.  "It must be fun."
"Ye-e-s," says Jack, "but there's one problem."
"What's that?" asks the visitor.
"We're having Pet Day at school, and I can't decide which pet to take!"

photographs by Fiona Simons

Mele Buys a Coconut
a story from Vanuatu
by Clare Bowes

It's a hot day, and Mele is thirsty.  She goes into the big market at Port Vila, looking for a coconut stall.
There are bananas and lemons for sale, bright red chili peppers, and crabs tied up in bundles.  
At last, there are the coconuts!
A woman is busy chopping off the husks with a very sharp knife.  Her husband gives Mele a coconut.  Mele pays him 
thirty vatu*.  
The woman cuts a hole in the coconut so that Mele can drink the cool, sweet milk inside it.  
"Gudfala kakai!" she says.  "That tastes good!"
Then the woman cuts open the coconut for Mele to eat.
"Gudfala kakai!"


*  Thirty vatu is about forty-five cents

King of the Grasses
by Jill MacGregor

Owen and his family live on a farm near Auckland.  On their farm, they grow a hundred different kinds of bamboo.  
Bamboo is really a giant grass – the king of the grasses.  It has hollow, woody stems with hard joints called nodes.  
Bamboo is lightweight but very strong.  Owen's parents, John and Pauline, sell bamboo for crafts.  Once, they supplied 
Auckland Zoo with bamboo to feed the giant pandas.  
Owen and his brother Warrick like playing in the clumps of giant bamboo.  It grows up to 15 metres tall, and the stems 
are as big as tree trunks.  Owen and Warrick like hiding in the middle of the clump, where it's dark and cool and noisy.  When 
the bamboo sways in the breeze, the leaves rustle and the stems creak and clack against each other. 
But today there's work to do.  Three hundred and ninety bamboo slats have been ordered to build a fence (or "kenninji") 
in a Japanese garden.
John has already marked the best bamboo stems with pieces of red string.  He cuts them with a chainsaw while Pauline 
finds a shady spot to set up the trimming machine.  
Te Roi splits the bamboo into four long strips with a special tool.  Then Owen scrapes off the nodes with a blunt axe.
While Pauline trims the slats on the machine to make the edges smooth and straight, the boys throw the scraps and 
trimmings onto the rubbish pile.  
"Put your gloves on," says Pauline.  The pieces of bamboo are full of tiny splinters.  

Owen crushes the leftover pieces of bamboo with a hammer.  They'll be good for lighting fires in winter.   
The next job is much easier.  An artist wants some large bamboo sheaths to paint on, so Owen and Warrick go looking 
for some.  A sheath is a close-fitting cover that protects the new bud as it grows.  When the leaf grows, the sheath drops off.  It's 
just like stiff paper.  
When work is finished, everyone goes back to the nursery.  Some of the plants have grown too big for their containers 
and need repotting.  Owen helps to sort them into black polythene bags, ready to sell.
Bamboo plants grow very fast and need lots of water.  Dad asks the boys to help him water the young plants.  It's the 
last job for the day.  
But by the time the hoses are turned on, Warrick has disappeared.
"Bet I know where he's hiding," says Owen.


You can find out more about bamboo in "The Thousand Uses of Bamboo" by Eva Wong Ng (School Journal, Part 2 Number 4, 
1991).

Paper Penguins
by Jane Buxton

You will need a piece of paper about 15 centimetres square.
It is best if you use paper that is black on one side and white on the other.  If you photocopy a sheet of black paper, the 
copy that you get will be black on one side and white on the other.
 
1.	With the white side up, fold the paper in half, as shown.  Then unfold it.
2.	Fold the top corner down 2 centimetres.
3.	Turn the paper over.  Fold the bottom corner up 4 cm.
4.	With the black side inwards, fold the paper in half again.
5.	Fold corner a back along a line between c and d.  (See diagram X.)  Turn the paper over and do the same on the other 
side.
6.	Now pull the top corner forward to form the penguin's beak and squash its head flat.


Penguin Hospital
by Rose Hudson

I live at the beach near Wellington.  Last year, a family of penguins came to live under our house.  At the end of the nesting 
season, they all took off out to sea – except one.
How do you look after a sick penguin?  We didn't know – and that was how we found out about Viv Hextall and her 
Penguin Hospital at Days Bay.
At the hospital, we met Viv and her nephews, Philip and Jonathon Lam, who help her with the birds.  Viv's house is 
close to the beach, and injured penguins are often washed up in her garden.  Viv has a way with animals, and people have got to 
know about her and the hospital.  All sorts of sick and injured birds turn up on her doorstep.  "We've had about three hundred 
birds over the last four months," said Viv.  "That's about three a day!" 
Birds come to the hospital for all sorts of reasons.  "Dog attacks are the most common reason," said Viv.  "The 
penguin chicks stand outside their burrows, waiting for their parents to come home with their dinner – and they're an easy target 
for dogs.  That's why it's so important to obey the signs and keep your dog on a leash."
Another big problem is fishing nets.  Sometimes nets come loose and drift around in the sea, trapping any birds that 
get in their way.  Philip and Jonathon introduced us to eight little blue penguins that had been rescued from fishing nets a few 
days earlier.  
Standing beside them was a large seagull with an awful lot to say.
"That's Tony," said Philip.  "He's here because he's got a broken wing.  He thinks he's the penguins' dad."
"Yes," said Jonathon.  "He herds them all into the pool for swims, and at night he visits all the penguins' cages and 
checks up on them before he goes to sleep."
At the hospital, the penguins are fed with chopped fish.  In the wild, they are used to eating live fish.  At first, they 
don't recognise the chopped-up fish as food, and so they have to be fed by hand.
Philip and Jonathon get up early every day to clean out the cages and help to feed the birds.  Then comes their 
favourite job – taking the penguins for a swim.  They carry the stronger birds carefully down to the beach, one by one, and stay 
close by while they swim.  They have to make sure that the birds are safe and don't drift away.
I left our little sick penguin in Viv's care.  A few days later, she rang to tell me that our penguin had settled in really 
well.  Tony the seagull was looking after him, he'd been for a swim with Philip and Jonathon every morning, and he was nearly 
ready to be set free.
Tony was almost ready to leave as well.  Maybe they'd meet up again out at sea!


What should you do if you find a sick or injured bird?

Cover the bird gently with a towel and pick it up carefully so that it can't peck you.  Put the bird in a cardboard box, and in a 
warm, dark, quiet place.  Then ring the Department of Conservation (if it is a native bird), the SPCA, or a vet for advice.

photographs by Rose Hudson and Christine Laven

Paint a Pot
by Feana Tua'koi
These colourful pots are perfect for growing herbs or flowers.  Paint one for yourself or for someone else.  They make great 
presents!
You will need:
•	a terracotta pot (which you can buy cheaply from a garden centre)
•	a pencil
•	some paper
•	acrylic paints
•	brushes
•	a pot of clear, waterproof varnish
•	some newspaper
•	a painting shirt
Method
1.	Draw the shape of a pot on the paper and plan your design.  Don't forget the top and the back of the pot!  Try out a few 
ideas before deciding on the final one.  Large shapes will be easiest to paint.
2.	Draw your design lightly on the pot in pencil.  
3.	Before you start to paint, spread newspaper on the table and put on an old shirt to protect your clothes.
4.	Paint the design on the pot.  Use a fine brush for fine lines and a thicker brush for larger spaces.  Wait for each colour to 
dry before starting on a new colour.  Wash your brush before using a new colour.
5.	When the paint is dry, get an adult to help you varnish the pot inside and out.  Make sure the whole pot is covered (even 
the parts that have not been painted) – otherwise, the paint might lift off.
6.	Wait for the varnish to dry completely before planting anything in your pot.


Umu
story and photographs by John Hart

Onehunga Primary School is having a feast, Niuean style.  That means an umu!
The first step is to dig the pit.  It's hard work.  Lots of parents and Niuean friends have come to help.
Sheets of corrugated iron are laid at the bottom of the pit to help hold in the heat.  
Scoria rocks go on top of the iron.  Then manuka logs are placed on top of the rocks.
Some of the dads set fire to the logs and tell the boys to stand well back.  "I'm getting smoked – just like a tuna!" says 
Tianini.
While the rocks are heating, everyone helps to prepare the food for the umu.
Two large tuna have been frozen and then sent by plane from Niue especially for the feast.  They have to be sliced into 
large chunks.  The fish will go on the top of the umu because it takes less time to cook than the pork and vegetables.  
Some of the boys are busy soaking newspapers in water.  Later on, these will be used to cover the food in the umu.
Uata helps to build a shelter over the pit in case it rains.  Then he helps to move the rocks around so that they will heat 
up evenly.  The parents watch carefully to make sure he doesn't burn himself.
After the rocks have been heating for about three hours, it's time to build the umu.
The men remove some of the heated rocks and place them on the iron beside the pit.  Coconut leaves are laid over the 
rocks in the pit to give the food more flavour. 
The food has been wrapped in foil.  There is chicken, a large pig, taro, yams, coconut halves, green bananas, and finally 
the tuna.  The pig has wire netting around it to make it easier to carry.  All the food is quickly placed on top of the leaves and 
covered with the rest of the heated rocks.
The umu is covered with the wet newspaper.  The heat from the rocks and the steam from the wet paper will cook the 
food.  
A tarpaulin and sheets of corrugated iron are laid on top of the umu to help stop the steam escaping.
Now everyone has to be patient.  The food will take three hours to cook!
At last it's time.  Delicious smells float through the air as the food is uncovered.  
Yum!  Roast pork!
Everyone has a job to do.  Fresh banana leaves are laid out on clean paper on the hall floor.  In the kitchen, parents help 
to serve out the food.  
There are four hundred hungry children and twenty teachers to feed, and there's plenty for everyone.
The Niuean minister blesses the meal.  Then, at last, it's time to eat.  Everyone agrees – this meal was definitely worth 
waiting for!


