Remembering February 22, 2011

We have been hard at work over the past week.  We have written about the anniversary of the 22 February earthquake and how Woolston School has made the anniversary a positive event for our children.

Here are two pieces of writing by Taylor Fenton and Tameka Neho.
Enjoy!

Resilience Rise Up

Boom!  Crash!  Smash!  That’s what we heard on the 22 of February 2011.  But I’m going to tell you about the first anniversary and the creation of our resilience garden.  Instead of a bad day it became a positive day.                         
The day started off like any other day.  As the bell rang we all had flash backs of that terrible day last year.  Finally a positive attitude started to spread through the school like a virus.

While we were sitting in our class, we noticed some of our class members were missing.  We wondered where they had gone.  We searched and searched until we saw a black blob smashing tiles in the distance.  It was at that point we knew it was Manahi.  It turned out that he was smashing the tiles for making the mosaics to go in our resilience garden.
Each of the mosaic tiles had a different meaning showing that in broken pieces you can make something new and beautiful.  If you grab the roots of a plant, look after it and with help that plant will grow big and strong.  This is just like Christchurch growing back from the roots of the city, with help it will be strong again.
Our class went out and all you could see was the grout pushing up between the broken pieces of tile.  The rest of the classes went out and gathered together, sitting in circles.  Miss Reid began talking and people got ready for a minute of silence to remember the events of the last year.  After the moment of silence Miss Reid asked Matua Te Rau and Mr Boyd to plant the first tree in the garden – a koromiko.

Finally the day ended with a happy vibe spreading throughout the city.

Taylor Fenton
                                                                                                                

Roaring rumble and shaking - the sound of the earthquake on 22 February 20011.  This might sound as if I am going to tell you about the earthquake but I’m not.  I am going to tell you about the anniversary of the day our shool could have come crashing down.  I am going to tell you this because we made beautiful mosaic pavers for our new resilience garden.

We got in a circle with our class and the rest of the school.  Miss Reid talked to us and told us about our resilience garden and how it would be a living part of our school.
‘Can we please have a minute silence?’ Miss Reid asked at 12.51.  After the silence Matua Te Rau and Mr Boyd planted the first tree in our our resilience garden, Matua finishing with a karakia.  Whaea Gaynor led He Honore to finish our gathering as a school.
                                                 Later that afternoon T2, Miss Lynch and Miss Davies all went to the courts outside the staffroom and began creating our beautiful mosaic art.  Miss Lynch, Juanita and Amani had just come back from the city where they had put flowers and rose petals from the school gardens into the Avon to remember what had happened in the last year and the people who had passed.

Whaea Ruth was there and she was helping to create a tile showing the Cathedral with Natasha and I.  We all swapped around to help with all the mosaics, putting the finishing touches on them really.

To finish off the day the boys put the mosaics on the bark to dry and we had to clean up.  Getting the grout off our hands was hard, it was grey and crackly.  It was a really fun day that we spent together on the 22 of February 2012.


Tameka Neho