Dragon Stories by junior students

How The Apache Children Solved A Tricky Problem At the Beginning Of Time

A very long time ago there was a problem. The sky was too low and the ground was too high and so the birds couldn't fly. The trees were bent and some almost snapped and the worst thing was that the adults were bent. What I mean that they were sort of like the trees. Guess what the kids were perfectly fine. So they were having fun and they came together and said, "I think this is unfair for the adults. We should help them." After a few minutes an adult walked past and he was moaning, "This is horrible, my back hurts, OU!"

So the kids took a stick and tried poking the sky up. But sadly it didn't work. The a group of kids screamed, "We should try bows and arrows!" So they got some bows and a few arrows, but it failed and it just punched a bunch of holes into the sky. Did you know that some people believe that this is how the stars were made?

Some days passed and one very clever kid came and said, "Maybe we should tie sticks together and push the sky up." The rest of the kids said happily, "Yes!" So they collected a huge pile of sticks. Then the kid that had the idea of tying the sticks together went to find some rubber bands and he found some. The kids started tying the sticks together. The climbed onto each other and started pushing. Some kids said, "This is too hard! I'm tired! What if it fails?" The rest said, "Keep trying, be resilient! if we keep trying, we won't fail!"

After two minutes they did it - they pushed up the sky. The trees weren't bend anymore. CREEK The adults straightened up just like the teepees. At night they had a celebration. They had a camp fire and they cooked delicious food. An adult said proudly, "Yeah, I feel much, much better. Thank you, kids!" They smiled and started having fun.

By Sophia Akrami

A very long time ago a wise man was telling a story:

A long, long time ago something was wrong. "Ouch my back hurts," the adults said. Guess what? The trees and tepees were bent like the neck of a drinking giraffe, so were the adults bent like bananas. The reason was that the distance between the sky and the ground was too short. Would you like your back to be bent the whole time that you are walking around? The adults became annoyed and they wanted the sky to be higher but they couldn't change it.

"Woo! Aaae! Yea!" The children on the other hand were just having fun. They were happy and carefree. They were having no problems because they were tiny compared to the adults. The trees and teepees were so bent that the tops of them were almost upside down.

One ordinary day the children thought that their parents, tepees and trees didn't have to be bent like bananas. They didn't leave it the way it was and decided to change it. So they got thinking. One child suggested, "What about we use sticks to push up the sky?" Most  of the children agreed. But one child disagreed and said, "What if this doesn't work?" "It doesn't matter, if we fail, at least we give it a try", the other group answered. After that they had to collect the materials of course.

They used any old stick at first and they ended up standing on the tallest rocks they could find, desperately trying to push the sky up. "Come on," one of the children said, "Keep trying!" another one of the children said. At the end of the day, all the children were exhausted, "Perhaps this wasn't a good idea." The children that came up with the idea said gracefully.

But the children didn't give up. The next day one of the children thought, "Maybe shooting the sky with bows and arrows would be a better idea." In practice the sky didn't even move. Later it was raining and all the arrows fell down. The frightened and wet kids come back home exhausted.

Would you give up in this situation? - They didn't. The next day one more child said, "Ok, let's just tie sticks end to end," and it worked. "Woo!It's working," all the children said together!

That night the people saw stars for the first time. "What is that and how did it get there?" everyone wondered. "Well, I think we poked holes in the sky accidentally" and most of the children agreed.

By David Zong

A very long time ago an old chief was telling three young children an old, old story in a dark teepee around a flickering fire at night. The chief told the children, at the beginning of the world everything was bent, because the sky was too low. The trees were bent like the neck of a drinking giraffe, the adults were also bent like bananas. How would you feel if your back was bent the whole time you are walking around?

The children didn't want to leave the adults alone, because they wanted to help them. One day a child said to the other children, "Let's make a plan." They decided to push the sky up with sticks. After a while they were stepping on rocks and jumping up and down desperately trying to push the sky up, but they failed.

Soon after, the children, showing a great deal of resilience, came up with another plan. They shot arrows into the sky, but they failed again. But they didn't give up, only a little while later, they came up with a different idea. 

The plan was tying sticks together. When they tried it, it worked! Now everything was not bent anymore!

The adults were proud of their brave children. Although the children kept failing, they didn't give up and kept trying new ideas, even though those might not work.

By Dylan Chen

A very long time ago an old man was telling a story to the three kids. A long time ago the sky was low and the ground was high. The adults were bent like bananas. Would you like to be bent like a banana? Well, I wouldn't.

The kids didn't walk away. They didn't like the adults to be bent, so they had a plan. They were poking and poking the sky with one stick. One of the kids said, "I don't think this is going to work." But his friend answered, "Come on, we can do it!" Sadly it didn't work.

Next they tried with bows and arrows. One of the kids thought "I don't think this is going to work and the others will laugh at me." This plan didn't work either, but nobody laughed at the little boy. They were just giving it a go. 

Then they tried with lots of sticks. "I think this time it will work", one of the kids said." Push ,push!" They said.The kids were jumping up and down like monkeys. "Push, push!" and the sky was getting high. "It worked" they said. Now the sky was high and everyone was happy. They all danced happily. 

By Yasmin Ribeiro

The Beginning Of The World

A very long time ago an old chief told three children an old story in an dark teepee around an flickering fire at night. The chief told the children, "At the beginning of the world the adults were bent because the ground was too high and the sky was too low and the adults were bent for the rest of their lives. But not every one was bent, the children were fine. The adults said, "I can't live like this any more." And the children made a plan, because they didn't want to let the adults down.

They were trying things like poking the sky, but with only one stick and it didn't work. But they didn't give up, even though they failed. So they tried the next thing. They were shooting arrows up at the sky and it didn't words.

Now they tried the next thing and they were looking for lots of sticks. They got a string and tied the string around the sticks .

It was long and they tried and tried and tried and it WORKED!! "Yea!" they said and the adults said, "My back is now better. Yea!" They were happy.

By Chene Skelton

A very long time ago an old man was telling an old story to three children around a flickering fire.

The chief told the children, "At the beginning of the world the trees were bent like the neck of a

drinking giraffe and the adults were bent like bananas.

"Ouch my back hurts."

"I am not happy", said the people. That was because the earth and the sky were too close together.

The people were not feeling well also they were not happy. So the kids said, "Let's make a plan! We can't leave the grown up people alone!" "But what if it doesn't work?" one child asked. "We have to give it a try or no-one will help our parents."

First they tried to push the sky up with a stick, but it did not work. But one child said, "Keep trying! Don't give up!" The kids were jumping up and down.

Then they tried another plan and they tied the sticks together. "Yes, it is working!" "I am happy now!"

Flop, flop, flop went the trees. The people were happy.

By Jane Shirokova

The U-Me-Us-Festival

The U-Me-Us-Festival

The You me Us Festival was on the 21^st of May 2015 5pm to 7:30pm at Gulf Harbour School.

The festival started with a Powhiri which is a welcoming ceremony in Maori. The Powhiri started at 5:15pm at the back gate/courts.

Then we had a shared dinner, it began at 5:45pm in room 8/9.

After the shared dinner children showed their parents what they had done in their lessons from 6:15.

Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the festival that made me very sad, because it sounds very fascinating.

By Connor Johnson

The U-Me-Us Festival

Hello and welcome! My name is Jovan,and I am going to tell you about the U+Me=Us
festival that was on Thursday the 21st of May at Gulf Harbour School.

It started at night,one week ago, I was dashing to school on my scooter
with my little brother Arne'. When I got to school, I placed my scooter
against the wall and went to the powhiri. So when I got into my
position I realised that I had forgotten my Maori headband. Luckily my
teacher, Mrs.Thorpe, had spares so I used one.

After a few minutes later the powhiri had started and all the students were singing in Maori. I was sititing next to my friend, Josh. When one of the people started started talking in a mic, his phone started ringing, it was hilarious.I tried so hard not to laugh.

After the powhiri Arne' started to play on the playground.So I said to him, "Arne' I am going
to find mum and dad." "Ok"he said to me.
I started looking for them, it took me a while but eventually I
found them.

"I am going to get food." I said.
"Where is Arne'?” mum asked.
So I said, "He is on the playground."
It was hard to understand each other, because of all the people talking. When I got in, I started grabbing food,the food was was very delicious and I loved the biltong, mmmm biltong!

When we had finished mum went to dog agility with Carly (Carly is one of my dogs) and my dad
went back home. I stayed for more and started playing. After a while me
and Arne' went back home. On the way home I realised I had forgotten my mum's plates for the festival, so I rushed back to school with my scooter(again) and grabbed the plates. Then I went back home.

Thanks for  reading! I really liked the U+Me=Us festival and I think it was really
fun,if you were what did you like?I did.

By Jovan Bosmann

The U-ME-US-FESTIVAL

On Thursday, May 21^st, Gulf Harbour School had a festival, the U-Me-Us festival. When me and Chene and my dad walked into the school I was really nervous and very scared, but also very excited to be at the festival. When we arrived, I didn’t really know what was going to happen. We had to be there at 5:00 pm to get ready for the Powhiri to start. When we arrived I thought, “My dad is going to like this.”

All the persons and the kids had to go to the Powhiri. The Powhiri was a new experience, so I was really nervous and excited at the same time. I really enjoyed the singing and I was really impressed by the speeches. My dad really enjoyed the Powhiri, I think, because he was smiling the whole time.

The lovely shared dinner started at 5.45 pm. The food was fabulous. It was really, really good. Everything me and Helen saw, we ate. I especially liked the meatballs, because there were a lot of meatballs and that was almost all I ate – meatballs. The first time when I ate a meatball, it was very delicious. Then I went to eat something else and ate some more meatballs.

After the shared dinner we had to go to the classes at 6:15 pm.The classes were beautifully decorated. I was blown away by how it looked. But sadly I hadn’t decorated our class. I was really excited, when I had to go and tell my parents what we had been doing. It was very liud and crowded in the classroom.

What did you think about the classes?

By Dominique Skelton

U+Me=Us Festival

We arrived at school on Thursday 21st May, but I don't keep track of the time, so I can't tell you when exactly I arrived. We were all dressed in clothes that represented our country. I was dropped off at the front gate of Gulf Harbour School. We raced to room 8&9 to give them the popular, South African food. It was this dry meat that was hard to break but it still had that special flavour. My mum and me sped to the back playground, where I found Paris, Sarah, and Bethany. It was not long until the festival started. The parents were at the back gate, waiting to get called in. Here the festival finally started.

They started yelling in Maori and the parents walked slowly into the school as they spoke. I have to be honest - I didn't understand a single word they said. Dominique came in a little late and stood next to me. They encouraged the students to sing in Maori, as the parents took a seat on the chairs we had set up for them. After we sang a few songs that were of course were in Maori we were free to go to room 8&9 to eat.

By the time me and Dominique got to room 8&9, it felt like I was in Japan. There were so many people that people was all I could see. We had to squeeze though the crowd to even get two steps deeper into the room. Luckily I was taller than most of the people, so I could see above them but there were many adults as well (of course). The food was great though! I tried so many new dishes from different contraries. I loved all of the food so much that I'm thinking of traveling to try out the food in that country. Sushi, sausages rolls, chips, I missed the Pizza Hut but the food was great! Who needs Pizza Hut when you have everything else in the room!? I also took a look at the food I brought in butthere was only the empty plate, everybody already ate it... Works every time!

Me and Dominique finally got out of room 8&9 to get some air! This is where I met my Year 4&3 teacher, it's funny that we got the same name isn't it? Ms Helen told me to get a pen from her classroom. Of course I said "ok!" but I had no idea where her new classroom was... I had to come back to her to ask where her classroom was. She looked pretty annoyed at me, but she said, "second to last" now where is that?! I went into a classroom and got a pen, I was worried that it was the wrong classroom, but I went with the flow and gave her the pen. After that I acted like nothing happened.

Time to show my parents the classroom! I took my mum and dad to my classroom and showed them around - my tray and the computers, leafed through my drawing book and told them the names of whoever was around us. I chatted a bit with my friends before we left the school early, back to the house and to bed.

I enjoyed the festival very very much, it was fun apart from the confusion I had with the pen. Would you like to show your parents around your classroom, too?

By Helen Van Zyl