my speech

It's so short that its belly touches the ground, it’s the queens favourite animal, it's the cutest little thing in the world what am I talking about? That's right, it's a Corgi. Hi, my name is Adam and today I will be reading you my speech about why you should have a corgi.

Did you know that corgis were originally sheepdogs, who knew? Also, did you know the corgi means dwarf dog in Swedish? According to Welsh legend, fairies used to ride them.  Corgis have evolved into two types, the Cardigan and the Pembroke, which weren’t recognized as separate breeds until the 1930s.

Corgis are the 11th smartest dog breed according to professor called Stanley Coren. They are able to learn commands quickly, in 5-10 repetitions, and 85% of the time they obey commands the first time. Isn't that fabulous?

The royal family loves the Pembroke Welsh Corgis. Queen Elizabeth the second, has had over 30 corgis in her lifetime. Right now she has two corgis named Holly and Willow, as well as two corgi/dachshund mixes named Candy and Vulcan. The Queen got her first corgi when her father, King George brought a male dog home from a kennel in 1933. They named him Dookie and the future queen and her sister, Princess Margaret, fell in love with the breed.

The royal family got a second corgi named Jane who fell in love with Dookie and the canine couple had a litter of puppies. Two of which were kept. The Queen received another dog named Susan for her 18th birthday and ever since there have been corgis in the royal family.

Did you know Corgis have been used to predict the royal baby’s name? When Prince William and Kate Middleton had their second baby people took bets on the name. A gambling company in England called Ladbrokes used corgis to guess what the name would be. The company made an ad that had 10 corgis wearing vests with different names in a race to predict what the name of the child would be. The corgi sporting the name Alexandra won the race but this time they were wrong because they called her Charlotte.

I learned that corgis are very intelligent and are loved by the Royal Family.  And as you have already guessed, if I got a dog, I would have…… a little idebidy…... pug! Naaa,  i'm just kidding, I would have a corgi.

Fun times at Arataki

Fun times at Arataki

THUMP. The bus came soaring over a bump. I turned to my buddy Theoden and what do you know he is a sleep. I was thinking in my head how is he asleep we have been going over bumps for ages, I tried to wake him but it didn't work.

We were on our school trip to Arataki with Rooms 7 & 6 to inspect the corry diabac virus and insect bugs and their surroundings.

When we got there we saw Miss Bess or Ranger Virginia as she called herself now. She gave us work to do which we took around the bush. At the start of the bush trail there was a scrubber to help stop the disease called Kauri dieback. Me and my mum’s group all scrubbed our feet.

After we scrubbed our feet went started our hike around the loop track. We saw that this part of the bush used to be a potato farm. I was amazed and I bet everyone else was as well. “Wait a second guys,” I said as I hear a sound is that a cicada. I followed the sound and it was there with a bunch of different bugs.

We went across the nature ID track we saw so many names of the tree’s that by the end we knew all of their names. And then we stopped talking for a minute and heard kids talking and birds chirping.

The next thing we did is we went into a workshop about bugs and how they help nature recycle. Ranger Virginia  told us that leaves make their food by a process called photosynthesis. This is when a leaf uses CO2 and H2O to make O2 and sugar (food) for the tree. Once the leaf is finished it falls off and becomes food for the bugs. They eat it or chew, chew, poo, poo as Ranger Virginia explained. What comes out is part of the soil that we stand on and has nutrients for plants in it.

All too soon our amazing adventure had finished and it was time to go back to school.arataki is a great place of adventure so maybe you should go there.