In Social Studies, we’ve been learning about culture this whole term. We’ve compared different cultures, and learned about different cultures.  looked at the things different people wear, and the music different people listen to.

An example of what we’ve done is this poster I made overlooking the Kimono. A traditional Japanese “dress”, and the pattern and colour significance a Kimono holds.  –> Kimono

For this poster I also included some facts I thought were interesting, one thing that wowed me the most was that unmarried women wear Kimonos with long sleeves. While married women wear short sleeves, It’s a random little fact i would’ve never known until I researched about Kimonos. I found this with the other things i researched as well. When i compared Greece to Maori culture. In Maori culture, we tend to have a LOT of wind themed instruments while Greek people have a lot of string themed instruments. Although in Kappa Haka a guitar is always used, traditional Maori instruments do not use strings for the use of the instruments imitating bird calls, since that was Maori’s first only native animal. And needing to announce things quickly over a distance. Each wind instrument has a different purpose for announcing things like war, or child birth. Whereas Greek instruments were mainly used for entertainment, and enjoyment to their people or gods.

I found an interest in learning about different cultures, and learning about the different clothes, as well as music. I also think that having different cultures around the world is so cool, because it gives you a whole lot of different lifestyles and countries to explore.

– Mali

Hi everyone,

I learnt in this unit, that there are multiple different aspects of culture. I mostly looked at music and sports.

First we looked at New Zealand icons and for our icon you had to choose 5 items like a time parcel, for 2 of the items they had to be related to New Zealand, and for the other 3 they had to be related to the icon. For my New Zealand icon I chose Lorde (the pop singer,) and for the items I chose: A NZ flag, a greenstone necklace, a microphone, a dress, and a disc.

When we looked at European cultures, I looked at the Spanish culture. Did you know that there is a Spanish sport called Basque Pelota. Which is kind of like squash, but instead of a racket it has like a claw type thing called a chistera and, there is only one chistera workshop in the world! Something like that is definitely not true for rugby balls, that’s for sure.

In Spanish culture, I also looked at Spanish traditional music like: flamengo, jota, and macarena. Another thing I looked at is traditional instruments for example: bongo, and castanets are both Spanish traditional instruments. If I were to compare kapa haka to Spanish music it would have some stuff in common, like both might use a form of guitar, and they both have a form of dance, but they are definitely different music, for example: The beat in Kapa Haka is very strong, while in a flamengo dance the beat blends into the music.

So basically I’m trying to say our cultures may be different, but no matter what our cultures make us who we are.

– Charlie Dorssers