Southern Lights Reading Activity Week 8

Southern Lights - Pt 3, No 1, 2005

1. Find the meanings of these words from the story.

fascinate - Fascinate means to be very attractive or interested in something.✔

karakia - What karakia means is to pray or to say prayer.✔

seize - Seize means to take hold of a person or thing suddenly or forcibly.✔

2. Find out 3 pieces of information about the Southern Lights - you might find some information and images on the internet.

1. The Southern Lights is also known as the Aurora Australis.

2. The Southern Lights and the other name for it Aurora Australis, Aurora in Latin means Sunrise.

3. you can only see the Southern Lights in the Antarctic and from areas such as Tasmania and southern parts of New Zealand.✔

3. Answer these comprehension questions to show your understanding of the text.

a) What lets you know in the story that the story is told by the Maori?

What lets me know that this is a Maori story is that it has Maori words in the text, that it is based on Maori people and it is retold by Maori people. ✔

b) Where do you think the men were when they saw the large islands of ice in the south? Where I think they were near the antarctic or the South Pole ✔

c) Why did the people burn the waka? I think the reason why the burned the waka was because it was their way to hold a ceremony. Also to see Tama-rereti’s spirits and the young 70 chiefs spirits rise up and go into heaven. ✔