Small moment | Ava Poynter

I saw it. It looked really cool. It was my new trampoline.

I zoomed outside and jumped in my gumboots. I ran up the steps and sprinted through the ground. I jumped on the wood, and kicked off my gumboots. I opened the zip and wriggled my way through it. I bounced as high as I could, and I felt great. Will and Rose scrambled after me.

I was screaming like a crazy kangaroo, jumping up and down saying, “Hey Will and Rose look at me!” Will was mad. He charged up the steps like a Rhinoceros. He threw his mouth open and shouted back, “Hey that’s not fair. I’m coming to get you!”

My Fish | Saoirse Lynch

My fish is as

golden as a crown.

He hides behind

the rocks and

jumps out at me

as if he’s saying boo!

He eats fish food.

He is like a gymnast.

He smells

like seaweed.

He looks like a dollar.

My Cat | Lola Beck

My cat has a red silky nose.

Her whiskers are as sharp as a needle.

She eats cat food and chicken.

She has silky fur.

She sleeps in my wardrobe.

She touches noses with the next door neighbour’s cat.

My Dog | Henry McKenzie Harper

He is as black as

the night sky.

He smells like perfume.

He is as fast as a cheetah

and every time I eat meat

he eats it, not me.

He feels like

a kitten.

He runs most of the time.

He sounds like a horse.

My chick | Kaelin Spence

My chick is as crazy as a clown.

He jumps on the fence.

He jumps on King Tui

that’s what I like about that chick.

He pecks at grass and grain

and he is as soft as my silk pillow.

He sounds like a baby bird.

He is very black

and his feet are yellow.

He smells like branches

because he climbs on trees.

My cats | Joe Bryant

I have five cats that feel like rugs and

they are as white as a big fat white light.

They are as frisky as a bat

and as fast as a racing rat.

My cats smell like

old rotten pineapple pizza.

My cats eat birds.

My cats scratch a lot.

They chase rats
and act like they’re crazy
acrobats.

My Dog | Francesca Lyons

My dog is as soft

as a furry jacket.

He is as crazy

as a clown.

He runs around

the house all day

I would say.

He chases cats

up and down trees.

He petrifies

birds sometimes.

My dog

gobbles up his food

like a greedy pig.

He tries to climb up trees.

We lost him once

or maybe twice.

He snorts like

a pig.

My dog smells

like shampoo

and sometimes

he smells like
rotten fish.

My Cat | Roan Dooley

My cat is as grey as a cloud.

He can’t wait to go outside

and sometimes

he doesn’t know where his food is
and he has one little ear.

My chickens | Rory Maher

My chickens are as fit as a marathon runner.

They are as noisy as a motor-cross car.

They are as strong as a dagger.

Their beaks are as sharp as a knife.
They will eat anything.

No Tapu te Ranga ahau | Finn McKay, Henry McKenzie Harper, Peta Gordon, and Francesca Lyons

I can see

Toitoi shine like pirate’s treasure.

Baithouse with little windows peeking through.

Moss falls down the walls like lava.

lines like the water

Boats swaying up and down the waves.

Seaweed up and down and all around

We picked up leaves

with lines on the leaf like spider arms.

Red yellow orange colours like fire

Spots on leaves like balls.

A fiery leaf like a firebird.

Lines on leaves like lasers.

Stems on leaves like tree stumps

The leaf is red and orange with spots of yellow spitting out fiery lines.

Black spots like ladybugs, or squelchy mud puddles

faint lines appearing all over.

The light breeze blows.

Cabbage trees are reaching out their tentacles.

Swords stick out of walls.

No Tapu te Ranga ahau | Mia Walker, Saoirse Lynch, and Joe Bryant

As I look around, I see

waves like people coming together,

and waves crashing like dolphins coming together.

A mailbox like a person,

flowers like a banana.

I see broccoli trees,

beetles zooming along the highway,

falling leaves like raindrops,

a stem like a bomb fuse,

and I see grass popping out of the wall like witch’s hair.

I see statues on the sand.

I see a wall like an angry person.

I see blue birds like the sea,

bushes like hedgehogs.

I see the sun gleaming brightly,

I see the sun fading bit by bit.

On my leaf, I see

the holes are like secret countries,

the colour is like the sun,

the brown on my leaf is like a rough trunk of a tree.

The shape is like an old shrivelled-up aunty.

No Tapu te Ranga ahau | Kaelin Spence, Ashley McCloy, Rory Maher, and Hugo Johnston

In the morning, the wind blows in my window

it tickles me and wakes me up.

Bird houses swing in the opening gale.

I can see:

squiggly lines like a spider’s nest,

twinkling leaves,

a leaf like a sprinkler spurting water,

waves beyond the seashore.

The sun shines like fire bursting out!

I see bugs like mini creatures,

swishing waves like diving dolphins.

On the side of the road we see

moss like lava pouring over a wall.

Planes like carrots,

leaves with crinkly lines

like grizzly bears’ fur stuck together.

Toitoi like bunny’s tails,

gold toitoi like swords..

I see wood like

big old swishy logs.

Big old wooden crabs crouch at the roadside.

I see

the sky lights up like lightning,

kayaks like a big leaf.

Holes like secret hideouts,
little tiny flies doing exercise.

No Tapu te Ranga ahau | Cameron Grice, Mia Evans, Oriwia Williams, and Jayan Ranchhod

I look around me and I see

fiery colours on the leaf,

ants like a freckle face.

The moss is on the wall;

it looks like my sunflower.

Leaves on the floor like fish in the sea,

moss slipping from the wall.

Sea as blue as the sky,

a green bush like a cave.

Orange fire like an orange bird on fire,

seaweed gliding in the water like fish,

toitoi like bunny tails.

I see a leaf that has the right colours like a rainbow with little lines like cracks in the ground,

and brown bits like water spilt on a map.

Trees everywhere like a person,

diamonds on the floor.

I hear
birds singing like a whistle that blows.

No Tapu te Ranga ahau | Kate Andrews, Kester Law, Lola Beck, and Noam McKay

I see

hills like a monster’s back,

houses like chicken coops.

Planes are in the sky,

little fingers on the roadside sit like tree stumps.

Cars are zooming.

I feel

wind like creepy crawlies

wind like ghosts

wind like creepy spiders,

branches swaying like the sea,

cutty grass like knives

sprinkling brown blood.

The leaf

has a dot like a little finger

the stem is like a handle,

the swirls are like ideas connecting.