Parihaka

 This week we have been remembering Parihaka.

One hundred and fifty years ago there was a village in Taranaki called Parihaka. It lay between the Taranaki coast and Taranaki mountain. 

This village was special because people from many different Māori tribes had come to live there. Many had had their land confiscated and needed a safe place to live – to grow their food and raise their families. Parihaka was also a special place because it was a place of peace. 

The leaders of the village were Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi. They didn’t believe in fighting. They had heard the words of Jesus in the bible which said, “If anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well”. They told the people to put away their weapons. They told them that if government soldiers came to take their land, they should greet them with gifts. 

One early morning in Parihaka an important event occurred. The people were just beginning to move around the village when a large albatross came down to land on Tohu’s marae and left a feather there. The people believed that the albatross was a chiefly bird with much mana. By landing on Tohu’s marae, the albatross was indicating that Tohu was a great chief and the people should listen to him. The people began to follow the ways that Tohu taught them. And the albatross feather (or raukura) became an important sign for the people of Parihaka. 

The children of Parihaka were called tātarakihi which means ‘cicadas’. The older people said they sounded like cicadas because they chattered so much. The children had jobs to do at Parihaka. They helped to 

feed the hens and the pigs, and they helped to grow food in the gardens. They also played together and learned to dance and sing. 

One day Tohu and Te Whiti called the people to the marae, and told them: 

“Kua rere mai te kōrero ki ō mātou tāringa, āpōpō ka tae mai ngā hōia ki konei ki te raupatu i ō tātou whenua. Me noho tātou ki konei, ki runga i te marae ātea, tatari ai ki a rātou. Ka tunu ngā wāhine i te parāoa mā rātou , ka waiata hoki ngā tamariki ki te ope hōia.”  

“We have heard that the soldiers are coming tomorrow to try to make us leave our land. We will sit here on the marae and wait for them. The women will bake bread for them and the children will sing and dance.” 

So, late into the night the people of Parihaka prepared for the soldiers to come. Just before the sun rose the children went out onto the road leading into the village. When the soldiers arrived with their guns they saw the children of Parihaka singing and dancing in the road with albatross feathers in their hair. 

The children couldn’t stop the soldiers from entering the village and taking the men to prison, but they made the soldiers ashamed of their swords and their guns. No-one was killed in Parihaka that day because the people refused to fight the soldiers with weapons. Instead they stood up to them with courage and mana. Sometimes the descendants of the people of Parihaka wear albatross feathers to remember the dignity of their tūpuna and how they resisted giving up their land without using violence.

(from the  Caritas resource)

We made raukura using our Google Tools. Check our individual blogs to see them.

What do you know about Parihaka?

Frida Kahlo

Towards the end of last term and beginning of this term, we have been learning about Frida Kahlo.  She was a Mexcian painter who painted self portraits. In her portraits, she usually painted herself with bushy eyebrows and moustaches. Did you know she had polio when she was 6 year olds and walked with a limp for the rest of her life? She was also in a bus crash when she was 18 years old. Her injuries were so severe that she spent many weeks in the hospital. She felt physical pain throughout her life. That's when she started to paint.

The painting tecniques we used were:

• to use both sides of the paintbrush
• to use long brush strokes
• to mix colours to create the colour we wanted

We used lots of colourful paints to paint her face. To make the flower(s) on her head, we used tissue paper. We folded the tissue paper back and forth like a fan. Then we stapled the middle and then fanned the paper out to make it look like a flower.

Zombie Apocalypse!

We have spent the last week of term trying to survive a zombie apocalypse! When we arrived at school on Monday, there was Crime Scene tape around our classroom, our classroom had been trashed and the desks and chairs had been tipped upside down, and there was zombie slime EVERYWHERE! Then our teacher gave us a scenario to work from:

The world has been infected by a deadly venom. The source of the venom is unknown, but what is known is that 92% of the world’s population is now dead. An unexpected side effect of the venom is that it has caused those who have fallen, to rise again with an insatiable hunger for the flesh of the living. 

How would we survive? 

Each day we were given a new piece of the story and a new set of parameters that were added to the list of existing rules. We had to brainstorm "Things to consider," and then adapt to these parameters in order to survive. We learnt how to purify water, make forts, search for food in the wild, and make a bow and arrow. Great survival skills for any situation. 

Here's the scenarios we were given...

Luckily, we survived just in time for the holidays!

September Reflection

It's the end of another month so it is time for us to reflect on our learning and there has been a lot to reflect on. We have been reading Megamonster by David Walliams which we are all enjoying. We have also been writing persuasive texts and presented our speeches to the class. Then some of us got into the semi finals and then the finals. We have created our Calendar Art and painted pictures of Frida Kahlo, a famous Mexican painter. Our class is also in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse. We have to work out ways to survive and each day something new happens that we have to consider and change what we are doing to survive. It has been another busy month.

Here's Fynley's reflection:

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori

This week was Te Wiki o te Reo Māori / Māori language week. Because of this, we took a Te Reo quiz. We had to place the days of the week (written in Māori) in the correct order. There were some pictures that gave us clues. For example, there was a picture of someone blowing a whistle and as some of us play sports on Saturday, we knew Rāhoroi was Saturday. We also write the Māori days in our handwriting books so some of us remembered them. We also had to do a nature scavenger hunt for Māori shapes, but since it was raining outside, we did the scavenger hunt indoors.

We enjoyed taking the quiz. The pictures on the side of the slide helped a lot. They were hints. 

Finding the shapes with partners was a little more tricky because there weren't many stars in the class, but we found 1!

Click here for the link to the quiz!

And here is Jake L's Scavenger Hunt.

Mr Wolf is Guilty!

At the end of last week, we read Mrs Naden's persuasive text on Goldilocks is Guilty! She thinks Goldilocks is a criminal and should be charged with breaking and entering (Goldilocks entered the bears cottage without permission when they were not home), theft (she ate their porridge) and criminal damage to property (she broke Baby Bear's chair).

This week we had to come up with reasons why and why not Mr Wolf is guilty of first degree murder. After that, we chose which side we were on and wrote persuasive texts. We are learning to structure and had to think carefully about our paragraphs. We are getting ready for our speech competition next week.

Here's Leyla's speech on why Mr Wolf is NOT guilty.

Is Mr Wolf Guilty of First Degree Murder?

I firmly believe that Mr Wolf is not guilty of first degree murder. Throughout this piece of writing, I will outline three reasons why I think that.

Firstly, he did not actually kill grandma- the wood-cutter chopped her out fully intact and alive. She was not harmed in any way, and neither was Little Red Riding Hood. They were both un-marked and just a little shocked. 

Secondly, he is a wolf. It is their nature to attack enemies, and hunt for their food. There is no way that he would have been able to survive without food. All of the other animals had known by then that he was hunting, and so the only way he could sustain his hunger would be to hunt the little girl and her grandmother. 

Thirdly, there are no animals in jail, because they cannot commit humane crimes, and only attack if threatened, or hungry. Mr Wolf was actually killed by the wood-cutter, so he cannot be sent to jail and accused of murder. 

In the reasons outlined above, I have explained why I think Mr Wolf is not guilty of murder. In fact, the wood-cutter should be sent to jail, because he murdered the wolf. Thank you for listening to my speech.

Here's Camille's speech on why Mr Wolf IS guilty.

I firmly believe that Mr Wolf is guilty of 1st degree murder. Throughout this piece of writing, I will outline four arguments on why I think Mr Wolf is guilty.

Firstly, Mr Wolf broke into Grandma’s house without her consent and permission. This is classified as breaking and entering. This should give him a sentence in prison up to 1 year.

Secondly, he was holding against grandma’s will. He had locked grandma up in a closet. This is known as kidnapping, and this should serve him a sentence in prison for up to 20 years.

Thirdly, he impersonated grandma by putting on her nightgown, her wig and her glasses. He tried to kill red by impersonating grandma. Impersonating a person would serve up to 1 year in prison.

Lastly, I believe Mr Wolf is guilty because he attempted murder. He ate grandma and after that he attempted to eat red next. Attempting murder should serve Mr Wolf up to 10 years in prison.

For all the reasons I have outlined above, I strongly believe Mr Wolf is guilty of first degree murder!

Who do you think is right? Why do you think that?

Coding

Throughout the year we have been learning to code and animate characters. We were given the opportunity to enter a coding competition. This was open to all Intermediate and Primary schools in our region...and James won! He is a champion coder and animator. Ka mau te wehi James!

James' game is here.  

The link to all the prize winners is here.

Thanks to Connex Trust for organising this.

During lockdown, Kylah decided to make an Escape Room for all of the Senior Syndicate students to play.

Click here to find your way to Kylah's Escape Room she has created. See if you can solve the maths and other problems and escape!

Have you ever coded a game or created an Escape Room?

Tongan Language Week

This week is Tongan Language Week. Our challenge was to create a series of slides teaching people to speak simple words and phrases in Tongan. We used Mote so our readers could hear the correct pronunciation.

Here is our online (distance) learning slide:

....and here's how to speak Tongan...

Jakob A

Kylah

Aimie

SHOUT OUT

As always, it's difficult to choose just one person when lots of people have been doing such great learning. But this week's SHOUT OUT goes to someone who has been blogging their fantastic learning, writing extra blogs, commenting on lots of other people's blogs and when they get stuck on Maths Buddy, they go and ask their dad for help.

This week's SHOUT OUT goes to.....drum roll please....

The End of Another Month

At the end of every month, we reflect on our learning. It's a great time to sit back and think about all the learning we have done, reset goals, and take a moment to be proud of our achievements. This is only one of the tasks we have done this week during Lockdown. We have also broken out of an Escape Room, completed Episode 2 of The Amazing Race, made animations about the critters we were learning about and many other things. Some students have even blogged other things they have been doing during Lockdown.

Here's a wrap-up of some of our tasks and activities...

Mya's August Reflection

Jame's Saint Vincent de Paul Animation

Sophia's Escape Room

Jakob A's Animation

Olivia S's The Amazing Race - Episode 2

Camille's Diluc Drawing - Just for Fun

SHOUT OUT

While we are learning from home, our Whole School Assemblies are on a Google Meet. Each teacher chooses one student from their class who has stood out during the week. As you can imagine, it is a difficult task only choosing one person as everyone is doing such an amazing job during Lockdown.

When you're doing your learning tasks during Lockdown, sometimes you get stuck. You turn around and put your hand up because you need the teacher...

and she's not there!

So what do you do?

Well, this SHOUT OUT goes to someone who paused their own learning to help out their brother who was having problems with his blogging tasks. He then got straight back into his own learning and blogging.

This SHOUT OUT goes to (drum roll please...)

....for showing patience, compassion and kindness, and taking the time to help others.

Ka mau te wehi, Michael!

A Snapshot of our Learning

 We are into our second week of online learning (some people call it distance learning) because of the COVID-19 Delta outbreak.

Each day we have a Google Meet. We start with students leading a karakia and then move on to talking about the days learning. We have heaps of different tasks - there's report writing tasks, science experiments, an Amazing Race Challenge, nature art and heaps more.

What have you been doing during Lockdown?

Here's a snapshot of some of the online learning that has been posted on our individual blogs...

Mya's Composting Report

Luke's R.E. (Religious Education) Word Cloud

Cameron's Fizz Inflater

James' Amazing Race -  the last challenge

Kylah's Why Plastic is Bad for the Ocean

Michael's Maths

SHOUT OUT

Last week Room 1 started learning about Rongoā Māori (Māori helaing). We went outside to see which native plants we have at school that we can use to heal. Then we designed plaques and painted them with information on. This week was the hardest task of all...HAMMERING! We had to hammer nails through the plaques and onto a stake so we could put them into the ground by the native tree.

This SHOUT OUT goes to a student who has done an excellent job of helping others hammering their nails into their stakes.

You are a champion (drum roll please...)

JAKOB R!

Rongoā Māori

Last week for reading we read about Māori healing plants. Then we found out which of these plants were in our native gardens at school. After, everybody chose one and we researched some more information. Then we summarised the main ideas onto a sign. (You can see our designs on our individual blogs.) Then we painted our signs and hammered them onto a stake. Hammering was probably the trickiest part of all! Now they are ready to be  dug into the ground next to the native tree it tells you about.

Have you ever used a plant to heal yourself?

Report Writing

This week we have been learning how to write paragraphs or how to link paragrpahs. This was new learning for us so it's taking a little while to grasp.

We researched a New Zealand Olympian or an Olympian from another country we admired. We found some fascinating facts and enjoyed writing a WOW fact - read Jakob R's WOW fact!

Here's some of our reports on our Olympians...

Anton Cooper

Lisa Carrington

Dylan Schmidt

Michaela Blyde

Which Olympian do you admire? 

The Olympic Games

In reading we have been learning to skim and scan. We read the articles first and then practised skimming and scanning. Skimming is reading quickly in order to get a general overview of the material. Scanning is reading quickly in order to find specific facts. The facts we needed to find were about the Olympic Games. We found some very interesting facts. Did you know that there is actually a fourth medal?

Read Jakob A's fact file. Just click on the picture and it will take you to some facts, then click on the picture of the house and it will take you back 'home' so you can click on another button.

We have also been creating our own Olympic mascots. We looked at the current mascots and mascots of the past and decided to create one just in case the Olympics ever came to New Zealand. We used a new google tool called Chrome Canvas. For most of us, it was the first time we have used it.

Have you ever used Chrome Canvas? What did you create?

Here's Camille's NZ Olympic Mascot.

Gamefroot

For the past couple of weeks we have turbo-charged our coding and really challenged ourselves into programming our own games using Gamefroot. We have been posting our progress on our blogs to get feedback to work on before going on to the next segment or challenge. It was interesting to read as some people said some of the games were too challenging - that led to a great discussion about if they were too easy would you play them? Some of us decided we wanted our games to be challenging to teach people about perseverance. They did this by choosing not to act on some of the advice about offering 'lives' - if you failed the attempt, you just have to start again.

Our task was to make sure our 'player' stayed on the screen and did not fall off. We also had to make our 'player' move forwards, backwards, up and down. Some people extended themselves by adding immovable objects, levels and sound. You can read about how we did this by reading our individual blogs.

Check out these games and leave some positive feedback for the learner.

Kylah

Baxter

Michael

James

June Reflection

This month has been very busy. What have we been up to and what are we proud of? You can read the answers on our individul blogs. We will be sharing our learning with our whānau during next weeks Student-Led Conferences.

What have you been learning about in June?

Financial Literacy

Callum from GetWi$e ASB came and spoke to us about Financial Literacy. That's when you are being smart (or wise) with your money. 

These are some of the things he talked about:

He compared it to being an All Black - you need to practice. 

Like rugby, what do you need?  In rugby you need a ball. In Financial Literacy you need money! But HOW do we get it? Well, we earn it.

How can we earn it? 

We can do chores (He called these “Da rules” = do your chores = free time). So how do we earn money if we don't get money from doing chores for our parents? We can do someone else's chores for money (extra chores). It means we have less free time but the flip side is we are earning!

These are the thing we can do to earn money:

• neighbourhood jobs - chores for other people. We get less free time in exchange for money.
• business (fundraising e.g. selling lemons) - product or service. Do something for someone or make something for someone to buy. Product - sell lemons. Service - neighbourhood lawn mowing service. We could borrow mum and dad’s lawn mower, pay for the petrol ourself, hand out flyers and mow people’s lawns. Any business will always operate on; earn - cost = profit (e.g. sausage sizzles).
•  sell stuff - sell the things you have outgrown or don’t use.

Setting a goal

All Blacks - what is their goal? To win!

If they had no idea why they were playing in the first place, would they play as hard? Having a goal is about motivation.

Cash Goal - on a piece of paper we wrote: 

C 

A

S

H

C = Clear - Imagine the All Blacks Coach told his players they had to pass the ball through a hoop. The players have to practice their accuracy. If the coach said, “Throw the ball,” players could throw the ball anywhere. The instructions were not specific.

If he said, “Throw the ball into the hoop,” everyone could throw it at the same time.

If he said, “One at a time, throw the ball through the hoop," then he is being specific. We need to be specific with our goals. 

What do you want to buy? Is it realistic?

A = Action  Imagine the All Blacks again. What if the first player waits and does nothing. This achieves nothing. 

We can do chores, neighbourhood jobs, run a business, sell stuff. We wrote what we are willing to do.

S = Save - how much money can you save in a week? $15 per week is the national average for children our age. Don’t get distracted and buy something else. If you see something you really want to buy you need to consider - Save or buy? Shout it! SAVE OR BUY? That’s what your brain does. It argues - 'If I buy the shiny object I will have less money. But I REALLY want it!'

H = How long? - How far away is your goal? (How far away is the hoop?)

If someone wants to buy a Lamborghini, it could cost $200,000. $200,000 divided by $15 is 13,334 weeks - that's 256 years. That’s an unrealistic cash goal. It's a bit like if the All Black coach said, "Throw the ball through the hoop?" Where's the hoop? In Peru?? We could also think, 'I could win the lottery.' Chances are 1 in 36,000,000.  Tickets cost about $15. Try multiplying that by 36,000,000! (And you can’t drive anyway.)

If we wanted to buy a phone for $200, at $15 per week it would take 14 weeks to save. Now that's realistic!

How to run your own business

Is it - Product or Service?

On a piece of paper, we wrote:

S
S
S

Service - e.g. mowing lawns - $20 per lawn earns $60-$80 per weekend.

S - strengths - What product/service would people pay money for? What can I do? What am I good at? What do I enjoy doing? 

We decided one thing we are good at e.g. good with animals, mowing lawns, gardening, baking

S - Solve - Product or service? Which one will I choose? We chose one of the things we are good at.

S - Start - We wrote down the small steps we need to do to start our business. What are the things I need to do to start my business? Where? When? What do I need? I will get supplies from...I will get some starting money from...

Shark Tank  

After we had devised our plan, we presented it to The Shark Tank! A Shark Tank is when a person who has an idea for a business would approach the panel and present their business idea. They received constructive criticism from the panel who picked apart bits of the business and put it together in a workable format.

We stood in front of the class, presented our plan and then people asked us questions. It was really helpful as we hadn't thought of some of the things.

Read how Olivia S wrote her plan.

Tom Fedro Art

We have been studying Chicago artist, Tom Fedro. He creates art with zing and boundless humour. His art is innovative, creative and playful. He combines pop art collage and whimsical portraiture that has a rhythm all of its own. Bright colours, big features and bold lines that seem to be electrically charged represent an exciting way of seeing and experiencing the world through his eyes. 

Our Learning Intention: WALT use painting techniques.

Success Criteria: 

We have used:

Long brush strokes

Both sides of the paint brush

Bright colours

Bold lines

Tints and shades to show light  direction

Have you ever used paints using success criteria like this?

Explanation Writing

 We have continued learning about what makes a good explanation. Some people were learning how to use a diagram that had labels and an explanation. This helps the reader to understand what we are explaining. Other people were working on complex sentences. A complex sentence is when you put a phrase in a sentence, but you can move the phrase. You need to make sure it still makes sense though. Here is an example: 

After I finished baking, I shared the cookies with my family.

I shared the cookies with my family, after I finished baking. 

This makes our writing more interesting for the reader because we are using a variety of sentence types.

Here's a snapshot of some interesting explanantions. Did they achieve their learning intention and success criteria?

What Do Beavers Smell Like?

Why don't spiders stick to their web?

How do snakes open their jaws so wide?

Why do bears Hibernate?

How Does Bees Balling work?

Comparing Characteristics of Māori Gods and Demigods to Greek Gods

This week for reading we have been learning to infer. Inferring is when the author has not stated a fact, but has left clues. We had to look for the clues. For example, the author did not say Māui was mean but we thought he was because he deliberately put out everyone's fires and the people were very cold. We made character descriptions saying which character trait the Gods and Demigods had and why we thought that. Then we had to see the similarities and differences between Māori Gods or Demigods to Greek Gods. Prometheus is a Titan and not a God but we found a story about him and compared him to Māui.

Then we created our own God and gave him or her personality traits.

What kind of traits do you think Gods have? Why do you think that?

Here is James and Jakob A's collaborative work.

Samoan Language Week

 A lot of our tasks this week involve learning about Samoa. We have read articles about Samoa, started learning The Lord's Prayer in Samoan Language and made tapa cloths.

Here's some of the tasks...

Michael's tapa cloth.

Piskel Sprites

This week for Cybersmart, we had to make a sprite. The website we used was Piskel. 

Drawing the sprite was a bit tricky because doing the fine details was very challenging. It also took some students forever to find the copy and paste. Thankfully, our teacher guided us. 

We enjoyed drawing our sprites and figuring out how to navigate Piskel even though it was a bit tricky.

It took us a few days to get to where we are right now and it'll probably take us a few more days just to complete the hair and shading.

Read Amelia's blog to see her creation.

May Reflection

We always spend time reflecting during each day but at the end of every month, we look back on everything we have done, achieved and enjoyed. Then we write a refelction. Here's Mya's...

Coding

We have been learning how to code to programme Bee Bots. It was very tricky to get the Bee Bot to land on our numbers but eventually we worked out the correct code. 

We also programmed the Bee Bots with several directions to find the pirates treasure on a treasue map. We had to avoid the sharks and the swamp. 

Next time, Mrs Naden needs to remember to have her phone landscape and not portrait when she videos. She always forgets!

Sign Language Week

This week is Sign Language Week. We have been reading articles and watching videos about signing. We discovered it is a combination of hand shapes, facial expressions and body movements. We thought it was just hand movements. We were shocked to discover that using Sign Language was banned from 1880-1979. Deaf people had to lip-read and speak aloud to communicate. This is called oralism. But deaf people continued to sign in secret. Then in 1979 Total Communication was used. This is a combination of using formal signs, finger-spelling, body language, listening, lip-reading and speech. It was made an official language in New Zealand by the New Zealand Sign Language Act in 2006. 

We learnt some simple phrases. Check out our individual blogs to learn how to sign.

Teaching 5 Year Olds How to Make the Sign of the Cross

One of this week's tasks was to make Google Slides or Screencastify's on how to make the Sign of the Cross for the 5 year-olds in our school, and for kids all over Aotearoa. We had to try and make our Screencastifys interactive and pretend our audience was doing what we asked. We also had to give them positive feedback. 

Do you know how to make the Sign of the Cross? If not, maybe you can watch Aime's below.

ANZAC Day

We have been reading and learning about what it was like to be in the war, and how many different animals are war heroes because of their bravery and because of how they helped the soldiers. We also tried eating bully beef and crackers. We discovered that bully beef is actually another name for canned corned beef. We also discovered that canned corned beef was something you either liked or didn't. Some people thought it smelt and tasted like cat food (no we haven't tried cat food! We were using our imaginations). Others said it had no smell and was delicious. The soldiers ate cabin bread in the war because it is long lasting but we couldn't find any so ate crackers instead. We also ate ANZAC biscuits. These are also long lasting. Whānau back in New Zealand would bake ANZAC biscuits and send them to their father's and sons. 

Read the ANZAC diary entry and postcard Leyla wrote after reading her groups articles.

Find out which animal war hero is Olivia S's favourite.

Women's Native Tree Nursery Visit

We are a Green/Gold Enviroschool - the first city school in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa to become one. Years ago, we started planting a native reserve which is now quite big. Today we went and collected seeds and cuttings because autumn is a great time to do this. Kauri, from The Women's Native Tree Trust, showed us how to get the seeds from the pods and strip a cutting off. We were careful not to take too many from one tree.

We also learnt quite a lot of other things. We all knew that the Māori Battalion fought courageously in the war under horrendous conditions. But did you know that their whānau back home picked the tips of the koromiko leaves, dried them and sent them to their fathers and sons? The soldiers chewed the leaves which cured them of dysentery and this most likely saved their lives! Ngaio is an insect repellent. Rub the leaves on your legs and the mosquitoes won't come near you. Karamu leaves are for your sore puku. Take the leaves at the tips. Try and take multiples of 12 because that's being kind to the tree by not taking too many. Put the leaves in a cup and pour boiling water over them. By the time it's cool enough for kids to drink, the magic is done. Just drink the cup. Don't eat the leaves. 

While we were down at the Rerenga Awa, we spray painted an Australian native that was accidentally planted. We did this so our caretaker will know which ones to remove.

After we had collected the seeds and cuttings, we walked to The Women's Native Tree Nursery to learn about propagation. It was a hot 30 minute walk but we decided not to bus or use cars as we were thinking about our carbon footprint. Once we were there, we planted the seeds in a cutting mix and the cuttings into small pots. It was so hot, we kept going under the sprinkler system to cool off. 

Next term we will go back and re-pot them into bigger pots. The Women's Native Tree Trust will then gift them to other schools and organisations who want to plant native trees like us. This is a great act of service.

My Culture and Me

This term we have been learning about our own culture and other cultures from people in our classroom. On Thursday we had a Culture Celebration Day. Everyone shared information about our culture. Some people dressed up in their traditional costumes. Everyone brought some traditional food for a shared kai. We tried things we had never eaten before. There was a huge selection. We had boxty, blini, Chinese peanut cookies, dumplings, Canadian maple syrup cookies, milk tart, cheesy eclairs, macarons and lots more. It was a great way to celebrate who we are.

Marae Noho

All of the Year 5 and 6 students enjoyed a fantastic noho marae experience at Takipu Marae near Te Karaka. The purpose of the noho was so we could experience local marae tikanga and kawa in a real context. The noho also provided the opportunity to build whānaungatanga, responsibility and teamwork skills.

We had a great couple of days. We had a Korero from Matua Antony about Takipu marae, and the kaiako from the Tairāwhiti Museum and Matua Luke from Turanga Health came out as well. We enjoyed learning traditional Māori games and looking at how  the Horouta Waka navigated to Aotearoa in the star dome. We ate lots of amazing food and had a big sleep over in the wharenui. It was a highight of our term.

Have you ever slept at a marae before?

Te Kurī a Pāoa

We have been been learning about Pāoa and Kiwa through art. When Pāoa and Kiwa came to Tairāwhiti, Young Nicks Head looked like Pāoa’s dog so they called it Te Kurī a Pāoa. Over time, soil erosion has made some of the rock erode. It wasn’t until Captain Cook came that it got called Young Nicks Head. 

A New Zealand graphic artist called Warren Pohatu was an author and illustrator of four books about Māori stories. We looked at his art and created our own Te Kurī a Pāoa. We had to overlay pastels, blend them and make colours we didn’t have by experimenting and mixing pastels. We also showed movement through detail.

Using Mote

 Lately we have seen a purple icon appear on our laptop screens. 

It's called Mote. It is a wonderful tool that lets you add audio to your google slides. Today we practised using it for the first time.

What do you think you could use mote for?

Learning Goals and Learning Dispositions

This week we have been thinking about our learning goals and what we have to do to achieve them. We used our school Learning Heroes. These Learning Heroes are the people who were on the Horouta waka that ended up in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, and Jesus. They all had different personalities and learning dispositions. What's a learning disposition? It's your attitude to learning. We thought about what we needed to change in our learning disposition to achieve our goals.

Have you ever set goals? What did you have to change about your attitude to learning to achieve them?

Our Favourite Toy

This week in Writing, we have been learning how to describe. Some people were learning how to use specific nouns, adjectives and juicy verbs, and others were learning how to use metaphors. Metaphors are similar to similes but instead of 'like' or 'as' we replaced them with 'is'. 

We first read a story from a person called Yasmin, then we used her template and wrote about our own favourite toy that we had when we were in kindy or preschool. In the first paragraph, we described what our toy looked like, and the second paragraph was about what happened to it.

We used Canva to publish our stories.

What is your favourite toy? Is it a teddy? Perhaps a toy car or doll? What did you do with your toy when you were little? 

Here's Camille's final piece...

Statistics

For the last 2 weeks, we have been learning to gather, sort and display multivariate data. We had to gather data about a question we wanted to find out about our new classmates. Then we put all our information onto google sheets and created bar graphs or pie graphs. Lastly, we had to make statements about the multivariate data we had gathered. This is the bit we found difficult. 

Here's Kylah's 

Treaty of Waitangi

This term we have been learning about the Treaty of Waitangi. We've learnt that the treaty written in English was different to the treaty written in Māori. Did you know a missionary, Henry Williams, and his son, Edward, translated the treaty into Māori in ONE night?  We wrote our own class treaty and made sure everyone understood what they signed.

Today we were sorting out the timeline of events before and after the treaty was signed. We were given a pile of cards with dates and facts. Then we had to put it in order and then google the facts to see if we got the timeline right. It was fun working in groups because everyone pitched in and some knew facts that others didn't so we learned from our peers. 

Lent

Lent starts on Ash Wednesday and lasts for six weeks before Easter. It is a time when we are supposed to be quiet and thoughtful, preparing ourselves for Easter. We pray a lot, give money to charities and give up some of the things we might love like choclolate or playing on our chromebooks at home. Lent ends at Easter, which is a time of great celebration as that is when we think of how Jesus had died on the cross but then rose again from the dead.

Lent is traditionally supposed to be forty days long. That is because the Bible says that Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness, preparing for his death and resurrection.

Our class has made Lenten Promises - we have given up something, we will be praying more and we will be almsgiving.

Have you ever tried to give up anything you love? Here are Michael's Lenten promises.

Whodunnit?

This week we were detectives...

For reading we were learning to make connections between what we read. Every group had a different task and had to become experts at it. One group analysed handwriting, another fibres, another powders and another fingerprints. Then one expert from each group formed a new group to solve the crime of the missing laptop. We had to analyse the handwritten note that was left behind at the chrime scene, work out the ph level of the powder that was there, analyse the fingerprints and decide what the material was that was snagged and left behind. We had four suspects and had to narrow it down by putting all the clues together to see WHODUNNIT!

Here's James'

Chinese New Year

This week we were learning how to summarise. We were reading about Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the Ox according to the Chinese Zodiac calendar. Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival, and the Lunar New Year. We had to read up to 4 books and summarise the main facts onto our posters. Some people were really quick and got time to make Chinese lanterns after they had finished their posters.

Do you know what your Chinese Zodiac animal is? Read our individual blogs and tell them if you know what your Chinese Zodiac animal is in the comments.

Here's Camille's...