Production!

Little Red Rockinghood was a hit! We are so proud of every one for their full participation in this wonderful show.

Beeswax Wraps

On Friday we had Lesley Ottey come in to take a group of students through the process of making Beeswax wraps.

Technology Open Day!

Great to have so many parents come through the technology enter today to see what our students have been doing!

Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori - Tiwai West

In Tiwai West, we celebrated Maori language week last week by integrating Maori language into our classroom activities.
We began the week on Monday by looking at different Maori myths and legends in small groups for reading. Each group read the story and then had to act it out in the group.
For PE we looked at traditional Maori games such as rakau, poi and taiaha. We learnt about the tikanga surrounding these activities and had a go at doing them.
For writing each class read one of the Maori myths and legends and then had to retell the story in their own words and change one part of the story.
Room 18 read Maui and the big fish.

Here is Lucy's story where she has changed the ending of the original myth...

Once upon a time there was a strong Maori warrior called Maui. He had 4 foster brothers, thery were all jealous of him. One night while Maui was sleeping his 4 brothers planned to go fishing the next morning. Little did they know that Maui could hear them. Maui woke up early the next morning and went to hide in the waka and waited for his brothers. The brothers set off to go and find a nice fishing spot. Once they had found one Maui wasn't satisfied so he jumped up and startled his brothers. Maui grabbed a paddle and started rowing. The brothers started to get tired and begged Maui to stop. Maui being Maui, he rowed through the night following the light that the moon provided in search for the best fishing spot. The next morning the brothers weren't happy so as revenge they did not give Maui any bait, so Maui cut his nose with his fish hook and smeared blood all over it. Flinging the hook around his head like a helicopter he chucked it as far as he could. The hook had caught onto something big. Maui yanked and yanked his rope in hope that it would float to the top. He used all his strength to pull it up but the boat started to go on a lean. Maui gave it one last pull and the boat tipped over and the land rose. It caught the brothers, but they had no way of getting home. Today we know that land as the North Island.


We enjoyed celebrating Maori Language week and exploring different Maori activities within our programme.

Swimming!

Tōtara has rocked at swimming lessons at the Kaiapoi Aquatic Center over the last two weeks. The weather held up for us and we enjoyed walking to and from the pools each day. We are thankful for the opportunity to be able to improve our swimming skills during school time. Even some of our teachers have enjoyed getting the pool!

Check out these photos.. Please note, no teachers were harmed in the making of this video! The acting here is Shortland street worthy 😀

Te wiki o Te Reo Māori - Tiwai East

Tiwai East Update!

Kia ora!

This week our students have been celebrating Māori language and culture in many ways. Throughout term 3, we have been learning Māori games such as poi, mau rakau and taiaha. Here are some videos of some of our students playing these games and experimenting with movement:

We completed a fun activity called Poi E eye spy. We watched the 1960's music video for Poi E and tried to find all the words listed. Can you do the same?

Many of our students entered the school Māori language colouring-in competition. Ka pai to everyone who had a go. The winners from our team were Kirsten and Flynn.

Through the term, we've been learning Māori language around "Nga tau" - numbers and the calendar. Our students have created a calendar page for their birth month using te reo Maori. They finished these this week.