Taieri School Hui Ako

Waihola students had a great time at the Hui Ako in Fairfield last week. We enjoyed being a part of this great festival that brings so many local schools together to share Maori language and tikanga. We have been working very hard on our own performance of 'Te Ika a Maui - the fish of Maui'.

Here are some comments from the students:

Elsie – I felt nervous going up on the stage. I liked how Silverstream School had their own haka. It sounded really cool.

Ryan – I wasn’t nervous at all going up on the stage, I was excited.

Tamati – I was very nervous and excited but I thought we did a good job. I thought Taieri College had a good kapa haka group.

Nathan – I was nervous before we went up on stage but when I got up there wasn’t as many people watching us as I had thought. I thought Taieri College sang really well and the kindergarten was quite good because they had lots of actions.

Harry – I was surprised with how our performance all came together. I liked the kindergarten because they were cute and funny and I liked all the actions.

Wiremu – I was nervous when I got on the stage. I liked the kindergarten because they were funny.

Seth – It was really funny when the kindergarten did the actions for the body parts song – they were shaking their kumu’s!

Tom – When I went up onto the stage I didn’t actually feel that nervous. I nearly hit Maui with my taiaha! Opps! I also liked the kindergarten – they were really adorable.

Te Kupu o te Wiki

 

This week is national Maori Language Week. This year the focus is on learning a new word each week for the next 50 weeks. This week our new word is 'āpōpō' - tomorrow.
 

Our Universe Inquiry

This term we are going to be learning all about where we 'fit' in the universe. Today we created a Popplet to brainstorm all the great knowledge we already have about the planets and our universe. We also began a list of questions of things that we would like to know.

We are looking forward to learning the answers to all of our questions and lots more!

Cross Country Training

Jack M is racing Madeline to the finish line.    

Tamati is doing a slow jog, saving his energy so he can sprint to the finish line.

Charlie, Harry and Jack M are running Waihola School's cross-country track, for practice, to get prepared for the cross-country race in August.  

Charlie is sprinting towards the finish line after doing two laps of our school running track.


By Wiremu and Nathan

Helpful Ipad Apps

If you are lucky enough to have an Ipad, Ipod or tablet at home you may like to download these great educational apps:

• A.L.E.X - this is a maths app that uses position and orientation knowledge. Move the robot by giving it specific directions - one direction per movement.
• Sushi Monster - another maths app that is useful for basic facts practice. Feed the hungry sushi monster by completing the equations.
• Maths Bingo - a great ABCya app that is useful for basic facts practice. Players earn 'bingo bugs' with each activity they complete.
• Maths Machine - this is a New Zealand designed app that is useful for a variety of maths learning levels. This is a great app for number knowledge.

The bonus of these apps is that they are nearly ALL free! (Maths Bingo may have a small cost). We have been looking at these apps at school so ask your children to show you how to use them and have some fun!

Maths Learning in Room 2

Mrs Jackson’s maths groups are currently learning about using multiplicative strategies to solve problems. Here Harry, Ryan, Nathan and Wiremu work together to solve a tricky problem on the mat while Tom and Tamati use the Activ Board to record their working. Working together like this gives students the opportunity to talk through their thinking and hear others ideas. The students help each other in their learning. This also helps them to become problem solvers. 

We have been discussing the benefits of making mistakes. We learn from our mistakes and become better problem solvers as we learn to identify where we went wrong and how we can fix it.

Ryan, Wiremu, Nathan and Harry working together, sharing and explaining their thinking.

Tom and Tamati using their known facts to add on or take off groups to find the answer.

Te Ika a Maui - Artworks

Mrs Jackson read Room 2 the legend of ‘Maui’s Big Fish’. In this story Maui tricks his brothers and hides in their boat so they will take him fishing. Using his grandmother’s jawbone as a hook, Maui fishes up a giant stingray. This stingray becomes ‘Te Ika a Maui’ (the fish of Maui) the North Island. Room 2 explored traditional Maori fish hooks. This linked in with our current inquiry topic of ‘Inventions’. We learnt that stone, bone, shell, pounamu and sometimes wood was used in traditional hooks. Pieces of paua were used to attract the fish.

We created our own clay hooks. We completed observational drawings of traditional hooks from a variety of images then we chose our favourite drawing and turned it into a clay model using Jovi clay.

Maori fisherman used flax rope as their fishing line. We researched the traditional methods and protocols of gathering flax and then gathered some from our school garden. We plaited thin strands of flax which proved to be more of a challenge than some of us thought! Once we had the rhythm and the pattern though it was easy.

Once our clay had dried, we had to sand our hooks smooth and glue on our paua. Mrs Jackson spray coated the hooks before tying on the flax rope and hanging them on our mock paua backgrounds.

The hooks are on display in Room 2 if you would like to come and see them.

Tamati carefully cutting out his hook.

We needed to make sure our clay wasn't too thin or it would crack when it dried. We used a sharp tool to cut out our pattern.

We added some paua pieces to help attract the fish!

The mock paua background. We used impasto brush strokes like Vincent van Gogh.

Ryan helps Tom with his flax rope weaving.

We sanded our clay carefully to smooth off any rough edges.

Shakira, Elsie and Amber focused on their sanding.

Testing out how it will look!

A sample of the final product.