Tag: Topic

Celebrating our Oceans with Sea Month

This term we have been learning all about our oceans as part of ‘Sea Week’ which stretched out to ‘Sea Month’. This is the link to the learning on our class site and the wonderful website Young Ocean Explorers.

We enjoyed a trip out to Coopers Beach as part of our Sea Month learning. We worked together to create a Sea Week sculpture, we picked up lots of rubbish and had a lovely time swimming and playing at the beach. It was wonderful to spend time together outside the classroom.

As part of our learning, the students learnt how to create a google slide deck to share some of their learning. We had experts who had used google slides before and they were able to teach others. Thank you Te Reinga, Sophia, Toby and Nathanael. The students learnt how to:

  • change the font size, type and colour
  • change the background colour and customise the design
  • insert a picture into the slide and change the size

There are a few more to add as we had some of our students away today. Overall there was lots of enthusiasm in this learning, and although some of the google slides are not quite finished, the students did a great job!

Well done to Te Reinga, Mia and Nova who worked on their slides in their own time at home. Now that is really self directed learning.

Learning, Creating and looking forward to Sharing at our Pet Day

This week our class has been super busy working on our Pet Day Art. We have been learning about Wetlands so have created ‘Pukeko Art’ using crayon, dye and collage. We are also making ‘Wetland Diorama’s using shoe boxes, paint and ‘natural materials’ found in our school gardens. The students are also preparing their recycled bottle ‘Pet Planters’ to complete on Pet Day. They have been growing ‘greens’ to plant in them on the day.

Our home ‘Pet Day’ task is to make a planter using a recyled bottle, pottle or container. The students took a container home on Friday and chose a selection of items from school to decorate their planter with. They will bring this back to schoo on Thursday and choose something from our garden to plant in it to take home.

Te Hiku Manaiakalani Outreach Third Film Festival 2022

Our theme for the movies this year was “Northland History” The movies have been played on the big screen at the Te Ahu Cinema in Kaitaia on Wednesday 14 September 2022. This is one of the lucky movies to be chosen from our school. Congratulations to everyone involved in the production of this movie. Please click on the link to view other Manaiakalani Film Festival movies. Please enjoy and feel free to leave a positive, thoughtful and helpful comment below for the students.

The movies for the Film Festival had to be 3 minutes long. For this reason we had to trim some of our orginal film. The following film is the UNCUT version that features most of our students. Unfortunately some of our students were away during the filming so missed out on being in our film. There will be lots of other opporunities for film making later on in the year.

Matariki with Te Pihi

Today we celebrated Matariki with Te Pihi in the whare. We were the tuakana and Te Pihi, our teina. It was lovely for the students to meet new friends and learn in a different space. We learnt some new tītītōrea (stick games) and waiata as well as hearing stories about Matariki. We especially loved dancing to the Stars of Matariki song.

The students listened to the story of Rona and the Moon and created black and white artwork on paper plates. It was a fabulous day and we look forward to working with Mrs Brydon, Michelle and our Te Pihi teina sometime soon!

Click on this link to find out more about Matariki on our class site.

Local Curriculum Learning with Mrs Davan and Bostin’s Whanau

Today was all about PORIHANGA or Community and Partnership.

Our class had a fantastic trip to Mrs Davan’s vegie garden and greenhouse. We learn’t all about germination and propagation. Mrs Davan talked to us about some of her plants that had interesting names such as, ‘Donkey’s Tail, Spider, String of Bananas and Dragon’s Tail.’ She talked to us about how to grow plants from the nodes on plants and variegation (which is when plants have a mutation and the leaves are a different colour). The students asked so many fabulous questions and everyone learnt so much.

Then we went for an adventure on Bostin’s farm with Bostin and his mum Dana as our tour guides. We  met all his animals. We started off at the calves while they were having a feed with Bostin’s dad, then we saw some little pigs. After that we went to see the chickens and the noisy rooster before meeting ‘Maverick’, Bostin’s mum’s BIG pet pig. Next on our tour was ‘Rum’ – the Guinea Pig and a beautiful little blue budgie. Everyone was able to have a cuddle with Bostin’s gorgeous guinea pig before we had a look at Bostin’s vegie garden that he has planted and is looking after. The puppies were on our way out so of course we had a closer look!

Lastly we headed up to Sir and Mrs Windleborn’s garden with Julia as our guide. It was so lovely to walk around such a beautiful space and we look forward to visiting their wetland next time.

Thank you so much to Mrs Davan, Bostin and his mum and dad and Sir for allowing us to visit. We all had such a great time. Also a huge thanks to Whaea Kiran, Margy, Jamie and Dylin for supporting us with transport and supervision. We really appreciated it and we hope you come with us again on our next trip. Nga mihi nui!

Girls Self Defense

Last week our Year 3-6 girls were given the opportunity to take part in a self defense programme run by Whaea Tisha and her lovely daughter Chloe.  The girls enjoyed the sessions. They learnt how to use their voices and their stances to show their strength. It was a fantastic experience for all involved.

Carter

Whaea Tisha and Chloe came to our school and we learnt self defence.When whaea tisha and Chloe taught us ballerina kicks and Whaea Tisha and Chloe will say nose, throat,  guts, bits and a ballerina kick. We had fun and we all got to color in and we got to play a game. It was a game like you have to clap, it was amazing. Now the boys might get to do it too.

Emma

We went to self defence in the whare. We had a mixed class with Te Putake and Year 3 and 4.We got to get a long session and a short session. Our teachers were Whaea Tesh and Chloe. We learnt to do a stunt. We had to get into 2 rows, one was brave and one was strong. I was brave so we had to hold the mitines first. My partner was Isla. She punched really hard.There were only girls allowed.

Te Reinga

At school one day all the girls in Te manga and Te putake all did self Defense day in the whare. The teachers were Whaea Tesh and her daughter Chloe. They both got us into a group in a line. I was brave and Tia was strong. She was very nice and kind. It was important because the lesson taught us how to stand up for ourselves. Tia was my buddy we had to arm wrestle and we could cheat. Then Whaea Tesh taught us our self defence pose it was cool. We also had a chant.Tesh and Chloe taught us how to kick and punch properly. Then it was finally lunch time. All the girls ate and played. When the bell rang for the end of lunch we all went back to the whare to do more self defense. When we got inside there were pens and paper on the floor to do some coloring in our safe hand. We had to put in all the safe adults we could think of. My safe hand had my mum,papa,bandad, nanny and the police. Then we could draw around the outside and color our drawings in.

Life Education – A visit from Harold!

This week we were very lucky have a visit from Whaea Sharee and Harold from the Life Education Trust. We also enjoy the opportunity to see Harold the Giraffe and learn in Harold’s very cool classroom! Whaea Sharee lit the classroom up in different colours before going through different ways that we can look after ourselves and others and be KIND! We all enjyed our classroom experience and look forward to Harold and Whaea Sharee coming back next year!

Eat Like an Anzac

For the past two weeks the students have been learning all about the significance and importance of ANZAC Day and why we commemorate it. The students have been reading different stories related to ANZAC Day and are completing a flip book to share their learning. Our class site has been a basis for our learning.

All week the students had been looking forward to eating like an ANZAC. Today they got to give it go! They had a meal of bully beef, jam and hard tack. Some of the students were a little unsure but they gave it a go which was fabulous to see.  Lots even wanted seconds! FABULOUS.

Hard Tack Recipe 

2 Cups – All Purpose Flour – 240 grams – Do not use self-rising flour
3/4 Cup – Water
1 1/2 Teaspoons – Salt
Servings – 10-12 biscuits/crackers. For 20-25 hardtack biscuits/crackers, you just need to double each ingredient in this hardtack recipe.

Instructions  

  • Preheat oven to 190 degrees C.
  • Mix the flour, water and salt in a bowl.
  • After mixing completely, the dough should be a little dry (and not stick to your fingers).
  • If your mix is still too sticky, you can add more flour in small increments until the dough is dry enough.
  • Use a roller to spread out the dough on a counter
  • To prevent sticking to the counter or cutting board, you should spread a little flour on the surface before rolling the dough. Also spread a little flour on top of the dough to prevent the roller from sticking to the dough.
  • Cut the dough into squares . You can create square hardtack “biscuits” by cutting the dough horizontally & vertically on a large cutting board.
  • Poke narrow holes in the hardtack biscuits with a chopstick or fork. The holes should go all the way through to the other side of the hardtack. This prevents the hardtack from puffing up.
  • Place the hardtack biscuits on a baking sheet/tray.
  • Put the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Wear oven mitts.
  • Flip the hardtack over with a spatula and bake for another 30 minutes. Wear oven mitts.
  • Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Wear oven mitts. Then use a spatula to remove the hardtack from the baking sheet. Place the hardtack biscuits on a cooling rack in order to cool down.