Matariki Celebrations!

This week Room 12 wanted to celebrate our Matariki holiday together as a class! We decided that the best way to do this was to share kai. We made vegetable soup using vegetables grown in soil. First we had to wash, peel, cut and then boil the vegetables. We added salt and pepper for flavour and blitzed it all together. It was delicious! After kai we made kites to fly in the wind and origami stars. This was a wonderful way to celebrate Matariki and connect with each other.

 

Matariki Whētu

Twinkling in the winter night sky just before dawn is Matariki! The appearance of Matariki signals the Māori New Year. For Māori, Matariki is a time of remembrance, joy and peace. It is a time for communities to come together and celebrate. 

In rūma tekau mā rua we have been exploring the nine whētu of Matariki. Each of the whētu in the cluster are connected, and they're individually named and defined with a purpose. 

Matariki - Health and Wellbeing

Pōhutukawa - Those who have passed away

Waitī - Fresh water and living creatures in the rivers, lakes and streams

Waitā - The ocean and food gathered from the sea

Waipuna-ā-rangi - The Rain

Tupuānuku - Food grown in the soil

Tupuārangi - Food connected to the birds, forests, berries, plants

Ururangi - Winds of the sky

Hiwa-i-te-rangi - The wishing star 

In the pictures below Room 12 created collaborative artwork about each star. They decorated one quarter of each star and put the puzzle together. We then made a wish to Hiwa-i-te-rangi for the year ahead on the smaller surrounding stars.

 

End of Autumn!

Celebrating the end of Autumn by playing in the leaves!
We do a great job at helping our caretaker Waran with small jobs around the school. Today we moved his leaf piles out of the staff car park. We had so much fun throwing the leaves around that we decided to write about our experiences. The leaves continue to fall from the trees so we are hoping we can do this again soon!

Check out our fun in the leaves!

NZSL Week - Pepeha - Room 12

 

Tuhituhi/STEM - Character & Diary writing

Over the past two weeks we have been making characters and bringing them to life. First, we planned their personalities, appearance and experiences. Then, we created them using polystyrene balls, hot glue, tooth picks, googly eyes, pom poms, paint, wool and pipe cleaners. After, we wrote a diary based on the perspective and experiences our character had during the day. 

A few examples of what our characters like to do in a day are, art and getting creative, going to the lego supermarket, making new friends, playing handball and other games, eating lots of yummy and healthy food and then going to bed at the end of the day in their 'houses' made by us. 
This has been a fun and enjoyable experience and we will bringing our characters home for the holidays to meet our whānau. 

Badminton!

 

This week for kori tinana we practised our badminton skills. We worked on skills that would help our hand eye coordination such as, underhand and overhand. We learnt how to serve a shuttlecock and also hit to a buddy. We had to remember to hit the shuttlecock lightly because they go a long way with only a little tap. This is because they are so light and fly through the air. By the end of the week we had developed our skills and were able to balance the shuttlecock on the racquet and successfully hit it toward our buddy.

Comment below:
What you think we are doing with the cone in the pictures below?
What is your favourite thing about playing Badminton?

Harvesting

This week we spent time in the garden. First we had to pull out the weeds around our growing vegetables. We then planted some companion plants such as spring onion to keep the insects away. We then harvested our Kumara and also our Parisian Market Carrots. Our carrots are a little bit different than what we usually see at the supermarket. They are small and round and have only been in the ground for 4 weeks! We have left some of them in to keep growing so we can see how big they can get. We then took our produce inside to peel and cut. We added salt, pepper and oil and cooked them in an air fryer. This made yummy roasted vegetables that we were able to eat!

 

Week 8 - Learning

 

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Learning - Week 7 - Statistical Investigation

 

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Home Learning - Week 6

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Home Learning - Week 5

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Hauora - Swimming!

Swimming is well underway this term! We have been focusing largely on water safety. Living in Aotearoa we are surrounded by water. This is why it is so important for us to learn to swim and feel safe and confident in the water. Check out some of our experiences below! It has been lovely having the opportunity to swim on these hot summer days.

 

Welcome to Rūma tekau mā rua 2022!

Kia ora whānau! Welcome to rūma tekau mā rua for 2022. Today was a wonderful start to the year. It has been a new and interesting experience wearing masks indoors at school, however we are managing really well! We enjoyed seeing all of our friends again and look forward to another year of learning at Hamilton East School. Please keep checking the blog for updates on what we are doing in class and remember to leave a comment!