HE AHA O TE ÃHUA O TE RANGI NEI?

We have been talking about the weather today.  We sang a song about the weather in Maori today.  Sophia was a wonderful leader.

Could we be any cuter? 😁

MATARIKI

Today we celebrated Matariki - the Maori New Year

 

We were allowed to brainstorm some ideas of what we wanted to do to celebrate.  This is because traditionally the children got to choose...

Here are some of the things we suggested:

• write stories
• draw pictures
• make kites
• make some food

So have a look at some of the things that we did:

E HIA NGA MEA? - HOW MANY THINGS?

In Te Reo we have been learning how to ask "how many things".

In the slideshow you will notice that before tahi there is the word Ko.  Number one is very important so it has Ko in front of it.  The numbers 2 to 9 have E in front.  This shows that it is a number because those words in Maori can also mean other things.  For example Rua is also a cloud.  By putting the E in front, it means that you are talking about a number.  Once you get to tekau -ten, you don't need the E because tekau is only a number.




Here is a photo of Tryton and Van matching up the tens frames to the words in Te Reo.

TAU - BALANCE

Today with Pa Jack, we talked about feeling TAU.  This means we feel calm, relaxed and balanced.  This is when we are open to learning the best.

Here is the slideshow Mrs Lunn made for us...

It explains the three states if being Toiora, Kuhupo and Tau.

Mrs Lunn took us for a Quiz to see how well we understood it. 

We got to draw a picture of us when we feel Tau.

Here is the Quiz.  You might like to do it with us at home.

PEPEHA ART

During our final day with Miss Smith, we drew picture representation of our pepeha.  We did a pretty good job.  We look forward to having them hanging up in our room.
  

  

OUR PEPEHA

Today Ms Udy talked to Piako Rua about our Pepeha.  This is an introduction which is in the format of a 'story' of the people and places you are connected to.

A sheet is coming home today for you to help us complete our pepeha.  It's about  down the names of some of the landmarks from where we are from. 

Please note:  if your family did not come over in a waka, you can insert the name of the ship or the airline, if you know it.  It's all about how your family got to New Zealand.

OUR TURANGAWAEWAE

Today Ms Udy told us all about the Wharenui - the meeting house at the Marae.  Did you know that each meeting house is designed to reflect an important ancestor?

Ms Udy showed us a slideshow about the different parts of the Wharenui.

Different parts of the Wharenui, represent different Whiringa like we talked about last week.  

There is a special place out the front of the Wharenui called the paepae.  This is a special place where the people who are going to speak to welcome the visitors, will sit.  This space is a Tohunga space.

We decided we might like to have something like a paepae in Piako Rua for our leaders to sit on.  We decided to call it our Turangawaewae - our place to stand.

Pa Jack presented each of our leaders with a special lanyard that they can wear to show everyone how important they are to our class.

   




We had a turn at labelling the different parts of the Wharenui as well today.

TE WHIRINGAWHA

Today was a pretty special day in Piako Rua.  The teachers and Pa Jack talked to us about Te Whiringawha.  On a Marae, there are four different roles that people play.  
They are:

Ariki

• Leader

Tohunga

• Expert
• Treasure

Mangotoa

• Defender
• Protector

and finally...

Aronui

• Administrator
• Carer

The teachers explained that we are made of parts of each of these.  Some of us have more Aronui for

example, than others.  When we grow, we might change but in the meantime we had to have a think about what colours we thought we are now.

We each were given a stylised picture of a person that we had to colour in.  We needed to think about how much of each colour we think we are.  The teachers were amazed with how well we knew ourselves.

Here are a few examples of our work... 

You might like to talk to us about this at home.  

You will be pleasantly surprised with how well we can articulate what we talked about today.

OUR LEADERS IN PIAKO RUA

We would like to introduce you to our leaders in Piako Rua.  These children were chosen by the teachers for their amazing personal qualities.

• This is Oliver
• He is our Ariki - our leader
• The other children respect Oliver
• He is kind and fair
• Oliver leads the Pou Mihi each day
• Congratulations Oliver - you deserve this honour

• This is Braxton
• He is our Tohonga
• Braxton is an expert in many areas of School life
• He is a treasure in Piako Rua and we are proud that he is our Tohunga

• This is Neva
• She is one of our Aronui
• She is kind and caring
• Neva is well organised and is great at organising things for the teachers and children in Piako Rua

•  This is Layla
• She is our other Aronui
• Layla has a heart of gold and is always on the lookout to help other children
• She is well organised and is a great helper to other children and the teachers

•  This is Kyan
• He is our Mangatoa
• Kyan respects the rules 
• He is quick to defend his friends who need his support
• We feel safe when Kyan is at school because we know he will look out for us

• This is Mason
• He is our other Mangatoa
• Mason obeys the rules
• He helps to remind others of the rules and is always on the look out to help remind his peers of what the right thing to do is

The teachers are really proud of these tamariki.  They have been members of Piako Rua for two years now and have earned the right to be leaders.  Congratulations kids.  Ka mau te wehi xx

THE TREATY OF WAITANGI

Today Mrs Lunn taught us all about the Treaty of Waitangi.  We went through this slideshow.  We had to be EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATORS and listen really carefully because we were going to have a quiz afterwards!

Here is the quiz we had.  We had to listen to the questions and choose the correct answer!  Maybe we can help you do the quiz at home.

OUR CLASS RULES

 

On Tuesday, Ms Udy read us a story called the Tree House Treaty.  It is a story about how two groups of children make a set of rules to fix any arguments that happen in the tree house that they made.

                    

We decided that our classroom was a little bit like the tree house in the story.  We thought that maybe our classroom needs some rules too so we can all be safe and happy at school.  Each whanau class got together and brainstormed all our ideas of rules that we could come up.  There was a LOT of rules.

We came back together and shared our thinking with the other kids.  Some of the kids noticed that some of the rules we came up were very similar.  We decided to condense our list of rules down to 5 rules that cover pretty much everything we do.
   

Our rules are:

• Be respectful of people and our environment

• Use your manners

• Be kind and caring

• Be a self manager

• Be Brave!  Keep trying!  You can do it!

We wondered how we could make our rules special to us. We came up with the idea of making a korowai. Mrs Ruawai showed us the korowai that Mrs Peck wears for special occasions. Each child has coloured in a feather. Every feature is different and unique, just like us! Mrs Lunn has begun to put the feathers together to make it into a korowai. We are going to put the rules on the tāniko - the woven panel that holds the features together. It'll be almost like we are wrapped up in the rules that will keep us safe and happy at school.

We can't wait until our korowai is finished!

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