NZ Marist Colts

This morning the NZ Marist Colts rugby team visited our school. They are on a tour and came to our school to give us sports equipment for the children to play with. They have the same motto as our school- love, learn, serve. They are serving others by visiting Catholic schools, giving out sports equipment, and being positive role models that boys can aspire to be like.

The boys come from all over NZ and there were two from Sydney and Argentina as well. We feel privileged to have them visit our school.

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Marakihau

We read many Maori myth and legends. Stories were important taonga to Maori. They talked of their history and beliefs. Taniwha are kaitiaki (guardians), they protect areas and people. Some are peaceful but others can be ferocious. We read about marakihau (sea taniwha) who can swallow waka and boats whole. Marakihau are often carved in meeting houses (whare tupuna). We drew our marakihau and took a lot of time and pride in patterning and colouring them in.

Marakihau - slideshows

Marakihau - slideshows

The Great karaka Rescue

We had two concept days in Term 2. Our concept was taonga and Karaka whanau decided to create a taonga that we could treasure. We decided to create books about the Karaka tree to explain why it is a taonga. The children worked in mixed classes. The children were responsible for the artwork and the classes wrote a story as a whole class or in small groups. We have had our books published using snapfish an online photobook site. The books are beautiful and will be treasured by all. This is a quicktime showing you the book that was written in Room 20. This is not the proper book! You will have to go to the classrooms to see the published books. Please wait for the pages to turn.

Innovation video

Here is a video from Sciencelearn.org.nz which helps to explain what Innovation is...

Innovation

Our concept for Term 3 is Innovation. We are learning that....

Innovation Immersion Activity

The teachers gathered examples of household items that have been changed, modified, improved and are examples of innovation over time. Can you see how they have been changed to meet the needs of the users and make life easier.


Innovation over time on PhotoPeach

Times Tables App

At parent interviews one of our children shared an ipad app which she found very useful to help her learn her times tables. It is a free app called my times tables.

Kapa Haka

Here is a short video of our school kapa haka group singing at kapa haka practice one day. Tumeke!!!
We can't wait for them to perform for the school again. Quite a few children from Room 20 belong to the school Kapa Haka group.

We have been learning to sing this song. It is called Paradise and has been written by Waimarie Smith who is from Northland. This song won a song competition for NZ music month. It is a beautiful song and we just love singing it. We will be teaching the school this song at our next assembly. You can listen to it on youtube and learn how to sign while singing the song.

Taonga

Some of us brought our precious taonga to school to share with the class. We explained why it was taonga to us and our families. Some taonga were very old and had been handed down through our families, they are a link to our past.

Making Compost with Anna

Our world is a gift from God. It is a taonga which we all need to respect, honour and cherish. We are all kaitiaki for our world. Anna from Eco Solutions worked with us in Term 2. We learnt to make compost, to reduce our rubbish, recycle and make something useful out of our food scraps. Compost is food for plants, and we learnt how easy it is to make. Watch out parents we all want to make some for our gardens.

Soccer Skills

We were very fortunate to have 5 weeks of soccer skills with Owen. We enjoyed this immensely and will have more in Term 3. We learnt to kick, dribble, pass, and trap the ball.

Did You Ever

We talked about how there can be living treasures are friends are people we respect and cherish. We wrote a simple poem about our friends called Did You Ever.


Di d You ever on PhotoPeach

Taonga Immersion

Our Concept for Term 2 was Taonga. For our Immersion activity we had a series of close up photos. We had to search all around the school to find the taonga that these photos were taken of. It was harder than we thought.

Catholic Schools Day

On Catholic Schools Day we worked in our whanau groups. In Room 20 we had children from Rooms 18, 19, 20 and 21.