Footsteps Dance Company

On Friday our school was lucky to have the Footsteps Dance Company give us a sample of dance lessons that they provide. We learnt a 'pop' dance in 30 minutes. The year 4-6 children loved it!

Karaka Fun Afternoon

To celebrate a fabulous year, karaka whanau had an afternoon of fun water activities!

karaka Fun Afternoon - slideshows

The Sasa

As a transfer task for Celebration, we had to present a song or dance from another culture to our whanau. Our class has been learning the Sasa, a Samoan dance. Generally the sasa is performed by a large group of people, it is normally performed sitting down, but there are parts of the dance which require the group to stand up. Every Sasa is different, some movements have never changed, however nowadays, more contemporary moves are now being added to the Sasa.
In groups we created our own actions and then as a class we chose some of the best actions from each group. We put these moves together to create a class Sasa.

Surfing

Our surfing lesson took place on a beautiful day in a beautiful setting, Matapouri.
Most of us were able to get up successfully and our water confidence improved immensely.
Look out mums and dads, maybe a surfboard will be on our Christmas wish list!

Surfing - slideshows

Karaka Celebration Assembly

On Friday, karaka Whanau hosted our school assembly. Our theme was Celebration and we chose to share the work we have done so far on chinese dragons.

Our classes have learnt about the Chinese New Year, Diwali, and legends and artwork from the Pacific Islands. Our class shared their tapa artworks and what they have learnt about turtles and how they are valued especially by Samoa.

Adventure Forest

Today the Year 4 classes started their two day outdoor education programme. The classes were split in half. Group A went surfing at Matapouri, and Group B went to the Adventure Forest in Glenbervie. The Adventure Forest involved a lot of courage, determination, problem solving and team work. It is demanding but very rewarding as well.

Adventure Forest - slideshow

Culture Day

As a culmination of our Immersion Week for Celebration, we held a Culture Day. We dressed up in costumes from other countries and held a concert where different groups from our school community performed dances. We also wrote prayers to celebrate our Catholic culture and tied these to balloons.
It was an awesome day organised by karaka whanau. Tumeke!

Celebration

Our concept for Term 4 is Celebration. We are learning that...

Marble Run Finished Products

The process of creating marble runs meant we had to change or modify our designs to ensure they worked and met the criteria. We were judged by our class mates on design and creativity. Jelford and Joshua's fun fair marble run was judged the best by the class.

Marble Runs

For our technology unit we decided to create marble runs for wet day activities. We got our inspiration from Melanie's dad's marble run which he made when he was a child. We googled marble runs and got heaps of ideas from there, we then designed our own marble runs. We decided to use recycled materials and work in teams of 2-4. These are photos of the creating process.

Father's Day

We created these caricatures of our dad's for Father's Day. We followed steps of how to draw a caricature and then coloured them in. We are sure you will agree that they are really cool!

Dad Caricatures - slideshows

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.