Year Five Share & Shine our Active Travel Learning Journey

 

Year Five are drawing to the end of our Active Travel Inquiry so it's time to think about to share our learning.  We want to encourage the youngest tamariki to get to school safely and actively.

How could we share and shine with Five Year Olds?

Mukundi "Have a conversation and tell them what would happen if we don't do it"

Fay "Have a colouring activity"

"Take it easy they are just little kids" Kayla

"Make it into a game" Zoe

"Make a poster" Emma

"Don't use complex words" Hunter

Touma "Take them for a walk around the bike track and show them"

"Make the poster simple" Caitlin

"Take things step by step" Indigo

Lucy "Try to teach complex word"

"Show them how to ride a bike or scooter" Ivy

"Teach them how to cross the road" Lily

"Make a slide deck" Lucy

"Tell them about different places to travel to" Haniya

We decided to create pictture books to share with the Year One Classes.

Year 3's Kawakawa Tea Party

 

Today Year 3 continued their inquiry into Herbs, Rongoa and Tea.  We investigvated the very special kawakakawa plant.  We looked at the shape of the bush growing in the shade of our native bush walk.  We looked carefully at the shape and colour of the leaves:

Shirley "Heart shaped, upside down and green"

We smelt the leaves when we burised them:

Kimaya "It smelt like nature"

Next we picked some fresh leaves and put them in a big tea pot.  We put boiling hot water on top.  Then we poured out the tea into cups and put honey each cup.

What did kawakawa tea taste like?

Theo "The kawakawa tasted sweet and watery"

Valentin "It tasted like normal tea with water"

Logan "It tasted like honey at the bottom"

Next time we'll investigate other Rongoa tipu. 

Year Four Master Navigators

 Today Year 4 continued our moana studies, and learnt about the important role of ocean voyages to our island nation. 

We 'Got Thinking' by listing all the vessels we knew in five minutes. Some of our ideas included sailing boat, waka, cruise ship, ferry and ship and jet ski.

We 'Explored' our ocean history by watching this: 

What was the video about?

Awa "The first oldest sailing cup is the America's Cup"

Payton "Kupe sailed across the Pacific Ocean to find Aotearoa and Captain Cook followed"

Luke "Kupe found Rarotonga first"

 And reading this Hui Te Rangiora: The Navigator

What did we learn?

Isabella "He may have sailed all the way to Antartica"

Ariella "Hui Te Rangiora was a master voyager"

Briar "When he was sailing he went past the top of NZ and all the way to Antartica."

Liam "The marae statues remind us of the navigation guy"

Chase "Hui Te Rangiora followed a route from Rarotonga to the east of Aotearoa"

Madeleine "You had to be a master navigator to sail to Aotearoa"

Next, we 'Made Meaning and Connections' by using A4 pieces of paper to design and build our own waka.  We "Shared & Shined" by testing our boats to see if they floated and making improvements.

Lastly we took action for the ocean by going on a litter hunt.  Sadly most of the litter was plastic and most of it had escaped lunch boxes.  Thank you to the families making the extra effort to pack a litter free lunch!

Year Six Planting thanks to Tamaki Estuary Environmental Forum

 Today, Year Six started planting the native grasses that were donated to us from the Tamaki Estuary Environmental Forum.  You can check our their good mahi by the Fordyce Entrance.

Year Three Matariki Hangi Prep and Rongoa Research

 

Today Year Three started their day by going to the hall to help prepare our Matariki Hangi.  The tamariki showed wonderful persistence and skill as they took turns peeling the kumara and potatoes.  We carefully listened to how to chop the kai with big knives safely and then very carefully cut. Well done Year Three! Nga mihi nui to all the parent helpers. We can't wait to eat our hangi tomorrow.

Afterwards, in Education for Sustainability we researched how Maori have used native trees and plants for medical treatments.  We created diagrams in our books to record our learning, then went on a hunt all around the school to find these special trees.

Next time we are going to drink kawakawa tea with Sunny Honey.  It's great for tummy aches and inflammation.

Year Four Matariki Cabbage Harvest

Today it was Year Four's turn to harvest kai for our Matariki Hangi.  We dug about for the last of our kumara and harvested big round cabbages.  The worms in our worm farms will be very happy, because they got all the spare leaves and stems. They'll make lovely compost for growing more kai.

We also reviewed how Maori brought Kumara to Aotearoa. Then we learnt how Chinese immigrants, Mr & Mrs Gock helped the kumara by developing a disease resistant type by watching this mini doc.

What did you learn today?

Harvey "Black rot can rot the kumara when it's too wet"

Maymay "Whakaoterangi brought kumara"

"The leaves of the kumara are heart shaped" Ella

"Mr and Mrs Gock helped the kumara from black rot" Ciara

Ella "When the leaves are yellow it's time to dig up the kumara".

"Mr and Mrs Gock gave the new type of kumara for free to NZ farmers" Alice.

Year Three Matariki Kumara Harvest

 

Today Rooms 7 & 8 continued our Matariki Kumara Harvest. We learnt all about how important the kumara is to Aotearoa. The yellow leaves told us it was time to harvest. First we pulled out the vines and put them in the compost. Then it was great fun taking turns trying to find the kumara under the soil. Valentin found the biggest one. We can't wait to eat them in our school Hangi.