Whakataukī for Lockdown

 Kia ora everyone, 

today we being handing out learning packs to whānau who can come in to collect. As well as the mainstream activities that cover reading, writing and mathematics, I am adding a collection of whakatuakī activities for our akomanga across the Māori bilingual unit. Whakataukī are traditional proverbs or sayings, which hold wisdom in them and help us connect to and strengthen our Māori worldview. The picture here is a sample of what the learning activities look like. 

Te Reo Games Online: Te Mahunga

👅👀👂👃👄😀

Kia ora everyone! I found these online activities today to help you practice and learn some kupu Māori. These words are all for parts of your head and face. 

Let me know how you go!

And speaking of heads and faces: ask the pakeke (adults) in your whānau to friend me on facebook and then I can help you out on messenger with some awesome, individualised, online learning sessions :)  

Lockdown Challenge: Debates

 Kia ora everyone, 

I hope you are safe and well. I'm at home in my pyjamas writing this. Btu just because I'm in my PJs doesn't mean I am not working and learning - and I hope the same is true for you :) 

This week, whānau, please put aside some time each day to sit down together and debate a topic with your child/ren. It is really important that they keep up their persuasive language skills over lockdown. The topics don't have to be serious but each side should think of at least three points for their point of view and then elaborate them and give examples. Here are some topics you could choose from: 

• Tomatoes are better than carrots
• Everyone should have to grow their own food
• Children should make all the kai at home (not the adults)
• School should start at lunchtime and finish at dinner time
• Students should be able to bring phones to school
• We should only speak Te Reo Māori in our classrooms
• If I could go bak in time the best time to go back to would be.... (choose two different eras)
• Cars should be banned
• Everyone should have a free house
• There should be a zoo in every neighbourhood
• Trains and buses should be free for school children and their teachers

Please leave a comment and let us all know how you are going. And share any topics you come up with!
Ngā mihi nunui ki a koutou 

Naomi

Should you get a growling if you don't join in with kapa haka?

THE FOLLOWING IS A PIECE OF WRITING THAT WE ARE STILL WORING ON. 

Why share it when it isn't yet finished? Because writing is a process. 

Should you get a growling if you don't join in with kapa haka? 

Kapa Haka is a special performance for Māori so everytime we have shows we get better at it and practice it. 

When you join in with practice you get better at actions. 

Kapa Haka is important because we learn Māori waiata in kapa haka time. 

The Scariest Creature: Persuasive Writing

 

Today we used our existing knowledge and experience to draw pictures of REALLY SCARY animals and published these in books. From sharks with terrible teeth and tyranosauruses with sharp claws to possums with rabies, our mixed-age writing group all used persuasive writing format to convince the reader that their creature was the most terrifying. What do you think? 

Matariki Play: The 3 Baskets of Knowledge

 At the end of last term the whole whānau (rooms 16 and 17) wrote and presented a play for our school. 

Here is the first part of that play for you to see. 

Kapa Haka Week 3

 

Every Thursday afternoon is Kapa Haka. Today we practiced some favourites, worked on some of our regular songs and learned some new waiata also. Here are some links to some of the waiata and haka we did today so that you can practice at home too: Te Taukaea; Ka Pioioi; Manu Tiria; Ko te Aroha anō he Wai; Ngā Puawai ō Ngāpuhi. We also practiced our waewae takahia and our mirroring skills. 

Tone Chimes and Glockenspiel - Pachabel's Canon

WALT: read musical notes. Today we took our learning to a new level by reading a musical score without note names. We also had to count beats because the notes of the first two lines are mostly minims, which means they each have two beats. 

This term we are exploring lots of ways that our individual roles contribute to a harmonious community.

Here is a link to a professional recording of this song that we are learning.

Persuasive Writing: The Coolest Hotel

We are learning to use different planning formats to prepare to write. We are also learning to use KEY WORDS in our planning (similar to note taking). 

Today we read an example of persuasive writing about a hotel with many attractive features. We then worked together in small groups to contribute to a bird-eye-view plan of a hotel of our own design. Then we labelled our design. Labelling helps us to use KEY WORDS in our planning instead of writing whole sentences. Then we share what we'd drawn and then used the combined features of our group hotel to plan our persuasive writing. 

He Pā Harakeke kei te Haere

This afternoon we dug up  an old harakeke plant that was struggling in the shade. After separating it into many smaller plants we dug holes along the far edge of the field for the new harakeke plants to grow where they can get plenty of sun and also make a nice view for us. 

"Basketball or Diving?" Room 17's Persuasive Writing

Kia ora e te whaanau, 

This week for tuhituhi (writing) we are learning about Persuasive Writing. What is persuasive writing? Persuasive writing is arguing your opinion convincingly. 

For example, "I think that dogs are better than cats because dogs are good defenders, are loyal to people who are mokemoke (lonely)."

Our persuasive writing today was about diving and basketball. We pretended to choose a sport to take away from the Olympics to save money on the campaign. 

Serenity's sharing activity to help us to our planning

Whaea Naomi helping us with our Venn diagram to organise our ideas

Us watching some examples of Diving and Basketball at the Olympics and NBA

Our Persuasive Writing: Basketball!!!

Basketball is better than swimming because: 

Basketball includes superstar athletes like LeBron James. He's one of a kind, and one of the best shooters in basketball - arguably better even than Michael Jordan. We can't think of any famous divers. 

Basketball is also a lot safer than diving because diving pools are deep. You don't drown playing basketball. In diving you have to climb up a ladder and jump from a height which makes the water like concrete when we jump into it. When you jump off the board you can get your head donked on the side. We know a girl called Mia who went swimming and was trying to dive. Her head went backwards and she broke her neck.  

The other side: Diving!!!

With diving, when there is a hot day you can go to the pools and have a swim. With basketball you just get hotter because you have to run around. 

You can't get your head hit by the ball in diving.  

Kourtney's Kindness Cupcakes

Our lovely Koutney with her yummy treats

Thank you Kourtney 🙏🙏🙏. for baking cupcakes and bringing them in to school today. Thank you also to Autumn 🙏🙏🙏 for helping Kourtney to make these. 

We have been talking about kindness and respect in class. Thank you for your kindness Kourtney and well done class for using your best manners 🙏🙏🙏.

Kourntey also wrote a note for the class, which says:

"Dear class, we might have differences but we're still whānau and we care for each other. 

Last night I stayed up till 19:26am to make you these muffins to thank you for being my class and friends."

Yum!

The beautiful rainbow muffins

Sitting down to eat.

Namunamuā!

Drake offers Epa a cupcake.

Kourtney's lovely letter. 

Te Tuhi Pūoro - musical notes

Ka Waiata ki a Maria on the Tone Chimes.

Persuasive Writing: All classrooms should have a set of tone chimes! 

by Whaea Naomi

I know that many of you may not even know what tone chimes are, so let me explain. Tone chimes are individual bells that are held in the hand. When you shake the tone chime a rubber hammer attached to it, hits the bell, and makes a ringing sound. Each tone chime is a different tone, thus the name. 

Because tone chimes are all individual notes, they encourage children to work together to make beautiful harmonies and melodies. Each child can only hold one or two at a time and most songs require several tones or notes. We have turns playing, we encourage each other, and we listen to each other in room 17 when we are playing the tone chimes. 

Not only do they encourage us to be a harmonious team but they are themselves a very sweet and gentle sounding instrument. No matter how many times they are played or with how much energy, they remain calm sounding and quiet. 

Finally, there is a lot of learning that happens when we use the tone chimes. This morning we learned to play Ka Waiata ki a Maria on the tone chimes. Then we recorded the notes as letters and copied them onto our music folders. This meant we got to practice writing, reading, taking responsibility, not to mention the musical knowledge of notes and their pitches and specific sequence, but also how to play the tone chimes when there is more than one of the same note in a row - it's tricky and you have to play it quite hard. 

And so to conclude. The tones chimes are a calming and easily played instrument which not only teach children how to play music but also how to use their heart values. We think there should be a set in every room in school.