Celebrating Matariki

Te Kakano students have been learning about Matariki: what it is and how people in Aotearoa celebrate the Maori New Year. We listened to different stories about the Matariki cluster of stars and had fun learning to weave. We made kete kai out of our weaving and then celebrated on the last day of term, along with the rest of the junior school, eating hot chips and treats provided by some very kind parents.

Tuakana teina! Thanks Tia and Julia from Te Puawai.

Proud of our weaving efforts!

We love our food baskets!

Sharing a lunch of hot chips was the perfect way to end the term!

Matariki

 TUAKANA/TEINA DAY 

We had a really fun day with Te Kauru students learning about Matariki, creating artworks and sharing.

Manu Tukutuku - Kites [paper weaving]

Marama the moon.

Term 2 Week 4 and 5

Autumn

I've been waiting for the deciduous trees at home to clothe themselves in their beautiful autumn colours. Finally the magic happened. The students from Te Kakano played on the field in the huge collection of leaves I brought along to school. We talked about the colours, shapes and feel of the leaves after we were done with tossing them high to see how they drifted silently down to cover the grass in a carpet of colours. This is one of the Autumn poems we learnt over the last two weeks.

We discussed the seasons; the rotation of the earth around the sun and how living things prepare themselves for winter. One of our relieving teachers Mrs Seddon did Autumn leaf art with the students and they produced an amazing display of colour for our classroom using coloured paper, black marker pens, paint and pastel. Here are some examples. Each child's art was unique. They were all extremely proud of the outcomes and remember lots of facts about Autumn.

Our shared book this week was 'Windy Day' by Jill Eggleton 

We wrote about the king's crown that blew away in the wind. We used card to make the king's crown, and with the help of some talented students from Te Kauru, we also constructed a bird's nest in the crown, and a bird. We really liked having 'biggies' in our classroom. They helped us with handwriting [really tricky letter ks] and our reading. They were fabulous role models, patient, kind and helpful. We hope you come again Kobe, Caedance, Oscar, Alicia and Charlize!

Completed Kings' crowns bird nests.

Ka kite ano! Until next time!