Tangaroa

 You may have noticed some changes in Tautoru in the last few weeks. 

We have been busy learning about Tangaroa the Atua of the oceans and all of the sea creatures.

"According to Māori creation traditions the god of the sea and progenitor of fish is Tangaroa, the son of Ranginui (the sky father) and Papatūānuku (the earth mother)" Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.

We began by making some fish and creating an under water world in our classroom

Our classroom was set up for us to learn all about the oceans and sea creatures

We have been thinking like scientists and creating our own Tanagroa fact file

including observational drawings of fish

designing a fact file with information about different types of fish

Learning about the different zones of the ocean and how they influence the sea life within each zone

 Creating a mind-map with everything we can think of that links to the sea - 

including environmental issues too

And we looked at the what a clean ocean versus a polluted ocean will look like

With all this new information in mind, we wrote some ocean inspired poetry and displayed it with our fish as water droplets

We have also written an argument piece titled "How can we be kaitiaki of our oceans?" 

Keeping in mind we are young - what can we do to help? 

We had some very interesting ideas and thoughts about what all tamariki can do to stop over fishing and pollution of our beautiful beaches and oceans.

Please come in and have a closer look!