Te Whetūkairangi Pā

With it being the 125th (Wow!) Anniversary of Worser Bay School this year, we thought it the perfect time to dive into the history of our place. Knowing the history of the land we stand on is crucial for our tamariki, promoting the idea of something bigger than themselves. To begin this inquiry we created a timeline of what we already know about Aotearoa’s history. Our kids knew a lot more than we thought! They documented influential people and events such as “Mr Cook” and “people fought for more land.” We’re going to be building on this timeline as we progress in our inquiry.

This week, we focused on Te Whetūkairangi Pā, which occupied our school's land from 12-1300 up to the early days of colonisation. Te Whetūkairangi was the principal Pā on the Miramar peninsular, due to its view vantage points and access to resources. We have been investigating what Te Whetūkairangi Pā would have looked like, imagining our school site with plenty of whare, food storage areas, blockades and a large range of natural resources. After exploring our environment and imagining a different time, we have been creating pictures of what Te Whetūkairangi looks like to us.

This inquiry has been a necessary first step in implementing the new, New Zealand Histories Curriculum. We have been focusing on the Understand themes of Māori history is the foundational and continuous history of Aotearoa New Zealand and Colonisation and settlement have been crucial to Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories for the last 200 years. If you’d like to check out more about the New Zealand Histories curriculum, have a look here.

Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori- Tōku Pepeha

As part of Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori, this week we learned and practised our Pepeha (introducing our whānau in Māori) with our Autahi whānau.

We know that learning something new can help our brains grow, so learning Te Reo Māori is a great way to help our brains get stronger.

Imagination and Innovation Inquiry: Māori Legends Art

As part of our inquiry, we are learning about how art can bring people together and spark our imagination. We have been exploring different Māori legends using the art of authors like Peter Gossage.

We have been learning the legends of How Maui Found his Father and The Magic Jawbone, Maui and the Sun, Ngāki and Whataitai and The Battle of The Mountains that tells the story of how some of the mountains around the North Island came to be. Here are some of the art we have created so far.

Maui and The Sun, by Peter Gossage

The Battle of The Mountains by Peter Gossage

How Maui Found His Father and The Magic Jawbone

The Legend of Ngake and Whataitai

Waitangi Day

What is Waitangi Day about? We began to work in our literacy groups to learn about Waitangi Day. There were lots of ideas about the day is about. Here were some of our first ideas:

We learned about how the Treaty of Waitangi was signed to help Māori people and those who had settled in Aotearoa to agree on how to share and look after Aotearoa New Zealand.

We then began to think about rules. Why do we need rules? How might having rules for certain things helps us? We tried to play games without rules.

 It was pretty tricky!

Then we played the games using the rules and it was much easier!

Maori legend art

We listen to stories and help create poems