Plant Power Inquiry - Te Ao o Tānemahuta, Rongomātāne and Haumiatiketike

The genealogy of Ranginui and Papatūānuku- source: Enviroschools

What plants are we kaitiaki (guardians) of in our community? Where do they belong within Te Ao Māori-the Māori world?

Māori stories tell that when Tānemāhuta separated Ranginui and Papatūānuku, his brothers Rongo and Haumia hid from Tāwhirimatea's rage underneath Papatūānuku's earthly cloak. As they emerged, they became the gods of uncultivated foods (Haumiatiketike) and cultivated foods (Rongomātāne). 

Tāne is the god of all trees and plants, and the birds are his very special children. Some stories tell how Rongo taught people how to grow food in gardens, like kūmara. Haumia showed how to find wild food for medicine, like kawakawa, and gather the roots of ferns in winter when other foods were hard to find. 

We have been looking around our kura (school) at the plants that we can identify that belong to Tāne, Rongo and Haumia.

We are building a map of these different plants around our motu (area).

We have been collecting information about the different plants and mapping them within our community. Today we went to the beach to observe the plants as well. We also found some interesting tiny creatures in this habitat.

Communicating Through the Arts - Native Habitats

One of the wonderful ways to share our learning is by using the Arts. We have been practising the visual arts skills of using a foreground and background to place our arts elements (our ideas). Our elements were some of the connections between our native birds and the plants in their habitats. Some birds have a very important role in the health of our forests as they help to spread the seeds of the berries they eat. 

We researched our birds and made some drafts first. Then we practised placing our birds and plants in the foreground of the picture.

Here are some of the art works we created using watercolour for the background and pastels for the foreground. You can come in and have a look at our display on the walls!

My Body is Mine

This week our Positive Health programme has been about empowering our students to be in control of their own bodies. It was explained to students that it is Ok to have different answers than their classmates. We emphasised the fact that we are all unique with different emotions and perspectives. Students role played a variety of scenarios and what they would do to ensure that their body is their own.

We have also worked with students to brainstorm a list of safe and unsafe touching and what this means. We encouraged students to not feel embarrassment or to be uncomfortable to speak to adults they trust. We emphasised to the students that they are the bosses of their bodies and can take action if they are uncomfortable. We encouraged students to use words or phrases they could say to stop unwanted touching. 

Students practised saying “Stop”, “I don’t like that”, and “Leave me alone,” in a strong voice with a buddy.

Oat the Goat - Standing up for yourself and others.

 As part of our on-going Positive Education programme the students in Tautoru have recently been discussing how we can stand up for ourselves and others in a variety of situations. This has been a valuable exercise as we want our students to have strategies and skills in place so that they can lean on them in times of need.

We started a session last week watching a fantastic resource developed by the Ministry of Education called Oat the Goat. The link to the movie can be found here

It would be something that you can revisit with your child/children to continue the conversations from school at home. We found the students were able to come up with a number of great ideas and the movie was very well paced and was very engaging.

We then shared ideas with our friends about what we would do or say if we saw bullying behaviour. It was also important for the students to know who to ask if they need support or help. Here are some examples of our ideas and thoughts.

Te reo Māori in Tautoru!

 Each term or so, we have a focus or new sentence structure in te reo Māori to learn. For the rest of the year, we are giving ourselves the challenge to learn two new sentence structures and the kupu that go along with it!

The Weather

Each morning, we start the day with the karakia and then one child leads the class in asking and answering what the weather is today.

He aha te huarere? (What is the weather?) 
He rangi _____. (The weather is _____).

At the moment, we are focusing on these kupu: Kapua (cloudy), Makariri (cold), Pupuhi te hau (windy), Paki (fine), Ua (raining) and Mahana (warm).

Example:

He aha te huarere?  (What is the weather?)
He rangi Kapua. (The weather is cloudy).

Let's hope we don't become too familiar with Ua and Makariri when saying the weather each morning, and more familiar with Paki and Mahana!

Pass me...

During our scheduled te reo Māori time each week, we are learning about how to pass familiar objects found in the classroom to each other.

The more physical nature of this sentence structure has allowed us to learn it more easily. We have found students are picking up this new kupu as we are often passing each other objects. Now, we could ask others to pass us things in te reo Māori rather than English!

Homai te ___ (pass me the ____).
Ānei! (Here!)

The objects we are focusing on are pene rākau (pencil), pene hinu (crayon), muku (rubber), whakakoi (pencil sharpener), kutikuti (scissors), pukapuka (book), pepa (paper), kāpia (glue stick), pene whītau (felts), pukapuka tuhituhi (writing book), iPapa (iPad), korowhiko (computer).

Example:

Homai te kutikuti. (Pass me the scissors).
Ānei! (Here!)

Māori Alphabet song

Check out this video to help with pronunication for the vowels and consonants in te reo Māori.

The Joy of Reading

In our busy world, reading books for pleasure is becoming something we need to focus on. It is such a wonderful way to unwind. In Tautoru, after lunch, we get to read for pleasure. We connect with imaginary worlds, we extend things we are interested in or we share the joy of reading.

We share books with a friend.

We immerse ourselves in a book by ourselves.

We enjoy being read to. Here is Scott with his current chapter book.

Talk at home this week about how you might be able to keep up the joy of reading alive.

We are Learning to be Powerful

Our Learner Attribute for this term is I am Powerful. We can show this when:

• I can think about overcoming challenges 
• I am excited about new learning and I challenge myself
• I understand that not knowing is good 
• I take action 
• I keep trying and don’t give up 
• I can make decisions about my environment 

Here is a group of us being powerful by taking action. We using Positive Purpose by picking up litter.

We have been exploring and writing about what being powerful means to us. We have also been thinking about how we might develop this attribute in different ways. Here is some writing about our thinking on being powerful.

Cara: I think I need to be more powerful. When I went rock climbing for my first time it was so scary. I wanted to go to my mum.  I said "I want to get down." A guy who was next to me said "Sit down on the seat. It will pull you down." It is really fun!

Zoe: I can think about overcoming challenges. I am challenging myself to read two Dog Man books in one day!

Tommy: I am powerful because I try and don't give up. I am excited about new learning and I challenge myself because I learn how to write longer stories. I can think about overcoming challenges because I challenge myself to write three pages!