The stars of Matariki

This week we have been exploring the stars of Matariki. Our Tamariki already knew a little bit from their whānau celebrations last week and enjoying the beautiful displays on the Te Whanganui a Tara Waterfront.

We've deep dived into each of the 9 stars, discussing what they mean to both the natural environment and to us as individuals. We brought the learning to life by studying produce made possible by Tupuānuku and Tupuārangi, recreating the rain from Waipuna-ā-rangi and making wishes to Hiwa-i-te-rangi. Students created mind-maps to show their learning which we are looking forward to sharing with whānau. 

Enjoy the photos from our Inquiry progress so far, and stay tuned for how this learning progresses during Whānau Day and beyond! 

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!

Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation has been a strong focus for Tautoru this last couple of weeks. We have been looking at mindfulness strategies we can to bring us back into the 'Ready to Learn' zone. Two stand out activities are are 5,4,3,2,1 and 5 finger breathing. 

Our 5,4,3,2,1 strategy is simple; we firstly look for 5 things we can see around us. Then we focus 4 things we can feel such as the ground on our feet or the wind across our bodies. Thirdly we identify 3 things we can hear, followed by 2 things we can smell and 1 thing we can taste. Sharing our answers isn't the important part of this strategy. It's all about reconnecting to our environments, rather than being caught up in our heads. 

Five finger breathing focuses on regulating our breathing. This helps calm our bodies down if we have a lot of energy, and ensures our brains are receiving enough oxygen. We simply move one finger over each finger on the opposite hand, breathing in and out as we go up and down.

Our remaining strategies focus on clearing our minds, whether that be by getting some fresh air or immersing ourselves in a book. 

Check out this mindfulness poster we have been using to find our calm. We are already seeing the benefits of mindfulness, and using it as a strategy whenever we need. 

Our meditation has been supported this week by our friend Sensei Anthony. He was with the seniors last week but came into the junior school this week to teach us all about karate. We saw the importance of discipline in karate, slowing down and breathing. It really helped us to learn about personal discipline and find our calm.

Check out these photos from our karate session. Hope you enjoy! 

Cross Country

 As part of our Physical Education Curriculum we have been training for cross country.

We set ourselves a goal, and we have been practising running around our school circuit to see if we can beat that goal (Please read our earlier blog post about this called "Cross Country Fitness Goals" if you would like to know more). 

We invited our whanau down to the beach to watch us participate in cross country on a beautiful Wellington day.

We had to dial up our character strengths of grit and perseverance to run the whole way.

The Day the Chairs Disappeared!

 It was a normal Tuesday...or so we thought! 

That was until we arrived at school to find all the chairs - except two - had disappeared!

All that was left were some mysterious white footprints!

What has happened to all the chairs, where have they gone???

We wasted no time in brainstorming what we thought had happened.

Some of us thought that they chairs had been taken down to the beach for the cross country races later that day - but when we looked over the fence, we didn't see any there...

We looked around the school, but we couldn't find them!

This is a map Owen drew to show the path we took to find where the chairs were.

Here are some of our ideas of what might have happened...

When I walked into the classroom, there were no chairs! I saw a clue, there were white footprints. Me and my friends checked to see if anybody had white powder on their shoes. The suspects were John, Jess or Suz! Jess gave us a clue, we had to find some. We looked in Autahi, Tautoru, Mahutonga and Matariki...

Thomas

I walked into the classroom, I looked around like usual but there was a big difference, the chairs were gone! I had no idea of where they went. This is a mystery, but wait! "Hmmmm" I recognise those footprints! Those footprints resemble those of the king zombie and his army...

Ronan

In the morning yesterday, all of the chairs were gone! There were dusty white footprints. The footprints looked like Franks (the school cat)...he took the chairs for a cat meeting. After the cat meeting Frank brought the chairs back, he carried the chairs with his paws.

Amberlee

Thankfully all the chairs turned up again after morning tea.

What really happened to the chairs??? I guess we'll never know.

Akau Tangi

It was great to get back to Akau Tangi for a day of sports. We used a Growth Mindset by trying new things and getting stuck in. Trying new sports is beneficial for our bodies and minds! When you learn new things, your brain grows. When you process a positive experience it enhances Positive Emotions too!

Thank you to Lext for putting this movie trailer together: 

Pacific Migration

This week in Tautoru we have been immersing ourselves in Māori and Pacific Migration. We've been speaking about why people choose to migrate and the reasons for travelling, alongside creating our own waka. Māori methods of transportation were also quite different to what we're used to today! Our tamariki have learnt how Māori travellers used the stars, waves, clouds and birds to find their way across the pacific.

Tuesdays school trip to Te Papa aided in this learning. We saw models of waka that were used to travel, alongside a real waka from all that time ago! Our tamariki explored different waka hoa, traditional Māori resources and lots more. A standout piece of learning was this karakia, which gave directions of the stars used as a guide to find Aotearoa. It was Hukenukumai who passed on this knowledge which we all get to enjoy today. 

Kupe is an important figure in Māori migration history, as alongside his wife Kuramārotini he was the first to discover the land of the long white cloud. One of our year 2 students wrote a beautiful piece of writing about Kupe:

Kupe was very brave. Once he realised that all the villagers and his food was gone! A little while later an octopus stole it. He chased it around Aotearoa and he couldn't catch him for a long lone time. Around Aotearoa the waka was storing food and his friends came with Kupe. Finally Kupe caught Te Wheke!

Here are some photos from this weeks learning.