Pīwakawaka Hapori News
By Ruth Faulkner | Posted: Thursday April 11, 2024
We have had an amazing term of learning, exploring all of the cultures we are lucky enough to have in our community. Our PBL driving question for the term has been ‘How can we celebrate and share the beautiful tapestry of cultures in our school community?’
Rūma Rima explored Edinburgh, Scotland, and decided that the buildings there were old, black and not so colourful. We looked at a slideshow and pictures of landmarks such as Edinburgh Castle, Scot’s Monument and the Royal Mile. Following that, we watched an online video showing children tasting haggis, a traditional Scottish food. It was interesting that many liked it and then not so much, after discovering the ingredients it is made up of! We learnt to dance a Scottish Reel and a song called Auld Broon Coo.
In addition to this, we were lucky to have Karina Nafatali visit and share her Samoan culture. She talked about how useful coconut trees are and showed us how beautiful Samoa is. We then learnt a traditional Sasa dance. Karina left some artefacts for our classroom to look at, such as tapa cloth and traditional dress. She highlighted the intricate symmetrical patterns and linked them to our turtle Fijian artwork.
In Rūma Ono, we looked at flags from around the world and decorated ones that we selected ourselves or that are significant to us. We have also been talking about our own place and people who are special to us. This has inspired incredible writing by tamariki who wrote stories about their whānau.
Over the last eight days, Rūma Whitu has been very fortunate to have Miss T.K and Miss Pederson working with us in our room. They are both first-year student teachers, and they have been incredible. We wish them well for their future careers in teaching. There have been many highlights for Rūma Whitu over the last couple of weeks. One, in particular, was our visit by Scott and Andy, the Firefighters, who came to talk to us about being fire-wise. They reinforced the concepts we had been learning about in class in a fun and engaging way. Two other highlights this week have been our cultural talks. Amit, Nia's Dad, came to talk to us about his beautiful country of Myanmar, and Miss T.K. did a wonderful session based on her Samoan culture. She had even brought along Lavalava for the children to try on. We had so much fun! This week for writing, Rūma Whitu has enjoyed writing Easter stories and creating Easter cards to give to friends and whānau. In maths, we have been engaged in learning about fractions and statistics. We know how to sort and group data and create and interpret graphs before writing statements about our findings.
Rūma Tekau mā Toru has had an Easter theme running with Easter Reading, Writing, and Maths over the last few weeks. We have also incorporated our Easter theme into P.E. by having egg and spoon races and even learning a bunny dance! We finished the week with - The great Bunny Hunt!
Kā mihi nui,
Ruth Faulkner, Courtney Dunn, Nicole Wilson, Paula Fisher.
Image Gallery
