Category: Ako | Learn

Rangi Team visit the Sikh Temple

Have you been to the Sikh Temple in Takanini? It’s proper name is Takanini Gurdwara Sri Kalgidhar Sahib. For the majority of us, it was our first time. We were allowed to into the temple upstairs but had to remove our socks and shoes and wash and dry our hands first. All of us had to wear a bright orange bandana to cover our heads. Upstairs in the praying area, we had to be absolutely quiet and respectful. That meant no loud voices and definitely no running around. There were people from the Sikh community there sitting and praying too.

Chandan and Dilraj were our hosts and they talked to us about the history and the purpose of the temple. They also answered any questions we had. Next they took us downstairs to the Langar which is where people eat. Our hosts took us around the langar and  talked to us about the large portraits of Sikh people that hung on the walls right around the hall. There were so many.

Then we sat on blue mats and we were served trays, dishes and utensils for food. Lots of men came to serve us our food and gave us coke, sprite and orange juice to drink. We were all very spoilt.

After eating and taking lots of photos, we quickly ran around the back of the temple area to the sports complex. There was an astro turf for hockey and football,  a court for basketball and a huge area for lots of sports. It was amazing.

We thanked our hosts and chefs and sang our waiata. Then it was time for us to head back to school. Here are some pics and videos of our amazing experience there. Thank you Mrs Khatgar for organising this for us! You can also check out more by viewing learner blogs.

Cook Island Language Week

Kia orana! It’s been a wonderful week celebrating Cook Island Language Week. Our whole school celebrated each day with sharing by our manea (beautiful) tamariki. The children shared a prayer and basic language phrases everyday. The Cook Island children also visited classrooms across the school and shared stories in Cook Island too. Room 18 also made poke a dessert made from banana mixed with arrowroot and baked in the oven. Here are some photos from us making poke today.

Our school gathered in the hall for the closing assembly. It was a time for lots of sharing and viewing of what classes have done right across the school. There were lots of groups and classes that shared on stage. Winners from the weekly challenge were also announced and given prizes. Here are a few videos from the assembly today.

Matariki Market Day

On Tuesday our whole school celebrated Matariki by having an assembly. We were lucky to have our Senior and Junior Kapa Haka group perform for us. Lots of parents and whanau came to watch and support.

Later that day at 12pm we had our Market Day. Our whole school focus was around Technology. Room 18 children got into groups and planned their products to design, make and sell. The groups sold: hot dogs, milkshakes, toffee apples and popcorn, oreo truffles, lollycake biscuit, nutella truffles and hair accessories. All the money that we raised we have donated to (by voting) charity, the SPCA New Zealand.

Here are some snippets of our Market Day.

 

Length: Stepping Out

In Maths we have been learning about Length based on this unit from nzmaths. We started our session talking about measurement: what do we know, what do we use to measure etc. Then I asked the learners how long they thought their step (pace) was. I had to demonstrate this to show my learners what a pace was. Some children were estimating theirs to be: 9cm, 10cm and 12cm. I then had to show them a ruler and asked them “how many centimetres are there on this ruler?” Some children estimated correctly 30cm.

Then I asked the learners again if they still thought their pace was 9cm etc. They weren’t so sure anymore. So I invited the children to get their rulers. They looked carefully at them. I talked to them about a meter ruler and asked how long they thought it was. I showed them a meter ruler and some guessed 50cm. Most however, knew it was 100cm. So we now know that there are 100cm in 1 meter. I gave the children some coloured paper and in pairs they created themselves a strip that was 1 meter (100cm). Next I modelled and showed the children what I wanted them to do. One buddy had to take 10 steps (at their usual pace). The other buddy had to measure how long their 10 paces were. Then they had to divide that number by 10. This gave them the average length of their pace.

It was great to see lots of children collaborating and working out the length of their step (pace). Most were able to calculate their average step. Some learners needed help. The learners got to see how long their pace was and compare theirs to their buddies and others in the class.

Rangi Team at MOTAT

This term our Inquiry focus is Technology. We were very lucky to take our Year 6 learners to MOTAT: Museum of Technology and Transport in Auckland. Two classes got to start the day and MOTAT 2 The Aviation Hall and the other two classes at MOTAT 1. Our educator session was with Emily in the new educator area in the Aviation Hall. Our learners got to learn about Inventions and Innovations and look at how technology from the past and present and how things have changed. For example: old phones, typewriters, Maori tools and inventions created by New Zealand people.
Just before lunchtime we caught the tram to the other part of MOTAT and caught the bus back to school. It was so much fun and for some children it was their first time. We hope that our learners were inspired. Check out our movies here:

Literacy Sharing and Tuakana Teina

In writing Viliami and his group were learning to add details to his ideas in his writing. As a group we discussed how we knew we had achieved our learning intention was by including wow words and descriptive language in our writing. This is Viliami’s blog here. The image was from Pobble. This is a short piece of his writing so far.

In the deepest darkest depths of the forest Mr Wolf waited. The boy hiding was terrified and he was tempted to run but he knew the wolf’s speed was faster than his own. He was already out of breath and lost. 

While the boy was hiding he heard water flowing so he stood up. The wolf heard the bushes rustling and started to sprint towards it. The boy heard Mr Wolf running to him and he was terrified.

In reading Eren’s group were learning to rewrite the ideas in our own words. Her group read the article In Memory First World War Memorials written by Jock Phillips. The followup task was to create a poster of three memorials that are found in New Zealand and include facts about them. Here is Eren’s blog and her task that she created online using google drawing. Here is her poster:

Today we had our first Tuakana Teina session with Room 12 and Matua Nick (Mr Lloyd). Tuakana Teina is a buddy system of an older or more expert tuakana (brother or sister) helps a younger teina (brother or sister of the same gender sometimes). Room 12 and Matua Nick came over to our class. The children in Room 18 read a book to their buddy. Some children in Room 12 got to choose a book from our library corner and their buddy read it to them. After that we went outside to play a game of Octopus. It was going really well until it started raining. Once back inside the classroom, Room 18 children had to learn their buddy’s name and three interesting facts about them. Lots of children were able to share with us the information that they had found out. We really enjoyed our time together and we can’t wait to see Room 12 and Matua Nick again soon.

Tuakana Teina by Priscilla Lavakula

Welcome Back to Term 2

Welcome back to Term 2. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday! As per tradition here at our kura (school), we start the term with a powhiri (welcome). This is to welcome our new students and their families and new staff that started either midway through term one or just this term. Whaea Danielle led the karanga for our kura and Whaea Moana led the karanga for our manuhiri (visitors). Matua Reg led the powhiri and welcomed our visitors. Mr Lloyd responded on behalf of the manuhiri.

We were  also very fortunate to have a member from our local RSA (Returned Services Association) play the Last Post to acknowledge ANZAC day that was just the day before we returned to school. We had a flag raising ceremony during the last post too. Once this part was finished each class walked past a wall in our school dedicated to ANZAC. Here are a few snippets here.

End of Term One

It’s now the holidays and the end of Term One. We hope you have had a wonderful first term. We were very lucky and managed to hikoi (walk) down to the Clendon Library. We spent a bit of time browsing books and exploring different parts of the library. Most of us got to issue books too. It was a lot of fun and we love visiting our local library. Here’s a pic:

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday and a lovely Easter! Please feel free to leave us a comment on our blog (s) too.