Tag: garden

Welcome back to 2023

Welcome back to school for 2023. It’s been a busy week! On Tuesday we had our Powhiri to welcome new learners and staff to our kura. Room 18 spent a bit of time in the māra helping to feed the animals and collect eggs from the chickens. Whaea Deirdre and helpers have done an amazing job with the garden. Everyone had so much fun!

On Wednesday we had our first water safety session with coach Shaun from Counties Swim Safe. All the children got to learn some techniques about how to survive if they are in deep water. For example: don’t panic, stay calm and stay afloat. We’re looking forward to the next session!

On Friday we went for a hikoi (walk) to our local beach along Waimai Avenue. The children got to walk along and explore the shoreline. Some children found small crabs, shells, seaweed and other objects. We made sure to leave everything in their habitat. Other children liked to climb trees and play hide and seek.

We hope you all had a wonderful first week back to school. Watch this space for more adventures to be had in Room 18.

Maunga in the Maāra

On Wednesday, the whole Maunga Team (Year 5s) spent the day with Whaea Deirde and some of the angles (teacher aides). Each class had different activities: painting in the garden, weeding and planting, feeding the animals, games under the sunshade, baking leek and egg pie and eating it. We were very fortunate to have beautiful weather too. Thank you Whaea Deirde, Matua Jim and the awesome angels for an exciting and wonderful day. Here are some pictures.

Last week was Te Wiki o te reo Māori and this week some of the children and classes were awarded prizes for the challenges. Here is Hedaznee with her prize. She created a poster for a Whakatauki. Tū meke Hedaznee!

Day in the Maara (Garden)

We’ve been busy this week learning: NZSL (alphabet, days of the week, how to ask: what’s your name and the months of the year). Our class were also fortunate enough to have Whaea Deidre (our Environ kaiako/ teacher) take us for a whole day in the school garden (Maara – pronounced Mah-ah-rah). In the first session we learned about our new rubbish system. We have three bins: one for paper, plastic and landfill. Our goal is to try and decrease what we send to the landfill. Our class also spent a lot of time in the garden learning about the animals we have (pigs and chickens) and some of us fed them and collected eggs from the chickens, find plants using pictures and we also dug out soil in the box and turned it over using shovels. Some of us found some interesting objects in the soil like toy dinosaurs. In the afternoon, we harvested kale, chives and radish and all of us helped to make a frittata. Here’s our video of our day in the garden and we hope you enjoy!