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Rimu

Te Puna Reo Māori

We’ve taken a closer look at some pūrākau this term for Te Puna Reo Māori and are in the process of further unpacking Te-ika-a-Māui. The pūrākau offered many ways to incorporate different curriculum areas which meant a lot of hands on, engaging activities for our learners.

Art/Maths: We used an image of a stingray to colour and dye and looked closely at how we could make our picture symmetrical through the use of pattern and colour

Drama: We discussed and acted out the main points in the pūrākau and took turns being different characters

Literacy: We took a closer look at Stingrays, shared and discussed some factual learning and then wrote our own sentences based on new learning

Science: We are in the process of making a salt dough jawbone to represent Māui’s hook in the text

STEM: We made our own fishing lines and hooks using various materials and discussed how magnets work in order to attach and reel things in

Pae Kōrero

Starting our day with Pae Kōrero has had a positive impact in our space. Many are wanting to step up to be a leader and our new ones are able to easily settle into a quiet, calmer morning routine. Although we are still heavily supporting the children with the language each step of the way, each day we now have 90% of the class offering to sit on the paepae, which has been a huge increase from the beginning of term. Some do still find it overwhelming but the exposure to the process, the waiata and the language will set them up for success as they continue this in their new spaces next year.

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Rātā

This term, we are continuing to follow the Number Agents scope and sequence for numeracy. Our current focus is on fractions, and it's exciting to see how much knowledge most students can quickly recall and represent using different number sentences. We've also explored symmetry, and the students loved using mirrors to help them understand this concept better.

In literacy, we’ve moved away from learning through play in Rimu and have started working on independent tasks. These activities allow students to practice their reading and writing skills in fun and engaging ways. For example, they’ve been painting to identify spelling rules, writing with white crayon and revealing their work with paint, and using LCD boards for writing practice. These activities are a great way to build their readiness for Year 2 and Year 3 next year.

Rātā’s creativity really shone through at the Lamb, Calf, and Pet Day, with students creating a miniature scene and decorating gingerbread. It was a big hit with all the tamariki, and they are already planning what they want to do for next year’s event!

Finally we have finished our novel Fantastic Mr. Fox and have created some cool art to reflect our sneaky main character.

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Pōhutukawa

Kaitiakitanga: We planted in the microforest, picked and prepared kai showing kaitiakitanga. We are so looking forward to a garden-to-plate next year!
Lamb, Calf, and Pet Day: The term started with a bang, straight into making our microforest creatures for the exhibits.
True Hoops with Coach Miles: The kids love learning basketball skills while improving hand-eye coordination and teamwork. It’s also been a great PD opportunity for us as teachers.

Space as a Whole-Class Reading Topic: Our class has been fascinated by space! We’ve created rotating models showing the Earth orbiting the Sun and the Moon orbiting the Earth, boosting our vocabulary and understanding of these concepts.
STEM Activities with Faye: The tamariki have been learning about circuits—connecting wires with clips to light up bulbs using batteries. It’s been hands-on, engaging, and full of exciting discoveries!
Wildbase Visit: We visited the wildbase recovery centre on Monday! We saw tuatara and a few manu. We also got to see all of the kai that they eat!

Term 4 has been jam-packed, and we’ve managed to achieve so much in what feels like a very short time. Alongside our core curriculum, we’ve explored exciting cross-curricular activities.

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Mataī

Mataī' inquiry approach - Through authentic learning experiences that strengthen the school value of kaitiakitanga, tamariki are now responsible guardians of their environment. Learning has been through hands-on experiences - helping plant and care for the mirco forest which helps grow the love of the flora and fauna of Aotearoa, weekly Garden Club (planting, sowing, harvesting and then sharing kai).

Whole Class Reading Programme - Linking to Term 4 Inquiry, Mataī has explored the life of plants, micro-forests, and epiphytes, building vocabulary, improving comprehension, and enhancing reading fluency. Poetry has inspired creativity, with students writing about Kaitiaki Warriors and creating artwork that celebrates their role as guardians of the environment, along with their Pet’s Day microforest creatures.

Te Puna Reo Māori - Daily sessions have centered around the navigation methods of migration, using the stars to navigate, what was brought on migration waka, where waka landed, and much more!! This learning is linked to our maths learning about coordinates, map reading and compass directions.

Starting the day with Pae Kōrero (using mostly Te Reo Māori), gives tamariki opportunities to lead karakia, waiata, share pepeha, learn new weekly kīwaha o te wiki (new phrases), finding out the pānui (kura news) and the wātaka (daily timetable). Tamariki demonstrating greater confidence as speakers of te reo, as well as stepping up to support others who need it.

Pae Kōrero

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Tōtara

Tōtara has been jam packed as we head towards the end of year! We have been planting in the microforest, moving mulch, learning basketball with Coach Miles, learning about black holes in whole class reading, learning to whittle in KTT, and discussing our school life in Circle Time. The newest and some of the most exciting learning has come through our New Zealand Sign Language learning times. We have learnt to sign our alphabet well enough to sing the alphabet song alongside it, and have learnt to introduce ourselves in NZSL. We can discuss our likes and dislikes, and the students are already taking the words and phrases they have learnt, and turned them into whole new questions and answers. It’s great seeing NZSL out on the playground too!

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Kahikatea

What a busy term, it’s been fascinating to read the student voice written for reports as they remember what we’ve squeezed into 2 terms.

Micro forest

We had the privilege of buddying with juniors to plant trees into the microforest. Some of the Year 6’s were heard lamenting that they wouldn’t be here next year to see ‘their’ trees grow. They are already planning to come back in the next few years to check in. Some trees that were planted were grown from seeds collected on a trip to the Wildbase and germinated.

Bike Ride along the river

By the time you have the board meeting Tōtara and Kahikatea will have biked from the end of Albert St to Turitea Pa and back, We are planning to have fun in the forest, ride and hear about historic sites from John Procter. As usual this wouldn’t be possible without the fantastic support we have from our whānau.

Science Fair

We are in the process of completing ‘Science Fair’ type projects to share with the school and whānau. Ākonga worked in pairs to complete and experiment around water, hooking into the science they did earlier this year. Faye has been working really hard on this during my release time.

Whole Class Reading and Writing

This has continued to be very successful. Ākonga are transferring their sentence knowledge and new vocab into other subject areas. Believe me it’s far easier to read their work when they are writing interesting sentences and experimenting with their vocab.

Other Highlights

Lamb, Calf & Pet evening- Bird house/feeder was our creation topic

Basketball with Coach Miles- always a favourite