Newsletter - end-of-year events

Mahuri events and trips

from now until the end of the year

Kia ora koutou,

The year is racing away on us! We’ve got some great events planned before the end of the year:

Tuesday 2^nd December:                  Mahuri Inquiry Share, 9am-10.30am parents and whanau are invited to visit our classrooms to learn about our term’s learning. M11 will be selling Christmas presents: soap, bath salts, kawakawa balm, and bath fizzies, so bring your gold coins!

Thursday 4^th December                  Day walk to Red Rocks information and permission slip below

Monday 8^th December                      Mahuri Amazing Race within school

Wednesday 10^th December           M12 & M13’s Zoo Sleepover meet at the zoo entrance at 7pm

Thursday 11^th December               M11 & M14’s Zoo Sleepover meet at the zoo entrance at 7pm

Red Rocks Walk – Thursday 4^th December

Weather permitting, we will walk to Red Rocks, eat lunch there, and return to school in the afternoon. All children will need to bring a substantial lunch, a big drink bottle of water, good walking shoes, a raincoat, sunblock, and a hat. We need parents to help drive children to the start of the walk at the parking bay by the Owhiro Bay Quarry at 9.15am, and to meet us there at 2.00pm and drive us back to school. We also need parents to spend the day walking with us to and from Red Rocks. We are also looking for someone with a 4WD who could drive along the track with us with extra water and first aid supplies in case of emergency. If you can help in any or all of these ways, please let us know on the permission slip below. If the weather is looking dodgy we will make a decision about the walk on the morning of Thursday 4^th December and post details on the Island Bay School facebook page by 7.30am.

Zoo sleepover – M12 & M13: Wednesday 10^th December, M11 & M14: Thursday 11^th December

This is going to be a fantastic experience. While you’ve already received newsletters about this, the key information for the sleepover is:

·       Meet at the zoo entrance at 7pm on the day of your sleepover.

·       Bring: a sleeping bag, pillow, pyjamas, morning tea for the next day, lunch for the next day at school that doesn’t need refrigeration (alternatively parents can drop off children’s lunch at school the next day).

·       Parents (who’ve been contacted already) will collect children in cars at 10.30am the next morning and drop them back to school where they will continue a normal school day until 3pm as usual.

Keep an eye on the school newsletter for other schoolwide events before the end of the year.

Thanks for all your support of our learning this year!

Nga mihi,

Shanon, Adele, Ximena, and Amy A

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Permission slip for M11, M12, M13 & M14’s Red Rocks Walk – Thursday 4^th December

I give permission for______________________________________________________ (name) of __________________ (class) to walk to Red Rocks on Thursday 4^th December. They will wear sunblock and a sunhat, and bring a raincoat, sunblock, a substantial lunch and big drink bottle of water.

Parent help (please tick)

o   I can come on the walk for the day and supervise children

o   I can drive children from school to the Owhiro Bay Quarry carpark at 9.15am

o   I can drive children from the Owhiro Bay Quarry to school at 2.00pm

o   I have a 4WD and can drive it to Red Rocks to accompany the walk

Signed:                                                                                                                                                  Phone:

Email:

Making kawakawa balm

This is the card we made for the wonderful Arihia:

Dear Arihia,

Nga mihinui ki a koe mo to ako ki te Rongoa Maori.

We very much enjoyed you coming here because it was interesting how you taught us to make kawakawa balm. I’m sure that balm will come in useful when we have cuts, burns, bruises and stings.

Thank you for teaching us; we loved all the wonderful things you entwined into our brains. You taught us that kawakawa has a lot more medicinal properties than some other Rongoa Maori. We learned that we need to say a traditional karakia to the kawakawa plant before we harvest the leaves. Thank you for teaching us the legend about Papatuanuku, Ranginui and Rongomatane. This helped us to understand why and how te ao Maori was created.

It was cool how you taught us to use the ratios to add up the litres and grams we needed when we made the balm today. You taught us how important it is to use the correct amount of oil so it’s not too hard or runny, just in the middle: just right!

You taught us to say, Nga mihinui ki a koe, to the plant when we returned the used kawakawa leaves to its roots.

Thanks for teaching us to sing while we cooked the beeswax and oil together so that we could help the balm to be full of goodness.

It was tricky to pour the balm into the small jars but it felt really rewarding when we got it right!

Thank you so much; we think you’re amazing.

Nga mihinui,

Amy and M13

in the news...

link to article and clip

What makes a good reason?

Today in philosophy we talked about a series of statements. First we had to decide which reasons matched each statement (although some of us disagreed with the reasons) and then we discussed which reason was the best and why. 

Can you think of some different/better reasons yourself?

percussion with Andreas

Today we had a fantastic percussion workshop with Andreas, who taught us about a whole lot of percussion instruments including bongos, congas, vibraslaps, cowbells, toms, snares, high hats, cymbals, gongs, sound boxes, cajons, maracas, and many others. It was awesome!

Today's shadow processions at the City Gallery