Laying down the hangi at Tapu Te Ranga Marae

Tomorrow we're laying down the hangi at Tapu Te Ranga Marae.  Some of us will prepare the fire while others prepare vegetables. It'll be cool to see how our local marae is different from the wharenui we saw at Te Papa last week.

Reminder for parents: we are meeting at the marae (not at school) at 8.55am tomorrow, then walking back to school after lunch, so you can pick up your kids as usual from school at 3pm.

Here we are sketching the wharenui at Te Papa last week:

M13 starring on the radio

M13 was featured on Morning Report on National Radio this morning!

Education reporter John Gerritsen came and interviewed us yesterday about Island Bay School's internet access, using Network for Learning.

Click here for the clip: Schools start year with free access to ultrafast broadband (We're on from 1:40 - 2:20.)

Hangi - Friday 28th February

Island Bay School hangi:

Friday 28^th February

Ma pango ma whero ka oti. By black and red together it is done.

Kia ora Parents and Caregivers,

Next Friday M12 and M13 are going to work together with Maria to put down the school hangi at Tapu te Ranga Marae.

This will involve preparing the food, packaging the food, cleaning the hall, digging the hole for the fire and watching the laying down of the hangi. Then we will spend some time sketching what we can see at the marae.

Instead of coming to school that morning, we will meet at Tapu te Ranga Marae, 44 Rhine St, Island Bay, at 8.55am on Friday 28^th February to start the day. After we have spent the morning at the marae, we will eat our lunch at the marae and walk back to school after lunch.

We will need around 6 parent helpers per class to help with food preparation, setting up the hangi and supervision of the children. If you are able to help, please indicate on the return slip below.

We’re looking forward to a great day. Remember to bring your sunhat, drink bottle, and a substantial lunch to fuel our hard work!

Nga mihi,

Maria, Adele, and Amy A

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

Permission slip for the hangi at Tapu te Ranga Marae, Friday 28^th February

I give permission for _____________________________________ (child’s name) to attend the school trip to Tapu Te Ranga Marae to help put down the hangi. I understand that they will start the school day at the Marae, and walk back to school together after lunch.

Name:                                                                                     Signed:

(Please tick)

o   I can come along and help.                                      Phone:

a crusty shell

Every Wednesday morning we start the day by writing observations in our writers' journal.  Today Sofia was observing a crusty shell:

A broken shell

It feels crusty. On the back it's shiny and colourful. It looks like a broken shell. It smells like a washed-up shell on the beach.

Here's her picture:

When she read it to the class we noticed that she described the senses: what she could feel, see, and smell.  Laila suggested that she describe the taste but Sofia wasn't so sure!

We're going to try and spend time during the week noticing what we see, hear, feel, taste, and smell so that we're ready to write our observations in our writers' journals on Wednesdays.  Then we can use these ideas to spark our writing.

On re-reading

Booker Prize excitement live in M10 last year

Last year, after Eleanor Catton won the Booker Prize, I read an article written by one of the Booker judges who talked about how they chose the winner.  One of their main criteria was: does the book deliver upon a reread?  And again, on a third read?  The Luminaries has so many layers to it that it could be enjoyed, and new elements discovered, each time they reread it.

This reminded me of Kate De Goldi's love of rereading (she always seems to be talking about this with Kim Hill), and mine, when I was young.  My all-time favourite book/series when I was a kid was Anne of Green Gables and all the ensuing novels.  I can't even tell you how many times I've reread each of those books.  It was as though Anne and Diana and Gilbert became friends who I could return to, almost converse with, whenever I picked up my worn, well-loved copies.

I can think of many authors I reread as a kid: Cynthia Voigt (especially the Tillerman series), Judy Blume, Tessa Duder...   Recently I was talking to a ten-year-old friend of mine who's another avid reader and rereader, and she said that her take on a good book is one that you can reread at least three times.

This made me think: perhaps a good way to encourage kids to read is to read them a novel, and then let them reread it themselves afterwards?  I'm reading Joy Cowley's latest book, Dunger, to the class at the moment.  Perhaps you could try getting it out of the library and giving it a reread?

What do you think?  Are you a rereader?

~ Amy

Do returns diminish on rereading and re-rereading? The Guardian
Rereading The Guardian

So much depends...

Last week our poem of the week was William Carlos Williams' poem, The Red Wheelbarrow:

so much depends
upon

the red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.


Over the weekend, Saoirse wrote her own version. Here it is!

Te Marae o Te Papa Tongarewa

Tomorrow we're going on a school trip to the different marae at Te Papa.  Today we read some articles about the parts of the marae.  We learnt that wharenui represent the body of our ancestors.

Here are some of the new words we've learnt:

tekoteko   carving of an ancestor on the top of the wharenui

kōruru       face of the ancestor

maihi         arms of the wharenui

raparapa   hands of the wharenui

pare           carved slab over the door

whatitoka doorway

poupou     support post

amo            side support post

tahuhu      ridge pole

whakairo  carving

heke           rafters/ ribs

wharenui  meeting house

manawa    heart 

Here are the marae diagrams we chose together as great examples to put on the blog:

 By Noah

By Luca

 By Jet

By Francesca

Later this term (on the 4th of April) we are having a noho marae at Pipitea marae. Maybe you could come?!

~ M13

New Zealand/ Nature’s Omelette | poem by Avie

Yesterday Lola and Kate found a strange nest-like object on the way to school.  It sort of looked like a kina, mixed with a hedgehog, mixed with a nest (without the hollow in the middle).  We wrote some observations in our writers' journals about it which we'll use as inspiration for a poem next week.

By coincidence, today Avie came and showed us a poem he'd written after seeing a bunch of pohutukawa blossoms stuck together.  He's a poet as well as a musician and a fabulous caretaker!

New Zealand/ Nature's Omelette

Fallen pohutukawa flowers

saffron on the fried earth.

The sun is the egg

a yellow circumference…

A pinch of black seed

and a tablespoon of light rain.

The lemons fall from the tree

with a sprinkle of parsley…

Nature’s blossom weaves a fabric

together like whitebait patties

cooking slowly.

The wind whisks together

all summer day long

turning once white/golden

when the sun is beaten and left to run

too late in the scorching heat.

Flipped over underneath the folds

the crimson blossom burns

towards the end of season…

By Avie

Grrreat graphs

This week we are learning about pictographs.  Earlier on in the week we made a pictograph showing what we did on holiday.

Yesterday we started making M13's hair colour pictographs.  First we sat in a circle and said the colour of our hair.  Amy made a tally on a piece of paper, for each hair colour. The most people had light brown hair.

Then we made our own graphs.

We talked about what makes a good pictograph. We agreed that we needed to:

1. measure the width of each column evenly
2. draw pictures of the hair colour
3. write a title and underline it
4. keep the columns straight
5. show accurate data
6. be neat

Using these criteria, we marked our graphs ourselves using red pen.  Then we had a look at each other's and decided which ones were good examples to put on the blog. Here they are:

By Noah

By Saoirse

By Meline

By Peta

By Francesca

School rules - do we need them?

Here's a letter we used as a model to think about writing persuasively to explain our opinion.  We're trying out using rhetorical questions, quotes, suggestions, and giving reasons for our ideas using phrases like: I think... because... because...  We also talked about tying in our conclusion with our opening paragraph, e.g. How do you think children learn best? ... I think children learn best when...

M13

Mahuri Syndicate

Island Bay School

Tuesday 11th February

Dear Perry,

How do you think children learn best?

We have been talking about school rules in our class.  Do they keep us safe?  Do they help us to learn?

Did you know that a school in Auckland tried out scrapping their rules so that the kids could test things out themselves?  They found that bullying was reduced, and that the kids were “motivated, busy and engaged” (School ditches rules and loses bullies, stuff.co.nz 26/01/14).

I think that there are some rules we could get rid of at Island Bay School too because if children don’t get to give things a go, they won’t really learn for themselves.  If an adult tells a kid not to climb a tree because they might fall and hurt themselves, they might not listen.  However if a kid tries it out themselves, and if they fall out and hurt themselves, they might give it a go one more time but then they’ll stop because they’ll have learnt for themselves and they’ll really know that it’s going to hurt them.

I’m not suggesting that we get rid of every single rule.  Obviously some of them are important to keep us safe, like the out of bounds areas, where rocks could fall on us if there was an earthquake.  I think we should spend some time in classes deciding which rules are important and which ones we don’t need.  Perhaps we could present our ideas to the student council and make some decisions about how to make the playground a place where kids can assess risk themselves, and therefore learn for themselves?

I think children learn best when they think, try, think again, try again, and then really learn the consequences of their actions for themselves. We would like to have a chance to learn this way in the Island Bay School playground.

Thank you for your consideration of my ideas.

Nga mihi,

Amy

Te marae at Te Papa visit - Tuesday 18th February | Newsletter

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Whånau,

As part of our inquiry this term, we will be visiting Te Papa to look at the meaning of traditional and contemporary Marae. We will spend some time taking notes and capturing ideas from the amazing displays at our national museum.

We will leave school by bus at 10.30am and spend about one hour at Te Papa looking at the marae sections. If the weather is good we will stay and have lunch at Waitangi Park and arrive back at school at about 1.30pm.

Each class will need four parent helpers, so if you are able to come with us, please indicate in the permission slip and we will email you to confirm the details.

The cost of this trip is $3.50 per child. Please complete the permission slip below and return it to school by Friday 14^th of February.

Aroha nui,

Adele, Amy, Shanon and Ximena

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

Permission slip for our visit to Te Papa - Tuesday 18^th of February 10.30-1.30pm

Please return to your classroom teacher by Friday 14^th of February.

I give permission for (full name)_________________________________class ________ to visit  Te Papa on Tuesday 18^th of February.  I understand that s/he will be traveling by bus. I enclose $3.50 to cover costs.

Name: ________________________________ 

Ph contact on the day: ____________________

Parent helpers:

☐(Please tick) I can come and help supervise on the trip.

Contact email: ___________________________________________