Matariki Learning in Room 8

We are learning about Matariki. Matariki is the constellation of stars that shows the beginning of the Māori New Year. You can see them in the eastern sky, they are hard to see as they are low in the sky. The stars disappear in April and reappear in late May and early June.

People thought there was only seven stars, but there is actually nine. Matariki stars can be used to lead the way for sailors on the ocean. There is a legend about Matariki that there were seven fish that were told by their mother not to go out to the open ocean, because Tataraimaka went out fishing. They got caught in Tataraimaka's net, Tane, the God of trees and bird rescued them and turned them into star fish.

For celebrating Matariki you can fly kites, eat kai, run around in the early morning to see the stars, have fun with your whānau, lay on your back to look at the stars, spend time with your whānau, singing and dancing, and telling stories.

Do you know anything else about Matariki? How do you celebrate Matariki?

Nā Room 8

Room 9 Character Descriptions

In Room 9 we have also been learning how to write character descriptions. Check out some of our writing and google drawings above.

Character Descriptions

In Room 8 we have been learning to write character descriptions. We learnt that we need to include the name of who we are describing, what they look like, how they behave and what they like and dislike.

We have described our local cat Archie, our favourite book characters, movie characters and gaming characters. It was fun to describe all the different characters.

See some of our character descriptions below.











Who would you describe if you wrote a character description?

Samoan Language Week

We have been learning all about Samoan Language Week.
We learnt how to say good morning in Samoan, it is manuia le taeao or Talofa lava.

We got to make a siapo design. Siapo designs are used on tapa cloths, they are easy to make.
The designs are based off nature such as bird footprints, coconut tree leaves, water and birds.
We had to practice learning the different patterns.  Then we chose two patterns to practice for our final one.  We drew our final design onto brown paper, traced it vivd. Finally we dyed it with brown dye.

It was interesting because we were learning about Samoan traditions and culture. We had fun making the siapo.

If you were doing some siapo, what would you do? Do you remember what good morning is in Samoan?

Nā Room 8

Be Reliable

We are learning about the virtue of reliable. If you are reliable, you are trustworthy. Being reliable is  keeping your promises. In our class we had to trust people to guide us around the classroom when we closed our eyes. We had to be reliableby sticking by our friends.

How are you reliable in your life?

Nā Room 8