HAPPY RIGHT CHOICE DAY

On Friday, the last day of school for the term, we had Right Choice Day.  

It was also Miss G's last day.  

We got Pa Nathan to come in and bless a special Pounamu that we wanted to give Miss G as a present.

Kalas presented the pounamu to Miss G.  She loved it.

We sang a Maori Song to Miss G and to tautoku what Pa Nathan had said.

Then it was Right Choice Day.  

Here are a few photos of us in action...

We also had a sausage sizzle.

Character Voice Workshop

Today with Miss Crowther some of us did a workshop on using character voice. We got to choose some pictures we liked and write what we think they would say in the speech bubble. We did a great job and lots of us used character voice in our stories! 

KALAS' MIHI

Here is Kalas delivering his Mihi.  

Ka Pai Kalas.

You did an awesome job.

OUR PLAYGROUND RE-OPENING & BLESSING

Piako Rua had a wonderful day today celebrating the Re-opening and Blessing of our new and improved playground. 

This was the ACT part of our Inquiry.

We were delighted to have Pa Jack, Mrs Peck, Ms Harnett, Mrs Mercer and Papa Nathan come and help us celebrate.

We were super busy in the morning doing a quick practice and then getting all the food prepared.

Everyone helped.

We made fairy bread, fruit kebabs and popcorn.  Thank you to Sophie M's Mum for making the delicious brownie and to Aaron's Mum who made a yummy sultana cake for the children and adults too.

At half past ten on the dot, we started our Blessing with the Pou Mihi. 

Jackson led this very well.

Then Pa Jack stood and welcomed everyone. 

We sang a song to tautoko what Pa Jack had said,  (That means we agree with him).

Next Kalas said his mihi.  This explained where he is from and who his family are and to which tribe be belongs.  The teachers all said Kalas did an amazing job and they were so proud of him.

Ethan, Aaron, Miya, Aeva, Mikayla and Zoha (the rest of our Candylanders) all shared different aspects of our learning.

After they had finished speaking, we sang another song to tautoko them.

Next it was time for the Blessing of the playground by Pa Jack and Mrs Peck cut the ribbon.

Hooray!

Then the manuhiri were served kaputi (morning tea) first.  This Maori protocol.  We waited patiently and then we were allowed to have some morning tea too.

After that we tested out our brand new playground!

We had a blast!

PIAKO RUA PLAYGROUND RE-OPENING

Today was one of the best days ever in Piako Rua.  As the ACT part of our Inquiry, we had a Blessing and Celebration. Pa Jack and Mrs Peck came as our special guests today. These are some of the recounts the children wrote today.

Today we had a fun celebration because it is nearly the end of school and the playground is changed.  There was a sandpit and a hopscotch.  I said “Wow, Wow!”  Today is a special celebration.  I scurried very fast to school.  At school we made fairy bread and fruit kebabs and popcorn.  Then we got to see the new playground.  Pa Jack and Mrs Peck cut the ribbon.  We sang our song and Pa Jack spoke and we have visitors.  After the visitors went home it was our morning-tea time and then we did writing.

By Nicole

Today it was a celebration in Piako Rua.  We made fairy bread in Wonderland. It was so good.  We had visitors.  We had people talking.  Pa Jack had a talk to say.  Then we let the visitors get food first.  Then Mrs Peck and Pa Jack cut the yellow shiny ribbon and we all had a play.

By Sophie M

“Uh-hmm,” groaned Pa Jack as he got his voice ready.  At the same time I hid behind Naomi (who is the tallest child in the class) because I was a little bit nervous.  Then he started his speech.  “Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou, katoa,” he said.  Then he blessed our playground.  They put in a sandpit, a target throw, four square, hopscotch and other cool games.  Meanwhile, the teachers were choosing a few children to start eating fairy bread.  Then, you know, the rest of class.  Now our playground is all blessed and I hope we play happily ever after.

By Aidan

I was so happy to open our new playground. The favourite part for me was the popcorn. It was the best day ever.  Mrs Peck, Pa Jack, Mrs Mercer and Miss Harnett came.  I loved this day.

By Emily

A SNAPSHOT OF FRIDAY

Fridays are always busy but fun days.

Here are a few photos for you to see what we have been up to.  We illustrated our poems.  These two photos are of the children after we had finished judging our work against the Success Criteria for Illustrating poems.

What gorgeous illustrations kids!

This is Sean.

Our Genius Hour focused on being Creative, and Sean made this awesome little mouse (and a bow tie for himself).  Clever Cookie!

At Piako 2 Whanau, we had some very Creative children who put on a puppet show for us.  

The other kids loved it.

It is great to see so many of our children enjoying the opportunity to develop their creative skills. 

COLLECTING AND INTERPRETING DATA

Today in Maths we were collecting data about the children in Piako Rua.  We were able to interpret this data to make the following statements...

In Maths group 1 there are:

• More girls than boys
• More kids with bare feet than kids wearing shoes
• More people were not wearing their landyards than wearing one
• More six year olds than five year olds
• More kids with blonde hair than any other colour

We can use statistics to find out information and to interpret it.