Kia ora,

This week we did a rich task where we had to group things and figure out if there is any difference. Miss Cabral had a slide with pictures on the TV and we had to discussed what differences we could see. We had to follow the discussion rules to make sure we all had a turn. Then we created out own rich task grid. My favourite part was listening to all the amazing discussion happening in the room.

Have you ever heard of Maths rich tasks before?

Good-bye and have a wonderful weekend.

(This post was collaboratively written by Piwakawaka students as a model).

Kia ora, everyone,

We had a fantastic start to Term 2. Officer James came to visit us and taught our students how to ride their bikes safely on the road. He made a very important point, saying that the most dangerous place in New Zealand is actually the road. This highlighted how crucial it is to stay safe when taking our bikes out for a ride.

He explained what a bicycle needs to be road legal — brakes, lights, a helmet, and reflectors — and encouraged the children to check the basic mechanics of their bikes to make sure they run smoothly.

The practical part was really fun! Students biked around the course practising how to indicate left and right, and how to come to a full stop. We also had a go in the skills area and took part in a slow race — the slowest cyclist won! What an important learning experience for our ākonga. Thank you, Officer James, for such an awesome day!

Ngā mihi,
Miss Cabral – Karina

Kia ora koutou,

The first term of the year is always so busy that we haven’t had much time to post here! One of the our favourite projects this term was writing fantasy stories. We created fairies, elves, Godzilla, Frogzilla, pretty much all the Zillas – it was so much fun!

However we had a lot of mahi to do as well, including checking their spelling, adding different types of punctuation for affect, publishing their writing and generating images on AI based on characters descriptions. It was a long project where ākonga had to persevere and find solutions to problems that they came across.

As a brief example, I created Fairy Bral and asked the students to add punctuation to my story.

I hope we all have a wonderful school holiday

Karina – Miss Cabral.

Hallo (hello in German — we had some German students visiting us!)

Pīwakawaka went to Shantytown yesterday and had a fabulous time! We learned how Kehu guided Thomas Brunner around the West Coast when it was first explored by Europeans. He played a crucial role in making the expedition possible, as he knew the area very well. We also watched a demonstration of sluicing — a mining technique that was later banned for harming the environment. Lastly, we discussed how and why people migrated to New Zealand in the 19th century and saw how small the cabins were where people stayed during their journey across the world.

My favourite part was the train ride, where we got to see the regenerated bush that has grown back after the sawmill had chopped all the trees down.

Here are some pictures!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend,

Miss Cabral — Karina

Ni hao,

We learnt about the Purakau where kiwi lost its wings because bugs were destroying the trees, kiwi offered to stay on the ground to eat all the bugs. He had to loose his wings.

The first step of our art work, we had to draw a picture of a kiwi and got a craft knife to cut it out. We found it very challenging. Next, we collected materials from nature such as moss, flowers, bark and sand. We also used dirt to make paint for the background. Then, we traced out the kiwi picture and glued all the materials onto the kiwi shape. Lastly, we hot glued the background onto the white piece of paper.

Our favourite part was collecting the materials and seeing the final art work result. I am really proud of Piwakawaka!! Have you ever seen a kiwi in real life?

Nga mihi nui

Miss Cabral

(post written collaboratively with Piwakawaka).

As part of our morning routine, we have been focusing on different languages and cultures, learning how to say hello at the beginning of the day and goodbye before going home. For the first couple of weeks, we practised saying ata mārie (good morning) or mōrena, then asking and answering kei te pēhea koe?

Since Jasper’s dad, Pierre, comes from South Africa, we learned to say goeie môre in the morning and totsiens when leaving. Tamariki loved it when Pierre came to visit us—he shared what it was like to grow up in South Africa and showed us some awesome pictures of the animals you can find there.

This week, we learned a bit of Fijian. We greeted each other with bula and salam. Ayat’s dad, Annez, also came to have a kōrero with us. He told us about the different languages spoken in Fiji and their history.

Next, our plan is to explore the different languages and cultures of the United Kingdom, since that’s where Felix’s mum comes from.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Totsiens,

Miss Cabral

Tēnā koutou katoa,

It took us a couple of weeks, but we finally finished our 3D shape cities last week! This project was both fun and challenging. Tamariki had to make multiple 3D shapes, some of which were quite tricky, such as pentagonal prisms and pyramids. Decorating their cities was very exciting — ākonga (students) made rugby fields, ponds, jetties, and bridges for their creations.

As part of this project, tamariki also learned about the vertices, edges, and faces of 3D shapes. We also explored the difference between parallel and perpendicular lines. Our classroom had never been this messy before, but it was all for a good cause!

Do you know any other fun projects we could do for maths?

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Cabral

Kia ora, everyone.

Term 3 has started off busy in Pīwakawaka! Tamariki have been working really hard to finish their pūrākau (narrative) comic books, and we’ve seen some amazing mahi. They had to retell the story of the origin of pounamu on the West Coast in the form of a comic book. To make it even more fun, we did this project alongside Kēreru, and it was lovely to see the collaboration between both classes.

Ka pai, Pīwakawaka, for showing resilience to complete this long project — the result was amazing!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Ngā mihi nui,

Miss Cabral