Our Tapa Cloth Wall Hanging

This tapa cloth is hanging on our wall in the lounge. It came from Samoa and my Dad's uncle made it. Dad has had it for like twelve years. The designs on it means to bring peace to the villagers. We hang it on our wall for Dad to remember his family in Samoa. You can use tapa cloth for mats, a wall hanging like ours, or a real soft lavalava. Dad wore one as a lavalava when he went on his big voyage.

Lily at The Sounds

I am eating a burnt marshmallow down The Sounds. I go there alot with my family. We cooked it on the fire and I purposely burnt it because I like them best that way. I love it down there because I do lots of peaceful things like walk on the beach and go fishing or out in the boat. By Lily Kay

Powelliphanta

 

Last week Room 3 visited the Nelson Provincial Museum to see the Powelliphanta exhibition. We learned about this giant native snail - ngata - that is in grave danger of extinction due to its small numbers and limited areas to live. Mostly they are found in and around the top of the south island - Te Tau Ihu. We found out allsorts of interesting facts including what predators they are in danger of, what they like to eat and how extraordinary they are when devouring a worm. Yes - they are unlike most other snails in that they are carnivires not herbivores. This sign and display was what greeted us upon our arrival at the museum.

In this photo Wren and Macey are delving below the forest floor in search of dead powelliphanta snails and preparing a graph of how they died - from natural causes or from a predator such as a rat,a stoat or a weka.

Peace Week

Last week was National Peace Week. Along with commissioning our large group of 16 Cool Schools Peer Mediators for 2012, we here in Room 3 did some activities about living more peacefully together. We made and decorated peace signs which are hanging on our classroom windows and some of us dressed up in our Peace Sign clothes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maskmaking with Judy Keylock

Local artist from Teal Valley - Judy Leylock - has been working with our whole school to create masks for this years Mask Parade. She is a very clever person. She taught us how to make fine intricate eye masks by weaving silk and linen fibres together while inserting leaves, twigs,flowers and paper. They are busy drying. We also used native leaves to dye strips of silk with to use for small banners to fly in our parade.

Penpals in Fiji

Paris spent two months in Fiji with her family a wee while ago. She has come back to Hira with lots of interesting stories to tell and we have been talking about similarities and differences between our different cultures. Paris also came home with letters written by all of her Fijian classmates for us to read and reply to. We have spent time writing our own profiles in order to send on to our new friends from Fiji. We are going to have penpals to be friends with. With our letters we sent photos of ourselves so they can see what we look like and read about the things we are interested in. Here are some of the photos we sent.

More Te Hora

We had some delicious meals together. Each time before we ate we would say a prayer or karakia to give thanks for what we were eating and to those who had provided and prepared the food. As you can see from the photo we were behaving with much respect.

Our night at Te Hora was pretty different. We laid out all our sleeping bags and bedding on mattresses that when placed side by side filled the whole wharenui which is a big meeting house. The night was snuggly, warm, snuffly and snorey. We went to sleep late and woke up early. here we are getting the scene set for the night. Sophie and Mia look happy to be there and together.

Te Hora Marae Visit

Our whole school stayed over night at a quaint wee marae over the Whangamoa Hills at Canvastown called Te Hora Marae. We did plenty of interesting and exciting things such as a powhiri, some weaving, kowhaiwhai and tukutuku activities, sung many waiata, enjoyed the beautiful urupa - graveyard - at Te Hora, presented our mihi in the wharenui, slept altogether for the night, visited Canvastown School and ate plenty of delicious kai - ka pai! Parents stayed with us and we learned such a lot about Maori culture and language. Here are a couple of photos of some of the happenings. We are all walking through the entranceway / gate / waharoa towards the wharenui to do the powhiri and Emma is having a hongi with the rangatira of Te Hora.

Just checking - there's been a few changes to how this blog site is operated so bear with me as I do some dummy runs yeah? We've been doing some interesting writing of plays in Room 3 along with creating stunning kowhaiwhai patterns based on whakatoki - proverbs or sayings. These are followup activities to our school marae stay @ Te Hora Marae. We will post some snaps of these as we go along. Pam and Room 3 X

Hullooooo!

Hiccup hiccup hiccup - hello and GULP!
Here we are again after a long hibernation.
We have much a plenty about lots to share.
First decent post a coming up
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