Matariki at Bledisloe

 
We will be celebrating Matariki at school.

 Thursday 18th July from 5pm.

Be sure to come and join us and have a wander around the classrooms while you try some of the Matariki activities we will be sharing.

In room 13 you can enjoy some of the fantastic stories shared on our blog.

Seven Stars of Matariki

Maori Creation Story in Sand Art

Matariki 2015

VCOP

VCOP

Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers, Punctuation

We are learning about the four essential parts of effective writing. We are focusing on improving our ability to choose effective vocabulary, connectives, sentence openers and correct punctuation. Here we used an online word cloud to create posters to remind us of our possible choices.

Identikit Activity

Use Ultimate Flash Face to see if you can create a likeness of yourself, then turn it into a Lost Person poster. 

Whats your View?

Do we have to many cows?

Follow this link. 

What do you think?

Draw up a list of positives and negatives.

http://tvnz.co.nz/seven-sharp/do-we-have-too-many-cows-in-nz-video-6315878

Criminal Files

Criminal Files

For the past 2 weeks we have been creating criminals. Our criminals have been based around school. This is one of the examples: The Staple Stealer. He has magnetic powers that attract staples off walls. He is sneaky and strong. His current location is unknown and his known accomplices are Dr Hacks and The Grass Assasian. (Some of our other criminals)

The Staple Stealer Photo

ANZAC Art

We must remember the brave ANZAC soldiers 

who fought in WW1 at Gallipoli on the 28th of July.

This is how we made them:

• We went to a cenotaph and took paper and crayons. We rubbed over the names at the cenotaph.
• Then we sketched a silhouette of a soldier on a white piece of paper transferred them to black paper and cut  them out.
• We also made silhouettes of crosses and other appropriate elements that would remind us of the ANZAC soldiers.
• We also made simple poppies and silver ferns out of shiny paper.
• Lastly we assembled the elements together. We had to play around with them all until we felt that the picture was balanced. 
• The whole class is proud of the ANZAC art that hangs on our classroom wall. The art reminds us about all people that fought and died to protect us during WW1.     

By Paige M

ANZAC Soldiers Voices

We are learning about the ANZAC soldiers who fought in World War 1. We have created posters (on the computers), Morphs (on the ipads). We have found some information on a sight called Online cenotaph. We have researched many interesting facts about the soldiers including their birth date, death date, rank in the war, surname, relationship status, how they died, age at death, where they died, parents, cemetery name, plot number and how many medals they received. We researched and made some very powerful connections to men and women who came from Hawkes Bay. We discovered how important ANZAC day is to commemorate these brave soldiers.

We made the morphs by choosing a photo, framing the head, shaping the eyes, nose, and mouth. Then we recorded ourselves introducing and sharing interesting facts about these soldiers.

Our Soldiers

Voiced over by Daniel, Oscar, Blake, and

Our Pepeha

What is a pepeha? 

A pepeha is a way of introducing yourself in Te Reo to others and telling them about who you are, where you come from, where you are now and who is in your family.

We wrote a pepeha with some help from Mrs Dale and then drew kowhaiwhai  pattern borders. Lastly we recorded our pepeha using the ipads.  We spent quiet a long time practicing how to say all the words and clearly using our voices.

Room 13 really enjoyed doing this activity and we think we have learnt some new Te Reo skills and a better understanding of what people are saying when they share their pepeha.

Written by Amber and Liam.

Te Reo meets Comic Life

In the classroom we have been learning about Te Reo. On Comic Life we've taken photographs about activities at a marae such as a powhiri. Then we thought carefully about what they might be saying or thinking and tried to use as much maori language as we can. Our visit to the marae has been a great learning experience that has helped us understand what would happen at a marae. We have all experienced what a powhiri is and now know what it is like in action.
 

This is one of our amazing comics made by Paige and Abbie. On the bottom right corner is a photo of two people (can you guess who they are?) having a hongi, a formal way of greeting, (like a maori way of shaking hands.) A hongi is made by pressing the forehaed and the tip of your nose together with another person.

 This is another wonderful comic page. In the bottom right hand corner is a kuia calling to welcome the visitors, the manuhiri, onto the marae. This is called a powhiri, the welcoming ceremony.

On this comic page you can see a wide variety of thinking bubbles, speech bubbles and even one shouting or yelling bubble. In the top left corner is the entrance to the marae, the marae atea, where the powhiri would usually take place.
 

By Cassidy Bell

Cricket coaching

Cricket coaching
From week two to five Indie and Christian (Cricket players) came in to teach us about how to play and learn some skills about cricket. Week one of the cricket we were practising our bowling at the wickets. Week two we we practised our catching for the game at the end of week four. Week three we practised our batting so if we want to be a cricket player when we are older, we know how to hit the ball properly to hit a six. Final week the big game we thought it was going to be a game of cricket but it was just some fun activities at the end some people got a lollipop for winning some of the activities Matthew came first in catching, William came first in the batting and bowling.
Written by Luke McArley

The ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy and Brendon McCallum

Yah, I got Liam out

Going to hit a six

Moteo Marae

Kia ora

On the 11th of March, Bledisloe School visited Moteo Marae for the day. We were taken on buses and needed five buses to transport the whole school to the Marae. When we got there we had a Powhiri  (which is a welcoming to the Marae.) After the Powhiri, the Bledisloe Senior Kapa Haka performed some waiata (song) and haka (fierce dance.) Then Hoani had a hongi with the teachers:


Mr Hodgetts and Hoani

Mrs Dale and Hoani

Mrs Stephens and Hoani


Hoani shared some of his pepeha with us. During the day we got into our class groups and did some activities. Room 13 started making porotitis which are small, musical instruments that you create sound by twirling them around. We then rotated around class groups so we were with Mr Holloway playing Ki-O-Rahi. Ki-O-Rahi is a traditional Moari game.



This is a diagram showing how to play Ki-O-Rahi





Once we had played Ki-O-Rahi, we had lunch. It was a shared lunch so everyone had to bring something to eat. You could go back for seconds and some of us got so full we couldn't eat anything else!

What an awesome day for the whole school. 

Here is a link to an interactive activity to help you with learning the parts of a wharanui. 

 
Written by Matthew Harvey



Storybird Publishing

One of the tasks during our literacy time was to write and publish a Word Power Book.We have had lots of fun finding ways to explore images and search for words that we can use to write a story about the images. We share these books in Storybird online with others after they have been checked by our chief editor - Mrs Dale.

Here are a couple that have been published so far.

Tohunga mahi toi

Tohunga mahi toi - Artists in residence ( Room 13)

Our amazing art is based on the New Zealand Artist Warren Pohuta. Warren Pohatu is a graphic designer and artist with a strong passion for his culture. Originally from the east coast of the North Island, Warren is a member of the Ngai Tamanuhiri tribe, with links to Ngati Porou, Ngati Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata and Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki. We were inspired by his colourful images of many of our special creatures that inhabit New  Zealand.

• We had to plan and sketch our ideas in pencil first.
• We focused on getting the big image proportioned.
• Next we added in some of the finer detail ideas on our plan.
• Then we began our final copy taking care not to press the pencil to hard.
• We outlined in sharpie, adding in all the black details.
• Finally we put all the pastel colour onto the paper. We had to think carefully about colour tones that contrast and /or complement each other.
• Lastly we had to either go over with black pencil, or scratch out some of the pastel to add extra detail..

We are proud that our hard work produced such fine artwork.

Whakamihi (Give praise)

Our James K. Baxter poetry

We began with the line

The town was usual enough: it had

We all had to close our eyes and think about what our place looked like, who was important, and then use some descriptive vocabulary to create a vivid picture for our readers.

We had to play around with lots of ideas, writing up and redrafting our thinking. Having the poem to model our writing on gave us a clear plan to use.

We all discovered that using the synonym function in Word was very useful.

Hopefully you can see the pictures of our place we have tried to share.

Swimming

We were inspired by the amazing swimming sports day. Perfect weather, excited kids, keen competitors, noisy spectators, and organized teachers all mixed together to create a successful action packed Bledisloe School Swimming Sports.

2015 - What an amazing start.

I'm really excited about being part of Bledisloe School. I have already met many of the families, parents, whanau, and of course all the fantastic children. Thank you for making me feel so welcome.

We have begun the year with a busy start, Stu Duval's storytelling, cricket coaching for all the children, a busy swimming programme, multisports, basketball, volleyball, cricket, choir, Kapa Haka, and ukulele have all begun. 

Our classroom seems to be humming along really well and the children are constantly showing me what being Respectful, Responsible, and Resilient looks like in Room 13 and at Bledisloe School.

My goodness you are all busy people. I love beginning involved in as many activities as possible and I'm really looking forward to being a part of the positive progress all the children will make this year.

Please keep checking in on our blog as we will be updating it with regular news and events.

Kai kete ano.
Mrs Dale

Coding

In room 13 this week we have had a go at coding. Mr D sent Mrs Colliss a link so she thought we could all have a go and see what it is all about.

This is the website we used... http://studio.code.org/

:)

Author Visit

Today we had a visit from New Zealand author Stacy Gregg. She writes books about horses and ponies. She has written and published 19 books and at the moment is writing her 20th. While she was here she talked about how she got all of her ideas and how she has travelled the world to get ideas for her books. She was a great story teller and we all really enjoyed it, especially me! I got my copy of her latest book signed. It was the highlight of my year!!!

By Kayla

PrEP Games

Here are a couple of links to activities that support what we are doing in class :)

http://www.richkidsmartkid.com/index.html

http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/money/index.html

Art with Mrs Harris

Today Mrs Harris came into our class to do calendar art with us. We were inspired by one of her pieces of art.

We used vivid and oil pastel to create these masterpieces. We took our time and put heaps of care to make sure these were our best work. There were two new colour words we learnt, complementary, which means colours opposite each other on the colour wheel, and analogous, which means colours beside each other.

Families can buy calendars, cards, diaries and note pads featuring our art work.

By Anthony and Isabelle.

Art with Mrs Harris

Today Mrs Harris came into our class to do our calendar art with us. We were inspired by one of her pieces of art.

We used vivid and oil pastel to create these masterpieces. We took our time and put heaps of care to make sure these were our best work. There were two new colour words we learnt, complementary, which means colours opposite and analogous which means colours beside each other. 

Families can buy calendars, cards, diaries and note pads featuring our art work.  

By Anthony and Isabelle. 

Geometry Art

For maths this term room 13 has been doing geometry – 2D and 3D shapes. Part of this unit involved us using protractors to measure angles and using compasses to draw perfect circles. Today we combined these skills to draw these stars and flowers. For some people they were a lot harder than they looked and for others they found it quite easy. They look cool altogether. 

 

Combining art and maths we created these drawings of 3D shapes. We had to make sure that the lines that were meant to be straight were and the curved lines were carefully drawn. Once we had done the outlines we started to do the shading, we had to think about where the light would be hitting the shape. We used special drawing pencils so when we had finished we carefully used water on a paint brush to have a water colour effect.

Writing by Anthony, Nick and Tahlia.

Origami Creations

For the second week of term 3 we attempted to make orgami cranes during maths. For home learning we were set the mission to try and creation other origami pieces. Some creations worked out really well and some didn't. There was a range of different origami creations, such as cups and flying cranes to bunny rabbits in boxes. They are now on display on the back table.  

Matariki, Art and Kiwi Sport

Kiwi Sport

On Tuesday we arrived at Park Island ready for adventure. We competed in 3 different sports, these were; Soccer, t-ball and hockey. We were in 8 teams, which we the same as the soccer field day and fitness teams.

We came across different teams from different schools in our area.

Teams had mixed results, but everyone had a great day. Thanks to the parents who helped out.

By Bryce, Michael and Logan.

 

ART WITH RAE

On Wednesday we were lucky enough to have Rae Hendry in our class taking art. The art that we did was based on the stars of Matariki. She showed us pieces of art from other artists, these were our inspiration.

We each had an A3 star and access to warm and cold primary coloured paint as well as black and white paint.

First we had to draw our design on the star. Then we painted our background, if we wanted different colours we had to carefully mix them. Once the background was painted we had details using a smaller brush.

Once they were dry we carefully cut them out and put them onto black paper.

They look very unique; every one of them is different.

By Ruby and Nick.

 

MATARIKI

On Thursday night we had our school Matariki evening. First we meet together in the assembly and sung two Maori songs as a school. Then Mrs Bevis shared what was happening in each of the classes. Families were free to move around the classes and complete the different activities. Some of the activities were; flax weaving, paper stars, kites, thousand stars in chalk and a story of Matariki. Outside there were braziers where you could toast marshmallows. At the end we all meet together and released Chinese Lanterns.

It was a very cold but great night.

By Nick, Ruby and Paige.