Te Tapuwae o Rongokako Marine Reserve

 On Friday Room 3 & 4 travelled to Te Tapuwae o Rongokako Marine Reserve. 

We started the day by meeting Amy and Joe in the carpark of Te Tapuwae O Rongokako Marine Reserve. They fitted us with wetsuits before reminding us of the hand signals we needed to use in the water. We had learnt about these the week before when Amy and Jo came to school and taught us to how use snorkel and googles in the school pool. 

Jo shared the story about Rongokako a famous warrior who was also a giant. If you are lucky you can see his footprint at low tide, at the marine reserve. Legend has it that Rongokako was racing Paoa (another maori warrior) to a girl up the coast. Paoa paddled his waka while Rongokako raced across the land. 

Students were allocated teams and an adult and off they went into the water. Many students put their googles on and could see small triple fin fish in. the shallow water of Te Tapuwae O Rongokako. Some students ventured out into deeper water where they saw kina, crayfish and lots of seaweed. 

What an incredible opportunity to explore and connect with Tangaroa. Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible. 

Collaborative Art

We started the term by looking at Vexx. Vexx is a doodle artist who has his own youtube channel. 

We looked at his style of art and began our own piece of collaborative art. Lily-Rose noticed that Vexx included words and drawings in his work. We decided to include our school values in our art. 

Watch this space .. . . 

Pihitia Station

 Room one travelled to Pihitia Station with Moana Syndicate at the end of last term. 

We worked our way around a series of rotations and learnt about how technology helps on farms in the 21st century. We started by learning about pest control before splitting into smaller groups. We milked a cow and watched a butcher but up lamb. Norm showed us his drone and motor bikes while we helped Demelza muster a paddock and chase the sheep into the sheep yards. Lastly, we watched Nic shear a sheep and talked about the importance of wool. 

Thank you so much to the Williams family for having us and all the other families who came and helped. 

Skipping

Room One students have been skipping every day to help build our fitness for the school cross country. Our goal as a class is to enjoy running. 

We have been graphing our skips in our math book. Most students are seeing a progression over the term. We have discovered that there are variables that influence our results including having the right sized skipping rope and wearing covered shoes. 

We love skipping in Room One so much that we even choose to skip during our morning tea and lunch times. 

Tonui Collab

 On Monday Room One visited the Tonui Collab to learn more about computational thinking. 

Jules welcomed us as we arrived, she was our facilitator. We worked through a number of hands on activities that required us to give and follow instructions. We had to direct our friends through a maze of hoops and write codes for lego people to navigate through a maze of cyclopes to get gems.

After morning tea we got to play with Sphero robots. Initially students had to get their drivers licence before they were set with small challenges. 

We had Helena and Tracey joins us. Thanks for helping us ladies. We had such a fantastic time!!

Tairawhiti Environment Centre

This term Room One and Room Four (Honu) went to the Tairawhiti Environment Centre. 

We had a fantastic time and learnt heaps about how to do our bit for the environment. 
We had 6 workshop rotations with 3 teachers, Kauri, Kirsty and Steph. 

1. Gizzy Kai Resuce 
2. 7 Rs 
3. MaraKai 
4. Composting 
5. Worm farming 
6. Rubbish 

We are very thankful to be able to have such a rewarding experience. 

Wolfe's Surfboard

While this is a class blog, we just have to acknowledge the AMAZING surfboard piece of art created by our very own, Wolfe!
Wolfe has been chipping away at this at home for a few months, and his effort and talent is so impressive!
Room 1 love it so much, and can't wait to see it up on the wall by the skate ramp.
Amazing job, Wolfe!