Ararira Springs Primary School's Huarapa Hub is made up of a bunch of wonderful Year 0 and 1 tamariki, and four kaiako!
Come and explore our learning and find information regarding school notices and how to contact your child's ako teacher.
Term 4
Market Day Fun!
The tamariki have been working hard to make our final preparations for an exciting Market Day. It was wonderful to be able to open our learning spaces and share our creations and talent with whānau this week...along with a few tasty treats!
Week 1
Welcome back everyone!!
It has been great to see lots of smiling faces and welcome some new ones this past week. Please check the notices as there is a lot happening. We are looking forward to an action-packed term full of exciting events for your tamariki.
Term 3
Week 9
Inquiry learning
There are 4 groups creating different items for our Huarapa market next term, from Koru necklaces made from clay, soap craving, bath bombs, book marks and friends bracelets. It has been a hive of activity and the tamariki have been learning some wonderful creating skills.
Circus
On Monday the circus came to visit Ararira. A whole school performance with lots of laughter and fun. Then a chance to learn circus skills. The tamariki had a blast. A great experience.
Week 6
Spring is here and we have had a great week of being outside learning cricket and netball skills. The court theatre performed Māui Me Te Rā - how Māui slowed the sun. The children have been learning about Fractions this week for discovery maths.
Week 5
Netball skills this week and Daffodil day. Great to see all the children participating and having fun. Wow! Don't these tamariki look fantastic in yellow. Thank you all for supporting Daffodil day and raising funds and awareness for cancer.
House of bricks visited on Monday and Huarapa students got to engage and create, using their imagination, ideas and creative skills to interpret the challenges presented to them.
A huge thank you to the Andrews family for donating two trees to Ararira Springs. These were planted on Wednesday with the help of some Huarapa, Hikuwai and Kaunuku students with a karakia.
It was great to see the sun out and the children got to enjoy the sandpit during learning through play and lots of hands on maths learning. Physical Education, the students were practicing their catching and throwing skills.
A great week of learning in Huarapa!
Week 2: Book Week
Children had fun participating in many of the wonderful book week activities eg. stories in the library, sharing favourite books, dressing up as your favourite book character and a visiting author.
Welcome back!
The first week, has been buzzing with excitement with new learning through play activities such as a market place and seeing our friends again.
Term 2
It was wonderful to see so many of you at our Matariki celebration. It was a special time and the tamariki enjoyed sharing their art, lanterns and waiata with you. We hope you enjoyed this evening.
The ākonga loved their trip to the fire station this week. They learnt the importance of being careful around fire, what to do in an emergency and the role of firefighters in our community. They also had a go with the fire hose. Look at the joy on those faces!
Huarapa 2 tested whether we could stand on balloons without them bursting. We spread our weight across multiple balloons, reducing the pressure. Success!
On Friday we visited Kaunuku. They showed us their dioramas, taught us about their chosen country and completed a short activity with us.
As part of Science, Huarapa have been learning about flight. This week the ākonga made paper planes, discussed different creatures and objects that fly and made aerofoils.
This week tamariki had whānau groups. They worked alongside different aged children to create a matariki star. We love watching as they build connections and engage in tuakana-teina.
Look at these incredible readers! It's wonderful to see the enthusiasm, engagement and progress our tamariki are making in their literacy journeys. Thank you for everything you do at home!
Curiosity Clubs are a highlight for many students as they engage in new and exciting learning. Our tamariki are marchers, upcyclers, puppet makers, lego masters, clay modellers and many more!
As kaiako we love seeing ākonga lead their own learning. This is particularly evident during learning through play. What an amazing bunch of creative problem solvers, designers and creators we have in Huarapa!
Recently the tamariki have been learning about weight and mass. They especially enjoyed balancing the scales and discovering how much sand or water different containers could hold.
Here is a collection of photos from the art exhibition.
Wow! Don't these tamariki look cool!? Thank you all for supporting Pink Shirt Day and taking a stand against bullying.
Term 1
Bricks 4 Kids - Lego and Coding
This week we were lucky to have 'Bricks 4 Kids' come and teach us how to build a 'seal'. We then used an iPad to make a simple block code to make it move.
Next we did a collaborative task. We made some other ocean animals and pixel art. We had such fun!
This club runs after school at Ararira, usually on a Tuesday (subject to covid restrictions). Follow this link for more information.
Learning about the artist James Rizzi.
This term we have opted into different 'clubs' on a Friday morning. Some children chose art. Here are some examples of our work. We loved drawing the buildings with uniques faces and patterns. We also made some buildings with boxes. More information about him can be found here.
The children have enjoyed lots of different activities this week. Some of the fun activities done this week during learning through play have been: making a whare (Te Whare Tapa Wha) with blocks; hula hooping; exploring with cones and making a pet home with lego.
We have been learning about our feelings and talking about the different 'zones' that we may be in when we are feeling this way and what we can do to return to the green calm zone. More information can be found here.
As part of te reo we have been learning to say "Ko wai tōu ingoa?" (what is your name?) and "Kei te pehea koe?" (how are you feeling?). Look at the lovely work we have completed as part of this.
This week we have been using a Science Kit. We have had fun investigating all about cows. We have sorted animals cards, learnt about digestion, grasses and different solutions.
Over the next few weeks we will be learning golf skills on a Tuesday. This week we learnt how to hold a golf club and how to putt.
This week one of our groups has been reading the book: Tane and the Bug. Today we went bug hunting. We loved it! We then wrote about it.
Here are a few photos of some of the fun things we have been doing in maths this week.
One of our passion projects groups in Huarapa is Urban Farmers. Friday, week 5, the urban farmers had visitors from a goat, 2 sheep and a 7 day of calf. The children got to learn about farm animals and how to care for them. Everyone in Huarapa got to visit the animals too. Thank you very much Lesley and Thomas for bringing your beautiful animals in for the children. It was an amazing opportunity.
We have been doing lots of fun science experiments. This week we learnt to use a pipette and put some dye into water. We carefully put small drops into the water (one at a time) and watched the patterns it made.
We have been learning about colour mixing and warm/cool colours.
Making a rainstorm!
This week as part of our writing 'language experience' the Huarapa children made popcorn. We enjoyed watching it cook and eating it!
Karakia
Look at all the fun things we have done this week!
Pirates!
Deconstruction
Science
Drama
Dance
Art
Learning through play
....and much more!
Patterns
Over the next few weeks we are discovery and looking at different patterns. What patterns can you make or see at home?
Whaea Nicky's class read the book 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Rescue' this week. Today we practiced our cutting, glueing and sticking by making our own lighthouse. Don't they look amazing?!
Click the arrows to see more photos.