Piako Rua

Right Choice Day Term 1!

We have had such a fun day for Right Choice Day. We started our day with some movement - yoga & GoNoodle! Then we had some challenge time where we were able to create wearable art using newspaper, throw paper planes into a bucket, build a tower the fastest, or keep hula hooping the longest! After morning tea we played with our board games - we loved seeing everyone play nicely together.

Te Ako Ritenga - Our Act!

Over the last 5 weeks we have been learning about the History of Aotearoa/New Zealand. We spoke about the Māori legends of Māui and Kupe and had lots of wonderings about how the first people came to New Zealand.

We started learning about 'Navigation' and learned lots about how people found Aotearoa/New Zealand. We learned about cardinal directions, map making, and how people used the stars to navigate. You may have even heard us talking about spotting the Southern Cross in the sky ourselves!

We then talked about how the early settlers travelled on ships and waka, and learned the importance of different parts of ships and waka.

FInally, we used all our knowledge to create a waka or ship of our own!
We had to plan what our boats would look like and think about the equipment we would need before creating. We also had success criteria to meet and reflect on once we had finished.

Check out some photos of us at work!

Tomorrow (Tuesday 12th April)

Tomorrow we are completing our Act, a part of our NZ History Inquiry. For this we will be building waka/ships. Your child might come home saying they need to bring some materials to school (cardboard, tooth picks etc). Please don't feel pressured to do so! We can't wait to see their creations!

Fun Friday Week 8!

This week we have been learning lots about Navigation and how the early settlers found their way to Aotearoa. Our poem that will come home for the weekend is about Cardinal Directions. When you are looking through this poem with us at home it would be a great chance to ask about our learning around navigation (stars, maps and compasses).

For our Friday Opt-ins this week we had 2 different options. We could choose to learn how to do collage art or how to make a spinning windmill. Check out some photos below!

These photos below were taken in an Opt In workshop where the children learned how to use their hands and space their fingers in different ways to create different animals. Thanks for the cool idea Quinn!

EmBARKed Writing

This week lots of us looked at different types of houses during writing time. We watched a short animation film call 'EmBARKed' and discussed with our classmates what the new language meant and what we thought was happening in the clip. We wrote stories retelling what happened and completed Venn diagrams comparing life in the city and countryside.
Then, after lots of thinking and discussion, we got to create our own dream houses out of paper! On Thursday we wrote a story about all the cool features our dream house would have.

Check out some of our work!

Fun Friday Week 6!

Yay for Opt In day! Today we got to choose from, Taniwha Art, Houses inspired by Marc Chagall, and 3D Ladybugs.

Zentangle Art!

These amazing pieces of art were created over two weeks during an Opt In with Mrs Pedersen. We explored and practised patterns first, before choosing an animal outline to fill. The colourful backgrounds are dye and were lots of fun to make!

Self-portraits!

We have been working hard to create our self-portraits in Piako Rua!

We started off by doing our best ghost drawing to draw our eyes, ears, mouths, nose, hair and shoulders. We then went over these lines in sharpie before finishing them off with dye.

Check out our awesome work below!

Check out the superstars this week!

Sometimes in Piako Rua we award certificates to children who have been making great choices and doing amazing things in class.

These children got certificates for trying hard during learning times, being leaders or for being really kind to others. A big well done to Aile M, Thomas, Kaino, Quinn, Casey, Aria, Blake and Daisy S.

Ka rawe!

Fun Friday!

Friday was so much fun. We started the day with some PE, followed by a poem.

We had Opt In's after morning tea - Ukelele with Mr Pike, Caterpillar Art with Mrs Hobbs and Shape Monster Art with Mrs Pedersen. Some of us were chosen to do some Sweet and Sour Science with Mrs Chaves!

It was beautiful weather for a swim just before lunch. We finished our Friday with Piako Time, we love being able to be creative, explore and spend time with our friends! Check out some snaps from the day!

Week 2!

We have been pretty excited for swimming this week! While the weather hasn't been as warm as it was last week, the weather has still been great for a dip.

First Day of School!

We had a such a great day in Piako Rua for our first day back at school today. We learned about our different classroom spaces and got to explore around our new environment. We learned a little bit about Waitangi Day and made our own Treaty for our class.
The teachers loved seeing how much fun we had exploring and working together. Check out some photos of us on our first day!