Greats and Grands 2020 - Maunga

 Greats and Grands 2020 was again a great hit with both grandparents and students.  It is such a fantastic opportunity to see these generations together and sharing/connecting with each other.  Grandparents a such an important connection to our students.  This year in team Maunga we even had 'fill-in grandparents' as some whanau couldn't make it due to our current COVID-19 situation.  To those grandparents who traveled from across New Zealand to be with us; thank you so much.

As normal our morning started with an assembly but today was a little bit different as this was in front of a large crowd of visiting grandparents.  We performed our kapa haka with Matua Dwayne's help.  It also rained while we were performing so we had to quickly move to an inside space to continue.  This did not phase us at all!  

When we got to the new space, it was time to share a few speeches about our special people.  Evie, Hawaiki-Roa, James, and Tyler did an amazing job of sharing their work.  We were all very nervous but did a great job.  (We will upload 3 of these as movies at the bottom of this post)

After our assembly, we took our grandparents back to our classes to have a look around and to present them with special Tonga we had created, and a card and story about them.  We also had made little bookmarks that said things like 'I love you'.  Our grandparents were excited about these and most wore their Tonga for the rest of the time.  Mrs G snapped some pictures of us before we all headed back around the front for some yummy Kai.

After our yummy Kai, we did a quick jump jam with our grandparents (even as it started raining again).  Our normal games had been called off due to the weather.  All in all it was a fantastic day, making memories with our grandparents.

James                            Evie                               Hawaiki

Te Tino O Te Taiamai - Stories

As part of our learning about our local area we all wrote stories (including Mrs G).  We also published them by creating a story map and then using Explain Everything to share and record our versions.  Our writing was amazing as we had so much to write about and it was a great experience for us all.  We hope you enjoy our work.

Rakaia

Amelia

Andrew

Tommy

Sadie

Subira

 

Sio

 

Colin

Tyler

Peri

James

Hawaiki-Roa

Engaging reading through Coding instructions

Here is take 2 of our trial of using instructions to engage our readers more.  The idea is that it provides a focus and a real context for children to use their reading skills in.

Here is their work.  Don't forget to comment and let us know what you think!

Tommy

Subira

Peri 

James 

Evie

Engaging Reading through Coding instructions

In reading we have been trialing lots of different things to excite our readers in class.  What we plan to do is to use instructions as a reading task and children need to follow the instructions to either make something or do something.  Today the task was to use a Scratch instruction card to make characters move and dance.

We think they have done a great job.  What do you think?

 

Evie

James 

 

Peri 

 

Subira

 

 

Tyler

How Maui Slowed Tamanui Te Ra.

At the end of the last term we created stories about How Maui slowed Tamanui Te Ra. We read books about this traditional story and also looked at simple versions that other students at our school had created in the past. A few of us wanted to publish our stories for the school library. James has turned his work into an Explain Everything to share at our assembly. 

 Enjoy.

Explain Everything Space Stories

Here are some examples of this week's publishing.  Instead of writing them out and putting them up on the wall, we decided to publish using Explain everything.  We are getting quicker at making our own avatars, and backgrounds.  We are also getting good at finding quiet spots to record our stories.  We hope you enjoy them!

Dimitiri

Peri

Jameswr

Dr Sprocket Makes a Rocket

Here is a link to a couple of pieces of work children have created this week for Reading.  They are based around a shared book we have covered called Dr Sprocket makes a Rocket.  This was the basis of some of our Play, Make, Create that went alongside our reading.  This work was completed in Explain Everything which is a great creative learning tool but one we are only just getting use to using.  We hope you enjoy.

The first example is by James.  It is very exciting to see how he also included a poem on his last page where he is describing his own lego rocket construction.  This is fantastic as it shows how the different texts we are reading are helping us to feel engaged and learn about the topics we are covering in class.

Evie did a great job of clearly reading part of the story and explaining what her rocket creation is like.  Well done Evie!

Subira just did a great job all around with her explain everything as well.

Farm Scenes Using Stop Motion

Currently, we are doing a fantastic school kit called 'the farming kit'  So lots of our learning at the moment is all about farming and what it is like, the animals, who work on farms and why they are important.  

This week we had lots of fun working together to create small movies using the blocks, farm animals, and vehicles that Mrs G brought in.  

Some things we have been learning about when making Stop Motion movies

• You need to set your scene up, where it's not in the way (otherwise it gets broken by accident)
• You have to take LOTS of pictures
• Each picture is only slightly different from the last picture (MOVE IT JUST A LITTLE BIT).
• Your iPad needs to be set up so it doesn't fall over or get moved.

Here are some examples of what we have been doing to practice these skills.

Colin

Andrew Tyler & Quinn

Colin, MacKenzie & Peri

James & Dimitri

MacKenzie & Peri

Author Unknown

Sadie

Tommy & Hawaiki

Pet day Virtual Animal Entries

Here are some Virtual Animal entries that were sent to us.  This year there was a great selection of entries and many of our Maunga kids did really well.  Great work everyone!

1st Place for Virtual Horse - Ivy L - Photo board for her horse

1st place for Virtual Calf  - Nakita Gardiner and Coco

2nd Place - Bailey Thomas and her horse

3rd place - Ava with Kalua

4th place - Rakai with his dog Luna

Great entry from James and his dog Daisy

Great Entry from Lucus and Snowflake

Great entry from Hawaiki Roa and his dog

Great entry from Nakita and her dog Alfie

Maunga Iti at the Library

Every Tuesday Maunga Iti visit the library. We return our books from the week before so we can take new ones home. Sometimes we ask Mrs C if we can have a book for another week because we don't get it finished before Tuesday. 

Today Mrs C spotted these wonderful learners reading quietly. They definitely know what to do in library time!