Water testing at Tucker Road

In Tanemahuta we have been looking at ways to be Kaitiaki to our Marae, Tarere. Earlier this year we planted more trees and weeded the area. This time we wanted to see how healthy our river, Taruheru.

Dem Bones

Last week the Life Education Truck came to our school. We were visited by Harold and Anna. Our class learnt about the Human Body. We also had the Dem Bones kit from House of Science. From these experiences we learnt about the bones in our body as well as the circulatory system, digestive system, nervous system, respiratory system. We created our own skeletons with shapes.

Cross Country

Although it took some time to write, edit, and publish our recounts about the Cross Country, we did it! To create our area to draw we inserted a table with one cell. Then we enlarge it to suit. Once we finished publishing, Mrs Hannah printed them to A3 and we drew our pictures. Here are a few pics from the cross country day as well.

Production Preparation

Here in Tanemahuta, we have been so busy preparing for our production!  We have been rehearsing and creating props and costumes and practicing songs!  It's been so busy!  There has been so much amazing learning in the whole process!

We are performing next Tuesday at the War Memorial Theatre here in Gisborne.  Next week we will be busy rehearsing so we may not get a chance to post, but we will be sure to post a video of part of our production soon!  Koka Amie says she's excited to come and watch us all too! There will be lots of family and friends there in the audience to watch us.  Watch this space!

Plastic bottle light-up Godwits

Waka Hourua travelers from Tahiti

The Paoa group

Our Cross Country Day

Last week we had our Makaraka School Cross Country out at the Matthews Farm. Our cross country is special because we climb hills and traverse them. It was very drizzly, just how we like it!

We used this experience to write recounts in class. Here are the criteria we used:

Title - Cross Country

Introduction:

Who - Makaraka School

What - Cross Country

When - Last week. On Wednesday. Yesterday.

Where - Sam's house/ farm/ property. The Matthew's 

How - By bus

Paragraph 1:

First we... 

 - tour, walkthrough

Paragraph 2:

Then we...

 - getting ready for the race

Paragraph 3:

After that we...

 - Tell us about the race...

Paragraph 4:

In the end...

 - The finish

 - Your placing

 - How you felt?

 - Then what?

We will use describing words and phrases to help the reader really understand what the day and experience was like. Here are some ideas we came up with...

 - felt like jelly

 - ache

 - legs pumping

 - heart pounding through my chest

 - encouraging

 - pipped

We hope you enjoy the recounts that our students have shared.

Our Milk Bottle Birds

We are making our own props and costumes for our class production as part of the whole school production at the end of the term. It is part of the Tuia 250 celebrations and we have been doing an inquiry about migration, navigation, and early Maori learning.

Avatars to Get Help

We were learning about what to do if we need help when we see something online that makes us feel uncomfortable. We made an avatar and sent it to our teacher asking for help.

We enjoyed choosing our animals as part of our avatar.

It was challenging remembering to search for a PNG image using the Explore tool, so that it would mesh well with our animal.

Next time I would try to find an element that is a good shape to fit against my animal so that they look as though they're joined.

Phase 1 of our Class Production

Our school will be putting on a production at the end of the term. We are using plastic when creating our props to illustrate how plastics have become a real problem for our environment, especially our oceans. Today we mastered how to make our birds. Here is an instructional video to explain how to make them. Photos and tutorial to follow...
Learn a Language Explainer (copy) on Biteable.

Enviroschools Learning

A few weeks ago the Makaraka School Juniors went to the Envirocentre to learn about how we can look after Papatuanuku better. We learnt about recycling, composting, and worm farms. When we returned to school, we decided to set up a worm farm for the school. Some students also read a story about Extraordinary Earthworms. We did some instructional writing about how to set up a worm farm. We also tried to incorporate some of our digital learning in our presentation. See if you can pick what we have been learning to do...