Poipoia te kākano - ka puawai

 We have been seeing ngā tohu signs of spring everywhere. After a few fine days Harakeke was keen to sow some seeds for the growing season ahead. Tamariki were given the choice of sewing kamokamo seeds for themselves to take home once they were seedlings, or pumpkin. They all wanted to plant kamokamo! 

We will sow some pumpkin and huē seeds in the coming days. Some for the maara at the kura - some to give away. While whānaungatanga is the pou we are focusing on this term kaitiakitanga and manaakitanga continue to be woven through everything we do. 

Storytellers Residence Ōtaki - 'In other words Ōtaki'

 On Friday the nohinohi of Ngāi Kete welcomed some storytellers for the afternoon. They were in residence in Ōtaki for ten days as part of the storytellers residency - 'In other words Ōtaki' 

Ruth Paul (author of many books such as "My Dinosaur Dad" "Stomp" "The King's Bubbles")

Fifi Colston (author and illustrator of ,many books such as "The Last Crayon" "The Little Yellow Digger")

Peter Hambleton (actor and director)

These three wonderful people have been working on a project together and this residency in Ōtaki was an opportunity to really focus on their mahi as well as trial some ideas with students from the College, as well as with our tamariki at Ōtaki Kura.

Ruth started us off by selecting some tamariki to act out her story 'I am Jellyfish"

There were heaps of giggles as our actors tried on their costumes and acted out their parts.

THen Ruth shared her story "The Lion Guards the Cake"

"The Proud Pūteketeke" was the book up next. The was illustrated by Fifi, so she read this to us with Ruth managing a very cheeky pūteketeke beside her!

It really was a wonderful afternoon! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! 

We often talk about authors and illustrators - it was great for tamariki to meet people that do creative things for their jobs. Someone that writes for their work. Someone that draws pictures to their work. Someone that works on stage, televison, movies. All things we learn to do at school. All options for our tamariki in the future.

He mihi ka tika ki ngā kaiwhakahaere o te ahurei "In other words Ōtaki" 

He ahiahi pai rawa atu!

Ngā mihi.

He aha tō tino? What's your favourite?

 The weeks have been flying by... 'o' week turned very quickly into 'g' week! So the scientists we are we decided to look carefully at some delicious winter fruit. Namely oranges and grapefruit.

Not everyone had tried grapefruit before. So we sat them next to each other and talked about the differences between the fruit. What can you see? What do you notice?

Oranges are like circles... are like balls... are orange.

Grapefruit look like lemons. Do they? They look like flat lemons. They look yellow.

We cut them open to further our investigation. 

Do they look the same?

We smelt them - is there a difference? Yes! Oranges smell like oranges... what do grapefruit smell like?

Then the taste test - umm... some not so keen - a quick lick? 

Oranges were the universal favourite - but it's always good to try new things!

Te Manawa Dinosaur Dig

 At the end of July the nohinohi of Ngāi Kete travelled to Papaioea (Palmerston North) to Te Manawa for an educational session about dinosaurs and fossils in the New Zealand context. What fossils have been discovered here.

After talking about dinosaurs and the different things around in the time of dinosaurs that we still see today (plants like magnolias, tuatara etc). We talked a little about people that discovered dinosaur remains and fossils.  We were lucky enough to be able to handle some real fossils that had been discovered. Including some coprolite (dinosaur dung!).

We then went to another area of the museum and pretended to be paleontologists and fossil hunters. Using the tools that these people use to find and excavate fossils.

Korean War Veterans

 Every year we have the priviledge of hosting the Korean War Veterans, the army and many people from the Korean Embassy, for a morning tea and ceremony of remembrance. It's a chance to talk about the long standing effects of war on the people who fight and those that are left behind at home. The cost to all of us.

Harakeke popped out to kōrero with the visiting NZ Army members before morning tea. 

Tumeke Tumuaki! Te rā Tumuaki

 It was a chilly start this morning as we came together as a full school for karakia. We came together to acknowledge the naming of the classrooms by the affixing of new signs to the outside of them. Harakeke and Rourou now have their new signs - kua whakatau ngā ingoa hou inaianei.

Following te wā karakia we trouped over to the tomokanga of the kura to whakatō a tōtara tree that had been previously given to the school. According to the maramataka it is the optimal time for planting rākau at present.

Tamati from Harakeke placed the tōtara in the ground this morning, helped initially by Whaea Jin and Whaea Louise, then other tamariki from Harakeke to fill the hole.

Then we trouped around to in front of the office block to plant a kahikatea. Maia and Kairangi as tuākana of the school led the planting of this new rākau.

Onwards to the pool area where a rata was planted by Patricia-Lee and Sonny from Tahora.

Finally down to our 'native bush' area to plant a final tree. Tamariki from Waikawa planted this final rākau. 

A beautiful start to the day. He rangi mokopuna!

I hui mātou, te kura katoa, we came together again as a full school to finish our day also. This time as a surprise to celebrate Matua Rauru. He rā hei whakanui tō tātou tumuaki.

All the akomanga (classrooms) have been secretly preparing different pieces of mahi for Matua Rauru to thank him for all of his awesome work he does for Ōtaki School. 

The tamariki from Harakeke stood to share their writing and pictures.

B...b...beach! B...b...butter!

 The focus sound of the week in Harakeke was 'b'. We did a range of things focusing on this sound including a trip to the beach. The intention was to go in search of mauri for our class - but Tawhirimātea and Tangaroa had different ideas!

We stood on top of a bank of stones as Tawhirimātea whipped around us with Tangaroa racing up the bank to tickle our toes! 

Loads of wild stone throwing and excitement! 

Then playing in billions of beautiful bubbles!!

Followed up by a bit of butter making at the end of the week.

We have been very concerned by hearing from some tamariki that cream comes from a can! We had a great discussion about where cream comes from - before pouring some out into a bowl. Then began beating with a good old-fashioned 'egg-beater'. Bit of co-ordination needed there e te whānau! Looks of wriggly fun!

Lots of kōrero, lots of taking turns, lots of manaakitanga.

It took a long time... but we began to see some changes...

Then a change in colour and the curds separating from the whey - BUTTER!!!!

Of course we couldn't waste it! 

Tino reka!