Matariki Dawn Ceremony and Celebration Day

A day of celebrations. Starting early in the morning before the sun rose to say hello to a new day. Kids, Parents, Family members and Teachers gathered in the hall to welcome the Māori New Year. Following the ceremony a breakfast was served. The kai was enjoyed by all!
After a big (and early) start to the day, the celebrations continued throughout the classrooms, we learnt about Matariki and the Seven Stars, traditional Māori games such as Titi Torea (Stick Games), Māori action songs, and we created some fantastic art based on Māori designs.

Beautiful Soldier

Earlier this term in Room 10, we were exploring ANZAC DAY and the significance of this for ourselves, our families and our communities.

We also spent some time learning Sign Language as part of New Zealand sign language week. Did you know that sign language is one of the three official languages of New Zealand?

We combined our learning of New Zealand sign language and ANZAC day, to create a short video of the song Beautiful Soldier.

MATARIKI ART

Mr Collins shared the story with us, 'The Seven stars of Matariki'.  After hearing one version of the story of the matariki stars, we looked at how we could create some pastel art to represent the Māori new year.
We talked about how pastels can be blended easily and colours can layer overtop of other colours. It was good to choose colours that complimented each other but we didn't have to.
When we had finished creating our art. Miss Waghorn sliced it into three pieces to be glued onto black paper (this made us a bit worried at first). Pictures cut into three pieces like this are called triptych's.
Learning about the Māori new year let us compare it to other new years celebrations that we already knew about. It was fun and a lot of learning.