Te Waka Ako 22 - 2 - 2022!

 Welcome back to Te Waka Ako for 2022!

A new year and a few changes for our syndicate. Our space is made up of a combination of Year 4, 5 & 6 students, and Mr Hing- Windsor has joined our wonderful group of teachers.

 We have had a fun start to the year, slowly getting back into the routine of being back in the classroom. And we are slowly getting used to wearing masks all day!

We are loving being back at school and working alongside our friends and peers. There has been a lot of swimming in our wonderful school pool and we have been doing lots of learning about the Treaty of Waitangi too. We started our Inquiry unit off with a fantastic Amazing Race. We ran, we crawled and we collaborated to collect the words that make up our Inquiry statement. They had been hidden all over the school! Do you want to know what our Inquiry statement is?

"Kia Kaha means to be strong.

Kia maia means to Have Courage.

Our Inquiry in 2022 will look at these ideas." 

Te Waka Ako is looking forward to sharing more of our stories and learning with you throughout this year.

Feel free to leave a comment!

Preparations are afoot!

 Well it is 3 months since we walked out of our lovely shared space, Te Waka Ako. 

When we walked back in today the board today had the date ..........

         Rātū Here-tura-kōka Tuesday the 17th August on it. 

The timetable from three months ago when we were deep into our study of Taumahekeheke or the Olympic Games was also still up with notes and spelling words. 

We were deep into investigating the different sports in the Olympic Games - Taumahekeheke, with newspaper clippings on the wall and models students had been creating neatly stacked in our 'orange space' or wet and art area.  They had been really enjoying the creation of their models and have often asked if they could finish them off when we go back. So some time in the next 4 weeks we will revisit these and get them complete. 

It was a bit strange and like a snapshot in time seeing it all as we left it. . 

We set up our spaces for our bubble groups that will return tomorrow morning.  Furniture has been shifted, sanitising stations and walkways set up, students work boxes set out and resources for a fun day sorted. We are happy to do it because we are excited to see our students tomorrow! 

We will be taking heaps of pics over these unique weeks at the end of 2021. 

watch this space. 

The Happy Project.

 

Operation "Happy Project" on Saturday night before delivery. 

The teachers of Te Waka Ako thought the tamariki in our classes were feeling a bit down and flat with having to stay online for their learning in Term 4, so we came up with a plan to bring a smile to their faces. :) It started off small with a chocolate bar, some seeds and a drawing of messages from us in a paper bag that we could put in the letter box. Then it grew. 

We decided to add some blank t-shirts so the students could pay if forward by writing happy messages and delivering them into random letterboxes. THEN .....Mrs Jones decided to make WORRY WORM bookmarks for ALL the bags! Crazy!! Fabulous! She was in her happy place!  THEN school had some extra 'YUM' snacks we could add in, pavement chalk boxes were shared out between them for outside creativity and finally Mr Jones found some cool Warriors items he wanted to gift to them all. Hats, bottles, socks, balls. It was a lucky dip bonanza!  Wow, just WOW!  The bags needed to be bigger! Again Mrs Jones put her creative hat on and wrote everyones name and a gorgeous message on the front.                                                            They were ready for the                                                                                                                                                              'JONES FAMILY OPERATION DRIVE BY'.                                                                                                                              Three teams set off to different areas in the neighbourhood and surrounding suburbs to reach all our wonderful students. They were happy faces they saw! The smiles were back! Mission accomplished on a Sunday afternoon

 in Auckland's Level 3+ Lockdown at the end of October 2021.                            

Many lovely messages came in too. Check out this document above for many photos and comments. 

Back into Term Four.

 Term 4 Week 1 is done. 

The range of feeling at starting the term back online was a mixed bag. 😊😌😒😔😖😞😟😠😡😢😩Most of our students would have LOVED to see their friends and get back to their learning in a classroom, but it wasn't to be. Lots of them came back into the daily google meets, keen to catch up and chat, and not keen to leave. Connecting is so important. 

Completing work was harder for some than others as they learnt to overcome their disappointments and pick themselves up. In general, by Friday they were back into the routine. 

Ms Sands choices

One of the activities we set was to read up about the birds in the NZ Bird of the Year competition and vote for their top 5. They added their favourites to a drawing like this and then voted on the website during our Syndicate meeting today, and some are still to do it over the weekend. 

We also created an in-house google form for them to complete so we can see which birds are the most popular within our syndicate whanau. This is still being filled in so we can let you know the results later. Maybe when the official vote has finished as well. 

Anyone with an email can vote in the competition so check it out through this link if you are interested. We have some stunning birds in our country, many many of them need help to survive and this competition raises awareness of their plight.  A great Labour Weekend activity. 

Final Lockdown Meet

                                              AND THAT'S A WRAP! Term 3 is done and dusted.                                                    Te Waka Ako got through Lockdown 4 and 3 in Auckland with style. Our own quirky style.

On Fridays our Syndicate Meets were dress up Fridays. For four of them we managed to think ahead and create a slideshow that everyone could put their dress up pics on. Students always got involved, lots more dressed up and didn't record it. Everyone loved the fun of seeing what creative ideas others came up with. 

CHECK OUT THESE COOL AS SLIDESHOWS......

Starting with today, the latest event, we asked everyone to dress up in something that started with the letter D. (In honour of Debs, who left our team today)  D....Delightful Dependable Debs Departing.

                     Last Friday we asked everyone to dress up in something that started with the letter L.                                  (In honour of Auckland going to Level 3) L...Lockdown Level Lowering

               The Friday before that we asked everyone to dress up in something that started with the letter F.              (In honour of having already done Freaky and Fancy, and not knowing what to choose next!) 

                   AND the Friday before that we asked everyone to dress up in something Freaky.          

         (In honour of having already done Fancy, the week before. But there is no slideshow for that one!) 

We are all PROUD of the AWESOME ATTITUDE you all showed throughout a long term of staying home. Have a lovely holiday with your families and HOPEFULLY we can all have some of it in Level 2, so wider family groups can catch up again and activities in other parts of the city can be enjoyed. 

Kia Kaha 

A Goodbye Message from Debs

 Debs work at Waikowhai School finishes on Friday this week. She has worked hard with lots of people in Te Waka Ako and will be missed. She has created some slides about her work during lockdown and to say  farewell.  Read through what she has enjoyed while with us all, and leave her a message. 

Te Wiki o te Reo Maori

 Te Wiki o te Reo Maori 

One of the activities Te Waka Ako were asked to do over Maori Language Week was the 5 sentences in 5 days challenge. Each day there is a different sentence with a range of words that can be inserted into the sentence. These slideshows show the sentence repeated with the verb or noun changed. Students have created photos to show the action or feeling or object in the sentences.

On MONDAY the question was... He aha tēnei? 

The reply sentence ..... He tēpu tēnei. Or similar. 

On TUESDAY the question was.... Kei te pēhea koe?

The reply sentence ...... Kei te pai ahau. Or similar.

On WEDNESDAY the question was.. Kei te aha koe?

The reply sentence .... Kei te noho ahau. Or similar.

On THURSDAY the question was.... E hia nga....?   

The reply sentence ...... E rua nga tūru. Or similar.

Check out this resource to hear the lessons and quiz yourself.