Art Art Art!

 We have been getting very creative in Te Waka Ako this term. While some students have been busy making movies for the Ako Hiko Film Festival (we will post those next term) other students have been busy making amazing mono prints and Tapa Cloth squares. 

Here are our monoprints

Here are some pictures of our Tapa Cloth squares which we have put up in one of our windows.

We also entered our local Bunnings Spring Mural competition. They supplied a board and some paint and we got to paint our interpretation of 'Spring'. We decided to use the string pull technique and create a field of Spring Lilies. Here are some pictures.

Tongan Language Week

 This week we celebrated Tongan Language Week.  Each morning we learned some new words and greetings and listened to some songs. Some of the songs help us to remember how to say a greeting or how to say the days of the week.

Malo e lelei  = hello

Toki sio = goodbye

Malo = thank you

Four of our Tongan boys decided to wear their formal Tongan costumes. They looked so handsome! They shared with us the names of each piece of clothing and where/when they would wear them. Then we had a Kahoot about tongan language and culture. No surprises but they came 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

For lunch they brought in a special treat, traditional tongan food. They ate Lu sipi, Kumala, Keke site and Fusi. Here are some photos of our Tongan students.

Ms Sands in Waipu with Ginger and Apache

Hey there, Te Waka Ako, in particular. It is great to see some of the things you have been up to on your blogs. I thought I would share some of the activities I have been doing during your lockdown period in Auckland. Of course study has been happening too, but the call of the outdoors is strong! Also Ginger and Apache (my two cows) like attention. I have added some video clips of some of the food they get as extra to their grass, as the cold wet weather means the grass doesn't grow very quickly and they get hungry. Plus they like variety like people and any other animals. 

  

      

I have also made a fire pit, a stepping stone path and two seats around it. Then I developed the land with new soil, bricks and pots etc. It was a very muddy frustrating job at times but I am happy with the finished product and have had one fire so far. The cows like it! I need to sort the wood that is in the paddock before I can have another! I didn't realise I would need a drain underground when I first made the fire pit so had to go back and dig one in after some torrential rain created a fish pond of my fire pit! Here are some pics of the process. 

Well that is a bit of a marathon post! Enjoy being back together in the syndicate. Take care of each other and stay safe. You got this. Kia kaha. Laters. 

Lockdown Creations

 Who would've thought we would be back in Lockdown! Last week Auckland went into Level 3 Lockdown which meant more distance learning for Te Waka Ako. Luckily we do this really well, and it hasn't been surprising to see the creativity that has come out of being stuck at home. Our students have been baking, filming, making models, doing crazy science experiments, exploring space, creating daffodils and travelling the globe using Google Earth (to name a few).

BUT not just the students! Here are the teachers of Te Waka Ako getting creative at home too (after all of the marking and class meets of course!)

Mrs Jones has got her sewing machine out and has made her family some masks.

Mrs law has been making pancakes (and then going for a big walk)

And Miss Daly has been planting little succulents into cups she found at 2nd hand stores to repurpose as gifts.

What have you been doing during Lockdown?

Matariki

Welcome back to Term Three! This week we celebrated Matariki. Matariki is a celebration of the Maori new year. It is a time of harvesting, family gatherings, flying Manu Tukutuku and eating food. On Thursday the whole school celebrated Matariki. In the seniors we did a three way rotation. The three activities were making fried bread, making kites ( Manu Tukutuku ) and doing some stop motion to retell a Matariki story.
Mrs Jones made the fried bread using self raising flour, water and oil. We then rolled the dough out and cut it into pieces and fried it. Once it cooled we put toppings like Golden Syrup, Nutella and Jam on them. They were delicious!
Miss Daly  did stop motion animation. We used paper and playdoh to retell a Matariki story using the stop motion app on our chromebooks. This was quite hard as we only had a short time to complete them. Some people were very creative and made fantastic characters out of playdoh.
Mrs Law made Manu Tukutuku (Maori kites) out of patterned paper strips woven onto bamboo frames. We made a few small ones and one really big one which we have displayed in Waitemata.
What a great day we had. Did you celebrate Matariki?

Cross Country

On Thursday we decided to have a Cross Country. We were supposed to have it in Week 11 but it rained and got postponed to Week 12. We had different activities set up all around the school including the run. The senior leaders (Year 6's and House Captains) led games for the year groups. The games included Handball, Tennis,  Duck Duck Goose, Blindfold game, warm up station and warm down station on the playground. All the students have been training for weeks and everybody did a great job! The weather was awesome and lots of families came to support their children. Everyone dressed in their house colours (Pukeko = Green, Ruru = Blue, Kea = Red, Tui = Yellow) so it was a colourful wonderful day. What a great way to end the term!
Here is a video of our day!