Tu Mahana

On Monday, the whole studio spent the morning exploring the Museum and Art Gallery looking through the lens of our concept of ‘Belonging’. In the afternoon, we watched the spectacular performance of Tu Mahana at the Town Hall, this was the Ngai Tahu version of the creation story. A huge thank you to the parent helpers who volunteered their time to help us keep the students safe.

Waipara Adventure Camp 2021

 What A Week

It has been an amazing week. Year 5 and 6's participated in a funfilled, sometimes challenging, camp.

The children had the opportunity to:

• learn how to shoot a bow and arrow and air rifle safely. There was lots of fun had trying to pop balloons and hit the cans.

  

• build their own rafts and test them in the water. They challenged themselves to cross the river, balance on them and some even turned them into paddleboards.

 

• challenge themselves to walk or run off the sky sailing and go up on the giant swing. They tried to reach the pine tree and get a pine cone. They could then choose whether to be lowered slowly or fast. The biggest surprise was the lack of screams. 
  

  

• go down the water sliding and zoom down on the flying fox. The screams could be heard echoing around the camp as they hit the cold water at the end of the water slide.

   

• to try lots of yummy food ranging. The cook, Sue, kept making toast as more and more requests came in from the hungry children. Chicken pasta, ham steaks, large baked potatoes and yummy salads were woofed down. Not surprisingly, the pudding was the most popular with chocolate cake, ice cream and strawberry sauce taking the most votes. 

  

The kayaking proved to be one of the most popular activities as they learnt to kayak safely and show resilience as children challenged themselves to play the piano on the kayaks (ask the children : >). It was lots of fun to watch and to take part in.

 

The parents, children, instructors, cook and teachers all worked together to make the two camps an awesome experience.

While the Year 5's were on camp the Year 4's were challenged to make a raft to sail across the school small pool.

Rāwhiti Senior Choir

 

The Rāwhiti Senior Choir got underway this week and we have many students from Tāwhirimātea taking part. This opportunity is made available to any student from years 5-8 who has a passion for singing. In November, we will be performing in the Christchurch Music Festival, where many chch schools come together to sing a tracklist of 10 songs. We have a lot of time to practice, so I'm sure we'll sound amazing by then! There are some songs that we know quite well already, and some that we'll need some time to learn. A favourite of ours is "We Know the Way" from the movie Moana!

Gymnastics

Tāwhirimātea Week 6

The highlight of our week has definitely been our lessons at the Christchurch School of gymnastics. Our tamariki have had an amazing time trying out a variety of activities using their strength, flexibility, and stamina. That trampoline looked like so much fun! The children should feel proud of themselves for giving everything a go, even if it was something they'd never done before. Karawhiua! 

We'd like to say a huge thank you to the parents who came along to support us on the walk there and back. We're looking forward to returning next week! 

Compound Words

This week, one of Urmi's reading groups has been learning about compound words. A compound word is when two words are joined to make one. The children had to find words in their reading book and create a word cloud to display them. 

They have shared their learning on their own blogs.