Winter Sport

 Winter Sport has arrived and the kids at Tāwhirimātea are loving it! It was a bit of a worry that this week's event would be cancelled due to the weather, but luckily it was able to go ahead. Whether is football, netball, or the many other sports on offer, our Tāwhirimātea tamariki will certainly be having a blast over these next few Fridays!

A Walk to New Brighton

Last Wednesday, we walked to New Brighton to learn more about our local history. Nigel was a fantastic tour guide and told us all lots of interesting information. We found out about some of the shops which used to be in the Mall and Nigel told us what New Brighton was like when he was a young boy.

Water Colours

During our arts sessions the students have been creating watercolours by sketching their favourite place around New Brighton in charcoal and then painting them. Here are just a few of the artworks that were created.

Our Ferrymead Adventure

 Our Wonderful Ferrymead Experience

All four kaiawhina groups have experience living in the 1840s to 1860s at Ferrymead. They had a wonderful time wearing the clothes of the children of the time and learning some of the rules of the time like girls first and children should be seen and not heard.

  

They enjoyed finding out what they had to do to immigrate to New Zealand, trying pioneer crafts, living in a V-shaped hut and packing their trunks to come to a new country. 

  

   

  

They finished the day exploring the old buildings in Ferrymead. The prison and school were very popular, scary and fun at the same time.  

     

The journey did not end at Ferrymead the children came back to school and experienced making butter and dampa. Some enjoyed sampling their butter and bread, others weren't quite sure but the learning got them all thinking about how different life was.

 

Cross Country

It was so hard to pick only a handful of photos to show off our superstar runners at Cross Country... there were so many good shots of our tamariki giving it their all! From our practices to the real thing, the Tāwhirimātea kids have shown so much resilience to improve their running techniques. They learned how to pace themselves, and keep their momentum going so they could finish the course in the fastest time they could manage. Some of our students even made it into the top 10 for their year group! Whether they got a placing, or whether they gave it their best go (even if they reeeally weren't keen on running, or felt a bit nervous about it) we are SO proud of all of our amazing tamariki!

 

PMP

As part of our P.E. programme, some children take part in a Perceptual Motor Programme (PMP). This aims to develop their coordination skills and their ability for cross-body movements. 

There are five activities which the children practise for the week. The activities they completed this week were bouncing a ball through ladder rungs, balancing on a chair for 30 seconds without holding on, throwing and catching, tossing beanbags into a bucket and balancing on wobble boards.

 

Lots of plants!

Over the school holidays David from Eco-Action Nursery Trust delivered another 1000 native plants for our group to re pot and look after for the next year. These plants will eventually be planted in the red zone. During Monday Mash Up a group is going over to make our way through all of the plants. Last week they all did a great job with over 50 plants re potted already. Great work team!!