Learning about the Marae and visiting Hamilton Gardens .

Although we could not go to the marae, we did a lot of learning about what is in the marae as well as  singing E hara i te mea.

 We learnt about how  the wharenui is constructed and the importance of the ancestors and their stories. It was awesome because  as we were learning the song 'E hara i te mea',  there is a word "tūpuna" meaning ancestors and we talked about what that meant. We have our parents, and they have their parents (our grandparents), and they have parents and it goes on... we are all connected in a family tree.

 This week's poem is called "I am  a wharenui". It highlights parts of the wharenui. We also made wharenui with our body. Hukanui marae's koruru has really big eyes. I love the way the children open their eyes wide just like him! 

It was interesting to find out that children were most disappointed because they could not sing the song "E hara i te mea" at the marae as they were practising singing in Māori and New Zealand Sign Language. However, it was so great that we were able to sing this song at Hamilton Gardens after the Kapa Haka performance! 

On the trip day! 

      We just can not wait to go on the bus!!!! Where is the bus?!

    Yay! We are on the bus now! Can we see our houses from the bus? Oh! We saw some of our children's old kindergarten!

What a fantastic hot morning we had exploring the gardens! 

We also had lots of fun at the playground.

 Thank you, Hamilton Gardens for having us! 

Our portraits

In Week 2, we have painted and drawn our portraits. This has been a process as the children first painted the paper with dye. The children enjoyed this as they talked about how it looked like a rainbow. Then, we moved onto drawing ourselves. Before drawing, we talked about what we have on our face, how our head is connected to the body with the neck and we have arms, legs, fingers and feet. I love the way it captures each child's creativity, uniqueness and character.

Awesome work everyone!

Nau mai, haere mai! Welcome to Room 2!

Kia ora,

 Ko Ishikari te awa.
 Ko Shinichi tōku pāpā.
 Ko Michiko tōku māmā.
 No Hapani ahau.
 Ko Yoshie ahau.

 Kia ora everyone. My name is Yoshie and I am the teacher in Room 2. I am originally from Japan and have been in New Zealand for 17 years. I look forward to getting to know your child and their whānau.In the first week back at school, we got to know a little bit about each other, had a tour of the school together, and we played! It is really interesting, as through play we get to see the children's interests, how they interact with others and the environment.

 
We made our Room 2 vase of flowers and the children worked very hard at making their face flowers!

We had a tour of the school and got to know a little bit about where things are.We will be more familiar with this as we visit the places like Pūtikitiki, the library, the hall, the swimming pool, the gateway, the garden, and the office. 

Again, welcome to all the children in Room 2.  I cannot wait to get to know you and your families!