Room 2 Pīwakawaka

 This week, we have been learning a Pīwakawaka song. When we went to the nature trail last week, we saw a couple of pīwakawaka. We stopped and listen to the piwakawaka sound. 

We have been talking about how pīwakawaka likes to eat tiny bugs and likes to follow us around. Our children really enjoy the new song, and I heard them singing during the day in the classroom. 

On Friday, we made our own pīwakawaka and took them to the nature trail. To our surprise, one piwakawaka came following us! 

Outside Classroom Day!

 We celebrated Outside Classroom Day this week. Room 2 children love spending time outside. We go down to Pūtikitiki often to explore nature and move our bodies. We think it is really important to do that. 

On this particular day, we explored the nature trail, we have been there before this was really the first time to explore it how children wanted to. 

I placed some cones on the nature trail so that the children could go up and down freely. I would like to remove the cones once the children have felt comfortable exploring the area. 

I asked the children to find natures' treasures. There were some rules around this. As the children have developed a lot about Tane Mahuta, the god of the forest, it was really important that we all look after nature. 

We do not leave rubbish behind in the forest. We do not pick leaves or flowers off the trees. We can pick things off the ground. We ask Tāne Mahuta permission to enter the forest. 

Look all the amazing nature's treasures we found! 

Rata and the waka

We have been working on creating the play of Rata and the waka in Room 2. After learning about Kupe's journey to Aotearoa, our children showed their great interests in learning the story of Rata. They chose their characters to play, made costumes and played the character with such enthusiasm. 

The children were so engaged in the process of making the play. They practised a few times before the play was filmed. We had lots of fun while we created and worked together. 

Welcome back everyone! Learning about Kupe.

 Welcome back everyone to Term 2! I hope you have had a wonderful holiday. 

Our children are happy and settled back into the classroom. We have a couple of new children that we welcomed to our class. 

This week, we are learning about Kupe the first person who arrived at Aotearoa. Kupe was chasing the wheke from Hawaiki. Kupe was an amazing ocean specialist and had great knowledge about the ocean and how to navigate his waka to Aotearoa. He used stars, waves of the ocean, clouds and ocean creatures to get to Aotearoa. 

As we have learnt the story of Kupe, we also learnt about the waka he came in. It is called waka haurua. The children made their own waka haurua. 

We then made a big waka haurua for us! The children acted out being Kupe and the wheke!