He Puna Tārei, Room 5; Year Four

Could YOU build a tower from spaghetti, a few mini marshmallows and a bit of masking tape??! Week 9 - Term 3 The children had to work together in teams to try to create a structure strong enough to support one (full sized) marshmallow. The winning team's marshmallow would be the one furthest from the floor. Check out some of the pictures (below). *FOR MORE PICS GO TO THE PHOTO GALLERY ON THE KŌTUITUI WEBSITE* Learning... persistence - patience - resilience - communication - problem solving and learning from mistakes and /or  experience - physics - geometry

This morning when we got to school we were in for a BIG surprise... The children enjoyed writing stories to explain what had gone on in their akomanga (classroom). Here are some story samples...

We used our knowledge of Te Reo Māori to name our taniwha creations. "My taniwha is Parihaunui," said Bhakthi, "because he has big wings." "Parihau means wing and nui means big in te reo Māori." "Mokomokonui is my taniwha because I love lizards and he is a lizard too! Mokomoko is the Māori word for lizard," said Alex. "My taniwha has eaten ten people! So her name is Tekaukai. Tekau means ten and kai means eat," said Tivaniq.

"He aha he taniwha?"  We have learnt that a taniwha is a kaitiaki, a guardian. They are a good luck charm for their people... but others need to watch out because they are very loyal and protective! We created our own, unique taniwha art works to show everyone what our taniwha looks like. First, we designed two taniwha with pencil, then chose our favourite design to reproduce and drew that onto big art paper. Over top of the pencil sketch, we drew black sharpie.  Next, we chose some parts to colour in with crayons or pastels.  Last, we used dye to complete our art pieces.