This week we have been writing a pūrākau about Tāne and the 3 baskets of knowledge. In Freya’s example, she has followed a story structure and included the success criteria items of a simile, onomatopoeia, speech marks and te reo Māori language.  Ka pai Freya.

Tāne and the 3 Kete

Io, the guardian of the heavens, sent Tāne to climb up into the heavens and fetch the 3 baskets of mātauranga (knowledge). Whiro, Tāne’s brother, grew aware of his brother’s opportunities. Whiro was jealous, his face burned like a flaming fire. He thought he was better than everyone. He thought he was clever and took a different route to his brother. He underestimated his brother’s matauranga. Whiro was as sly and cunning as a fox. As Tāne passed Whiro, Whiro released his rage and cast ngārara ( insects ) on his brother. Slurp! Sting! Buzz! Tāne was swarmed with pepeke ( bugs ); he cried out for the wind of Tawhirimatea to come and save him. Tawhirimatea heard his cries and sent his wind to help Tāne on his haerenga (journey). Tāne was relieved when he reached the house of Io before his brother. Tāne received the 3 baskets and the 2 stones. “Ka pai”, boomed Io. Tāne made his way back home but Whiro had had enough of always being put second best to his brother. More and more insects paraded in attacking Tāne. But Tāne was safe, for the baskets and stones were a korowai (cloak) of protection from his brother’s harm. He was welcomed back home as a marohirohi (hero) and laid the kōhatu (stones) and kete (baskets) as learning from his extraordinary haerenga. People celebrate their Koha (gifts) with nui (big) Hākari (feasts).

by Freya

Recently, we celebrated the many different cultures here at St Teresa’s School. Many teachers and learners could come to school in an outfit from their culture or just maybe something representing New Zealand like a sports jersey. We had cultures from all over the globe and activities to match.  We had a great day!

On the Friday of our first week back, we celebrated ANZAC day with a prayer service in the quad.

A big thanks to Chris Orsman who read a poem at the end of our prayers.

Thank you to our wonderful team of leaders for this fantastic fund-raising event for supporting mental health and wellbeing. 

Year 5 students from Teina had a blast at camp! They enjoyed activities such as a mudslide, confidence course, gladiator competition, bike riding, flying fox, orienteering, mini golf, bowling and archery. Everyone had a positive attitude and supported each other as a team. Ka pai Year 5 campers!

Last week, Teina learnt a new Pūrākau: Tāne Mahuta. After learning the story we picked a way to retell it such as through comic or book creator.

Here are some examples of our learning.

The Story of Tāne Mahuta

A pūrākau about Tāne Mahuta

Here is the link that shows the presentations from Tuakana’s learning about New Zealand Land Wars this term.

Wow! We had a huge turnout of support from our community at our celebration of learning last evening. Our goals for this evening were to:

1. Prepare celebration of learning presentation related to values – for our community
2. Showcase agentic learning in action for the community in a variety of ways
3. Continue to support a range of connections, communications with parents, caregivers, whanau and the community

Tamariki Potiki shared a simple mihi Whakatau to welcome us all, followed by a play they had written, about Zacchaeus.

Tamariki Teina shared the various ways they had chosen to learn about and share our school values. Lots of our families watched their presentations and asked them questions.

Tamariki Tuakana presented their investigations into Aotearoa New Zealand Histories. Visiting parents and families listened to their commentaries, read through their presentations, watched their videos and asked them tricky questions, for example, “Do you think it was fair?” (The Treaty of Waitangi). The children were impressive in the knowledge they were able to share and their understanding of the complexities of our country’s history.

Thank you to all of the children, the teachers and our families for supporting this evening – designed to bring our community back together after a long and difficult year of not being able to hold community events.