Ngati Kahungunu Primary Kapa Haka Festival

Our seniors performed so well! Very proud to watch them today. All their hard work and effort paid off - they were amazing! Big thanks to Miss Smith, Chantze, Harlem, and Te Ara.

Dry Ice - Science vs Magic

What an exciting day of learning!  The children were encouraged to wonder and ask questions throughout the dry ice experiments. It was great to observe such wonderful deep thinking, scaffolding and questioning grow over the series of experiments.

Our dry ice experiments kicked off our Term 4 Inquiry into Science versus Magic, called "Are you for Real?" We look forward to the next few weeks as the children begin to pursue their own area of passion through a structured process of Inquiry.

Time Lapse trip to Optimist Yachting

Thanks Manu and Hayley for your fabulous camerawork

Optimist Yachting

It's a shame the weather wasn't kind to us, but at least we managed to get in some optimist yachting and kayaking!

Here are some pics from the few days we got onto the water.

Optimist Yachting

Next week we are heading off to Pandora Pond for Optimist Yachting.  This is a great opportunity for our children and they will achieve a lot over the 4 days.

In class we are preparing for this EOTC so when we get to the water we are ready to go! Check out our blog over the next few days.

Here's a clip from the Hawkes Bay Optimist Yacht Trust to get us started.

Rewindable Learning for One-Point Perspective Art

This Term the children have been learning to draw using one-point perspective. They've managed to produce some amazing artworks to brighten up the classroom.

For our latest piece of art we used technology to help draw a more complicated piece. Technology helped them to go through the stages step by step and also gave the children the opportunity to pause the steps when they needed to and also rewind the steps when they weren't sure. The result was greater learner confidence, and fantastic artwork showing a one-point perspective looking up at city skyscrapers.

Thanks Big Sisters!

Spending a week inside due to wet weather can leave use feeling a little cooped up! Wyatt's sisters put a smile on his face when he reached into his lunchbox and found a bar with a special message from his big sisters. Well done Max and Nikita...so thoughtful!

Taonga from our Kids, to our Kids

Our children pulled together and planted our native garden today. It was a Team effort and the result of their inquiry learning into the diminishing number of native and endemic birds in New Zealand.

The inquiry was inspired from our visit to Zealandia, Wellington, earlier in the year, where the children learnt about the efforts of the Sanctuary to preserve our unique wildlife.

Our children prepared design proposals (shared earlier) and worked together with the rest of Team 3. The native garden is a special taonga for Mahora School; and our children hope to return in years to come and see the endemic wildlife that their garden attracts.

Big thanks to our PTA for their support, Steve Cave from HB Regional Council for his expertise, the Native Plant Nursery Taupo for supplying the plants, and to Bernie and Jasmine for their help with planting today.

Play-doh Genius Hour by Grace and Sam

Pics from our Native Planting Day

Night Vision Trailer

Night Vision Movie Trailer by Shona and Mya

This Term some of our children have been involved in NZ Read Aloud - an online collaborative book club. The children thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Night Vision' by New Zealand author Ella West. They also enjoyed sharing their learning with children from other classes also involved. Here is a movie trailer created by Mya and Shona, about the book.

Inquiry Design Proposal - Kieana

Inquiry Design Proposal - Nathan, Benji, Jayden

Inquiry Design Proposal - Payton, Mathias, Ben

Inquiry Design Proposal - Courtney, Innika

Inquiry Design Proposal - Sam, Alexx, Briana

Inquiry Design Proposal - Grace, Mya, Shona

Inquiry Design Proposal - Caleb, Cairo, Wyatt, Dylan

Inquiry Design Proposal - Stuart, Vikta, Reicoe, Isaiah

Inquiry Design Proposal - Keera, Shqkharne

Fireman saves kitten by ben

Fireman Saves The Kitten by Stuart

Saving the kitten~Mya

Benji's Just In Time

Fireman Saves Kitten by Shona

Using adverbs to engage our audience

Created with Padlet

A Day in the Life of a Ball of Playdoh

This is a day in the life of a ball of playdoh! It is a stop animation, similar to a cartoon. I needed to remember to keep the camera still, make small changes and tell a story at the same time. I had fun creating it.

By Stuart

 

Our Week in the Dream Team

Our learning in the first week back this Term, was centred around ANZAC Day.

We discovered many things about why we commemorate this special Day. We read many stories about our men and women who served for us, we wrote poems and stories, created art, and shared about our own family stories.

One of our highlights was Mystery Skyping a school, "somewhere in the World". We needed to work as a team, take turns asking thoughtful "Yes/No" questions, and be the first to discover the others' location.  It turned out, the mystery school was from Sydney, Australia. Both classes enjoyed sharing songs and family stories relating to ANZAC Day.

Today we shared some of this learning with the rest of the School, during our Assembly item. Thank you very much to our parents and grandparents who were able to come along this morning. If you missed our Assembly, here are some snapshots of our fabulous kids.

Alexx, Mya and Mathias

Timeline of World War 1

Silhouette Artwork

Silhouette Artwork

Silhouette Artwork

Black Caps Assembly

During Term 1 our Year 6s worked hard to earn their Black Cap. This included carrying out their duties in the playground and around the school. It also meant that they needed to show that they were great role models for others at Mahora.

As Black Caps, they will be called upon to do different jobs of responsibility.

Congratulations to you all! We are very proud of you and are grateful for the positive contributions you make to our School. Piki Haere!

Innika's first genius hour

Amnesia by Samantha

We are a Waka

We compared the Dream Team to a waka and made some great comparisons. We are a "waka" is a metaphor.  We then created our own paddle that represented our family. The manawa down the centre of our paddle joined us all together.

  

Cairo and Reicoe drawing their waka paddle

Dakota, Shona and Courtney

Welcome to the Dream Team - Preview into 2015!

Welcome to the Dream Team 2015 from Room 13 Dream Team on Vimeo.

How Full is your Bucket?

The way we treat people not only affects them, but also ourselves.

In the Dream Team, we go the extra distance to make sure everyone is included and everyone is accepted for who they are.

Looking after our iPads

This movie was created by The Dream Team in 2013. Our iPads and Chromebooks are great tools that we use everyday in our classrooms. They enhance our learning and we couldn't do without them. It is important that we remember how we take care of our technology.

Here is a movie created by The Dream Team in 2013, that will help remind us about how to do this.

Looking after our iPads from Room 13 Dream Team on Vimeo.

The Dream Team - You were born to be awesome!

Here's a powerful message from Kid President - he wants to give us a pep talk. He wants us to get excited about who we are and the special talents that make us each unique. Listen to his message and let it light the fire in your bellies and put a dream in your hearts! We already knew you are awesome but now we want the world to know. Watch this space...  Piki Haere Dream Team!

Welcome to 2015!

Welcome back to school. I hope you've had a well-deserved break and are looking forward to a fabulous year in 'The Dream Team'!

This is our new class blog for 2015. It is your space to share your wonderful learning with your parents, whanau and the rest of the world! It is also a space where they can communicate with you too, about your work.

We have an exciting start to the year planned. More details will be given shortly.

In the meantime, let your mum, dad or whanau know that stationery can be bought from the office now so you are all ready to begin on Day 1.

Enjoy the last few days of your holidays, and I'll see you all real soon.

From Mrs Maloney :)