Welcome to Leroy

Kia ora my name is Leroy, I am from Kaikohe.

 I used to go to Kerikeri Primary and now I am at Paihia School.  I am 10 years old.   I love sports, especially rugby.  I also like riding horses and quads.  The best thing I have done in my life is probably going on a holiday with my family to Haruru Falls.  I like Paihia School so far, because I have managed to have 2 shared lunches already, but I am a bit disappointed that I was too late to go on camp!

4 shot movie

We have been learning about camera shots and angles recently.  We found out about the different types and what they are used for.  Some of us made these posters to help us remember them all.

Then we had a go at telling a story using 4 of these shots, without talking.  Here are our movies. 

Super Vinnie (by Vinnie, Tia and Isaiah S)

The Picture  (by Franky and Indie)

The Race (by Bella, Anyah and Rymon)

The Shrinking Watch (by Rikesh, Isaiah M, and Tayla) 

The Tiger (Kingston and Mihipeka)

 Feed Me (Jack, Liam N, 

The Tourist Fail (Lucas, Payton, George)

The Evil Sandwich (Julian and Dayton)

The Swing (Liam B, Rikki-Dean, John)

The Money Mix Up (Lilli-Rose, Ataahua) 

Project Island Song - Floating Classroom

Last week some of us were lucky enough to go to Project Island Song's Floating Classroom.  We went out on one of the Explore boats, to Urupukapuka Island.  We learnt all about what Project Island Song is doing to save the birds and bring back the bird song to the islands.

We planted some trees and we made some traps to catch the pests that harm the birds.

We had such an awesome day! Thanks to all the people involved in Project Island Song and to our amazing parent helpers for making it a success.

Class Craft

In Te Maunga we are playing a game call Classcraft, we are playing this game because we are learning about collaboration and relationships. We have been learning that what we do can hurt other people's feelings. We also  need to be nice to each other and help each other to work as a team.

It is a game where you have to work together as a team you get XP experience points for doing the right thing like staying on task, and you lose HP health points when you don’t do the right thing like social talking. Your team can help you if you lose points; if they a healer, they can fix you, if they are warrior they can take away some damage for you. It is really cool because you have to work together because if you don’t, and someone falls in battle you lose points to.

E-Learning Symposium

Last week some of our students went to Ohaeawai Primary to present at the E-Learning Symposium.  They talked about Chapter Chat and how it is helping our learning.  Bella, Tia, Liam and Payton did such an amazing job talking to other students, teachers, parents and Principals. 

 

Chapter Chat

Us getting ready for our first Chapter Chat

Last week Te Maunga took part in our first Chapter Chat.  Chapter Chat is a twitter chat involving lots of classes and students around New Zealand talking about the same novel.  The book we are all reading this term is Ghost by Jason Reynolds.(Click here to find out more about this book)  We are loving the book so far!  We get 10 questions to discuss during the chat and we can complete some tasks related to the chapters we read that week.

Some of us couldn't drag ourselves away from the chat!

We have had to learn how to use Twitter, how to get our point across in less than 140 characters, how to be good digital citizens, how to answer questions about the book and how to respond to others properly.

Some of enjoyed it so much we stayed in class after the bell went to keep participating!

We can't wait for the next chat!

Whanau Celebration Day

On Thursday Paihia school  had a whanau day. At whanau day we did a karakia in the whare  then we sat down listened to the fun activities that we are going to do for the day. After all the talking we went back outside to play and plant and do different activities.

The very first game we played was poi toa, then we played maui and matau. We had to buddy up into partners we had to buddy up with someone close to us. The very first thing we did was learnt how to throw a poi toa. My partner threw the poi toa  and I caught it “yay” said Mihipeka.

Then we went to the next activity maui matau. We had to use the  rakau to play the game. First we had to stand in a circle. We all had a rakau-(stick) When the leader says maui-(left) you have to quickly move to the left and grab the other person's stick but you have to leave your stick where you were standing. When the leader says matau-(right) you have to move to the right and grab the other person's stick. If you drop the stick you are out.

After we played maui and matu we went planting. We planted lots of different kinds of trees and we planted it next to our pump track. Then the bell rung and we had a whole school shared lunch and it was yummy.

Here are some photos:
       

Waitangi Treaty Grounds

Paihia School went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds to do some fun activities and to learn about Matariki. We got to make kites with Rahu (she is one of the workers)  out of Nikau fronds.

We also played some games - that were supposed to help you get better at listening and moving quietly. It was a hard game because you were blindfolded so couldn't see your opponent and you had to try and tag them by listening to them rattle their shell, but they were also trying to tag you.

We also got to plant some trees in the bush.

It was an awesome day!

Whaea Jessie

In Te Maunga we have been so lucky to have the wonderful Whaea Jessie as our student teacher.  we have had Whaea Jessie in our class for two weeks. Sadly Whaea Jessie has to go back to university  in Auckland, but she will be back at the end of term 3 and the first few weeks of term 4.  We can't wait for that!  We all are going to miss her so much so that is why we are going to say a big good bye on Friday the 23rd of June. Whaea Jessie help us with our maths, reading , writing, literacy and lastly Te Reo Maori. She is a great student teacher. We all  hope she gets to come back to Paihia School and teaches one of our classes.

Breakout EDU

In Te Maunga we did Break Out EDU.  If you don't know what Breakout EDU is, watch this video.  We were learning to collaborate with our whole class. Last time we did this we failed.  Nobody listened, nobody was collaborating and people were running around doing their own thing.  This time we all worked together, worked as a team and we BROKE OUT!!!

Click here to see an HD version of the movie.

Our New Furniture

Last term, the Board of Trustees gave us some money for new furniture. The whole of Te Maunga was allowed to choose what furniture would be good and make a difference to our classroom.  We all split up in groups, had a booklet of all the furniture we could get and in the end we would sit on the mat and discuss what furniture we all want. We picked five beanbags, 6 tall chairs,7 wobbly chairs, four floor cushions, 6 small chairs, one very small table, a very high table and a medium table just like the tall one. It was such a big surprise when we got our furniture. The furniture arrived on the 2nd of May.  The furniture is like a boost to our learning. The furniture keeps us comfortable as we work. Our old furniture didn’t give us much room in our class so the new furniture is very helpful for that. We love the furniture. We all thank the Board of Trustees  and Mike’s Woodshop.

School Tryathlon

Last Friday our whole school competed in a tryathlon.  Our class swam at the beach, ran back to school then biked around the field.  We thought it was a pretty cool day, but the best thing was the ice cream for finishing. It was amazing.

Beach Ed

On Friday we were lucky enough to go to the beach and learn about staying safe with some Surf Lifesavers.  We went with Te Moana. We had so much fun, we learnt how to use some of the life saving equipment.  We played relays with the rescue tubes, on land and in the water.  We played beach flags - where we had to lie in the sand with our feet facing the flags, then race to get the flag before everyone else.  There were more people than flags, so we kept getting less and less people people until in got down to Rikki-Dean and Tia. (You can watch the movie to see who won!)  Then we got to have a free swim.  It was an awesome day!

The Get NZ Writing Challenge

Over the past few weeks, we have been participating in the Get NZ Writing challenge along with hundreds of classes across NZ. We had 32 postcards and a poster to complete. When they were completed we exchanged them with a class from Te Horo School in Wellington. We explore metaphors, writing some about ourselves and putting them into a poem.

Here are a couple of examples of our favourite metaphors.

We then picked our favourite line in the poem and wrote on the back of a blank card. On the other side there were parts of words that all get joined together to become a sentence. The other class was also going to do the same thing for us.

This is what our postcards looked like when they were all put together

We really enjoyed colouring in the postcards and putting the puzzle together.  We also thought filling out the poster was heaps of fun, even if it did take forever.  We tried really hard to make sure as many people as possible did something on our poster.

Our awesome finished poster

We can’t wait to get our parcel from Wellington and seeing their poster and poems.  It will be amazing!

Our School Hoe (values)

In Te Maunga we have been learning about our hoe. We wanted to show what we have learnt on our hoe by doing  it digitally. Here are some examples of our learning.

Whanaungatanga


Kaha



Tu Maia 



Manaakitanga 

Whanaungatanga - by Franky and Lucas

Ice Cream Day

 

On Friday February the 24th Nga Motu was  fundraising at Paihia School for camp. There was a very long line at the Whare Kai because most of the school wanted a yummy ice cream. There was Hokey Pokey ice cream for $1. The teachers of Nga Motu were very busy handing out a lot of ice creams, we beat they got sore arms! It was yummy and sweet ice cream. Some people even bought their own toppings.  

By Payton, Anyah, Isaiah M and Franky.

Introducing Te Maunga

Kia ora and welcome to our first blog post of the year.  Over the past few weeks we have been spending some time getting to know our new teacher and about each other.  We wrote these bio poems to help Whaea Becks and our peers learn more about us. Please feel free to read through our poems and leave a comment.