Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Drama


We have been creating freeze-frames in drama recently. This is where you think of a scenario and act it out by being still like statues. We talked about different problems that might happen at school in the playground and created our freeze-frames to show these. See if you can guess what is happening in each one...





After we had shown our freeze-frames, we talked about what we could do to help out in these situations.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Pasifika Mamas

We had the privilege of a visit to the Corban Estate Art Centre where we learned about different aspects of cultures from the Pacific Islands.

First, we were welcomed by Aunty Tu who took us through some greetings from different island nations, including 'Aloha' (Hawaii), 'Bula' (Fiji), 'Talofa lava' (Samoa), 'Malo e lelei' (Tonga) and 'Kia orana' (Cook Islands). 




Then Mama Mata and Aunty Jacinda taught us how to make a lei using the simple repeated pattern of flower-straw-flower-straw.





Next we learned some drumming techniques from Aunty Tu and her son, Fox. We used skin drums and log drums.



Finally we all learned a dance (boys and girls had different parts to learn and practise before we performed it al together).  


It was such a wonderful experience...thanks to the Pasifika Mamas!!!









Monday, November 4, 2019

The Big Reveal

We had our unveiling of our friendship garden and fenceline of cultural people this afternoon. 

We have been busy adding to the friendship garden. It already had a seat and, earlier in the year we planted a kowhai tree in remembrance of the incident in Christchurch. Since then the middle school have been decorating rocks to border the area and bark, plants and pavers have been added. 


We presented our school song to the public for the first time, then had the oldest and youngest students cut a ribbon surrounding the area to officially open it.



After that we unveiled the cultural people that each class had been busy painting last term. Each person represents a culture in our school. 




Nora and Noah unveiled our boy from Burma, 
and Savanna and Nijel unveiled our girl from Samoa



They all look AMAZING along the fence!













Check Out Our Te Ana Ako Blog

 This year (2021) Haumia is combining with the rest of the middle school to contribute to a syndicate blog.  The link to our Te Ana Ako blog...