Koru Art

Today we started some Koru art inspired by artist Raewyn Harris. We look forward to showing the finished products later in the week.

Nicky Hager's Visit

Nicky Hager's Visit By Gretel

On Wednesday we had Nicky Hager come in and talk to us about what he does as a job and a living. He told us two examples of what he did and then one of what we could do to help.

The first one was about how he helped stop Nuclear Weapons coming in to New Zealand from over in Great Britain and America. Nicky and his friends took little boats out from Worser Bay to try to stop massive warships, as high as a three story building coming into the harbour. This attracted attention from the Newspapers and soon everybody had an opinion on the issue.

His second example was to help save New Zealand's Native forests from getting chopped down. This is also related to the guy who climbed up the Kauri and stayed up there for three days to stop it from being cut down. The whole idea was to get attention so more people would know about it and it would be in the News on the Radio or wherever they would get attention.  This is how ordinary people can bring about change.

He also told us about his work as a writer in which he has to be an ‘Information Detective’, searching for clues in documents in the Parliamentary Library, as much looking for what has been written as for what has been left out.

He suggested that if we felt something was unfair we could take some action too.  That might just involve helping people out, like when we did the baking for the church or just asking good questions which make people think about what is fair.  It’s another type of Manaakitanga.

By Gretel

Nicky Hager from Matariki on Vimeo.

Wood Towers

We were making wood towers for our Art Exhibition. We used driftwood from the beach and made lots of different sculptures and structures! We made different ones every day! By Anna


Wood Tower from Matariki on Vimeo.

Planting on the beach

Today we went to the beach with some council rangers to plant on the dunes. We have to plant on the sand so that it stops the sand and soil from eroding. Planting also helps to attract wildlife, like lizards to the area. It is important to plant new plants every so often. By Jack M.

Planting on the beach from Matariki on Vimeo.

Air New Zealand Follow Up!

We made Air NZ Videos. We entered them into a competition for Air NZ's 75th Birthday and unfortunately we didn't win, but we did get certificates of participation and (three) 75 years of Air NZ books! We will be putting these 3 books in the library, they will be- able to be issued to you, if you wish to take one home for a while. Please take a look at the videos below!

Note: This Air NZ Video you may have seen before
Made By, Gretel, Chanel, Frankie, Eloise

Celebration of learning

Celebrating our Learning with Parents. What a fantastic day!

It was really packed and noisy when Parents, Friends and Family came in today, It was really fun. Everybody was looking at the work we have done and the artefacts that we found down the bank. All the parents were so excited to explore the classrooms and find out what is down the bank, they also enjoyed seeing what we have to offer. There was also some delicious Kawa-kawa tea that we put out for the parents and students, tasty! There was a table for sketching and drawing with charcoal, so the parents could do some art. The parents  loved all of the amazing bird feeders that we made! We  planted the seed bombs down the bank with the parents and teachers so that they could see what the seed bombs do. Here are the parents looking at the footprints we got through our tracking tunnels, The parents look at the treasure we found down the bank  and planting seed bombs!

The parents look at the treasure we found down the bank.

Planting seed bombs,(These were the ones we froze first.)