Tuakana Teina--working across the school

This week we spent some time working across the school in our whanau groups.  This is a wonderful opportunity to get to work with other teachers and with kids of all ages across the school.  It gives us a chance to be leaders and big buddies and to work in different spaces.

This time we were all learning about the story of Ngake and Whataitai--the taniwha of Wellington harbour and how relevant they are to our location here at Worser Bay.  We learned a different version of the story that looks at the taniwha and each of their strengths.  Each group explored these ideas through different ways.  Some did collaborative art, team building exercises, and viewing the locations in the harbour that relate to the story from our local lookout.  

Whānau Day - Matariki

 

In our whānau groups, we explored stories of the Matariki star cluster from around the world. Ask us what we learnt at home...

Whānau groups are groups of children and teachers across the school. There is an added bonus- siblings and families work together. Teachers and students learn from each other! We have been thinking about Tuakana/ Teina. The older students teach the younger students. The roles can also be reversed. We saw this with great energy on Friday!

Matariki Kai - thank you for joining us for this special lunch!

Whānau Day - Tāne and the Baskets of Knowledge

On Friday, we had our first whānau day of the year. This is an opportunity for mixed groups working together across the school and fostering Tuakana-teina Positive Relationships. Tuakana-teina is a concept from te ao Māori. It refers to the relationship between an older (tuakana) person and a younger (teina) person. It is when an older or more expert tuakana (brother, sister or cousin) helps and guides a younger or less expert teina. These roles can be reversed at any time as we see some of our younger students as leaders.

In our groups, we learnt the story of Tāne and the Baskets of Knowledge. We expressed our learning in lots of different ways. Ask us what we learnt...

Here is the story of Tāne

Puanga Whānau Day - Carl, Nik + Teuila

We had a great time connecting with our Whānau Group this week to learn about and celebrate Puanga. You may have heard of Matariki as being the Māori New Year. Read on to find out what we learnt about the Puanga, lesser known among pākehā but highly significant to us here at Whetūkairangi.

We started off the day learning a new waiata, which was gifted to us as a taonga from Te Āti Awa, the mana whenua of this rohe (region). We hope to sing this for you some time soon!


Then we spent a bit of time getting to know our new whānau members (and reconnecting with old ones). Then it was in to the art!

Yesterday we had a day of learning about Māori New Year. We learnt about Puanga and we did art. We had to cut out a mountain from card and with the scraps make texture on the mountain. We used tinfoil to make the star, Puanga, and we used pastel to colour the sky and other stars. Puanga is a star that you can see at the end of the Māori year. Matariki is what you see at the start.

- Chris G

We learnt a song from the Taranaki tribe which they sing at Puanga. Wellington mainly celebrates Puanga as we can't see Matariki because of the mountains. So, we made some mountain art with pastels and paper. We layered the mountain with cut out paper. Last but not least we added a tinfoil star - Puanga! 

- Sabine M

I learnt that Matariki isn't the only stars we celebrate. Puanga is higher in the sky than Matariki. I also learnt that Tautoru is three stars and they point at Matariki. The mountains block our view of Matariki.

- Tigerlily V

Part way through the day Matua Henare came to do a Kapa Haka workshop with us. A great opportunity to practice our skills with a mixed group from across the school. This gave our seniors a chance to show some leadership. Sometimes we perform together, but we hardly ever practice together so this was really special. Tau kē!

Learning about Puanga doesn't mean we forget about Matariki! Matua Henare taught us new lines for the song 'Te Iwa o Matariki' which add in the extra two stars:

Ko Pohutukawa e

Ko Hiwaiterangi e

Matariki, e arā e...