Pātaka Art + Museum Trip - Kupe to Cook

"CREEEEEEEEAK... puff!" 

That was the sound of brakes. The bus had stopped. "Boom boom!" 

Jenny's voice echoed over the walls of the bus. "Say thank you to the bus driver as you SLOWLY head out!" 

Kids pushed their way through the small bus, and quiet 'thankyous' got murmured through the crowd. I pushed through the crowd of kids, quickly saying thank you to the driver I rushed out... and fell into a puddle. I was soaked. 

Me and the others ran to the museum, excited. I glared at the pictures of warriors and ships, statues and much much more...

Mae S

The first thing we did was go to the education room where we made waka hourua. Me and Emelia made one that suffered a horrible storm. - Greta L

 In the education room we made our own waka houruas with driftwood. We learned the evolution of navigation and how (and why) navigators got to new places. - William J




At the Pātaka museum we saw a big rock and it turned out that it was Kupe's anchor stone. We thought the boat must must have been big if it could hold that enormous stone! - Evie R

 

The only thing we were allowed to touch was Kupe's anchor stone from his waka hourua! - William J

I am bewildered at how cool this experience was! We were amazed at how much Māori treasure tapa cloth - Solly Y

We stopped at a big tapa cloth. The tapa cloth was very sacred to the Polynesians. We don't have that much in NZ because the weather was too cold to grow it. - Cleo S 

We went to the Pātaka museum, in Porirua on Monday. We attended the exhibition 'Kupe to Cook' and saw some really cool things, from Kupe's anchor stone, to signatures from the Treaty of Waitangi. One of the first things we did was study a painting made on Tapa. Tapa is a type of fabric that is made from plants, and is sacred to Polynesians. When Māori came to NZ they brought Tapa seed with them, but it was too cold for it to grow. So when Cook came, with Tapa, he experienced quite a bit of excitement about it. After that, we did a remake of a Polynesian navigation swell chart, which was quite fun. We then went through the story of Tupaia, although we already knew it! The whole exhibition locked in nicely with our own inquiry, which is all about Māori Navigators - Emelia K 

We also learned that Te Maro was the first Māori to be killed by a gun and Tupaia and him never got to meet. - Stella Z

On this trip, Māhutonga Matariki learnt more about our Polynesian ancestors who were very intelligent navigators. They used the stars to sail around the biggest ocean… the Pacific! They used big waka hourua - double hulled waka - which we got to make. That was really interesting. We also learnt about a very special type of fabric or paper that Māori and other Polynesians appreciate. It's amazing to know that the knowledge at Pātaka connected with ours at Whetūkairangi. - Gina L

Whānau Day- Term 4 (Nic, Helen and James' Group)

Whanau day is an opportunity for children to work in groups from all three areas of the school as well as working with their siblings. We work in different spaces around the school and often with different teachers. It is a great way to explore different parts of the school and make connections with new people.

In Nicola, Helen and James' group we were thinking about being optimistic and having resilience to overcome negative thoughts and emotions. 

We made resilience dolls/ monsters/ pixies. When we have negative the dolls/ monsters/ pixies can help us to remember that good things are happening too. We made these to help us to be optimistic.

Whānau Day Term 4 - Character Strengths (Nik & Carl)

On our Term 4 Whānau Day each group came together to look at character strengths.

Nik & Carl's group thought about perspective. How can we use our Character Strengths to show empathy to others? We think that this is made easier by putting ourselves in other people's shoes.

First, we watched the The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Hearing this famous story from the wolf's perspective got us thinking! Maybe people who we think are 'bad' could just be misunderstood?

We discussed how we could use the Character Strength of Hope to help someone feeling down on themselves - as the wolf had been when everyone painted him as the bad guy. 

Then we did a bus-stop style activity where we did the same with the strengths of Gratitude, Bravery, Humour and Kindness.


This was a great chance for our seniors to show some leadership, helping their Tautoru and Autahi whānau to share their thoughts.

To finish off, we completed our own hope jar inspired by the BFG. In this we put some of our hopes for the future.

Eastern Zones Athletics

Worser Bay students were well represented at Eastern Zones Athletics. Every single person demonstrated grit by being brave, being thoughtful, showing perseverance, showing resilience and being passionate!

We LOVE how our students have been working on their Positive Health along with their Positive Accomplishment. 

Sophie: I took part in the relay. There were 5 of us and we all ran 80m. Before the race I felt nervous and excited. I felt like I needed to use a lot of zest. 

Georgia: I felt like I wasn’t my normal self on the way to Eastern Zones. I felt like I didn’t know how I could do it. When I was running I didn’t think I would make it to the end. I did. 

Alex: I had a good day. I took part in the relays. I was nervous at the start. Some people thought I got disqualified as it took ages to pass the baton. I accidentally went into the wrong lane at the end.

Sitara: I felt excited and nervous. My goal was to do my best and I did.

Anastasiya: I felt really nervous at the sprints because there were tons of other girls and there was lots and lots of people watching.

Ngā Whetū - Whaia Ngā Whetū

In Jenny's basegroup we have been looking at the stars and their significance to Māori.

PosEd Rotations - Touch Rugby

We're not too bitter about the All Blacks' loss to pick up a rugby ball...

This term we're having PosEd rotations on Fridays. We're building Positive Relationships and learning about social skills. It's warming up and we're getting outside to bask in the Positive Health. It's all going on, we're flourishing out there!

One of these rotations will be Touch Rugby. A game which, unlike its more famous counterpart, tends to bring together all kinds of different people, not just big, burly men!

This week we started off with passing. Catching and passing are key because in Touch, any drop is a turnover. First we got together in pairs for a simple back and forth.

Then, we played the clap game in groups. In these groups we had to design some of the rules to suit ourselves.

When we made mistakes, we had to discuss with each other what we as a group considered as fair. Mistakes really do make the brain grow! Tell that to Steve Hansen...

We're discussing the rules and making decisions about our passing game

Lastly, we got together as base groups to complete a hot potato-round the world mash-up. A little bit of Positive Accomplishment to top it off. Tau kē.

He pai ki a mātou te pā whutupaoro!

Inquiry: Whetūkairangi Pā

We have been bringing our Inquiry information together as information boards.  This is some of the information that will be going on to it.

There will be more information coming soon.  Keep an eye out for our draft information boards around the school.