Pania of the Reef

This week we read the legend of Pania of the Reef, retold by Annie Rae Te Ake Ake. This story tells about how Pania fell in love with Karitoke and left her home beneath the sea to marry him. Then was tricked into returning to the ocean where she was trapped and could never make her way back to her husband.

We were learning about visualising. We used descriptive detail from the story, and our own ideas to create an image in our head of the people of the sea and their underwater home.

Each of us got to turn our visualisations into an artwork.

We created our illustrations by using jovis and crayons to make wonderful illsutrations about Pania of the Reef.

We are proud of our illustrations because there were no white spaces, and our work was colourful, amazing, and bold.

We hope you like them! 

What is your favourite legend?

The legend of the creation

This week we read the legend of the creation, retold by Annie Rae Te Ake Ake. This story tells about how Ranginui and Papatuanuku were first created. We found out about their children: Tane Mahuta (God of the forest), Tangaroa (God of the sea) and Tawhirimatea (God of the wind). 

We were learning about asking questions as we read. We used clues from the story to help us answer the questions that we had been wondering about. We wondered what would be created out of the darkness, and we have created koru art to show what we  found out as we read the story.

Each of us got to create our own koru art. 

We created these by drawing our koru with pencil, and then we coloured them in with jovis and crayons.

We are proud of our koru art because we have our own ideas and and we tried our best and used a lot of effort, and we made it all by ourselves :)

We hope you like them! 

What is your favourite legend?

Rata and the Tōtara Tree

This week we read the legend of Rata and the Tōtara Tree, retold by Annie Rae Te Ake Ake. This story tells about how Rata cut down a tōtara tree without permission, and the creatures of the ngahere kept putting it back together until he said a karakia to Tane Mahuta to ask for permission to take the tree so that he could carve a great waka. 

We were learning about identifying the main idea of a text. We used clues from the story to help us work out what the main idea was. We used callouts to create speech bubbles for our creatures of the ngahere to share the main idea in our own words.

Each of us got to create our own creature of the ngahere. 

We created these by drawing them on paper and colouring them in with Jovis, pens and coloured pencils.

We are proud of our creatures because we put a lot of effort in and created them from the heart, and we created them from our own ideas.

We hope you like them! 

What is your favourite legend?

The legend of Maui and the Sun

This week we read the legend of Maui and the Sun, retold by Annie Rae Te Ake Ake. This story tells about how Maui slowed down the sun.

We were learning about predicting. We used information from the title, pictures and our knowledge of Maori legends to make think about what the story could be about. As we read the story, we thought about the new information and made changes to our predictions.

Each of us got to re-design the cover for this story. 

We created our illustrations by colouring in our pictures using jovis and crayons.

We are proud of our illustrations because we filled in all the white spaces, we drew them NICE and BIG, and we think they look pretty cool.

We hope you like them! 

What is your favourite legend?

Summarising the Battle of the Mountains

This week we read the Battle of the Mountains Legend, retold by Annie Rae Te Ake Ake. This story tells about how our maunga, Mt Taranaki, came to be situated here on the west coast of the North Island.

We were learning about summarising. As we read the story, we thought about the most important parts. After we finished reading, we tried to retell the story in 5 main points.

We created our illustrations by reading a story and choosing our favourite part to illustrate.

We are proud of our illustrations because we did a great job of drawing the mountains faces to show how they are feeling.

We hope you like them! 

What is your favourite legend?

19th October - Nanny Mihi and the Rainbow 🌈

                                               

Today in Karaka we had read the story Nanny Mihi and the Rainbow. The story had a lot of Maori kupu in it, and we learned a lot about the different Maori colours. We knew the our class was named after the Karaka Tree, but was cool to see we’re also another name for the colour orange.

                                 

After having read the story, we learned about what a collage was, and made our own super awesome colour collage rainbow! We used seeds, flowers, pasta, and pieces of paper in a bunch of different colours! And they came out really awesome. What do you think of them? Wouldn't you like to see a rainbow like this in the sky?

10th August - Compliments!

 Together in Karaka we talked about again what makes a good friend. Discussing the Rainbow Fish, we thought about the Octopus’ advice, and whether the Rainbow Fish did have to give away their scales to make friends. The children listened to a version of the story where the Catfish lets the Rainbow Fish know that instead of giving away their scales, they could simply say something nice about the other fish in the see - giving them compliments!

Karaka learned how compliments were a real good way of making others feel good about themselves. Just like the catfish, Whaea Fiona taught us about the many ways we can say nice things about others in Karaka, and with that, they made their own “compliments letter boxes”. The tamariki had a lot of fun creating their own personal letter boxes, and came up with some really cool ideas! Some made a house, and a couple even made some amazing Among Us letter boxes!

Learning how to give a compliment with Matua Tipene and Whaea Greta as a small letter, some students found their letter boxes had some wonderful feel-good compliments hidden inside! Hanging up the letter boxes in class, maybe they’ll find a nice compliment inside from someone in the class. :)

3rd August - Visualising with The Rainbow Fish

We were really excited to welcome two Whaea Fionas today. The students were learning to visualize, using the words in the story of Rainbow fish to create vivid images in their mind. The students eyes and ears were glued to the story, and were able to pick up a number of very descriptive words used to portray the Rainbow Fish - sparkling, shiny, flashing! All these words were collected into a nice digital brainstorm, and we were able to reflect on them leading into the next part of the activity.

The create part of the session had students using dough and an assortment of colourful trinkets to physically manifest their version of The Rainbow Fish. It was really cool to see that each and every student had created their own unique fish, and that all the students were thriving in one way or another. Wally had, unbeknownst to himself, made a sunfish, and he and those around him took delight in learning that like their own fish, the ocean housed fish of all shapes and sizes.

The teachers and students had a great time looking at each other’s masterpieces, and Matua even had all their Rainbow Fish come to life in their own unique underwater environment! Tuesday morning is definitely a time that Karaka class is going to look forward to going forward, but moreso, how much we’re going to enjoy the digital classroom, and all its possibilities.