Term 3, Week 4

Taniwha Artwork

This week for our inquiry unit, Room 8 read the legend of Kahu and the Taniwha. We enjoyed listening and talking about this legend and thought the illustrations in the book were pretty cool too. We decided to draw/design our own mythical taniwha creatures.

First we sketched our taniwha in pencil then went over the outline in sharpie pen. Next we used crayon to colour some parts and dye in the other parts.

Word Work

Check out the awesome focus of the Room 8 Learners doing their word work on their mini whiteboards this week...

Term 3, Week 4

Maui and the Big Fish

Last week, Room 8 read the legend of Maui and the Big Fish. In this legend, Maui goes fishing with his brothers and pulls up a huge fish. His brothers decide to try and cut up the fish to share with their whanau... but this creates an uneven land. This land becomes Aotearoa New Zealand as it has lots of valleys, rivers and mountains created by the cuts of Maui's brothers. The North Island is now known as Te Ika a Maui - Maui's Fish.

To represent this story, Room 8 created pieces of artwork that shows New Zealand and our rough landscape. Our learning focus was around hot and cold colours. We used cold colours (blue, green, purple, grey) to colour in New Zealand and we created a contrasting background by using hot colours (red, orange, yellow, brown).

Check out our awesome artwork!

Term 3, Week 3

Welcome Back!

We have started Term 3 off with a bang, getting straight into our Myths and Legends inquiry unit for the term. We began our inquiry by looking at the legend of Maui and the Sun. We talked lots about this legend and retold it in our own words. Next we made sun masks out of paper plates and collage which we presented at the Week 1 assembly as our class item! Last week we focused on similarities and differences with our Oral Language development and used this to compare and contrast two different legends - Maui and the Big Fish and Maui and the Sun. We also practised similarities and differences further by comparing and contrasting two different versions of Maui and the Sun, which was more of a challenge. It was interesting to see what was similar across these legends and what aspects were completely different. Room 8 really had to think critically during this learning.

We can't wait to show everyone what else we learn and create during this inquiry!

In maths we are learning about fractions. We have started off by finding halves of objects and we are going to explore quarters and thirds of objects next, before we learn how to find a fraction of a set. We have been enjoying using materials and our mini whiteboards to support our learning in fractions. 

Finally, our Physical Education and fitness focus for the first part of the term is all around our Cross Country training. We have been learning how to stretch our muscles before and after running to prevent injury and how to pace ourselves throughout the race. 

Cross Country is on Thursday 17th August (Week 4), with the saving day on Friday 18th August. We would love to see as many supporters there as possible!!