Sharing Kai - Our Matariki Soup!!

Matariki, the Maori New Year, is a special time on the calendar.  We have learnt that Matariki is a time to come together and share Kai, so today our Uxbridge Whanau all brought in a vegetable to add to our soup.  Our community basket was over flowing with beautiful vegetables thanks to a couple of mums and dads who so kindly whipped off to the vege shop and we were able to make this into the most yummiest soup ever.  Our soup consisted of pumpkin, onion, potato, kumara, celery, zucchini, cabbage, carrot and beetroot.  The tamariki all helped by peeling and preparing the vegetables, adding the water, then adding the stock and soup mix for extra flavour

It was delicious!!!!

Ari was delighted with the amount of vegetables filling up our pot

Jaxon and Gabriel were deciding what we needed to cut next.

Mel carefully supported the children using the knife

Lachlan waited patiently for his turn to chop up some beetroot.

Renee had brilliant skills - a great Chef in the making.

We discussed all the vegetables the our Uxbridge Whanau donated.

Our measuring jugs allowed us to pour just the right amount of water into our soup.

Ari asked why the soup tasted so good.  Mel replied that it was because it was made with love.  Before drinking his second cup, Ari asked Mel "Is this one made with love?

It was delicious!

Drawing to music!!

Drawing to music with children is one way to explore synaesthesia and the ways in which we can perceive and interpret sounds.  This experience was certainly enjoyed by all as we explored the concepts of fast and slow as the music changed.  The children drew as the listened to the music, there were many giggles when the music went fast and they furiously and frantically moved their crayon.  Our artists were so proud of the final masterpiece that many wanted to tear their piece of to take home.

* Synaesthesiais a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway

Our trip to Matariki!

Our much anticipated trip to the Matariki Wharenui started with a powhiri welcome at the gate. Karen was our Kaikaranga and Matilda's dad was our Whaikorero.  Before entering the whare we took off our shoes and then sat on a bean bag listening intently as the Tangata whenua gave us a mihi followed by a Waiata.  We replied and the children sung Mahunga Pakihiwi with actions.

We were then invited to sit down together for Kai/food.

There was even a pond with large goldfish swimming around.

After we were full to the brim we went for a walk in the Ngahere/bush.  

We walked down the path, through the bush, past the streams and back up the path to the Museum of Taonga/treasures.  The museum contained shells, stones, photographs, dolls and other artifacts.

What a lovely experience for us all.  

 If you looked carefully you may have seen the kiwi hiding behind the tree. 

 Back inside the Wharenui we listened to a story about Matariki and learnt a new waiata. 

We were gifted with a beautiful sparkly star upon our departure.

  Thank you to Karen and Taini and all the other lovely helpers and parents who made our day so special.

 

We won!! Go Team NZ!!

Well, what an exciting start to the day!!  Team NZ raced in the final and won the America's cup!! Wahooo!!  Needless to say there were a few proud and excited teachers and children too!  It seems many of us were up very early this morning to watch the big finale, we thought we might even catch a glimpse of our Teacher Chris in the crowd celebrating.  We have been following the races and articles from the paper right from the very beginning, what a build up!

With teacher Claire we made a replica of the cup today, decorating it with silver paint, glitter and silver collage.  Once finished and dry, we had a group photo around the cup to celebrate the win!! Such a proud moment.

"Hey Claire, look it's the Americup" says Ethan

Well done Team NZ, we are very proud!

Some comments from our children this morning:

Ethan:  "The red boat won, the NZ boat and when it won we got an America cup.  We got up early, my dad likes it.

Esmond: "NZ is the fastest and USA is the slowest"

Face painting Fun!!

A play about friendship - by Liz and Anu

Teacher Liz and Teacher Anu put on a play today for the children with a very special message.  It seems that the Taniwha (Anu) was out to steal the America's cup!!  Oh no!!  We had to stop this!! Teacher Liz had a very important job for the children and she asked them at mat-time to keep a very careful watch out incase the Taniwha came looking for the cup.  A few moments later, along came the Taniwha snatching the America's cup and running off.  "There" shouted the children and they jumped up pointing to the Taniwha.  Lucky teacher Liz was quick!  She caught the Taniwha and then asked her "Why would you steal our very precious cup?"  The very scared Taniwha replied that she was lonely and had no-one to play with, no friends, she was sad!  Teacher Liz then explained that you don't steal or snatch to be friends, you have to be kind and sharing and ask to play with friends.

What a wonderful message for our children as we look at building our relationships.  Teacher Liz and Teacher Anu definitely put on a great show too, we were all so interested in watching and listening to the play!  

Go Team Uxbridge!!

As we relish in the excitement of our four wins over Oracle at the weekend, we set up our own super Uxbridge boat, ready for action and ready to race.  With our skipper on board and life jackets in tow, we set to the sea's - what a morning of adventure and play!!  Go Team Uxbridge!!

  

With teacher Claire we also made our own mini boats to race in the water.  We decorated our own individual sails to fit and then were eager to get outside and see how they sailed.  Georgia and Harriet were quite keen to race one another, it seems we have some competitiveness amongst the crews!  The wind and direction was definitely key to the success of the boats in getting from one end to another.  This we discovered as we used our big breaths for wind just like the big bad wolf!!