SPCA Visit

Today Tawhirimatea went to the SPCA to meet with Lindy Magee and present them with our fundraising cheque.  Lindy bought her lovely dog Panda.  

We learnt about dog safety and how to recognise when a dog is stressed.  

Lindy also told us about the 5 freedoms for animals: 

1. Freedom from hunger and thirst (food and water)
   All animals need clean water and a well-balanced, healthy diet. 
2. Freedom from discomfort (shelter)
   All animals should live in a comfortable place to keep them healthy and happy. All animals need shelter and a comfortable resting area. 
3. Freedom from pain, injury, and disease (medical care)
   All animals should be taken to a vet if they are sick or injured and given regular health checks. 
4. Freedom to behave naturally (exercise)
   All animals need enough space to move around and have regular exercise. 
5. Freedom from fear and distress (love and understanding)
   All animals deserve to be happy and live without too much stress.

These are what we strive for every animal in NZ to have. 

We also told Lindy about our learning last term and how we made the pet treats and sold them.  Some people read their stories about the abandoned puppies. 

This was a lovely morning and we are so glad we got to present the $380 that we raised because the SPCA sure needs it! Lindy told us that Gisborne has one of the worst animal abuse rates in the country and the SPCA looks after the vulnerable, sick and injured animals!  

Armistice Day Service

We come together to remember those who fought for our freedom in the great war of 1914 to 1918. Luckily on the 11 day of the 11 month at 11 O’clock a truce was declared and the war ended.

As the Allies continued to advance against German forces on the Western Front and the other Central Powers began to surrender, New Zealanders began to celebrate

On the morning of 12 November, when news of the Armistice was announced in New Zealand, people celebrated enthusiastically in cities and towns across the country: bells rang, sirens sounded and children banged on kerosene tin drums.

Communities came together, speeches were made and songs sung. The red poppy has become a symbol of war remembrance the world over. People in many countries wear the poppy to remember those who died in war or who still serve in the armed forces. We will remember those who fought and did not return. Lest we forget.

Written by Eilidh Green

RNZ Ballet visit

On Thursday Lauren from the Royal NZ Ballet came to our school and took all the Year 5's and some Year 6's for a creative dance workshop!  

We learnt some ballet moves and positions for our feet as well as some jumps and then we learnt a section from one of the ballet performances Romeo and Juliet!  It was a lot of fun!  Thanks Lauren! 

Here is the dance section: 

Success for SPCA fundraiser!

 Today was a big success for the workers of MAPS (Makaraka Animal Protection Shelter).  Their market day raised over $360 for the SPCA which will be presented next term. 

A wonderful effort all round!  

  

The workshops were well received and information and questions were of the highest standard from both MAPS workers and the attendees of the workshops!

Everyone should have a little treat to bring home to their animals, we hope they enjoy them! 

SPCA fundraiser Market and workshop day all go!

Busy beavers in Tawhirimatea have bagged u the treats and organised the workshops for tomorrow's pet workshop fundraiser day.

                                   

Remember your donation for SPCA and let us know the animal treat you would like. 

Here we are painting signs for our stalls!  

Students will rotate around 5 animal workshops: 

• Dogs
• Calves
• Sheep
• Rabbits
• Cat

Everyone will receive their treats to bring home for your beloved animals!  

Factory line...

We have begun to make the treats for the market day on Tuesday!  What a fun day we all had.  the smell and visuals were interesting but it was successful! 

 

The rest will be made on Monday!  I hope everyone remembers their donation for a treat and you will be able to try them out on your pet!  

Remember there are: 

• Dog treats - peanut butter and bacon bites.
• Cat treats with tuna
• Horse treats - bran, oats, molasses, apple and carrot. 
• Rabbit treats - banana, berries, apple and pellets. 
• Bird feeders

MAPS Animal Treat Shop Day

Kia Ora Whanau, 

Next Tuesday Tawhirimatea MAPS team will be hosting a shop day to raise money for SPCA.  We are passionate about eliminating cruelty to animals and helping our community to responsibly look after them!  We have been holding workshops to learn about caring for all sorts of animals and now are designing treats as our fundraiser. 

How this will work is: 

Students bring as much money as they would like to donate and then they can choose some treats to bring home on the pro rata basis of $2 per bag.  

We will have: 

1. Cat Treats
2. Dog Treats
3. Bird feeders
4. Horse Treats
5. Rabbit treats
6. Dry dog shampoo

All $2 each!  

As a part of this fun market day we have 5 short animal workshops which the school will be able to go and look at!  This includes calves, a lamb, a dog, a cat and rabbits. 

We hope that you will bring some money and purchase some treats for the animal that suits!  If you don't have an animal then a bird feeder will be perfect!  

Curriculum Evening Term 3, 2020

Our Term 3 curriculum evening was well attended by parents and students!  It was an ambitious evening with 3 big topics covered however we made it and really got a lot out of it!  

Big thanks to Tony Scrag for sharing his Net Safe presentation.  Tony is very knowledgeable in this area and is in a lot of schools.  He was able to share insight with us into what is standard practice across schools in Tairawhiti!  Don't forget to head over to Netflix to watch the documentary 

"The Social Dilemma" 

We also had an update from our Enviro group about what we have achieved and where we are headed at Makaraka.  Thanks for the great Mahi team! 

Here is their presentation: 

Lastly we raced through Maths at Makaraka covering topics such as:

• Prime Maths
• Mathletics
• Math Support Teacher

Here is the presentation:

Willow the Pony

Iyve bought her ponies in to school to show us how to care for them and ride them. It was very interesting to see Iyve talk about all the things she has to remember!  Willow is a beautiful girl and was very well behaved!  

We were very interested to learn about the "frog"in the middle of the hooves!  You need to be very careful when cleaning around this! 

Here is some of the equipment that you need for taking care of horses! (Beware it's a lot!)

You need to also take care of safety: 

Here is Iyve riding Willow:  

Thanks to Caree and Ivey for today's very informative workshop!  We will get the feedback forms out soon!  

Notes from the workshop:

Lord Nelson visits again to teach us Dog maintenance!

Lord Nelson the beautiful black Labrador owned by the William's has visited Tawhirimatea again!  This time he was showing us his tricks and Winston was teaching us how to groom him!  

Nelson was very well behaved and spent the morning lounging around on people's laps and being used as a table! 

We then went out to see some outdoor tricks!  Dogs are so much fun!  We can't wait to see Nelson in his own environment at the end of the term when we visit the William's farm!  

 

Forming our beliefs...

A real dilemma came our way in the last couple of days in Makaraka Animal Protection Shelter.  Elon Musk one of our role models in the Space Industry is funding computer chips implanted into pigs brains.  Not only do they put chips in there but they take them out as well!  This endangers animal's lives.  We really disagreed with this. 

In fact we disagreed so much that we were quite vocal about it!  

However it came to our attention that we had some conflicting beliefs...  We want to hold a market day and sell pet treats and shampoo.  In order to do this we have to know that 

1. The animals like them.
2. The products are not going to be harmful. 

How can we do that if we don't trial them on animals??????  Wow this is really confusing!  

So we held a debate:  those who agreed with animal testing vs those who were vehemently opposed!  

We still couldn't decide!  We were split evenly between:  No we can't and We can sometimes!  

We were then asked to appear on a morning breakfast show and be interviewed about this new stand we have taken on animal testing!  Here are the morning interviews:

Another successful MAPS workshop - Caring for rejected lambs...

Today we learnt how to care for a rejected lamb. This happens soon after birth where the mother doesn't bond with the baby for some reason.  There were some excellent tips from Kaycee on what to do when you find the lamb and how to care for it in the weeks after.  

Kaycee advised - this is not for the faint hearted!  It takes a lot of work as you need to sit with it for a long time and feed it at least 3 times a day!  Commitment is what is needed here!  

Joey was very well behaved during the workshop and everyone adored him!  After his feed we even got to see him poop!  Watch out rugby players!  

Ka Pai MAPS workshop team!  Another well received, successful workshop!  I wonder what animal we will learn about next?  

What workshops would you like? 

Tawhirimatea Logo

Hokia ki o maunga kia purea e koe I nga hou o Tawhirimatea! 

Return to your ancestral mountains to be cleansed by the winds of Tawhirimatea! 

 Our class whakatauaki and waiata are the inspiration for our new class logo!  We looked at the creation pūrākau and learnt about how Tawhirimatea is the hou between Rangi and Papa and reminds us to never forget Rangi the sky father and our ancestors.  

In this logo designed by Christibel, Eden, Winston and Iyve you will see many Maori symbols - poutama - stairway to learning/heaven, niho taniwha, tukutuku stars, koru and more!  

Can you find these things in it? 

• Ancestors - Tipuna
• Mountain - Maunga
• Manutukutuku
• 4 winds - Nga Hou e Wha
• Family - whanau

Kiri Allan - teacher for a morning in Tawhirimatea!

Yesterday we had the pleasure of Kiri Allan a Member of Parliament for Labour visiting us at Makaraka School.  

We sang to her and then invited her in to our class to talk to us about life as a Member of Parliament.  

We learnt heaps about the busy job and what sorts of things happen in parliament and about the process of making new laws!  We really made the connection with some of the policies we have been writing in class for our Animal Protection Shelter. 

Thanks Kiri!