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

An unusual present!

Today Lachie bought me an ostrich egg from his aunty's farm!  Wow it is huge!  It was vey heavy and the shell was so thick!  Lachie told me that you can eat them and make cakes with them and use them the same way that hens eggs are used.  

Lachie said that one ostrich egg has 22 hens eggs worth of egg inside!  He uses a drill to open them up and pour the egg out.  That's one huge omelette! I can't wait for Saturday's breakfast!  

I wonder what other facts we can learn about ostrich eggs? Can we compare them to hen's eggs?  

Friday was an exciting day! 

Ki O Rahi Tournament

Yesterday all the Year 5 and 6's went to the Inter-school Ki O Rahi Tournament.  The tournament was at Gisborne Intermediate School and there were 25 teams! 

The day began well with Round 1 and 2 but the weather wasn't on our side!  Around 9.30 the clouds started moving in and it became very cold!  We were worried that it was going to rain!  Funny thing was the bus driver had warned us that the forecast wasn't good!  He was right!  It began blowing and icy cold rain came hammering in!  Brrrr!

The organisers were worried and began to say we would call it off if it didn't clear in 15 mins.  Well schools started packing up and leaving!  I guess the decision was made. The tournament was called off! 

What a shame!  We were just getting in to it and having fun!  the rain did stop but it was still very cold.  Mrs Hall called the bus and we ate our morning tea until the bus turned up.  Disappointed we headed back to school to warm up!  It was a great experience while it lasted!  Hopefully we can attend the tournament next year.

Watch out for our Ki O Rahi myths coming up on Blogger!

End of year Antics

What a fantastic end to 2018!  

Thank you to FOM's for the tasty Barbecue and all the classes for their entertaining performance!
  

Here is Tawhirimatea's performance which was 'pantomime-esq' and a lot of fun practicing!  Personally I loved the Year 6 boys as the Sugar Plum Fairies!  LOL!  

The final assembly was also a special experience for our Year 6's.  Tomorrow starts today!  Here is a link to some of the items they performed. 

Jillian's Video

Have a very Happy Christmas Everyone! 

Lord Nelson Visits Makaraka

Tawhirimatea loved having Lord Nelson in class today!  He is a special dog who belongs to Sam.  Sam is working on a project where he and Charlie are making a movie to show how pets can enhance your happiness and help you through your life. 

Nelson loved our class and certainly visited all the students in the school.  He is a very well trained dog and even had a shower before he came in! 

We can't wait to see Sam and Charlie's movie and the response they get from others about the happiness animals bring.  To quote Sam:  "Nelson cheers me up!  He is always there for me and I love how he plays!"

Tauranga Marimba Festival 2018

Marimba Festival 2018

Last week on Wednesday Nov 7 a group of students from Tawhirimatea travelled to Tauranga to perform in the Marimba Festival.  This is the first time that the festival has been held outside of Auckland and so we thought we'd better support it!  

The festival was held at Our Place in the centre of Tauranga City and is a community container mall type place.  It is perfect for small performances and events like this!  We had a great time and learnt all the songs before we went.  Gisborne students were certainly able to hold our own!  All that hard work paid off!  

We stayed at Papamoa and managed to squeeze in a swim in the sea before returning home.  What a great opportunity to learn some new songs all about the sea and perform with other students from the Bay of Plenty!  Everyone had a ball and we sincerely thank the parents and Jeremy for enabling us to be creative, have fun and show off some new skills!

Here are the songs we played: 

Surfin USA

The Ocean Refuses No River

Tauranga Moana

Tulevai

Ocean

Nervous Wreck

How Far I'll Go

Trillo - The Teacher's Turn! 

Drunken Sailor

Warming up for Athletics!

We have been practicing for our athletics day.  High Jump, Long Jump and just for fun discus and shotput.  It is so great having Mr Hocquard to help with his expertise!

We will be selecting the team to go to the inter-school competition in a couple of weeks.  People can only enter 3 events so combinations will be looked at.

Remember for High Jump:

Scissors only
Elevation
Speed
Angle of running.

Long Jump:
Speed
Propulsion
Fall forward not backward!

Looking forward to the cricket ball throw coming up!

Our fruit salad class groups!

We are a fruit salad because we all like to do different things and have a different personality flavour.  We need this in our life to make things interesting and we can learn more off each other! Celebrating our diversity is important to help everyone feel accepted!  

We love being a fruit salad class! 

Marimba Festival Fun!

What a great time we had with Jeremy today! Yes these students gave up their holidays to attend this ONZA funded workshop!  Wahoo to all of you!  Jeremy played recorder, drums, ukulele and helped us to sound awesome!  We have now played all the repertoire for the festival and only need to practice!

Jeremy was really impressed by the Gizzy attitude and the can do mindset!  We played for 3 hours and it didn't even feel like it!  What cool kids we have at Makaraka School!

For those who couldn't make it we will catch you up next term!  

Thank you Jeremy! 

Some cool snippets of the songs we have been learning: 

The Ocean Refuses No River


Ocean


Tulevai - from the book in our library.  Watch the solo improv by Angus!