Monday, September 19, 2016

The Impossible Bridge

Last week Pukeko Reading Group read a book called 'The Impossible Bridge'. It is about a group of students who were trying to make a model bridge that could hold a toy car. They researched different types of bridges such as beam bridges and arch bridges.

Today, Pukeko had a go at making their own bridges.

Have a look to see if any of the bridges were strong enough to hold the car!



Success!
Our next challenge will be to try and build one without using tape!


Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Puppet Show

Rata were lucky enough to watch a performance by Little Dog Barking Company. The show was called 'The Little Kōwhai Tree'. It was very funny! We even learnt some cool things such as how the tui drinks the nectar of kōwhai blossoms or how the ruru protects the kōwhai from mice in the nighttime.

We have been learning about what groups we belong to for our recent Inquiry focus and one of the groups we have looked at is our school: Papakowhai School. Some of us also live in Papakowhai so it is the name of our neighbourhood too. In Rata Whitu we have discussed what Papakowhai means: papa is the land and kōwhai is the tree (with it's kōwhai/yellow flowers), so Papakowhai is the land covered by kōwhai trees. This was an extra special puppet show for us to watch!

Here are some pictures from the show:


 






Thursday, September 8, 2016

Kei te pēhea koe?

When we do the roll, we say how we are feeling in Te Reo Māori. We are learning how to ask each other "Kei te pēhea koe?" too. Take a look: