The art of collage.

We have been exploring the art of paper collage, an art technique that is created by using different pieces of paper that are assembled to create a mural. Using the story of How Maui Slowed the Sun we will work together to create a collage of Te Ra (the sun).

The blank canvas that helped to set the background for our mural.

We worked together to prepare the paper for our collage.
Some children painted while others had to tear the paper into
small pieces which is part of the collage process.

Next some children began to lightly spread some glue onto the torn pieces
of paper and began to place them in their desired places.

Finally we completed our collage mural which now sits magnificently above us all so we can be reminded of how we worked together to create our spectacular interpretation of the character Te Ra from the tale of Maui.

The Great Maori Warrior, Maui!

In term 2 we were so inspired by our Matariki learning journey and the traditional stories that motivated and inspired our wonderings that we chose to use this opportunity through our writing in term three to explore another traditional legend and story about the great Maori warrior, Maui. 

After reading the tale of How Maui slowed the sun we used this to practice writing a description of our favourite character in the story. We decided to write a description of Te Ra or Maui. Over the next few days we talked and wrote about his characteristics from what he looks like on the outside to his characteristics on the inside.

Here are some of our descriptions of Maui.

Some children chose to write a description of Te ra. Enjoy!

Celebrating Matariki in Pitau 2!

There was a lot of excitement on the last Friday of term 2 when we welcomed our whanau (family) into our classroom to celebrate the Maori New Year with a Matariki breakfast! Our room was filled with parents and children all working together to prepare for a spectacular feast! A huge thank you to everyone for your donations of kai (food), your company and time to show our tamariki the importance of working together to celebrate this special occasion. A great conclusion to our learning around the Matariki New Year!

But wait! Theres more...

The grand finale to our day of celebrating Matariki was an afternoon spent flying our kites that we made as part of our learning around how Matariki is celebrated. We were thrilled to be joined by our friends from Team Pitau and Team Kakano. What a spectacular display of laughter, creativity, energy and tangling that filled our school that cloudy afternoon.

Telling the Time - Paper Clocks

To help us focus on how a clock looks and works Pitau 2 have had super fun making our very own paper clocks. We then looked at different types of clocks such as watches, grandfather clocks, cuckoo clocks and more. Then every student transformed their paper clock into their favourite type of clock.

Manu tukutuku

In Pitau 2 all of our class worked collaboratively to create a manu tukutuku, a traditional maori kite. 

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Manu Taratahi

We used native New Zealand plants which will last for a long time and make the kite light and strong. Some children stripped the middle part of the toetoe plant we will use this to make the frame of our Manu taratahi.

Other children prepared 

the harakeke, a flax. They split

 it into thin strips so that we can use these to tie the frames 

together with.

Manu taratahi is a triangle shape kite. Blake made sure that he held the frame steady so our teacher could tie our frame together.

Rows of Raupo were tied onto the frame with the harakeke. Emily-Jane, Blake and Savanna began this process for us by making cross patterns down the middle of the frame to hold it together. 

Team work was very important for us to be able to complete our kite. Myrah, Ella, Jarome and Charles joined Emily-Jane to continue finishing the sides of our kite! 

Te Iwa O Matariki - The nine stars of Matariki

We began our learning journey of Matariki believing that there were the seven sisters (stars) of Matariki but new found knowledge is being revealed that there are nine stars. 

So Pitau 2 decided to work collaboratively again to create a stunning representation of the nine stars of Matariki. 

The wishes, remembering and gathering stars, Matariki, Hiwaiterangi & 
Pōhutukawa 

The water stars Waitī , Waitā and Waipuna-a-rangi.

Our friends from Koru 3 helped us to create a mould for our earth stars  
Tupuānuku, Tupuārangi and Ururangi using clay.

 A huge thank you to Mr Boyd and his team of clay experts from Koru 3 for sharing their knowledge of plaster of paris clay moulds with us! 'Mean as' Mr Boyd!

Discovering Matariki

We have been learning about Matariki through wonderings, stories, conversations and exploration into this important celebration in New Zealand.  

 Our Matariki expert and extraordinaire Miss Jan-Hai (Wiremus Mum) popped in to share her knowledge to further enhance our wonderings and understandings of the Maori New Year.

Wiremus Mum encouraged us to share what we knew about Matariki.
"Matariki is the new year," said William
"There are seven sisters. The oldest is Matariki," said Max 

We talked about celebrations and harvest time. If the stars are bright and high it will be a good season for harvesting. If the stars are low and less visible. Hazel said "It will be cold and not very good for harvesting." 

We discovered that there are nine stars of Matariki. We were fascinated by the water stars and what each star represented. These are some of our drawings of water stars on ipads.

After learning about kites being used as maori text messages, eating hangi and rewana bread, singing waiata (song) and it being a time to remember. The children were given stars to decorate and take home as a taonga (treasure) to share with whanau. (family)