Matariki

Everyone at Yendarra School is busy celebrating Matariki, the Maori new year.  

It is a fantastic time of the year to celebrate the Maori culture and use the beautiful Te Reo language.

10 very lucky students from our school were invited to visit the Otara Library to celebrate Matariki with students from other schools in our area. They travelled in our Yendarra School van. 

The children loved learning about the Pacific Islands and how people came from these islands on a waka. They couldn't believe that it might takes months to get to New Zealand! All the Yendarra students loved listening to stories and seeing artifacts from the Pacific Islands. They had heaps of fun doing the hula and swaying their hips.

It was great to come back to school and share all of their new learning with their classmates! 

Happy Matariki to everyone! 

Room 22 Presents... Alligator Alley!

On Tuesday Rm 22 had an assembly. We performed a play called Alligator Alley in the wharehui. When the children walked in I felt so nervous that I got butterflies in my stomach. I was the reader with Joyful and I was trying to read with expression. When our assembly finished I felt proud of myself because I was using a loud voice. I saw the kids happy so I knew they thought the play was excellent. Josey.

 Josey and Joyful as the readers and Mykyll as Mrs O’Malley.

Room 22 performed a play and it was called Alligator Alley. We did the play in the wharehui. When we started I felt really confident. I was Mrs O’Malley and she was the main character who went walking down by Alligator Alley. When we finished I was very proud of myself because I was not too shy. I went and hugged my mum and she was very proud of me too. Mykyll.

Savannah, Daniel, Tamanui and Javaan as the frogs.

Last Tuesday we performed a play at the wharehui. I was a frog and the play was called Alligator Alley. The parents arrived first. Then Rm 13 was the first class to show up. I was feeling pretty confident. Suddenly all the classes came. It was time for our play. “Alligator Alley,” said Joyful and Josey. The frogs, (me, Tamanui, Savannah and Torah) said “Beware! Beware! Don’t stop, don’t stare, don’t dilly-dally in Alligator Alley.” Finally it was the end and I just felt like hugging my mum. Daniel.

Mafi, Hope, Ellen-Rose and Johnny as the snakes.

Waimarino, Kristina, Kay-Lee and Dejunay as the birds.

Rm 22 were performing a play at assembly and it was called Alligator Alley. I was a bird. When the guests arrived I was feeling like I was going to explode with happiness! I was excited and I felt like I was going to be sick but I wasn’t because it already started. I wasn’t shy anymore because nobody laughed at me. At the end I felt free! Kristina.

Senituli and Cedrikz as the alligators.

We enjoyed performing to an audience and would like to thank all the families that came along to watch us.

Room 22's Weaving

We would like to share some more of our tukutuku weavings with you.

This taniko pattern represents one of the main weaving styles.

This pattern represents the separation of Papatuanuku (Earth Mother) and Ranginui (Sky Father).

We really enjoyed creating our weavings and look forward to showing you our next art works.

Inspired by NZ Artist – Valerie Beale

This term we studied the artwork of the talented Valerie Beale.

This is our response to Mrs Beale’s artwork:

With this in mind, we set out to create our own VB inspired art using pastel and dye. We focused on space, balance and colour choices.

Under the Mango Tree – By Serenity

Sea Turtle – By Tayla

The Tourist – By Fogavai

The Church - By Grace

Your turn to study our artwork. What can you see? What do you think of our artwork? How does our artwork make you feel?

We would love to hear your feedback.

Yendarra Gospel Choir Take the Stage

Check out our amazing gospel singers performing at the Rolling Stones Tribute. We are so proud of you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fonHSUYQ10E

Week 8 Attendance Results

Congratulations to the following classrooms for achieving BEST attendance..

 Room 18 with 91%

Room 23 with 91%

Who will be the winners for week 9?

Basketball

Senior students have been lucky enough to have basketball coaching this term with Coach Manu and Aja.  We focussed on skills such as running, changing direction, pivoting, throwing and catching as well as shooting.  The coaches used heaps of fun drills and games to help us learn the correct skills and techniques.  Check out our skills in action.

Dear Coach Aja and Manu,

I am writing this letter on behalf of Room 20 to say thank you very much for the great basketball skills you have taught us at Yendarra School this term.

I really enjoyed learning the awesome basketball techniques and skills because it will be handy for our upcoming after school tournament.  I also enjoyed playing the game ‘Golden Child’ because we used all of our new skills and got to compete against our friends.

I learnt how to pivot and defend the ball properly using the jump stop.  I am going to practise these skills in our P.E lessons.  I also learnt how to run properly to build up my speed quickly.

Once again thank you very much for taking time to teach us basketball skills and  techniques.  We hope to see you again soon.

Yours Sincerely

Sila and Room 20

Check out these links to see us practicing our skills in action!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hCMCgSLRHY&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn6oz5v3PCk&feature=youtu.be

Visual Art in Room 23

 

Talofa lava, this is Room 23’s artwork inspired by Robyn Kahukiwa. First we practiced drawings and sketches of our designs. We used brown pastel to draw our bodies, black pastel for the colour of our hair and then different colours for our cloaks. Each of us designed our own cloak but used Robyn’s artwork as examples. 

Here are some of our own pieces of art:   

    

Sushi Making

In Room 20 we have been learning about the effect food has on our bodies in our Grow Me Well Inquiry Focus.  One exciting activity we did was sushi making.  We investigated where sushi came from, learnt how to make it, wrote our own set of instructions as well researched what ingredients we would need and looked at the nutritional information.  

It was sooo much fun to make and delicious to eat except when Mrs Walter asked if anyone was brave enough to try Wasabi!  

“Man was it HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”    

“My tongue was on fire!”

Now we are beginning to look at the impact advertising has on food choices!

Week 7 Attendance Results

Congratulations to the following classrooms for achieving BEST attendance.

Room 14 with 95%

Room 13 with 92%

Room 5 and Room 21 with 91%

 Who will be the winners for week 8?

Creative art in Room 22

In Room 22 we have been reading and looking at books written and illustrated by Robyn Kahukiwa. She is a Maori artist and has won awards for her books.

One book we enjoyed was Paikea, about the ancestor of the Eastern and Southern Maori tribes who fled from his jealous brother in Hawaiki and travelled on the back of a whale to Aotearoa.

The tukutuku panels used in the background stood out and looked like some in our wharehui. We thought we could try weaving some tukutuku panels ourselves.

First we looked at different tukutuku panels and Dejunay and Hope found out some information:

• Tukutuku panels are a traditional Maori art form that can be seen on the walls of a wharehui.
• Tukutuku panels are weaved with harakeke which is a flax.
• All tukutuku panels have meaning.

This tukutuku shows many stars that represent the people.

Next we practised using line and pattern to draw different tukutuku designs on grid paper and then practised weaving. Then we began weaving with wool and black card. 

Here are some of our weavings so far...

This design called Poutama symbolises a climb made by a Maori hero who climbed to receive the three baskets of knowledge from the gods.

Watch this space for more of our weavings.

Our Very Own Black Stick Super Stars

This year we entered two mixed gender teams into the Papatoetoe and Otara invitational hockey tournament held in Papatoetoe at the Kolmar sport centre where we placed 2nd and 3rd only being defeated by the overall tournament champions.

We are extremely proud of our tamariki because many are new to the sport hockey. We are also grateful to Counties Manukau Hockey for their support and our teaching staff (coaches) who prepared the team each day of the week during morning tea leading up to the tournament.

  

Athletes sharing moments…

We felt exhausted during the tournament as we had to do a lot of running to defend our goal.

I am so proud of the team we gave it our very best!

The trophy was so close we had a chance to snatch it away….

I’m glad we only lost to the team that won the tournament because we were undefeated in the round robin.