Ava Ceremony

We have been learning about the Samoan Ava ceremony and some of the roles and responsibilities of members who take part in this special ceremony.

The Ava ceremony usually takes place when there is a special occasion like welcoming visitors or presenting chief titles.

In an Ava ceremony the taupou is the highest chief’s daughter and she has the special role of mixing the Ava drink in a tanoa Ava bowl using a fau strainer. She is not allowed to smile, talk or wear jewellery when she is mixing the Ava. By Jasmine

The tufaava caller is the chief who calls out who the Ava drink is to be served to. He will let the tautuava server know who to give the Ava drink to. He needs to know who to give the Ava drink to and use a special chanting voice. By Trevor

The tautuava server stands up when he is called and waits for the tufaava caller to say which chief to serve first. The highest visiting chief is always served first. When serving the highest chief the tufaava is to use two hands to hold the ipu ava cup.  By Fogavai

We look forward to taking our learning further and sharing what we have learnt about the Samoan Ava ceremony using music and dance at our Fiafia celebration this year.   

Fa’afetai lava Room 18.

Week 6 BEST Attendance

Congratulations to the following winners for achieving BEST attendance..

Second place is..

 Room 2 with 92%

First equal is..

Room 21 and Room 13 with 96%

Who will be the winners next week?

Yendarra meets the TALLEST athletes

Thank you to the Sky City breakers and the team for providing our school with an opportunity to participate in a kids verse breakers special event.  Our school was one of many invited to travel to the Otara Leisure Centre and then gifted resources that can be used in our school with teachers and children to sustain the love and development of basketball.

Upon arrival back to school after the event we began describing the significance of the moment using a cinquain poem to share adjectives, verbs and emotions.  These are some of our ideas written by Room 19’s authors.

NZ Breakers Basketball Team

Professional with Speed

Scoring, Defending, Shooting

Players are as tall as giraffe’s making me feel small

Athlete

By Nora

BASKET-BALL

BIG and GRIPPY

BOUNCY, HEAVY, FAST

I WISH I COULD PASS REALLY FAST

SPHERE

By Rykien

NZ Breakers

Famous, Athletic

Fast, Dribbling, Blocking

I want to shoot hoops like them

Baller

By Tamisha

Week 5 BEST attendance results

Congratulations to...

Room 20 and Room 23 with 92%

Remember whanau, the target is 90%. 

Who will be the winners next week?

Athletics Day

We were dressed in black to celebrate the victorious All Blacks, we had just finished singing the New Zealand National Anthem and we were pumped and ready to go! Athletics Day was awesome! We had lots of different stations to visit and we were feeling excited.

Check out some of the action...

Saumotu getting ready for his shotput throw

'On your marks, get set, GO!" Year 4 girls running the 50m

The long jump. Go Mercy-Jane! 

"Ready, set, GO!" Year 6 boys running the 75m

After showing manawanui (never giving up) during all of the stations, we joined together again  as a whanau and enjoyed a waiata with Mrs Tu’ikolovatu. As a school whanau we said karakia together to thank God for the beautiful day and the people who had prepared our food. We then went with our classes and families to enjoy delicious healthy kai. Our picnics were so colourful like the colours of the rainbow and we enjoyed our healthy kai.

Check out some of our delicious, healthy picnic lunches. We think our parents and whanau who made our picnic food are amazing!

Hope, Grace and Amaziah enjoying yummy sushi and delicious home made fruit salad. No fruit salad in a can for this family as they have made the healthier home-made option. Now we know your secret for making such good choices and always being ‘the BEST you can!’

Leon and Dylan having some scrumptious salad sandwiches, as well as cucumber slices. carrot sticks, fruit and yoghurt! No wonder you guys always look so healthy and make such good choices in the classroom and on the playground! Look at your healthy, white teeth that show you are making healthy food choices and drinking water.

What a feast! YUM look at those scrumptious, sweet, succulent strawberries. We really like to see that you are eating a salad for lunch as well as water. Look at those salad filled sandwiches and the water!

Perez and Jodeci enjoying their prize winning picnic lunch. We all went WOW WOW WOW at all of the amazing picnics. Perez and Jodeci’s  Mum made fruit kebabs by buying a $2 punnet of strawberries, a $2 punnet of grapes, a banana and kiwifruit. From this she was able to make 10 fruit kebabs to feed 10 people. She had also brought to school a vegetable platter, rolled ham, salad sandwiches and of course everyone at Yendarra School’s favourite….WATER! They were a lucky family as they were awarded a FREE picnic hamper and lots of yummy, healthy food.

We had such a lovely day with the perfect weather, brilliant children, fun activities, amazing parents and whanau and of course our wonderful teachers who always smile, say kind things to us and help us ‘be the BEST we can’.

Athletics Day was fantastic! We can’t wait for next year’s Athletics Day and whanau school picnic.

Term 4 BEST Attendance Results So Far..

Week 1

Room 18 with 91%

Week 3

Room 18 and Room 19 with 96%

Week 4

Room 23 with 92%

Room 18 with 91%

WOW Room 18!! What's your secret? You are leading the way and setting the BEST example for the other classes who are wanting to achieve BEST attendance.

Who will be the winners next week?

Ukulele Festival

A team of year 5 and 6 children have been practicing very hard with our very talented Music Academy Teacher Mr Lakatani. We are lucky to have such an inspirational Music Teacher who is preparing us for the famous ‘New Zealand Ukulele Festival’. We are learning over 15 songs which we will perform on the day. Some of those songs include ‘Don’t forget your Roots’ and ‘Pokarekare Ana’.


Here we are at the rehearsal held at East Tamaki School

Our talented tamariki are travelling to the New Zealand Ukulele Festival on the 28th of November. It is a free event so anyone can come along and enjoy the music and awesome atmosphere.

We’ll see you there!

SHAKE OUT!

On Thursday the 15th of October Yendarra participated in the nationwide SHAKE OUT earthquake drill. There were over 1.36 million kiwis that took part. Did you?

Do you know what to do to keep safe in an earthquake?

Here are some senior children showing us what to do if an earthquake occurred during learning time.

Let’s test your knowledge after the SHAKE OUT. Here are some questions for you; How many will you get right?

1. What are the 3 key words to remember in an earthquake?
2. Why are some children holding onto the table legs?
3. Why are the children holding onto their mahunga (heads)?
4. How do you keep safe if you are outside in an earthquake?