Matariki Dawn Viewing

On Sunday, 23rd June a great number of our local community braved a cool morning and early start to view Matariki in our dawn sky.  It was wonderful to look out over Bowentown and see Matariki hanging low in the sky just before the sun rose.  Here's a couple of photos of Zak, his Nana and I at the event.  Further below I have copied and pasted Alistair Cochrane's wonderful words describing the morning and thanking those involved.

Kia ora tatou

This morning I braved a chilly dawn (6.00am) today to join approximately 100 others on slopes of the Bowentown lookout to celebrate the arrival of Matariki (The Maori New Year).

A crystal clear sky filled with stars and a large retreating moon glistened over our shoulders.  The shimmering waters of Bowentown harbour reflected the moons magnificence as it prepared to drop below the western horizon and allow a beautiful dawn  to set an awesome start not only to a new day but also the start of the Maori new year.

We were spell bound by the mystical korero of Reon Tuanau (Otawhiwhi) as he first welcomed us to this special place and then shared the significance and importance of the arrival of Matariki to not just Maori but to us all as New Zealanders. Reon identified the position of the stars, told stories of the past. He explained that Matariki represented a time for reflecting on the past and preparing for the future and  he challenged us to think about and set personal and group aspirations. As the dawn started to lighten the sky the closing karakia and waiata (Whakaaria mai) filled my soul and sent me eager into a magnificent new day.

Thank you to all involved in organising this event especially.

·         Waihi Beach School (Staff and supporters) you are to congratulated not just for organising an event that allowing us to share the significance of special celebrations (Matariki) and the wisdom of our local people and special places but also for the magnificent soup and bread to warm our tummies.

·         Reon Tuanau and Whanau Otawhiwhi, Thank you for sharing with our community the importance of Matariki and the special place Bowentown. Your passion was obvious and freely shared and I was moved by the korero.

Pai mutunga.

What a magnificent start to a fantastic new day.

 Alistair Cochrane

Waihi College Principal

Surgery Postponed

Due to medication I had been prescribed for a chest infection my surgery was unable to go ahead on Friday. I am hoping to be rescheduled for this coming Friday but it will be dependent on the surgeon's schedule and being 100% well. The final decision will be made by the anesthetist on the day.  I will therefore be back in the classroom for most of next week which I'm looking forward to.

Waihi Cluster Cross Country

Well done to Thalia, Peyton, Kataraina, Violet, Saraia, Seth, Justus, Logan, and Bryan  who represented Waihi Central at our Cluster Cross Country Event.  You represented our school really well!

Special congratulations go to the following children for placing in the top six at this event:

Kataraina - 1st
Peyton - 3rd
Bryan - 3rd
Violet - 6th

See a few more photos on the link to the right.

Junior Trip to Waihi Beach

Our junior syndicate had an awesome trip to Waihi Beach yesterday.  It was fantastic to have Kimberly Peters (Coast Care representative for Waihi Beach) explain to us how important sand dunes and plants such as Spinifex are in helping to protect our coastline.  We also learnt how important it is for our marine animals and birds to keep our beaches litter free. We couldn't believe how much rubbish we picked up in 20 minutes.

We finished off our afternoon collecting taonga (treasures) for our classroom nature table. We all enjoyed being out in the sunshine and fresh sea air!  A big thank you to Delwynn, Tania, Dominique, Lynn and Jessica for helping with transport and supervision. Click the link to the right 'Photos - Junior Beach Trip' for a few more photos our trip, though not as many as usual as I was supervising one group.

Term 2 2013

Dear Whanau

Welcome to Room 5's Blog!

I hope you had a fantastic two week break with your children.  I enjoyed catching up with my family in Auckland and having some down time with my hubby and children.

I'm hoping through this blog to keep you informed of what is happening in our fantastic classroom and school.  Blogging is fairly new for me so I'll be learning as I go.

Term 2 should be a really settled term with lots of opportunities for fantastic learning across all curriculum areas.  Our topic for the first few weeks continues to be 'Backyard Biology' and that will change to 'Matariki' by approximately Week 5.

Behaviour Management Clip Chart:

• I have revised our behaviour management system over the holidays and a new visual chart is now hanging up. Every student will write their name on a peg and each morning every student's peg will start on the 'Ready to Learn' section.  
• Students 'caught' doing the right thing such as being on task and being independent learners will be asked to move their pegs up.  This is all about celebrating the great learning happening in Room 5!  Students who move their peg up so that it is sitting horizontally across the top of 'Super Hero' (4 steps) will be able to phone their family to share in their successes of the day.  These awesome steps up the chart will also be linked to our new warm Fuzzies Reward System (see below for more info).
• Students who choose not to make winning choices will be asked to move their peg down the chart.  First step down to 'Warning' is just a reminder with no consequences.  Two steps down to 'Losing Super Powers' means 10 mins of thinking time during morning tea or lunch time and a brief discussion with me afterwards about our class rules.  Third step down to 'Crash Landing' will mean 15 minutes in another classroom.  If there is a forth episode the student will be asked to move their peg horizontally under 'Crash Landing' and this will mean a phone call home to discuss the events of the day. 

Fuzzies:

• Tied in with our new behaviour management system is the opportunity for student's to earn 'fuzzies' (craft pom poms).  Students can earn one fuzzy by: completing their nightly homework; working well so that their peg is moved up to Flying High; continuing to work really well so their peg is moved up to Super Hero; and getting all their spelling words correct in their spelling test on a Friday.   Other fuzzies will also be able to earnt from time to time at teacher discretion.  Once a student has earnt 10 fuzzies they will be able to exchange these for a 'reward voucher'.  These must be exchanged before the 9.00am bell each morning. Currently our vouchers are for rewards such as:  be the line leader for the day; hand out class resources; be the class photographer for the day; bring a favourite book from home to read aloud to the class; wear a crown for the day; wear your P.J.'s in the classroom; and have a computer break etc etc.

Shoes removed in the classroom:

• As we now have a lovely new mat for the students to sit on and in the hope of keeping it clean, I will be asking the students to remove their shoes and keep them neatly on shelves outside our classroom door.  As the weather turns cooler children are welcome to bring slippers to wear and keep in the classroom.