A Shockingly Good Time

On Thursday November 7th, Te Maunga did a range of activities around electricity.

We got into groups and moved around in a rotation.

One activity was using lemons to create a battery of sorts.

We put copper coins into lemons, stuck zinc nails into lemons and created a circuit using alligator clips. At the end of the circuit was a light emitting diode (LED). It lit up when there was enough power created by the lemons.

We used Brainbox sets to light up bulbs and set motors to spin fans into the air.

We learnt about static electricity by rubbing balloons on wool and our hair to see what would happen next.

Rubbing combs on our hair charged them and made the electricity attract pepper and water!

Duffy Show

Today we had Dylan. Anya and Emma-Rose come to Paihia School to perform a Duffy Show for us.

It was called, "Duffy: Stuck in the Game". 

Duffy gets stuck inside a video game he and his cousin play online together and have to figure out a way to get out by reading books.

It was great fun and we even had a few Te Maunga students involved in the show itself!

We had an outstanding time and learnt a lot!

Food, Glorious Food

This week in Te Maunga we learnt all about how plants grow. We read through texts and wrote down the steps needed to grow a variety of fruit and vegetables. We also created animations to show how this process.

For our Makerspace activity we worked in groups to create different dishes.

We used the vegetables harvested from our garden and brought in a few things from home.

Each group created their own unique dishes, just in time for lunch!

Everyone had a great time being creative and making sure we had some healthy options to eat.

Hopefully we can all recreate these at home!

We also celebrated some birthdays in the class on Friday. Jade turned 10, Alana turns 9 over the weekend and Mrs. Pou will turn 21 yet again on the weekend. Mr. Ngata made a cake for the class to celebrate these milestones.

Term 4 Has Arrived!

We've made it to the beginning of the end! Term 4 is finally here and we have a huge amount planned in the next 9 weeks. This week we had Tracey in to work with the students doing Swim Safe activities... on land!

We have been busy filming our movies for the upcoming film festival. Next week everyone will be hard at work editing their silver screen spectaculars! Check back in a couple of weeks to see the finished products...

Athletics day is in Week 6 so we have been practicing with Te Ngahere to make sure we are all peaking for the big day.

Rebecca Brothers

On Wednesday September 11th, Rebecca Brothers came to speak to the school about her amazing journey and how books have always been a huge part of her life.

She spoke about how she needed to be up early every day to train, but how she never used that as an excuse for her schoolwork. She would come home every day after school and do her homework straight away before heading off to train again at night.

Rebecca explained that books have always been important to her, but in different ways throughout her life. When she was younger she read for enjoyment, as she got older reading became the tool she used to improve herself at university and police training college.

Rebecca competed at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 2004. She showed us a few pictures of her time there. She explained to us that having talent can only get you so far, and that dedication and hard work are much more important in taking you places.

Rebecca read her favourite book to us. It was by Dr. Seuss and it was titled "Oh the places you will go". The book was about the same sort of thing she was telling us about. Having the right attitude will take you amazing places and ensure you do great things.

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose" - Dr. Seuss

Cross Country

On Friday August 30th, Paihia School had their annual cross country at Bledisloe Domain. We all headed to the Domain ready for a big day of running!

The races were held in age groups and we were all having a great time encouraging our friends in other classes before our races started.

Once our races began it was game on! We had to run around the field, up the hill and over the fence into the paddock. After running around the paddock and up the hill, it was back down to the field and one last run to the finish line.

We had a great day and it was awesome to see how many adults were there to support everyone running. We already can't wait for next year!

Bye Ms. Simpson!!!

Today we bid farewell to our awesome student teacher Ms. Simpson. 

She has been with us for part of Term 1 and all of Term 3 so far. 

We have loved having her in Te Maunga and will miss her so much! She has taught us lots about classifying animals (and their Maori names) this term which has been a lot of fun.

We wish Ms. Simpson the best for all of her future endeavours.

To the beach!

Thursday 8th of August we all packed up our morning tea and wandered down to the beach to check out some of the wildlife in our backyard. The weather was looking pretty suspect at times but we decided we need to risk it to get the biscuit.

When we arrived we were given instructions on where to look around to make sure we were safe but also so that we can see a range of different sea creatures. The rock pools by the bluff were the main part we explored.

We hoped to find a plethora of different species but it was a lot harder than we had hoped! We did manage to see a few crabs and a whole lot of starfish. Watching the water come in and out of the rock pools gave us hope that we'd see a few fish floating around but it was not to be.

After a good search among the rocks we sat down for a bit of morning tea and a debrief on what we had seen. This was followed by a quick clean up of the beach (where we completely filled a rubbish bag with what we found), and then off for a class photo!

We had an awesome day out and managed to see a few of the creatures that we had learned about so far this term.

Term 3

What a start to the term! We have a new reading and writing programme that everyone is finding super interesting! After discussions with the students we found that animals were a topic of interest so we decided that learning about sea creatures would be a great way to kick off term 3.

Here is a link to the sea life literacy programme

We also had some very successful Year 5 rippa rugby students competing at the Northland regional championships. They finished first equal in their pool but did not play in the semi finals on a technicality. Great work by those students.

Matariki Madness!

On Thursday 27th of June we had a very early start at school. Some people arrived at 5am! We were there to celebrate Matariki by going down to the beach to see the Matariki constellation and share a delicious breakfast.

Later that day we had a rotation of various activities in class. One group helped to prepare our class garden for planting, another group learnt how to make a traditional Maori porotiti and the other group did a science experiment to make chocolate mousse.

We had such an awesome time and to top that all off we got to play the rest of our KidsCan fundraising games!

Floating Classroom

Thursday 13th of June was one of the best days we have had all year!. The Year 5 (and Year 6 students from Te Ngahere) students all walked down to the Paihia Wharf at 8:30am to catch an Explorer boat out to Urupukapuka Island. We were part of the Floating Classroom initiative run by Project Island Song.

Everyone was excited as we raced along the water over to the island, stopping to spot some penguins and shearwaters along the way. When we arrived at the island we had to cross a heli pad on the water to get to another boat which dropped us at the floating pontoon pathway to shore.

We got split into groups and set about our activities. While one group went hiking across the island to plant trees, the other group made traps for any incursions on the island and a weta house before they set off to find some native fauna.

 






The first activity we did was making the traps. We split into groups and were given the materials to start building. After looking at the examples of finished traps, we set about using teamwork to get the traps made so they can keep the birds safe on the island. One group also made a weta house to give weta a place to hide out safely.

 
             


Our next activity was planting trees. We walked over the hill to Cable Bay and found some nice spots to plant our trees in groups. Once we had done that we went back over the hill to grab our stuff to head back.

On the way home we had a few guest captains that managed to drive us safely across the sea. After a wonderful trip we were all tired and ready to head home! A huge thanks to Ria and Deb for taking us around, our wonderful parent helpers and everyone else who lent a hand to make it such an awesome day!