Weeeeeeee're Baaaaaaaaaack

Welcome one and all to the 2021 season of learning in Te Maunga. We've had some exciting changes in class and everyone is absolutely fizzing to get back into it! We have a new teacher in the building, Penny who has stepped up from being a teacher aide last year! We also have Suzi and Elly joining us as teacher aides and they have loved their first days in Te Maunga.

Today we received the first round of new Chromebooks for learners that have purchased them. This just added to the heaving excitement of being back at school this year.

While we enjoyed our holidays it has been awesome to catch up with old friends and make some new ones in the first few days!

Te Maunga's Magical Class Trip

 On December 2nd, Te Maunga had a class trip to Kerikeri. Our first port of call was The Parrot Place. It was absolutely amazing seeing the colours on all the birds! We had never seen anything like it! Everyone had a chance to get a bird to perch on them and we all had a great time.

Next we popped off for a spot of lunch at the Kerikeri Domain. Laura scuttled off and when she came back there was a plethora of pizzas for everyone to devour! What a delicious way to refuel.

Lastly we went to the movies to watch The Secret Garden. We already knew most of the story since Penny had been reading it in her very authentic accent. We even got to indulge in an ice cream and a drink there!

Awesome Athletic Adventures

On November 27th Paihia School wandered up to Bledisloe Domain for the annual Athletics Extravaganza!

There were hundreds of kids and parents all excited to get started and show their athletic prowess.

We ran, threw, jumped and laughed our way to an awesome day out with the other schools.

Thanks to Mrs. Williams for organising this great event, the PTA for selling such a great feast and all the participants for their tremendous efforts on such a hot day!

Cross Country

Today was our annual Cross Country. We were so glad that we got moved to Level 1 so that it could take place.

We all piled into vehicles and headed off to Bledisloe Domain. The PTA had some delicious food for sale but we knew we couldn't eat too early or we would get a stitch later in our run!

The little kids all ran first until it was finally our turn. We ran around the field and then up the hill. Our lungs were bursting but we managed to make it to the finish line. What a perfect way to end the term!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

A huge thank you to everyone that voted for our America's Cup video!!!! While we didn't win a major prize, we were lucky enough to win a consolation prize... A new Sphero Robot! Thank you so much to Genesis Energy for sponsoring this awesome competition.

We are going to have a whole lot of fun learning with this little ball of energy!

Quiet on set!!!

For the past month, Te Maunga has been an absolute madhouse! We have been writing scripts, making props, finding sets and playing dress ups. We made movies!!!

We had some hiccups along the way but we managed to come up with some outstanding stories and beautiful cinematography.

You can check out all of the movies on our class Youtube site here

Hunting For Treasure

On August 28th, Paihia School ran a fundraiser for ex-pupil Sam Godsiff-Johnson. Sam was raising money for the charity I Am Hope. Our school ran a treasure hunt to support the cause!

The junior students got out just before morning tea and hunted around for some pictures of gumboots that would land them an exciting prize!

The senior students were called out just before lunch for their turn. Mrs. Lindsay hid tiny pictures of gumboots and the students set off! They peered high and low and some were able to get a hold of their little pictures.

Once all of the gumboots were found, Mrs. Lindsay called each winner up one by one to receive their mystery prizes. Some students won ice-cream, some won bouncy balls, others won headphones. All had a great time and contributed to an awesome cause!

VOTE FOR US!!!!!!

We have entered a competition to have the America's Cup Trophy brought into school and to win $3000 of learning equipment. This is the video we made.

All we need is for people to vote for us! You can vote once a day so please support us!

Maths Week

Last week we celebrated Maths Week. We had a series of fun problem solving tasks to do in groups and we had prizes for groups that were able to solve the puzzles and for working collaboratively.

On Friday Mrs. Cameron had a car full of balloons and everyone had an opportunity to see it and to guess how many balloons were in the car. After all of the guesses were tallied up, only one student had guessed the exact number of balloons... It was Tamati from here in Te Maunga. Tamati got a hamper full of goodies he can use at school.

Online Safety is Paramount

We have been learning about the Kawa of Care and some ways to keep ourselves safe when we go online.

We read a book about online safety. It taught us that it is very important to keep personal information off the web. We also learnt that being friends online with strangers is something that no one should ever do. Just ask Chicken Clicking!

Super Sonic Soundscapes

We have been learning all about different musical instruments from around the world. We read about violins being made the same way for the last 400 years, the erhu, a Chinese instrument, and the koauau, a Maori flute.

We also learnt about sound effects used in movies. We saw that coconut shells were used to make the sound of horses galloping. We came up with some awesome ideas to make some sounds to do with all sorts of themes. Some groups did volcanic eruptions, some did storms and a few did crazy ideas like fighting dragons and zombies attacking!

Term 3 Begins

We have finally started Term 3 after a well deserved 2 week break. Everyone is feeling refreshed and ready to get back into some learning.

This term we are starting off by learning about music and musical instruments. We have looked at soundscapes and how sound effects are made in movies and will be making some ourselves!

We have been writing recounts about the exciting things we have done in the holidays. It was very cool to see what everyone has been doing in their break.

Extinction of the Dinosaurs

We have been learning all about dinosaurs. We learnt that they were huge and that they roamed the earth more than 65 million years ago.

One thing we read about was the extinction of the dinosaurs. There are many theories about how they all died out. The ideas that we thought made the most sense were the asteroid hitting the earth and volcanoes causing havoc.

We recreated these volcanic eruptions in class with our "Dino-ramas" to see how the dinosaurs may have lived out their last moments.