Ollie's sheepdogs

As part of our inquiry into Kiwiana culture, we have been bringing objects from home to share.
Today Ollie brought sheepdog puppies to show! They are very special to Ollie because his family's pet dog is the mother of the puppies.

Ollie's mum and his little sister brought four puppies in a carry cage for us to see, and touch! The puppies are seven weeks old and still quite small.

Border Collie's were brought to New Zealand, from England and Scotland, 150 years ago to work on farms herding sheep and cattle. They are very smart and athletic dogs.

Thank you Ollie for sharing your taonga with us!

Lily's Jaffas

Today Lily brought her mum's greenstone koru necklace and some jaffas. Lily told us that the necklace is special because her dad brought the necklace for her mum.

Then Lily showed us the Jaffas and told us every year in Dunedin there is a chocolate carnival. The Cadbury Chocolate Factory is in Dunedin, and so is the world's steepest street, called Baldwin Street.

Cadbury have been making Jaffas since 1931 and in 2002 they started racing Jaffas down the steepest street during the chocolate carnival! This year 50,000 giant orange candy-coated chocolate balls will go flying down Baldwin Street to raise money for charity.

Thank you Lily for sharing your Jaffas with us!

Shay's kauri snail

As part of our inquiry into Kiwiana culture, we have been bringing objects from home to share.
Today Shay brought a kauri snail shell to show. It is special to him because Avia (Shay's grandmother) found it on a river bank in the Waitakere Ranges, near Auckland, a few years ago. 

Kauri snails (pūpūrangi) are a protected native species that can grow shells up to 8cm across. They eat earthworms and other insects (and sometimes other snails!). They like damp forests in the north of North Island and can live to be 20 years old.

Thank you Shay for sharing your taonga with us!

Arohaina's Taiaha

As part of our inquiry into Kiwiana culture, we have been bringing objects from home to share.
Today Arohaina brought her taiaha to show. It is special to her because her older brother carved it for her.
She explained to us that the taiaha has an upoko (head) with eyes and an arero (tongue) which must not touch the ground.

A taiaha is seen in the New Zealand coat of arms (designed in 1911) and is often seen during the wero (the traditional challenge during a pōwhiri).

In this photo Arohaina is also holding a tiki carved from greenstone.
Thank you Arohaina for sharing your taonga with us!

Kiwi Camp Day

The Springston School junior team had a day of celebrating being a 'Kiwi Kid'. We started the day by gathering around the crackling campfire to sing songs together and tell jokes.

 

 Then we heated up the pans and fried up some sausages to eat with bread and sauce. Yum!

 After that we had a go at some classic Kiwi games, like pole tennis, cricket, badminton, rugby and gumboot tossing! It was choice!

Fabulous Fish!

At the end of Term 1, we had three new faces arrive in Room 3! 

 ^Mango Spot^

 ^Jedi^

 ^Silver Smoke^

Thank you to Raewyn and her whānau for loaning us our fishy friends!

Math-magicians!

Look at all the ways we can solve number problems...

... using number lines...

... using an abacus...

... using counting beans...

... using the hundreds board...

... using what we know in our head...

... using fingers (with a buddy!)