Welcome to Whaea Morgz our new Sport Northland Energiser. Whaea Morgz talked to us about nutrition and what we should be eating before playing sport. Then she showed us some really fun games to get our hearts pumping and our legs moving in a short space of time. We are looking forward to working with Whaea Morgz every second Monday.
Today our class worked with Harley to do some film making. We looked at different camera shots and how to get clear audio using our i-pads. The students worked in groups to re-tell the story of Grace's Pizza Eating Pony Kenny. There is lots of filming that we need to go through but we did manage to make one story which was filmed and directed by Zion and Larell. We used this experience in our writing - click on the link to our class site.
(click on this link to access our learning on our class site)
We have been learning all about Matariki.
In the Māori language, Matariki is both the name of the Pleiades star cluster and also of the season of its first rising in late May or early June.
What is Matariki?
Matariki is the Māori name for a group of stars. The science name is the Pleiades and instead of ‘group’ they call it a star cluster.
It signalled the start of the Māori New Year for some tribes. Maori people followed a lunar calendar. That means that the months were organised around the moon. Marama is the name for moon. That is why the calendar is called Maramataka.
When is Matariki?
Matariki appears just before dawn in late May or early June. However this year it can be seen between 13-20 July 2020. Different tribes celebrated Matariki at different times. Some celebrated when it was first seen. Some celebrated at the first new moon or full moon after the Matariki was seen. We now celebrate Matariki as the new Maori year, when the first full moon is seen.
Matariki is a happy event – crops had been harvested and seafood and birds had been collected. With plenty of food in the storehouses, Matariki was a time for singing, dancing and feasting.
The students have been creating different ways to share their Matariki learning from animations on Scratch or Google Slides, to posters on and offline and lots of art work. The students really enjoyed making and flying manu tukutuku .
MANU TUKUTUKU Kites have been around for thousands of years, appearing in most ancient cultures, and kite flying has been a popular pastime for Maori, young and old. The name given to Maori kites is manu tukutuku. Manu means both bird and kite, tukutuku refers to winding out the line. Kites were flown to celebrate the start of the Māori New Year, when Matariki (the Pleiades) appeared in the mid-winter night sky.
