Kia Ora koutou katoa.

Last term our school did a Celebration day honoring our grandparents.

Some of our granparents came in and told us stories of what it was like growing up in their day.

We had a couple of grandparents who grew up in the 1930's 40's 50's and 60's.

We really enjpoyed listening to what they told us especially Mrs Whippy who told us that the Ice creams use to cost 25cents.

Here is the link to the photo montage that we made up of Kawakawa 50 years ago compared to now and pics of us with our grandparents who visited.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4irbmFvmlQ

Kia Ora Mai I te Maara.

"Today we picked some of the silver beet from our garden. I don't really eat silver beet at home. Whaea Jaime said that we are going to be making a really yummy dish with it. I don't think that I will like it"- Haylin Ngawati.

"It has been so long waiting for our veggies to grow in the garden. I was so excited that we were going to be eating our first meal out of it. I could smell the onions. They were so strong. The can of corned beef smelt like pet food. I got to taste the coconut cream. It was so nice" - Aubree Cook.

"Yum that smells so nice" - Shynshala.

"Oh my God! It tastes was better then I thought. It does look kind of ugly" - Skylah Rose.

With the Silver beet that we picked from our Maara, the class got to experience making Palusami. It is a Samoan dish that traditionally uses taro leaves and coconut milk with your own choice of meat.
Most of the class had already told me that they didn't like silver beet and that they didn't think it would taste very nice.
Well, well, well. What do you know? They actually loved it.
One of the many lessons that room 17 will have is experiencing that there are many different and very yummy ways to cook veggies so that you will enjoy eating them.

Kai Ora.

Kia ora mai te maara.

We created a video mash up of our journey this term in the garden. We want to share this with as many people as possible and show what we have learnt so more people take an interest in gardening.
It's been hard work but we know its going to be worthwhile when everything is ready to harvest.

Planting from seed

Do you know what germination and photosynthesis is?

We have learnt that germination is how a seed starts growing, and that all seeds and plants need oxygen, water and sunlight to grow. This is photosynthesis.

Seeds come in many different shapes and sizes, and most are ready to be transplanted into a bigger garden space in just 4 weeks.

We planted some snow peas, basil, cucumber and marigold seeds on the 11th of September and just 7 days later they have sprouted.

We keep them in the class near a window where they can see the sun. We water them every morning.
It is exciting watching them change and grow. We can not wait to see what they grow in to.

We will be able to take our snow peas pots home over the holidays to care for them and see how much they have grown when we come back in term four.

Whaea Jaime will have a prize for the best growth.

Explain everything...

Today we learnt how to make a project in Explain Everything.

Explain everything is an application on the iPads.

We took two pictures of a book what we have read for shared reading. One was of the front cover and the second was of a page that we liked in the story.

We learnt to shrink the pictures, how to lasso pictures, crop the background out of the photo and then we learned to quick save them.

Next we learnt to add a voice recording. We recorded the page that we took a picture of.

We all enjoyed the lesson today. Taking pictures and voice recording was fun.

 

Room 17 Gardening - Living world

When you look at this photo what do you see?

"What a mess!" Was our first thought, then we asked ourselves, what can we do?

"Let's tidy this up, we can rake the leaves, weed and turn over the dirt so we can plant some vegetables". 

So we got stuck in and worked together. It took us two afternoons and one lunch time.

We worked really hard and now it looks like its as good as new. We are ready to plant.

We are going to keep updating our progress and share what we have learnt with you in our blog. Keep an eye out for our Gardening posts and let us know what your tips are and how you think we can improve our Maara.

Tuna and Takakau Week.

In week nine everyone at Kawakawa primary school celebrated tuna and takakau week.
All us students get to make a takakau or we can try to catch a tuna.

We had three days to catch a tuna and each day we had to weigh them to see how heavy they were and measured them to see how long they were.

On Thursday we brought our takakau in and the parents judged them. They were judged on taste, presentation and texture.

Aubree made a takakau in the school logo of the Kawakawa leaf. Tegan decorated hers with matariki stars and Haylin's was a flat round circle.

Aubree won first place for her takakau and Haylin came second. Qwayde and Kailah won first place for the heaviest tuna. It was 5kgs and 86.5cm long. Everyone was presented with their certificates in the school assembly over at the hall.

After that we all sat with our whanau and friends and ate our hangi.

Tuna and takakau week was so much fun. We are proud of everyone who put in a big effort to catch tuna and make takakau.