Matariki Think Crews

This week we got into new Think Crews.  Think Crews are a great way to learn to work cooperatively and in a team.

We read the really cool legend called The Star Fishes about the Matariki stars.

We worked in our teams to create a picture retelling of the legend.

Each member of the Think Crew retold a part of the legend.  They produced some superb pictures of the  story.  Two groups even got to take their retelling to Mrs Jennings.

The next day, they worked together to retell the legend in their own words cooperatively.  Mrs H then typed them up.

Our next step was to reproduce their visual picture as an illustration to go with their story using the i-pad app Doodle Buddy.  This was pretty fun to do.

Here are two of our final legends.  Come into visit us to see the rest. 

We hope you enjoy them :)

Matariki Paintings

This week we have been learning all about Matariki.  Over the next couple of days your child will bring home a retelling of a Matariki legend that they created with their group.

They have also created these beautiful paintings from the legend.  We hope you enjoy them!

Matariki Celebrated

Early this morning about 100 people from Discovery School braved the elements to celebrate Matariki.

Matariki can be translated two ways - Mata Riki (tiny eyes) and Mata Ariki (Eyes of God).  Some say Matariki is a mother surrounded by her six daughters and others suggest it is a male star.  Matariki is the cluster of stars known as the Pleiades or Messier 45.

In other cultures it is also called Subaru in Japan; the Hen and Chickens in medieval Europe; and Krittika in Hindu.  In Hawai'i they're known as Makali'i and are dedicated to the god of rain and agricultrue.

Today, Matariki has become a time of celebration of culture, language, spirituality and history.  There are hundreds of celebrations held around Aotearoa New Zealand from small whanau (family) events to much larger community ones.

It was wonderful to celebrate with so many families this morning.  Here is what some of the children from Room VH thought of our celebration this morning.

It was pouring with rain (Kahn)
Lots of people had umbrellas (Regan)
People sang songs like He Honore and Matariki (Tayne)
Behind the clouds Matariki was shining brightly (Lucy)

At school the whole school got together to plant a beautiful kowhai tree.