Te Aramoana Syndicate Swimming

Today's swimming session was the last for the term. Room 6 children have all been able to make significant progress with the help of the lovely Paraparaumu Aquatic Centre coaches. (See Tyler's blog.)  

The children practised some survival skills, donning life  jackets and treading water.  They had some team building activities as well where they practiced dragging another swimmer.

As well as learning survival skills, the class was treated to some turns on the hydro-slide.  It was a great way to finish our 8th session.

MATARIKI EXCITEMENT

 The school hall was a buzz of excitement for   Waikanae School’s Thursday night’s Matariki celebration.  With around 300 children, many in their pyjamas and dressing gowns, along with their parents or members of their extended whanau attending, the place was packed.  Set up with sofas around the walls and with the floor covered with cushions, it was a warm, welcoming, sight.  The Room 6 pou,  which reached nearly to the roof, welcome guests just inside the entrance way. 

 

 The hall walls and stage had been decorated with children’s art from all the various syndicates, fairy lights and posters

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On the pou were the koru family trees of Room 6 students, many telling of their ancestry and their pepeha identifying them with the Kapiti Coast.  Several of the pepha signified other cultural identities for families that have joined our Waikanae community.

 Meanwhile, outside, lanterns hung gently swaying in trees and also lit the path to the hall, making the scene quite magical.

Snuggling down on the large cushions, surrounded by the flickering of candles, children sipped from cups of steaming Milo while listening to traditional Maori stories.   Some of the kapa haka sang waiata and biscuits were handed out to go with the Milo.   

 Of  special significance was that the first story, “In The Beginning - Ranginui & Papatuanuku”, read by Year 6 student Tiare Parata, and the last story of the evening, “Te Rauparaha – Legend of Aotearoe” read by her father  Damian Parata, were both descendants of Te Rauparaha, a significant and historic figure in Kapiti’s rich history.

Other guest readers were Miss Castle, Mrs Micaela Young, Meretene Davis, and Mrs Lumsden, each with a different story.   Following the reading of the stories, the food from the sausages sizzle was distributed and eagerly consumed.   

As the evening drew to a close, hot air balloons were released to soar into the dark night sky, their lights signifying the seven stars of Matariki. The night concluded with karakia before the tired but happy children headed home to bed. 

We had fun preparing for our Waikanae School Matariki celebration held in the school hall tonight.  We made decorated candle jars.  Micah and Emily taught the class how to make the handles for them.

Bee with her finished jar

Room 6 Science
We are learning about forces and motion.  We are learning to think like / as scientists. Today we used tracks and marbles to experiment what happens when the marbles started on different places on the track.  We learnt about POTENTIAL ENERGY, the energy an object has because gravity is pulling on it.  We also learnt about KINETIC ENERGY, the energy that an object has when it is moving.   We converted the potential energy into kinetic energy by letting it roll down the track.  We observed that it then rolled across the carpet and then finally stopped.  Our question was "Why did it stop?"  Children in the class have lots of ideas.  We will do other experiments to discover more.

Vashti showed us her cup she won at swimming when she was nine.  It has her name engraved on it so when other people win it they will see her name too.  Does this make her famous?  Yes - in a way it will.  When she is older and has children of her own I hope she gets to show them her name on the cup.

Today we played Crab Soccer.  It was great fun.

It was our last session with our two coaches who have joined us most weeks for the last 6 weeks.

Chasing the ball - but moving like crabs!

Jamie and Emily battle for the ball.

As part of contributing to the environment and to our community we joined in with planting trees at the Pharazyn Reserve at Waikanae Beach.  There have been over 15,000 plants planted over the years in the reserve that use to be sewage treatment ponds.  The plants cost about $10 each  to plant, which includes the cost of getting all the holes dug.  The KCDC support the project.  It is aimed to build a forest corridor between Kapiti Island and the Akatarawa forest to allow native birds to become established in the coastal areas, and to travel between the mountains and the island.  It is a BIG project but one we can proudly say that we are a part of.

Gabrielle and Hannah are proud of the little Ake Ake tree they planted.

Even Mr Corlett got to plant some new trees.