QR code hunt

Today we used QR codes to gather information on Māori placenames in our area, We learnt that:


...There used to a chief called Hawea, The lake and the river are named after him


...The Motatapu river used to be called Mate-Tapu because of the cemetery in the hills near by.


...Makarora valley was traditionally called Kaika Paekai, "the place of abundant food"


...Mount Aspiring, Tititea means steep peak of glistening white


...Wanaka was called Oanaka, which means the place of Anaka


...In this area Māori hunted and fished on the lakes. They also travelled through this area to get to the West COast and its pounamu/greenstone.

Stained glass sugar

Today we completed an experiment to make stained glass sugar. We recorded our observations and hypothesized what we thought the science was behind the experiment...what do you think the science is?

To see how our experiment unfolded watch the videos below:

Out and about in our area

Today the children visited some points of interest in our area to spark questions and wonderings about our local area. With our buddy class, we explored the area around the school including the Hawea Flat Community Hall, St Ninians church, walked down to Windmill corner and bused down to the Dam at Lake Hawea.

The children sketched, recorded key words, questions and wonderings and will use this information to inquire further into the history of our area.

Taonga Pūoro

On Thursday we had the amazing opportunity to have Jerome Kavanagh visit our school. He shared a number of his taonga pūoro (traditional Māori instruments), their histories and the stories about them.

Watch these videos to hear and see some of these taonga pūoro in action: