To celebrate Niue Language Week, Room 23 got to make Takihi. It is a traditional Niue dish made with taro, pawpaw and coconut cream.

First, children took turns peeling the taro. Some got to cut the pawpaw and others scooped out the seeds. Then children took turns peeling the pawpaw. Everyone was careful not to peel the too much off the taro and pawpaw.

After that, Miss Lavakula took over with the help of Whaea Sandy. Quickly, they sliced taro into thin pieces and thinly sliced the pawpaw. We put the slices into layers on foil, poured over some coconut cream and baked it on high for an hour. The leftover pawpaw was quickly devoured by everyone too.

Once cool, the children got to eat a sample of the takihi. Some even got seconds. The children enjoyed this experience very much.

Fakaaue lahi everyone.

Check out our learner blogs for their challenges of Vagahau Niue. Here’s Nufaysah’s post here. She won the orators challenge.

We are learning about music. We have had the beat station in our classroom a couple of times, and are practicing making a beat.

We watched some of the stage show Stomp in class today. The performers didn’t use any instruments – they used things like brooms, newspapers and their shoes to make music. It was neat to see that music can come from anywhere, and there are lots of ways for musicians to make beats, melodies and songs.

The next time we have the beat station, we’re hoping to get through some of the level 2 lessons so that we can start adding some ukulele to our songs.

This week the Calypso group had a play as part of their reading contract. The students worked together each day to decide their roles, practice, add actions and props. Check out what they shared with the rest of the class on Friday!

Bula Vinaka! 

What an epic week celebrating the beautiful islands of Fiji and learning all about this friendly and vibrant Pacific nation!

Fiji is a tropical paradise filled with sunshine, sparkling sandy beaches, crystal-clear waters, colourful flowers and delicious fresh food. Throughout the week, we explored Fiji’s rich culture, traditions, language, art and music. We shared our learning, got creative and celebrated the beauty of Fijian culture together.

Vinaka vakalevu !

Bula Vinaka, Whānau and Friends!

This week, our amazing Year 1 and 2 learners took on an exciting challenge to celebrate Fijian culture. Our task was to dive deep into research, discover fascinating facts about the beautiful town of Savusavu, and present our findings in a creative way. We knew we were being judged on three main things: our information, our creativity, and our overall presentation.

Here are some amazing facts that we share in the video:

• Crystal Clear Waters: Savusavu has beautiful, see-through turquoise water that is perfect for swimming and diving!

• Friendly Dolphins: Playful dolphins love swimming right alongside boats in the bay.

• Ocean Pearls: Savusavu is world-famous for growing rare, colourful ocean pearls deep underwater.

• Hot Springs: There are natural thermal hot springs right in the town where locals actually cook food in the boiling water!

• Cocoa Pods: Bright cocoa pods grow on trees here, which are harvested to make delicious, local Fijian chocolate.

• Yummy Food: From fresh tropical fruits to delicious traditional Fijian dishes, the food in Savusavu is mouth-watering!

The Big Idea: Passing the Fiji Vibe!

We filmed a dynamic video that kicked off with the whole class coming together to shout a warm, loud “BULA!”

We learned so many cool facts about Savusavu, and we also had a total ball filming and watching the finished video together. 

Check out our video below!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19uDWG2N2SCBG2nZ-G-imyUiAx-mCA6dH/view?usp=sharing

Vinaka vakalevu for watching and supporting our Fiji Language Week learning!

Bula Vinaka!

In maths, we learned all about the ‘Unit of Repeat’—the specific combination of shapes or lines that repeats over and over again to create a complete pattern.

Here is how we put our learning into action:

1. Explore: We looked closely at Fijian masi patterns and identified the geometric shapes hiding inside them.
2. Design: Using whiteboard markers and mini whiteboards, we selected our own “unit of repeat” (for example: triangle, diamond, stripe).
3. Repeat: Working carefully, we repeated our unit to build our masi inspired designs.

Using whiteboards allowed us to experiment freely, test out different repeating sequences, and make adjustments as we refined our mathematical patterns!

Look at Our Amazing Work!

Vinaka vakalevu to our wonderful students for their focus, creativity, and mathematical thinking this week!

This week we have been celebrating Fijian Language Week!
Our 2 challenges were to create a Masi (like tapa cloth) design, and to make a presentation about the Fijian Island of Kadavu.
Here is Mr Lloyd’s example of a Masi design drawn on Google Drawings! Check out our learner blogs to see our designs and videos!

Today we had the beat station in our class! We had so much fun. Each group chose a band name by picking an animal and then a colour. It was interesting to watch the different groups problem solve when they didn’t agree. Some used paper scissors rock and others voted.

We then got into the music making. There were 4 percussion instruments that students swapped throughout the song. How do we sound?

In the afternoon we designed our band posters on canva! Students had fun picking a background, choosing a font/colour and then selecting the graphics and placement. We are so excited for the beat station to come back to our class!

Like all other language weeks, te wiki o te reo Māori was celebrated at our school. First we started with our opening assembly and our senior Kapa Haka roōpu performed. The challenges were announced and everyone had a week to complete them. You can find them on the site here. Here’s our entry for the pukana challenge.

At our closing assembly, our junior Kapa Haka roōpu performed and we found out who the winners were for our challenges. Kia kaha te reo Māori!