Year Four Dive Into Our New Inquiry

 

Today Year launched into our new moana topic. Did you know we live on the doorstep of Tikapa Moana - The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park?

Our morning classes used Google Maps Street View to explore the Gulf. The afternoon classes mapped the island of Tikapa Moana in their books.

Next both groups took action for our marine creatures by going on a litter hunt. Plastic rubbish travels down the drain to the sea, where animals eat it.

We sorted the rubbish into lunchbox waste and other waste. 

Thank you for the Whanau who pack a litterfree lunch. It helps A LOT!!! 

Lastly the morning group read about our local Wetlands and reviewed with an online quiz. The afternoon classes finished their mapping and sketched a Hauraki sea animal. 

All the classes got to sample pears from our school orchard as koha for their mahi. 

Continuing Our Waka Herenga inquiry

 Today Year Six continued their inquiry into Te Waka Herenga by comparing and contrasting with the waka at Kaiwaka Primary School.  WE began by reading this article about Kaiwaka and then compared to Te Herenga's origin story.

Next week we are going to delve more into the depictions of the three baskets of knowledge on Te Waka Herenga. 

Raumati Pear Harvest

Today Year Six ate the pears that were harvest last week.  We made our taste test a mindfulness exercise; thinking carefully about the feel, smell, look and taste and our piece of pear.

It feels smooth, cold, rough

It feels like a slug

It was crunchy, slippery, juicy

It looked lime green like a green apple

It looks a half moon

The pear was sweet, sour, juicy, crunchy&  fruity to taste.

Ana "It smells like chlorine"

"It smells like watermelon and apple*

It smells ripe

It feels wet

It feels juicy

We sketched the pears and came up with a line of poetry about them  to make a collaborative poem:

Our school pears are fine & devine,

Crispy, zesty,

Irresistible sweet bells,

Gorgeous pears full of glee

A sweet afternoon tea,

yummy pear

Honestly to sweet to bare.

Scrumptious sour candy.

Hard as a green rock,

Could survive a bullet from a glock.

It tasted yummy

When it went in my tummy.

Munch, crunch, 

In our lunch

What a lovely sight to see

Thank you to our Waka Tree

Year Four Map Out Our GreenGold Enviro School

Welcome back for 2025 Year Four. Today we reflected on how far we've come as an Enviroschool in the last five years. We used this video to help us:

Next we created a map of the areas that help our school be sustainable, before heading off on a scavenger hunt to explore them. 

After morning tea we began to investigate our new Waka and tree planting. We began our inquiry by sketching what we observed.

Next week we're looking forward to finding out more about our Waka's origin story. 

Our Circular Economy - Harvesting our Pears and Plums

 At Wakaaranga we try to reduce our waste by converting our biodegradable rubbish like fruit scraps into compost.  We the use the compost to grow more kai.  

Today Mr Dowden told Ms Everit and Ms Daniel that the pears and plums were ready to pick.  The filled two baskets and a shopping bag off just two trees.

The fruit will be ready to eat next week.  We're looking forward to taste testing and creating poetry inspired by our senses.

Welcome 2025 - Reflecting on what it means to be a GreenGold Enviroschool at Wakaaranga

What does it mean to be a GreenGold Enviroschool?

Our year 6 students began the year by reflecting on all the wonderful spaces at Wakaaranga that make us a GreenGold Enviroschool.

We mapped the wahi places then explored the school to complete a scavenger hunt.

Lastly, we sketched our new Te Waka Herenga and our newly planted native trees. We are going to find out more about the waka's origin story and care for the new trees so they grow to support biodiversity at our school.