In Rūma Whio we have been learning about the purākau Maui in Te Waipounamu. This is the beginning of the pūrakau that we have learnt about…

A long time ago, there was a great waka hourua that sailed across the moana to Te Tai Poutini. As the people on the waka sailed into the bay at Maitahi, they were amazed by how beautiful it was. The wāhi was peaceful and full of promise, but sadly, they couldn’t stay there at that time and had to continue on their journey.

So, they decided to tie two taniwha to the whenua at the southern point of the bay. The two taniwha, who took the form of two makō, Makō Tipua and Makō Horopekapeka, stayed to guard the wahi. Makō  Tipua was a great white shark, and Makō Horopekapeka, a bronze whaler shark.

These are the suncatchers we have made in response.

They have a great white shark (Makō Tipua) and a bronze whaler shark (Makō Horopekapeka).

Book week has arrived at HPS and Rūma Whio have been enjoying all the different activities on offer. Each morning we have had the choice of favourite picture books read by different teachers. Yesterday some of our whānau joined us for reading and making bookmarks.

Today many of us have dressed up as a favourite book character. Can you guess who we are?

This term Whio have been learning about area and perimeter in Maths. The students have created their own block images and identified the area of their block portraits. Here is some of their work. Please pop in to see more of our amazing work.

Rūma Whio have been experimenting today. We added food colouring to water and observed that the red food colouring travelled up the celery stem.

We learnt that this is because water is pulled up the plant by transpiration. Water molecules are pulled up the celery, moving up in a long chain. Water leaves the plant through pores in the leaves and as each molecule leaves, it pulls the next one up.