Our school-wide big idea this term is
'Look Back to Look Forward'.
In Social Studies with Mrs. W, the B4 children started by finding out about pre-European times in New Zealand.
What lessons can we learn for the future from the way early Maori lived their lives?
What lessons can we learn for the future from the way early Maori lived their lives?
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As part of their inquiry, the class collected harakeke (flax) from the school grounds.
They had to follow tikanga - protocols for gathering the harakeke.
They had to wait for a fine day, and a karakia (prayer) was said first.
They learned to not take the centre leaves (the baby) or the next leaves (the parents), but to only take the outside leaves (the grandparents).
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| Saying the karakia |
Once the flax was gathered, a shell was used to scrape along the leaves to make some flax fibres.
The children twisted the fibres together into strings by rolling them up and down on their legs.
The fibres are strong!
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The class are also learning some tī rākau -stick games.
This video shows the very first try.
We hope to post another video in a few weeks to show how much we have improved!
Have you tried working with harakeke?
What about trying some stick games?
