Citius, Altius, Fortius-Faster, Higher, Stronger.

 2024 Olympic Games.

In Room Piwakawaka, we have been learning about the Olympic Games. First, we reviewed what we already knew about the Olympic Games by accessing our prior knowledge. We used that information and created a mind map of all the things that we knew. 

We learned about the different colors of the Olympic rings and what each colour represents. 

• The five rings represent the five continents considered part of the Olympic movement at the time the symbol was created (in 1913): Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania (note: North and South America were counted as one).

• The colors — blue, yellow, black, green, and red (on a white background) — were chosen because every national flag in the world contains at least one of those colors.

We also learned about the Olympic values and why they are important. 

The Olympic Games are not just about sports — they also promote powerful values that inspire people around the world. The three core Olympic values are:

1. Excellence – Doing your best, both in sports and in life. It's about pushing your limits and striving to be the best version of yourself.

2. Friendship – Building connections across cultures and backgrounds. The Olympics bring people together, reminding us that we have more in common than we think.

3. Respect – Treating others fairly, playing by the rules, and respecting yourself, your opponents, and the environment.

These values are important because they go beyond winning medals. They help create a better, more peaceful world by encouraging unity, fairness, and personal growth. Whether you're an athlete or not, the Olympic values are lessons we can all learn from and live by.  We looked at how we can implement those values in our classroom as well as outside the classroom. We also played a range of games that focused on these values to reinforce them. 

 

In Room Piwakawaka we have been reading the story "Rainbow Fish".  The tamariki really enjoyed the shared story about the Rainbow Fish. The purpose of reading this story was to reinforce the importance of sharing and being generous. We have been learning a lot about our School values of:   Respect (Whakaute), Responsibility (Kawenga), Resilience (Manahau), and Service (Ratonga)

The children then enjoyed creating their Rainbow fish using coloured cards and weaving.  This was a great learning activity that focused on fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, creativity, and problem-solving. 

A Squash and a Squeeze

In Room Piwakawaka we have been reading the story" A Squash and a Squeeze". We have been learning about explaining orally what happens at the beginning, middle and end of a story. We have also learnt that in stories we have characters, settings, problem and a solution. The children has exposure to new vocabulary which they were encouraged to use throughout the day. Some of the new vocabulary that the children were exposed to were: Wise, grumble, grouse, curious.

We then integrated the story into our Mathematics where the children created their own plans of houses to be able to fit the little old lady and the animals. They then created their houses using different materials like blocks, lego and play dough. 

As their teacher I was so impressed with their creations and the thinking behind creating their houses as well as the problem solving involved. 

The Tamariki in Room Piwakawaka had so much fun creating thier houses.