Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori

Kia kaha Te Reo Māori!

Te Reo Māori is a Taonga (treasure). We often talk in class about how special it is to speak this unique language, and how we can play our part in caring for it by learning, speaking and sharing Te Reo.

Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori is a time for celebrating the Māori language. It is also a time for reaffirming our commitment to making Te Reo strong and healthy. 

If you would like to know more, visit www.tewikiotereomaori.co.nz.

Here's a flavour of how we have been celebrating Te Reo in Autahi this week.

We have been practising greeting each other in Te Reo, and introducing ourselves and saying how we are feeling today. Ask your child if they can remember how to tell somebody their name in Te Reo Māori. We are also working on counting and doing our daily calendar in Te Reo. 

We have shared Māori stories, such as 'How Maui Tamed The Sun' and enjoyed working on our Tamanui Te Rā artworks. These will be on display in Autahi next week, if you'd like to pop in for a closer look.

At twelve o'clock on Monday, we joined the whole school - and around one million other people - in Te Wā Tuku Reo Māori, speaking or singing in Te Reo Māori all at the same time.

We are fortune to have an awesome Kapa Haka teacher, Matua Henare, who joins us every Thursday to teach waiata and haka. This week, the whole school met on bottom court to celebrate and sing together. 

This has been a special week. But, of course, Te Reo is for every day, and we will continue to build our knowledge and share our learning with each other.

Welcome back

We are back into the swing of things in Autahi this week.



We sang songs at Kapa Haka



Went looking for patterns around our school



Started a new challenge to play with a new person every day to move up the mountain

We are all so excited to be back at school and diving straight into our learning.
Keep checking into the blog over the term as we showcase lots of the things we are doing around the classroom and get a closer look at some of the amazing activities we have coming up.

Mihi Whakatau

This week our school community has grown as we formally welcomed lots of students and their Whanau to our school. At the beginning of the year we welcome all our new students with a Powhiri and the Mihi Whakatau is another chance to welcome those that have started school after our annual Powhiri.

Check out some pictures of the day and how grateful we are to share this experience with our school community.

Te wiki o te Reo Maori

 

This week was Te wiki o Te Reo Maori or Maori language week. We are always learning new things in Maori and this is a good chance to celebrate our learning.

We spent Monday exploring different aspects like unpacking some of the language in our school karakia, building models of what Whetukairangi pa might have looked like and giving positive feedback to others in Te Reo.

Check us out exploring the language and culture that is so important to us in New Zealand.

Our Pepeha

Pepeha is a way of introducing yourself in Māori. It tells people who you are by sharing your connections with the people and places that are important to you.

In Autahi we have been learning a simple Pepeha that introduces our parents and ourselves.

This is just the first step on our journey as we will continue to add more to our Pepeha over time.

A traditional Pepeha tells the story of who we are by identifying the land we have come from and who our ancestors are. You can continue this learning at home by talking about your own family history, the places you come from and who your ancestors are.

Check out some of what we have been working on to introduce ourselves:

Te Reo

We have been learning Te Reo Maori as part of our daily programme in Autahi. We have been practising how to ask how people are feeling and how to reply to that same question. 

The way we ask is: Kei te pehea koe?

How are you feeling?

There are many ways we can respond using the following structure:

Kei te _________ ahau.

Pai -- Good

Ngenge -- Tired

Koa -- Happy

Pouri -- Sad

Riri -- Angry

Hiakai -- Angry

We practise this daily as part of our roll and have been exploring more of the language during Kapa Haka and more in depth sessions.

Below is a video link to a story using Kei te pehea koe?

We are sorting feelings using the English and Te Reo words

Here we are practising with a buddy how to say we are feeling hungry

Mihi Whakatau

Last week we held our Mihi Whakatau to welcome our Term 3 and 4 starters. A Mihi Whakatau is a traditional Maori greeting where we can formally welcome our new starters and their families into our school.

We were joined by the senior kapa haka group who performed as the visitors came into Autahi.

Gillian welcomed everybody for coming before Rosa and Tommy both bravely shared their mihi's. We sang some waiata with the help of our seniors and John on the guitar followed by a hongi.

Afterwards we shared some kai to wrap up the event. It was a great occasion to celebrate all the lovely new faces joining as at Worser Bay School. As someone who joined the school this year, I felt a great sense of welcome from everyone involved. I feel privileged to be part of such a caring and passionate community.  

Mihi and introducing ourselves

Mihi: A basic introduction

In Autahi this week we are learning to introduce ourselves using a mihi. A mihi is a basic introduction. It tells people where you are from and who you are, linking you to the land (and mountain), river, sea, tribe, sub-tribe, whakapapa (genealogy) and marae (sacred meeting place). Non-Māori might identify places that are significant to them and the country they are from.

We are focussing on who we are, our grandparents and our parents. This week we have been learning to introduce ourselves using the phrase:

Ko _______ taku ingoa
My name is _________

Our aim is to be able to introduce ourselves to others and we hope that it stimulates lots of conversation about our families and where we are from. Check us out as we made a start on our visual mihi's:

Karakia

 We have been learning our Karakia in class so that we can say it every morning. We have been working on learning key words in the karakia and drawing symbols to represent those ideas so that we can remember what they mean.  

WBS Karakia

E tau nei ki runga i a tatou katoa te wairua aroha

kia ngakaunui tatou ki te hapai i a tatou mahi katoa

i roto i te hari me to koa me te aroha ano o tetahi ki tetahi kia puawai tatou katoa.

Whakakahangia tatou, kia mahi tahi, kia manaaki kia tiaki i to tatou kura, to tatou hapori, a to tatou taiao hoki

Mauri Ora!

aroha	mahi katoa	puawai
Whakakahangia	manaaki	taiao

aroha--love        mahi katoa--working together      puwai--grow and blossom  

whakakahangia--strength    manaaki--nurture, respect    taiao--environment

We worked together to unpack the ideas and draw our pictures.  We also practised saying the karakia. You can help me practise at home!

Teaming up with John and the seniors to learn about Tane

It was really nice to get to have our snack with John and his base group this week.  John told us the story of Tane and the baskets of knowledge and the struggle Tane went through to get to the baskets.  Learning can be a struggle, but it's well worth it and one thing we have been learning in Autahi is: 

We might not be able to do it (whatever it may be) yet, but we won't give up and we will keep trying!