Aroha | Holy Cross School Papatoetoe

Aroha Book Week

25 June 2017 · by Mrs Roberts

Over the last two weeks we have been listening to stories and reading lots of books from different cultures and countries. We have been on a journey all around the world and it has been fantastic! We would like to share some photos of some of our favourite books as well as art work and other activities we have experienced.

We all loved the story Hungry Tiger and Clever Rabbit from Korea. We found Korea on a world map, found out about Korean culture and also learnt lots about tigers too!

We read a story from East Africa called The Strongest Mouse and read lots about elephants.

Room 9 and 10 sketched and shaded some fantastic elephants and other animals inspired by the stories:

Room 4a also read another story from Africa called Handa’s Surprise. Then they drew around the outlines of photos of the fruit in the story and used pastels to shade and smudge them:

We were also lucky enough to have some storytellers and authors visit our classrooms: the Rangimarie students! They came to share the stories they had written as part of Book Week:

We all feel inspired now to read more stories from around the world and maybe become authors ourselves one day!

Room 4a Celebrate Samoan Language Week

5 June 2017 · by Mrs Roberts

Last week was Samoan Language Week – Vaiaso o le Gagana Sāmoa! This year’s theme was
“Ma’au i lou ofaga. Maua’a lou fa’asinomaga” – “Keep your identity alive to thrive”.

We talked about the languages our families speak at home and shared how to say hello in that language. In the mornings we had fun greeting each other in the different languages we had shared.

We sang a song in Samoan about beautiful flowers called Le Aute.

We read one of our favourite stories – Lavalava in both English and Samoan. We then put on lavalavas and wore them doing different activities throughout the day.

Here are some of the activities we did during the day in our lavalavas:

We also wrote stories about the activities we did in our lavalavas. We talked about special clothes we wear as well.
We had so much fun sharing our languages, wearing lavalavas, singing songs and talking about special clothes we like to wear last week!

Room 4a Clothes Like Jesus Wore

18 May 2017 · by Mrs Roberts

In the Aroha Syndicate we are learning about Jesus. This we week we have been learning about the clothes Jesus might have worn and how they are similar and different to the clothes we wear.
We also tried on some clothes like Jesus might have worn and learnt their names: tunic, mantle, girdle and sandals.
Here are some photos of us trying on the clothes:

Aroha Seasons!

18 May 2017 · by Mrs Roberts

This term the Aroha Syndicate are learning all about Seasons. We have been finding out what we know about Seasons and what we want to find out next. We have been writing stories about the different Seasons and using leaves to make art.

Here is some of our descriptive writing about Autumn:

The Autumn leaves are falling quickly down from the trees and the wind is spinning. The wind is making the leaves wrinkly. The Autumn leaves look like burning fire.
Eldon

The Autumn leaves are like the colours of fire; orange, red and golden. The colours slowly change to brown and yellow. It is like a carrot on the ground around the tree. It is going to turn brown on the ground.
Rochelle

We collected Autumn leaves around the school. Then we put them under paper and made rubbings with crayons. Here we are hard at work:

Aroha Runathon!

4 April 2017 · by Mrs Roberts

On Friday 31st of March the Aroha Syndicate took part in the Runathon.
Over the last couple of weeks we have been practising jogging around the field. Each day we tried to increase the number of laps we could run.
On the day we tried our best to keep jogging at a good pace for the whole seven minutes! Here are some photos of us taking part:

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After the Runathon we were hot and tired so enjoyed our ice blocks!

Thank you to all our families who came to support us on the day. A big thank you to all the people who have sponsored us!

Aroha Zoo Trip

14 November 2016 · by Mrs Roberts

Last Wednesday the Aroha Syndicate visited the Zoo for our Big Zoo Animals Topic.
We were greeted by John the Zoo Keeper who talked about keeping safe at the zoo. While we were listening we saw the elephants going for their morning walk with some of the keepers.

John took us through to the African Safari walk to look at the giraffes. He showed us a giraffe’s teeth and told us lots of interesting facts about giraffes.

Then we continued to the meerkats to learn more.

We saw lots of different animals and learnt lots about their habitats.

What a fantastic day of learning we had!