Letter to the Prime Minister

Today we wrote a letter to the Hon. Prime Minister of New Zealand, asking her to make Matariki a public holiday.

Dear Prime Minister,

We in Room 6 are learning about Matariki, the Maori New Year.
Through our surveys we have realised that many people do not know about
Matariki and a lot of young Maori children do not know much about it.

Can we make Matariki a public holiday because Aotearoa is a Maori land and
all people living in New Zealand should know about it.

During Matariki, we have to have whanau time. We could make bonfires,
pay respect to mother Earth, remember our ancestors and wish good fortune
to everyone. We fly kites and make special kai (food) to honour the cluster
of seven stars. It is also the time to harvest our crops.

This takes a lot of time and so we would appreciate if the New Moon Day
in the month of June is recognised as a public holiday.

Matariki should also be celebrated in the city so that people from other cultures,
who live in New Zealand, can learn about Matariki. It should be recognised
as an important New Zealand festival.

Kind Regards

Room 6

Tamaki Primary school.

Big Book on Matariki

We have been learning about Matariki. We made a big book about it. Enjoy watching.

Poi dance by Room 6 girls

Watch us doing a poi dance for Matariki

New words and Phrases.

Today we learnt all these phrases. We are getting better and better at it. Some of us could not believe that we could learn so many phrases in a day.

word Game

We love playing this game in our class. It helps us to remember meanings of new words.

A Family book

Today I got  got a book that was made by a 96 year old grandmother when she was a young mum to her three children. The reason why I wanted to share this book with my class because it was a example of a book tat never got published but was extremely valuable for the family. Here is what Dyzon and Christine had to say about the book.

 Our quiet time book

               By Janet

Today we looked into a unique book called

our quiet time book by Janet.

She made it out of clothe and she

made it when she was young.

She made it for her children to learn skills,

like numbers, spelling, colours and buttoning.

The reason why Mrs.Sharma showed

this to us because

even though books are not

published it’s still a valuable book.

The book was very old it lasted for

almost 80 years. It was inspiring for me

because now I would like to make a book

which will be similar.

By - Christine

Today Mrs Sharma showed us a book written by Janet

called our quiet time book.The reason why Mrs Sharma

read it to us is because even though books don’t get

published they are valuable books.When Mrs Sharma

read  it to us I was so astonished to hear a book with

inspiration.The book is so unique because a mother

I liked the book because it taught skills like buttoning up and

tying shoe laces.

By Dyzon

Pool Picnic Day

Today Tamaki had a Pool picnic day. We all went to the Lagoon Pools in bendy buses. We played water games in the pools and went on the water slide. It was great fun.