Room 5 Making Rangoli Patterns to Celebrate Diwali - The Indian New Year

Celebrating Diwali with Rangoli

Yesterday was Diwali. It is also known as the Indian New Year or the Festival of Lights. Hindus celebrate Diwali every year. It is even an official holiday in countries like India, Nepal, Fiji, Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore and Sri Lanka. In Hinduism, Diwali signifies the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, hope over despair and knowledge over ignorance. 

Rangoli patterns are drawn on the floor of living rooms and courtyards. It is made using coloured rice, dry flour, coloured sand, flour petals or chalk. Making rangoli is thought to bring good luck. 

Check out some of our own rangoli designs below.

Fereti

Metui

Tsai drawing a pair of hands coming together which symbolise 'greetings' for Hindus.

Savannah

Orlando

Above: Savannah, Fereti, Metui and Orlando making diyas for the festival of lights.

Zion

Ana

Below: Room 5 students next to their rangoli patterns.

Ana and Tsai

Nitika

Eh Htoo Wah

Mariah

Keru and Vaka

Motat Trip

Tamaki Primary School's Trip To Motat

Our Inquiry focus in Term 3 was Recreation and Entertainment. As part of our studies we visited Motat to see how people have entertained themselves throughout history and how recreation has evolved over the years.

The children loved the trip and learnt a great deal!

Cook Island Week

Celebrating the Cook Island Language and Culture

Room 5 Performing a Cook Island 
Drum Dance During Assembly

Thanks Mariana for all the help.

Tamaki Primary Hosts Food Tasting Evening

Food Tasting Evening

Tamaki Primary hosted a food tasting evening at the end of Term 2. It was a great night.
Here is Room 5's Menu & displays.

Pumpkin, Date & Almond Loaf

Both the children & parents loved our food tasting night.
Great dishes made by all the classes and some lovely informative displays as well.
 Our Pumpkin, Date & Almond Loaf was a popular dish on the night.

Banana & Mango Smoothie

Fuelled For Life

😀Food + Fitness = Fuelled For Life😀

We had such a ball with this inquiry topic!

🍎  Here is a compilation of some of our favourite moments. 🍎

Are you getting your 5 + a Day?

Tell us how you get yours. 

ANZAC Research

As part of Room 5's ANZAC Day research the students studied different people who took part in World War 1. They then chose one individual of interest and compiled a biography of their life. The class really enjoyed this project and gained a deeper insight into the events of WW1 and how it affected people's lives. They were proud to display these in the corridor as a tribute to those who served in World War 1. 

ANZAC Day

Explore the resources below to learn about A.N.Z.A.C day.

When finished create a DLO that answers the following questions.

• What does ANZAC stand for?
• When do we have the ANZAC ceremony?
• Why do we celebrate ANZAC day?
• What started WW1?
• How do we hold a commemoration on ANZAC day today?
• Why are poppies a symbol for ANZAC day?

Useful ANZAC Videos

Dawn Parade in Auckland

The battle of Gallipoli

The Significance of Poppies

What life was like in the trenches during WW1

Why do we have an ANZAC Ceremony?

About life on the frontline

Our Research

The students of Room 5 loved researching about the history of the ANZACs and the two World Wars. It was the first time I had approached teaching a topic like this to a class this young. The students had very little knowledge about the topic to start with but we gradually built quite a broad understanding over a 2 week period. 

Students were also asked to interview members of their family to see if any of their relatives were ever involved in a war. They also chose either a soldier or a medic each to research and then write a biography on. To finish off the topic we had one further discussion as a class where we used 'Talk Moves,' to encourage deeper thinking about what life must have been like for soldiers and their families during the war. We then discussed how their lives would be affected if another war was to occur now. 

 

   

Room 5 during the ANZAC Commemoration at 

Tamaki Primary. 

    

                           

                                           

Messages Of Support For Room 5 From Famous Kiwis

Here are some of the lovely messages of support that we received from famous Kiwis who heard about our mission to clean up the environment.......

🏈  Sonny Bill Williams 🏈

🎥  Julian Dennison 🎥

No R & R For Room 5.....

No R & R for Room 5
We're too busy with R & R & R!

 Reduce/ Reuse/ Recycle

Room 5 felt super lucky to have an employee from Waste Reduction New Zealand visit our class. She gave us an insight into what really happens to our rubbish once it leaves our house. We were also shown how to reduce and manage our overall waste with... 
Reduce, Reuse & Recycle  

It was such an eye-opening experience for us all.

💪The video below shows Room 5 flexing their muscles as Environmental Superheroes💪

Te Taiao O Tamaki

“Te Taiao O Tamaki”- The Environment of Tamaki.

Learning Focus:

How do we impact the environment around us and what can we do to lessen our effect on it.

Specific Focuses:

• 
  

  How has the local area changed over the past 50 years?
• Water Pollution
• 
  

  Air Pollution
• Rubbish- School/Household
• Waste Reduction School/Household
• Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
• Global Warming

The video below was made by Room 5 as part of our campaign to raise awareness about how we are treating our environment.

Water Pollution- Creek Visit (Week 1 & 2)

To properly see how we impacted our local environment we went on a class trip to the creek at the start of Term 1. 

Students were asked to closely observe their surroundings on the way. 

The children found an alarming amount of rubbish both in the creek and in the areas surrounding it, most of which was making its way into our waterways. The children decided that they wanted to clean this up, so we collected it all into bags. We then sat down as a class and discussed how the items could have got there and what was likely to happen to them now. We also talked about how the creek flowed into the sea and was therefore also polluting our oceans.

Here are some of the questions which were prompted by the trip:

• 
  

  How did the rubbish get into the creek?
• 
  

  How long does it take to decompose?
• How will this affect our waterways?
• Where does this creek flow into?
• How does it affect the creatures that live in there?

• How does this affect the food chain?
• If rubbish/pollution is swallowed by the creatures that live in the water do we then end up eating it when we eat them?
• What affect does it have on the water that we drink?

Analysing The Rubbish We Collected

We then separated all the rubbish we found into 3 different categories to analyse what was being discarded and the best way to deal with it.

The 3 categories were:

Biodegradable, Recyclable & Landfill

The questions raised were:

What sort of things are biodegradable? What rubbish can we recycle? What should go into landfill? What are the effects on the planet?

A few days later we were visited by a lady who worked at...

Waste Management New Zealand

She gave us a more detailed understanding of the waste management process in Auckland and some helpful hints for us to employ to help the environment. This kick started our focus on......

REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE

The class then set recycling goals for themselves both at school and at home and started our environmental campaign by making videos and posters and educating others.