One Day a Taniwha

As part of our Maori Inquiry this term, we have been looking at Maori Myths and Legends.  Through these stories, we explain the history, culture and values of Maori people.
Maori didn’t have a written language, so information was passed on through spoken narratives. A Myth or Legend is a story that explains a natural phenomena. The legends we have been reading have all had one thing in common...The Taniwha.

Taniwha can be protectors of people or land or they can be terrifying creatures. After looking at artists different interpretations of the taniwha, we had a go at designing our own. This then led on to sculpting taniwha from clay. We were patting, pounding and shaping all the while developing hand, eye co-ordination and finger and hand muscles. We have some very creative children who have an eye for detail. We then wrote descriptions of our taniwha, deciding which type of personality they might have and their physical features.

Shaping our clay

Adding little details

Moulding different features

'My Taniwha has scales on his back'

A scary face for a scary taniwha

                  

Reading in Room 6

We have our reading sessions 4 x per week for an hour. We start with a 'hotspot' on the mat where we practice our sounds, decode words and comprehend stories and pictures; teaching the strategies we use in reading. There are fun activities set up around the room that develop literacy skills as well as fine motor skills, oral language and social interactions. Each child is called up in their group to read with the teacher. Together we look at the front cover and make predictions about what the story is about. We point to each word as it is read. At the end of the book we discuss the main story line and comprehend what we have read.

Making letters and spelling words with Play Dough

Practice letter formations in shaving foam

Initial sounds Bingo. We make letters to the initial sounds of a picture

Story telling through pictures

Developing fine motor skills and letter formation

Retelling stories we know