What a great day everyone had at Run, Jump, Throw.
We had lots of Mums and Dads watching us having fun 
with our whanau buddies. 

Run, Jump, Throw Day on PhotoPeach

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Celebration Lunch in Rata

What a great time we all had in Rata for our Celebration Lunch.
It was so good to see so many Mums and Dads come along and share our lunch with us. 
To celebrate the end of our Inquiry unit on Celebrations we had a special lunch. We were allowed to bring some food in our lunchboxes that we would eat at any family celebration.
There was such a variety of food from many different cultures. It was fantastic hearing from the children and their parents about which foods are special to them at their family celebrations.  

Rata Celebration Lunch on PhotoPeach

Tennis Superstars

Tennis Superstars on PhotoPeach

Grasshopper Tennis

Tennis on PhotoPeach

Ole Soccer Session 3

We had another great day outside practising our soccer skills.
Today we were learning how to dribble the ball and then shoot
for goal. We had turns at being the goalie too.

Ole Soccer 3 on PhotoPeach

Maddy, Alexandra and Paige used our whiteboards to write lots of 'at' words. How many can you write?

MOOT Time

We love MOOT on Friday. We all work co-operatively 
on different activities and learn lots of social skills. 
At the moment we are learning about being Tolerant.


MOOT in Rata on PhotoPeach

On Friday we went to watch a puppet show called Rupert.
This story taught us a lot about our native birds the Tui and Kiwi.
We had lots of fun watching Rupert learn about them too.

Rupert Puppet Show on PhotoPeach

On Monday Mrs Assadi came to Rata to talk to us about Naw Ruz which is the Persian New Year. This is a joyous festival to celebrate the beginning of Spring on March 21st. 

This is an Iranian festival to welcome in the New Year. People clean, cook, organise their homes and buy new clothes. Then for 13 days, they celebrate with parties, feasts and gift-giving. 

Mrs Assadi and Naw Rus on PhotoPeach

At the exact moment of Spring, families gather around a table set with the Haft-Seen which is the Seven S's. The table is set with seven things that begin with the letter S sound in the Persian language.
Here are the seven items always found on a Haft-Seen table:

Sabzeh - sprouts growing in a dish
for re-birth

Senjed - dried fruit
for love

Seer - garlic for medicine

Samanu - a sweet pudding made
from wheat

Somac - red sumac berries for the
colour of the sunrise

Seeb - apples for beauty and good health

Serkeh - vinegar for age and patience

Some other items that are placed on the table can be:

A bowl of water with a goldfish for life within life.

 Decorated eggs with one for each family member.

 Sekkeh - coins hidden in rice for health

Here is Sara with her mum and the completed Haft-Seen table.

Thank you both for sharing your amazing celebration

of Naw Rus with all of us.

A big welcome to three new children  in Rata Toru.

We are so lucky to have Arielle, Dylani and Rhian 

in our class this term. 

Today we were so excited because we got to go to the hall to play soccer. We had 4 great Ole Soccer coaches who played some games with us and taught us some new skills.


First we played a cool game called River Bank. We had to listen really carefully or else we got tricked and jumped when we shouldn't!

Next we learnt all about toe taps, foundation and drag back. Take a look at how well we did.


Ole Soccer on PhotoPeach

Chinese New Year

We have been learning about Chinese New Year. We have found out lots of interesting facts about how this amazing festival is celebrated.

We wanted to find out:
How is Chinese New Year celebrated?
Why is there a dragon at Chinese New Year?
What sort of food do they eat at Chinese New Year?
Do they get presents at Chinese New Year?

Here is what we have found out.

Chinese New Year is a time when families get together to celebrate. The celebration lasts for 15 days.

At the start of the celebration, people clean their houses to sweep away any bad luck and to welcome in good luck. For decorations, people use the colour red for good luck.

We have also learned that dragon dances are done to bring good luck for the coming New Year. We found out that the longer the dragon is, the more good luck it will bring. We decided to make our own colourful dragons so that we could do our own dragon dances. Here we are making our dragons. Aren't they beautiful?

Children are given a red envelope from adults which are filled with lucky money. This envelope is called Hong Bao.

Chinese New Year fireworks are lit to scare away bad luck with their loud noises and bring in the New Year.

Families gather together during Chinese New Year and have a large feast of traditional Chinese food like fish, chicken, rice dumplings and sticky sweet rice pudding.

 The last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations is the Lantern Festival. Families walk the streets carrying their lit lanterns and visit displays of lanterns.

We made our own Chinese lanterns and decorated them so they looked beautiful.