Kia Ora Whanau. Another busy week passes and we can all sense that winter is just around the corner - it may arrive this weekend!  Mahuta students have been busy with Winter Sport, Science Week added to our busy weekly programme.

This week has been Primary School Science Week and, busy as we are, we have been thinking about science - each morning the teachers have been sharing some interesting learning.  Students now know that a 8kg bowling ball will float in the Dead Sea, that the Universe is...big, that sulphuric acid would not be a good combination with sugar and that static electricity does weird things to oily cornflower.  As you can see from the photos, there have been some 'sciency' activities going on in class.  One thing the teachers learned is that students have brilliant ideas to explain the science they see around them.  There were probably 6 completely different and clever ideas about why the orange sank once the skin was removed and in the end the combined knowledge of the class provided an answer the scientists would consider correct.

Music and Mandarin are as popular as ever and you can see the Mahuta students loving the learning - we are very lucky to have such talented teachers for our whanau.  Angelique with her musical prowess and Elisa, one of our Mandarin teachers create such innovative learning opportunities.

Winter Sport began this week and we have included a few photos of the first round of soccer games, the teams tried hard and know there is some good learning to be had from these opportunities.  As teachers we strive to encourage our students to embrace all the learning opportunities that present themselves and to persevere and try to be the best they can be.  Sometimes that involves the odd thrashing - but they can still smile, which is wonderful.

The Netball teams both stayed close to their opposition and the Hockey teams had challenging opposition.  Most importantly, they all had fun and it was great to be out playing against other schools in our area on a (unexpectedly) beautiful Friday afternoon.

We have 'inquiry learning' four hours a week and the 4 inquiries; the arts, people and places, science and design technology, history, are bubbling away wonderfully in the Mahuta team.  Students have chosen one of these broad areas of learning that they are passionate about.  They are looking to explore more deeply something within these areas and, they will be sharing their learning with you later in the term.  You can see Maya in a picture below leading a workshop on sketching using on on line device called 'Creatly'

Keep warm this weekend and we hope to see many of you next week for the visit to the Canterbury Observatory on Wednesday.