Kua tio te papa, kua rere ngā wai o te rangi, kei konei tonu a Ngā Uri o Ngā Iwi e rapu tonu ana i ngā hua o te ao mātauranga, tīhei mauri ora! E oku rau rangatira, e ngā mātua, e ngā ira  whakatipu o Te Rehu whānui, nei rā te mihi matakuikui ki a tātou katoa. E tika ana kia mihia ngā tōtara heimata kua hinga i te wao nui a Tāne, nāreira koutou mā ngā mate haere, haere, e oki e. Ka waiho ēnei mihi mutunga ki tō tātou kaupapa e ārahi ana i ngā mahi i tēnei kaupeka, arā ngā toi Māori, whatu ora, toki ora, toi ora ki te whai ao, ki te ao mārama, tīhei mauri ora!

SPEECHES: Kua whakapau kaha ngā tuakana i ngā wiki e rua kua taha ake nei ki te hiki i ngā taonga kōrerorero kua tukuna mai e ngā mātua tīpuna Māori.Our seniors in Waitahi and Wairua have been working really hard to complete their speeches and prepare themselves for presentation in front of their peers before a selected few will go through to the school wide speech competition and represent NUONI. English speeches for NUONIwill be held this Thursday block 1 and 2, and then the remainder who will be at rugby will present in block 2 on Friday. The school wide semi-finals will be held in the hall the following Monday(15th of August). There the judges will select those who will stand again that Wednesday in front of the entire school at 11am in the school speech  finals.

MANU KŌRERO

Students in Waitahi have also  been writing  speeches in te reo Māori in preparation for our Manu Kōrero  competition These will be held on Monday 22nd of August, block 1, starting at 9am. We are blessed to have 2 expert judges come and judge our Māori speeches, both of whom have judged at regional and one at national level. We will welcome Pāpā Chris and Whaea Vicki. . The winner of the manu kōrero Māori will be representing NUONI and Te Rehu at the Auckland regional APPA Manu Kōrero Māori competition to be held on Friday 9th of September at Makaurau Marae in Ihumatao, Mangere. We will travel there together as a rōpū to tautoko whoever is selected to represent us.

All students have been working extremely hard in both languages and many seem to be really enjoying this focus of writing and learning to deliver  . A group were even at school over the holidays working with me in their own time. It will be a great learning opportunity for  all who stand and a stepping stone that leads towards the development of self confidence and personal identity.It is an awesome experience to share with your child so please feel free to come along and support them on any of the days. IVY:In term 2 Waitahi's writing focus was fictional story telling. AUT run a creative Māori writing competition every 2 years called He Huatau Auaha, which has 3 categories covering primary school, intermediate and secondary school. Our aim as educators of te reo Māori is to give our language purpose, to give our tamariki a purpose to write.  So I saw this as the perfect opportunity to get our students excited about writingin te reo Māori. The end of last term saw Waitahi submit 12 creative writing pieces from those who wished to enter. I read all the stories and was part of the journey in supporting the tamariki to complete and publish their stories so I am thankful I was not one of the judges as deciding between them would have been very difficult, adding in all the other entries as well. However one of our students,Ivy,  has caught the eyeof the judges for her creative piece called 'He Haerenga Mōrearea Itiiti' and has been selected as a finalist. The awards evening will be held on Friday the 26th of August at Ngā Wai o Horotiu marae (AUT marae) at 5:30pm. This is a great achievement! Nei rā te mihi ki a koe e kōIvy-Meke Maiti me tō whakapau kaha kia hikina tō tātou reo mā te kanikani o tāu penerākau me te rere auaha o ōu whakaaro.

Keeping Ourselves Safe

Over the next 3 weeks NUONI (along with the rest of the school) will be  doing   "Keeping Ourselves Safe" , a child protection program which aims to teach students a range of skills and strategies to use when interacting with others. To reinforce their learning, students will be bringing home activities to discuss and work through with their parents/caregivers. The activities will be focused on sub-headings within the four key ideas. 1) Confident Me. 2) Safe or Unsafe. 3) No excuse for abuse. 4) Why should I tell?.

Teina: Toi Ataata                                                        

Last Monday Tēina were lucky enough to have Whaea Ema come in to teach us all about korowai. She showed us her special taonga, including a piupiu that she made herself and a patu muka from Ngāti Porou that was hundreds of years old!

We learnt that korowai are made from muka. Whaea showed us how to make muka by scraping a whenu of harakeke with a kutai shell. Then she rolled it on her waewae and made a long whenu.

It was too hard for our ringaringa, so we prepared our own whenu of tīkouka, by scrapping the rau with knives and stripping them.

Finally, we started looping materials onto our aho to make our own pākē (rain capes) or korowai. Look at our beautiful patterns!

Nohinohi:

Nau Mai, Haere Mai ki ngā tauira hou i tēnei wahanga!

Welcome to our 5 new students who have just turned 5 and started school with us in term 3. The new students are settling in well and are adjusting to school life and new routines. Older students of the Nohinohi class have been very welcoming, offering to buddy up with them and are always looking for opportunities to help the new little ones. We have also had the luxury of a few extra activities this week in our weekly timetable - dance, preparing for our art exhibition, Keeping Ourselves Safe and watching the Ponsonby Intermediate roadshow, activities which all students have thoroughly enjoyed.