Year: 2026

Today I am writing to you to tell you about my learning adventure through the meaning behind Matariki and how to celebrate it. This week after technology on Thursday we watched a documentary with Whaea Jasmine and started posters on a star we got to choose from the Matariki star cluster. I picked Waiti, the star that looks over all fresh water sea creatures and body’s of fresh water. My favourite part of this was probably watching the documentary because I learnt that some people look to the star called Puanga instead of Matariki because Puanga is brighter. I will explain more about my learning journey in the next paragraph.

During the documentary we all got to sit down and have a piece of fruit, and we got to listen to other people’s perspective on Matariki and what it means to them, we also found out that in some parts of Earth people find it more useful to read what Puanga is telling them then Matariki. When the documentary finished Whaea Jasmine said that we could pick one star and make a poster that relates to that star you have chosen. The nine stars of Matariki are Waiti the protector of fresh water, Waita the protector of salt water, Wai-puna-rangi the protector of rain, Tupu-a-nuku the protector of things that ground in the ground, Tupu-a-rangi protector of all things that grow in the sky and the birds, Ururangi the protector of the winds and storms, Pohu-tu-kawa the protector of all those who have passed, Hiwa-i-te-rangi the protector of all our wishes, and last but not least the mother of the stars Matariki, the brightest star of all the one that protects all the other stars of the Matariki cluster.

In conclusion, I think that during watching the documentary I have learnt a lot about how I can celebrate Matariki and what it really means, I have also learnt that the Pakeha took not only the language from the Maori but also their ways and how they foraged. Overall I think that this week I learnt a lot whether it was in Pangarau or Tuhituhi or during the documentary and I wouldn’t change anything if I could.

Today I am writing to you to tell you about my progress this week in my learning at School. In Ata Hapara we have been doing a lot of Te Reo Maori, during our Maori lessons we have learnt our proper mihi and we have learned how to answer : Ko wai koe? and Ko wai  ai? This week in Te Reo Maori we have been learning about how to say our mihi with strength and kaha. In Pangarau / Maths the year sevens have been learning about angles. During learning about angles I have been able to remember what types of angles there are. This week we have also been doing a lot of reading with Aroha as her adventures take us through journeys about our brain and how it works. Sometimes during Panuitia / Reading people in the classroom will have to read a paragraph and then afterward we all have to answer questions from the story. During Tuhituhi this week we have been learning about making the starter sentences of a piece of writing more descriptive and putting together sentences of what something looks like, what it’s doing, and the scene and then putting it together to make an interesting first paragraph. We have learnt how to do this by being given a boring sentence and word by word we have to make it more interesting and at the end putting the sentences together. My favorite thing we have done this week was probably Tuhituhi because I enjoy letting my imagination take me on adventures with my own story’s. Overall I think this week has been really enjoyable and I hope next week is similar.

Today I am writing to you to tell you about my progress this week in my learning at School. In Ata Hapara our focus this year is Investigation and for Investigation we have been investigating the way Maori travelled back in the days and how they came to New Zealand, we have been learning this through Kaupapa Matua. This week in Kaupapa Matua we have been learning about swells and how they helped navigators. In Pangarau / Maths the year sevens have been learning about subtraction. I really enjoyed this because I find subtraction fun and easy to understand but it can still be challenging. This week we have also been doing a lot of reading with Aroha as her adventures take us through journeys about our body and how it works. Sometimes during Panuitia / Reading people in the classroom will have to read a paragraph and then afterward we all have to answer questions from the story. During Tuhituhi this week we have been learning about making the starter sentences of a piece of writing more descriptive and making it more captive for the reading of your text. We have learnt how to do this by being given a boring sentence and word by word we have to make it more interesting. Each second term of each year we pick a sport to do on Fridays. This year I am in Gardening. During gardening we learn about the different plants, about the bees and how they make their honey. We also go into the garden and collect stuff to make food with. My favorite thing we have done this week was probably Tuhituhi because I enjoy letting my imagination wander and I really enjoyed when we were given a title and we had to capture the reader in the first sentence. Overall I think this week has been really enjoyable and I hope next week is similar.

Today I am writing to you to tell you about my learning adventure through Pangarau / Math’s. This week during Pangarau the year sevens have been learning about regular and irregular 2D shapes. This might sound kind of easy but it is a lot harder having to name some crazy looking shapes and then figuring out whether the shape is regular or irregular. My favourite part of this was figuring out whether the shape was regular or irregular because it really made me realize that there were a lot of shapes that had the same sized sides and how many didn’t, it also really helped me learn different types of shapes. I will explain more about my learning journey in the next paragraph.

During Pangarau our teacher has to teach three different year groups so while we are waiting we play Matific, which is a Math’s game where you have to do different Math’s challenges to move on, other times we will do work in our Oxford Math’s book. When it is the year sevens turn we get our Pangarau book and learn how to answer the questions in our Oxford books or we just learn about the Math’s subject we are working on.

In conclusion, I think that during Math’s I have learnt a lot about 2D shapes, for instant names of different shapes, how to tell whether they are regular or irregular, I also learned about how to describe different shapes and a little bit about how to find shapes angles. Overall I think that this week I learnt a lot whether it was in Pangarau or Tuhituhi and I wouldn’t change anything if I could.