Harakeke Flowers

 

Room 18 have been learning about Harakeke, its uses and the tikanga (customs).

Today we went to the Nature Trail to cut some Harakeke. Hazel said a Karakia before the leaves were cut which gave thanks to the plant. Well done Hazel!

Tikanga of Harakeke
Do not cut Harakeke in the rain or at night
Do not eat by the Harakeke
You need to finish what you start
Do not cut the baby (rito) or parents (tipuna) of the Harakeke whanau (family)
Give your first piece away

Star, Grace, Sarah, Austen and Rachel from year 6 were our experts today and helped us weave Harakeke flowers. We all found it difficult with our first piece, but we kept trying and with the girls help we made two flowers to take home.

We must remember to give our first piece away and then we can keep our second piece.

Working together in Room 18

In Room 18 we are working on our presentations for our inquiry Flower Power.
We chose who we would like to work with and how to present the information.
We decided the topic to present either Pollination, Life Cycle of a Plant, Harakeke or Parts of a Flower.
We are practising what we are going to say in our presentations and we are all looking forward to listening to Room 18's presentations.

Planting Sunflowers

Today we planted our Sunflowers with Room 14.
Many of us had never gardened before so we learned a lot about how to plant our Sunflower.
We had to clear the soil of weeds, dig holes, mix in potting mix into the soil, plant the sunflowers being careful not to break the roots, cover it with soil and then give our Sunflower a drink of water.