Our Whanau Morning

Our Whanau Morning

         On Friday 21st September the Year 2 team hosted our team Whanau Morning. The children had been working very hard in preparation and were extremely excited. With this term's focus on learning more about who we are and our family connections, the children wrote invitations to their family members to come and share some of their learning. I think the invitations must have done the trick - because our turn out was fabulous and the classrooms were bursting with guests. My sincerest thank you to all those who came to join in the fun. It meant a lot to the children, and a lot to me.

As part of our inquiry into culture this term, we have learnt some dances from other countries around the world. We started our morning off by demonstrating these dances to our guests in the gym.

After our last dance, the children then asked their guests to join in; and we all danced 'The Bird Dance' together. It was fantastic to see all the smiles and laughs as everyone danced together.

 

Once our dancing had finished, the children took their guests back up to the classrooms and showed them their learning environments. 

We had learnt about the tradition of many cultural groups of the Pacific of gifting lei to welcome guests. The children had each made a lei and presented this to one of their guests when they arrived at the classrooms. 

The children were in their element showing their guests around. They shared their learning books, their writing, the artwork around the classroom, their favourite games and activities, and answered lots of questions. 

To end our lovely morning, the children invited their guests to share some morning tea and have a glass of old-fashioned lemonade; that had been made by our Year 2 ESOL groups and Mrs Schischka for the occasion. 

We said goodbye to our guests and hope they come again some time!