In 2020 a new teacher named Whaea Gee came to my class every Wednesday.
Whaea Gee would take one group of children to do science with bugs, some drama or even dancing. One of my favourite thing that I did with Whaea Gee was drama because I really like acting. Whaea Gee came to learn how to be an awesome teacher, I think she was better than awesome.
SJ P2 No3 2003
- Sailing the Pacific
We are learning about traditional sailing and navigation methods used by early Polynesian voyagers.
Activity 1 - WALT locate, identify, select and present relevant information.
Traditional Pacific Navigators found land by looking for signs like clouds, birds, stars and ocean swells.
Use the text to help you complete the table about traditional Pacific navigation tools. The first one has been done for you.
Clouds
Clouds moving across the sky slow down when they pass over land
The colour of the clouds would change if they were above land.
Birds
Watching these birds the Shearwater and Godwit helped to lead voyagers to land because they migrate on land.
Stars
At night, certain stars always rise and set at the horizon.
Ocean Swells
Ocean swells, or other unusual movements in the water, could be a sign that land was near.
Activity 2 - Read about the tirito ‘etu (or starpeeker)
The tirito ‘etu (or starpeeker) is a navigating instrument from the Cook Islands. It was made from an empty coconut shell with holes drilled in it. Water was filled to the level of the lower ring of holes. This helped to keep it lined up with the horizon as the boat moved up and down in the waves. The navigator looked through two of the holes until the reflection of a particular star came into view. The holes were positioned so that the star could be seen only when the vaka was directly east or west of its destination.
Activity 3 - The Vaka
Use the text to help you answer the following questions about ‘The Vaka’
What type of natural materials were used to build the vaka?
Two hulls made from many long planks carefully stitched together with cord made from coconut fibre. Their sails were often woven from pandunus leaves.
How long was Kupe’s vaka and how many people could it carry?
Some of these ocean going vaka could carry up to 150 people. Kupe’s vaka may have been up to 21 metres long.
What supplies were often carried on board?
Dried bananas, taro, breadfruit, coconut and fish.
The second time my class ,Te Manga went to Waitangi we all made atleast one pou each. My pou represents all of the challenges that people had to go through in their Waka. Before we went all of us played chain tag on the giant field just outside Waitangi.
We are learning to use visual language features to support our understanding of the ideas and information in the text.
I really liked making this poster and being creative with it. The part that I found tricky was finding words out of the book for a vocabulary sheet.
