Whakapono 23: Waimahia Intermediate Visit

Waimahia Intermediate Visit

On Wednesday 4th September the Year 6's visited Waimahia Intermediate for an orientation day. We learnt a lot of information and had an awesome day doing all the activities Waimahia had to offer.

We were welcomed into the school with a powhiri which was very moving, and exciting.

Students watching and listening attentively to the powhiri.

Waimahia school students also sang some Maori songs for us, which were really beautiful.

There were four different workshops that Waimahia set up for us. Music, baking/cooking, robotics, and STEAM.

This awesome teacher taught us how to play Love Me Tender on the keyboard.

At each workshop, there was a group of Waimahia students that were helpers. They helped us a lot with learning to play the song.

Isaiah enjoyed music the most, as he also got to play the guitar which he loves to do.

There were some keyboard soloists, and some duets too!

Danielle said she liked experimenting with the different noises on the keyboard and creating different sounds.

For STEAM, we made catapults. Many of us were already experts at making catapults as we had made them last term, launching bottle caps. Kylah-Anne's catapult was very colourful!

Edrian and Agapetos were experts at making the catapults, as they had done it before. Instead of launching bottle caps, this time we were launching small wooden blocks. "Mine went really far", said Edrian, and for Peto, his went really high.

Nga made a really awesome catapult, and she also made a runway for her catapult too. It was very impressive!

For cooking and baking, the students got to ice and decorate cupcakes. They were so many different colours of icing to choose from, and a huge amount of sprinkles to choose from too. By lunchtime, there were plates full of amazing, expertly iced cupcakes!

"This was a really fun day at Waimahia because we got to decorate, play music, try robotics and make catapults, and the cupcakes were nice to eat", said Dakota.

In robotics, the students tested out their skills and programmer abilities, by moving a robot around through the use of an iPad.

Blake said that he enjoyed the cooking/baking workshop the most, because it was his first time ever decorating cupcakes.

Thumbs up for all the yummy food! Waimahia made us some delicious burgers for lunch, and we also got to eat the amazing cupcakes we decorated.

In robotics, the students learnt how to programme and move a robot around the edge of their tables - some of the students were even able to spin the robot around in the middle of the table!

The instructions from our robotics workshop.

The Waimahia students also performed a mini-concert for us. These performances consisted of different cultural groups, comprising of Maori, Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island and Bollywood. This was an awesome insight into how culture and diversity is celebrated at Waimahia Intermediate.

Kuazyer said he enjoyed the Samoan performance the most, as it was fast paced and high energy.

When we arrived back to school, Tongan students from Manurewa Intermediate performed for us to celebrate Tongan Language Week. They all did such an awesome job!