Tamaki Intermediate - International Sasa Update

The students are very excited about the footage that is going to be received by those of you who are taking part in the Sasa that we've put together. We are looking at taking approx. 20-30 seconds of footage and through the magic of technology moulding it together to form one movie that we then show to our schools cluster meeting in two weeks time. The idea being that by sharing our cultures with other people around the world can learn something about our students here in Auckland, New Zealand and their culture. We abolutely have to have the submissions by next week so we can work them altogther so thank you so much for all of you that have said "yes".

We've posted the material here and on teachertube for those of you unable to view movies on blogger. There are details also on slideshare as well as written in text form here on the blog. The Sasa that we'd like you to attempt is the one labelled International Sasa 2 that was posted here on October 29th.

We had a couple if inquiries about the drum beat and an example of that so we also filmed an example of that from October 30th. Our students have mentioned traditional Samoan clothes or drums but of course for this example thats not necessary! Also feel more than free to adapt change, edit, and develop the Sasa to your own needs!

As is mentioned by Moli in the video we'd like you to incorperate a local flavour in the animals section by having an animal of local importance replace the animals that the students used for examples (and again there's no Tigers in Samoa for those of you who might be concerned about visiting!). Those of you who havent already left a brief comment with a contact email address please do so and we'll contact you about where to upload the file too.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this point, its meant so much to the students.

Mr Webb and the students of Room Six
Tamaki Intermediate School
Auckland, New Zealand.

Tamaki Int. - Sasa Drum Pattern

This is the drum pattern for our International Sasa that those of you who are contributing we'd like you to work off this beat for your part! This was drummed by Owen, Douglas, Viliami from Leander House at Tamaki Intermediate. The full set of moves will be available later tomorrow. In this example the Boys are drumming using two old oil tins, but you don't need to use tins anything that can be drummed will do! Remember to check out the slideshow for more tips!

Tamaki Intermediate - Blog Check Wanaka Primary

Usually today I'd be posting the highlights of the week coming up. However in New Zealand today is a public holiday - its Labour Day, celebrating the 40 hour working week. (Whatever that is most teachers would not know I don't think!) I was going to do a post to explain it for our overseas visitors and then I read the perfect explanation on one of my favourite New Zealand Primary School Blogs - Wanaka Primary School (in the South Island close-ish to Queenstown for those of you who know your New Zealand Geography). If you thought that this blog was active you want to check out the amount of work that they do. Also I know that we're very please to be hitting 3,000 visitors shortly - they've clocked in nearl 11,000!

The quality of the site explains why, you really have to see it, and the link for it is obviously in our RSS feeder link or you can click on the site here. Well worth the visit and be sure to leave a comment on their fantastic work, they'll leave one back!

Tamaki Int - APPA Choir Highlights 2

The APPA Choir Group, which Tamaki Intermediate School is part of are preparing this term for their big performance at the Auckland Town Hall. This year Tamaki Intermediate will also having a cultural group perform as part of the show. Choirs from a number of schools have been busy preparing for this special event. Miss Dekker travelled with the Choir to Remuera Intermediate for a mid week practise. This highlights shows the performance of the 'Bear Necessities' from the Jungle Book and a classic New Zealand favourite song - Haere Mai. Theres a link to this song on NZ Waiata which has the full song and the notation. You can find that by clicking here. These highlights were filmed by Sosaia and Miss Dekker at Tamaki Intermediate School. We also interviewed the leader of the Choir for our performances earlier in the year - again if you want to see Sosaia's interview you can click here.

Tamaki Int. - Sasa Instructions 2

This is the first of our Sasa update from the new series for those of you interested in helping out with our international film festival entry coming up in the next few weeks. In this video we got through Sasa 101 a basic start to Sasa. Hosted by Moli and Gaifo the students go through all that you need to perform a sasa as well as some basic instructions.

You will need

• a leader who will call the commands, someone who is confident with a loud voice
• a drummer who can keep the beat
  
• a plan of thier action

In this video there are some commands that you will need to learn for the leader to shout out and also the students who are performing the sasa to know so they can perform the appropirate actions at the right time. The commands are called in Samoan and are as follows:

• Tolo nofo - which means put your head down
• Sauni - get ready

You will see in the video the times when you need to call them. There are also some basic patterns that are clapped using hands as demonstrated by Gaifo, Moli and Josh that you can try and adjust as you need.

Tamaki Intermediate - Haka Waiata 2

Our huge cultural festival - Haka Waiata is only six weeks away! Our four Houses Orpheus, Leander, Achilles and Calliope are practising very hard for the end of the year.

'Its hard to believe that its only eight weeks to go until its all over!'

Today we have special footage of the top secret house practises - brief snippets of some of the material from each including three work in progress Sasa. This was present by Sabrina and filmed by Gaifo - both students had a brief to work on a limited time, and really produced the goods. For those of you preparing or considering preparing Samoan Sasa's to help with our presentation early next month have a look at the students - they managed to learn this in one lesson only!

Tamaki Int. - International Sasa Display!

Very soon locally we're having a big 'Movie' exhibition to show off our ICT work over the past year. We're looking for schools that would be willing to contribute a Sasa (Samoan slap dance) in video form. It would only be about 45 seconds of footage that we'd need at most but we'd be keen to have some 'international' flavour too it, or national content too! Don't worry if you haven't done a Sasa before its really straight forward! (in some ways if it was a little less than perfect it might add to the atmosphere too!)


And how can you learn it you ask? Well of course we've had a video tutorial on exactly that published on this site for some time! We've also uploaded it to both Youtube and teachertube. If you don't want search you can also click on the link to this video - here. Were looking for the 'slap' section of the Sasa in particular.

Why not google 'how to Samoan Sasa' or 'Samoan Sasa' - were in the top ten hits for this worldwide! (As we are for a number of things...)

Gaifo and Zecillia will also be updating this, with another 'how to Sasa video' but if you interested please drop us a note and we'll get it organised!

Tamaki Int. - Blog Check - Grey Lynn Primary

If you do one thing today I'd like to you check out the following link to Grey Lynn Primary School.

They've only just started their blog but are already getting very excited about it in a short time. If there's some of our international friends who might be able to visit the site, the more 'foreign' the better (if you didn't know you are absolutely thrilling the students in New Zealand by logging onto their sites I have students who check the live feedjit feed every half and hour and used the atlas to check where your from...)

Tamaki Int. - The Literacy Process

There's been a change to the left hand side bar. I've been talking recently about the literacy process that underpins all the online work that we do online, and put in a general link to it. However on reflecting I wanted to stress how important the literacy process is to our work I have included the full link. Its more of a link for teachers, but is a very important link.

If you have any questions about this cycle or would like more information then drop us a line and we'll be happy to help.

Tamaki Int. - Eastern Zone Touch Results

Tamaki Intermediate fielded two teams in todays Eastern Zone Touch Finals. There were 11 Mixed teams and 16 Boys teams from as far away as Remuera Intermediate to Sancta Maria College. Our Boys teams aquitted themselves well and managaged to draw one of thier four pool games.

Our Mixed team had an amazing start winning their first four consecutive games beating Sancta Maria College 5-1, Baverstock Oaks 6-1, Sommerville Intermediate 5-0 and Pakuranga Intermediate 5-0. We then had to take on the undefeated Howick Intermediate for top seeding going into the Semi-Finals. Howick proved too strong winning 2-6. That meant Tamaki had qualified for the semi-finals but had to play the #1 qualifier from the other pool.

If there's been one team to consistently cause us all manners of problems this year its our good friends at Bucklands Beach Intermediate. This game was no exception as some outstanding BBI defence frustrated the Tamaki attack and we lost 0-2. That put us into the 3rd/4th play off against Remuera Intermediate School. Remeura won that 2-4 so we finished 4th out of 11 schools. We'd also like to acknowledge BBI who proved thier class beating Howick in the final 3-1. Worthy winners on a very tiring day!

Tamaki Int. - Learn to Speak Maori 12

One of the things that we get asked frequently at this site is about the posts, and in particular from teachers about the rationale behind them. I think at this point its very important to refer to our lead site which the Manaiakalani site. Here you can find copies of the literacy cycle that our students follow and which underpins nearly every piece of student work that we post. Hopefully this will help some of you who wonder about the process that we go through.

For this lesson is colours in Maori, again the students will say each of the words that are in the video and they will also appear on screen. We've also got a cameo at the end of the video from Moli and Lelani when Learn to Speak Fijian 4 took a detour into some strange territory!
The colours that are addressed in this video are:

• Kakariki - Green
• Whero - Red
• Kowhai - Yellow
• Mawhero - Pink
• Pango - Black
• Ma - White
  

Finally we just had our 10,000 view of teachertube material! Well done Room Six!

Tamaki Int. - Learn to Speak Tongan 11

This is lesson eleven of our free online Tongan Language series. This lesson focuses on how you can introduce yourself to someone that you haven't met before in Tongan. The key information that you need to listen for in this lesson is as follows:

• Kohoku hingoa ko ______________ (my name is)
• Kuo ha'u mai _________________ (I come from the village of)
• Kuo Ta'u ____________________ (I am __ years of age)

In this video the presenters Josh and Sosaia are joined by guest presenters Ana, Maasi and Mary.
Filmed at Tamaki Intermediate School on Friday 17th October 2008.

Tamaki Int. - Week Two Preview

This week at Tamaki Intermediate School
Tuesday - the Boys and the Mixed Touch teams are travelling to Sacred Heart College for the 2008 Eastern Zone Finals. We last won the Mixed competition in 2004, although the team has been excelling at training and we're hopeful of a good result in the competition. The Boys likewise haven't won this competition for a significantly long time, and we have to go back to 2001 since they last did! We will of course post full results, including video highlights on this site after the competition.

Wednesday - Our Girls Touch team travels to Sancta Maria College for their competition. This is one of the few titles that Tamaki Intermediate has never won, although we made the semi-finals in 2006 and 2007, you have to go back to 2001 for the last time we made the finals - we lost to Sylvia Park School. We're hoping the team performs well although they're playing seven pools games followed by a possible two more at finals stages so Cecelia's team will have a busy day. This will also be the final Eastern Zone competition for a number of students who represented the school for a while.

Here at tamakitoday were always looking for positive feedback, links and information. This site itself is 'ticking' over nicely, and as we keep mentioning its been operating since March. In the last few days we noticed an increase in traffic from the following link:

http://masseytech.wikispaces.com/Maori+and+Pasifika

Tamaki Intermediate - Learn to Speak Samoan 20

This is lesson 20 in the online Samoan Language Series. Your never supposed to change a winning formula but now our regular presenters Zecillia and Gaifo are joined by Neve. In this lesson in the series in 1:20 we cover all of the parts of the body in Samoan. This is really fast so you have to be listening very carefully. The Girls as always will say each word in Samoan and then translate it into English. The key words that are featured in this lesson are as follows:

• ulu - head
• mata - eyes
• taliga - ears
• isu - nose
• gutu - mouth
• gifo - teeth
• laulaufaiva - tounge
• auvae - chin
• ua - neck
• tauau - shoulder
• fatafata - chest
• magava - stomach
• lima - hands
• kulilima - elbow
• tama'itama'ailima - fingers
• vae - legs
• kulivae - knees
• paku vae - ankles
• tama'itama'i vae - toes

This was filmed at the School on Friday 17th October at Tamaki Intermediate School. The electric buzz saw at the end is a result of the building in progress on site at our school!

Tamaki Int.- Learn to Speak Tongan 10

This is the tenth lesson in our free online Tongan Language Series. In this lesson Josh and Sosaia cover some phrases that you could use in the classroom with other students and with the teacher. The students will say each phrase one then repeat it in English. The phrases that you should be listening for in this video are :

• O mai ae peni - give me the pen
• ave ae tohi kihe tai ako - pass the book to the teacher
• omai ae sea keu tangutu 'ai - can you give me the chair to sit on
• mai ae tohi koe keu lau - pass me the book so I can read it.

Written produced and filmed by students at Tamaki Intermediate School on Friday 17th October 2008.

Tamaki Intermediate - Going Home

Soon we will be updating this post, as appropriate.

Tamaki Intermediate - Haka Waiata

This term Tamaki Intermediate has our huge cultural extravaganza - the Haka Waiata Competition. Our students are separated into four houses for competition throughout the year, all named after naval vessels - Leander, Achilles, Calliope and Orpheus. In this video presented by Moli and Sabrina we talk about the competition. Mrs Bailey graciously gave some time to explain the concept and we were able to get a sneak peak at the practises of three of the four houses. Filmed at Tamaki Intermediate on Wednesday 15th October. Filmed by Joshua and presented by Sabrina and Moli.

We're currently celebrating our 2,500 visit to this site, which has been running for just over seven months. We've also managed to receive nearly 10,000 views of selected material on teachertube and 2,000 views of material on youtube. Thank you all so much for your supports, comments and messages to the students they have been hugely motivational.

Tamaki Int. - Cook Island Cultural Show

As part of the fund raising that our school did for our Cook Islands 2008 trip we had a very special performance from the AVAIKI TE VARIANGA NUI Dance group.

Some of the students were ex pupils of our school. We are very lucky that we are able to show highlights of this peformance on our blog. Filmed by Miss Vailoa on the night of the performance at the Tamaki Intermeidate School Hall in August.

Tamaki Int. - Term Four Preview

This term at Tamaki Intermediate School we have some busy activities as we start the fourth and final term of the 2008 School year.

School wise we have our major Cultural Competition, the House Sport, the Haka-Waiata Competition taking place in week eight. There will be significant footage of this major event posted here online.

Our Sports team compete in Eastern Zone Touch Rugby in Week two at Sacred Heart College. The Boys and the Mixed teams play Tuesday followed by the Girls on Wednesday at Sancta Maria College. Later in the term we also have League Tag Competition and Athletics for both our school and a competitive team at the Eastern Zone Finals.

We also have our end of term assembly, transitions to College and our 2008 Tamaki Idol competiton. All of which will feature in online form one way or another.

Here at tamakitoday we will be completing lessons in Learning to Speak Samoan (nearly at lesson 20), Learning to Speak Tongan, Learning to Speak Fijian, and Learn to Speak Maori. We also have our general series of video postings covering our various school activities which you can check out online here!

Finally - we've also approaching some significant milestones in terms of numbers - within the week we are expecting both our 2,500 visitor to this site and our 10,000 view of our material on teachertube! Our students are very excited by this and thank you for your comments and your visits as managed to achieve this in seven months.

Tamaki Int. - Holidays End Tomorrow

The final day of the 2008 Term three School holidays is tomorrow. After that we return for the fourth and final term for 2008 which ends December 21st. For those of you who have left comments or visited in the last two weeks, thank you very much and we will endeavour to contact all of you within the first few days of term restarting.

Thanks to all of you and look forward to getting in contact soon.

Mr Webb, Room Six,
Tamaki Intermediate School.

Tamaki Int - Holidays Update 3

Currently am located in Christchurch, New Zealand for the 2008 Ulearn Conference. One of the great things about being at this location has been the ability to network with people that we've only met thus far online.

It was great for instance to meet Jenny from Point England School yesterday. Although they are another local East Auckland School, that I haven't met personally up to this point. I'd really recommend her site, and the work that her students have been completing. Her site is littlevoiceslittlescholars.blogspot.com the students are younger but the work is really wonderful for their age. Its a year one class but really worth a look!

If you reading this in Dorothy's Workshop on Thursday and anyone would like to network in the future with our school leave us a comment below and we'll get onto your sites with our students next week when school returns.

Finally I'd like to wish Waikato the best of luck in their quarter final this weekend against Hawkes Bay in the Air New Zealand Cup. Quality always wins through in the end.

Tamaki Int. - Coastal Landforms 2

As part of our exchange of material with Coventry, England we're sharing information on Coastal areas! This video was filmed in Raglan, Waikato, which shows some of the use of the coastal land which is a mixture of recreational, farming and residential. As stated yesterday if you've got any material yourself find the link to Foxford School.

Tamaki Int. - Holidays Continued

Those of you with time at the moment might consider having a look at some of the links to other pages that are listed in our blog links.

We're also looking always for other schools to swap information with, trade material or blog and comment with, if you are interested just drop us a line.

Finally I'd like to send my sincerest condolences to anyone who watched Auckland's defeat by Northland in this afternoon's Air New Zealand Cup Rugby Match. While teams like Waikato are busy preparing themselves for the quarter finals for other teams like Auckland its all over for the year. If you wish to find out more about the might Waikato Rugby Union Team then I'd highly suggest that you check out the official Waikato Air New Zealand Cup teams website by clicking on this link here! (Its also where I sourced the picture from. Congratulations to the team for their defeat of Taranaki on Thursday).

Tamaki Int. - Learn to Speak Maori Lesson 8

This is lesson 8 in the series. Presented by Mereana and Mikeala it deals with phrases that you might here at home, or in the classroom. The students wrote, produced and directed this video.
Filmed at Tamaki Intermediate School in September 2008. There are some key phrases that are in the video which are: homai (which means give) etu (stand) e noho (sit).

Tamaki Int - Holidays Update

Thank you very much for logging onto this site. A reminder to all our visitors who are regular or are just visiting for the first time that our students are currently about to start their second week of the term three holidays and will be back at school the week after next.

Apologies if we don't reply to comment or follow to your pages in the meantime, we will track back once the students come back to School on Monday 13th October.

Look forward to seeing some of you at Ulearn08 in Christchurch next week too.

Tamaki Int- Learn to Speak Fijian 3

This is the third in our series of online Fijian Lessons. In this lesson our presenters for this video Lelani and Moli tell you how to say the name of food in Fijian. As with all other videos in the series they will say the word in Fijian and then repeat it in English. There are a variety of food covered in this video that includes:

• Fish - Ika
• Taro - Dalo
• Kasava - Tavioka
• Rice - Raisi
• Bread - Madrai
• Pig - Vuaka
• Sausage - Soseti
• Potatoe - Pateta
• Yam - Uvi

Tamaki Int. - Learn to Speak Tongan 8

This lesson is presented by Sosaia and Josh. In it they will teach you four commands in Tongan that a teacher could say to students in the classroom to settle them down. The key phrases that you need to be listening for in the video are:

• To'o lo olugan - stand up
• Ta'o tu ki lalo - sit down
• Toku mou talanoa - stop talking
• Ai mou ngaue - do you work

This was written by the students themselves and filmed at Tamaki Intermediate no Thursday 25th September 2008.

Tamak Int - Learn to Speak Samoan 18

This is another video in our online series of Samoan language videos. The focus of this lesson is to ask for something in the classroom. The key phrases that you need to be listening for are:

• au mai (pass me)
• faamolemole (please)

Zecillia and Gaifo are saying a variety of sentences with some props so after watching this video you can ask for something in the classroom, or at home in Samoan! Written, produced and directed by the students themselves, filmed at Tamaki Intermediate September 2008.

Tamaki Int. - Learn to Speak Fijian Lesson 2

This is lesson two of our free online learn to speak Fijian series. This lesson focuses on the Month of the Year. Our presenters, Moli and Lelani will say each month of the year in English and then Fijian. The key words that you should be listening for are as follows:

• January - Janueri
• February - Fepueri
• March - Maji
• April - Epereli
• May - Me
• June - June
• July - Julai
• August - Okosita
• September - Sepiteba
• October - Okotova
• November - Noveba
• December - Tiseba