Week 3 - Visiting Author

This morning Waikowhai Primary was lucky enough to have a visiting author join us for some presentations and workshops. We were privileged to spend time with Des Hunt, an author of 'kiwi stories for kiwi kids' that interweave action, science, and the natural world.

The entire senior school enjoyed the knowledge that Des shared with us.  He started by sharing his background, making a connection with us. Des then cleverly used science concepts, specifically chemistry and physics ideas to illustrate the challenges and successes that he has faced during his writing career.  The way that he approached this problem solving was inspiring and you will see the impact this had on some of us as authors by reading our thoughts on our individual blogs.

Following this, 20 of our senior syndicate students participated in a 90 minute workshop with Des Hunt.  We look forward to the impact that this has on their own writing and the sharing of the learning that they can do with the rest of Te Waka Ako.


We would like to thank Des and his wife Lynne for coming to visit and also Mrs Law and Ms Sands for organising the day. We also have a hot dog sale coming up later in the term that you can support that helps us to get more of these exciting opportunities in school.
Ka kite.

Book Week Extravaganza - Week 3

What a busy book week we had last week! Once again our annual book week was a success.  Te Waka Ako went away from our usual programme to immerse ourselves in all things literacy.  It was a special week for us.

Judi Bilcliff (who runs the site rainbow poetry), a visiting author and drama teacher entertained us with a fabulous combined session on Thursday. Lots of us got up, involved and enjoyed listening to her share her hilarious poems with us.


Friday was our dress up day.  The theme was our favourite book character.  From the photos you will see what an awesome bunch we are with most of us getting really dressed up.  Congratulations to Lily from Manukau who was awarded one of the three dress up prizes for senior students in her Mad Hatter costume.


We also had our in class poetry recital competition on Wednesday and the finals on Thursday.  Lily, Amie, Sebastian and Oscar all represented Manukau in the Te Waka Ako (syndicate finals).  The standard of presentations was so high and the seven judges had real difficulty choosing the winners because the quality was so high.  Congratulations to Oscar who came 4th equal to receive a prize, an awesome effort!

Finally, we have created our own rhyming poems, remember to check out our individual blogs for published and illustrated versions of these poems over the next couple of days.  If you would like to find out any more about bookweek please drop us a comment or question below.  We would love to hear from you.