Thanks from Mangorei School

We received a lovely surprise in the mail today: two 'boostergrams' from students in Room 8 at Mangorei School, New Plymouth.

Mangorei School senior students are working with us on a specially tailored programme designed to help identify and research significant Taranaki people. The lesson involved an investigative hunt through the museum, linking special museum objects to important Taranaki identities, and researching those identities in the Taranaki Research Centre.

Thanks for your feedback, Room 8 - we're so glad you had a fantastic and exciting time learning and researching at Puke Ariki.

Teacher feedback

We love getting feedback from teachers after their visit to Puke Ariki. We appreciate the comments we get about our programmes - what you liked, what was memorable, what could work differently, and how your students reacted.

 Teacher feedback: students were excited, involved and [the programme] stimulated their curiosity

We'd also love to feature student work inspired by your visit to us. Please email us any photos or examples of work that you'd like to share.

Here's some of our 2012 teacher feedback. Do you have anything you'd like to add from your visit?

• Excellent simple understanding for my age group. Children very engaged. Simple easy descriptions for children to use.
• Quality 'wow' factor to begin our unit. 
• All really. Lovely clear presentation. Important information clearly given, revisited.
• [Student reaction:] wonderment and awe.
• Engaged. The value of this session will be realised throughout the term. Great lead in.
• Well prepared, actively involved the students, gave students concepts about the creatures, size, life / eating adaptation.

First lesson of 2012 at Puke Ariki

We welcomed students from Marfell Community School on Monday. They were our first two classes of the 2012 year - and what a fun, thought provoking start to the year it was!

Puke Ariki educator Erin developed a specially tailored programme focusing on 'Mind, Body and Soul', a topic that two Marfell classes were studying in the classroom.

Check out the photos from this visit on the Puke Ariki Facebook page ('like' us for updates, news, and happenings at Puke Ariki).

Thanks for visiting us, Marfell - we hope to see you again soon!

Do you have a class or school wide focus and would like to visit Puke Ariki as part of your unit? Contact us to discuss.

Tools and Traps - all year

One of our most requested programmes in 2011 was Tools and Traps. Tools and Traps is a fantastic hands-on lesson, where students experiment with a variety of stone and wooden tools to explore how natural resources were used to cook, catch and gather food. It's a highly interactive lesson, and students are given opportunites to be creative, solve problems, and think 'outside the square'.

Students work out how to move a heavy stone into a flax kete, only using sticks (and their brains!)

Due to the popularity of Tools and Traps, we've added it to our 2012 programmes, and it's available all year. Contact us to make a booking.