Published on:
06
June 2012
Claremont Primary School from Alloa celebrated New Zealand Day in style this week with a variety of events.
The event took place last week as part of the school's Olympics topic.
Head Teacher Kay Strang explained: "We have been twinned with New Zealand and the children have been learning about the country in particular in comparison to our lives
here in Scotland."
The day of celebration began with a parents open morning, when visitors came along to the
school and saw for themselves the extent of the project.
Mrs Strang added: " This is an interdisciplinary topic where children in all classes are developing skills and knowledge across different subject areas. This approach is part of Curriculum for Excellence in action as children are learning through an exciting, motivating and relevant context."
For New Zealand Day the teacher split the school into eight groups and named each group after a New Zealand animal - Kiwi, Albatross, Kea, to name but a few. These groups were made up of children of all age groups from nursery through to P7 so the children had the opportunity to work in partnership with other stages and classes.
The groups rotated around different New Zealand activity stations, with 20 minutes at each station. They took part in painting New Zealand flags, baking biscuits, creating Maori art work, made travel brochures, played traditional games and listened to traditional Maori
stories. They even learned how to speak in the Maori language and sang a song.
Mrs Strang added: "Parents and visitors joined in with the activities as well as joining
us for refreshments before examining our hall display of learning.
"The day was a great success and the children showed lots of enthusiasm while learning about New Zealand and working with each other."