Monday, 24 July 2017

Day One, Term Three - bring it on!

Here are all our shiny, bright faces ready to take on the second half of the year.


Friday, 7 July 2017

Fun-day Friday

We celebrated the end of term, Matariki, Maraeroa's 50th jubilee and our fractions learning by making choc chip muffins and fairy star sandwiches.

 


 

















Choc Chip Muffin Recipe
Serves: 12

Ingredients
2 cups (250g) plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
½ cup (150g) caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup (250ml) low fat milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
¾ cup chocolate chips

Directions
Preparation: 15min  ›  Cook: 25min
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Make a hole in the centre.
In a small bowl, beat egg with a fork. Stir in milk and oil. Pour all at once into the hole in the flour mixture.
Mix lightly with a fork until moistened, but do not over mix.  Gently stir in the chocolate chips. The mixture will be thick and lumpy.
Spoon the mixture between 12 muffin pans lined paper muffin cups.
Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown and firm to touch.

Cool on a rack until you can lift them out from the muffin tins.

ENJOY!

Tuesday, 4 July 2017

How Maraeroa got its name - Jubilee story

Long ago after the Ngati Toa iwi became established in the Mana district, a hapū lived at Te Awa Iti, now called Cannons Creek.

The forest was very thick with many smaller plants and orchids right up to their highest branches.
Within the trees, there was a windless solitude, and on the forest floor grew many ferns.
In the branches of the trees, birds were numerous and on the ground were kiwi, weka and kakapo.
Te Awa Iti was also a stream, which fed from a spring, flowing fresh clear and clean water into a large pond. Ducks and other water birds lived in the pond. Koura and tuna lived in the stream. There were abundant animal and plant life to hangi. The spring of fresh waterways used by Maori from far away to wash in when they were sick or wounded. Often people spent many weeks getting well again after being ill or wounded.

The chieftain’s wife of the hapū, which lived at Te Awa Iti, was called Te Hine Awhinanui. She was known everywhere for her hospitality and her great courage and strength when looking after the people who were brought to her, when badly hurt.

There were gardens of kumara, which she also made. Ferns were planted in a clearing where the school is now built. The garden was on a slope that faced north, the sun warmed the ground in the spring and summer. The gardens ensured there was always food through the winter, and there were kumara storage pits, always with plenty of food for all the people Te Hine Awhinanui cared for.
A large wharenui was built where the school gate now is. It was long and wide with a paepae where the people could warm themselves after bathing in Te Awa Iti, the stream.
The wharenui was large for all the people to sleep in.

Because the meeting house was large and wide it was called Maraeroa to signify the place where many people came to stay and to be healed by Te Hine Awhinanui.

Later the bush that provided all the shelter, food, and wood for the hangi, was cut down. A saw mill owned by a pakeha, called Cannon, was built and within a few years all the bush had disappeared.  
sheep were brought by pakeha to graze on the hills, and the stream Te Awa Iti was polluted.
Te Hine Awhinanui left and all here family began to live at Taupo, now called Plimmerton. The story about Te Awhinanui and Maraeroa was not forgotten, and when the government arranged for houses to be built at Cannons Creek a group of wise people decided to build a new meeting house and call it Maraeroa in honour of Te Hine Awhinanui.

At the same time our school was built and the meeting house was to be a part of the school. Unfortunately, some people did not want the Marae to be near here, so the meeting house was built at Waitangirua, but kept the name Maraeroa.

This school also kept the name  but sadly the two became separated. However, we can always remember the story of Te Hine Awhinanui and her hapū.

We try to make sure all the people in the school are cared for and that the manaki-tanga is strong for all the people in our neighbourhood, and for any strangers who gather here.

The story of Te Hine Awhinanui was learnt from the Ngati Toa, and told by Mr Matenga Baker an Ariki of Ngati Raukawa.